The Catholic Spirit - November 21, 2012

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Baskets of love Burnsville parish members box Thanksgiving meals for those in need

By Dave Hrbacek The Catholic Spirit

Jean MacFarland and Bill Keatts lost their spouses seven weeks apart nine years ago.

When they started dating each other months later, talk of marriage surfaced.

It was then that Jean shared something she wanted Bill to know: She played a key role in the Thanksgiving Basket program at Mary, Mother of the Church in Burnsville.

And, she was not about to quit, even if there were wedding bells in their future. Bill wholeheartedly supported that decision.

“The Thanksgiving Basket program came with the marriage,” said Jean, who married Bill at St. Olaf in Minneapolis on May 21, 2005.

Now, they work together, which they started doing in 2004, when Bill tried it for the first time. She is the quarterback of the operation, supervising the assembly of baskets and then loading them up to deliver to area hunger relief agencies.

Bill is what she calls the “chief go-fer.”

“We kid about taking a sabbatical from retirement because we haven’t stopped working, we just don’t get paid anymore,” said Bill, 71. “In the forseeable future, I think we just keep going.”

Said Jean, 69: “I feel that it helps us not look so much inward as outward to-

Dave Hrbacek / The Catholic Spirit

Melissa Doeden, a catechist at Mary, Mother of the Church in Burnsville, helps Paige, left, and Ethan Sprenger assemble boxes of food Nov. 14 as part of the parish Thanksgiving Baskets program. Volunteers buy groceries and assemble boxes of food that are given to the poor in the community.

gether. And, I think that’s a real strong bonding piece.”

In fact, it’s a bonding experience for the parish, with roughly 1,000 pairs of hands getting involved. Some make the baskets at home and bring them in. Faith formation children then come in to assemble more, which they did on Nov. 14 for this year’s program.

This year’s goal was 285 baskets, which

they exceeded. The program began in 2002, and volunteers have seen a rise in need as suburban families deal with the struggling economy.

Expression of faith Lynne Ferkinhoff came this year with her 11-year-old son Logan. This was their ninth year.

“It’s an expression of our Christian

faith to stand up and answer the call to serve people in need,” she said. “It fills me with hope, gratitude and inspiration to see how the Mary, Mother of the Church community comes together through this project to provide support and kindness to those trying to get through a difficult time. The ThanksPLEASE TURN TO PARISHIONERS ON PAGE 5A

Pope tells young to share Christ’s love with doubting peers Catholic News Service When young Catholics from around the world gather in Rio de Janeiro in July, they will be under the gaze of the city’s famous statue of Christ with outstretched arms, a reminder of his desire to embrace all people, Pope Benedict XVI said.

In his message for World Youth Day 2013, released Nov. 16, the pope asked young people to welcome Christ’s embrace and share with others the joy of being loved by him. The theme of World Youth Day 2013, set for July 23-28, is: “Go and make disciples of all nations.”

“Many young people today seriously question whether life is something good and have a hard time finding their way,” the pope said.

Faith helps people see that “every human life is priceless, because each of us is the fruit of God’s love,” he said. “God loves everyone, even those who have fallen away from him or disregard him.”

Pope Benedict asked young Catholics to reach out with love to their questioning or doubting peers, helping them find the hope and meaning faith brings.

While asking the young to bring their Christian values to their social media

networks and other online activities, he cautioned them to use the media wisely.

“Be aware of the hidden dangers they contain, especially the risk of addiction, of confusing the real world with the virtual, and of replacing direct and personal encounters and dialogue with Internet contacts,” he said.

Pope Benedict also told the young people that the responsibility to share the faith flows from their baptism into the church, is sustained by prayer, nourished by receiving the Eucharist, purified through confession and strengthened by confirmation.

“If you are to remain firm in professing the Christian faith wherever you are sent, you need the church,” he said. “No one can bear witness to the Gospel alone.”

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NOVEMBER 21, 2012 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Protecting the precious gift of our religious liberty

That They May All Be One Archbishop John C. Nienstedt

Events in Mexico less than 100 years ago are a stark reminder of why we must safeguard our religious freedom

The Solemnity of Christ the King, which we celebrate this Sunday, Nov. 25, was instituted by Pope Pius XI in 1925 as a response to the growing nationalism and secularism around the world. Specifically, in Russia, Mexico and in many places throughout Europe, atheistic regimes threatened not just the Catholic Church, but civilization itself.

Nowhere was this more evident than in Mexico, where the government’s enforcement of the 1917 constitution by the atheistic president Plutarco Calles provoked a rebellion among the peasants of that land in their demand for religious freedom.

All of this is well documented by the powerful movie adaptation, “For Greater Glory: The True Story of Cristiada,” which was released this past June.

Harsh enforcement The 1917 “reforms” forbad the existence of Catholic schools, subjected all churches and religious congregations to the civil law, prohibited priests from wearing clerical garb in public, restricted priests and other religious ministers from holding public office, excluded them from a trial by jury, and prevented them from receiving an inheritance from persons other than close blood relatives.

Priests who criticized the government were immediately imprisoned for five years. These reforms also allowed the state to regulate the num-

The Catholic Spirit The Catholic Spirit’s mission is to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

It seeks to inform, educate, evangelize and foster a spirit of community within the Catholic Church by disseminating news in a professional manner and serving as a forum for discussion of contemporary issues.

Vol. 17 — No. 23 MOST REVEREND JOHN C. NIENSTEDT Publisher SARAH MEALEY Associate publisher

JOE TOWALSKI Editor

Materials credited to CNS copyrighted by Catholic News Service. All other materials copyrighted by Catholic Spirit Publishing Company.

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ber of priests in a given region, as in one instance, where only a single priest was legally permitted to serve the entire Catholic congregation of an enormous state.

Through a harsh enforcement of these laws, President Calles seized or destroyed church property, expelled all foreign priests, and closed monasteries, convents and, as I said before, religious schools.

In reaction to all this, the peasants — whose call to arms was “Viva Cristo Rey! Long live Christ the King!” — organized themselves into a guerrilla army in order to resist the government federales, who numbered close to 80,000 soldiers.

The violence began in the early 1920s, grew more intense in 1926, and was finally resolved only through a diplomatic settlement in 1929, though persecution of Catholics continued in various forms well into the 1940s.

The war claimed the lives of some 90,000 people: 59,000 on the federal side and 30,000 Cristeros, not to mention the numerous civilians killed in anti-clerical raids even after the war officially ended.

Many priests were also killed. Before the war, the number of priests in Mexico was 4,500; by 1934, there were only 334 priests licensed by the government, and this small number PLEASE TURN TO PLAN ON PAGE 9A

Archbishop’s schedule ■ Tuesday – Tuesday, Nov. 20-27: Travel to Rome, Italy, for Thanksgiving Masses with seminarians and the consistory in which Cardinal-designate James M. Harvey will be received into the College of Cardinals.

■ Thursday, Nov. 22: Noon, Thanksgiving Mass with seminarians at the University of St. Thomas Bernardi Campus.

6 p.m., Thanksgiving Mass with seminarians at the Pontifical North American College.

■ Saturday, Nov. 24: Consistory involving Cardinal-designate James M. Harvey.

■ Sunday, Nov. 25: 9 a.m., St. Peter’s Square, Papal Mass with new cardinals.

■ Wednesday, Nov. 28: 8 a.m., White Bear Lake, Church of St. Mary of the Lake: School Mass, classroom visits and lunch with students.

■ Saturday, Dec. 1: 11:30 a.m., Mendota, Church of St. Peter: ACCW closing Mass for Day of Reflection Advent retreat.

■ Sunday, Dec. 2: 9:30 a.m., Minneapolis, Church of St. Albert the Great: Sunday Liturgy.

■ Monday, Dec. 3: 11:30 a.m., St. Paul, Town & Country Club: Serra Club of Midway’s Christmas luncheon and celebration of 50th anniversary of its founding.

■ Tuesday, Dec. 4: 8:30 a.m., St. Paul, Archbishop’s Residence: Staff meeting.

10:30 a.m., St. Paul, Chancery: Meeting with bishop of Burui.

1:30 p.m., St. Paul, Chancery: Archbishop’s cabinet meeting.

5:30 p.m., West St. Paul, Church of St. Joseph: Dinner and Advent penance service.

■ Wednesday, Dec. 5: 11 a.m., St. Paul, Chancery: MCC board of directors meeting.

3 p.m., St. Paul, Chancery: Meeting with development staff.

■ Thursday, Dec. 6: 8:30 a.m., St. Paul, Archbishop’s Residence: “Lectio divina” planning.

11 a.m., St. Paul, Chancery: Archdiocesan Mission Board meeting – Center for Concern.

5:30 p.m., St. Paul, Riverfront Crowne Plaza Hotel: Catholic Charities’ St. Nicholas Dinner and annual meeting.

■ Friday, Dec. 7: 11:30 a.m., St. Paul, Riverfront Crowne Plaza Hotel: University of St. Thomas Alumni Association Christmas luncheon.

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Parish, school leaders hear about upcoming ‘Rediscover’ initiative The Catholic Spirit Some 850 pastors, parish leaders and Catholic school staff members attended two kick-off events Nov. 15-16 at St. Peter in Mendota to learn more about a new archdiocesan-wide pre-evangelization, evangelization and catechesis initiative set to roll out in Advent.

The multi-faceted initiative titled “Rediscover” will assist Catholics in reaching out and inviting fellow Catholics to rediscover a personal relationship with Jesus and reengage in the full life of the Church.

The effort coincides with Pope Benedict XVI’s proclamation of a Year of Faith and the need for a “new evangelization” to deepen Catholics’ personal faith and equip them to share it with others through word and witness. It also complements Archbishop John Nienstedt’s recent pastoral letter on the new evangelization in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, as well as outreach and formation events already taking place through parishes, Catholic schools and ministry organizations throughout the archdiocese.

Speaking to attendees at the Nov. 15 meeting, the archbishop said he had just returned from the U.S. bishops’ meeting in Baltimore, where much of the focus was on the new evangelization.

“Everyone there agreed that the ‘new’ in that expression is precisely the new historical situation that we find ourselves in — that is, a society that is thoroughly secular PLEASE TURN TO REDISCOVER ON PAGE 22A

“If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one.”

Blessed Mother Teresa

Local NOVEMBER 21, 2012

News from around the archdiocese

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

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West metro residents hit streets to pray for those in need

Tyler Didier, 15, a member of St. Bartholomew in Wayzata directs people through one of the family activities at Klapprich Park. Groups slept out at the park following the rally.

Photos by Bill Jones / For The Catholic Spirit

Assistant Scoutmaster Daniel Sheridan of Boy Scout Troop 283 leads the prayers at one of the stops.

Interfaith Outreach and Community Partners kicked off its 17th annual Sleep Out campaign Nov. 10 with prayer walks and family activities in Plymouth and Wayzata. Both walks featured five prayer stops that represent the needs of the people IOCP serves: housing, employment, transportation, child care and food.

The goal of the 2012 Sleep Out is to raise $1.95 million — an increase of $150,000 over last year — to help 1,700 struggling families in the community meet their basic needs. The campaign runs through Dec. 31. Holy Name of Jesus and St. Bartholomew, both in Wayzata, are participating in the campaign. For more on IOCP, visit WWW.IOCP.ORG. Participants write down their own ideas to help people in need.

— The Catholic Spirit

Family fun night activities included a community rally, live music and snacks. Above, Participants made prayer bead keychains at St. Bartholomew.

Youth Christmas poster contest The Catholic Spirit invites young artists across the archdiocese to participate in its annual Christmas poster contest. To enter, complete and then illustrate this sentence:

“The ornament on my family Christmas tree I like best is . . .”

The completed sentence must appear on the front of an 8 1⁄2 by 11-inch poster. Artists may use any media to create a vivid, colorful and memorable picture. Hint: Strong colors with lots of contrast reproduce better than soft pastels in the newspaper.

Entries will be judged on originality, artistic ability and how well the artist interprets the theme. A first prize of $50 will be awarded for one poster in each category: grades three and under, grades four to six, grades seven to nine, and grades 10 through 12.

Winning entries will be published in The Catholic Spirit’s Christmas edition, Dec. 20.

Poster entries must be postmarked or dropped off by Dec. 7. Entries must include the artist’s name, address, telephone number, grade and parish (include city). Mail to: The Catholic Spirit Christmas Contest, 244 Dayton Ave., St. Paul, MN 55102.

Christmas essay contest open to all NEW THIS YEAR, Catholics of the archdiocese — adults included — may submit an essay (200 words or less) instead of a poster, answering the same question: “The ornament on my family Christmas tree I like best is . . .”

There are no prizes for essays, but a selection of entries also will be published in The Catholic Spirit’s Christmas edition, Dec. 20.

All essays must be postmarked or emailed by Dec. 7. They must include the writer’s name, address, telephone number, grade (for students) and parish (include city).

• Mail to: The Catholic Spirit Christmas Contest, 244 Dayton Ave., St. Paul, MN 55102.

• Or email to: catholicspirit@archspm.org.

Please write “Christmas Essay” in the subject line.

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THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • NOVEMBER 21, 2012

Shelter in need of volunteers The Dorothy Day Center’s overflow shelter, located in a former Catholic Charities office building next door to the main Dorothy Day site in St. Paul, is in need of volunteers to help keep it open.

The overflow shelter allows up to 50 men to have a place to sleep during the last two weeks of each month from October to April.

A group of 60 male volunteers from 12 parishes across the archdiocese are helping to keep the shelter open, but more are needed. It is anticipated that the shelter will be open about 120 nights or more this winter, according to Gerry Lauer, a senior program manager for the Dorothy Day Center.

Two volunteers and one staff person stay in the shelter each night. They organize and admit clients sent from the main site, provide a snack and socialize until lights out at 10 p.m.

Dianne Towalski / The Catholic Spirit

Volunteer coordinator Steve Hawkins, left, talks with Marty, a homeless man staying at the Dorothy Day Center’s overflow shelter Oct. 30.

Volunteer coordinator Steve Hawkins said the experience has changed those who have volunteered. “Virtually without exception, each volunteer has headed to their first night apprehensive,” he said. “That lasts about 15 minutes and, without exception, every volunteer returns again and again because of the unbelievable experience meeting face-to-face those in greatest need in our midst while coming away having gained so much more than they gave.”

Men interested in volunteering should contact Hawkins by email at

SHAWKINS@HAWKINS-ASSOCIATES.NET.

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NOVEMBER 21, 2012 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

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Parishioners enjoy chance to help those in need CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1A giving Baskets project is truly a way in which loving thy neighbor comes to life.”

Among the volunteers working feverishly to assemble the baskets is the pastor of Mary, Mother of the Church, Father Jim Zappa.

In fact, on the day the kids came to work on Works of the baskets, he could be seen walking down the hallway with a cart full of groceries that he would turn into a basket of his own to give.

Parishioners are given a list of groceries to buy, and they can either buy them and make baskets at home, or they can buy some or all of the items needed and drop them off at church.

One parishioner even took it a step further. Amy Perron posted an invitation on her Facebook page for a Thanksgiving Baskets party at her home. Friends and neighbors showed up and made 30 baskets.

“It just really shows the generosity of this parish and their heart for their community,” said Nancy Huddleston, pastoral associate for communications who herself volunteers in the program. “Every basket feeds a family of four. So, it allows them to give that to someone.”

MERCY

Jean MacFarland and her husband Bill Keatts enjoy the chance to volunteer together at the Thanksgiving Baskets program at Mary, Mother of the Church in Burnsville.

Dave Hrbacek / The Catholic Spirit

For people like Terri Joos, it allows the chance to continue a multi-generational tradition. Her mother set an example of giving to the parish, which she passed on to her three daughters and now to her grandson, R.J. Joos-Yennie. The two worked side by side at this year’s assembly event.

“I don’t have a lot of monetary resources as a widow with three children, but I can give my time and my energy and help in whatever way I can,” she said. “It’s just a

great program, when you see all the kids out there decorating the boxes and putting everything in. [R.J.] just loves to do the cart. We got here an hour and a half early and we’ve been putting stuff out on the tables. He’ll grow up doing this.”

With volunteers like MacFarland not wavering in their commitment, Father Zappa is confident the program will keep going strong. It has grown steadily since it began 11 years ago with a goal of 25 baskets. Volunteers exceeded that goal,

and continue to do so today, thanks to the dedication of MacFarland and many others.

“This is her passion; she and her husband Bill have been just marvelous,” Father Zappa said. “I wish I had a hundred of her — clone her and spread her around in different areas. She’s really powerful, her enthusiasm, her love of Christ, her spirituality. It just all comes together and it’s infectious. She’s one of those model disciples that I think we all have within us.”

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Local

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • NOVEMBER 21, 2012

In wake of amendment defeat, Church leaders Q&A on election 2012 say advocacy for marriage will continue ‘It’s time for engagement’ and not discouragement, says Catholic conference executive director The Catholic Spirit Despite the recent defeat of the state marriage amendment at the polls, “this is not a time for discouragement, it’s a time for engagement” to further promote and defend the institution of marriage, said Jason Adkins, executive director of the Minnesota Catholic Conference.

“Win, lose or draw, our task is essentially the same,” he said during a talk Nov. 14 sponsored by the Archbishop Harry J. Flynn Catechetical Institute at St. John the Baptist in New Brighton. The debate was “an opportunity to begin a longer-term cultural reconstruction project because our ultimate task is to reclaim and rebuild a healthy culture of marriage and family life, and the Church used this opportunity to begin that conversation.”

“So the marriage amendment is not the end,” he added. “The marriage amendment, in fact, was the beginning of, in many ways, a very long and neglected conversation.”

Adkins’ comments echoed a statement released Nov. 7 by the MCC after the constitutional amendment effort — which would have defined marriage as a union between one man and one woman — failed by a margin of 51 percent to 48 percent; one percent of voters left the question blank, which also was considered a “no” vote.

