The Catholic Spirit - April 25, 2013 by The Catholic Spirit Publishing Co.

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B-section April 25, 2013

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Bravery confirmed

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Matthew Brown greets Bishop Lee Piché after being confirmed during a special Mass April 22 at St. Mary in Stillwater. His scheduled confirmation was moved up to accommodate the failing health of his sponsor, Zach Sobiech, center, who was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer, in November 2009. The disease has advanced and spread to the point that he is not expected to overcome the tumors that now fill his body. Watch THECATHOLICSPIRIT.COM for an upcoming story about the journey of faith and courage for Zach and his family. You can also read the story in the May 9 issue of The Catholic Spirit.

Young Catholics invited to day of faith, fun Archdiocesan Youth Day to feature prayer, music and speakers The Catholic Spirit Following last fall’s Archdiocesan Youth Day, one of the nearly 1,700 teens in attendance shared her feelings about the gathering via Twitter: “That was one of the most amazing experiences of my life.” Young Catholics, many of whom shared their enthusiasm about last year’s event via social media, will have another opportunity this fall to celebrate their faith and have fun in the process. Archdiocesan Youth Day 2013 is set for Sept. 21 at Holy Family Catholic High School

in Victoria. Like last year, the event, organized for high school students, will feature a full day with Archbishop John Nienstedt — including a

question-and-answer session — Mass, music with local Christian band Sonar, food, and opportunities for eucharistic adoration and the sacrament of reconciliation. Sean Forrest, an internationally known Catholic speaker, musician, author and retreat leader, will be the keynoter. The theme of the day is “Believe and Speak,” based on 2 Corinthians 4:13: “Since, then, we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, ‘I believed, therefore I spoke,’ we too believe and therefore speak.” PLEASE TURN TO EVENT ON PAGE 19A

APRIL 25, 2013 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Celebrate your love for Mary during month of May

That They May All Be One Archbishop John C. Nienstedt

Mary always brings hope, warmth and joy

I have always looked forward to the month of May, which is marked with significant celebrations: First Holy Communions, confirmations, Mother’s Day, graduations and ordinations. And after an excruciatingly long and hard winter, I look forward this year to see the natural budding of trees and the appearance of spring flowers. Moreover, the month of May has, since my youth, been associated in my mind with devotion to Mary, Mother of Jesus and Mother of the Church. And Mary always brings hope, warmth and joy. The learned theologian, Father Karl Rahner, was once asked why there was a decline today in devotion to the Blessed Mother. He replied that all Christians, Catholics and Protestants alike, face the common temptation of turning the central truths of the faith into abstractions, “and abstractions have no need of mothers” (see Cardinal Suenens, “Mary in the World of Today,” L’Osservatore Romano, June 15, 1972). I am afraid this is exactly so.

Loving Christ The Easter event that we have recently celebrated proclaims that “Jesus lives!” Raised from the dead by the Father, Jesus lives for you and me. We cannot afford to relegate Jesus to a position of past history or to be solely the object of theological inquiry. Jesus lives, and his life is of-

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.

fered in a personal and direct way to us through his Body, the Church. Christ, therefore, is no abstraction! Our response to the life he offers is to embrace him, to know him and to love him. In loving him, we love what he loves, first among which would be his mother and the poor. And by loving them, we learn to love Jesus more. Before entering the seminary in college, I was afforded the opportunity to date young ladies throughout my high school years. I always made a special point of getting to know the mothers of the girls I dated. On a few occasions, one of those young ladies accused me of liking her mother more than I liked her! Be that as it may, the mother trusted me and that made for a better relationship with her daughter. I think something of this same philosophy has accompanied me in my relationship with Mary — while, of course, Jesus would never be jealous of my love for his mother, as my lady friends perhaps were. But the basic point remains — because I know Christ’s mother with some familiarity, I can know her son even better. Some accuse Catholics of “worshipping” Mary or otherwise equating her with the Triune Godhead. While at times some Catholics may in fact emphasize devotion to Mary in such a way that an exaggerated viewpoint is given, nevertheless,

Voice your support for traditional definition of marriage The bill to redefine marriage sits on the floor of both chambers of the Legislature. It could be voted on at any time. Its sponsors want this action to be bi-partisan, which is why pressure is being placed on the Republicans. Please contact your legislators and ask them to support the traditional definition of marriage. You may go online to the Minnesota Catholic Conference website (WWW.MNCC.ORG) and click on the MN Catholic Advocacy Network icon. There you will find easy directions for emailing your own specific legislators. Marriage needs to be supported, not used as a human experiment. Children need to be raised in a home with a mother and a father. Again, please contact your legislator today! — Archbishop John Nienstedt most Catholics are able to draw distinction between asking Mary’s intercession with her Son and our worship of him. They understood that devotion to her necessarily leads to worship of him. Therefore, to know her is to know him. To love him is to

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love her. This knowledge, this love is not abstract, but deeply personal. Furthermore, our love for Mary should motivate us to a greater sense of prayer. St. Augustine reminds us that Mary conceived Christ in her heart before she conceived him in her womb (“De Sancta Virginitate,” 3 PL 40, 398). She was totally devoted to the Word. In this sense, following Mary’s example, the Scriptures ought to have a unique and integral part in our daily prayer lives. The Bible should do more than tell us about God; it has the power to transform us into the image of Jesus and, indeed, to “give birth” to him in this world through lives of mercy and goodness. I am a big promoter of “lectio divina,” which is a meditative reading of Scripture. By this method (which I will describe in a subsequent column), we actively insert ourselves in the sacred text, recognizing that the Word is alive through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. We take a “word” (or phrase) with us for the day and repeat that word as often as we can, thereby allowing the Word to sanctify all we do. Following Mary’s example, then, the Bible becomes my daily friend and my heart’s focus. Every Catholic should have one to use for such daily “reading.” In addition, our devotion to Mary

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“Let there be work, bread, water and salt for all.” Nelson Mandela

Local News from around the archdiocese

APRIL 25, 2013

‘Living Water’ for Kenya By Dianne Towalski

Learning experience

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Dianne Towalski / The Catholic Spirit

Fourth-grader Andrew VonEschen takes a first look at the Living Water calendar April 2. Each student was given a calendar and a water bottle in which to collect coins. Below, teacher Amy Hohenecker put together a bulletin board in her classroom to introduce her students to the program.

promotions manager for the Center for Mission. As part of the program, participants receive an empty Living Water bottle in which to collect coins and a calendar with a different lesson, prayer or story for each day. The money collected will be used to fund water projects in the most needy areas, Simon said. The water will also be used for baptisms. “With limited access to water there, sometimes it has inhibited them from even being able to do baptisms,” said Mike Haasl, global solidarity coordinator for the Center for Mission. Each participating parish and school in the archdiocese has been matched with a

Hearing Tests Set for Senior Citizens Announcement — Free electronic hearing tests will be given all next week Monday thru Friday from 9 am to 4 pm. The tests have been arranged for anyone who suspects they are not hearing clearly. People who generally feel they can hear, but cannot understand words clearly are encouraged to come in for the test, which uses the latest electronic equipment. Everyone, especially those over age 55 should have an electronic hearing test once

faith there, they’re praying for them and being connected on a spiritual level,” Haasl said. “We have this connection and this faith unity with the people in Kitui, Kenya and I think we’re helping people here to really feel and embrace that connection.” And that goes a longer way than trying to simply ship water, which would be costly and not solve the long-term problem of water shortages, Simon said. Eight parishes and four schools are participating in the pilot program this year. “The plan is to launch it archdiocesanwide next year and really engage all parishes and schools, anyone that wants to participate,” Haasl said.

Local schools, parishes share resources and a spiritual connection with Kitui diocese “Why can’t we just send them some of our water?” Amy Hohenecker was standing in front of her fourth-grade class at St. John School in Hopkins when the question came from the back of the room. The class was discussing the differences between the United States and Kenya as they relate to water — its abundance in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and its scarcity in many parts of Africa. Hohenecker and her students were preparing to participate in the Living Water program, a new initiative organized by the archdiocesan Center for Mission to build greater awareness about water issues facing the Diocese of Kitui, Kenya, while strengthening the faith partnership between the two dioceses. The archdiocese has been in a global solidarity partnership with Kitui since 2004, and the focus of the partnership is the mutual sharing of faith, relationships and resources. “The Living Water program is a two- to four-week Easter season experience where children and adults increase a sense of solidarity with others lacking water for physical and spiritual health and participate in increasing the water supply and water access in Kitui,” said Eric Simon, mission

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parish in the Kitui diocese to make the experience more personal for both adults and students. “With the Living Water program, participants are learning about their brothers and sisters in Kenya through the calendar, they’re learning about how water affects

Last fall, a delegation from Kitui visited the archdiocese, and St. Nicholas parish in Carver hosted one of the diocese’s priests, Father Charles Matia. “We learned so much about the people of Kitui and their need for water in a very personal way. Father Charles had so many great stories to share with us,” said Jodee Korkowski, parish business administrator. “It was interesting to see his reaction to the land of 10,000 lakes, coming from such a dry part of the world.” The parish had such a good response to the program that it ran out of water bottles and encouraged parishioners who wanted to help to use other containers. “Many who visited with [Father Charles] wanted to do something to help our brothers and sisters in Kitui,” Korkowski said. “We have been anxiously awaiting the start of the Living Water program.” In the classroom, Hohenecker has put up a display with information about the project and the calendar. “We use the prayers and information on the Living Water calendar each day to discuss the project on a daily basis,” said Hohenecker, noting that the school has raised $334.92. “The kids are very much into this project.”

Theology Day. Find out. Considering Vatican II Fifty Years Later

Thursday, May 9, Basilica of Saint Mary, Minneapolis 6 p.m.: check-in & light meal, 6:30-9 p.m.: presentation In October 2012, the church will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council. This celebration will be followed for three years by other anniversaries honoring the passage of key documents, landmark agreements and ultimately the conclusion of the council itself. This session will engage certain critical developments of Vatican II’s decrees, contemporary scholarship on the meaning of the conciliar documents, and people’s experiences of the changes that the council brought to the church. Kristin Colberg is Assistant Professor at Saint John’s School of Theology·Seminary and at the Department of Theology at the colleges. She received her doctorate in Systematic Theology from the University of Notre Dame in 2009. She has many publications, most recently, two on Vatican II in The Heythrop Journal and Horizons

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

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Catholics invited to offer input for capital campaign feasibility study Campaign would differ in scope from annual Catholic Services Appeal The Catholic Spirit The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is encouraging local Catholics to respond to an online survey as part of its ongoing feasibility study to determine support for a proposed archdiocesan capital campaign. The survey, available at STUDY.ARCHSPM. ORG, is in addition to a series of town hall meetings on the topic being held across the archdiocese (see box for a list of remaining meetings.) Four remaining meetings are scheduled between April 30 and May 9. The feasibility study is being directed by the Steier Group, a Catholic development consulting firm seeking feedback from representatives from every parish in the archdiocese. “All the voices are important, and we need to hear from as many voices as possible,” said Father Peter Laird, vicar general of the archdiocese, who encourages participation in the meetings and survey. “This is a true feasibility study in which we’re testing whether or not we can, or should, do a capital campaign.” The Steier Group is scheduled to collect data through the end of May and present its final report and recommendations to

Upcoming town hall meetings ■ April 30, 7-8:30 p.m., Our Lady of Guadalupe (town hall meeting in Spanish) 401 Concord St., St. Paul ■ May 1, 7-8:30 p.m., St. John Neumann, 4030 Pilot Knob Rd., Eagan ■ May 8, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m., St. Olaf, 215 S. 8th St., Minneapolis ■ May 9, 5:30-7 p.m., Hayden Center, 328 Kellogg Blvd. W., St. Paul Each town hall meeting will include a brief presentation, followed by questions and answers. Attendees will be asked to complete a survey at the end of the evening. Those who would like to attend should RSVP. Please call Colleen Thuente at (651) 291-4531, or RSVP via email to: THUENTEC@ARCH SPM.ORG.

the archdiocese in June. The capital campaign would ensure ongoing support for key ministry efforts in parishes, schools and throughout the archdiocese that flow from the archdiocesan strategic plan announced in 2010. The campaign proposes to raise $165 million to support six ministry areas: ■ Strengthening parishes ($60 million); ■ Preparing the next generation of

Seven men to be ordained transitional deacons May 4

Catholic leaders through support of Catholic schools, youth and young adult programs, college seminarian formation and lay and clergy formation ($50 million); ■ Supporting Catholic Charities ($20 million); ■ Preserving the Cathedral of St. Paul and Basilica of St. Mary ($20 million); ■ Caring for the elderly ($10 million); ■ Fostering Latino ministries and programs ($5 million).

Different from CSA Father Laird said reaction to the proposed capital campaign was generally supportive at the four town hall meetings held as of April 19. The question has arisen at each of the meetings, however, about how a campaign would differ from the Catholic Services Appeal, the annual collection that helps to fund the general operating and program expenses of archdiocesan programs, some of which focus on the same ministry areas as the proposed campaign. While the CSA collects funds to support ongoing ministries and then distributes those monies directly to ministries, Father Laird said, those funds have remained relatively flat over the last several years while the needs have increased. A capital campaign like the one the archdiocese is considering moves beyond PLEASE TURN TO CAMPAIGN ON PAGE 19A

The Catholic Spirit Seven men will be ordained as transitional deacons by Archbishop John Nienstedt during a Mass at 10 a.m. Saturday, May 4 at the Basilica of St. Mary, 88 17th St. N. in Minneapolis. The five to be ordained for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis are: ■ Michael Patrick Anthony Barsness — home parish: Annunciation in Hazelwood; teaching parish: Holy Family in St. Louis Park. ■ Kevin Lawrence Manthey — home parish: St. Michael in Farmington; teaching parish: St. John Neumann, Eagan. ■ Marcus Francis Milless — home parish: Epiphany in Coon Rapids; teaching parish: St. Francis Xavier in Buffalo. ■ Marc Vincent Paveglio — home parish: St. Stephen in Minneapolis; teaching parish: Our Lady of Peace in Minneapolis. ■ Paul Joseph Shovelain — home parish: St. Michael in St. Michael; teaching parish: St. Patrick’s of Cedar Creek in Oak Grove. Two men will be ordained for the Archdiocese of Kampala, Uganda: Joseph Mukasa Kavuma (teaching parish: Our Lady of Grace in Edina) and Joseph Kirembwe (teaching parish: Holy Spirit in St. Paul). Seminarians are ordained to the transitional diaconate before their last year of preparation for ordination to the priesthood.

Thank T hank You. FFor or 2 20 0 yyears, ears, the the Catholic Catholic Comm Community unit y FFoundation oundation hhas as ssupported uppor ted fifinancially nancially tthe he sspiritual, p eeducational ducational and social social needs needs of of our our Catholic Catholic community. communit y. W Wee ar aree sso og grateful rateful to tthe he donors, p parishes, arishes, schools, schools, and institutions institutions that that entrust entrust us us to steward steward their their charitable charitable assets. you assets. Thank T ffor or your your ccommitment ommitment to our our mission, mission, and ffor or hhelping elping uuss ssustain ustain a sstrong trong and vvibrant ibrant Church. Our work together our Catholic O ur w ork to gether ensures ensures tthe he vvitality italit y of of o ur Ca tholic ccommunity, ommunit y, nnow ow and fforever. orever.

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Priestly hoops

Above, Archbishop John Nienstedt joins cheering St. John Vianney College Seminary fans during the annual Priest and Seminarian Basketball Tournament April 12 at DeLaSalle High School in Minneapolis. SJV won the first game of the event, a 43-35 victory over a team from the St. Paul Seminary, and earned the right to face a team made up of priests from the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, which included SJV rector Father Michael Becker. SJV won that game as well, 39-33. At left, Jarad Wolf of St. John Vianney College Seminary in St. Paul drives to the basket past Bryan Kujawa of the St. Paul Seminary. Father Patrick Barnes is surrounded by SJV players as he tries to take a shot. Father Barnes and the team of priests lost to SJV 39-33.

Photos by Dave Hrbacek The Catholic Spirit

Welcoming attitude, treating others as Christ among keys to hospitality The Catholic Spirit When it comes to hospitality, sometimes it’s how a person handles the daily disruptions that sends the most important message. “When I started my first year as a priest, I had a mentor priest who was very helpful to me,” Father Michael Van Sloun, pastor of St. Stephen in Anoka, recalled during a panel discussion April 16 at Guardian Angels in Oakdale on hospitality in parish communities. One day, the mentor priest asked him: “How do you feel about interruptions?” Father Van Sloun said that he was raised to be an “ontask, highly productive” person. Such intrusions can divert one from the task at hand. But the mentor priest responded: “What about the interruption when somebody comes and they need something from you? Sometimes the most important ministerial encounter you’re going to have on any one day is going to be the interruption. That person’s need is going to be the key thing that happened that particular day.” Seventeen and a half years later, Father Van Sloun said he knows the priest was right. In order to create a culture of hospitality, “we have to welcome interruptions, and we have to be radically available to people when they need us,” he said. The eight-person panel discussion was part of an afternoon session at Archdiocesan Spring Formation Day 2013, sponsored by the Coalition of Ministry Associations and the archdiocesan Office of Parish Services. The gathering, attended by about 450 clergy and lay ministers, included two presentations by Father Jan Michael Joncas, artist-in-residence and research fellow in

“To me, it seems to be most

fitting to look at hospitality in its most Catholic Christian aspect — as treating everyone as Christ.

”

DEACON DAN GANNON President and CEO of Catholic Senior Services

Catholic Studies at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. He spoke about hospitality’s foundations in biblical tradition and in the Church’s history. Lou Carbone, founder of a Minneapolis-based management firm called Experience Engineering, spoke about understanding and managing experiences and how this might apply in the Church.

