The Catholic Spirit - September 28, 2012

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September 27, 2012

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Every Christian called to be an evangelist

‘Person of mercy’

Archbishop Nienstedt’s new pastoral letter stresses need for Catholics to grow in faith, share it with others

Woman finds healing from abortion, offers hope to those facing unplanned pregnancies

By Joe Towalski

By Dave Hrbacek

The Catholic Spirit

The Catholic Spirit

Just as St. Paul had a life-changing encounter with the living Jesus on the road to Damascus that impelled him to proclaim the Good News far and wide, we too are invited to know Christ’s love in a personal way and Read the share it with others, letter inside Archbishop John this issue of Nienstedt says in his The Catholic new pastoral letter.

“The fact is that Spirit every Christian is called to be an evangelist,” the archbishop writes in the letter titled “I believed, therefore I spoke,” which is printed as an eightpage insert in this issue of The Catholic Spirit.

Focused on the “new evangelization” in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the letter gets its title from St. Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians. It comes as the Catholic Church is about to launch a Year of Faith Oct. 11 “to rediscover the joy of believing and the enthusiasm for communicating the faith” and as the archdiocese prepares to unveil a multifaceted program of evangelization and catechesis titled “Rediscover” starting in Advent.

“I see this [letter] as the kickoff for the Rediscover program,” the archbishop said.

The year was 1969, three years before abortion became legal in America.

A 20-year-old from rural Iowa fled her rocky upbringing, looking for a fresh start in a big city.

She landed in New York. A great job and a sprawling metropolis bursting with culture invigorated her.

Looking for a carefree life to erase the troubles and scars of her childhood, she immersed herself in the arts and entertainment of the city that never sleeps.

PLEASE TURN TO POSTABORTIVE ON PAGE 8A

Dave Hrbacek / The Catholic Spirit

Jeanette Meyer uses her experiences of having two abortions to helps clients she serves at Pregnancy Choices in Apple Valley.

PLEASE TURN TO LETTER ON PAGE 7A

Epiphany School students mourn loss of ‘Miss B’

By Dave Hrbacek

school community,” Jennrich said. “She loved Epiphany.

She was very proud of the school. When I would give tours, she would tell families, ‘Although I have no children of my At a school pep fest last Friday, the associate principal at own, I have 520 that I take care of every day here.’”

Epiphany School in Coon Rapids, known as “Miss B,” wore After Tuesday’s Mass, the students and teachers made a her usual outfit — pink wig, pink feathered boa and large, giant cross on the floor in the gym as a tribute to Brepink sunglasses. denkamp. The gesture was suggested to Jennrich by a firstShe was using the getup to pump up the students for the grader before Mass. And, other children are joining in with Marathon for Nonpublic Education. It was a tactic she used ways to honor “Miss B.” many times throughout her nearly 20 years at the school.

“Our students are making banners and signs and they’re It turns out, that was the last time the 500-plus students BREDENKAMP decorating her office,” Jennrich said. “We just miss her. . . . were able to watch the “Lady in Pink.” On Monday mornHow do we move forward from here? She was just a vital part of the ing, Sept. 24, associate principal Pat Bredenkamp experienced chest school. She just did so much and has been here for so long.” pains and died shortly after calling 911. She was 59.

The funeral will be held at Epiphany Church at 3 p.m. Monday, The next day, principal Laurie Jennrich called for an all-school Mass Oct. 1, with a visitation for one hour beforehand. There also will be a to pay tribute to the long-time administrator who did a variety of wake at Washburn-McReavy Funeral Chapel in Coon Rapids on Sunjobs to keep the school going, including substitute teaching when day, Sept. 30 from 3 to 5 p.m. The address is 1827 Coon Rapids Bouleneeded. vard N.W. “We’re just all saddened. It’s just a tremendous loss for our whole For more information, visit WWW.EPIPHANYSCHOOLMN.ORG. The Catholic Spirit

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SEPTEMBER 27, 2012 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

A letter to inaugurate the Year of Faith

That They May All Be One Archbishop John C. Nienstedt

I encourage people to study the text of the letter and reflect on the practical ways it can be applied to their lives

It is a great pleasure for me to present in this issue of The Catholic Spirit my second pastoral letter, dedicated to the New Evangelization in the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis.