“MCC’s support of Amendment 1 was rooted in the complementarity of the sexes, the public significance of their ability to procreate, and the fundamental right of all children to be born into an intact family with a married mother and a father, even though this is not always possible,” said the MCC, the public policy voice of the Catholic Church in Minnesota.

“These basic human truths remain with or without the passage of this amendment,” it added.

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis said it was grateful to Minnesotans who supported the amend-

Also inside ■ Four years later: Vatican takes new approach toward Obama — page 15A ■ Elections and the culture: What we learned in 2012 — page 16A

ment effort.

“The Church’s public advocacy of support for the Minnesota Marriage Protection Amendment has always been rooted in our commitment to advance the common good for human society,” the archdiocese said in a Nov. 7 statement. “This is the same spirit that guides the Church’s unwavering pursuit of economic justice, healthcare and immigration reform, and the defense of human life and dignity from conception to natural death.

“We proposed, and continue to do so, that the good of society is best served by maintaining the traditional understanding of marriage as a union between one man and one woman,” the statement added.

In a commentary published Nov. 9 by the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Archbishop John Nienstedt said: “We can do nothing less than continue to propose and do our best to live out what we believe. We hold dear these gifts of truth from God, who is love, and who requires us to keep his commandments, in and out of season, throughout the passing of time. I offer my continued dedication to these principles, in all of their manifestations, in order to serve the common good.”

Looking ahead Although same-sex marriage remains illegal in MinPLEASE TURN TO ONGOING ON PAGE 22A

In an interview with The Catholic Spirit following his talk Nov. 14 at St. John the Baptist in New Brighton, Jason Adkins of the Minnesota Catholic Conference spoke about prospects for the 2013 state legislative session, which begins Jan. 8.

Q: What will be the Minnesota Catholic Conference’s approach regarding marriage during the next state legislative session?

A: We’ll sit down with the bishops in the coming weeks and chart a strategy to respond to the inevitable push to redefine marriage. Sen. John Marty has already talked about introducing a bill [to redefine marriage]. . . . We’re going to be developing strategies and working with the tens of thousands of people we’ve built in our network over the past year and a half to get them involved. There are a lot of people who are surprised that there already is talk about redefining marriage, which is what we said [same-sex marriage supporters] would do, and regretting their “no” vote on the amendment. They’re contacting us to ask what they need to do to get involved. It’s shocked a lot of Catholics and others out of their complacency and encouraged people to start redoubling their efforts.

Q: Are prospects good for certain pieces of legislation the MCC would support?

A: At the federal level, the opportunity for passage of comprehensive immigration reform — something bishops all over the country have been pushing for for years — is a very real possibility. We’re going to be observing Immigration Sunday in January as we have in years past. Letters will be going out to parishes [soon] giving them resources to mark the day.

At the local level, we are looking at a number of items the bishops have always advocated for: legislation that provides affordable, quality health care to all Minnesotans, for example. We think with the introduction of the health care exchange, access to health care could be expanded. We want to make sure it indeed provides health care, not things like abortion or mandates for contraception. We’ll be working with legislators and we’re excited about those prospects while at the same time wanting to make sure they serve the cause of life and not its destruction.

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NOVEMBER 21, 2012 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

MN Catholic businessmen file complaint against HHS mandate

By Susan Klemond For The Catholic Spirit

Two local Catholic businessmen are seeking relief in court from the Obama administration’s contraception mandate as they wrestle with difficult choices about whether to violate their consciences by providing and paying for employee contraceptive coverage as the mandate requires — or eliminating altogether the health coverage they feel morally obligated to offer.

Stuart Lind, owner of a Minnetonka-based medical device company, and Tom Janas, who has owned several dairy-related businesses, became the first in Minnesota this month to challenge the mandate in a lawsuit against the Department of Health and Human Services. The men say the mandate not only violates their constitutional right to the free exercise of religion but also would create a competitive disadvantage if they don’t offer health insurance.

The HHS mandate requires most employers, including religious employers, to provide insurance coverage of contraceptives, sterilization and some abortion-inducing drugs free of charge, even if the employer is morally opposed to such services.

A narrow exemption applies only to those religious institutions that seek to inculcate their religious values and primarily employ and serve people of their own faith. The mandate, part of the Affordable Care Act, does not include a conscience clause for employers who object to such coverage on moral grounds.

Represented by Erick Kaardal of the Minneapolis-based law firm of Mohrman & Kaardal, P.A., and attorneys from Indiana-based ActRight Legal Foundation, Lind’s and Janas’s case will go to U.S. District Court some-

Annex Medical, which manufactures devices for use with endoscopes. Because of the size of his It has a huge chilling effect on the business he is not required to proexercise of religious faith in the workplace vide health coverage under the mandate. He chooses to offer it but because a business owner should be able hasn’t been able to find a health to integrate their faith and their work and plan without the contraceptive coverage, and he plans to discontinue the HHS mandate requires otherwise. coverage when his plan terminates on Jan. 31 unless he receives relief in court, Kaardal said.

ERICK KAARDAL Janas sold his company, Roffe Attorney Container, to a competitor earlier this year after learning he would time next year. have to comply with the mandate if he continued to The mandate sets a dangerous precedent in asserting offer his employees health insurance. He would like to that religious objections don’t need to be accommodated, buy another dairy business but doesn’t have a choice of Kaardal said. a health insurance plan that excludes coverage for conIt “puts the Catholic business owner in a tough spot,” traception and abortifacients. Janas has decided not to he said. “Do they want to cooperate with this or do they make the purchase pending the court decision. Like Lind, have to go without health insurance? That puts them in he believes complying with the mandate is immoral. a non-competitive position. It has a huge chilling effect “I don’t think anyone could seriously question their on the exercise of religious faith in the workplace because religious objections here,” Kaardal said. “We’re relying a business owner should be able to integrate their faith on Church teaching and the advice of pastors and counand their work and the HHS mandate requires otherwise.” selors. It’s a very practical question. With the HHS manWhile non-profit religious institutions such as schools date, you’re the sole owner of a business and you’re lookand hospitals — including those involved in 30 lawsuits ing at purchasing insurance for your employees. What against HHS — were given an additional year to comply do you do? I see a great sincerity in their view that the with the mandate, for-profit business people, including HHS mandate has interfered with their lives and caused Lind and Janas and others who have filed nine other a lot of consternation.” lawsuits nationwide, must be in compliance at the start of their health plan’s next yearly cycle, which for many Not only Catholics is in January.

Catholics are not the only ones opposing the mandate, Preliminary injunctions were recently granted in two according to Emily Hardman, communications director for-profit cases and decisions or a hearing are expected and attorney for the Becket Fund, a Washington, D.C.in the coming weeks in a few others, including one filed based non-profit, public-interest legal and educational by the Oklahoma craft store chain Hobby Lobby.

Lind employs fewer than 50 workers at his company, PLEASE TURN TO COMPLAINT ON PAGE 8A

“

”

... whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.

— Matthew 25:40

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THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • NOVEMBER 21, 2012

Cathedral to again welcome Crashed Ice crowds

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7A

The Catholic Spirit Red Bull’s Crashed Ice World Championship competition is returning in January to St. Paul, and the Cathedral of St. Paul — which served as a spectacular nighttime backdrop for last year’s races — is looking forward to welcoming the skaters and thousands of spectators back to the Cathedral Hill neighborhood.

“To say it put a ‘spotlight’ on our beautiful Cathedral is an understatement,” the Cathedral said in a statement. “We were warmed by the site of so many people of all ages visiting the inside of the Cathedral during Crashed Ice last year, and we invite everyone to do so again.”

This year’s competition, which resembles downhill skiing on ice skates, features a 1,300-foot-long winding ice track and a starting ramp near the Cathedral that will be 48 feet above ground — 12 feet higher than last year, according to race officials.

The church’s doors will be open throughout the three-day event and spectators are encouraged to “pay a visit, take in the quiet splendor, light a candle and say a prayer for the athletes,” the Cathedral said.

No Masses will be cancelled during the track’s construction or the competition.

“Access to the Cathedral and parking around it might be challenging at times but, as the track construction begins, we will keep the Cathedral website up-do-date with traffic and parking information,” it said.

Watch for updates on the Cathedral’s website at WWW.CATHEDRALSAINTPAUL.ORG. The Cathedral Heritage Foundation restoration committee is developing plans for additional hospitality efforts that would benefit Cathedral restoration efforts, said spokesperson Carolyn Will.

Shuttle buses to event This year’s track will cross Dayton Avenue in front of the Cathedral and then Summit Avenue, before twisting

Complaint targets HHS mandate

Red Bull Content Pool

Crashed Ice competitors burst through the starting gate during last year’s race in St. Paul.

For a video showing this year’s track, visit THECATHOLICSPIRIT.COM.

its way down the hill to the finish line.

There will be no public parking at the event, but shuttle buses will run from several area locations on race days, according to Red Bull. Portions of John Ireland Boulevard and Summit Avenue will be closed. City bus routes 21 and 65 will be partially detoured.

Last year’s competition drew about 80,000 spectators, according to Red Bull officials, and the event generated about $20 million in economic activity for the city, St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman said at a Nov. 14 press conference.

Crashed Ice is free and open to the public. Other cities hosting upcoming Crashed Ice competitions are Niagara Falls, Canada; Landgraaf, Netherlands; Lausanne, Switzerland; and Quebec, Canada.

institute protecting religious freedom, which has represented a number of organizations opposing the HHS mandate. Many Protestants and a number of rabbis, along with more than 500 scholars, religious leaders and health care professionals from many backgrounds openly oppose the mandate, she said.

An accommodation for religious and conscience objection on the HHS mandate doesn’t seem forthcoming, so there is little choice for companies and religious institutions other than to go to court, Hardman said.

Added Kaardal: “The HHS mandate could use a little more thinking and polishing to ensure that religious people like my clients weren’t put in this position.”

Father John Echert, pastor of Holy Trinity-St. Augustine in South St. Paul, where Lind is a parishioner, has foreseen practical consequences of mandate compliance.

“I think many Catholics are not aware that this is already impacting many employers and businesses,” he said. “They should be aware not only because of the moral and constitutional issues or principles that are at stake, but this mandate is likely to have other consequences to include loss of health insurance coverage for many employees or even loss of employment.”

Even if Americans aren’t religious or don’t especially oppose contraception coverage, Hardman points to a larger issue with the mandate: the fact that to comply with it Lind, Janas and many others would have to violate their consciences.

She said, “It’s kind of a wake-up call that says, ‘Hey, listen, everybody is going to be impacted by this mandate and you know what? Even if you don’t have problems with the morning after pill, the week after pill, sterilization, contraception, you should be gravely concerned that the government can force anybody to violate their conscience because if the government can force people to violate their conscience, what can’t the government do?’”

Local

NOVEMBER 21, 2012 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

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Plan aims to raise awareness about religious liberty challenges CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2A was supposed to serve 15 million Catholics. The rest had been eliminated by immigration, expulsion or outright assassination. In fact, by 1935, 17 Mexican states had no priests serving at all within their territory.

This deadly conflict, happening less than 100 years ago, should remind us of how precious the gift of our religious freedom is. We are obliged to cherish and protect it. It is the first of the freedoms guaranteed by the Bill of Rights, and it was a fundamental reason for the establishment of our U.S. government. It came, however, at a price, and our forebearers were willing to fight, and some even to die, to ensure that it be preserved.

Undoubtedly, there were right-thinking Mexicans in 1916 who never imagined that their religious freedom would be threatened.

Problems with law Today, a recent poll indicated that 57 percent of the American population does not believe that religious liberty is being threatened.

I heartily disagree. Here is why: Last year, the present administration was able to convince Congress to pass the Affordable Care Act (often referred to as ObamaCare) that mandated all employers, public or private, to cover the cost of contraception, sterilization and abortifacients in their employees’ health care insurance plans.

This law allowed for an exemption for religious employers, but only if such employers strictly hire employees who belong to that religious denomination or faith community, and if that employer only provided services to people of that particular religious belief.

Thus, most parish staffs and even many parish schools would be exempt. But Catholic colleges, Catholic hospitals and Catholic Charities would certainly not be.

Of the latter, their only alternatives to following the unjust law would be to refuse to offer health insurance (which would incur a $2,000 annual fine per employee),

be subject to stiff monetary fines ($100 per employee per day), or go out of business.

That’s it. There would be no other way.

No real compromise It is true, that the administration promised what it called a compromise by proposing that insurance companies could pay for the services in question rather than the employer.

However, for most Catholic entities, this is no compromise at all, since most of our institutions are presently covered by Catholic insurance companies, like Catholic Mutual Group or Catholic United Financial, among others.

And, even if a non-Catholic insurer does cover this expense, it will most likely be done by raising premiums, thus making the employer ultimately responsible for the expense.

But let us be clear. Our truly historic struggle against the equally historic HHS mandate is ultimately not about contraception. Neither is it about health care, nor the rights of women.

It is about the intrusion of the government into the fundamental rights of conscience and the right of religious bodies to govern, guide and define their own institutions.

Such an intrusion should greatly alarm all citizens, not simply those of faith. Appeals to the administration for a more fundamental compromise have been met with stony resistance.

Forty-three Catholic dioceses, schools, hospitals, social service agencies and other institutions initially filed suit against the HHS mandate in federal court on May 21 to stop three government agencies from implementing the mandate.

On Aug. 6, the Obama administration asked the court to dismiss summarily the suits, saying they were premature and that the plaintiffs had no standing to challenge the Department of Health and Human Services’ mandate.

Being judged “premature” means that since the legislation has not gone into effect, no institution has as yet suffered any harm as a result. Yet, entities like Notre Dame University in South Bend, Ind., contend that they are now finalizing their 2013-14 budget in which such fines could run into the range of $9 million annually.

Similarly, the Archdiocese of Washington estimates that it will pay nearly $145 million a year or else be forced to cancel health insurance benefits for its 4,000 employees and their dependents.

Ways to respond At our general assembly in Baltimore last week, the Catholic bishops of our nation renewed our determination to repeal the current definition of a religious organization as well as press for more liberal conscience clauses through a legislative reprieve or a judicial decision.

We also proposed a five-part spirituality program for our Catholic people that would include: ■ A parish holy hour, beginning on the Feast of the Holy Family (Dec. 30), and being held on the last Sunday of every month going forward; ■ A commitment to pray the daily rosary for the intention of preserving religious liberty; ■ Voluntary abstinence from eating meat on Fridays; ■ Regular petitions in the Sunday Prayer of the Faithful for religious freedom; ■ A second Fortnight for Freedom from June 22 to July 4, 2013.

I recommend any and all the parts of this plan to our parishes and other Catholic institutions as a way of raising the consciousness of our Catholic and non-Catholic people regarding the challenges that face us as Americans.

Religious liberty is a cherished gift. Let us do all that we can to protect and safeguard it.

God bless you!

Ave Maria Academy Presents

Join us for

Advent Taizé Prayer With Lou Anne Tighe and David Haas

CDH faculty and students, as well as musicians from the greater Twin Cities area, will lead the prayer.

An Evening Evening with

CARDINAL BURKE Tuesday, T uesday, December cember be 18th Medina Golf Medina Golf & Co C ountry Club ub Country 6:30 pm

Lou Anne Tighe is the Vice President for Mission at Cretin-Derham Hall, and is a member of Lumen Christi Catholic Community, St. Paul.

This prayer form comes from an ecumenical community in Taizé, France. It is contemplative in nature, filled with musical mantras, litanies, prayer, intercession and silence.

Taizé Prayer has become popular in parishes and other communities of faith in the United States and other parts of North America.

David Haas is a campus minister at Cretin-Derham Hall, the Director of Music Ministry Alive! and a nationally known workshop leader, recording artist and composer of liturgical music.

7:00 p.m.

Sunday, December 9, 2012 Cretin-Derham Hall Auxiliary Gym 550 S. Albert St., St. Paul 55116 Please use the entrances on Albert St.

This event is free and open to the public.

A reception will follow

T icke kets f or D inner Tickets for Dinner & Program Program: dividual: vidua $75 Individual: remiere: er $250 Premiere:

P Please lease jjoin oin A Ave ve M Maria aria A Academy cademy aass we we welcome welcome Raymond Raymond Cardinal Cardinal Burke, of the the Supreme Supreme Tribunal Tribunal of of the the Apostolic Apostolic Signatura Signatura & p past ast Burke, Prefect Prefect of Archbishop who ho w will ill speak speak on: on: Archbishop of of St. LLouis, ouis, w “V irtue: How uild a B etter Future” Future” “Virtue: Build Better How We We B A re w elcome. P remiere tticket he o pportunity to to Allll aare welcome.

Premiere holders will have opportunity icket h olders w ill h ave tthe at tend a p rivate rreception eception w attend private with ith the the Cardinal.

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FFor or more more information information and to to purchase purchase tickets, tickets, contact contact Mary M ary Hodgdon at at 952-237-8423, or by by email at at CardinalDinner@avemariaacademy.org.

C ardinalDinner@avemariaacademy.org. www.AveMariaAcademy.org

"[Archbishop] Fulton Sheen would give his right arm to have the tools we have today."

Brandon Vogt, a 26-year-old Catholic blogger, speaking about new media as tools of evangelization

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Nation/World THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

News from around the U.S. and the globe

NOVEMBER 21, 2012

U.S. bishops’ meeting • Nov. 12-15 • Baltimore

U.S. bishops encourage greater use of sacrament of penance

Dorothy Day’s sainthood cause gets backing

By Mark Pattison

The U.S. bishops, on a voice vote, endorsed the sainthood cause of Dorothy Day, the co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement, who was famously quoted as saying, “Don’t call me a saint. I don’t want to be dismissed so easily.”

The endorsement came at the end of a canonically required consultation that took place Nov. 13, the second day of the bishops’ annual fall general assembly in Baltimore.

Under the terms of the 2007 Vatican document “Sanctorum Mater,” the diocesan bishop promoting a sainthood cause must consult at least with the regional bishops’ conference on the advisability of pursuing the cause.