Understanding needs Hospitality ultimately must be grounded and strengthened by prayer and the person of Christ, said Father Van Sloun — a point echoed by Deacon Dan Gannon, another panelist who is president and CEO of Catholic Senior Services in the archdiocese. “To me, it seems to be most fitting to look at hospitality in its most Catholic Christian aspect — as treating everyone as Christ,” he said, whether people are coming to the doors of our churches or we are reaching out to them. “Being hospitable requires that we imitate the virtues

of Christ,” Deacon Gannon said. “It starts with being welcoming and saying hello, but then [it requires] engaging people at an authentic enough level where we understand their needs. . . . When we think of hospitality, it isn’t in the corporate, strategic sense of what we can do. But rather it flows from treating every human person with dignity and the dignity of Christ.” Panelist Barb Orzechowski, pastoral associate for shared ministry at St. John Neumann in Eagan, said she thinks about hospitality “as making room,” particularly when it comes to volunteer ministry. Making room for volunteer ministries requires being thoughtful about the requirements of a volunteer position and the gifts a potential volunteer may bring. It also requires inviting people, and then offering the necessary training and mentoring, she said. Father Van Sloun said having conversations about hospitality with parish staff and offering training to volunteers are essential to good ministry. He said among important things to always remember are: ■ “Complimenting people when you see them.” ■ “You can never thank people enough.” ■ “Have a smile on your face.” ■ “Have a pleasant tone of voice.” ■ Include “affirmations in your conversation.” “When you have staff doing that with your lay volunteers, when you have staff doing that with the parishioners, when you have your volunteers doing that with your parishioners, those are the fundamentals of having good, positive experiences in your faith community,” he said.

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Ladybugs ladybugs ladybugs Convent of the Visitation School third-grader Caroline Schlehuber, right, reacts to the many ladybugs crawling on her hand as classmate Logan Kinsella watches. Third-graders from the Mendota Heights school celebrated Earth Day April 22 by releasing 70,000 ladybugs throughout Mall of America’s Nickelodeon Universe amusement park. The ladybugs, which eat aphids and other pests, will act as “green” pesticides to protect the live plants throughout the park. The event is part of an ongoing collaboration between the Mall of America in Bloomington and Visitation’s third-graders. This year’s theme at the school is “What I Like About Minnesota,” and the third-grade students put the nation’s largest retail and entertainment complex at the top of their list. Photo by Jim Bovin for the Catholic Spirit

Stewardship: A call to the heart that involves entire parish By Susan Klemond For The Catholic Spirit

More than a call for Catholics’ time, talent and treasure, stewardship is spiritual and should not only bring us closer to God but also permeate all areas of a parish, according to Professor Charles Zech, who spoke at the April 20 Stewardship Day at St. Peter in Mendota. The gathering brought together representatives from parishes in dioceses around the region to discuss best stewardship practices. “If you do it right on the spiritual side, teaching people about the need to give to the parish as opposed to simply giving to a need, the money will follow. But it’s first and foremost a spiritual activity,” said Zech, who directs the Center for the Study of Church Management at Villanova University in Philadelphia, during a separate interview. Discussing not only the spiritual underpinnings of stewardship but ways to develop overall parish involvement and giving, and how parishes can help their congregations learn to communicate about their finances, values and charitable contributions, Zech and two other presenters gave practical ideas to the 300 attendees, including representatives of 72 parishes within the archdiocese. Stewardship is a great way to build community and bring a parish together, said Mary Kennedy, who chairs the Archdiocesan Stewardship Committee that hosted the event along with nine other dioceses in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota. “I hope [attendees] gain confidence to bring different stewardship concepts back to their parishes — best practices to live,

learn and lead stewardship,” said Kennedy, who is also stewardship director at Pax Christi in Eden Prairie.

Resources for ministry Stewardship has played an important role in the Church from the time of Christ’s earthly ministry when he made use of a borrowed colt for his procession into Jerusalem and a boy’s loaves and fishes to feed 5,000, according to Archbishop John Nienstedt, who presided at Mass during the event. “Just so today, Christ’s body, the Church, needs various resources to carry out her ministry: catechetical books for religious education, endowments to support our schools, food and clothing for the poor and immigrants, appropriate spaces in which to celebrate the liturgy, vessels of honor for the Eucharist,” he said. “These are not just incidentals for the work of ministry, but important tools by which it is achieved.” Stewardship is the “soul of our Church,” said Father Darrin J.G. Gurr of Winnipeg, Canada, who has written and taught about stewardship. He described the foundation of stewardship as gratitude, generosity and living in the present moment. “We gift not because there’s a need out there, but within us,” he said. Not only does stewardship involve the heart, it also needs to come from the heart of the parish, Zech said. “To take hold, it really has to affect the entire life of the parish. Every ministry in the parish should understand their role in promoting stewardship in the parish.” Among activities to advance parish stewardship, Zech cited the need for community building, a stewardship council, including stewardship as a part of the

parish plan, emphasis in all formation and education programs and minimizing the use of “volunteers” in favor of engaging parishioners in ministry.

Helping families The “treasure” part of the stewardship equation “gets most people tied up in knots pretty quickly,” said Nathan Dungan, founder and president of Minneapolis-based Share Save Spend, which helps youth and adults develop and maintain values-related money habits. “What role can congregations play to help both more proactively address the topic and also understand that it is a subject that is just an enormous source of stress for so many people,” he said during an interview. Parish leaders should not be asking parishioners for money as much as offering formation on how to give, he said, citing the need for families to have conversations about money that reflect their values. The conversation about stewardship and money should be multigenerational, Dungan said. Youth should be encouraged to get involved at least in offering their time if they’re not yet able to contribute financially. The focus can’t just be on money, however, said Tommy Rose, client manager at Catholic Stewardship Consultants, an Evans, Ga.-based firm that provides customized stewardship services to about 70 parishes nationwide. “It’s a challenge because parishes do have a financial need to talk about a fix but they don’t talk about what God is pressing on their heart to see,” he said. “Stewardship is helping to have a conversation of the heart to help see God’s love.”

Another challenge parishes face is communicating ideas about stewardship to parishioners of other cultures. “Because we are multicultural, a Spanish-speaking parish, how do we communicate that stewardship is a way of life,” said Miguel Salinas, administrator at Assumption in Richfield, where 50 percent of parishioners are Spanish speakers. Many first-generation immigrants have a different idea of how the Church connects with the community, and for them, stewardship might have more to do with time than money because the government financially supports the Church in their country, he said. Salinas said ideas he found at the event about gratitude, generating trust and encouraging formation will help with the parish’s upcoming fall stewardship campaign. Kathleen Langer of St. Odilia said she came away from the event with enthusiasm and the idea that generosity is not an option because God made us to be generous. Langer, who serves on the parish’s stewardship council, said one challenge is to show that stewardship involves all aspects of life. We’re “trying to put into words that no, it’s not just all about money,” she said. “It’s about a way of life. It’s about a way of giving back in all areas of our life in the ways that God has gifted us.” The archdiocesan Office of Development and Stewardship’s stewardship toolkit is available to help parishes teach principles of Christian stewardship and how to grow stewardship as a way of life. The free toolkit can be downloaded at: WWW.ARCHSPM.ORG/DEPARTMENTS/DE V E L O P M E N T - S T E WA R D S H I P / S T E WA R D S H I P TOOLKIT.PHP.

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Development director to take position at University of Minnesota

Family Rosary Procession is chance to ‘walk with the Blessed Mother’

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donors and a great staff,” he added.

The Catholic Spirit

Michael Halloran, director of development and stewardship for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, has accepted a position as assistant athletics director for development at the University of Minnesota, effective April 30. Halloran, a member of Our Lady of Grace in Edina, joined the archdiocese in 2010 after serving as the executive director of the Catholic Foundation for the Diocese of Sacramento, Calif. HALLORAN Prior to that, he worked for seven years at the University of Minnesota in a similar development role.

Halloran said an accomplishment of which he’s proud is shifting the focus and vision of the development office from one focused on internal operations to one more focused on external relations and services. This includes developing a stewardship tool kit for use by parishes, supporting parishes and schools with their ongoing development efforts, and better communicating the value of supporting and investing in the ministries of the local Church, he said.

The 66th annual Archdiocesan Family Rosary Procession from the State Capitol to the Cathedral of St. Paul is set for Sunday, May 5. Participants will gather at the Capitol at 1:30 p.m. The procession begins at 2 p.m. It is “an opportunity to invoke the Blessed Mother’s intercession and protection over our country and our Church,” said Father John Paul Erickson, director of the archdiocesan Office of Worship, which is sponsoring the event in collaboration with the Family Rosary Processions Association. “These are interesting times we live in and it’s always a good idea to walk with the Blessed Mother,” he said. “But in a particular way during these days of confusion and concern on the part of so many, and with the renewal that is in the air with the Rediscover: initiative, it’s a great opportunity to recommit ourselves to Jesus in and through Mary.” One of the goals of the new evangelization is to “live out our faith with love, but also to live it boldly,” Father Erickson said. “A public procession like this is a chance to be out there, not in a triumphalistic way, but to be out there saying we believe we have found the deepest answers to the hunger of the human heart — and we invite you to join us.” At the Cathedral, participants will pray with Archbishop John Nienstedt. Prayers

Grateful for opportunity “This is a unique opportunity to return to the University of Minnesota during a very exciting time,” Halloran said. “I am grateful to Archbishop [John] Nienstedt for providing me the opportunity to serve the local Church in this way for the last three years. I look forward to continuing to serve the Church I love so much as a parish volunteer and Catholic school parent.” “It’s been a joy to get to know and build relationships with pastors, parish leaders,

Search process has begun Archbishop Nienstedt said, “Mike has been an outstanding member of our leadership team here at the archdiocese and he will certainly be missed. He will do a great job for the University of Minnesota.” The archdiocese announced it has begun a search process and expects to hire a replacement for Halloran by the end of May or early June. In the interim, the associate director of development and stewardship, Chuck Waletzko, will lead general operations for stewardship and the annual Catholic Services Appeal. In addition, the archdiocese said an interim resourcing plan has been put in place to provide support for the feasibility study phase currently under way for a potential capital campaign.

God Calls

We respond Flexible summer schedules in our Graduate Degree Programs in Theology. Course options include:

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Jim Bovin / For The Catholic Spirit

Participants in the annual May Day Family Rosary Procession in 2011 make their way in the rain toward the Cathedral of St. Paul from the Minnesota State Capitol building in St. Paul.

will be offered for marriage and the family, and the gathering will close with adoration and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. For more information, visit

ROSARYPROCESSION.ORG.

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“We must build a civilization of love, or there will be no civilization at all,” Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley, during a Mass April 21 in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings

Nation/World News from around the U.S. and the globe

APRIL 25, 2013

Build ‘civilization of love’ in response to bombings, Boston cardinal urges

Bishops say immigration bill on right track, some changes sought

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Catholic News Service Even though “the culture of death looms large” today, the light of Christ the Good Shepherd “can expel the darkness and illuminate for us a path that leads to life, to a civilization of solidarity and love,” said Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley. “I hope that the events of this past week have taught us how high the stakes are,” the cardinal told the congregation at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross April 21, referring to the Boston Marathon bombings April 15 and the subsequent manhunt for the perpetrators. “We must build a civilization of love, or there will be no civilization at all,” Cardinal O’Malley said in his homily at the Mass of the Good Shepherd, which he offered for the repose of the souls of those killed in the bombings and the aftermath. Prayers were also offered for those physically injured and “for the brave men and women who saved countless lives as first responders.” The attack left three people dead and more than 170 people seriously injured. The FBI had identified the perpetrators as two brothers who came to the United States years ago from the Russian region of Chechnya — Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, and Dzhokar Tsarnaev, 19. Tamerlan was shot dead by police, and by the evening of April 19 they apprehended Dzhokar, whom they found hiding in a boat in a backyard.

Needing assurance In his homily, Cardinal O’Malley talked of how Jesus, before he was crucified, said: “They will strike the shepherd and the sheep will scatter.” “On Easter, the Good Shepherd returns to gather the scattered; Mary Magdalene in grief, Thomas in doubt, Peter in betrayal,” he continued. “We too are scattered and need the assurance of the Good Shepherd, who lays down his life for us, who comes to gather us in our scattered brokenness and pain, scattered by failed mar-

Catholic News Service

CNS photo / Brian Snyder, Reuters

The casket of Krystle Campbell arrives at St. Joseph Church April 22 for her funeral Mass in Medford, Mass. Campbell was one of three people killed when two bombs exploded in the crowded streets near the finish line of the Boston Marathon April 15, injuring more than 170 others.

riages, lost employment, estranged children, illness, the death of a loved one, soured relationships, disappointments and frustrations.” When the bombings occurred and in the days that followed “we are all scattered by the pain and horror of the senseless violence perpetrated on Patriot’s Day,” Cardinal O’Malley said. “It is very difficult to understand what was going on in the young men’s minds, what demons were operative, what ideologies or politics or the perversion of their religion. It was amazing to witness, however, how much goodness and generosity were evident in our community as a result of the tragic events they perpetrated,” he added. “Our challenge is to keep this spirit of community alive going forward. As people of faith, we must commit ourselves to the

task of community building.” He urged his listeners to heed what Jesus teaches in the Gospel — “that we must care for each other, especially the most vulnerable; the hungry, the sick, the homeless, the foreigner; all have a special claim on our love.” “We must be a people of reconciliation, not revenge. The crimes of the two young men must not be the justification for prejudice against Muslims and against immigrants,” he emphasized. “The Gospel is the antidote to the ‘eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth’ mentality.” After Mass, when asked about the fate of suspect Dzhokar Tsarnaev if found guilty of the bombings, Cardinal O’Malley told reporters the Catholic Church opposes the death penalty, “which I think is one further manifestation of the culture of death in our midst.”

Grand jury report documents abortion clinic horrors By Joseph Austin Catholic News Service

When a team of health officials and investigators looking into illegal drug use raided Dr. Kermit Barron Gosnell’s Women’s Medical Society Feb. 18, 2010, they happened upon what many are calling a “house of horrors.” “There was blood on the floor. A stench of urine filled the air. A flea-infested cat was wandering through the facility, and there were cat feces on the stairs,” said a grand jury report about the conditions found in the clinic Gosnell ran in West Philadelphia.

The two surgical rooms resembled a “bad gas station restroom,” according to Agent Stephen Dougherty of the federal Drug Enforcement Agency. The team went on to recover the remains of 45 fetuses “in bags, milk jugs, orange juice cartons, and even in cat-food containers,” the report explained. Three days later, the Pennsylvania Department of Health suspended Gosnell’s license. He was arrested in January 2011 and charged with seven counts of infanticide and one count of murder in the case of a Nepalese woman who died during an abortion.

Gosnell’s trial on those charges began March 18 of this year. By the fifth week, beginning April 15, prosecutors were continuing to call witnesses, including several patients and several former employees, who testified about the squalid conditions they saw at the clinic. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Gosnell.

Pro-life reaction Several pro-life leaders in interviews with Catholic News Service or in statements emailed to CNS discussed the Gosnell case and the attention it brings to what they PLEASE TURN TO PRO-LIFE ON PAGE 13A

Without getting into specifics, a panel of bishops said April 22 that a comprehensive immigration bill introduced the week before is on the right track, though they alluded to some aspects they would like changed. In a teleconference about the Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013, or S. 744, Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York also said the fact that the men believed by police to be the Boston Marathon bombers were immigrants is “a terribly unjust and completely irrational argument” for suggesting immigration reform shouldn’t happen. Cardinal Dolan, the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the argument is flawed for several reasons. First, he said, it’s “illogical, unfair and unjust” to label an entire class of hardworking people because of the actions of a few. Second, he said, “good, solid, fair immigration reform” would make enforcement of immigration laws easier, because there would be better records of who the immigrants already here are. Among concerns with the bill raised by Cardinal Dolan and two other bishops were: ■ That the requirements for undocumented immigrants to participate in a path to citizenship will leave many behind, said Los Angeles Archbishop Jose H. Gomez, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Migration. He said the period of time the bill sets out for immigrants who are in the country illegally to get green cards and naturalize — 13 years — is too lengthy and the cutoff date for arrival — Dec. 31, 2011 — “leaves too many behind.” ■ The bill would end a system by which U.S. citizens may petition to bring in certain family members, including siblings. ■ It includes requirements for certain border security goals to be met before provisions allowing people to legalize their status can kick in. Salt Lake City Bishop John Wester, chairman of the Committee on Communications, said 10 years of rampedup attention to border security hasn’t stemmed the tide of immigrants. Enforcement-only approaches “don’t work if they’re not balanced by humane policies,” said Bishop Wester. ■ The root causes of migration should be included in the bill.

“It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.” Acts 14:22

The Lesson Plan APRIL 25, 2013

Reflections on faith and spirituality

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Daily Scriptures Sunday, April 28 Fifth Sunday of Easter Acts 14:21b-27 Revelation 21:1-5a John 13:31-33a, 34-35 Monday, April 29 St. Catherine of Siena, virgin and doctor of the Church Acts 14:5-18 John 14:21-26 Tuesday, April 30 St. Pius V, pope Acts 14:19-28 John 14:27-31a Wednesday, May 1 St. Joseph the Worker Acts 15:1-6 John 15:1-8 Thursday, May 2 St. Athanasius, bishop and doctor of the Church Acts 15:7-21 John 15:9-11 CNS photo / L’Osservatore Romano

Pope Francis kisses a disabled man after spotting him in the crowd and having his popemobile stop as he rode through St. Peter’s Square March 19 ahead of his inaugural Mass at the Vatican. “A focus of his pontificate, if we can make any assumption at this early stage, seems to be on manifest and deliberate acts of love for others,” writes Deacon Adam Hamness.

Leaving our Christian calling card

n the Gospel of John, our Lord says, “I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35). In other words, this love for each other, by the command of the Lord, is supposed to be our Christian calling card. Just as policemen are recognized by their typically dark blue uniforms and bellhops are recognized by their hats, so too should Christians be immediDeacon ately recognizable — by Adam the love we have for Hamness one another. This is the Lord’s command. He does not command that we wear crosses around our necks for identification as members of his flock, although wearing a cross is not an objectionable thing. Rather, he commands visible love for each other. I think Pope Francis must have been inspired by this verse at some point in his life because a focus of his pontificate, if we can make any assumption at this early stage, seems to be on manifest and deliberate acts of love for others. You’ve heard the stories about him in the press, the way he called up his old newspaper stand in Buenos Aires to personally cancel his subscription, or how he has been de-

Sunday Scriptures

Readings Sunday, April 28 Fifth Sunday of Easter ■ Acts 14:21b-27 ■ Revelation 21:1-5a ■ John 13:31-33a, 34-35

Reflection How would others recognize you as a Christian?

liberate about getting out into the crowds in St. Peter’s Square to greet pilgrims.

