Newspaper of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis
World Mission Sunday
The Catholic Spirit
Local missionaries spread ‘Good News,’ build solidarity B-Section
News with a Catholic heart
October 13, 2011
TheCatholicSpirit.com
1 year later
HONORING MARY
Strategic Plan puts more focus on collaboration and ‘best practices’ throughout archdiocese The Catholic Spirit
Dave Hrbacek \ The Catholic Spirit
From left, fifth-grader Yesima Seghen and sixth-grader Diego Vargas of St. Francis-St. James United School in St. Paul follow along during the ninth annual Children’s Rosary Pilgrimage at the Cathedral of St. Paul Oct. 7. The event, sponsored by the archdiocesan Office of Marriage, Family and Life, drew a total of 2,240 students from 20 Catholic elementary schools in the archdiocese. Leading the rosary and benediction was auxiliary Bishop Lee Piché.
One of the biggest benefits of the archdiocesan Strategic Plan announced in October 2010 has been something intangible but essential to strengthening local parishes and schools for the future, according to Father Peter Laird. archdiocesan vicar general. It’s a growing Strategic Planning appreciation that Father Laird said he has noticed among priests and laity that the church is bigger than their own parish or school, UPDATE and that Catholics are called to work together to benefit the local church as it is embodied by the 12county archdiocese. “One of the great gifts we have is parishes and identities of parishioners wrapped around parishes, and that’s a great strength,” said Father Laird. “It can also be a great weakness if we fail to appreciate this great sense of ‘communio’ [communion] we share with the archbishop and the universal church. “I think October 2010 marked a new transition in our culture in the archdiocese,” he added. It’s a transition from a “bricks-and-mortar” first approach to one that emphasizes PLEASE TURN TO PLANNING ON PAGE 11A
Today’s multibillion-dollar video game industry poses challenges, opportunities for Catholic families — pages 12A-13A
If the world were a village Almost half of the world’s 7 billion people lives on less than $2 a day. For many people, migration is the only way to escape extreme poverty, Holy Cross Father Daniel Groody told a crowd gathered at St. Catherine University in St. Paul Oct. 1 for a conference titled “Justice for Immigrants: The Theology of Migration and Framing the Message.” (See story on page 7A.) To put the problem into perspective, if the world’s population were proportionally represented by a village of 100 people:
50 people would not have a reliable source of food and would be hungry most of the time.
iStock photo
30 would suffer from malnutrition. 40 would not have access to adequate sanitation.
31 would live in substandard housing. 31 would not have access to electricity. 18 would be unable to read. 16 would have access to the Internet. 15 would not have access to clean drinking water. 12 would own an automobile. 2 would have a college education. 2 would own a computer.