In the case of Day, whose Catholic Worker ministry was based in New York City, the bishop promoting her cause is Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, president of the U.S. DAY bishops’ conference.

The cardinal had earlier conducted a consultation with bishops in his region, and subsequently chose to seek a consultation with the full body of U.S. bishops.

He and the other bishops who spoke during the consultation, some of whom had met Day, called her sainthood cause an opportune moment in the life of the U.S. church.

Cardinal Dolan called Day’s journey “Augustinian,” saying that “she was the first to admit it: sexual immorality, there was a religious search, there was a pregnancy out of wedlock, and an abortion.

Like Saul on the way to Damascus, she was radically changed” and has become “a saint for our time.”

“Of all the people we need to reach out to, all the people that are hard to get at, the street people, the ones who are on drugs, the ones who have had abortions, she was one of them,” Cardinal Theodore McCarrick said of Day. The retired archbishop of Washington is a native New Yorker.

“What a tremendous opportunity to say to them you can not only be brought back into society, you can not only be brought back into the church, you can be a saint!” he added.

There are many Catholic Worker houses operating in the United States. They follow the Catholic Worker movement’s charism of voluntary poverty, the works of mercy, and working for peace and justice.

By Mark Pattison Catholic News Service

Catholic News Service

The U.S. bishops Nov. 13 overwhelmingly approved an exhortation encouraging Catholics to take advantage of the sacrament of penance, also known as reconciliation.

The vote, which required approval of two-thirds of the bishops, was 236-1. The text was prepared by the bishops’ Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis, chaired by Bishop David Ricken of Green Bay, Wis. The exhortation quotes from the Gospel of John after Jesus arose and told the Apostles: “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them.”

In so doing, the exhortation says, Jesus was “proclaiming that all the suffering he had just endured was in order to make available the gifts of salvation and forgiveness.”

It adds, “In the sacrament of penance and reconciliation, we meet the Lord, who wants to grant forgiveness and the grace to live a renewed life in him. In this sacrament, he prepares us to receive him with a lively faith, earnest hope, and sacrificial love in the Eucharist. By the grace of the Holy Spirit, we repent, let go of any pattern of sin, grow in the life of virtue and witness to a joyful conversion.”

Easing fears The exhortation tries to ease the fears of Catholics who have not gone to confession for some time.

“We bishops and priests are eager to help you if you experience difficulty, hesitation, or uncertainty about approaching the Lord in this sacrament,” it says.

“If you have not received this healing sacrament in a long time, we are ready to welcome you,” it adds. “We, whom Christ has ordained to minister this forgiveness in his name, are also approaching this sacrament, as both penitents and ministers, during Lent. We want to offer ourselves to you as forgiven sinners seeking to serve in the Lord’s name.”

One change in the text of the exhortation as proposed will be the inclusion of a reminder to Catholics — still to be written — that they are obliged to go to confession at least once a year.

The exhortation would be made public in time to allow for dioceses to prepare for Lent 2013 and to offer the sacrament at times that are “convenient and plentiful,” according to a background document on the exhortation.

CNS photo / Nancy Phelan Wiechec

Archbishop Robert Carlson of St. Louis, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations, speaks Nov. 12 about a new document on preaching that the bishops approved during their annual fall meeting in Baltimore.

Bishops approve first new preaching document in 30 years

By Mark Pattison Catholic News Service

The U.S. bishops approved their first new document on preaching in 30 years, encouraging preachers to connect the Sunday homily with people’s daily lives.

The document, “Preaching the Mystery of Faith: The Sunday Homily,” passed Nov. 13, the second day of the bishops’ annual fall general assembly in Baltimore.

The vote was 227-11, with four abstentions. Approval required two-thirds of the membership of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, or 182 votes.

The document was prepared by the USCCB Committee on Clergy, References to the most Consecrated Life and Vocations, chaired by Archpopular cultural expressions bishop Robert Carlson of — which at times can be St. Louis, with subsequent review and comsurprisingly replete with ment by eight other USCCB committees. religious motifs — can be an In the preparation effective way to engage the process, feedback also was received from the interest of those on the edge faithful. of faith.

Archbishop Carlson said that, in addition to FROM “PREACHING THE MYSTERY OF FAITH: THE SUNDAY HOMILY” review by other USCCB committees, there were times he went to “the back of the church” to hear what congregants said about the preaching they had just heard at Mass.

Further, when a Catholic News Service story was published about the writing of

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PLEASE TURN TO DOCUMENT ON PAGE 11A

Nation/World

NOVEMBER 21, 2012 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

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U.S. bishops’ meeting • Nov. 12-15 • Baltimore

How can tweets, blogs help evangelize?

By Carol Zimmermann Catholic News Service

A group of U.S. bishops and Catholic bloggers discussed — and tweeted about — how to use social media to spread the Gospel message during a Nov. 11 session prior to the start of the U.S. bishops’ annual general assembly in Baltimore.

In the nearly three-hour session, the group of two dozen bishops and even more bloggers talked about the challenges in keeping up with the all-pervasive social media but also acknowledged the absolute necessity of doing so in order to reach people and connect them more deeply with their faith — or put simply: to evangelize.

In question-and-answer sessions, a panel discussion and in small groups, the bloggers repeatedly urged the bishops to CNS photo / Nancy Phelan Wiechec use social media tools at their disposal such as blogs and Twitter or Facebook ac- Katie Falk of Kansas City, Kan., and Brandon Vogt of Orlando, Fla., laugh at a lightcounts as a means to communicate a liv- hearted joke during a meeting with a group of U.S. bishops Nov. 11 in Baltimore. ing faith in the modern world. “[Archbishop] Fulton Sheen would give miles across Michigan’s Upper Peninsula there, and that audience wants material his right arm to have the tools we have to visit parishes and tweeted about the that is relevant and also entertaining.

Mark Gray, director of Catholic polls today,” said Brandon Vogt, a 26-year old trip along the way.

“That’s something you bring that can’t and a research associate at CARA, gave Catholic blogger. Archbishop Sheen, who be replicated,” Palmo the bishops and bloggers highlights of was declared venerable said, noting that people the study, “Catholic New Media Use in this year, was known for Pope Benedict can relate to bishops the United States, 2012” commissioned his preaching on televiwhen they share their by the U.S. Conference of Catholic BishTwitter account sion and radio in the experience and also feel ops’ Department of Communications.

1950s. to launch soon close to them. “Your job The survey, of 1,047 Catholics from Rocco Palmo, author as guarantors of the faith Sept. 10-18, showed that 62 percent of Pope Benedict XVI will of the popular Catholic is to make sure the mes- adult U.S. Catholics, representing an essoon have an official Twitter blog “Whispers in the feed, according to a sage has integrity and timated 36.2 million people, have a proLoggia,” urged bishops Vatican official. The verified resonates with people.” file on Facebook; 58 percent of Catholics to recognize that they and authenticated papal If the bishops had any age 30 and under share content such as have something unique Twitter account will help doubt about the number pictures, articles and comments at least to bring to the broad sousers distinguish the official of people, Catholics in once a week on social media; and nearly cial media table.

Pope Benedict stream from particular, who use social a third of all surveyed said they would imposters, the official said. media, a new study by like their pastors and bishops to blog.

He gave the example No specific date has been Georgetown University’s The bloggers advised bishops to talk of Bishop Alexander set for its launch other than Center for Applied Re- about the faith — in quick and entertainSample of Marquette, “before the end of the search in the Apostolate, ing ways — by linking faith to current Mich., who kicked off year,” he added. confirmed there is in- events or even discussing movies in blogs the Year of Faith by trav— Catholic News Service deed a big audience out or video reflections. eling more than 1,000

L.A. archbishop urges Obama to ‘seize moment’ on immigration reform The chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Migration joined the broadening chorus calling on President Barack Obama and Congress to “seize the moment” and pass comprehensive immigration reform next year.

In a statement issued Nov. 13 during the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ general assembly, Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez, committee chair, called on Obama and congressional leaders to work on a bipartisan immigration reform bill.

He also encouraged people to make their voices heard in support of a system “which upholds the rule of law, preserves family unity and protects the human rights and dignity of the person.”

An estimated 11 million people in the U.S. lack legal immigration status. Most have no path to legalization that does not involve returning to their home countries to wait in lines that can take decades to clear. Many of those people live in families in which some members are U.S. citizens and others have legal immigration status.

Proposed message on the economy fails The U.S. bishops’ effort to send a pastoral message of hope in trying economic times came up short of the votes needed Nov. 13, after concerns were raised about its limitations, its expedited process and whether it actually was something that they would use to reach out to people.

With the vote of 134 to 85 and nine abstentions falling short of the 152 needed for the two-thirds required for passage, “The Hope of the Gospel in Difficult Times: A Pastoral Message on Work, Poverty and the Economy” was set aside on the second day of the bishops’ annual fall general assembly in Baltimore.

— Catholic News Service

Document makes strong case for linking homily to Sunday liturgy CONTINUED FROM PAGE 10A “Preaching the Mystery of Faith,” “we got a lot of comments in the mail” from readers of the article, he said.

Hunger for improvement In formally introducing the document, Archbishop Carlson said it aimed for a “pastorally sensitive tone” so that it could build upon a strong theological foundation for the ministry of preaching.” He added, “It also makes a strong case for linking the homily to the Sunday liturgy.”

Preaching needs to be done “more effectively in the context of the new evangelization,” he said. “Our people hunger for better preaching, preaching that would help them rediscover their faith.”

The document itself reads, “The homily is intended to establish a ‘dialogue’ between the sacred biblical text and the Christian life of the hearer.

“Preachers should be aware, in an appropriate way, of what their people are watching on television, what kind of music they are listening to, which websites they find appealing, and which films

they find compelling,” it adds.

“References to the most popular cultural expressions — which at times can be surprisingly replete with religious motifs — can be an effective way to engage the interest of those on the edge of faith.”

The intent to write a new document first surfaced six years ago as the silver anniversary neared of the U.S. bishops’ last preaching document, “Fulfilled in Your Hearing.”

Papal foundation The work of drafting “Preaching the Mystery of Faith” took place over the past year and a half after work was approved on such a document at the bishops’ spring 2011 meeting in Bellevue, Wash., near Seattle. New traction on the document came after Pope Benedict XVI issued the apostolic exhortation “Verbum Domini” (“The Word of the Lord”) two years ago, and “Preaching the Mystery of Faith,” according to Archbishop Carlson, is rooted in “Verbum Domini.”

“Many Catholics, for a variety of reasons, seem either indifferent to or disaffected with the church and her teaching.

We know that the general social context in the United States has a strong emphasis on the individual and individual choice, which often eclipses the sense of community or of the common good that is essential to Christian life,” the document says.

“Sadly, too, we must confess that the sexual abuse crisis has wounded the church, and this scandal has led some Catholics to lose heart and leave the church.”

It adds, “The homilist of today must realize that he is addressing a congregation that is more culturally diverse than previously, one that is profoundly affected by the surrounding secular context and, in many instances, inadequately catechized.”

“Virtually every homily preached during the liturgy should make some connection between the Scriptures just heard and the Eucharist about to be celebrated,” it says.

Practicing encouraged Before preaching, “the homilist may need to wrestle for a while with the challenging aspects of the biblical Word,

searching for ways it could connect to ordinary experience and how it might be proclaimed to the congregation the homilist serves,” it says.

“Then comes the process of drafting the homily in a thoughtful manner, finding the right words, moving examples, and apt metaphors that will bring home to the listener the beauty and truth of the Scripture — and then reviewing and revising the text of the homily until it is ready,” it continues.

“Good homilists often practice their homily ahead of time, hearing how it sounds out loud and seeking to preach it with passion and strength.”

“Preaching the Mystery of Faith” says: “The ultimate goal of proclaiming the Gospel is to lead people into a loving and intimate relationship with the Lord, a relationship that forms the character of their persons and guides them in living out their faith. . . . An effective homily would show the faithful just how much the Son of God loved them in taking our human flesh upon himself.”

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Faith, hope and love in the real world Opus Prize acknowledges individuals and their organizations that provide exceptional and unique responses to difficult social problems in the world's poorest communities

Above: Leonora Micheiln Laboissière Mol, left, of Ateliê de Idéias helps people help themselves through community development banks.

Below: Segundo Velasquez wasn’t satisfied with just collecting medical supplies to send to his native Bolivia, he has built more than 130 clinics and plans to build more.

Photos by Douglas Ford Rea ©2012 Through St. Luke Foundation for Haiti, Father Richard “Rick” Frechette serves the people of the island nation.

The organization operates hospitals and orphanages and employs more than 800 Haitians. Father Frechette, who is also a physician, started the organization in 2001 as an outgrowth of the orphange he started in Haiti more than 25 years ago.

Priest serving Haiti’s poor awarded $1 million Opus Prize Dianne Towalski The Catholic Spirit

The $1 million Opus Prize was awarded to Passionist Father Richard Frechette, founder of the St. Luke Foundation for Haiti, in a ceremony at St. Catherine University in St. Paul Nov. 8.

St. Luke Foundation is a Haitian-run organization, started by Father Frechette in 2001, that provides education, medical care and humanitarian outreach to more than 150,000 people each year. The organization employs more than 900 Haitian staff and the school system serves 8,000 children from elementary and high school to a professional school.

The award capped off an evening of music, dance and reflections on the work of the prize’s three finalists.

Father Frechette, who is also a physician, talked about his team and the work they do. “We make institutions, we make schools, we make hospitals, we make clinics, but we can’t go away from the corporal works of mercy,” he said. “We have to make real and we have to live out the words we heard from the prophet Isaiah. . . . ‘The spirit is with us, the spirit guides us to bind the broken hearted, to speak the word of good news, to announce the day of peace. This is our blessing, this is our mission and this we share together.”

In partnership with Minnesota’s own Mayo Clinic, St. Luke’s programs provide healthcare through a coordinated network of hospitals and clinics, including an intensive care unit and surgery center.

Dianne Towalski / The Catholic Spirit

Father Richard Frechette and the other Opus Prize finalists, Segundo Velasquez, center, and Leonora Micheiln Laboissière Mol, embrace during the awards ceremony Nov. 8 at St. Catherine University.

“One of the sayings on our St. Luke team, a very simple one, is ‘if its not me, who? and if it’s not now, when?’ And so we act. And we look for entrepreneurial ways to solve the immediate problem,” Father Frechette said.

St. Luke’s programs have become a model of what is possible — organic, sustainable solutions to the problems facing Haiti, the poorest country in the Wetern Hemisphere.

Sister Andrea Lee, IHM, president of St. Catherine Uni-

versity, announced Father Frechette’s award along with prizes of $100,000 to each of the other finalists: Segundo Velasquez of Mano a Mano International Partners, based in Mendota Heights and Bolivia; and Leonora Micheiln Laboissière Mol of Ateliê de Idéias (ADI), a nongovernment organization based in Vitoria, Brazil.

Mano a Mano — through counterparts in Bolivia and support from the U.S. — has built 130 clinics and 45 schools, airlifted more than 1,400 critically injured or ill patients to lifesaving treatment, and regularly sends volunteers and donors from the U.S. to see its projects in action.

Founder Segundo Velasquez, a former airline manager, originally from Bolivia, has lived in Minnesota for many years. About 20 years ago he started taking medical supplies to his brother, a pediatrician in Bolivia, whenever he visited. After realizing more was needed, he and his wife Joan started Mano a Mano in 1994.

Ateliê de Idéias has strengthened the lowest-income communities in Brazil through life skills development, financial literacy and empowerment and housing development. The organization also operates a bank that serves residents who otherwise would not have access to traditional banks.

Awarded annually since 2004, the Opus Prize acknowledges individuals and their organizations that are largely unsung yet provide exceptional and unique responses to difficult social problems in the world's poorest communities, according to the organization’s website, OPUSPRIZE.ORG. For more information about St. Luke Foundation, visit STLUKEHAITI.ORG.

NOVEMBER 21, 2012 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Student reflections

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Last spring and summer, St. Catherine University sent three due diligence teams — including students, faculty members and staff — to visit the finalists, learn about their work and make final recommendations. Excerpts of their reflection on the experience appear below.

Ateliê de Idéias Founder, Leonora Michelin Laboissière Mol

Mano a Mano Founder, Segundo Velasquez

Joanne Sienko Ott

Renee Crepeau

Graduate student at St. Catherine University Maryknoll lay missionary It was a tremendous honor to represent St. Catherine University as a graduate student on the due diligence team that traveled to Vitoria, Brazil to evaluate Ateliê de Idéias and its founder, Leonora Michelin Laboissière Mol, following the organization’s nomination for the Opus Prize.

ADI was created to provide low-income communities in Vitoria — a city of more than 300,000 residents — with life skills, financial literacy and housing and also operates a bank that serves residents with no access to traditional banks.

Mol’s empowering vision of economic inclusion for all humanity through community development banks is the next frontier of social justice in empowering humanity to construct inclusive economic systems.

ADI’s whole-community development bank model is unique to Brazil.

It empowers residents of economically-challenged communities to construct their own inclusive economy, including the use of social currencies to stimulate local business growth within these communities.

In one of the due diligence team’s conversations with Mol, she conveyed with great intensity that in all the years she had worked in organizing residents in the favelas (slums), it was community development banking that has had the biggest positive impact. Economic inclusion — with their own elected leaders making the decisions — was the essential grounding component of her vision.

We have to pay attention to the fact that our economic system that operates well in one situation, based on certain assumptions, may not do so well in another situation. As such, our economic system has been constructed to fit certain parameters that may not hold true for everyone. Then why can’t the poor construct their own hybrid economic system?

The part that challenged me the most about this experience is how faith is quantified. It seems to me that faith can be defined in various manners. My faith is rooted in social justice that gives dignity to all humanity and is expressed in outward action versus expressed words — I OTT embody faith not verbalize it.