Meeting the needs of others St. Thomas Aquinas gave a precise definition of love: to will the good of another. This means to mentally desire what is best for another person and to physically act upon this desire. If the badge of our Christianity, our love for others, ends only with a mental wish for the other’s well-being, then we are falling short of our Lord’s command. This is what I think Pope Francis’ actions demonstrate for us. We must act upon our love for others; otherwise it is not a real love. When we see others, we must immediately approach them with love, giving them what they need — whether it is money, or food or just our full and undivided attention. Love, the badge of our Christianity, is not something we can remove, as a policeman can remove his badge from his breast pocket. Instead, it is something that is constantly exuded from a real disciple of Christ.

We cannot volunteer our time at a parish fundraiser on Sunday and ignore a person in need on Monday. Maybe you are wondering why our Lord calls his directive a new commandment, recalling the line from the Old Testament, “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18). Aren’t these commandments the same? No, there is an important difference. In the first, we are commanded to love as we would want to be loved. In the new commandment, we are to love as God would love. This is a whole new level of love. God sees the whole person. He sees right into the soul of all his sons and daughters, and he knows us better than we do ourselves. This is a freeing kind of love. When we consider serving others, we might be initially turned off by their appearance or their attitude. But God, when looking at these same people, is never turned off. He sees the inner secrets of their hearts, and he judges them with mercy because he sees the struggles in their lives. This is our task, to love as Jesus loves — not judging harshly, but loving with mercy. After all, hasn’t God been merciful with us? Deacon Adam Hamness is in formation for the priesthood at the St. Paul Seminary for the Diocese of Crookston. His home parish is Blessed Sacrament in Greenbush, Minn., and his teaching parish is St. John the Baptist in Jordan.

Friday, May 3 Sts. Philip and James, apostles 1 Corinthians 15:1-8 John 14:6-14 Saturday, May 4 Acts 16:1-10 John 15:18-21 Sunday, May 5 Sixth Sunday of Easter Acts 15:1-2, 22-29 Revelation 21:10-14, 22-23 John 14:23-29 Monday, May 6 Acts 16:11-15 John 15:26 — 16:4a Tuesday, May 7 Acts 16:22-34 John 16:5-11 Wednesday, May 8 Acts 17:15, 22 — 18:1 John 16:12-15 Thursday, May 9 Acts 18:1-8 Mark 16:16-20 Friday, May 10 St. Damien de Veuster, priest Acts 18:9-18 John 16:20-23 Saturday, May 11 Acts 18:23-28 John 16:23b-28 Sunday, May 12 The Ascension of the Lord Acts 1:1-11 Ephesians 1:17-23 Luke 24:46-53

The Lesson Plan Month of May celebrates Mary, motherhood 10A

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • APRIL 25, 2013

Three special days celebrate devotion to Mary

made a vow at the end of the eighteenth century to devote the month of May to Mary. From Rome the practice spread to other Jesuit colleges and thence to nearly every Catholic church of the Latin rite.”

By Father Michael Van Sloun

The adaptation of cultural feasts: In classical Greek and Roman culture, May is considered the month of new life, when winter ends and spring begins. It is the time when trees bud, flowers bloom, and grass sprouts. The Greeks dedicated May to the pagan god Artemis, the goddess of the moon and hunting, and particularly young girls and fertility; while the Romans dedicated May to the pagan god Flora, the goddess of flowers. May celebrated the fruitfulness of Mother Earth, but eventually it was broadened to celebrate mothers who bring new human life. For Christians, if May celebrated motherhood, the logical next step would be to adopt May as the month to honor Mary, the Mother of God.

For The Catholic Spirit

Monthly dedications: Each month of the calendar year has a special spiritual dedication, and May is the month dedicated to Mary. January is dedicated to the Holy Name of Jesus or the Holy Childhood of Jesus, February to the Holy Family, March to St. Joseph, April to the Holy Spirit or the Eucharist, May to Mary, June to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, July to the Precious Blood or the Immaculate Heart of Mary, August to the Blessed Sacrament, September to Our Lady of Sorrows, October to the Rosary, November to the faithful departed and the Poor Souls in Purgatory, and December to the Immaculate Conception. Special Marian feasts in May: There are three special days in May dedicated to Mary: Mother’s Day on the second Sunday of May, Our Lady of Fatima on May 13, and the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary on May 31. Mother’s Day is primarily a secular celebration intended to honor all mothers and the importance of motherhood in the family and society, but for Catholics, it is a day to honor the greatest of all mothers, Mary, the Blessed Mother. Our Lady of Fatima recalls the appearance of Mary to three peasant children in Portugal in 1917, while the Visitation recalls Mary’s encounter with Elizabeth (Luke 1:39-45). Historical roots of the May devotion: The tradition of the dedication of May to Mary finds its beginnings in the writings of Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903) who wrote ten encyclicals between 1883 and 1889 on the value of the Rosary and the intercessory role of Mary. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, “The May devotion [to our

CNS/Stephen B. Whatley

Mary and the infant Jesus are depicted in the painting "The Holy Mother & Child" by Stephen B. Whatley, an expressionist artist based in London.

Lady] in its present form originated in Rome where Father Latomia of the Roman College of the Society of Jesus, to counteract infidelity and immorality among the students,

Marian devotions for May: There are many beautiful ways to venerate the Blessed Virgin Mary in May. It is common to place a statue or picture of Mary in a more prominent location in the church, school, or home, and to decorate it with flowers. It is traditional to conduct a May crowning, to weave a crown of flowers and place it on the head of a Mary statue, or to place a bouquet of flowers near an image of Mary. It is also a popular time to conduct a May or Rosary procession in which a number of people walk together in a reverent manner and recite the Rosary or sing Marian hymns. The Rosary is highly recommended, either for groups at church or families at home or in the car, or privately. There are many excellent Mary prayers in addition to the Hail Mary: the Litany of Mary, the Hail Holy Queen or Salve Regina, the Memorare, and the Angelus. Some Marian hymns can also be included at Mass. Father Van Sloun is pastor of St. Stephen in Anoka.

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“With our hearts transformed by Christ, we can change the hearts of others, and transform the world.” Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C.

This Catholic Life APRIL 25, 2013

Opinion, feedback and points to ponder

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

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A conversation about the ‘new evangelization’ George Weigel, Catholic best-selling author and Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C., spoke about his newest book, “Evangelical Catholicism” April 15 during an event in Bloomington sponsored by St. Paul’s Outreach. After his presentation, The Catholic Spirit interviewed Weigel and Gordy DeMarais, founder and executive director of St. Paul’s Outreach, a Catholic ministry on college campuses across the U.S. that began in response to the Church’s call for a “new evangelization.” The following is an edited version of the interview. Q: What do we mean by “new evangelization” and “evangelical Catholicism”? Weigel: The term “new evangelization” was first used by Pope John Paul II in 1992. In that, he tried to capture in a single phrase the notion that the Church does not have a mission, as if mission were one of a dozen things the Church does. The Church is a mission. Everything and everyone in the Church must be ordered to mission and measured by mission effectiveness. That’s a new concept in Catholicism, or at least an old concept being renewed for the third millennium. DeMarais: One of the things Pope John Paul II had in mind when he used this phrase was that there is a new kind of mission field that exists now in the Church. Evangelization was understood as going to those places where the Gospel has never been heard or proclaimed and proclaiming it. Now we find ourselves in the midst of a context, particularly in the Western world, where places the Christian faith once thrived have been now diminished because of the corrosive pressures of the culture. Now our mission field is in our backyards, it’s in our neighborhoods, our parishes, our schools. Every place we encounter in the secular and Church arenas these days is a place for mission and evangelization.

“The Catholicism of the future

cannot simply be a lifestyle choice about how to spend an hour and 15 minutes on the weekend. It has to be a lifeforming commitment that animates every other aspect of our lives, in our families, in our work, in our lives as citizens.

”

GEORGE WEIGEL

“We find ourselves in the midst of

a context, particularly in the Western world, where places the Christian faith once thrived have been now diminished because of the corrosive pressures of the culture. Now our mission field is in our backyards, it’s in our neighborhoods, our parishes, our schools. Every place we encounter in the secular and Church arenas these days is a place for mission and evangelization.

Q: Mr. Weigel, you talk about moving from a “recreational Catholicism” to a more “full-time Catholicism.” Talk a little bit about what that means in today’s context. Weigel: It means that the Catholicism of the future cannot simply be a lifestyle choice about how to spend an hour and 15 minutes on the weekend. It has to be a life-forming commitment that animates every other aspect of our lives, in our families, in our work, in our lives as citizens. There’s too often in Catholicism today a notion that faith is “over here” and everything else is “over there.” But there’s only one life that each of us is living, and at the center of that life there has to be, as Benedict XVI always insisted, friendship with Jesus Christ, which is a relationship that should animate and shape every other facet of our lives. So we’re not Catholics on Sunday and something else Monday to Saturday. This is particularly urgent today in public life where I found in 2012 there were people profoundly confused about the importance of their Catholic conviction in their lives as citizens. You cannot separate these two things. It’s just not possible. So full-time Catholicism does not mean that everyone is working for the Church in a formal sense all the time. It does mean that everyone is a witness to Christ in every aspect of his or her lives. Q: In order to build a relationship with Jesus Christ, you have to spend time on it, right? Weigel: This does require time — 10 to 15 minutes a day with the Bible, regular reception of the sacraments. Let me toss out one more idea here and that is that we can all begin to think of Lent, the weeks of preparation

”

for Easter, as a period in every year when we’re invited to re-enter the catechumenate, to re-enter preparation for, not baptism in the case of those already baptized, but for the blessing with baptismal water at Easter. We can re-encounter the mysteries of the faith and the person of Christ. In a very special way during Lent every year, we could put on the imagination that Lent is a kind of mini-catechumenate for everyone. Not that we’re baptized again, but we renew the promises of our baptism again. If we’re going to do that with meaning and with integrity, then we need to be prepared for that. Q: In your talk this morning you spoke about the culture and how the culture previously was one that was

GORDY DEMARAIS

more supportive of the faith, whereas today, it can often be hostile to the faith. What are some ways of reproposing the Catholic faith to people today who are living in this culture that can be hostile not only to faith in general, but to Catholicism in particular? Weigel: We have a very challenging circumstance in that we live in a culture that is increasingly unreal, that doesn’t recognize the claims of either nature or reason, that imagines that everything is sheer willfulness and that we can change just about anything that we want. That’s a very difficult circumstance in which to proclaim PLEASE TURN TO INVITATION ON PAGE 13A

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THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • APRIL 25, 2013

Commentary

/ This Catholic Life

‘Pacem in Terris:’ Reflections after 50 years

Faith in the Public Arena Elliot Huss

Peace on earth can only come about by ordering our society, our relationships and our hearts to the natural law ordained by God

s we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Pope John XXIII’s encyclical letter, “Pacem in Terris,” it is fitting we revisit a text that has such great relevance for us in contemporary society. “Pacem in Terris,” which means “Peace on Earth,” explores the means by which individuals and society can pursue global harmony. This peace that “men of every era have most eagerly yearned for” is just as elusive now as it was during Pope John XXIII’s time. This is evidenced by the recent conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Egypt. It is brought close to home by the recent mass shootings in Colorado and Connecticut and just a few days ago in the bombs detonated in Boston. Ultimately, it is manifested by the unrest in the human heart. It is only by adhering “dutifully” to the order given by God and expressed in nature that we are ever to advance in the search for peace on earth.

Made in God’s image Giving this encyclical on Holy Thursday in 1963, Pope John XXIII explained that the only way to achieve peace is by following the order that God has ordained (No. 1). First and foremost, society must recognize that human beings are made in the image and likeness of God. Each person is endowed by na-

ture with reason and freedom, and so has great dignity (No. 3). Human beings have certain responsibilities as a consequence of their human nature, such as a responsibility to worship God, to seek the Lord’s will for one’s life and to be good stewards of his or her body and mind and of the earth. In order to ensure that each person is able to carry out these responsibilities, each person has rights and duties which are “universal, inviolable, and inalienable” (No. 9). The rights enumerated in the encyclical include but are not limited to: life, bodily integrity and the means necessary and suitable for proper development of life, which includes food, clothing, shelter, rest, medical care, necessary social services; the freedom to worship God; the freedom to choose to be married, single, or religious; to work; and to emigrate and immigrate. These rights are unique to humans and so we call them, “human rights.” Rights are rooted in responsibilities. With each right there is a corresponding duty for both the individual for whom the right is guaranteed and a duty others have to ensure the right is respected. Thus, if “Johnny” has the right to religious freedom, it is because he first has a responsibility or duty to respond in conscience to the call of the Creator God. Others

CNS photo

Pope John XXIII signs his encyclical “Pacem in Terris” (“Peace on Earth”) at the Vatican in this 1963 file photo.

have a duty to respect Johnny’s right to religious freedom because he has this responsibility.

Respecting natural law Another aspect of human nature is that we are social beings (No. 23). As a result, people will come together and necessarily form communities that require order and law. Pope John XXIII called on authorities to ensure that civil law protects and promotes human dignity in ac-

cord with the natural law as ordained by God’s plan. Pope John XXIII’s call for the observance of the natural law was affirmed by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. who, a few days after “Pacem in Terris,” wrote his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” There, Rev. King quotes St. Thomas Aquinas, who said, “An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law.” If a society creates laws that are contrary to the dignity of the human person, they do a great violence to peace on earth. Pope John XXIII affirmed that the great mission of a civil leader should be “to safeguard the inviolable rights of the human person, and to facilitate the fulfillment of his duties” (No. 60). We as Catholic Christians in 2013 need to once again visit the arguments in “Pacem in Terris” about the natural law, rights and responsibilities, and their connection to building a world of peace. And, we must be convicted in our hearts that peace on earth can only come about by ordering our society, our relationships and, most important, our own hearts to the natural law ordained by God. Huss is a law clerk at the Minnesota Catholic Conference and a student at the University of St. Thomas School of Law.

Same-sex marriage and the breakdown of moral argument

Commentary Father Robert Barron

As one writer has observed, in regard to questions of what is right and wrong, we simply talk past one another, or more often, scream at each other

n his classic text “After Virtue,” the philosopher Alisdair MacIntyre lamented, not so much the immorality that runs rampant in our contemporary society, but something more fundamental and in the long run more dangerous — namely, that we are no longer even capable of having a real argument about moral matters. The assumptions that once undergirded any coherent conversation about ethics, he said, are no longer taken for granted or universally shared. The result is that, in regard to questions of what is right and wrong, we simply talk past one another, or more often, scream at each other.

Appeals to morality I thought of MacIntyre’s observation when I read a recent article on the Supreme Court’s consideration of the much-vexed issue of same-sex marriage. It was reported that, in the wake of the oral arguments, Justice Elena Kagan remarked, “Whenever someone expresses moral disapproval in a legal context, the red flag of discrimination goes up for me.” Notice that the justice did not say that discrimination is the result of a bad moral argument, but simply that any appeal to morality is, ipso facto, tantamount to discrimination. Or to state it in MacIntyre’s terms, since even attempting to make a moral argument is an exercise in futility, doing so can only be construed as an act of aggression. I will leave to the side the radical

inconsistency involved in saying that one has an ethical objection (discrimination!) to the making of an ethical objection, but I would indeed like to draw attention to a very dangerous implication of this incoherent position. If argument is indeed a non-starter, the only recourse we have in the adjudication of our disputes is violence, either direct or indirect. This is precisely why a number of Christian leaders and theorists, especially in the West, have been expressing a deep concern about this manner of thinking. Any preacher or writer who ventures to make a moral argument against same-sex marriage is automatically condemned as a purveyor of “hate speech” or excoriated as a bigot, and in extreme cases, he can be subject to legal sanction. This visceral, violent reaction is a consequence of the breakdown of the rational framework for moral discourse that MacIntyre so lamented.

Obsession with polls A telltale sign of this collapse is our preoccupation, even obsession, with poll numbers in regard to this question. We are incessantly told that everincreasing numbers of Americans — especially among the young — approve of same-sex marriage or are open to same-sex relationships. This is undoubtedly of great interest sociologically or politically, but in itself, it has nothing to do with the question of right or wrong. Lots of people can approve of something that is in

fact morally repugnant, and a tiny minority can support something that is in fact morally splendid. For example, if polls were taken in 1945 concerning the rectitude of dropping atomic bombs on Japan in order to bring the war to a rapid conclusion, I am quite sure that overwhelming majorities would have approved. And, if a poll had been taken in, say, 1825, concerning the legitimacy of slavery, I would bet that only a small minority of Americans would have come out for eliminating the practice. But finally, in either case, so what? Finally, an argument has to be made. In the absence of this, the citation of poll numbers in regard to a moral issue is nothing but a form of bullying: we’ve got you outnumbered.

Another issue Still another indication of the breakdown in moral argumentation is the sentimentalizing of the samesex marriage issue. Over roughly the past 25 years, many gay people have “come out of the closet,” and this is indeed welcome. Repression, deception and morbid self-reproach are never good things. The result of this coming out is that millions have recognized their brothers, sisters, aunts, cousins, uncles, and dear friends as having samesex attraction. The homosexual person is no longer, accordingly, some strange and shadowy “other,” but someone I know to be a decent human being.

This development, too, is nothing but positive. The man or woman with a homosexual orientation must always be loved and treated, in all circumstances, with the respect due to a child of God. Nevertheless, it does not follow that everything a decent person does or wants is necessarily decent. Without a convincing argument, we cannot simply say that whatever a generally kind and loving person chooses to do is, by the very nature of the thing, right. This is why I am never impressed when a politician says that he is now in favor of same-sex marriage because he has discovered that his son, whom he deeply loves, is gay. Please don’t misunderstand me: I am sincerely delighted whenever a father loves and cherishes his gay son. However, that love in itself does not constitute an argument. The attentive reader will have noticed that I have not proffered such an argument in the course of this article. That will have to be matter for another day. What I have tried to do is clear away some of the fog that obfuscates this issue, in the hopes that we might eventually see, with some clarity and objectivity, what the Catholic Church teaches in regard to sexuality in general and the question of same-sex marriage in particular. Father Barron is the founder of the global ministry, Word on Fire, and the rector/president of Mundelein Seminary in the Archdiocese of Chicago.

