Newspaper of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis
Do-ityourself Advent
13A
The Catholic Spirit News with a Catholic heart
November 23, 2011
Guide to Senior Services
B-Section TheCatholicSpirit.com
THE POVERTY PROBLEM
Catholic Charities bringing more men out of cold Dorothy Day Center overflow shelter in St. Paul accommodates greater need this winter By Kathryn Elliott The Catholic Spirit
From dusk to dawn in the winter months, homeless men can sleep on gray pallets inside the former offices of Catholic Charities on the corner of Old Sixth Street in St. Paul. Last year, the City of St. Paul authorized the overflow emergency shelter — known as the “annex” — for Catholic Charities’ Dorothy Day Center to open during the last two weeks of the month, from January to April. Twenty-five people could stay each night by the terms of a conditional use permit from the city. This year, the city recognized an even higher need for space and upped the allowable building occupants to 50, expanding the permit to let the homeless come every day of the month if necessary — almost 100 additional nights throughout the winter. The catch is that more men will be needed to staff the annex at night, said Gerry Lauer, a senior program manager for the Dorothy Day Center.
Winter’s challenge Catholic Charities staff members were surprised to see hundreds camping outside the center this summer and anticipate those numbers will be driven higher as PLEASE TURN TO SHELTER ON PAGE 4A
Let’s work to assist those in great need The Dorothy Day Center in St. Paul is sponsored by our local Catholic Charities and has always prided itself in offering shelter to anyone needing a place to sleep for the night. Unfortunately, that capacity ended this past August, when the number of homeless people seeking assistance outgrew the space Archbishop available. For John C. the first time Nienstedt ever, people were turned away at the doors. This is another clear sign of the impact that this slumping economy is having on the lives of hundreds of people. The U.S. Census Bureau Archbishop reports that the to chair number of Americans liv- U.S. bishops’ ing in poverty committee rose by more — Page 7A than 2.6 million in 2010 to an all-time high of 46.2 million people. We are told that 1 in 15 Americans now live below the poverty line.
That They May All Be One
Silas Martin places personal items on a shelf next to his bed at the Dorothy Day Center emergency overflow shelter in St. Paul Nov. 15. Jim Bovin / For The Catholic Spirit
A RECORD 46.2 MILLION PEOPLE . . .
. . . just more than 15 percent, were living in poverty last year.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey
PLEASE TURN TO THANKSGIVING ON PAGE 2A
Priests prepare for new Mass prayers By Julie Carroll The Catholic Spirit
Priests around the archdiocese have been poring over liturgical scripts and rehearsing speaking parts in anticipation of the Nov. 27 debut of the new Roman Missal, which will usher in the most significant changes to the Mass in more than 40 years. While people in the pews will need to relearn some familiar prayers, it’s priests who will be most affected by the new Mass translation, which more closely matches the language of the Latin missal. “Pretty much every single prayer [the priest says] is being modified in some way, whether it’s being lengthened a little bit or some adjectives are being added,” Father John Paul Erickson, director of the archdiocesan Office of Worship, told The Catholic Spirit.
Along with the wording changes come changes to the priest’s chants, he said. “We priests get used to singing the prayers in a particular way, and with different wordings, that will necessitate different tones to use. So that will also take some getting used to.” Then there are the changes to special Masses, such as weddings and during Holy Week, he added.
Preparations To help priests prepare for the changes, and to help them prepare their parishioners, the archdiocese has conducted conferences and workshops, mailed instructional DVDs to parishes, published a series of articles in The Catholic Spirit, suggested resources for parish bulletins, and posted PLEASE TURN TO REVISED ON PAGE 11A
Learn more about the missal Did you catch the special issue on the new Roman Missal The Catholic Spirit mailed to Catholic households last week? All of the articles in that issue are also on our website at WWW.THECATHOLICSPIRIT.COM/ NEWROMANMISSAL.