During my previous experience in Brazil, I learned that people — through their own interpretations and awareness — can be empowered to overcome whatever oppression or injustice they are experiencing.

What I observed in Leonora’s work is faith in action, transformative leadership, and empowerment of people to construct their own change with her organization.

Senior at St. Catherine University Student Senate president

What I observed in Leonora’s work is faith in action, transformative leadership, and empowerment of people to construct their own change with her organization.

St. Luke Foundation Founder, Father Richard Frechette

A few months ago, I was invited to travel with the Opus Prize Foundation on behalf of St. Catherine University to evaluate the work of Mano a Mano, a humanitarian organization collaborating with the people of Bolivia to provide medical care and education as well as roads and other infrastructure projects.

In my time in Bolivia, I learned much about the people, the culture and how this organization was making the lives better of those that they touched. These were all things that I had expected to experience; however, I did not expect to experience the overwhelming joy and happiness that some of the poorest people in the world would share with me.

One of the most compelling stories taught me the value of gratitude. One of the villages I visited was one that Mano a Mano had recently built a road for. This road now enabled a truck that went to market each week to pass by their rural village CREPEAU and give them the economic opportunity to sell their goods at a market miles from their home. They were most grateful for the road and were asking for a bridge, because during the rainy season, the nearby riverbed floods and becomes impassable. In fact, a young mother and her son from the village died trying to cross it.

It struck me how we — here in Minnesota — consider the construction of roads or bridges an inconvenience. Either we are stuck in traffic, or forced to take a detour and gripe because we’re late for an appointment due to construction. Ultimately, our trip will be easier and faster once the project is finished, but in the meantime, we are ungrateful and impatient for the improvement and just want them to be finished.

In developed countries, it’s easy to take for granted roads and bridges, but in developing countries, they aren’t as common.

This experience taught me that although we may encounter a situation in our lives when we aren’t sure what we can do for those in need, or feel helpless because we wish we could do more, the most important thing we can do is to share their story with others. Everyone has a story, and by passing on their story, no one is forgotten.

. . . although we may encounter a situation in our lives when we aren’t sure what we can do for those in need, or feel helpless because we wish we could do more, the most important thing we can do is to share their story with others.

Sophomore at St. Catherine University Double majoring in social work and public health

These experiences in Haiti have inspired me and give me hope for the future.

Last March, I was blessed with the opportunity to go to Haiti to visit the St. Luke Foundation and meet its founder, Father Richard Frechette. The work we saw being done there was incredible.

His foundation grew as an offshoot of Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos, otherwise known as N.P.H .International. This organization serves orphaned children in nine different Latin American countries, including the Haitian home to which Father Rick was initially assigned.

As Haiti is one of the most impoverished countries in the Western Hemisphere, Father Rick quickly realized that the NPH home would not be enough to create social change and created The St. Luke Community Outreach Foundation.

From the St. Damien Pediatric Hospital to schools, kidnap rescue missions, food production sites and distribution programs, prosthetic limb production and physical, visual, sound and art therapy, every need that arises receives attention and is addressed despite a lack of resources.

While these programs are extraordinary, it is the faith, hope and love reverberating from everyone involved that gives soul, life and meaning to the work. Local Haitians, who know the significance and value of DONOHUE these programs because they directly affect the lives of their children, family members and friends, run these programs.

There is simply no way to explain what it’s like to attend a funeral Mass every morning,

with the question not being “did anyone die at the hospital last night” but rather, “how many this time?” There is no way to explain the feeling of a dead baby in your arms, knowing full well that there will be more deaths the next morning that could have been prevented if life was fair. There is no way to explain the desperation in the eyes of starving children and adults — the majority of whom live on less than a dollar a day and have never escaped hunger. There is no way to explain the full implication of a heavy rainfall that washes away people’s few possessions and spreads waves of cholera throughout the city because of polluted, garbage-ridden streets.

Words can never do justice when explaining the emotions and complexities of life, let alone the contrast between Haiti’s harsh conditions and the overflowing/abundance of faith, hope and love the Haitians exhibit.

I can simply say that the work being done at the St. Luke Foundation is incredibly needed, and uplifts the dignity of thousands of people every day. While Father Rick facilitates the outcomes of these programs, it is ultimately community members who maintain and create jobs, celebrate and honor the sacredness of life, create opportunities for education and success, and raise their community out of poverty and toward self-sustainability.

These experiences in Haiti have inspired me and give me hope for the future. The St. Luke Foundation has taught me that through faith, hope and love — together we can persevere and navigate the unknown, and find beauty despite horrendous and inexplicable events that occur every day.

Jennifer Donohue

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NOVEMBER 21, 2012 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Parishes assist with post-Sandy needs

By Pete Sheehan Catholic News Service

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With the hurricane winds, massive tides and driving rain now more than three weeks behind them, Long Islanders continue to help rebuild their community, homes and lives.

Hurricane Sandy hit all of the Diocese of Rockville Centre on Long Island, N.Y., which lies east of New York City, but some communities, particularly those on the South Shore, were devastated by the swollen tides created by the storm.

Damage caused by Sandy has been estimated at $50 billion, though some reports put the figure at $60 billion.

Coordinated response As of Nov. 14, the Long Island Power AuCNS photo / Gregory A. Shemitz thority had restored electricity to 99 percent A truck filled with donated goods for people affected by Hurricane Sandy is unloaded of its customers, more than two weeks after at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Lindenhurst, N.Y., Nov. 6.

Hurricane Sandy made landfall. About 35,000 customers still had no power beIsland, “is a disaster,” Father Smith added. to be divided again and sent to the cause their homes were damaged by flood“It’s located near the beach and the storm parishes in most need. ing and in need of electrical repairs. surge waters came up to the building.

In related news, Victims of Hurricane At the peak of the storm, power was There are four to five feet of sand on the Sandy along the East Coast are getting an knocked out for 8.5 million customers in church property.” The rectory basement added boost in their recovery under a 10 states, with the majority in New York was flooded. $500,000 grant from the Catholic Camand New Jersey.

Other South Shore parishes were hard paign for Human Development.

The Rockville Centre Diocese has asked hit, such as St. Jude’s in Mastic Beach.

The special grant will support “people parishes to take up both a monetary col“We had about 1,000 families whose coming together to reorganize the fabric lection and a collection for needed items homes were affected,” Father Gregory Ya- of their communities,” Bishop Jaime Soto such as food, blankets and hygiene sup- cyshyn, pastor of St. Jude’s, “and possibly of Sacramento, Calif., chairman of the U.S. plies, and set up four distribution centers. as many as half of those Conference of Catholic Bishops' Subcom“We’re coordinating will have to be con- mittee on the Catholic Campaign for Huthe response,” said Auxdemned.” man Development, said in a statement reHow to help iliary Bishop Robert Diocesan Catholic leased Nov. 13 during the bishops’ annual Brennan, diocesan vicar Catholic Charities USA is Charities officials have fall general assembly. general, assigned by accepting cash donations as been focusing on repair it develops its response to the Bishop William Murphy and cleanup efforts of victims of Hurricane Sandy. to organize the diocese’s their facilities and trying response. “That way the Donations can be made to plan for the long-term online at the Catholic parishes that were not as response.

Charities USA website at badly hit can help those The agency has partWWW.CATHOLICCHARITIESUSA.ORG. that were.” nered with the diocese Donations also can be “Long Beach looks to coordinate donations made by calling toll-free like the Gulf Coast of of goods and services, (800) 919-9338 or by mail to Louisiana during Katsaid Kristy D’Errico, disP.O. Box 17066, Baltimore, MD rina,” said Father Kevin aster relief coordinator 21297-1066.

Smith, Nassau County for Catholic Charities.

— Catholic News Service fire chaplain and pastor A tractor-trailer of supof St. Dominic’s Church plies from St. John’s Uniin Oyster Bay. He had visited several hard- versity arrived at the agency’s Hicksville hit areas. offices Nov. 11. Staffers and volunteers diSt. Ignatius Martyr on Long Beach, a vided the goods to deliver to four parishes barrier island off the South Shore of Long across Long Island, where the items were

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“We pray that you will exercise your office to pursue the common good, especially in care of the most vulnerable among us. . . . We will continue to stand in defense of life, marriage and our first, most cherished liberty, religious freedom."

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, in a post-election message to President Obama

This Catholic Life NOVEMBER 21, 2012

Opinion, feedback and points to ponder

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

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Four years later: Vatican takes new approach toward Obama

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he day after Barack Obama won the presidency in 2008, the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, hailed his election as a “choice that unites,” exemplifying America’s ability to “overcome fractures and divisions that until only recently could seem incurable.” Pope Benedict XVI sent the presidentelect a congratulatory telegram the same day, noting the “historic occasion” of his election.

Four years later, the Vatican’s reaction to Obama’s re-election had a markedly different tone.

Francis X. “If Obama truly wants to be the Rocca president of all Americans,” said L’Osservatore Nov. 7, “he should finally acknowledge the demands forcefully arising from religious communities — above all the Catholic Church — in favor of the natural family, life and finally religious liberty itself.”

Speaking to reporters the same day, the Vatican spokesman, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, voiced hope that Obama would use his second term for the “promotion of the culture of life and of religious liberty.”

The statements alluded to Obama policies favoring legalized abortion, same-sex marriage and a plan to require nearly all health insurance plans, including those offered by most Catholic universities and agencies, to cover sterilizations and contraceptives, which are forbidden by the Church’s moral teaching.

The insurance mandate in particular, which U.S. bishops have strenuously protested for the past year, has proven an even greater source of division between the church and the Obama administration than their previous disagreements and threatens to aggravate tensions between Washington and the Vatican during the president’s second term.

From the beginning of Obama’s presidency, his support for legalized abortion and embryonic stem-cell research inspired protests by the Church and controversy within it. Some 80 U.S. bishops publicly criticized the University of Notre Dame for granting Obama an honorary degree in 2009.

Yet the Vatican itself remained largely aloof from such disputes, at least in public statements, and cooperated with the Obama administration on such common international goals as assisting migrants, working against human trafficking and preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS. But seeing a threat to the freedom of the church itself, the Vatican changed its approach and chose to address matters more directly.

In January, Pope Benedict told a group of visiting U.S. bishops that he was concerned about “certain attempts being made to limit that most cherished of American freedoms, the freedom of religion,” through “concerted efforts . . . to deny the right of conscientious objection on the part of Catholic individuals and institutions with regard to cooperation in intrinsically evil practices.”

Analysis

Frustrations voiced Any hopes that the administration might change its policy to the satisfaction of the church grew faint as the year wore on and the election drew nearer, to the increasingly vocal frustration of several U.S. bishops.

Two days before Americans went to the polls, the papal nuncio to the U.S. made it clear how urgent a priority the nation’s religious liberty had become at the highest levels of the universal church.

Speaking at the University of Notre Dame Nov. 4, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano devoted most of a speech about “religious freedom, persecution of the church and martyrdom” to the situation in the United States today.

“The menace to religious liberty is concrete on many

U.S. President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama walk with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican in 2009.

CNS photo / Reuters

fronts,” Archbishop Vigano said, noting the insurance mandate, anti-discrimination policies that require Catholic adoption agencies to place children with samesex couples, and mandatory public school curricula that present same-sex marriage as “natural and wholesome.”

Recalling persecution of Catholics in fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, the archbishop said that the “problems identified . . . over six decades ago that deal with the heavy grip of the state’s hand in authentic religious liberty are still with us today.”

A government need not be a dictatorship in order to persecute the church, the nuncio said, quoting the words of Blessed John Paul II that a “democracy without values easily turns into openly or thinly disguised totalitarianism.”

If the mere timing of his speech was not sufficient to underscore its political implications, Archbishop Vigano concluded by lamenting the support of Catholic politicians and voters for laws and policies that violate church teaching.

“We witness in an unprecedented way a platform being assumed by a major political party, having intrinsic evils among its basic principles, and Catholic faithful publicly supporting it,” he said. “There is a divisive strategy at work here, an intentional dividing of the church; through this strategy, the body of the church is weakened, and thus the church can be more easily persecuted.”

Jesuit Father Gerald Fogarty, a professor of history at the University of Virginia and an expert on U.S.-Vatican relations, said it is extremely rare for a papal diplomat to comment publicly on a host country’s politics in such a way.

The closest thing to a precedent in the U.S., Fogarty said, occurred nearly a century ago, during the Vatican’s efforts

to persuade belligerent nations to end World War I.

Ambassador’s view The archbishop’s speech would seem to suggest that the Holy See has made religious liberty in the U.S. an issue in its diplomatic relations with Washington. Yet Miguel Diaz, U.S. ambassador to the Vatican since 2009, said the disagreements between the church and the Obama administration over the insurance mandate have not interfered with his efforts to cooperate with the Vatican on areas of common concern.

Asked whether such compartmentalization would be possible during Obama’s second term, Diaz, who was stepping down in mid-November, DIAZ voiced hope that current tensions, including the dispute over the insurance mandate, might be resolved soon.

“Perhaps my successor will not have the same kinds of issues” to contend with, he said, “because that person will likely have a whole set of different challenges.”

Prior to becoming ambassador, Diaz served as a professor of theology at the College of St. Benedict in St. Joseph and St. John’s University in Collegeville He is leaving his Vatican post to become professor of faith and culture at the Marianist-run University of Dayton in Dayton, Ohio.

Francis X. Rocca is Rome bureau chief for Catholic News Service.

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THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • NOVEMBER 21, 2012

Commentary

/ This Catholic Life

Advent: Rescuing the real meaning of the season

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Editorial Joe Towalski

Early sales aren’t what’s important; rather, the lead-up to Christmas should be about preparing our hearts and minds for Jesus

or the world of business and retail, the Christmas season began right after the kids shed their Halloween costumes and started unwrapping their treats. Well before Thanksgiving, malls were decorated with lights and tinsel, “holiday” sales began, and at least one Twin Cities radio station switched to all Christmas music all the time.

Jumping the gun on Christmas earlier and earlier every year is becoming something of an American tradition itself. And, rightfully, more people are getting upset by it — just ask the Target employees who were trying to “save Thanksgiving” by petitioning the company to abandon its plans to keep pace with competitors by starting Black Friday sales at 9 p.m. on Thursday, before the turkey gravy even gets cold.

All of it is a symptom of our culture’s obsession with consumerism and its trivialization of the real meaning of the Advent and Christmas seasons. Best-selling Catholic author and speaker Matthew Kelly says this is one of the unfortunate things about modern society: It makes the trivial seem important and the important seem trivial.

What’s important about the leadup to Christmas isn’t getting the best

“Volunteering our time, talent and

treasure on behalf of the poor, the ill or the lonely, particularly during this time of year, is a wonderful witness to the Good News Jesus brings.

”

JOE TOWALSKI

deal on gifts to place under the Christmas tree. It isn’t office parties or beautiful decorations or 24/7 holiday music.

What’s important is preparing our hearts and minds for Jesus — his coming at Christmas and, ultimately, his coming at the end of time. That’s what Advent helps us to do, if we let it: rescue what’s important about the season from what society too often trivializes.

Immersed in the season There are many ways to facilitate the rescue: ■ If you have never prayed as a family around an Advent wreath, do it this year, starting with the first Sun-

day of Advent on Dec. 2. Progressively lighting the candles during each of the season’s four weeks and saying a short prayer together can help the whole family stay focused on Jesus during the post-Thanksgiving hustle and bustle.

■ If you haven’t taken advantage of the sacrament of penance in a while, make a commitment to go at least once during Advent. Getting right with God and the people in our lives is a great way to get a fresh spiritual start as Christmas approaches.

■ While you’re at it, make a promise to do one extra, intentional good work — a random act of kindness — for someone you know — or, better yet, someone you don’t know. Vol-

unteering our time, talent and treasure on behalf of the poor, the ill or the lonely, particularly during this time of year, is a wonderful witness to the Good News Jesus brings.

■ Finally, in addition to taking time for prayer, make time to read a spiritually themed book over the course of the Advent season. A good book offers opportunities for learning and reflection that can help us become better Christian disciples.

Check with your parish or local Catholic bookstore for suggestions.

This Advent, let’s stay focused on what’s important as we prepare for the coming of the baby in the manger — the source of our hope and joy and the real meaning of Christmas.

Elections and the culture: What we learned in 2012

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uring the 2012 election season, the Church actively supported a number of issue-oriented ballot referenda initiatives around the country. Most of them failed to pass.

Mostly disappointing results

Faith in the Public Arena Jason Adkins

As Pope Benedict XVI has noted, if we wish to see better results in the political arena there first must be a change in the culture

In Maine, Maryland, Washington and here in Minnesota, there were ballot measures for which the Church worked to preserve the civil institution of marriage as the union of one man and one woman. The pro-natural marriage side lost narrowly in all four states after being heavily outspent in each one.

In Florida, voters failed to end the taxpayer funding of abortions and also voted down an amendment to the Florida Constitution that would have removed a “Blaine Amendment,” a 19th-century state constitutional provision that targeted Catholics and which today jeopardizes joint charitable and social service relationships between church entities and the state, and impedes a number of educational reforms, including school choice.

In California, a referendum to end that state’s use of the death penalty, strongly supported by the Church, also failed.

Last spring, a North Dakota religious freedom restoration initiative lost badly at the polls.

Church-backed campaigns won victories in two states: In Massachusetts, a referendum to legalize euthanasia was defeated (barely); and in Maryland, voters approved a statelevel DREAM act, which provides instate college tuition rates for certain undocumented immigrants who attended Maryland high schools.

the mirror

“Prudence and justice are always

important virtues in the public arena. But what Catholics will likely need most in the years ahead is courage.

”

JASON ADKINS

Elections reflective of culture What can we learn from these disappointing results?

The main thing to keep in mind is that elections are typically barometers and symptoms of broader cultural trends.

These votes are reflective of a severe cultural amnesia about the basic truths and principles that built Christian civilization — a redundant term.