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THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • APRIL 25, 2013

Invitation is important component of the ‘new evangelization’ CONTINUED FROM PAGE 11A the Gospel. But I think if we look at the profound human unhappiness that comes out of self-absorption, a life lived willfully rather than a life lived as gift — as gift to others — we can find openings in the tears and fissures of the human condition that have been caused by this radical culture of “me, myself and I,” and demonstrate to people a more humane and noble and satisfying way of life. I do think in these circumstances, the witness of lives lived well is the most powerful invitation to hear the message of the Gospel. It’s very hard to argue people into right reason in a culture that has abandoned the idea that there is anything properly describable as “the Truth.” There’s your truth and my truth, but there’s nothing called “the Truth.” That’s not a circumstance in which argument is going to get you very far. It’s rather witness, it’s example, it’s the Mother Teresas, it’s the crisis pregnancy center, it’s the work on campuses that invite young people to go beyond the hook-up culture to some much more humane form of friendship and relationships. That’s the example that opens up the possibility of then offering the message of the Gospel. DeMarais: I think it means a willingness on the part of people to engage others as persons themselves, and to be willing to actually extend oneself in relationship with others and in the context of relationship or friendship. That becomes the foundation. You can actually speak to this ultimate longing in every person’s heart, the way that God has made us for this relationship with him. But, oftentimes, we approach people more from the perspective of trying to get them to join something or to do something, and really what they need is a friend. They need someone to love them, to pay attention to them. And then they need the witness also of a community of believers who are living this transformed life with one another that they can then be invited into. Q: What about the idea of invitation? When we talk about the new evangelization, we hear often the need to invite. And certainly with this Rediscover: initiative locally there’s been an emphasis on extending an invitation. What are some effective ways to do that today? Weigel: I think it needs to be suggested to people. I have yet to hear the sermon on Sunday in which the concluding admonition, or injunction, or invitation is to everyone here to consider inviting someone who hasn’t been here for a while to come with you next week. I’m still waiting to hear that. It’s as simple as that, sometimes.

There are a number of initiatives around the United States. Many dioceses during Advent and Lent have these programs called “The Light is on for You” — one evening a week during Advent and Lent where confession is heard for five to six hours. [So] “the light is on.” That seems to be effective. It makes people think, when you see that sign on the Washington Metro system, “the light is on for you” every Wednesday night at your nearest Catholic Church. That’s a form of invitation. DeMarais: On our campuses, this is what we train our student missionaries to do. For example, at the University of Minnesota last September during the first 10 days of that semester, our missionary core engaged 500 students — and this wasn’t in the Church, this was at the college fairs. These students gave their contact information and were willing to receive a follow-up call. And then we call them and we invite them to our houses for dinner, or we invite them to play a game of touch football. I think inviting people back to Church is one thing, but inviting them into our life [is another]. Even if you’re going to invite them on a Sunday for brunch and Mass, invite them into relationship with you and to see you as the embodiment of what’s going on when they come back to Mass or confession. Q: Gordy, you’re dealing with young adults a lot. Is the approach, the invitation for young adults — many of whom are not very involved in the Church or who profess any faith at all — a little different than it is for older people? DeMarais: I haven’t necessarily thought about it as being different. Young people, particularly in the context that we work in, are leaving home — they’re going off to college campuses. So they’re separating from their family, if they’re coming from an intact family, and they’re looking for some place to connect. I think every person longs for that personal connection with others. Mother Teresa said that the greatest evil of our day is actually loneliness. I think this can become a tremendous opportunity for the witness of the Gospel. This radical individualism, which characterizes people’s lives, is not the way we’re made. I think into the future, the witness of a community of love is going to be a powerful witness to people who are experiencing this deep angst and loneliness and separation from others, [who are] being related to primarily in a utilitarian way — what can I get from you, what can you do for me? Q: Mr. Weigel, regarding the model of Church envisioned by the new evangelization that you write about, can you think of one particular success story or story that really exemplifies that transformation?

Weigel: When you talk about parishes I would point people to St. Mary’s parish in Greenville, S.C., which in one sense is the inspiration for the book “Evangelical Catholicism.” That parish embodies this approach to the faith in an extraordinary way that has led to a remarkable flourishing of adult conversions, receptions into full communion with the Church, booming schools, religious vocations, wonderful liturgy and so forth. In campus ministries, the gold standard in the United States is Texas A&M University. The Catholic campus ministry there is a booming enterprise — 5,000 people at Mass on the weekend, more religious vocations generated over the past 20 years from Texas A&M than from Notre Dame. This is because in both these instances the Gospel is preached without compromise, word and sacrament are at the center of the proclamation and the experience, and the stress is on friendship with Jesus Christ in order to be equipped for mission in the world. There are things that people can learn how to do to make this work. This is not a question of aping Protestant mega-church growth strategies. This is a question of living the vision of the Church that’s laid out in the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church of Vatican II. The blueprint is there; we don’t have to invent this stuff. What we have to do is take it seriously and understand that taking it seriously is a very demanding business. DeMarais: This story is repeated over and over again: A young person is reached out to, invited into our community of faith, brought to this rediscovery, this reawakening of baptismal faith, and then inserted into a community environment where they’re formed. And formation isn’t just intellectual. That’s a part of it, but it’s overcoming this gap that exists between faith and daily life. That’s experienced in the context of learning to live and love. It’s how do I study? What do I do in my social time? How do I relate to media? How do I think about my sexuality? How do I discern my vocation? And then coming full circle to then being sent. If you look at Pope Paul VI’s encyclical letter, which is still profound today, it says that evangelization is only complete when the one being evangelized is him or herself sent out on mission. The impact of [SPO’s] work over 25 years is one of the things that is helping to transform this archdiocese. I say that in all humility. . . . The numbers of vocations, the people teaching in the seminaries, the rector of the minor seminary, the director of the diaconate formation program, the people involved in leadership in pro-life work, the Office of Marriage, Family and Life, and on and on — you have people that have experienced this life-changing conversion, this joyful discipleship and this courageous evangelism expressed through the whole of one’s life.

Pro-life leaders say case highlights all-too-common reality CONTINUED FROM PAGE 8A said are deplorable conditions all too common at abortion clinics. It was a “meat-market-style of assembly lines of abortions,” Mallory Quigley, a spokeswoman for the Susan B. Anthony List, said April 15, referencing the words of two nurses who recently left a Delaware clinic for similar reasons. “The Gosnell case is a lot more common than people realize,” Quigley said. Jeanne Monahan, president of the March for Life Education & Defense Fund, said that “Americans as a whole think that abortion clinics are sanitary decent clinics,” but the “majority of abortion clinics in our country are held to very minimal standards: legally the same standards as beauty parlors and vet clinics.” While Pennsylvania’s Abortion Control Act prohibits some forms of abortion, not all clinics performing ambulatory surgical procedures at the time of Gosnell’s arrest in 2011 were subject to the same standards

of care for women. The state’s Abortion Facilities Control Act that came into effect late that year now holds abortion clinics to the same standards of health and safety as other outpatient clinics, such as eye care or urgent care facilities. “Prior to the passage of this legislation, it was clear that the law favored the abortion industry — not women’s health, as is so often claimed,” the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference said in a statement on the law. State law requires that abortions be done under 24 weeks of pregnancy because of the risks to the mother, but the grand jury report showed Gosnell routinely flouted that law. “The bigger the baby, the more he charged,” it said. He is accused of sticking a pair of medical scissors into the back of the necks of prematurely born babies and cutting the spinal cord, a procedure he called “snipping.” Court records show he destroyed most of the documentation on his use of

“snipping,” but pictures taken by employees and other evidence are being used by prosecutors. “Over the years, many people came to know that something was going on here. But no one put a stop to it,” the report explained. The clinic went unchecked by the Department of Health for 16 years until its horrors were accidentally uncovered by the drug raid. Several employees face similar charges. The grand jury report said Gosnell hired untrained, uncertified nurses, and taught them to view ultrasound pictures at an angle so that unborn babies to be aborted looked smaller than they actually were. It also said Gosnell and his wife performed late-term abortions on Sundays when no other staff was present.

Better options Said Quigley, “Abortion doesn’t help women.” She explained that the pro-life movement operates more than 3,000 pregnancy resource centers for mothers and

families in need, offering them assistance so they do not feel abortion is their only alternative. “Those are the places we need to be building up,” she said, noting that more than 90 percent of the funding for such centers is private. While Monahan acknowledged the Gosnell case is a somewhat extreme case, she said that it highlights the violence of the abortion procedure, which she describes as being “deeply invasive” to the woman. She said it also shines a light on what she termed is the sad reality of the abortion business. “There is no constitutional right to maim and kill women and girls nationwide,” said Kristi Hamrick, spokeswoman for Americans United for Life. “One woman’s death is too many. . . . The mere existence of protective laws is not enough. State officials must also consistently enforce these laws.”

“We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.” Winston Churchill

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Arts & Culture THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Exploring our church and our world

APRIL 25, 2013

Book on church architecture much more than pretty pictures Reviewed by Ann Carey Catholic News Service

A new book by University of Notre Dame architecture professor Duncan G. Stroik has so many exquisite photos of churches that one might think at first glance it is another beautiful coffee-table book. But “The Church Building as a Sacred Place: Beauty, Transcendence and the Eternal” is so much more than pretty pictures. Stroik writes in clear prose what every Catholic should know about the way a church building’s exterior and interior should reflect and enable the sacred actions that are celebrated within its walls. Helping to illustrate and enforce these concepts are more than 170 photographs and drawings that date from early Christian places of worship to churches built in the 21st century.

Local connection Locally, Stroik designed the new casework for the restored and expanded Aeolian-Skinner gallery organ at the Cathedral of St. Paul. Another of his major projects was the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, in La Crosse, Wisc. In his introduction, Stroik argues that the book is not a history of architecture. Nevertheless, the average person will learn a great deal about the architectural history of the Catholic Church in virtually every one of the 23 chapters in the book. Those chapters are divided into four parts: Principles of Church Design; Church Architecture Today; Modernism and Modernity; and Renaissance and Renewal.

Throughout the book, Stroik — who considers ecclesial architecture a “noble ministry” — displays a firm grounding in theology and philosophy as he explains the principles of Catholic architecture. He alludes frequently to various church documents such as the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Second Vatican Council’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (“Sacrosanctum Concilium”) and the General Instruction of the Roman Missal. As a practicing architect who has designed several significant new churches and extensive renovations himself, Stroik also offers concrete solutions for renovating or building churches that will evoke a sense of the sacred and will be fitting symbols of God’s house for generations to come. A fascinating appendix in the back of the book on “The Sizes of Churches” allows the reader to compare the size and scale of many famous Catholic churches in Europe to some prominent churches in the United States.

Buildings for liturgy One does not have to read far into the book to learn that Stroik dislikes churches designed by modernist architects over the past century that look like modern secular buildings and are configured like theaters or auditoriums with minimal iconography. However it is not just his personal dislike, but rather a strong sense that such churches give no visible indication of the sacredness of the building or the celebration that occurs therein, and they do not serve the needs of Catholic liturgy. (In-

deed, this reader was struck by one photograph of the interior of a modernist church that looked very much like a prison with its plain concrete walls.) “We need an architecture that helps raise our hearts and minds to heaven,” he writes, and he proves his case throughout the book by citing official Catholic Church documents. In his section on modernism, Stroik contends that many modernist architects were influenced by Protestant meetingroom-style churches as well as a desire to conform ecclesial design to the latest secular buildings. The result, he writes, are functional-looking buildings that do not function well for Catholic worship. He builds a strong case for his assertion

that classical and medieval churches are still relevant to contemporary culture, for they are a timeless “catechism in paint, mosaic and stone” that appeals in any age. Indeed, he notes that it often was a poorly formed liturgist and not the people in the pews who demanded many of the renovations — some would say “wreckovations” — of Catholic churches after Vatican II. Stroik writes that sacred architecture is part of our Catholic patrimony, but he does not advocate simply copying famous Catholic churches of the past. Rather, he believes that church renovators and designers should learn from those classical models and apply to contemporary buildings what they learn about making a church beautiful and evocative of the sacred. To prove his case, he presents photos of several Catholic churches built in the last few years that are innovative and modern while at the same time beautiful examples of ecclesial architecture. “As architects and artists regain the balance between tradition and innovation, architecture will become a humanistic enterprise once again,” Stroik writes. The final chapter contains 20 “prophecies” about the future of Catholic architecture in which he predicts: “A renaissance of Catholic architecture will ensue, when large numbers of the lay faithful and the church leadership begin demanding beauty in the house of God.” Many Catholics probably hope that Stroik is a prophet in his own time. Ann Carey writes for Catholic News Service.

St. Paul’s Basilica: Monument to a church of evangelization By Francis X. Rocca Catholic News Service

In a short speech just a few days before the conclave that elected him pope, thenCardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio told his fellow cardinals that the next pontiff “must be a man who, from the contemplation and adoration of Jesus Christ, helps the church to go out to the existential peripheries, helps her to be the fruitful mother who gains life from ‘the sweet and comforting joy of evangelizing.’” The church should not live “within herself, of herself, for herself,” the future Pope Francis said. Rather, its evangelization should extend “to the peripheries, not only geographically, but also the existential peripheries: the mystery of sin, of pain, of injustice, of ignorance and indifference to religion, of intellectual currents, and of all misery.”

Special significance In light of those remarks, the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, where Pope Francis celebrated Mass April 14, holds special significance for his pontificate. The Apostle Paul, whose tomb lies under

Dianne Towalski / The Catholic Spirit

The Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls in Rome is seen in this 2007 photo. The basilica, where Pope Francis celebrated Mass April 14, holds special significance for his pontificate.

the basilica’s main altar, brought the Gospel to peoples across the central and eastern Mediterranean, and even more consequentially, translated the Christian faith into the philosophical terms of an-

cient Greco-Roman culture. The so-called “Apostle to the Gentiles” thus exemplifies the missionary spirit invoked by the new pope. St. Paul also embodies the charismatic (or prophetic) side of the church, in much the way that his fellow patron of Rome, St. Peter, the first pope, stands for the church’s hierarchical (or institutional) dimension. As the first member of a religious order to be elected pope in nearly two centuries, Pope Francis is in a sense a successor to both apostles, since the charismatic side of the church has traditionally been the particular domain of religious life. St. Paul’s is today the only one of Rome’s four major papal basilicas entrusted to the care of a religious order. Benedictine monks have resided there since the time of Pope Gregory I (590-604), who was himself a former monk, and one of the legacies of that tradition is the basilica’s extensive library, whose collection includes some 10,000 volumes dating from before the 18th century. The basilica’s current role as a center of ecumenism draws inspiration from St.

Paul, who did so much to bind the early church together. A chapel is set aside for worship by non-Catholic Christians, and the pope leads an ecumenical service in the basilica every year at the end of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. St. Paul’s stands as a monument to that hoped-for unity, since the basilica was destroyed by fire in 1823, then rebuilt with contributions from Catholics and others around the world, including the Orthodox Tsar Nicholas I of Russia, who gave blocks of malachite and lapis lazuli. Help also came from non-Christians, notably Muhammad Ali, viceroy of Egypt, who donated alabaster columns. For pilgrims and other visitors today, one of the basilica’s most noteworthy features is the series of mosaic medallion portraits of all the popes up through Pope Benedict XVI. A popular legend holds that the apocalypse will come once the number of popes exhausts the available spaces for portraits. Yet the story of the basilica’s rebuilding is a reminder that the Catholic Church’s power of endurance and growth is greater than any physical construction.

Calendar 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. Spaghetti dinner at St. Thomas the Apostle, St. Paul — April 27: 4 to 7 p.m. at 2119 Stillwater Ave. Dinner catered by Mama’s Pizza includes spaghetti and meatball, bread, drink and dessert. Cost is $6 for adults and $4 for children, ages five and under are free. Pork roast and sauerkraut dinner at St. Bernard, St. Paul — May 4: 4 to 7 p.m. at the parish center at Rice and Geranium. Cost is $8 for adults and $3.50 for children 12 and under. Mother’s Day breakfast at Immaculate Conception, Columbia Heights — May 12: 8:30 a.m. to noon at 4030 Jackson Street N.E. Enjoy a delicious breakfast of sausage, eggs, French toast and more. Cost is $8 for adults and seniors, $4 for children ages 3-12 and free for children two and under.

Parish events Rummage sale at St. Mary of the Lake, White Bear Lake — April 25 to 27: 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and 8 a.m. to noon Saturday (bag day) at 4690 Bald Eagle Ave. Rummage sale at St. Mark, St. Paul — April 26 to 28: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 9 a.m. to noon Sunday at 2001 Dayton Ave. Coffee and doughnuts will also be available. Spring fling auction and dinner for Guardian Angels school at the oak ridge Hotel and Conference Center, Chaska — April 27: 6 p.m. at 1 Oak Ridge Drive. Features dinner, music silent auction and more. Visit WWW.GASPRINGFLING.ORG. Spring festival at St. John Vianney, South St. Paul — April 27: 5 to 10 p.m. at 789 17th Ave. N. Features food, kids’ carnival, games, bakery and crafts and more. ‘Discipleship: The Spirituality of Being a Disciple of Jesus’ at Immaculate Conception, Columbia Heights — April 27: 9 am to noon at 4030 Jackson St. NE. Guest speaker Father Tim Nolan will discuss being a disciple of Jesus, being a steward, and the spirituality of being a disciple. Event is free, attendees are invited to arrive early at 8:30 a.m. for Mass. For information visit www.ICCSONLINE.ORG or call (763) 788-9062. ‘Catholic Studies @ St. Mark’s’ at St. Mark, St. Paul — April 28: 7 p.m. at 2001 Dayton Ave. First in a three-part series of mini-courses taught by graduate students from the Center for Catholic Studies at the University of St. Thomas. Martha FritzHuspen will present on "JPII and BXVI on the Relationship Between Conscience and Church Authority." Also meets May 5 and 12. RSVP to CATHOLICSTUDIES@SAINT MARK-MN.ORG. Blessed Trinity Fiesta Latina celebration at Assumption, Richfield — April 28: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 305 E. 77th St. Features food, music, entertainment and more. Admission is free. For information, visit WWW.BTCSMN.ORG.