This message is meant to be shared with every person in the 12 counties that make up this local Church, whether they be Catholic or not. But in a particular way, it is aimed at those who comprise the pastoral leadership of our 195 parishes. I also intend it as a way of inaugurating the Year of Faith, proclaimed by Pope Benedict XVI, which officially begins on Oct. 11, 2012.

Here in the archdiocese, I intend formally to initiate the Year of Faith as well as our “Rediscover:” evangelization program at a vespers service at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 14, 2012 in the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis.

Powerful time with youth To be honest, I feel as though these evangelization initiatives have already begun with the first Archdiocesan Youth Day held at DeLaSalle High School on Saturday, Sept. 15. You can read about this exciting gathering in this issue of The Catholic Spirit (pages 14A-16A), and I can personally testify to what a powerful religious experience it was.

The hour of eucharistic adoration that concluded our time together was particularly impressive. The reverential looks on the faces of our youth as the Blessed Sacrament was held before them was deeply moving for me.

Those 1,600 Catholic youth convinced me without a doubt that devotion to the person of Jesus is very much alive and active in their lives.

During these initial weeks of the new school year, religious education classes will begin in all of our parishes.

This, too, is an important dimension of our evangelization efforts.

Our young people need to know Jesus and develop a personal relationship with him. And when they love him, they will want to know all they can about him.

The Catholic Spirit The Catholic Spirit’s mission is to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. It seeks to inform, educate, evangelize and foster a spirit of community within the Catholic Church by disseminating news in a professional manner and serving as a forum for discussion of contemporary issues.

Vol. 17 — No. 19

JOE TOWALSKI Editor

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

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convincingly . . . requires that we know our faith well and practice it with consistency.

”

ARCHBISHOP JOHN NIENSTEDT

Hence, the content of our Catholic faith must be learned and properly understood.

It is clear to me that this cannot be done in a single hour each week. Therefore, parents and guardians need to supplement what is presented at the religion classes with extra readings at home. There are excellent resources available to help with this. Contact a local religious goods store for age-appropriate materials.

Building blocks of faith Matthew Kelly, who has been a great assistance to us in our “Rediscover:” program, makes the claim that 85 percent of those Catholic youth who have been confirmed in the last eight years have left the practice of their faith. If that is true, it ought to be a wake-up call to the whole Catholic community.

For the past five years, I have asked at every one of my confirmations, “What are the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit?” Only three candidates knew the answer.

My reason for asking is that you will never use these gifts, if you do not know what they are.

Such content is important, as is the memorization of PLEASE TURN TO WE ON PAGE 7A

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Four additional parishes exceed Appeal goal Four additional parishes have now exceeded their 2012 Catholic Services Appeal goal, bringing the total number of parishes over goal to 124.

The four new parishes are: ■ St. John the Baptist, Excelsior ■ St. Joseph, Hopkins ■ Sts. Peter and Paul, Loretto ■ Most Holy Redeemer, Montgomery Parishes that previously exceeded their goal are: All Saints, Lakeville St. Paul, Ham Lake Sacred Heart, Robbinsdale St. John Vianney, South St. Paul St. Mark, St. Paul St. Thomas More, St. Paul Nativity of Our Lord, St. Paul St. Ambrose, Woodbury St. Francis Xavier, Buffalo Immaculate Heart of Mary, Minnetonka St. Michael, Prior Lake St. Mark, Shakopee St. Timothy, Blaine Our Lady of the Prairie, Belle Plaine St. Charles, Bayport St. Patrick, Faribault St. Mary, Bellechester St. Joseph, Miesville St. Dominic, Northfield Risen Savior, Burnsville Sacred Heart, Rush City St. Patrick, St. Paul Holy Spirit, St. Paul Corpus Christi, Roseville St. Pius X, White Bear Lake St. Michael, West St. Paul St. Ignatius, Annandale St. Hubert, Chanhassen St. Luke, Clearwater St. John the Evangelist, Hopkins St. John the Baptist, Jordan St. Timothy, Maple Lake Mary, Mother of the Church, Burnsville St. Bartholomew, Wayzata St. Joseph the Worker, Maple Grove St. Albert the Great, Minneapolis Ascension, Minneapolis St. Charles Borromeo, St. Anthony Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Bloomington Immaculate Conception, Columbia Heights St. Margaret Mary, Golden Valley Our Lady of Grace, Edina St. Patrick, Edina Immaculate Conception, Madison Lake St. Andrew, Elysian Divine Mercy, Faribault Mary, Queen of Peace, Rogers St. Cecilia, St. Paul Maternity of the Blessed Virgin, St. Paul St. Catherine, Jordan Our Lady of the Lake, Mound Assumption, Richfield St. Raphael, Crystal St. Henry, Le Center St. Patrick, Oak Grove St. Mary, Hampton St. Mathias, Hampton St. Genevieve, Centerville PLEASE TURN TO MORE ON PAGE 7A

“Give me an army saying the rosary and I will conquer the world.”