They exhibit a lack of solidarity with others and future generations, and an indifference to understanding how social institutions affect the common good.

The fact that voters were unable to protect the institution of marriage, end taxpayer funding of abortion, or support religious freedom — and just barely thwart the aggressive push for euthanasia — is not encouraging from a cultural standpoint.

As Pope Benedict XVI has noted, if we wish to see better results in the political arena, there first must be a change in the culture — the framework of beliefs and practices that shape and govern the social life of a nation. (2010 World Day of Peace Message, 5.)

Historically, culture is rooted in

“cult,” that is, religious belief and practice. Therefore, cultural change requires the embrace of a new set of beliefs and practices.

Cultural change rooted in renewed understanding of the human person as created by God Our problems in the political and economic spheres find their source in a widespread misunderstanding of the nature of the human person and the person’s relationship to other persons and society. We misunderstand who the human person is because we no longer know the Creator, the one who authored the operations manual for human life.

As the Second Vatican Council explained: “The truth is that only in the mystery of the Incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light. . . .

Christ . . . fully reveals man to man himself.” (“Gaudium et spes,” 22.)

Therefore, the ultimate solution to our problems is not better political tactics, more money, new policies, or better messengers. The answer is in an embrace of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in all its fullness, including in the political realm where Christ is king of kings and lord of lords.

Cultural change starts with man in

Cultural transformation starts with each one of us. What’s wrong with the world, you ask? I am and you are.

We need to live the Gospel and make it attractive for others to do so. That means our participation in the public arena must be governed by Catholic social teaching, and not the prevailing and destructive left-right ideologies of our day to which, sadly, most Catholics devote their political allegiances.

Though in each of these ballot campaigns the Church embraced her responsibility to speak the truth and shape both culture and law, the seed often fell on rocky ground. There is not just indifference to the message, but in many cases, fierce resistance.

The Church’s witness in the public arena has become countercultural, and it is likely to remain so in the near future. Catholics seeking to witness to the truth must acclimate themselves to a culture largely indifferent, and in some cases hostile, to the message.

As the history of the early Church shows, however, being countercultural — even persecuted — is an opportunity to change hearts and begin the process of cultural renewal. The world needs witnesses, not just teachers, and each one of us can share in that task.

Prudence and justice are always important virtues in the public arena.

But what Catholics will likely need most in the years ahead is courage.

Fortunately, grace perfects nature.

Jason Adkins is executive director of the Minnesota Catholic Conference.

This Catholic Life / Commentary

NOVEMBER 2012 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

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At border Mass, Eucharist unites where fence divides

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Guest Column Bishop Ricardo Ramirez

Our common faith transcends differences in languages, race, cultures and political history

very year on All Souls Day Nov. 2, the people of God from the Mexico side of the border and from the United States side gather at the fence that divides our two countries at Anapra, N.M., to celebrate the Eucharist.

Priests and bishops from both countries concelebrate the Mass. Two tables are aligned on each side of the fence and, although we cannot be exactly together, we can at least see and wave at each other. We may be barred from physical unity, but another kind of unity exists — the unity that only the Eucharist can achieve: One bread, one body, one Lord of all, One cup of blessing which we bless, And we, though many, throughout the earth, We are one body in this one Lord.

People exchange the sign of peace through a fence along the U.S.-Mexico border during simultaneous Masses held near Anapra, N.M., Nov. 2.

Our common faith is the strongest element that unites us, that faith which transcends differences in languages, race, cultures and political history. It is the oneness which provides hope for those who have no human reason to hope and nowhere else to turn for support.

On both sides of the border we feel each other’s agony, each other’s pain, each other’s anguish, each other’s sorrow and grief. They, on account of the extreme violence of the drug wars and poverty; we, on account of seemingly unending wars and a government that is becoming increasingly less caring [and] less compassionate, which makes life ever more difficult for the little people, the poor, the elderly, the unemployed and the immigrant.

The border Mass is just like any other Mass. However, it takes on a specific meaning because of the place where it is celebrated and the reason for its celebration. Because it is celebrated on All Souls Day, those who have died along the border are especially remembered. I will mention those instances in the Mass that have a special significance at the border:

■ Penitential Rite: We ask for God’s forgiveness for the injustices and the violence suffered by immigrants both here and in Mexico and for immigration laws that are against the dignity of the human person.

■ Liturgy of the Word: The Mass takes place practically at the base of Mt. Cristo Rey. At the top of this mountain is a statue of Christ the King. From the cross, the eyes of Christ gaze on things which sadden him and also things which meet with his approval.

■ Presentation of Gifts: At this moment in the Mass, individuals approach both altars with similar symbolic gifts: Crosses: Symbolize the faith that we share, and the faith that strengthens the immigrant throughout his or her trying journey.

Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe: Symbolizes our Blessed Mother who offers protection to those on the journey and comfort to fragmented families.

The American and Mexican flags: Symbolize the two countries that

CNS photo / Brian Kanof

yearn for peace along the border.

Tennis shoes: Symbolize the only mode of transportation so many immigrants have across the harsh, unrelenting elements of the desert.

Food and water: Symbolize the basic necessities of the immigrant making the journey.

Backpacks: Symbolize all the immigrants bring with them on their journey, including their hope for a new future [and] the skills and talents to share when they arrive in their new home.

■ The Eucharistic Prayer: Because this prayer is addressed to God the Father, we are acknowledging that we are all daughters and sons of God and that we all deserve the respect of our human dignity, since we are all made in his image and likeness. It is at the consecration that God acts as an immigrant because he enters into our world as the bread and wine are transformed into the Body and Blood of our Lord. After the consecration, we pray the anamnesis, the prayer to the Holy Spirit for unity among all peoples.

■ “Through Him, With Him and Him”: At this moment we offer Jesus to the Father and at the same time offer ourselves, with all our joys, laughter, achievements, hopes and dreams as well as our sorrows, tears, failures, fears and frustrations.

■ Our Father: [It] reminds us that we are all equal children of the one Father. This one Father does not want his children doing violence to one another nor to practice any kind of injustice. He also wants his children to respect and live in peace with each other.

■ Sign of Peace: The ugly fence that separates us makes it impossible to give one another an embrace — “el abrazo” — so we must be content with just touching with the palms of our hands and smiling, yet the joy of the moment knows no bounds and nothing can prevent us from sharing the joy of being together.

■ Communion: We eat of the same Body and drink of the same Blood of Christ. We receive the same gift of divine life in our hearts. At the Eucharist we accept that the authentic human yearnings of the heart happen to coincide with the deepest yearnings of God for his children in the world. The fence at which the Eucharist without borders is celebrated contradicts aspects of our common ground as the Body of Christ. It is also a powerful reminder of St. Paul’s exhortation that we: “Make every effort to preserve the unity which has the spirit as its origin and peace as its binding force. There is one body and one Spirit, there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and works through and is in all.”

(Ephesians 4:3-6).

Bishop Ricardo Ramirez heads the Diocese of Las Cruces, N.M. This column is reprinted with permission from the diocese’s website at www.dioceseoflascruces.org.

Finally! Surprise comes in final minutes of deer season

W

The Outdoors Dave Hrbacek

Patience is tested during hours of sitting in a deer stand

ithout a doubt, the Lord put me to the test this fall in the deer stand. Anglers call the muskie the fish of 10,000 casts. I think the whitetail deer could be called the fish of 10,000 minutes. I don’t think I reached that mark on my vigils over the last two months, but it sure seemed like it.

Between bow hunting and gun hunting, I have put in countless hours waiting for a whitetail to show.

I did get a couple chances with my bow, but failed to recover the two deer I shot at and hit.

Meanwhile, during the gun season, which ran from Nov. 3-11, my opportunities were limited. I hunt near Red Wing in an area where there is an experimental regulation requiring a buck to have at least four points on one side.

Wouldn’t you know it? On opening day, just minutes into legal shooting time, a small buck came right in behind me and offered a perfect broadside shot at 10 yards. But, he didn’t have enough antler points, so

I had to watch him meander by. A few hours later, another deer came in from behind but was spooked when I turned to look.

That was it all the way through most of the season, which made me tired, beat up and frustrated as we reached the final weekend.

As the last day of the gun season loomed, I began to understand what it was like for the disciples when Jesus came upon them at dawn after they had spent all night fishing without success (Luke 5).

As I thought about that episode, I asked myself if I had enough faith to go back out and try one last time.

My friend and hunting partner, Bernie Schwab, gave me the chance to answer that question when he invited me to join him on Sunday, Nov. 11, the final day of the season.

As I contemplated his invitation, I became keenly aware of how tough it must have been for the disciples to obey Jesus’ command to lower their nets one last time. Maybe, that’s why he ordered them to do it, instead of

Dave Hrbacek / The Catholic Spirit

asking them.

Bernie knew, in terms of hunting attitude, that I was in despair. Thus, he did what he is so capable of doing — he yanked me out of it.

But, what awaited us on the season finale was the most brutal weather of that nine-day period: cold, rain and wind. Lots of wind, in fact. That proved to be our biggest adversary.

With only about 10 to 15 minutes

of time left in the season, a deer appeared in front of me at 180 yards in the cut soybean field. Then, he turned and came into range. The end result was a nice trophy buck to take to the butcher — a 10-pointer with an inside antler spread of 19 inches.

Here’s the best part: Bernie and I figured out minutes after finding the buck why it ran across the field to me. Bernie had left his ground blind and was working his way over to me.

He got to another stand and walked toward it to close it up for the season.

That was right about the time that I shot at the buck. We both are convinced that the buck saw Bernie and decided to hustle toward the woods, where I was positioned.

Nobody but the Lord could have orchestrated such a sequence of events. For me, this was the best kind of teamwork — Jesus, Bernie and I. My lifelong earthly friend and I will share the joy of this spectacular hunt for years to come.

But, the glory goes to God alone.

“For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”

John 18:37

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The Lesson Plan THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Reflections on faith and spirituality

NOVEMBER 21, 2012

Bridging the gap between the sacred texts, secular press

M

y fellow deacons and I recently had the opportunity to enjoy a dinner with Archbishop Emeritus Harry Flynn. After a wonderful dinner, as we sat around enjoying each other’s company, one of my classmates asked the archbishop: “Archbishop, do you have any advice to offer us as preachers in the Church?” After a moment’s reflection Archbishop Flynn told us, “When you are preparing a homily, do so with a Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other.”

Deacon Adam Taking the good Westphal archbishop’s advice to heart, I looked at the newspapers of the past weeks. I saw the articles surrounding the failure of the marriage amendment and the running commentary on Archbishop John Nienstedt’s involvement. I saw also a glimmer of hope in that healthcare may be extended to all — something the bishops very much supported until the HHS mandate made what should have been a great gain for Americans into some-

Sunday Scriptures

thing that seeks to strip us of our religious liberties.

Then, I looked at the readings for this weekend, the Solemnity of Christ the King. The first reading talks of how Daniel sees “One like a Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven” — Daniel catches a glimpse of God’s heavenly reign.

In the second reading, John tells us that Jesus is the ruler of the kings of earth, and that through his blood we have been made into his kingdom.

And, in the Gospel, we hear the dialogue between Jesus and Pilate, an earthly ruler and a heavenly one. As Jesus’ earthly ministry is coming to its brutal climax, Jesus assures Pilate that “my kingdom is not here,” and “for this reason I came into the world — to testify to the truth.”

What sort of testimony is Jesus giving to truth? The Greek word here used for “testify” is like the word used in the second reading for “witness,” and this Greek word is where we get our term “martyr” — one who witnesses to the faith.

The faith of the martyrs becomes our faith as well, for we know that the kingdom of Christ is not of this world but is found in the world to come. Some will be called to witness to the truth the same

Monday, Nov. 26 Revelation 14:1-3, 4b-5 Luke 21:1-4 Tuesday, Nov. 27 Revelation 14:14-19 Luke 21:5-11 Wednesday, Nov. 28 Revelation 15:1-4 Luke 21: 12-19 Thursday, Nov. 29 Revelation 18:1-2, 21-23; 19:1-3, 9a Luke 21:20-28 Friday, Nov. 30 St. Andrew, apostle Romans 10:9-18 Matthew 4:18-22 Saturday, Dec. 1 Revelation 22:1-7 Luke 21:34-36 Sunday, Dec. 2 First Sunday of Advent Jeremiah 33:14-16 1 Thessalonians 3:12-4:2 Luke 21:25-28, 34-36 Monday, Dec. 3 St. Francis Xavier, priest Isaiah 2:1-5

Sunday, Nov. 25 Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe ■ Daniel 7:13-14 ■ Revelation 1:5-8 ■ John 18:33b-37

Reflection Many Christians today experience suffering as they strive to be effective witnesses of the faith. What lessons do they teach us as we strive to be better Christian disciples?

way Christ was, as so many in the history of the Church have witnessed. Those who share in Christ’s sufferings will truly be called friends of the King.

Even despite this call to share in Christ’s passion, we have hope. Our hope is not that we will be victorious here on earth, but that even if we share in a death like Jesus we will be raised up again to share in his glory. The Church indeed may be called to suffer here for a time; but that is in line with the whole history of the Chris-

tian church. Jesus doesn’t guarantee success. He does guarantee suffering, but he also guarantees that he will be with us in the midst of that suffering.

No matter the cost On this feast of Christ the King, let us remember that Jesus’ kingdom is not of this world, although we work for it while on earth. Let us pray, brothers and sisters, that if Jesus calls us to share in his kingdom, we do so no matter what the cost, and work to bring that kingdom to others here on earth.

Let us work with the intention of taking Archbishop Flynn’s advice to the next level: Let us strive to make the stories found in the daily papers reflect the love and truth Christ reveals in his person, reveals in the sacred page. May God make our lives the homily that bridges the gap between the sacred texts and the secular press.

Deacon Adam Westphal is in formation for the priesthood at St. Paul Seminary for the Diocese of Des Moines. His home parish is Holy Trinity in Des Moines and his teaching parish is St. Michael and St. Mary in Stillwater.

Christianity is encounter with love

Daily Scriptures Sunday, Nov. 25 Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe Daniel 7:13-14 Revelation 1:5-8 John 18:33b-37

Readings

Matthew 8:5-11

Catholic News Service

Tuesday, Dec. 4 St. John Damascene, priest and doctor of the Church Isaiah 11:1-10 Luke 10:21-24

Far from being just a moral or ethical code, Christianity is “an experience of love; it’s welcoming the person of Jesus,” Pope Benedict XVI said.

“Many people today have a limited concept of what the Christian faith is because they identify it with a mere system of beliefs and values and not with the truth of a God revealing himself in history, eager to communicate with humanity one-on-one in a relationship of love,” he said.

Faith “isn’t an illuPope sion, escapism, a Benedict XVI comfortable safe haven or sentimentalism,” rather it is something that engages one’s whole life and it proclaims the Gospel with courage, the pope said Nov. 14 during his weekly general audience.

United with God, people of faith are “not afraid of showing their beliefs in everyday life,” the pope said. In addition, he said, people of faith know how to bring a sense of hope to people’s quest for “redemption, happiness and a future.”

The pope dedicated his general audience talk to the different ways people can encounter and come to know God. Criticism of religion has intensified over the centuries, resulting in forms of atheism that have led to totalitarianism, relativism, a loss of values and ethical norms, and a skewed sense of freedom

Wednesday, Dec. 5 Isaiah 25:6-10a Matthew 15:29-37 Thursday, Dec. 6 St. Nicholas, bishop Isaiah 26:1-6 Matthew 7:21, 24-27 Friday, Dec. 7 St. Ambrose, bishop and doctor of the Church Isaiah 29:17-24 Matthew 9:27-31 Saturday, Dec. 8 Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary [Holy day of obligation] Genesis 3:9-15, 20 Ephesians 1:3-6, 11-12 Luke 1:26-38 Sunday, Dec. 9 Second Sunday of Advent Baruch 5:1-9 Philippians 1:4-6, 8-11 Luke 3:1-6

From The Vatican

that ends up chaining people to idols, he said.

So what are people of faith to do? How are they called to “gently and respectfully” respond to today’s atheism, skepticism and indifference toward the transcendent, the pope asked.

Three pathways He said there are three pathways that can lead people to God: reflecting on the beauty of the world, the human hunger for meaning and the transformative power of faith.

The world isn’t some shapeless blob but shows signs of “an intelligent creator,” the pope said. The laws of nature show “wonderful mechanisms,” patterns or designs, that, according to Albert Einstein, reveal a form of reason superior to mankind’s.

The other pathway to God is trying to understand oneself and one’s deepest yearnings, he said.

Today’s busy, noisy world makes it hard, but people need to learn to “stop and look deeply inside ourselves and interpret this thirst for the infinite that we carry inside of us, that pushes us to go beyond ourselves and refer to that someone who can quench it,” the pope said.

The last pathway to God is a proper understanding of faith, he said.

“Faith, in fact, is an encounter with God who speaks and acts in history and which converts our daily life, transforming our mentality, system of values, choices and actions,” the pope said.

The Lesson Plan

NOVEMBER 21, 2012 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

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Evangelization 2012

Proclaiming the Good News anywhere and everywhere, using all means available

By Father Michael Van Sloun For The Catholic Spirit

Evangelization is to tell the story of Jesus; to proclaim, share and spread the gospel; and to bring others to belief and help them deepen their faith.

There are many different strategies and methods to do so.

Word-of-mouth advertising is the best.

Andrew the apostle is a perfect example.

After he heard Jesus, he went to his brother Peter and said, “We have found the Messiah” (John 1:41). Personal testimony and faith sharing with another person is a powerful way to evangelize.

The woman at the well also used wordof-mouth advertising when she said, “Come see a man who told me everything I have ever done. Could he possibly be the Messiah?” (John 4:29). Her method was slightly different — instead of speaking to an individual, she addressed a group.

Both Andrew and the woman invited their listeners to go meet Jesus themselves.

Faith sharing comes first, a personal invitation follows.