APRIL 25, 2013 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT every Thursday: 7 p.m. at 7540 Penn Ave. S.

Don’t miss

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.

Still time to register for ACCW convention The St. Paul and Minneapolis Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women will hold its annual convention May 1 and 2 at Guardian Angels in Oakdale. Keynote speakers on Wednesday include Father Jan Michael Joncas and Caroline Brennan, a senior communications officer with Catholic Relief Services. Thursday features a variety of workshops and Archbishop John Nienstedt will preside at Mass followed by a catered lunch and installation of officers. Both days provide time for adoration, visiting marketplace booths and fellowship. Register online at ACCWARCHSPM.ORG, or call the ACCW office at (651) 291-4545. Cost for the two-day convention including meals, is $75. One-day attendance is $40, and the Wednesday banquet-only is $30. Bunny Bingo at St. Raphael, Crystal — April 28: Noon to 3 p.m. at 7301 Bass Lake Road. Features bingo with prizes, food and drinks, fresh pies and door prizes. Sponsored by youth ministry. Garage sale at St. Bonaventure, Bloomington — May 1 and 2: 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday (half-price in the morning and $2 bags from noon to 4) in Ambrose Hall at 90th Street and 10th Avenue. Spring rummage sale at St. Gabriel (formerly St. Joseph), Hopkins — May 2 to 4: 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday, 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday ($1 bag day) at 1310 Mainstreet. Rummage sale at Holy Name, Minneapolis — May 2 to 4: $1 admission for preview sale Thursday from 4 to 8 p.m. Continues Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday ($1 bag day) from 9 a.m. to noon at 3637 11th Ave. S. Spring rummage sale at St. Bridget-St. Austin Campus, Minneapolis — May 2 to 4: 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and 8 a.m. to noon Saturday (bag day, $3 or 2 for $5) at the corner of 41st and Thomas Avenue N. St. Patrick’s Taste Extravaganza at St. Patrick, Inver Grove Heights — May 3: 6:30 to 10 p.m. at 3535 E. 72nd St. Sample fare from area restaurants, wine and beer tasting and ScottishIrish music. Admission is $25. For information, call (651) 455-6624. ‘Queen of May’ dinner and auction at Immaculate Conception School, Columbia Heights — May 3: 5:30 p.m. at 4030 Jackson St. N.E. Enjoy an Italian buffet dinner, silent and live auctions and entertainment. Tickets are $30 and are available at the parish office. For information, visit wwW.ICCSONLINE. ORG or call (763) 788-9062. Spring festival at Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Maplewood — May 4 and 5: Carnival rides, kiddieland, food booths, cake walk and more from 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday with music from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m, Mexican buffet from 5 to 7:30 p.m. and bingo from 7:30 to 10 p.m. Continues Sunday with all activities open from 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Raffle drawing at 4 p.m. Located at 1725 Kennard St.

‘How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization’ at Holy Spirit, St. Paul — May 4: 3 p.m. in Holy Spirit School commons, 515 S. Albert St. Dr. Thomas Woods will explore the great contributions of the Catholic Church to civilization. Suggested donation is $10. Cinco de Mayo taco sale at Our Lady of Guadalupe, St. Paul — May 4: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at 401 Concord St. Single tacos for $2 or a dozen for $15. Pop and water available for $1. Parking available for $5, proceeds benefit the parish Boy Scout troop. Treasure Hunt sale at Benilde-St. Margaret, St. Louis Park — May 4: Early bird entry at 8 a.m. for a $3 fee. Free admission from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 2501 Highway 100 S. Historical wedding gown fashion show at St. William, Fridley — May 5: 2 p.m. at 6120 Fifth St. N.E. Brides from St. William’s will process down the aisle in wedding gowns from the past five decades. A wedding cake and tea reception will follow. For information, call (763) 571-5600. South Metro Chorale spring concert at St. Richard, Richfield — May 5: 3 p.m. at 7540 Penn Ave. S. The chorale will be accompanied by a full orchestra, featuring Franz Schubert’s “Mass in G” and Aaron Copland’s song cycle “Old American Songs.” Tickets are $10 for adults; $8 for seniors and students. To reserve tickets, call (612) 386-4636 or email TICKETS@SOUTHMETROCHORALE.ORG. ‘Spring Madonna Luncheon’ at St. Genevieve, Centerville — May 6: Noon at 6995 Centerville Road. Cost is $8.50 at the door. For information, call (651) 429-7937. Rummage sale at St. Cyril, Minneapolis — May 8 to 10: 3 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday and 9 a.m. to noon Friday ($2 bag day) at 13th and Second Street N.E. Rummage sale at St. Victoria, Victoria — May 9 and 10: 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday and 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday (bag and bargain day) at 8228 Victoria Drive.

Prayer/ liturgies Sant’Egidio Community Evening Prayer at St. Richard, Richfield —

Healing Mass at Holy Name of Jesus, Wayzata — April 25: Rosary at 6:30 p.m., Mass to follow at 7 p.m. at 155 County Road 24. Father Michael Becker will be the celebrant.

Singles Sunday Spirits walking group for 50plus 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) 4820406. 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) 425-0412.

School events VISTA spring musical, ‘Guys and Dolls’ at Convent of the Visitation School, Mendota Heights — Weekends April 26 to May 5: 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays at 2455 Visitation Drive. Special opening night reception open to the public April 26 at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students and seniors. Spring Extravaganza at St. Helena, School, Minneapolis — April 27: 6 p.m. at 3200 E. 44th St. Includes a full meal, open bar, auctions, beer/ wine wall and more. Cost is $25 per person. Open house at Our Lady of the Lake School, Mound — May 2: 6 p.m. at 2411 Commerce Blvd. RSVP to (612) 298-2915. For information, visit WWW. SCHOOL.OURLADYOFTHELAKE.COM. STAY and PLAY event at Little Angels Christian Preschool of Guardian Angels, Oakdale — May 7: 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. at 8260 Fourth St. N. Prospective students and their parents can experience all that Little Angels has to offer. For information, call (651) 7307450.

Other events ‘Mercy Unrelenting’ at Open Window Theatre, Minneapolis — April 26 to May 19: Times — evening shows on April 26-27, May 2-4, May 9-11, May 16-18 at 7:45 p.m. matinees on April 28, May 5, 12, 18, 19 at 2 p.m. at 1313 Chestnut Ave. For information call (763) 732-8091 or visit WWW.OPENWINDOWTHEATRE.ORG. Archdiocesan Family Rosary Procession at the Minnesota State Capitol, St. Paul — May 5: Gather at 1:30 p.m., procession to the Cathedral of St. Paul begins at 2 p.m. For information, visit WWW.FAMILYROSARYPROCESSION. ORG.

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

FAX: (651) 291-4460. MAIL: “Calendar,” The Catholic Spirit, 244 Dayton Ave., St. Paul, MN 55102.

16A

APRIL 25, 2013 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Devotion to Mary leads to rosary CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2A leads us to pray the rosary. Cardinal Dearden, my mentor, was talking with one of the lay observers of the Second Vatican Council one day about the practical details of marriage. The man said that when he awoke in the morning, he told his wife, “I love you.” Before going to work, he kissed her and said, “I love you.” During the morning, he would take a break and call his wife by phone to see how things were and always finished by saying, “I love you.” When returning home, before going to sleep, he repeated the expression, “I love you.” Then the man commented, “You know my wife never tires of my telling her, ‘I love you.’” In this way, expressed love deepens love in the heart. Just so, each bead of the rosary is a spoken “I love you” directed to the Trinity through Jesus or through Mary to Jesus. Our “Hail Mary” deepens our love for the one who shows us how to trust in God’s plan, to be close to her son and to endure the cross until we experience his resurrection. By meditating on the mysteries of our salvation, we gain strength for living our role in that saving plan today. Again, this prayer is not abstract; it is highly personal and vividly dynamic. I urge families to pray the rosary together each week during the month of May. Finally, the place of Mary is always at the foot of the cross of Jesus. She walks with Christ, and stands by him, eager to comfort and to obey. So when I pray to Jesus or through Jesus to the Father, I am not surprised to find Mary by my side. She is our “tainted nature’s solitary boast” and as such she is a profound source of our joy as well as a practical help to our salvation. Mary, Mother of the Church and my Mother, pray for us! I invite you to celebrate your love for Mary during this month of May by joining our rosary procession on Sunday, May 5. We will begin at the State Capitol at 2 p.m., process to the Cathedral of St. Paul while praying the rosary, and then conclude the ceremony with Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. I hope to see you there! God bless you!

in all copies of this issue.

■ Monday, April 29: 7 p.m., St. Paul, Cathedral of St. Paul: Confirmation. ■ Tuesday, April 30: 8:30 a.m., St. Paul, Archbishop’s Residence: Scheduling meeting with staff. 10:30 a.m., St. Paul, Chancery: Meeting with CEO of Origin Entertainment. 12 p.m., St. Paul, Chancery: Archdiocesan budget review. 6 p.m., West St. Paul, NET Ministries: NET benefit banquet. ■ Wednesday, May 1: 11:30 a.m., St. Paul, Archbishop’s Residence: Mass and lunch with St. Thomas Academy’s swim team state champions. ■ Thursday, May 2: 7:30 a.m., St. Paul, Dorothy Day Center: The Dorothy Day Center Community Breakfast. 11 a.m., Oakdale, Guardian Angels Catholic Church: 81st Biennial ACCW Convention Mass, Installation of officers, reaffirm board members and luncheon. 3 p.m., St. Paul, The St. Paul Seminary: Vespers and Rector’s Council dinner. ■ Friday, May 3: 5 p.m., St. Paul, The St. Paul Seminary: Holy hour with ordinandi. ■ Saturday, May 4: 10 a.m., Minneapolis, Basilica of St. Mary: Diaconal ordination for Theology III seminarians. ■ Sunday, May 5: 12 p.m., Eagan, Church of St. John Neumann: Sunday Liturgy and blessings of Emmaus Chapel, altar, and social hall.

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■ Tuesday, May 7: 8:30 a.m., St. Paul, Archbishop’s Residence: Scheduling meeting with staff. 12 p.m. St. Paul, St. Catherine University: Board meeting. ■ Wednesday, May 8: 8:30 a.m., St. Paul, Archbishop’s Residence: Planning for “lectio divina” at the University of St. Thomas.

NOTICE

Catholic Athletic Association

2 p.m., St. Paul, The St. Paul Seminary: Theatrical performance, “Saved by the Guillotine.”

2:45 p.m., St. Paul, Cathedral of St. Paul: Archbishop will close the 2 p.m. Family May Day Rosary Procession at the Cathedral.

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3:30 p.m. St. Paul, Chancery: Corporate Board meeting. ■ Tuesday, May 9: 9 a.m., Stillwater, Church of St. Michael: Allschool Mass, eucharistic procession and reception with second-grade students.

From Age to Age

APRIL 25, 2013 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

17A

Is assisted living the right fit for Mom or Dad? By Dena Boheim For The Catholic Spirit

Navigating the senior housing and care industry can be challenging and overwhelming, especially if it is your first time exploring the options. With the right knowledge and tools, however, the journey can be a smoother one. Assisted living is one of many choices for you or a loved one. Assisted living is often thought of as a bridge between independent living and skilled nursing care — the best of both worlds. Older adults who require help with daily living activities but not complex medical care may find that assisted living is the right combination of housing, personalized support and health care. With skilled caregivers always nearby, seniors find the support and assistance needed to remain as independent as possible.

Getting some help Seniors who seek assisted living services may have had a slight decline in health and need assistance performing one or more activities of daily living, such as bathing, grooming or dressing. Seniors who would like to live in a social environment with little responsibilities or where care is easily accessible whenever they may need it are the type of seniors you will find in an assisted living community. BigStockphoto.com

PLEASE TURN TO ASSISTED ON PAGE 18A

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18A

From Age to Age

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT â&#x20AC;˘ APRIL 25, 2013

life is good

Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s on the Archbishopâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mind? Find out what heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s thinking in every issue of The Catholic Spirit

Assisted living is bridge between independence and skilled nursing care CONTINUED FROM PAGE 17A People often seek assisted living when they: â&#x2013; Need more help than their family and friends can provide, and in-home assistance isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t an option; â&#x2013; Feel isolated at home, lonely or depressed because they can no longer participate in social and recreational activities or see friends; â&#x2013; Suffer from limited mobility and are at risk for falling; â&#x2013; Find that their health issues make cooking, cleaning and laundry a burden â&#x20AC;&#x201D; or prevent them from accomplishing these tasks at all; â&#x2013; Can no longer drive, have limited access to public transportation and are increasingly housebound and dependent on others; â&#x2013; Need limited care after suffering from an illness or injury, or while recuperating from surgery. Services and assistance are tailored to the needs and preferences of the individual and may include: meal preparation; personal grooming; assistance with dressing, bathing, and other activities of daily living; medication management; transportation; recreation opportunities; housekeeping assistance; spiritual care offerings; and sometimes, even assist with things like pet care to support peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s preferred lifestyle.

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Typically, assisted living communities offer prepared meals three times a day and help with light housekeeping and laundry. Depending on the community, residents may have access to a fitness center, swimming pool, beauty salon, post office and transportation. Communities will also plan events, activities and trips that allow residents to remain active and social. In an assisted living community, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll find a secure, homelike environment, with care and services that are likely to include: â&#x2013; Private rooms, shared rooms or apartments â&#x2013; Full baths and kitchenettes or kitchens â&#x2013; Professional staff that includes nurses, physicians and other qualified caregivers â&#x2013; Medication reminders â&#x2013; Assistance with mobility, dressing, personal hygiene â&#x2013; Common dining room, sitting room, and meeting or activity rooms â&#x2013; Laundry, housekeeping and meals â&#x2013; Recreational activities and transportation Assisted living residents have the companionship of friends their own age, and they live as independently as possible â&#x20AC;&#x201D; with help available around the clock. Boheim is director of marketing at Benedictine Health System. This monthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Catholic Senior Services article is provided as a service of Benedictine Health System, an affiliate of CSS. Visit WWW.CATHOLICSENIORSERVICES.ORG or call the Catholic Senior Services Help Line at (877) 420-6461. For more information about Benedictine Health System, go to WWW.BHSHEALTH.ORG, or email INFO@BHSHEALTH. ORG.

19A

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • APRIL 25, 2013

Event centers on evangelization CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1A The theme dovetails with Archbishop Nienstedt’s recent pastoral letter on the new evangelization titled “I believed, therefore I spoke.” “Last year the theme was ‘Reason for Hope,’ and the youth gave us such a reason for hope by the way they poured out for the event and the way they participated,” said Bill Dill, youth ministry events coordinator for the Office of Marriage, Family and Life. “The faith in the room was so alive.” The number of youth registered last year exceeded 2,000, although all could not attend because of space limitations for the event, which was held at De-

LaSalle High School in Minneapolis. “This year, we’re responding to what the archbishop said in his letter,” Dill added. “The youth will come around the archbishop and celebrate their faith by saying, ‘We, too, believe and therefore speak.’” The logo for this year’s gathering was selected by archdiocesan youth, who had the opportunity to vote on one of six options presented by the Office of Marriage, Family and Life. Archdiocesan Youth Day 2013 is free. Registration is by group; youths interested in attending should contact their campus minister, parish youth minister or pastor. For more information, visit WWW.ARCH SPM.ORG.

Campaign would raise $165 million to support six ministries CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4A maintaining current programs to expanding ministries that are growing and need additional support, such as care for the elderly and Latino ministry, Father Laird said. A campaign would allow the creation of endowments to provide the funding needed to catch up with the need. Father Laird said people can also think about the campaign in terms of how they maintain their house. While homeowners pay for ongoing, “ordinary” expenses such as groceries and utility bills from their regular paycheck, they need to tap additional funds — perhaps every 10 years or so — to pay for “extra-ordinary”

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20A

APRIL 25, 2013 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Chaplain deserves ‘about three or four’ Medals of Honor, say veterans who knew him By Joseph Austin Catholic News Service

President Barack Obama April 11 awarded the Medal of Honor to famed Korean War chaplain Father Emil Kapaun, presenting it to the priest’s nephew, Ray Kapaun, nearly 22,604 days after his uncle’s death in a prisoner of war camp. “He should have got it a long time ago,” Joe Ramirez, a war veteran, told Catholic News Service in a telephone interview from Houston. He was baptized by Father Kapaun July 19, 1950, the day after their regiment had landed in Korea. “He deserves about three or four of them,” another soldier-friend of the priest, Herbert Miller, told CNS about the late priest, who is a candidate for sainthood. Father Kapaun was born on Holy Thursday at 11:30 a.m. April 20, 1916, to two hardworking parents in a little farmhouse in Kansas. He grew up an ordinary child in ordinary times, but God was calling him to something greater. “Now one remembers little things about him which were not significant then, but which might have let you know what sort of man he would be when the going was difficult,” Father Edward Malone, a Benedictine priest and professor, is quoted as saying in a 1954 biography of the priest written by Father Arthur Tonne. When he walked in, Father Kapaun seemed to light up the room, fellow soldier Mike Dowe said in an April 4 interview in Rosslyn, Va. Dowe retired as an Army colonel in 1970 and today is chief scientist at New Mexico-based Raytheon Ktech. He spoke to CNS while he was in the Washington area on business. Shortly after the Korean War ended — an armistice was signed July 27, 1953 — Dowe wrote about Father Kapaun in a Saturday Evening Post article in January 1954. “By his very presence, somehow, he could turn a stinking, louse-ridden mud hut, for a little while, into a cathedral,” he wrote. Yet, he added, there was nothing “ethereal about him, nothing soft or unctuous or holier-than-thou.” In the interview with CNS, Dowe said the priest used ordinary GI slang to communicate with the troops, and loved to talk about his mother’s good cooking.