Pope Blessed Pius IX

Local SEPTEMBER 27, 2012

News from around the archdiocese

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

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Rosary by candlelight set for Oct. 5 Emphasis will be on prayer for marriage amendment

If you go: What: Candlelight Rosary Procession

The Catholic Spirit

When: 6 p.m. Friday, Oct. 5

Faithful from across the archdiocese will gather on the steps of the State Capitol Oct. 5 for the annual Archdiocesan Candlelight Rosary Procession.

The procession is held the first Friday of October, the devotional month of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary. This year’s event begins at 6 p.m. at the Capitol with talks and music. The procession will follow at 7 p.m.

Where: Begins at the State Capitol

sition of the Blessed Sacrament, quiet time for adoration, a homily and Benediction.

For young people too

Prayers for marriage Because of the upcoming marriage protection amendment, this year’s procession will emphasize prayer for the intercession of the Blessed Mother on marriage and all efforts meant to strengthen and foster married life, according to Father John Paul Erickson, director of the archdiocesan Office of Worship.

The amendment and all such efforts around marriage involve politics, “but we also believe as people of faith that we are called to be faithful citizens, and we’re called first of all to be people of prayer,” said Father Erickson.

“The Archbishop and Bishop Lee Piché have called for our own efforts to strengthen marriage and family life. This is a practical thing we can do,” he said.

“Maybe you’re not comfortable putting a sign up on your lawn. Maybe you’re not comfortable debating with your co-workers. But, you can come down to the Capitol and be a witness to the faith, to your trust in God’s presence in this activity.”

Bishop Piché will lead the rosary as the procession heads to the Cathedral. When the procession arrives, there will be expo-

NOTICE Look for The Catholic Spirit advertising insert from

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File photo by Dave Hrbacek / The Catholic Spirit

“We also believe as people of faith that we are

called to be faithful citizens, and we’re called first of all to be people of prayer.

”

FATHER JOHN PAUL ERICKSON

A one-hour concert with Catholic musician Danielle Rose will follow in the Cathedral’s Hayden Hall. There is limited seating, so it will be first come, first serve.

A free-will offering will be taken.

In 2004, Rose received the personal blessing of Pope John Paul II when she presented him with her second album, “Mysteries,” a collection of meditations on the mysteries of the rosary. She promised the Holy Father, “I am your messenger to the young people to take up the rosary once again.”

“The goal of [the concert] is to especially draw young people around this issue,” Father Erickson said. “We want to show that the effort to pray for and strengthen marriage is not just for older people, but for the entire body of Christ, including the young people.”

The event is sponsored by the Office of Worship in collaboration with the Family Rosary Processions Association and the Minnesota Catholic Conference. For additional information, visit WWW.FAMILY ROSARYPROCESSION.ORG. “Public displays of faith are good things,” Father Erickson said. “I think they’re especially pertinent as we approach a Year of Faith, where these very things have been called for — public manifestations of faith.”

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Local

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • SEPTEMBER 27, 2012

Catholic schools superintendent to retire in October The Catholic Spirit Marty Frauenheim, superintendent of schools for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, is retiring, effective Oct. 24.

The archdiocese made the announcement Sept. 14, and it said the process to find her successor is under way.

“Our team has accomplished a great deal over the past four FRAUENHEIM years and we’re in a very good place now,” said Frauenheim, who joined the archdiocese in 2008 after serving for three years as the associate superintendent of schools for the Archdiocese of Chicago.

“I felt this was the perfect time to transition the reins to a new leader who can

“I believe strongly in

the value of Catholic education and am confident it will continue to grow and thrive in this

”

archdiocese.

MARTY FRAUENHEIM

build on a firm foundation and take the implementation of our strategic plan to the next level,” she said. “I believe strongly in the value of Catholic education and

am confident it will continue to grow and thrive in this archdiocese.”