In churches and beyond Experts in sales and marketing have a saying: “Location! Location! Location!”

And this applies to telling the story of Jesus.

Jesus began with religious locations — buildings where faithful Jews gathered, the synagogues in Galilee and the Temple in Jerusalem. The Apostle Paul did likewise. When he arrived at a new place, he usually began at the local synagogue.

Today, one of the primary locations for evangelization is in our own parish churches to those who already believe, not to bring them to faith but to help them intensify their faith and energize them to share the good news about Jesus with others.

Jesus used a wide variety of locations to preach the Gospel, not just sacred buildings. He taught in a neighbor’s home, on

a hillside, from a boat near the shore, and along the roadside.

After Pentecost, Peter proclaimed Jesus from a rooftop. Paul went to the banks of a river, and he regularly went to the marketplace.

Evangelization extends beyond church and school buildings to wherever we go — all of the ordinary places where people live and work. The Gospel cannot and must not be confined to religious institutions; it must be carried everywhere and anywhere. This point is made emphatically at the end of Mass with the second dismissal: “Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord.”

Today’s ‘superhighways’ Another key aspect to location is Jesus’ use of Capernaum as the home base for his Galilean ministry. It is providentially located along the Via Maris, the great ancient caravan route between Asia and Africa, a first-century “superhighway” for commerce.

Merchants moved commodities vast distances with camels and donkeys, and they stayed in a different town every night. It was before telegraphs and teletypes, telephones or television. Traders listened to the news in one town one night and shared it in the next town the next night.

In the ancient world, information traveled up and down the highway. Today, evangelizers need to take the message of Jesus up and down the new information superhighways — satellite radio, cable television, the Internet, smartphones, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other emergent technologies.

Effective evangelization is a multilingual process. Jesus most likely spoke at least three languages: Aramaic, Hebrew and Greek. The apostles also spoke in a variety of languages (Acts 2:6-11). The Gospel message should be broadly accessible and offered to people in their own languages.

Jesus did his evangelization ministry with the spoken word, but his followers

CNS photo / Gretchen R. Crowe, Arlington Catholic Herald

wrote extensively. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John all wrote Gospels. Luke wrote Acts. Paul, James, Peter and John all wrote letters. The written word remains one of the best ways to evangelize: personal letters and emails to friends, parish bulletins and Catholic newspapers, spiritual books and magazines, banners and billboards.

Jesus would like us to join him in proclaiming the Gospel (see Matthew 28:1920; Luke 24:47; Acts 1:8). It is a supremely important task because “through it [the Gospel] you are also being saved” (1 Corinthians 15:2a).

Father Van Sloun is pastor of St. Stephen in Anoka.

Advent wreath prayer helps to prepare our hearts for Christmas Advent: Week 1 — Dec. 2

now is a good time to be on our best behavior. Can we go this next week being “blameless in holiness before our God and Father?” The time to start living the right way is right now — this Advent — today.

The following Advent wreath prayer is intended to help busy households make Advent, which begins Dec. 2, a prayerful time during the rush of Christmas preparations.

The language is fairly simple and can be used by groups of adults or adults with children. Options are noted to allow for participation by a variety of household members.

Leader: Today begins a special time of year for us.

This week we begin the season of Advent — that period of waiting and preparation before Christmas. In order to help each of us prepare our own hearts for the birth of Christ, we take these few moments each week to pray together.

■ Light the first candle on the Advent wreath.

■ (optional) Read aloud Jeremiah 33:14-16; 1 Thessalonians 3:12 – 4:2; Luke 21:25-28, 34-36.

Leader: When people talked about us, wouldn’t it be great if they said they always saw us as people who are just full of hope? The Bible passages the Church has chosen for this First Sunday of Advent point out two things that should fill us with hope — first, that God has promised he will care for us, and second, that if we follow his ways, we can cope with even the most frightful events of life.

As we begin the season of Advent, the prophet Jeremiah sets the stage for hope, reminding us that God won’t forget his people. In the second reading and in the Gospel, evangelists Paul and Luke both suggest that

Closing prayer: Leader may read all, or others in the household may each read a segment.

■ Dear God, help us to remain hopeful and to trust in you no matter the trials and troubles life brings. This first week of Advent, help us remember that we are your people and that you are our God. Help us get our priorities straight and put the most important things first — loving God and loving our neighbor.

■ Holy Spirit, guide the choices we make throughout this week so that we choose to do what honors our creator and what shows our love of others.

■ Father in heaven, we offer thanks to you for the many gifts and talents you have given to all the people on the earth, to our family and friends, to the neighbors we know and the neighbors we have yet to befriend.

■ Come, Lord Jesus. Come into our hearts, so that when the time comes, we will be prepared to join you in everlasting joy.

“And again Isaiah says: ‘The root of Jesse shall come, raised up to rule the Gentiles; in him shall the Gentiles hope.’”

Romans 15:12

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Arts & Culture THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Exploring our church and our world

Welcoming the Holy Family

Dianne Towalski / The Catholic Spirit

A bronze sculpture of the Holy Family was blessed and dedicated Nov. 18 at St. Bartholomew in Wayzata. At left, Father Michael Reding blesses the artwork during Mass. At right, sculptor John Collier talks with a parishioner after Mass.

NOVEMBER 21, 2012

Dianne Towalski The Catholic Spirit

Parishioners at St. Bartholomew in Wayzata welcomed the Holy Family — a bronze sculpture in the front left corner of the church — with a dedication and blessing during Mass Nov. 18.

The sculpture is the work of Texas artist John Collier, who also created the bronze corpus and stained glass window in the church’s sanctuary.

“An image of the Holy Family should be more than a family portrait, it should help us understand something about our faith, and I think this work of art does that brilliantly,” said Father Michael Reding, pastor of St. Bartholomew.

The parish liturgical arts committee enlisted Collier to create the work based on Matthew 12:50, “Whoever does the will of my heavenly father is my brother, and sister and mother.”

The sculpture is made up of two parts, each weighing more than 700 pounds.

On the left is Jesus as a 12-year-old boy, stepping off on his way to the Temple and his mother Mary walking with him. On the right are Joseph, the protector of the family, and a young girl that is meant to represent the entire church. The girl holds a pearl representing the pearl of great price from Matthew’s Gospel.

Although discussions about the project started in 2009, it wasn’t until about a year-and-a-half ago that work really began on the project. Funding came from several donors.

The sculpting took six to seven months, and the rest of the time it was in the foundry, Collier said.

Collier said he used models to sculpt the figures. “I wanted them to look like real people, real people that love you.”

To learn more about John Collier and his work, visit WWW.HILLSTREAM.COM.

Jesse Tree, other ornaments deepen experience of Church seasons

By Susan Klemond For The Catholic Spirit

Greg and Sarah Damm’s six children anticipate Christmas, but they also look forward to each Advent day’s journey toward the holy day.

As the family prays together and take turns hanging Jesse Tree ornaments that reflect the history behind the Messiah’s coming, that story comes alive and enriches the season, said Sarah, who attends Transfiguration in Oakdale with her family.

“We try to embrace Advent traditions so we’re not just rushing into Christmas,” she said. “The time of Advent is of hope, anticipation and hungering — all to enter in a real and tangible way. It helps us not to rush into Christmas and just take our time with it. It makes Christmas that much more joyous.”

Kid-friendly approach Each of the Damms’ 2-and-3/8inch diameter wooden Jesse Tree ornaments has a painted image of salvation history corresponding to a Scripture passage. They are the creation of two moms who’ve also sought ways to share faith with their own kids: Angie O’Connell and Jane Lagerquist, founders of Jesse Tree

Treasures.

“We tried to pick the [images] that were the most popular, the most kidfriendly, that would captivate them and were key in the story,” said O’Connell, who attends St. Joseph in West St. Paul. “To kind of really know the Bible and have exposure to the various books to the Old Testament.”

Two years after O’Connell and Lagerquist offered their first Jesse Tree ornament sets online for the season of Advent, Jesse Tree Treasures continues to grow as the partners offer new products designed to help families delve deeper into prayer and understand the meaning behind various Church seasons.

The idea developed when the two women, whose children attend the same school, discussed Advent traditions and their difficulty finding products to celebrate the season.

Lagerquist, who attends Roseville Lutheran Church, suggested they paint images onto wood pieces after researching the Jesse Tree.

The first four sets they offered online sold within a half-hour, O’Connell said. With Lagerquist creating many of the images which are now printed and attached to wood, and O’Connell compiling Scripture and

Photo courtesy of Jesse Tree Treasures

Noah’s Ark Jesse Tree ornament from Jesse Tree Treasures.

prayers to accompany the ornaments, the partners have sold more than 200 sets to buyers in the U.S. and other countries.

“It’s really been upbuilding to see,” O’Connell said. “All over the world people want to share their faith with their children.” Along with families, the ornaments have been a hit with grandparents and godparents.

Other ornaments Jesse Tree Treasures also offers ornaments for the 12 Days of Christmas, Stations of the Cross and Holy Week as well as a set of wooden

miniatures designed to teach kids about Jesus’ parables. New this year is a children’s book of stories for each day of Advent written by local author Megan Dunsmore and illustrated with the ornament images.

Lagerquist and O’Connell have created a set of ornaments for the “O Antiphons,” seven scriptural titles for the Messiah that mark the final days before Christmas and are featured in the hymn “O Come Emmanuel.”

To enhance the Christmas season, the partners offer ornaments for the 12 days of Christmas based on the popular Christmas carol. As the song was originally used to teach children the faith, the ornaments describe each gift’s faith meaning.

Lagerquist and O’Connell hope their products help families enter into the Church seasons through their own traditions of family prayer.

Those of a range of Christian denominations, including Orthodox, have expressed enthusiasm about the ornaments, O’Connell said Said Lagerquist: “Each person you send it to has a different story and you hope that it touches them,” she said. “If for some of them it makes a difference, it would be quite a blessing.”

Purchase online Items from Jesse Tree Treasures are available at WWW.JESSETREE TREASURES.COM.

Calendar Parish events Sustainable fair trade market at St. Joan of Arc, Minneapolis — November 24 and 25: 2 to 5 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Sunday at 4537 Third Ave. S. ‘Age to Age: Generations of Faith Concert’ at St. John the Baptist, Savage — November 25: 6 p.m. at 4625 West 125th St., Music featuring three leading composers of liturgical music: Steve Angrisano, Dan Schutte and Curtis Stephan. Tickets are on sale at AGETOAGETOUR.COM. Cost is $10 per ticket; $25 family pass (2 adults and 3 children). For information call (952) 890-9465.

‘Divorce and the Catholic Church’ at St. Thomas Becket, Eagan — November 26: 7 to 8 p.m. at 4455 S. Robert Trail. Father Tim Wozniak will speak. For information, call (651) 683-9808.

Annual Christmas Village at St. Raphael, Crystal — December 1: 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 7301 Bass Lake Road. Features Grandma’s Kitchen, gift baskets, games and entertainment by students.

Christmas boutique and bake sale at St. Henry, Monticello — December 1: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 1001 Seventh St. E. Features baked goods or Christmas cookie trays, enjoy a bowl of Chicken Wild Rice Soup, or visit with Santa between 10 a.m. and noon.

Christmas bazaar at St. Vincent de Paul, Brooklyn Park — December 1 and 2: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Sunday at 9100 93rd Ave. N. Features crafters, bakery, raffle and music.

An Evening Affirming the Faith at St. Charles Borromeo, St. Anthony — December 1: 5 p.m. Mass, 6 p.m. social followed by dinner at 2739 Stinson Blvd. N.E. Father Joseph Williams, pastor of St. Stephen in Minneapolis, will speak. Cost is $30 per person. Visit WWW.STCHB.ORG. Christmas Bazaar at St. Lawrence Church and Newman Center, Minneapolis — December 1 and 2: 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday and 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday at 1203 Fifth St. S.E. Features Grannie’s Attic, gourmet soups and sandwiches and pictures with Santa (10 a.m. to noon Saturday and 11 a.m. to noon Sunday). Visit WWW.UMNCATHOLIC.ORG. Christmas craft boutique and bake sale at Guardian Angels, Oakdale — December 1 and 2: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday at 8260 Fourth St. N. Features more than 50 crafters, a secret Santa for the younger shoppers, and holiday baked goods.

Bake and boutique sale at Incarnation, Minneapolis — December 1 and 2: 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday with soup lunch at 3801 Pleasant Ave. S. 8:30 a.m. to noon Sunday with pancake breakfast. Features mittens and scarves, baked goods and a silent auction.

Christmas boutique and bake sale at St. Odilia, Shoreview — December 1 and 2: Noon to 6:30 p.m. Saturday and 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Sunday at 3495 N. Victoria. Features baked goods, holiday decorations and more.

NOVEMBER 21 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Penn Ave. S. For information, visit STRICHARDS.COM.

Don’t Miss

“An O. Henry Christmas Musical” is made up of two one-act musicals based on the classic O. Henry stories that capture the true spirit of giving, “The Last Leaf” and “The Gift of the Magi.” This holiday favorite is set in turn-of-the-century New York City and is guaranteed to delight and inspire audiences of all ages.

The show runs from Nov. 30 to Dec. 30 with evening shows at 7:45 p.m. on Nov. 30, Dec. 1 and 2, Dec. 5 to 8, Dec. 12 to 15, Dec. 19 to 22, Dec. 26 to 29. Matinees will be on Dec. 2, 9, 16, 23, 30 at 2 p.m.

Open Window Theatre is located at 1313 Chestnut Ave., Minneapolis. For information, call (763) 732-8091 or visit WWW.OPENWINDOWTHEATRE.ORG.

Christmas boutique and bake sale at Annunciation, Minneapolis — December 1 and 2: 10:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Saturday and 8:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Sunday at 509 West 54th St. Features Christmas items, crafts, a variety of baked goods, silent auction, and more.

St. Bridget/St. Austin arts and crafts boutique at the St. Austin campus, Minneapolis — December 1 and 2: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. S aturday and 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday at 41st and Thomas Avenue N. Features handcrafted items such as scarves, mittens, doll clothes and more.

Messiah sing-a-long with the Minnesota Chorale at St. Olaf, Minneapolis — December 2: 6:30 p.m. at 215 S. Eighth St. ‘LaNatividad’ presented by the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre at the Basilica of St. Mary, Minneapolis — December 8: 2 p.m. at 88 N. 17th St. St. Bridget/ St. Austin arts and crafts boutique at the St. Austin campus, Minneapolis — December 8 and 9: 3 to 7 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday at 41st and Thomas Avenue N. Features handcrafted items such as scarves, mittens, doll clothes and more.

Prayer/ liturgies Sant’Egidio Community Evening Prayer at St. Richard, Richfield — every Thursday: 7 p.m. at 7540 Penn Ave. S. Legion of Mary prayers in front of Planned Parenthood, St. Paul — Every Friday: 3 p.m. at the corner of Vandalia and Charles. For information, call (651) 439-9098.

WWW.

Advent women’s retreat at Mary, Mother of the Church, Burnsville — December 8: “A Hopeful Light for Advent” begins at 8 a.m. and concludes at noon at 3333 Cliff Road.

Benedictine Sister Paula Hagen will direct the retreat. Cost is $10 and includes lunch and materials. Register by December 3 at WWW.MMOTC.ORG.

Open Window Theatre presents ‘An O. Henry Christmas Musical’

and Children’s store with all gifts for $1.

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Knights of Columbus traveling rosary at St. Agnes, St. Paul — November 25: 2 p.m. at 548 Lafond Ave. Knights of Columbus traveling rosary at St. Columba, St. Paul — December 2: 2 p.m. at 1327 Lafond Ave. All night vigil with the Blessed Sacrament at Our Lady of Guadalupe, St. Paul — December 7 and 8: 7 p.m. Friday to 8 a.m.

Saturday at 401 Concord St.

Advent ‘Greet Advent as Women of Hope’ A morning of prayer, praise and presentation at St. Peter, Mendota — December 1: 8:30 a.m. at 1405 Sibley Memorial Hwy. Author and speaker Nancy Jo Sullivan will present, “Harnessing the Power of Hope.” The morning concludes with Mass with Archbishop John Nienstedt. Cost is $15 until November 23 and $20 after. For information, call (651) 291-4545. Presented by the Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women.

‘Festive Advent Vespers: Prayer, Reflection, Music’ at St. Mary, St. Paul — December 2: 5 p.m. at 261 Eighth St. E. A soup supper will follow. Free will offering. For information, call (651) 222-2619.

Advent vespers with the Sisters of St. Joseph and Consociates at St. Catherine University chapel, St. Paul — December 2: 4:30 p.m. at 2004 Randolph Ave. A quiet hour for prayer, song and reflection. All are welcome. For information, call (651) 6962805.

Advent Taizé prayer service at St. Richard, Richfield — December 7: 7:30 p.m. at 7540

Calendar Submissions DEADLINE: Noon Thursday, seven days before the anticipated Thursday date of publication.

Recurring or ongoing events must be submitted each time they occur.

JustGiving Fair at St. Thomas the Apostle, Minneapolis — December 1 and 2: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Sunday at 2914 W. 44th St. Provides opportunities to learn about and give gifts related to fair-trade merchants and other charitable organizations. Includes Peace Coffee, Expo Peru, SERRV and others.

LISTINGS: Accepted are brief notices of upcoming events hosted by Catholic parishes and institutions. If the Catholic connection is not clear, please emphasize it in your press release.

Christmas fair at St. Hedwig, Minneapolis — December 1 and 2: 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and after the 5 p.m. Mass Saturday and 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. Sunday at 129 29th Ave. N.E. Features bakes goods, silent auction

E-MAIL: SPIRITCALENDAR@ARCHSPM.ORG. (No attachments, please.)

ITEMS MUST INCLUDE the following to be considered for publication in the calendar: • Time and date of event.

• Full street address of event.

• Description of event.

• Contact information in case of questions.

FAX: (651) 291-4460.