Doing his job Deployed to the Korean War, Father Kapaun spent almost a year ministering to the soldiers on the frontlines. When he was not dodging bullets to drag wounded back to the aid stations, the priest would “drop in a shallow hole besides a nervous rifleman, crack a joke or two, hand him a peach, (and) say a little prayer with him,” Dowe wrote in 1954. In his recollection of the chaplain, Miller told CNS: “He didn’t stop to ask if I was Baptist or what. He just did his job.” One day, during the thick of the fighting, Miller was charged with the task of leading a platoon back to the headquarters. About halfway there, they were overwhelmed by a huge swarm of

Christian credibility rooted in actions and words, pope says By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service

The credibility of Christianity is undermined by pastors and faithful who preach one thing and do another, Pope Francis said. “One cannot proclaim the Gospel of Jesus without the tangible witness of one’s life,” the pope said April 14 during a homily at Rome’s Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls. Pope Francis said people outside the church “must be able to see in our actions what they hear from our lips.” “Inconsistency on the part of the pastors and the faithful between what they say and what they do, between word and manner of life, is undermining the church’s credibility,” the pope said. Pope Francis said St. Paul teaches Christians that following Christ requires a combination of three things: proclaiming the Gospel; bearing witness to the faith in one’s life, even to the point of martyrdom; and worshipping God with all one’s heart. The proclamation of the faith made by the apostles, he said, was not merely or primarily in words. Their lives were changed by their encounter with Christ, and it was through their actions and their words that Christianity spread. CNS photo/courtesy U.S. Army medic Raymond Skeehan

U.S. Army chaplain Father Emil Joseph Kapaun, who died May 23, 1951, in a North Korean prisoner of war camp, is pictured celebrating Mass from the hood of a jeep Oct. 7, 1950, in South Korea. He was captured about a month later. The Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military award for bravery, was awarded to the priest posthumously at the White House April 11.

enemy soldiers. “It was dark . . . but I saw a grenade and I couldn’t get away from it,” he said. The grenade exploded and seriously wounded him. Lying on the ground, he looked up just as a North Korean soldier pointed a pistol between his eyes, ready to execute him on the spot. “The first time I saw (Father Kapaun) is when he come across that road and pick me up,” said Miller.

Death march Captured almost immediately, the two were sent on a death march to a North Korean POW camp. The priest carried Miller about 30 miles through 20-40 below-zero temperatures, saving his life. “He didn’t have to be a POW, but he stayed back” to take care of the wounded, Ramirez told CNS. On the march, “leadership was manifest by example,” said Dowe, who first met Father Kapaun as he helped him carry a stretcher. After the long and arduous death march, the soldiers were only faced with more insurmountable conditions in the filth and despair of the POW camp. “When you’re in such a hopeless situation . . . the will to live means everything,” Dowe explained. “One night you give up and you’re gone in 24 hours.” Father Kapaun not only instilled in the men a will to live, but also a loyalty to their country and to their principles. “The Chinese hated him because they thought he had too much influence on the young guys,” said Ramirez. In his article, Dowe wrote: “Above all,

he urged them not to fall for the lying doctrines the Reds were trying to pound into our heads.” The priest would go cabin to cabin, stopping in for a few moments to talk and pray with the wounded and dying prisoners. “He would slip in the door, (pass) a pipe around, kneel down say a prayer for everybody not only Catholic but . . . whatever you were . . . (and) then he’d say, ‘Keep your chin up boys, because we’re going to come out of here,’” Miller told CNS. Father Kapaun helped wash the clothes of the dying, brought water to the thirsty, cleaned and picked maggots or lice out of the wounds of those who could not do it themselves, and boiled water in a little piece of metal he had found so the prisoners could drink it and not get dysentery. Sometimes he would even sneak into the warehouse to steal food for the starving men, explained Dowe. With men falling sick all around him, Father Kapaun eventually got a blood clot that led to pneumonia and fever. However, he recovered from the illness just long enough for the North Koreans to whisk him off to their death house, where he passed away. Dowe remembers the moment when they took him away. “We all said, ‘Hey! He’s getting better’ . . . but the soldiers came in with bayonets. Father said, ‘Hey, don’t fight!’” and then turning to Dowe, he said, “Mike, I’m going where I always wanted to go.”

The Overheard section will return in the next issue

Feeding God’s flock In the day’s Gospel reading, Jesus tells Peter to feed his sheep. “These words are addressed first and foremost to those of us who are pastors: We cannot feed God’s flock unless we let ourselves be carried by God’s will even where we would rather not go, unless we are prepared to bear witness to Christ with the gift of ourselves, unreservedly, not in a calculating way, sometimes even at the cost of our lives,” Pope Francis said. “The testimony of faith comes in very many forms,” the pope said. “In God’s great plan, every detail is important even yours, even my humble little witness, even the hidden witness of those who live their faith with simplicity in everyday family relationships, work relationships, friendships.” While most Christians are called to the “middle class of holiness” of fidelity and witness in the normal business of everyday life, Pope Francis noted how in some parts of the world even average Christians suffer, are persecuted and even die for their faith in Christ. Looking at what it means to worship God with all one’s heart, the pope said it, too, has a very practical, concrete expression. Worshipping God is not simply a matter of prayer — although that is a big part of it — but rather it means demonstrating in one’s life that God alone is God. “This has a consequence in our lives: We have to empty ourselves of the many small or great idols that we have and in which we take refuge, on which we often seek to base our security,” he said. “They are idols that we sometimes keep well hidden,” like ambition, careerism or a drive to dominate others, he said. “This evening I would like a question to resound in the heart of each one of you, and I would like you to answer it honestly: Have I considered which idol lies hidden in my life that prevents me from worshipping the Lord?”

Celebrating 65 years of mentoring young athletes

The Catholic Spirit April 25, 2013 8-page pullout section

Inside: Pro athletes thankful for lessons learned — 3B It all started with a $37 check — 4B-5B Former players, coaches recall CAA’s impact on their lives — 8B

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • APRIL 25, 2013

Catholic Athletic Association

Six decades later, league continues to thrive By Dave Hrbacek

Catholic CAA-affiliated schools

The Catholic Spirit

Mark Courtney was in his mid-20s when he took over as athletic director for the Catholic Athletic Association. It was during the presidency of Jimmy Carter, before the hostage crisis in Iran. He was hired in 1977 and is only the sixth athletic director in the CAA’s 65 years. Times were good when he started, and the league continues to thrive today. Currently, there are 41 Catholic schools and 13 non-Catholic schools fielding teams in nine sports during fall, winter and spring. “Overall, I think we’re holding our own,” said Courtney, 59, who played in the CAA himself, on the baseball team at St. Mark School in St. Paul. “We do not have as many schools, but more teams from each school. “When I went to St. Mark’s, you had an eighth-grade basketball team. If you didn’t make it, you . . . didn’t play. You could [only] play intramurals. Now, for example, at Nativity, which is a big school, they have two eighth-grade boys basketball teams, they have three seventh-grade boys basketball teams, they have two sixthgrade boys basketball teams.”

A chance to play The idea — as it has been all along — is to say yes to every grade-school boy and girl who wants to play. Although the CAA has produced its share of top-level athletes — including Matt Birk, who recently won a Super Bowl with the Baltimore Ravens — that isn’t the goal. “We don’t think of ourselves as being a feeder program,” Courtney said. “We’re providing a recreational activity for the Catholic grade schools and I think we’re doing a pretty good job getting those kids a chance to play.” In fact, when asked to describe what he is most proud of during his 36-year stint as A.D., he mentions helping one local school participate in the CAA that was struggling financially. About four years ago, he talked to a neighbor that worked for St. Peter Claver School in St. Paul. Located in the heart of the area that CAA serves, the school had been re-opened for several years, but wasn’t fielding CAA teams.

Dave Hrbacek / The Catholic Spirit

CAA athletic director Mark Courtney stands in the gym at the St. Francis School building (now St. Francis-St. James United), where the program got started in 1948.

When Courtney asked his neighbor why the school wasn’t participating, she said there wasn’t enough money. So, Courtney and others had a discussion, and decided to buy basketball uniforms for the kids who wanted to play. “We didn’t charge them [for the uniforms],” he said. “They had such a great experience. Their kids didn’t win [the championship] that year, but they did really well. This year, they beat everybody.” The boys team ended up winning not only the CAA championship, but the overall Twin Cities championship. They played champions from two other leagues in Minneapolis and its suburbs, and won both games by more than 20 points each. But their success isn’t what makes Courtney smile as he recounts the story. “We had some kids who weren’t playing [CAA basketball] because they didn’t have enough money,” Courtney said. “We got them playing. It was just a great experience for them and the whole school. They draw really well. The whole community comes out [to watch the games].”

Congratulations to the Catholic Athletic Association on 65 years of service that has enhanced the lives of thousands of boys and girls in our community!

Expanding reach Perhaps, the greatest challenge CAA faces in the future is declining enrollment overall in Catholic schools. Fortunately, while the number of students has gone down, the number of CAA participants has not. “We have more teams now than there ever were before, even though there were more kids at the schools then,” Courtney said. What has helped keep the numbers up is the addition of non-Catholic schools, plus a geographic expansion. The CAA started as exclusively Catholic in 1948, when Bob Doran, John Hajlo and Father Otto Neudecker founded the program out of St. Francis in St. Paul. Eventually, the net widened to include non-Catholic schools, and continues to do so today. In addition, the CAA now has four schools in Wisconsin. For the most part, Courtney says the CAA will maintain its current list of sports offerings: boys and girls soccer, volleyball and cross country in the fall; boys and

St. Agnes, St. Paul St. Ambrose, Woodbury St. Croix Catholic, Stillwater St. Francis-St. James United, St. Paul Faithful Shepherd, Eagan St. Elizabeth Anne Seton, Hastings Highland Catholic, St. Paul Holy Spirit, St. Paul Community of Saints, West St. Paul Holy Trinity, South St. Paul Hill-Murray, Maplewood Immaculate Conception, Columbia Heights St. Jerome, Maplewood St. John the Baptist, New Brighton St. John the Evangelist, Little Canada St. Joseph, Rosemount St. Joseph, West St. Paul St. Jude of the Lake, Mahtomedi St. Mark, St. Paul Maternity of Mary-St. Andrew, St. Paul Nativity of Our Lord, St. Paul St. Odilia, Shoreview St. Pascal Baylon, St. Paul St. Mary of the Lake, White Bear Lake St. Peter, North St. Paul St. Pius X, White Bear Lake Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Maplewood St. Rose of Lima, Roseville St. Thomas Academy, Mendota Heights Transfiguration, Oakdale St. Thomas More, St. Paul Convent of the Visitation, Mendota Heights St. Peter Claver, St. Paul St. Charles Borromeo, Minneapolis Ascension, Minneapolis St. Helena, Minneapolis Holy Family Academy, St. Louis Park St. Bridget, River Falls, Wis. St. Ann, Somerset, Wis. St. Mary, New Richmond, Wis. St. Patrick, Hudson, Wis. Source: CAA

girls basketball, and outdoor hockey in the winter; and baseball, girls softball, swimming, golf and track in the spring. However, recently there has been discussion about adding lacrosse, a sport that is growing fast in Minnesota and across the nation. A handful of schools have expressed interest in having lacrosse teams, and Courtney said the CAA might have lacrosse as early as next year.

Congratulations to the

Catholic Athletic Association on its

65th anniversary of creating memories for the young athletes of St. Paul.

CRETIN-DERHAM HALL 550 S. Albert St. • Saint Paul, MN 55116 651-690-2443 • www.c-dh.org

Become Part of the Legacy

Catholic Athletic Association

APRIL 25, 2013 â&#x20AC;˘ THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Pro athletes thankful for life lessons learned in CAA By Dave Hrbacek

Catholic Athletic Association Hall of Fame

The Catholic Spirit

Matt Birk chuckles when he thinks back to his playing days in the CAA. Now a Super Bowl champion with the Baltimore Ravens, he notes â&#x20AC;&#x201D; perhaps amazingly â&#x20AC;&#x201D; that he did not play football in the CAA while attending Nativity of Our Lord School in St. Paul. Rather, he focused his attention on soccer, basketball, track and baseball. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I played everything except footBIRK ball,â&#x20AC;? said Birk, who enjoyed 10 years with the Minnesota Vikings and four with the Ravens before retiring shortly after his team won the Super Bowl in February. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Jack Peick [physical education teacher] was my coach in everything. He was the guy at Nativity that coached everything. I can remember even at a young age when he was coaching us in basketball.â&#x20AC;? How could he forget the intense regimen on the court during practices. He and the other players were asked to run what were known as â&#x20AC;&#x153;Lakers.â&#x20AC;? It involved bending down and pushing a carpeted board on wheels up and down the court. Little did Peick know the dividends that simple drill would pay for Birk in the NFL. â&#x20AC;&#x153;He didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t just teach us about basketball, we trained for it,â&#x20AC;? Birk said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I think thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s important. Basketball practice was hard. For me, that was a great lesson to learn for life, and it served me especially well in football. At a young age, he helped get into my mind that you had to work hard, you had to endure the physical pain of this sport, of the training, to get better.

Jim Rantz: 25th Anniversary 1973 Most Outstanding Male Athlete Paul Molitor: 50th Anniversary 1998 John W. Hajlo Most Outstanding Athlete of the Half Century Chris Weinke: Robert G. Doran Most Outstanding Male Athlete from 19731998 Jean Tierney Holt: Father Otto Neudecker Most Outstanding Female Athlete from 1973-1998

Hall of Fame inductees

Dave Hrbacek / The Catholic Spirit

John Hannahan, center, enjoys some time with sons Jack, left, and Buzz at the annual CAA banquet on Feb. 11. All played in the CAA, with Jack going on to play Major League Baseball. He currently is an infielder with the Cincinnati Reds.

2003: George P. Sweeney 2004: Ed Brandt and Bill Ivory 2007: Tim Tschida 2009: Matt Birk 2010: Dennis Denning 2011: Tom Hansen, Jim Pacholl and Wally Wescott 2012: Ruth Opatz Sinn and Jeff Whisler

2013: Bob Doane, Ted Steichen, Bob Tschida

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s definitely one of my strengths, my willingness to endure and go through that discipline as a football player.â&#x20AC;?

and their lifeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work to the kids to make athletics a positive experience for thousands and thousands of kids.â&#x20AC;?

at Highland Catholic School in St. Paul. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m proud to be from the CAA. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s my roots and Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m proud of it.â&#x20AC;?

For that valuable lesson, Birk is grateful. And, no doubt Peick is more than happy to have provided such inspiration. He must be proud, too, that Birk became a member of the CAA Hall of Fame. The 1994 Cretin-Derham Hall grad was inducted in 2009 and considers it â&#x20AC;&#x153;a special deal.â&#x20AC;?

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s my rootsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;

He also was proud to attend the banquet to congratulate his grade school coach, Bob Tschida, who was one of three inductees into the CAA Hall of Fame this year. Jack was there with his father, John, and brother, Buzz, who played with him at Highland Catholic and played some professional baseball in the Philadelphia Phillies organization.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a great honor to be associated with an institution like the CAA,â&#x20AC;? Birk said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I think of Jack Peick, Bob Doane, Joe Meyer from St. Mark. Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a lot of legendary St. Paul coaches and administrators that have participated. They gave their lives

Highland Park Little League and Hi-Tower Babe Ruth

congratulates the Catholic Athletic Association on 65 years of Baseball.

Hill-Murray School Congratulates the CAA

Birk was not able to attend the annual CAA banquet this year in which Doane was inducted into the CAA Hall of Fame. But another pro athlete was. Major League Baseball player Jack Hannihan, who signed with Cincinnati during the off-season, squeezed in the banquet before leaving for spring training the next morning. Despite the time crunch, it was a donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;tmiss for him. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It [playing in the CAA] is my foundation and I go back to it whenever I need to,â&#x20AC;? said Hannihan, who played baseball

â&#x20AC;&#x153;What Mr. Tschida did was make baseball fun and exciting,â&#x20AC;? Jack said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;When you showed up, you were excited to be there. He never yelled at you. He was always there for us. He taught us the game.â&#x20AC;?

Congratulations CAA on 65 Years! Special thanks to coaches: â&#x20AC;˘ John Tauer â&#x20AC;˘ Dennis Denning â&#x20AC;˘ Bob Doane â&#x20AC;˘ Jack Peick

Mark & Heidi Wingerd Thank you for 65 years of preparing students to succeed not only in athletics, but in life. CAAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s impact on our youth goes well

Thank you CAA and dedicated volunteer ffeerence in the coaches who have made a diff lives of St. Paul area youth for 65 yearss. -BSQFOUFVS "WFOVF &BTU t .BQMFXPPE ./ t IJMM NVSSBZ PSH -BSQFOUFVS "WFOVF &BTU t .BQMFXPPE ./ t IJMM NVSSBZ PSH

beyond the playing field. Congratulations on your milestone anniversary! www.ccf-mn.org

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • APRIL 25, 2013

It all started with a $37check

65 years of CAA By Dave Hrbacek The Catholic Spirit

World War II had ended earlier in the decade, and returning vets either were starting families or returning to them. Catholic schools were going strong, but a sports program serving their youth folded in 1947. What to do? A priest at St. Francis de Sales in St. Paul, Father Otto Neudecker, decided to run a sports league out of his parish and school. He consulted Bob Doran, who had started St. Patrick’s Guild in his basement. They decided it was time to start an organization, and the Catholic Athletic Association was born in 1948. Doran wasted no time recruiting the CAA’s first athletic director, John Hajlo. They had met in the Twin Cities, but Hajlo was now living in Chicago. With a little arm twisting by Doran, Hajlo brought his family back to the Twin Cities and took the job.

Starting from scratch Both of those families are going strong in the CAA today, with Doran’s son Tim serving as the current president, Hajlo’s daughter Nancy Johnson serving on the board of directors, and Hajlo’s son Michael serving on the advisory board. Each family has extended its participation into the third generation, with Tim Doran and Nancy Johnson overseeing their children’s participation, plus doing some coaching along the way. Not bad for a league that started with just a small handful of cash. “They started from scratch; there was no money,” said Jim Pacholl, 87, one of those World War II vets who returned home to his parish of St. Francis after the war and started coaching the first year the CAA existed. He stayed at it for more than three decades, and coached the likes of Dennis Denning, a highly successful baseball coach at Cretin-Derham Hall (where he played) and the University of St. Thomas (where he also played). “It’s helped over 750,000 kids over the years,” said Denning, 68. “And, it all started with a $37 check, with everybody volunteering just so that the kids could get opportunities to participate in athletics — plus, parents and coaches. And, it’s still going.” Denning, who played baseball at St. Francis, was one of the first CAA participants to reach the professional level. He was drafted by the Baltimore Orioles after graduating from St. Thomas, and was working his way up the system when a man by the name of Paul Molitor altered his career path. “I was teaching a phy-ed class in the fifth grade at St. Luke’s,” Denning said. “I was pitching and the ball came back to me and Molitor went home and we got him in a ‘hot box’ [rundown] . . . . So, I’m chasing him down and he stops on a dime. Now, I’ve got to jump over him, and I broke my fall with my throwing arm. I broke my wrist.” That was the end of his playing career, while Molitor went on to play in the majors for 21 years with three teams, including the Minnesota Twins, and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2004.

Stories around the table But Denning tells the story today about his broken wrist with no regrets. In fact, he talks about his playing days, the CAA and more when he joins a group of nine other men with league connections every Wednesday at DiGidio’s on St. Paul’s West Seventh Street. Those wanting to know CAA highlights that span 65 years need only come to the restaurant and grab a chair at

the large table where these men have been sitting on Wednesdays for the last 25 years. Pacholl, for one, can tell you all about Father Neudecker, a rugged German priest who had a love for both music and boxing. He was absolutely tireless in his push to help the CAA grow. “Father Neudecker [who died in 1990] was the hardest working man I’ve ever seen in my life,” Pacholl said. “Twenty-four hours a day was not enough for that man. . . . He never slept.” Another CAA participant who recalls Father Neudecker’s passion is Ken Markwardt, who got involved in the CAA in 1953. He did accounting work at St. Patrick’s Guild at that time, and Bob Doran recruited him to help with finances. Now a trustee, he has served on the CAA board of directors and as treasurer. He also got into the boxing ring when Father Neudecker started a boxing program in the 1950s. “We had at least 10 kids in the boxing program at St. Francis,” Markwardt, 85, said. “And, Father Neudecker would spar with them. How can you hit a priest?” He still wonders what happened to the ring that took six months to build.

Living history Statistics on the CAA are as elusive as that old St. Francis

boxing ring. Part of the problem is that some of the administrators and coaches have been around so long that the details have been internalized more than officially recorded. Lots of ideas and information were hand scribbled on napkins and notepads in those early days, a far cry from today’s digital technology. Bottom line: If it’s history you want, then you have to get it the old-fashioned way by talking to those who lived it. Markwardt and two of the members of the Doran family, Tim and his brother Mike, recently sat down at a restaurant next door to St. Patrick’s Guild and spilled their knowledge of CAA history, having lived much of it themselves. They talked about the music program Father Neudecker formed in the 1950s, which was one of the more interesting decades of the CAA’s 65-year existence. Ken and his wife of 63 years, Bernice, raised their five children in White Bear

Catholic Athletic Association 5B

Photos are from throughout the years of the CAA. Pictured at top right is Bob Doran, co-founder of CAA.

Lake after moving there in 1950, but that did not put them out of Father Neudecker’s reach. “He gave my oldest boy his alto clarinet,” Markwardt said. “Father Neudecker was as much of a musician as anyone. He majored in music at St. Thomas.” Unfortunately, the music program was short-lived, starting and ending in the 1950s. Another intriguing program that got started in that decade was the Boys Worker Program, which was designed to help young boys get out or stay out of trouble with the law. Dick Mulcrone was hired as its first director, then Joe Azzone replaced him several years later. “I think it kept a lot of those kids on the straight and narrow,” Markwardt said. “Dick and Joe were great guys — no nonsense. Those two guys had a big influence on those kids. Joe would take them to the gym at the Public Safety

Building and get them into boxing.” The CAA has offered just about every sport there is over the years, including bowling. Current athletic director Mark Courtney, who came on board in 1977, says there has been talk of starting lacrosse next spring. The sport has caught fire in Minnesota in the last five to 10 years, and the CAA is hearing requests from schools to start a lacrosse program. Over the years, the CAA has been able to keep up with trends in sports and the overall interest of its participants. Leaders have always stated that the goal is not to produce highly skilled athletes who go on to play in college and the pros — although a number of them have done just that — but, rather, to give every interested child the chance to play sports. That philosophy led the CAA to provide more opportunities for girls. The landmark federal legislation, Title IX, mandated equal opportunity for girls in sports, but the CAA didn’t wait until it was passed in 1972 to serve Catholic girls in sports. “They were way ahead of that,” said Mike Doran, who helps run St. Patrick’s guild with Tim and has been closely involved with the CAA over the years. “There was kind of an explosion of girls sports and the CAA was right there. The seed of it started in the 1950s.” Unfortunately, Bob Doran didn’t live to see the passage of Title IX. He died of cancer on March 15, 1971 at the age

of 48. But, by then, the CAA was running smoothly, and it continued to build on the foundation he had laid. And, make no mistake — the CAA had Doran’s fingerprints all over it. “I think the CAA and Bob Doran in those early years were synonymous,” said Mike Doran, who has been on the CAA board since 1983. “It was his baby. He really loved the organization. . . . He had a lot of ideas. He made it fun. “He left a big void. The board really had to step up and be the glue to hold it together.”

Secure future And, hold it together they did. During the turbulent 1960s and 1970s, the CAA remained steady, despite eventual downturns in school enrollment. Even today, the CAA, which has no formal ties to the archdiocese, always looks for ways to stay healthy and continue to offer opportunities for grade-school youth. In recent years, two important types of boundaries have been expanded. First, the number of non-Catholic schools has grown. Today, there are 13 non-Catholic schools in the CAA. Second, the geographic reach has been extended, to Minneapolis and its suburbs on the west (four schools) and Wisconsin on the east (four). This expansion suggests that the CAA will be around for a long time. And, that’s good news for thousands of grade school kids waiting for the day when they will put on their school uniforms. “I think it’s going great,” said Courtney, one of only six athletic directors in the CAA’s history. The others were Hajlo, Bill Ivory, Tom Perrault, Tom Gallivan and Tom Cotter. “The program’s doing well,” Courtney said. “We’re sound financially. I think things are going pretty well. I don’t have any suggestions [for improvement].”

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • APRIL 25, 2013

Catholic Athletic Association

Girls find opportunities aplenty over league’s history By Dianne Towalski The Catholic Spirit

Ruth Opatz Sinn has had a stellar career in girls and women’s basketball. She played for the University of St. Thomas and eventually was inducted into the university’s Hall of Fame. In 2005, she became the head coach of the women’s team, and has been named the MIAC Coach of the Year twice. But it took a quick move by the CAA for her to get involved in the sport at all. As a student at St. Peter School in North St. Paul, she was a cheerleader. But in the seventh grade she was cut from the squad that cheered for boys basketball. She was devastated and needed to fill the winter sports season with another activity. It was 1975, and St. Peter’s didn’t offer basketball for girls. Sinn’s mom took the situation into her own hands. “She petitioned the Catholic Athletic Association to start a girls’ basketball team at St. Peter’s. She found a coach — a dad from the neighborhood — and we played,” Sinn said. “And I loved basketball.”

More than athletics The CAA has been giving girls the opportunity to participate in athletics since 1948. Talking about co-founder John Hajlo on the 25th anniversary of the organization in an editorial in the Oct. 31, 1973 St. Paul Dispatch, Oliver Towne had this to say: “Much of John’s success has been be-

Photo courtesy of the University of St. Thomas

Head Coach Ruth Sinn talks to her players on the sideline during a MIAC basketball game against Augsburg College on January 5, 2013, at Schoenecker Arena in the Anderson Athletic and Recreation Complex. St. Thomas won the game 78-55.

cause he understood, 25 years ago, that this is a woman’s as much as a man’s

world and that in athletics, women are as apt and physically equal to men as in any

job, profession or career.” “I think that athletics should be about the experience — yes, the wins and the losses — but more than that it’s the person you become in the process,” said Sinn. “I give the CAA a lot of credit for getting out there and getting girls involved so that they could have that opportunity to learn confidence, to learn leadership, to learn assertiveness, to learn dedication and commitment.” “The CAA continues to be a vital part of the Catholic school experience,” said Midge Hernandez, the first female president of the CAA board of directors and current advisory board member. “It includes everyone and teaches young people how to work with each other.” There are currently hundreds of girls participating in CAA sports programs, including volleyball (100 teams) and girls basketball (90 teams). “Girls have come a long way in athletics and the list keeps getting longer of those who go on to play in high school and college,” Hernandez said. “Boys and girls who participate in the CAA have friendships and memories that will last a lifetime.” CAA still plays an important role for girls today. “It’s an opportunity to bring young ladies together in a different setting,” Sinn said. “It’s an educational setting, but it’s a different setting than the classroom. They can be who they are and they can experience that growth and that development. I think it’s huge.”

Congratulations CAA on 65 years!

Thanks Norma and Bob for helping to start the CAA and St. Patrick’s Guild — From all of the Dorans and the team at St. Patrick’s Guild

Established 1948

Established 1949

Get all your Sacramental Gifts, Books, Music, Church Renovation and Supplies from St. Patrick’s Guild www.stpatricksguild.com

Catholic Athletic Association

APRIL 25, 2013 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Former players, coaches recall CAA’s impact, memorable moments SOPHIE SCHWARTZ Schwartz participated in the CAA from 2005 to 2009 at Transfiguration in Oakdale in soccer, volleyball, basketball, softball and track. She is currently a senior at Hill-Murray School in Maplewood, where she has played basketball, volleyball and softball. What I enjoyed most: “The opportunity it provided. It gave me a chance to try all different kinds of sports and excel at each level. I had the chance to play with my friends while proudly representing my school. . . . Also knowing that my family had a part in that opportunity made it even more meaningful. My SCHWARTZ grandfather, John Hajlo, was a co-founder of the CAA.” Memorable moment: “I remember the time when I was so close to winning a CAA championship and finally getting a championship T-shirt that I could taste it. Almost every year we went to the championship game for softball, and every year it would come down to us and St. John the Baptist. Each year we would work so

hard only to fall short and lose in that final game. I remember being so frustrated and angry because all I had ever wanted was one of those T-shirts. “To me that T-shirt represented a champion, and I wanted to be a champion more than anything. . . . Although, to my disappointment, we never won those T-shirts, I got something much more valuable. I learned how to be resilient. All those close calls taught me to never to concede or give up. It is a skill that has helped me in so many aspects of my life. Even though it may have been nice to win just one of those games, I know I needed the lessons that losing those games taught me.” How CAA has changed me: “Participating in the CAA made me a better person, regardless of the athletic skill and abilities I gained. The program taught me how to have pride in my team, my school, my family and the program as a whole. I learned that what you do as an individual reflects on every group you are a part of. This forced me to hold myself to a higher standard. It made me understand that being a good sport and a classy competitor can go a long way in this world. Being those things can be tough to do but they are what is really important in the end. The CAA gave me character and made me into a well-rounded, respectable

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and determined young athlete.”

MARK WINGERD Wingerd attended Nativity of Our Lord School in the 1970s and 1980s, participating on the swim, baseball, basketball, football and soccer teams. His three sons have attended Nativity, and Wingerd has coached basketball and baseball there. He currently coaches baseball with a friend who played on the same Nativity basketball team with him. What I enjoyed most: “There is nothing better than being on a team with all of your buddies and enjoying the comradery. That was true when I was a player in 1980 and as a coach in 2012. Many of my CAA teammates are still my best friends today.” Memorable moment: “I have many memorable moments from the CAA, but what was most meaningful to me were the great coaches. I was lucky to have Dennis Denning, John Tauer, Bob Doane and Jack Peick as my coaches. They made sports fun and gave us great life lessons.” How CAA has changed me: “The CAA was much more than a sports organization to me and my teammates. It helped shape us as young men, teaching us about sportsmanship, hard work, perseverance, loyalty, community, commitment, dedication and pride in our school. All of these

traits have contributed to the successful careers of my Nativity teammates.

NICOLE (PERSBY) GIEFER Giefer played girls softball, baseketball and soccer for St. Peter in North St. Paul from about the third grade until eighth grade, when she began attending Hill-Murray School in Maplewood. She later coached the girls sixthgrade basketball team for one year at St. Peter. What I enjoyed most: “Looking back, the thing that I enjoyed most was playing against all the different Catholic schools and then becoming friends with some of those people when we entered high school together.” Memorable moment: “I remember when I was in seventh grade playing on the basketball team, and we were in a tournament at Hill-Murray. I was also on a traveling basketball team and juggling game times and schedules. I showed up to the championship game late due a conflict with my traveling team. When I got to the Hill-Murray field house we were losing. I was so bummed. All I wanted to do was help our team win. At the time, our uniforms were reversible. I showed up PLEASE TURN TO ORGANIZATION’S ON PAGE 8B

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • APRIL 25, 2013

Catholic Athletic Association

Organization’s impact felt long after playing days CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7B wearing the wrong color on my jersey. “So I ran into the gym only to turn back and run to the bathroom to flip my jersey around to the correct color (it was either blue or yellow). I sat on the bench waiting for my turn to go in the game. After halftime I went in the game. It was a nail-biter throughout, but we ended up winning. I had never felt more excited or closer to my team than at that moment.” How CAA has changed me: “This goes back to the friendships I made along the way. It is nice to be competitive against people and then turn around and become their friend years down the road.”

FATHER JOHN UBEL Father Ubel is the rector of the Cathedral of St. Paul. Playing days: “I was a member of the 1977 city championship baseball team at Nativity of Our Lord School in St. Paul. While I usually rode the bench, I took pride in keeping a clean and accurate scorebook, and occasionally coaching first base, alerting runners to potential ‘pick-

off’ throws from the opposing pitchers. I have kept in a scrapbook the program from the championship game as a proud memento of that day.” Coaching days: “As a priest, I was privileged to coach seventh-grade basketball [at St. Thomas Academy] for four years in the early 1990s, and am happy to report that I only received one technical foul during that time. No, it was not for arguing with the referee. I did not allow that from my players, and did my level best to avoid it myself. I knew it was important to model good sportsmanship.” Memorable moment: “In a championship game, I called one too many timeouts (two weeks before Chris Webber infamously did the same thing for the University of Michigan), thereby incurring a penalty, enabling the opposing team (my alma mater at Nativity) to score some key points near the end of the game — the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. The CAA has been part of both in my life, facilitating valuable lessons on and off the field and the court. Congratulations on being such an integral part of the lives of so many young people in our Catholic schools.”

Congratulations, CAA,

on 65 years of enriching lives! From the students, families, staff & leadership of St. John the Baptist Catholic Parish School in New Brighton

www.archspm.org • TheCatholicSpirit.com

The Bible Learning more about our faith The Catholic Spirit’s 4-page Rediscover: pullout section in each issue of 2013 highlights a new Rediscover: theme for you to reflect on and discuss with others. Coming up May 9: What does the Church say

How should I think about and read the Bible?

HEART OF THE MATTER Jeff CAVINS

very Catholic who rediscovers their faith is invited to continue to deepen their relationship with Jesus Christ by reading the Bible frequently. The Church knows that reading the Bible must be a part of a healthy ongoing relationship with Jesus. Reading the Bible is about relationship. The Church roots us in the reality that the Word is first and foremost a person, Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says, “The Church forcefully and specifically exhorts all the Christian faithful . . . to learn ‘the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ,’ by frequent reading of the divine Scriptures.” St. Jerome once said, “Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ” (CCC, 133). The Bible is different than any other compilation of writings the world has ever known. In it, God reveals himself to us in order that we can come to know him and learn to trust him with our decisions, challenges and aspirations. The Bible is unique in that it is inspired by the Holy Spirit. God is the author

The Catholic Spirit • April 25, 2013

and he inspired human authors to write, all the while making full use of their own faculties and powers.

Thirsting for God When we read and interpret the Bible within the context of the Church, we come to know God’s will for us more clearly. We come to know what God is like and what he expects of us. One of the great fruits that comes from reading and responding to the truths of the Bible is that we start to cultivate a trusting relationship with God. We come to understand that he is not arbitrary — that is to say, he doesn’t act out of impulse, chance or whim. No, God wants us to seek him, know him and trust him completely by living out his will for our lives. In fact, St. Augustine said, “God thirsts that we may thirst for him” (CCC, 2560). If you have recently rediscovered your faith, let me give you some good pointers that will enrich your experience with the Bible. Please turn to THREE on back page of section

Rediscover-faith.org

“When we read and interpret the Bible within the context of the Church, we come to know God’s will for us more clearly. We come to know what God is like and what he expects of us.” Jeff Cavins

Where did the Bible come from? Well, the Bible didn’t just drop down from heaven one fine day, nor did it appear suddenly on the earth, delivered by an angel of God. The Bible was written with primitive inks and pens by people just like you and me. They were divinely inspired in a way that none of us will fully understand in this life, but they were ordinary people with strengths and weaknesses. The Bible isn’t a book. It is a collection of books — 73 in all: 46 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament. Hence the name “Biblia” in Greek, which means “the books” or “library.” It is important to note that most Protestant and evangelical Bibles contain only 66 books. It was during the Reformation that non-Catholic Christians removed the following books: Tobit, Judith, Maccabees 1 and 2, Wisdom, Sirach, and Baruch. The Bible wasn’t written all at once, nor was it all written by CELEBRATING one person. In fact, 1,000 years elapsed between the writing of CATHOLICISM the book of Genesis and the writing of the book of Revelation. If you had lived in the court of King David (1000 to 962 Matthew B.C.), the only parts of what is today the Bible that you would have read are some of the stories from Genesis, the stories of KELLY the Exodus, the journey from Egypt to the Holy Land, and the stories of the Israelites settling in the Holy Land that we find in the book of Judges. The Old Testament was written and compiled between the 12th century and the second century B.C. It is divided into three categories: the Pentateuch, the Prophets and the Writings. The Pentateuch — which is also known as the Law, Torah, or the Five Books of Moses — consists of the first five books of the Old Testament: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. This was the embryo of the Bible. “The Bible is the The section known as the Prophets includes all the major and minor prophets of the Old Testament. And most profound finally, the Writings section includes the historical and sublime documents. The New Testament was written between A.D. 45 and collection of 150. It is made up of four narratives of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus: the Gospels; a narrative of the writings in apostles’ ministries in the early Church (Acts of the human history.” Apostles); 21 early letters consisting of Christian counsel, instruction, and encouragement (the Epistles); and Matthew Kelly Revelation, a book of prophecy. The prominent original language of the Old Testament was Hebrew; Greek was the language of the New Testament. What we have today is a translation into English from the original languages of the prophets, apostles and evangelists. In every case, it is important for us to realize that the cultures, countries and times were very different than what we experience today. Some things can mean one thing in one culture and something quite different in another culture. I learned this very quickly as I began to travel from country to country in my early years as a speaker. In our own lives, we experience this in misunderstandings between generations as close as parents and children. It is also critically important that we remember that the Bible, as we know it now, was not printed at all until almost 1,500 years after the birth of Jesus Christ. It is easy to forget in our modern world, that for almost one and a half millennia after the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, the only books that existed were handwritten.