MAIL: “Calendar,” The Catholic Spirit, 244 Dayton Ave., St. Paul, MN 55102.

League of Catholic Women Advent retreat at St. John the Evangelist, Hopkins — December 8: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 6 Interlachen Parkway. Presented by Archbishop Emeritus Harry Flynn. Cost is $30. Make reservations by Dec. 6, call (612) 332-2649.

Dining out Fish fry at Knights of Columbus Hall, Bloomington — Every Friday: 5 to 9 p.m. at 1114 American Blvd. Cost is $10.95. Call (952) 888-1492 for reservations.

Chicken and rib dinner at Knights of Columbus Hall, Bloomington — Every Wednesday: 5 to 9 p.m. at 1114 American Blvd. Cost is $10.95. Call (952) 888-1492 for reservations.

KC St. Nick’s pancake breakfast at St. Thomas the Apostle, St. Paul — December 2: 8 a.m. to noon at 2119 Stillwater Ave. Cost is $7 for adults and $5 for children 6 to 12. Take-out available.

KC Holiday pancake breakfast at Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Maplewood — December 2: 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at 1725 Kennard St. Cost is $8 for adults and $5 for children 6 to 12. Take-out available.

Singles Sunday Spirits walking group for 50-plus Catholic singles — ongoing Sundays: For Catholic singles to meet and make friends.

The group usually meets in St. Paul on Sunday afternoons. For information, call Judy at (763) 221-3040 or Al at (651) 482-0406.

Singles group at St. Vincent de Paul, Brooklyn Park — ongoing second Saturday each month: 6:15 p.m. at 9100 93rd Ave. N. Gather for a potluck supper, conversation and games. For information, call (763) 4250412.

50-plus singles dinner at St. Joseph’s, New Hope — November 25: 5 p.m., at 8701 36th Ave. N. Social hour and pork dinner. Entertainment will be Jasper Bond who sets up checkpoint stations for Iditarod races. $10.

Call (763) 439-5940.

Other events Minneapolis Deaneries Council of Catholic Women quarterly meeting at St. Charles Borromeo, St. Anthony — November 26: 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 2739 Stinson Blvd. N.E. Attorney John E. Trojack will speak about estate planning. The day includes Rosary, Mass and Lunch. Cost is $13. Call (763) 5360553.

16th annual tree and créche lighting ceremony at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul — December 4: 4:30 p.m. on the lower quadrangle of the St. Paul campus. Ceremony also features music, readings, hot chocolate and holiday cookies.

22A

NOVEMBER 21, 2012 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Ongoing marriage efforts require prayer, good witnesses CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6A

said during his talk in New Brighton.

nesota, supporters of the amendment sought its passage to prevent the law from being changed by the courts or Legislature. Some supporters of same-sex marriage are hoping the Legislature will now take steps during the 2013 session to legalize same-sex marriage in the state.

Adkins said he was busy in the days leading up to the vote coordinating with other members of the proamendment Minnesota for Marriage coalition to make about 400,000 telephone calls focused on getting amendment supporters to the polls.

In the end, the votes fell short. But Adkins said good things have resulted from the effort in Minnesota that, looking ahead, will benefit marriage and other public policy positions the MCC supports.

“I feel like we’ve trained thousands of marriage advocates who can go out and be effective communicators of this important and beautiful institution for decades to come, and that is really an investment in the future,” he said Nov. 6 before the final amendment vote results were announced.

While some Christian denominations opposed the amendment effort, others worked together to support it, creating the opportunity for future cooperation around marriage and other issues.

“We’ve already started looking at marriage summits for the spring and some other unique initiatives for ecumenical cooperation,” Adkins said.

The MCC, he said, has “started working and talking to our coalition partners to develop a 10-point legislative plan for strengthening marriage. We’ll be developing that in the days and months ahead and trying to implement that at the legislative level.”

Catholics can be effective advocates for marriage by taking a stand in the political arena when necessary, but they also need to help shape the culture, Adkins

Rediscover initiative to include speakers series, website, app CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2A

“To be effective advocates for marriage and the new evangelization, being knowledgeable is not enough,” he said. “We also need two main things: the first is prayer and fasting . . . If you’re too busy to pray, you’re too busy to be successful. The second thing is to live our own marriages well. The world needs witnesses, not just teachers.”

Speaking truth boldly Adkins said there are a number of reasons the amendment failed from a tactical standpoint, including “being massively outspent and having the media put the full force of its influence and its propaganda against us.”

He also said too many Christians “sat on the sidelines on this one,” failing to advocate on behalf of marriage and the amendment.

But, he added, he is proud of the leadership provided by the state’s Catholic bishops.

“In the face of fierce opposition and what you might call the dictatorship of relativism, they really took a strong and principled stand,” Adkins said. “It was a truly Catholic stand. It was one that spoke truth and spoke it boldly. It also did so with compassion and concern, emphasizing that everyone, no matter their sexual orientation, is created in the image and likeness of God.” He also said he’s proud of everyone who worked on the campaign’s behalf.

“The future of humanity runs by way of the family, Pope John Paul II said, and if we’re not out there strengthening marriage and strengthening the family, we’re going to be in a lot of trouble as a culture and a society,” Adkins said. “With this campaign, I think we’ve put the building blocks in place in Minnesota for that movement to go forward.”

with no reference to God or eternity, a society that is likewise materialistic and individualistic in its decision-making and its attitudes,” Archbishop Nienstedt said.

“Yet, my brothers and sisters, it is precisely in this context that you and I are called to teach and preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ — a message that is Good News because it offers light and truth, guidance and hope to many who have lost their way in their quest for happiness,” said the archbishop, who noted that parishes will be the focal point of Rediscover’s outreach efforts.

Rediscover will begin with a free distribution in parishes of the book “Rediscover Catholicism” by wellknown Catholic author Matthew Kelly. It will include a speakers series, website, smartphone app, and a multitude of other outreach and formation opportunities in parishes and throughout the archdiocese. An archdiocesan-wide event to celebrate the Catholic faith is planned for Oct. 12, 2013 at St. Paul RiverCentre.

Kelly, who addressed attendees at both the Nov. 15 and 16 meetings, said he is “inspired” by the Rediscover initiative and its goals.

“It is the most inspiring thing I have seen in the Church at a diocesan level in the 20 years I have been speaking and writing,” Kelly said in an interview with The Catholic Spirit.

“Most of all, I am looking forward to [how Rediscover] will ignite people’s faith [in ways] that we have not even imagined,” he added. “We are working toward some intended outcomes, but the Holy Spirit will take this work and use it for so much more.”

Kelly will be writing a special Rediscover column for The Catholic Spirit throughout 2013 and is making a variety of resources available for the initiative from the Dynamic Catholic website (DYNAMICCATHOLIC.COM).

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23A

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • NOVEMBER 21, 2012

Faith, science must cooperate to protect people, planet As science becomes more complex, Church has important role to play, say Pope Benedict and science academy members Dialogue and cooperation between faith and science are urgently needed for building a culture that respects people and the planet, Pope Benedict XVI told his own science academy.

Without faith and science informing each other, “the great questions of humanity leave the domain of reason and truth, and are abandoned to the irrational, to myth, or to indifference, with great damage to humanity itself, to world peace and to our ultimate destiny,” he told members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences Nov. 8.

As people strive to “unlock the mysteries of man and the universe, I am convinced of the urgent need for continued dialogue and cooperation between the worlds of science and of faith in building a culture of respect for man, for human dignity and freedom, for the future of our human family and for the long-term sustainable development of our planet,” he said.

Members of the academy were meeting at the Vatican Nov. 5-10.

cians, but they have little culture in terms of the history of science,” philosophy and ethics, said Pierre Lena, a French Catholic astrophysicist working to revamp the way science is taught in schools.

“These technically well-trained people make fantastic discoveries, but they miss the connection with the human person” and often fail to take into account the impact of their discoveries on people and the environment, he said.

The other problem, Lena said, is that the general public often glosses over the importance of science because it is not taught or explained in a way that shows clearly how new knowledge impacts their lives or future.

Scientists usually present their findings by sticking to objective facts without realizing the public tends to base a lot of its decisions on more subjective reasons like culture, tradition, feelings and religious beliefs, and not just raw data, he said. Also, people may feel they can’t trust what scientists say because their findings are in constant flux and development, he said.

Lena said scientists need to show that their sense of truth “is not the truth with a capital ‘T,’” but is something that evolves and has limits. Yet, at the same time, a scientific discovery or hypothesis “is not a purely relative opinion” either, but reflects real experimental findings or is based on highly probable statistical calculations, he said.

People impacted

More education needed

By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service

As science becomes more complex and highly specialized, educational institutions and the church have an important role to play in helping scientists broaden their concerns to include the ethical and social consequences of their work, an academy member told Catholic News Service.

“We make scientists today who are excellent specialists and remarkable techni-

In his Nov. 8 speech to scientists, the pope said, “The universe is not chaos or the result of chaos, rather, it appears ever more clearly as an ordered complexity which allows us to rise . . . from specialization toward a more universalizing viewpoint and vice versa.”

While science still has not been able to completely understand the “unifying

CNS photo / L'Osservatore Romano via Reuters

Pope Benedict XVI looks through a microscope during his visit to the headquarters of the Vatican Observatory in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, in this Sept. 16, 2009, file photo.

structure and ultimate unity” of reality, the different scientific disciplines are getting closer to “the very foundations” underlying the physical world, he said.

While the Vatican has done much in terms of reaching out to the world of science through its many conferences and initiatives, more needs to be done by the church on the ground, especially in Catholic schools, in teaching the nature of scientific truth, Lena said.

“Except for the Jesuits, Catholic education was and I think still is cautious about science that might destroy the faith,” with some examples being natural selection and evolution, the possibility of life on other planets and the neurological basis for the psyche, he said.

In general, Catholic education stresses the humanities “because they speak about

man, and the good and the bad,” but avoids the more complex or poorly understood modern discoveries and theories of science, he said.

The unfamiliar or quickly evolving terrain of science is one of the reasons why the pope has a science academy — to monitor the latest advancements in different fields, said Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, the academy’s chancellor.

He told CNS that it’s critical for the new evangelization to take into account current scientific opinions and positions.

Understanding scientific truths is important “not for any lack on the part of the Gospels or the catechism, but because the intellect is weak and is used to operating from what it already knows,” the bishop said.

By understanding what secularized universities, students or professional fields are thinking, “it’s much easier to be able to help them understand that the truth of faith is not in contrast to these other truths, rather in many cases it strengthens them and gives them new drive, new incentive.”

Lena said scientists who are religious and the church as a whole need theologians to hammer out the Christian response to the questions that arise in science today, from complex end-of-life issues to the possibility of life on other planets.

Theology has to step in and provide some responses, he said, or else Catholics may be tempted to think “science is too dangerous and keep it as far as possible from faith because it threatens” eternal Christian principles that are rooted in outdated concepts or language.

He said if theology could keep pace in providing the Catholic insight and interpretation to modern challenges and discoveries, “then the gap between the beliefs of people and the scientific world” could close.

Bishop links respect for environment to church’s sacramental life

By Dennis Sadowski Catholic News Service

The link between respecting the environment and the sacramental life of the church is inseparable for one bishop overseeing a diocese that encompasses a collection of small islands in the South Pacific.

Bishop Bernard Unabali of Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, considers the link so unfaltering that when he baptizes a new member of the church or confirms someone BISHOP UNABALI or even when he ordains a priest, he asks individuals to plant 10 trees as a way to give rise to new life.

Such an act of faith, he told Catholic News Service Nov. 8, is one way he prayerfully encourages people to help stem the rapid pace of climate change. “[I] use this situation, which is going to be affecting us more drastically than probably in the past, to help people recapture our relationship to the environment,” he said. “We must entrench something in our lives to continue this environmental concern, respect and care.”

Bishop Unabali was in Washington to

open a three-day symposium highlighting the urgent calls from Pope Benedict XVI on the importance of Catholics acting on behalf of an increasingly fragile environment in the face of climate change. The event, hosted by The Catholic University of America Nov. 8-10, brought together a dozen Catholic theologians and philosophers to discuss the implications of Pope Benedict’s biblically-based ecological vision for the Catholic Church.

The symposium was sponsored by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the

Catholic Coalition on Climate Change, and the university and its Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies.

Bishop Unabali explained that care for the environment and encouragement of sustainable development for Bougainville have become priorities under the pastoral plan he developed alongside lay parishioners. The plan, he said, is helping foster a greater awareness of the generationslong relationship with the environment that he believes each person is responsible for maintaining.

Bishop Unabali’s concern about the environment and climate change has taken shape throughout the 27 years of his priesthood. He told CNS it was his visit to the Carteret Islands that spurred him to decisive action.

Spending two weeks in 2007 with the Halia people who inhabit the atolls 50 miles north of the autonomous region’s main island, Bishop Unabali saw evidence of the rising ocean: One atoll had been cut in two, with the lowest areas under several feet of water. Hundreds of people were displaced.

As many as 700 Halia have relocated in recent years to the main island of Bougainville, an autonomous region of 200,000 people in Papua New Guinea northeast of Australia. They are widely believed to be the world’s first climate refugees.

Despite their move, the Halia continue to struggle as the Papua New Guinea government offers minimal support. To help, the Bougainville Diocese has secured funding from a variety sources — some Catholic, but most not — to assist the Halia in adjusting to their new lives.

The bishop said the 3,300 Halia remaining on the atolls are coping with their dwindling land, but that he expects within two or three decades all of the atolls’ residents will be forced to live elsewhere.

“Though I know the difficulties that come with being our age, I want to say, it’s wonderful being old.”

Pope Benedict XVI, 85, during a morning visit Nov. 12 to a Rome residence for the elderly

24A

Overheard THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Quotes from this week’s newsmakers

NOVEMBER 21, 2012 “Of all the people we need to reach out to, all the people that are hard to get at, the street people, the ones who are on drugs, the ones who have had abortions, she was one of them.

What a tremendous opportunity to say to them you can not only be brought back into society, you can not only be brought back into the church, you can be a saint!”

Cooper to the rescue

— Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, retired archbishop of Washington, speaking about Dorothy Day, whose sainthood cause was endorsed by the U.S. bishops Nov. 13

Dave Hrbacek / The Catholic Spirit

Cooper Corbo, a third-grader at Faithful Shepherd School in Eagan, holds the Boy Scouts of America’s Medal of Merit award, which he received on Nov. 14. The award, given to a youth who has performed an outstanding act of service that reflects an uncommon concern for the well-being of others, recognized his efforts in August to bring a toddler in his neighborhood out of danger.

The neighbor boy was standing on a chair and leaning out of an open window 15 feet above a cement driveway. Corbo spotted the boy, talked him away from the window, then summoned a friend to stay with the boy while he ran for help. Corbo is a member of Pack 824 in the Northern Star Council and St. John Newmann in Eagan.

Savage school gets grant to produce ‘Yes, Virginia: The Musical’ St. John the Baptist Catholic School in Savage was one of 100 schools across the country to receive a $1,000 local grant from Macy’s to produce “Yes, The Virginia: The Catholic Spirit Musical.”

In celebration of the fifth anniversary of Macy’s holiday “Believe” campaign,

News Notes

the retailer is helping to bring the animated special to life on school stages across the country by making the script and score available royalty free to all schools, as well as a free digital toolkit.

The “Believe” program encourages children of all ages to drop their stamped letter to Santa at the red Santa Mail letterbox at their local Macy’s. For every letter received, Macy’s will donate $1, up

to $1 million, to Make-A-Wish, helping to grant the wishes of children with lifethreatening medical conditions.

Performances are at 7 p.m., Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 at St. John the Baptist School, 12508 Lynn Ave. There is no cost for admission.

The school also has been invited by Macy's to perform “Yes, Virginia: The Musical” at the Mall of America Dec. 14.

“We bishops and priests are eager to help you if you experience difficulty, hesitation, or uncertainty about approaching the Lord in this sacrament. If you have not received this healing sacrament in a long time, we are ready to welcome you.”

— From an exhortation approved Nov. 13 by the U.S. bishops encouraging Catholics to take advantage of the sacrament of penance

“If we don’t do it right, if we’re not faithful to who we are as Catholics, then we cede the issue to the environmental groups. The solutions [they offer] won’t be as attentive to the needs of people, particularly poor people.”

— Dan Misleh, executive director of the Catholic Coalition on Climate Change, on the need for Catholics to shape how the world addresses climate change and other environmental concerns

How has Jesus given you “a reason for hope?”

The Rediscover initiative — to be unveiled during the Advent season — invites fellow Catholics to rediscover a real and personal relationship with Jesus and re-engage in the full life of the Church.

In light of this, The Catholic Spirit is inviting Catholics who have rediscovered the depth and beauty of our Catholic faith to share their stories.

■ Were you sleepwalking in your Catholic faith for a time? If so, what woke you up from your spiritual slumber to re-engage with it?

Was there a trigger or perhaps a series of triggers over time? Was there a person who made a huge difference in your faith who challenged or encouraged you? What continues to nourish the fire of faith in your heart?

■ Are you a convert? Or were you away from the faith for a time? What happened that drew you to (or back to) Christ and his Church?

■ What

Share your story about how you rediscovered your Catholic faith

did it mean to you to come back into full life in the Church? How has it changed you or affected those around you?

Send your story — 300 words or less — to The Catholic Spirit: ■ By

email to: CATHOLICSPIRIT@ARCHSPM.ORG. Write“Rediscover Faith Story”in the subject line; or

■ By

postal mail to: “Rediscover Faith Story,”c/o The Catholic Spirit, 244 Dayton Ave., St. Paul, MN 55102.

If you know someone whose story will truly inspire, please encourage them to submit their story as well.

A selection of stories will be published in future issues of The Catholic Spirit and online at THECATHOLICSPIRIT.COM. Please include your name, parish and a daytime telephone number at which you can be reached if we have questions.