Preserving Scripture Christians of all denominations around the world owe an enormous debt to the Catholic Church. The Church, inspired and guided by the Holy Spirit, is responsible for the formulation, preservation and integrity of the Sacred Scriptures. For 1,500 years, when there were no Baptists, Lutherans, Pentecostals, Methodists, Anglicans, Evangelicals, non-denominationals or any other Christian church of any type, the Catholic Church preserved the Scriptures from error, saved them from destruction and extinction, multiplied them in every language under the sun, and conveyed the truths they contained to people everywhere. The Bible is the most profound and sublime collection of writings in human history. It therefore goes without saying that these writings are difficult to understand. Individual interpretation of the Bible is a very slippery path that leads people to great confusion, heartache and distress. This is why the Catholic Church has, in her wisdom, so vigorously defended her sole right to interpret the meaning of the Scriptures throughout history. The living voice of the Catholic Church stands as a beacon for all men and women of good will, and announces the life and teachings of Jesus Christ with tradition in one hand and the Scriptures in the other. Kelly is an international best-selling author, speaker and founder of The Dynamic Catholic Institute.

The Catholic Spirit • April 25, 2013

Knock at door leads couple to By Dave Hrbacek The Catholic Spirit

A simple knock on the door helped Scripture come alive for Chad and Marilyn Crow of Transfiguration in Oakdale. The year was 1985 and the couple was living in the town of Jackson in southwestern Minnesota. When they came to the door, two Jehovah’s Witnesses greeted them and started a spiritual discussion. As Catholics, the Crows knew that what their visitors believed was different than what the Church taught. Yet, when it came time to open the Bible and use Scripture to support their point of view, they fell short — way short. “I was really, truly embarrassed how little I knew, even about finding the books in the Bible,” said Marilyn, 60. “But, I was pretty fascinated and impressed by how much I thought they knew.” That lack of Bible literacy nagged at both of them, and resulted in Chad joining a Bible study in Jackson not long after their encounter with the Jehovah’s Witnesses. It took Marilyn longer, but she eventually got on board in 1998, six years after they moved to the Twin Cities. She signed up for a nondenominational group called Bible Study Fellowship, and attended a program set up for women. “There were several Catholics in our group,” she said. “This other woman in my small group was a Catholic, and we both lamented over the fact that there wasn’t a Catholic Bible study for us to take.” So, they decided to start a Catholic Bible study of their own. They went to Father John Echert, pastor of St. Augustine in South St. Paul at the time, and got one going. It was all women at first, then they eventually decided to offer a combined study for both men and women, which they launched at St. Ambrose in Woodbury in the fall of 2004. In thier own words

Spiritual enrichment

Tune to “The Rediscover

Hour” on Relevant Radio The Crows say that delving into 1330 AM to hear Chad and Scripture has changed their spiritual lives. Marilyn Crow talk about the “It just makes God so much more importance of Bible study. personal,” Marilyn said. “And, that’s The show airs at 9 a.m. something I was probably lacking in my Friday, April 26, and is faith. I had a lot of knowledge, but I just rebroadcast Saturday at 6 lacked the [experience of] ‘God is really p.m., and Sunday at 9 a.m. personal to me.’ I think studying Scripture just brings it out. I think it helps you become so much more engaged in your sacramental life and Chad and Marilyn Crow your Church life. I think Scripture just enriches your spiritual reality.” And now, they are helping many others enjoy a similar experience by leading a Bible study at Transfiguration. Their “It just makes G current study is a 10-week program called “A Biblical Walk And, that’s someth Through the Mass.” It features weekly talks by local Scripture expert Jeff Cavins, who teaches on the Bible in the archdiocese faith. I had a lot of and across the country. [experience of] ‘ In 2008, the Crows went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land with Cavins. They didn’t see him much after that, but ran into I think studying Sc him just days after joining the parish in 2011. Their first Mass was Easter Sunday of that year, and they went again to daily it helps you beco Mass a few days later, and saw Cavins as they were walking out. your sacrament Turns out, he was going into a meeting with the pastor of Transfiguration, Father Bill Baer. “That Friday, we get a call from Father Baer: ‘Say, Jeff is going to start a Scripture study here and I’d like you two to lead it. stand in the spot. Would you consider that?’” said Chad, 62. “We’d been in the “Even now when we p parish, at that point, five days, and we were asked, ‘Would you these events took place. Y take this Scripture role on?’ I had to just laugh.” saw it. It gives you a very But, Father Baer knew what he was doing. They were the of what took place. It jus logical choice to lead, having gone through numerous Bible Encouraging numb studies, plus the pilgrimage to Israel with Cavins. In fact, that trip brought Scripture to life in a way that nothing else could They are hoping to bri have done. come for the Bible studie many as 350 people have “We walked the shores of the Sea of Galilee,” Marilyn said. they have led at Transfig “We also went to Caiaphas’ house, where Jesus was held “Actually, we have a gr before he was put on trial. We got to actually walk down in Marilyn said. “We have a there [the dungeon where Jesus was believed to be held] and

‘The breath of the Holy Spirit’

deeper study of Scripture

Dave Hrbacek / The Catholic Spirit

God so much more personal. ing I was probably lacking in my knowledge, but I just lacked the ‘God is really personal to me.’ ripture just brings it out. I think ome so much more engaged in tal life and your Church life.” Marilyn Crow

pray, we can envision where some of You’re not using your imagination. You y concrete vision, a picture in your mind st makes it come alive.”

ers

ing Scripture to life for the people who es. The numbers are encouraging. As e attended each of the three Bible studies guration since joining the parish. roup of teens” in the current study, a young woman in the parish, a college

age gal, who is leading a group of teens. We’re thrilled about that. And, there are married couples. I think in the studies, nearly half of the group are married couples and they’re studying together as a couple. That’s an incredible gift.” Perhaps the most encouraging statistic is the percentage of men comprising the Bible studies, around 40 to 45 percent. Chad is quick to explain why it’s important for men to read and study Scripture. “Men got very uninvolved in the Church” over the last several decades, Chad said. “We were so busy golfing and watching football games and working. . . . What happened is we lost the fingerprints of men, we lost their involvement [in the Church]. “It’s time for men to get up and play their role. Notice, I didn’t say women need to go away. Men need to assume leadership roles again, and taking things on and teaching that faith to their sons because that’s been gone for 40 years.” Part of “catching the fathers,” as Chad likes to say, is getting them to open a Bible and realize the power contained in its words. And, as they do so, they also will discover how much of the Mass is based on Scripture. And, rediscovering the Bible will help people rediscover the Mass. “When you study Scripture, your worship [at Mass] just comes alive,” Marilyn said. “When they read the epistles and the psalms and the Gospel, they just scream at you if you have an understanding of them. Otherwise, it can just skim over your head and not be so meaningful.”

A nagging wife is like a leaky faucet. A woman who has beauty but not brains is like a gold ring in a pig’s snout. These are among the more colorful similes you’ll find in Proverbs, the 24th of 73 books that make up the Bible, that dizzying mash-up of lineage and laws, covenants and concubines, parables and prophesies. A friend of mine grew up without a religious upbringing and now, as a mother, is trying to find a foothold in Christianity, something to pass on to her kids. She’s a diligent mom, the type who heeds “Consumer Reports” and Dr. REFERENCE Oz recommendations, so she feels that the first POINTS step in her spiritual quest is to read the Bible from cover to cover. Christina She’ll have to allocate a good chunk of time. CAPECCHI The Bible is nearly as long as all seven Harry Potter books combined, and its reach leaves the wizard in the dust; it is the bestselling book of all time. What are we to make of this book that we find in hotel rooms, that we swear on in trials and bring out for presidential inaugurations? How are we to approach something of such scope, from its opening verse, “In the For reflection beginning, when God created the What is one thing you can heavens and the earth,” to its last do during this Year of Faith line, “The grace of the Lord Jesus be to become more familiar with all”? with the Bible? The Catholic Church offers a clear and artful definition of the Bible: “Sacred Scripture is the speech of God as it is put down in writing under the breath of the Holy Spirit.” I love that visual of the Holy Spirit breathing life into its scrolls, elevating them from human effort to divine revelation. And how else could it have come to be, a single book that captures the entire message of salvation, from creation to the second coming? It’s not just a story; it’s the story, the one that precedes and explains all others. As Catholics we believe Scripture and tradition are interlocking halves of salvation history. Together they “make up a single sacred deposit of the Word of God,” according to a Vatican II document — which makes sense when you consider that the early apostles preserved and shared Christianity before the Bible was completed. The Church advises us to read the Bible in light of the Holy Spirit that inspired it, mindful of how the various pieces fit together and how they live in our 2,000-year tradition as the original Christian faith. We are to look at the sum of the parts, the big picture, which gives us a wholeness of truth. (So don’t get too hung up on that gold ring in the pig’s snout.) We’re asked to open our minds to our priests’ and bishops’ interpretation of Scripture and to study it on our own, for it has been written, St. Paul says, “for our instruction.” And how relevant it remains, millennia later — cautioning us against materialism and people pleasing, urging us to forgive, teaching us to pray, encouraging us to serve. Today, I mostly read Scripture online, mining the complete account on the U.S. bishops’ website and picking up random verses on Twitter. But I still have my very first Bible, a Precious Moments one whose cover shows a blond shepherd and a butterfly perched on his staff. My mom marked the books with gold tabs and helped orient me. I loved turning the thin pages and landing on illustrations of droopy-eyed children alongside stories that illuminated certain passages. I developed an early reverence for the Bible that one of my favorite nuns recently reinforced with softspoken eloquence. “Scripture study is the basis of our religious belief,” she told me. “We know we got it directly from the source, and I believe in going to the source.” Capecchi is a freelance writer from Inver Grove Heights.

Rediscover-faith.org

Book clubs enriching faith of participants ‘Time for God’ is next recommendation for reading and discussion groups The Catholic Spirit Sheryl Moran knows firsthand the positive difference that a Rediscover: Catholic Book Club can make. A member of Our Lady of Grace in Edina, Moran has been meeting with a group of five other women — some cradle Catholics, others converts — to enrich their faith by reading and discussing Matthew Kelly’s book “Rediscover Catholicism.” “It’s in a small group setting, where we can really allow God to work most profoundly in our lives,” she said. “Being able to say, ‘This is where I am right now in my faith,’ talking about where I want to be, and getting encouragement and suggestions from each other has just been a phenomenal experience.” The meetings have made a positive impact on her faith. “I have been encouraged to spend more time in prayer,” Moran said. “I’ve been trying to find different ways to pray that are speaking to me at this point in my faith journey. . . . To pray for each other in the group has been great.”

Meeting around the archdiocese About 500 Rediscover: Catholic Book Clubs have formed throughout the archdiocese since last December, when parishes distributed more than 180,000 free copies of Kelly’s book during Advent and Christmas. Our Lady of Grace is home to 23 book clubs with more than 200 members, said Ron Snyder, who serves on the parish’s Rediscover: steering committee. The clubs, which meet at various times and locations, include a variety of members, with some clubs serving specific groups: men only, women only, couples, mothers and daughters and young adults, for example. At St. Stephen in Anoka, 15 book clubs have been meeting with about 150 people participating, said faith formation director Mark Nuehring. “We decided to offer two discussion groups when we offer faith formation for children,” Nuehring said. “We had a number of younger families commit to participating in a Rediscover: [book club] because it was at a convenient time when their children were already occupied.” “We found that these young couples really enjoyed the process,” he said. “I can think of one specific example where the mom was going to sign up and the dad said, ‘Why don’t

I just come with you since Joey’s going to be in faith formation?’ These young couples found that they were really getting a lot out of it.” Holy Name of Jesus in Wayzata showed a video at Christmas Masses that included an invitation to join a book club, according to Patti Watkins, director of faith formation, who talked about her parish’s efforts April 19 on “The Rediscover Hour” on Relevant Radio. “We have a group of second-grade parents — four families — that were in a discussion group,” she said. “When the Rediscover: book came out, they met and decided as a group they want to [read and discuss it]. What they challenged each other to do was to invite one other couple that had never been part of the group or maybe wasn’t really engaged in the community.” “Those eight couples — I think it’s actually up to 10 now,” she added, “didn’t stop at the end of the book discussion. They’re still meeting monthly, getting together socially and sharing their faith.”

Next book With a special focus on prayer planned for Rediscover: next year, the initiative’s faith formation committee, in conjunction with Father Peter Laird, vicar general of the archdiocese, set out to find a book about prayer that could serve as the next book club recommendation. Their choice is “Time for God” by Father Jacques Philippe, a retreat leader and member of the Community of the Beatitudes founded in France in 1973. The international bestseller, which is just over 100 pages and retails for about $10, is available online and at local Catholic bookstores. “Many people today are thirsty for God and feel a desire for [an] intense, personal prayer life; they would like to be able to spend time praying as a regular thing,” Father Philippe writes in the book’s introduction. “But they encounter obstacles that prevent them from following the path seriously, and especially from persevering on it.” “My aim in this book,” he said, “is to provide advice and orientation and do that as simply and specifically as possible.” An online discussion guide for “Time for God” is being prepared by Father Andrew Cozzens, assistant professor of sacramental theology at the St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul. The guide will be available at REDIS COVER-FAITH.ORG (click on “Rediscover: Program Support) by the end of this month.

Catholic author added to 2013 Rediscover: Catholic Celebration The Catholic Spirit Catholic writer and theologian George Weigel is the latest addition to the lineup of internationally known speakers set for the 2013 Catholic Celebration on Saturday, Oct. 12 at the St. Paul RiverCentre. Weigel is Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C., and the author of numerous books. His most recent book, “Evangelical Catholicism: Deep Reform in the 21st-Century Church,” examines the current challenges and opportunities confronting the Catholic Church in the era of the “new evangelization.” The all-day celebration also will feature Mass, music and a chance to learn about faith formation, worship and service opportunities throughout the archdiocese and beyond. Other speakers scheduled for the event include: ■ Archbishop John Nienstedt. ■ Matthew Kelly, author of “Rediscover Catholicism” and founder of The Dynamic Catholic Institute. ■ Father Robert Barron, founder of the global ministry, Word on Fire, and the rectorpresident of Mundelein Seminary in the Archdiocese of Chicago. He also is the creator of the award-winning documentary series, “Catholicism” and an upcoming documentary on “The New Evangelization.” ■ Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville, Texas. ■ Martha Fernández-Sardina, a new evangelization speaker and former director of the Office for Evangelization in the Archdiocese of San Antonio, Texas. ■ Jason Evert, author and chastity speaker. The emcee for the day will be Jeff Cavins, founder of the Great Adventure Bible Study Series and director of the Archbishop Harry J. Flynn Catechetical Institute. The event will include tracks for youth and Spanish speakers. Registration will be available by the end of the month. For more information, visit REDISCOVER-FAITH.ORG.

Three suggestions for enriching your experience with the Bible Continued from first page of section First, you will want to purchase a Bible that you can enjoy for years to come. The Revised Standard Version: Catholic Edition (RSVCE) is the version the catechism cites and is very readable. The New American Bible (NAB) is another excellent choice as it is used in Mass. ■ Learn how to read the Bible. The 73 books of the Bible contain our Heavenly Father’s plan. This unified plan defines the problem and the solution to life’s biggest questions. This plan is somewhat hidden in the Bible due to the arrangement of the individual books within the canon. The mistake that many make is they approach the Bible as a book. In other words, they think that they can begin reading in Genesis and go all the way through Revelation and easily understand the plot and enjoy the story. Maybe you have tried this and experienced confusion. In order to get the storyline of the Bible you must

first recognize that it’s not a book but a library comprised of 73 books, divided into Old and New Testaments. A good place to start is to identify the books in the Bible that are narrative. In other words, which books keep the plot moving along. I would suggest reading these fourteen books in order: Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Joshua, Judges, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, Ezra, Nehemiah, 1 Maccabees, Luke and Acts. While reading the books in this fashion, you will get a sense of the storyline of Sacred Scripture. I would also recommend paying close attention to, and meditating on, the weekly Gospel readings presented in Mass. For a comprehensive program that will take you through the Bible, check out WWW.BIBLESTUDYFORCATHOLICS.COM. ■ Read the Bible with the catechism. It is important to read the Bible within the living tradition of the whole Church and to interpret it by keeping in mind the coherence of truths that have been defined by the Church.

As you are reading the Bible and you become curious about a particular text, check the Index of Citations in the back of the catechism and discover how the Church uses that text to explain the faith further. The catechism is a wonderful companion for your Bible reading. ■ Read “Verbum Domini.” One of the great gifts of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI was his post-synodal apostolic exhortation titled “Verbum Domini: The Word of the Lord.” This document deals with how Catholics should approach the Bible. This is the most comprehensive and up-todate document the Church has provided on this topic. It’s very readable and will give you great guidelines for a life of living in God’s Word. It’s free online, or you can buy it at your local Catholic bookstore. Cavins is founder of the Great Adventure Bible Study Series and director of the Archbishop Harry J. Flynn Catechetical Institute.

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The Catholic Spirit • April 25, 2013

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