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2B

Senior Services

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • NOVEMBER 21, 2012

To our readers The descriptions of senior housing and other services in this section were provided by the facilities and service agencies, which are responsible for the accuracy of the content.

— The Catholic Spirit

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Meals on Wheels helps individuals who are unable to prepare their own meals stay connected to their communities and live independently in their homes for as long as possible. Meals are delivered weekdays around lunchtime, and extra meals can be delivered for use during the weekends. Meals can be delivered hot, cold or frozen, and a variety of diets (low-sodium/diabetic, kosher, and culturally-specific) may be provided.

Learn more about Meals on Wheels at WWW.MEALS-ON-WHEELS.COM, or call (612) 6233363.

Footworks Footworks is a licensed home health care agency that specializes in basic foot care for seniors in the privacy of their homes. Foot-care sessions consist of soaking feet, trimming toenails, buffing down corns and calluses, and foot massage for circulation. Footworks is owned and operated by Shelly, who formerly worked in the health care field for 18 years. All employees are either nurses or nurse aides, with special training in foot care. Footworks offers complimentary foot care seminars to senior groups, community centers, etc.

For more information, call (651) 501-0624.

Meals on Wheels: More Than Just a Meal

Epiphany Senior Housing Epiphany Senior Housing is a nurturing and caring senior housing community located in Coon Rapids, just minutes north of the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area. Our communities are linked to the Church of the Epiphany by an indoor walkway. We offer independent senior living at Epiphany Pines while Epiphany Assisted Living and Memory Care have apartments available for those individuals needing extra care with their activities of daily living.

Come soon to visit and sense the comfort of community again. Just like your old neighborhood, you can’t describe it, you have to feel it. Our health care services are tailored to meet an individual’s needs and are delivered with a loving spirit and a smile. Epiphany Assisted Living has created a distinctive memory care neighborhood for those with memory loss and dementia. We would love the opportunity to speak with you and learn more about your personal needs and share our many engaging features and services. Call to schedule a tour!

For more information, call (763) 7721066 or visit, WWW.EPIPHANYSENIOR HOUSING.ORG.

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Cerenity Care Center and Residence – Marian of Saint Paul is a continuum of care campus that provides every level of care for you or your loved one.

Nutritious and delicious meals, friendly volunteer drivers and peace of mind, knowing your community cares about you or your loved one living healthy and independently.

> Independent Living > Transitional Care

> Assisted Living > Memory Care

Please call 651-793-2100 today to schedule a tour.

Call or go online to receive a meal, volunteer or donate today. www.meals-on-wheels.com • 612-623-3363

> Adult Day Center > Skilled Nursing

Marian of Saint Paul

200 Earl St., St. Paul, MN 55106 www.CerenitySeniorCare.org

Senior Services

NOVEMBER 21, 2012 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

John E. Trojack Law Office, P.A.

Cerenity Senior Care — Marian of Saint Paul Cerenity Senior Care — Marian of Saint Paul is the only Catholic continuum of care community in the East Metro offering all levels of senior care and housing. Cerenity Marian offers independent and assisted living; transitional care; adult day services; skilled nursing; memory care assisted living; and enhanced assisted living.

Mass is held six days a week in our beautiful adjacent Chapel of St. Mary.

Rosary also is available. Our full-time chaplain assists residents and their families as spiritual needs arise.

Cerenity Marian is across the street from Mounds Park.

For tours or more information, please call (651) 793-2100 or visit WWW.CERENITYSENIORCARE.ORG.

Washburn-McReavy Funeral Chapels Washburn-McReavy Funeral Chapels is the oldest family-owned funeral business in Minnesota.

Established in 1857, before Minnesota became a state, WashburnMcReavy is a fourth generation business.

Quality, personal service, and funeral and cremation services are available at all of our chapels.

Call (612) 377-2203 for a brochure or visit WWW.WASHBURN-MCREAVY.COM.

Using counseling-oriented estate planning, John E. Trojack and his associate attorney, Joseph E. Trojack, will work hard to help you give “what you own, to whom you want, when you want, and the way you want.”

To ensure an “estate plan that works,” they help you establish and maintain a formal updating program.

And, the office assures you of fullydisclosed and controlled costs.

For more information, call (651) 451-9696.

Crest View Senior Communities — celebrating 60 years serving older adults Crest View Senior Communities is a faith-based not-for-profit organization that has been providing services to older adults since 1952. Crest View Senior Community in Columbia Heights offers a continuum of care and service, including senior housing, assisted living, home care, memory care, rehab care and skilled nursing care.

Crest View is developing a new campus of service for older adults in the city of Blaine.

To receive information, please call (763) 782-1601 or visit us at WWW.CRESTVIEWCARES.ORG.

Benedictine Health Center at Innsbruck We are part of the Benedictine Health System and sponsored by the Sisters of St. Benedict of Duluth. Our campus includes a new mobility courtyard and labyrinth for outdoor therapy, a transitional care neighborhood, long-term care and secure memory care neighborhoods, and a therapy center serving outpatients and inpatients.

We have more than 60 private rooms and baths, delicious food and outstanding, specialized rehabilitation. Weekly Mass is offered in the Holy Spirit Chapel. Spiritual support is woven throughout our programs. We take pride in living out our values of hospitality, respect, stewardship and justice!

Stop by for a tour, or call (651) 633-1686 for more information.

r Seniors Since 196 o f g n i r 5 Ca Assisted Living, Memory Care, Care Suites, Adult Day Program, Nursing Home & Transitional Care • 24-hr. nursing care services • Senior Therapy Center • Dental and Podiatry on-site • Chapel with daily Mass and weekly ecumenical services • Daily activities/social events • Beauty/Barber Shop • Media Center gs Openin le • Country Store b Availa • Paul’s Pub • Community Center • Beautiful gardens

1175 Nininger Road • Hastings, MN 55033 651-480-4333 • www.reginamedical.org

651-480-4333

Offering the convenience of an entire health care campus including hospital, clinics, pharmacy and therapy

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Senior Services

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • NOVEMBER 21, 2012

Episcopal Homes Episcopal Homes has a variety of senior housing available in St. Paul.

Following is a brief description of senior living residences. For more information on any home, visit WWW.EPISCOPALHOMES.ORG. Episcopal Church Home Nursing and short-term rehab care in a faith-based, not-for-profit. Medicare/Medicaid certified. Our mission is to support each individual’s physical, social and spiritual needs. Weekly Catholic Communion and rosary, plus monthly Catholic Mass.

Call (651) 646-4061 for a tour.

Iris Park Commons “A Community of Heart” with 59 one/two bedroom and studio apartments and a flexible menu of Assisted Living services for age 62-plus. Catholic Communion every Sunday, plus weekly Communion.

Call (651) 646-1026 for a tour.

Cornelia House Gracious living for independent adults age

62-plus. We offer 47 one- or two-bedroom apartments, community spaces and a lively resident council that organizes social events.

Call (651) 288-3931 for a tour.

Seabury Affordable independent living, age 62-plus.

Recognized as one of the finest HUDsubsidized senior housing facilities in the nation. Forty-nine one-bedroom apartments with central air conditioning.

Call (651) 379-5102 for a tour.

Carty Heights Affordable independent living for age 62plus at University and Lexington. Forty-nine one-bedroom air conditioned apartments.

Call (651) 288-1142 for a tour.

Kings Crossing Affordable independent living for age 62plus. They’re located above the shops of Frogtown Square at University & Dale.

Residents enjoy the same priority access to our programs and services as residents of our home campus. Forty-nine one-bedroom airconditioned apartments.

Call (651) 493-4606 for a tour.

MJ Properties of Saint Paul, LLLP Walk to daily Mass when you live at 1440 Randolph Avenue in St. Paul’s Highland Park. Newly Remodeled and value-priced apartments perfect for today’s independent senior 55-plus.

Adjacent to Holy Spirit Catholic Church, we provide a quiet, simple, yet elegant living atmosphere for independent seniors of 55 and better who wish to “stay in the neighborhood” or live in close proximity to a Catholic church and the sacraments.

Other features include: new modernized elevator, underground heated parking and outside garages, state-of-the-art monitored, smoke and carbon monoxide detection, new appliances, a friendly on-site management team, mini health clinic, fitness center and resident lounge with wireless access and cable TV — great for anyone on a budget for good value!

For more information or to schedule a showing, please call MJ Properties of Saint Paul (651) 690-4961.

www.TheCatholicSpirit.com

Regina Medical Center in historic Hastings Located in scenic Hastings, Regina Medical Center offers a truly unique care experience. Along with an on-site hospital and clinics, Regina offers a modern Assisted Living facility, Memory Care communities, Care Suites, Nursing Home, Transitional Care and an Adult Day program, all on one campus.

Regina has been caring for seniors since 1965 and is proud to carry on its Christian tradition of caring for the whole person — mind, body and spirit.

To learn more about Regina Senior Living, give us a call at (651) 480-4333.

St. Therese Southwest St. Therese Southwest is a senior living community located in Hopkins on 14 breathtaking acres of weeping willows and walking paths.

The campus provides the feeling of living in the country with the benefit of being close to the city. We provide a spiritual environment in which people of all faiths are welcome. Daily Catholic Mass is offered, as well as weekly Protestant services.

Lifestyle options include: independent living, assisted living, memory care and our adult day program.

For more information, please call (952) 933-3333 or visit WWW.STTHERESESOUTHWEST.COM. NOW OPEN: The Glenn by St. Therese Southwest, a retirement community for adults 62-plus in Minnetonka’s Glen Lake neighborhood.

For more information and to schedule your personal tour, call (952) 352-1000 or visit WWW.THEGLENNSENIORHOUSING.COM.

Senior Services Rosoto Villa Rosoto Villa is a 55-plus independent community, conveniently located at 1901 Desoto St., just east of 35E at Roselawn and Desoto in Maplewood, within walking distance to St. Jerome Church.

We offer in-home washer/dryer, large eat-in kitchen, underground parking and storage lockers included, community room, guest suite, bus to shopping, activities and exercise room. Rosoto Villa is independent living at its finest.

Visit our Web site at WWW.AZUREPROPERTIES.COM or call (651) 771-4464 for a tour.

Theology Day. Find out.

The Book of Revelation: Fact or Fiction?

Thursday, December 6, Basilica of Saint Mary, Minneapolis 6 p.m.: check-in & light meal, 6:30-9 p.m.: presentation Bloodthirsty monsters, cosmic battles, and a smattering of fire and brimstone all coming our way. Welcome to the world of Revelation. Many Christians base their lives on it; most ignore it. How seriously should we take this work, and what are the consequences if we do not? Is there a correct way to read this strange story, and is there a means to understand its bizarre language? Fr. Michael will address these questions and the Book of Revelation in general.

Fr. Michael Patella, OSB is the chair of The Saint John’s Bible Committee on Illumination and Text. As a Benedictine monk of Saint John’s, he is a professor of the New Testament and teaches in both the undergraduate theology department and the graduate School of Theology·Seminary. He has published works in the area of Luke, Mark, Paul, angels and demons. Fr. Michael Patella is also a member of the Catholic Biblical Association.

FREE but registration is required: www.csbsju.edu/sot or 320-363-3570

NOVEMBER 21, 2012 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

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Saint Therese Saint Therese is a nonprofit Catholic organization that has focused on the well-being of individuals since it opened in 1968. We provide secure, stress-free living and the very best in senior care and housing with a commitment to each individual. Saint Therese offers a full continuum of programs and services that are available in your own home or in one of our community settings. Saint Therese serves the Twin Cities metro area with campuses located in New Hope, Brooklyn Park and Shoreview.

To learn more visit STTHERESEMN.ORG or call (763) 531-5000.

St. Benedict’s Senior Community — Monticello St. Benedict’s Senior Community’s mission is “Our actions are guided by the belief that ‘All Shall Be Treated as Christ.’”

With foundational values and beliefs rooted in the tradition of the Catholic faith, St. Benedict’s Senior Community welcomes people of all faiths.

Our campus features: ■ Retirement, assisted living and memory care apartments.

■ Amenities such as a chapel, theater, general store, fitness center, club room and enclosed outdoor courtyard.

Call (763) 295-4051 for a tour.

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Senior Services

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • NOVEMBER 21, 2012

ALONE: For All Those Who Grieve BY

W. F. (BILL) CENTO

“a heart-wrenching and spirit-lifting account of his days as spouse and caregiver.” —The Catholic Spirit Alone is a helpful companion to anyone grieving a loss.

This beautiful little book is used successfully in grief groups, grief workshops, caregiving support groups, and any church group serving congregants coping with the loss or imminent loss of a spouse.

One man’s loss is explored through narrative and poetry

Order the book online at www.itascabooks.com or call 800-901-3480, ext. 118 paperback $14.95 | hardcover $21.95 | 104 pages | Tasora Books 2011

“Where neighbors are friends, and people really care.”

CNS photo / Paul Haring

Pope Benedict XVI talks with Enrichetta Vitali, 91, during a visit Nov. 12 to a home for the elderly run by the Sant'Egidio Community in Rome.

Epiphany Pines Independent Senior Housing 1800 111th Ave NW. Coon Rapids

Epiphany Assisted Living & Memory Care 10955 Hanson Blvd., NW Coon Rapids

Indoor walkway to the Church of the Epiphany

Call for a tour! 763.772.1066 EpiphanySeniorHousing.org

Visiting elderly, pope says ‘it’s wonderful being old’

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service

Presenting himself as “an elderly man visiting his peers,” Pope Benedict XVI visited a Rome residence for the elderly, urging the residents to see their age as a sign of God’s blessing and urging society to value their presence and wisdom.

“Though I know the difficulties that come with being our age, I want to say, it’s wonderful being old,” the 85-year-old pope said Nov. 12 during a morning visit to the residence run by the lay Community of Sant’Egidio.

The residence includes apartments for independent living as well as rooms for those requiring more skilled care. Younger members of the Sant’Egidio Community volunteer their time assisting and visiting with the residents, who include an elderly couple from Haiti whose home was destroyed in the 2010 earthquake.

Long life a blessing Walking with his white-handled black cane, the pope visited several of the residents in their rooms and apartments before addressing them and members of

Sant’Egidio in the garden.

One of the residents, 91-year-old Enrichetta Vitali, told the pope, “I don’t eat so much anymore, but prayer is my nourishment.” She asked the pope to “pray that I don’t lose my memory so I can keep remembering people in my prayers.”

The pope told those gathered at the residence on the Janiculum Hill that in the Bible a long life is considered a blessing from God, but often today’s society, which is “dominated by the logic of efficiency and profit, doesn’t welcome it as such.”

“I think we need a greater commitment, beginning with families and public institutions, to ensure the elderly can stay in their homes” and that they can pass on their wisdom to younger generations.

“The quality of a society or civilization can be judged by how it treats the elderly,” he said.

Pope Benedict also insisted on recognition of the dignity and value of all human life, even when “it becomes fragile in the years of old age.”

PLEASE TURN TO NEEDING ON PAGE 8B

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Senior Services

NOVEMBER 21, 2012 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Eliminate back pain for optimal health StatePoint Media Back pain is more than just an inconvenience. It’s also an obstacle to good health, making it difficult, if not impossible, to exercise.

One-half of working Americans admit to having back pain symptoms each year.

If you suffer from back pain, or simply want to optimize your health and wellness, consider seeing a chiropractic physi-

cian who can eliminate your pain at the source, as well as offer nutritional and ergonomic tips to keep you feeling better.

“Back pain, if not treated properly and at its source, may go away temporarily, but will often return,” warns Dr. Keith Overland, president of the American Chiropractic Association.

To find a doctor near you, visit WWW.CHI-

ROHEALTHY.COM.

Needing help from others is ‘a gift of God’ CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7B “One who makes room for the elderly, makes room for life,” the pope said. “One who welcomes the elderly, welcomes life.”

The pope told the residents that he knows the aged face difficulties, especially in countries where the global economic crisis has hit hard. And, he said, the elderly can be tempted to long for the past when they had more energy and were full of plans for the future.

However, the pope said, “life is wonderful even at our age, despite the aches and pains and some limitations,” he said.

“At our age, we often have the experience of needing others’ help, and this happens to the pope as well,” he told the residents.

Pope Benedict said they need to see the help they require as a gift of God, “because it is a grace to be supported and accompanied and to feel the affection of others.”

“Life is wonderful

even at our age, despite the aches and pains and some limitations. At our age, we often have the experience of needing others’ help, and this happens to the pope as well.

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NOTICE

FOOT CARE In the privacy of your home Services include • Foot Bath • Trim toenails, • Remove corns, callouses • Foot massage

Call Shelly at

651-501-0624 FOOTWORKS Licensed and Insured

Look for The Catholic Spirit advertising insert from

Sharing and Caring Hands in all copies of this issue.

John E. Trojack Law Office, P.A. TRUSTS • WILLS • PROBATE PROCEEDINGS Respect For The Human Person

Estate Planning From A Catholic Perspective

YOU CAN PROTECT your child’s inheritance from: • Illness & Substance Abuse Situations • Child’s Divorcing Spouse • Estate & Gift Taxes • Reckless Spending John E. Trojack, Attorney at Law

C ALL FOR A COMPLIMENTARY ESTATE PLANNING OFFICE CONSULTATION ASK ABOUT OUR COMPREHENSIVE C ATHOLIC HEALTH C ARE DIRECTIVE

Joseph E. Trojack, Attorney at Law Associate

(651) 451-9696 • E-mail: John.Trojack@TrojackLaw.com • www.TrojackLaw.com 1549 Livingston Ave., Suite 101, West St. Paul, MN 55118-3420

”

POPE BENEDICT XVI

1101 Black Oak Drive, New Brighton, MN 55112

(651) 633-1686 • www.bhcinnsbruck.org

CHECK OUT WHAT’S HAPPENING IN THE ARCHDIOCESE OF SAINT PAUL AND MINNEAPOLIS AT

www.archspm.org

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THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • NOVEMBER 21, 2012

Senior Services