Archbishop John Nienstedt accepted Frauenheim’s request for retirement in August.

“Marty has been a loyal and effective leader for our Catholic schools and she will be missed greatly,” the archbishop said. “We were fortunate to have her with us these past four years, and we are most grateful for her service to this local church and our Catholic school system. I wish her and her husband Ed every blessing as they begin a new transition in their life.”

Frauenheim came to the archdiocese following nearly 30 years of work in Catholic education. She has served in many roles — from classroom teacher to principal — in Catholic schools in New York, Colorado and Texas. She has placed a special focus on curriculum development.

During her tenure in Minnesota, Frauenheim has been instrumental in leading a wide range of important and strategic initiatives designed to sustain and grow the archdiocese’ Catholic school system, the archdiocese said in a statement.

Her major focus has been to put into place the foundation needed to implement successfully a comprehensive and long-term strategic plan for Catholic schools. The last of these foundational pieces, a reorganization of the Office of Catholic Schools, has begun and will be completed by next September.

Frauenheim said she plans to stay in Minnesota.

“We love it here in the Twin Cities,” she said. “Although I am retiring, I am sure I will be quickly looking for new ways to give back to the Catholic community that I love so much. I won’t be able to stay still for long.”

Msgr. James Lavin touched lives of thousands at St. Thomas The Catholic Spirit Msgr. James M. Lavin, the diminutive priest who over the course of six decades touched the lives of thousands of young men at the University of St. Thomas, passed away Sept. 17 at the age of 93.

Archbishop John Nienstedt presided at a Mass of Christian Burial for Msgr. Lavin Sept. 21,at the Chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas on St. Thomas’ St. Paul campus.

Although he had been a resident at the Little Sisters of the Poor Holy Family Residence in St. Paul for the past four years, Msgr. Lavin was best MSGR. LAVIN known as a fixture on the campus of St. Thomas, living there for nearly 69 years, most of those in the same dormitory, Ireland Hall.

Homilist for the funeral Mass, Father James Stromberg, professor emeritus and retired member and former chair of the university’s philosophy department, recalled his friend fondly.

“He was the face of the priesthood to St. Thomas students,” Father Stromberg told The Catholic Spirit.

He chose to live in a student residence hall instead of the faculty residence so that he could be closer to those to whom he felt called to minister. “He was a very determined guy,” Father Stromgberg said, “and he thought it was important for there to be a priestly presence for the students.

“He was what they called campus minister nowadays. Everything he did was an extension of his priesthood. When he dealt with anybody, he did it mercifully of course, but he dealt with them as a Catholic priest. For him, there was never time off from the priesthood.”

Born in Aurora, Minn., Nov. 12, 1918, young James Lavin graduated from DeLaSalle High School in Minneapolis in 1936 and lived in Ireland Hall as a student at the then-College of St. Thomas. He graduated summa cum laude in 1940, entered the St. Paul Seminary and was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis at the Cathedral of St. Paul in 1945.

“When Father Lavin asked any of us for help, you never hesitated because you knew that it was going to be in service to somebody else.

”

GERALD D. BRENNAN

St. Thomas alums remember Father Lavin The Catholic Spirit put out a call for anecdotes about Msgr. Lavin, and graduates of St. Thomas recalled fondly the priest who was a fixture in the Ireland Hall dormitory, on the St. Paul campus and across the Twin Cities.

Mark Dienhart: I got hurt playing football as a senior and ended up in the hospital. Several of my less reputable friends showed up to cheer me up, but so did Father Lavin. He said he wanted to give me the Sacrament of the Sick. I tried to say, Father, it’s just a leg injury, but he wouldn’t hear of it. He said, “You may know more about football, but I know more about the sacraments and what you need, so just shut up and let me take care of this.”

“Later on, when I was in charge of development at the university and he retired from counseling, I hired him to work for the alumni association. He was one of the best hires I ever made. At that time the Alumni Office was in an old apartment building, and Father Lavin’s office was in the “garden level,” as we used to say. One day we had a storm sewer back up. There was about a foot of water in the basement. I started getting people relocated, and when I went back in the building I found Father Lavin still sitting at his desk, pounding away on his manual typewriter, his feet up on a box. I tried to get him out of there, but he said, it’s just a little bit of water, and he’d let me know if he needed help.

Gerald D. Brennan: I have lots of memories of Father Lavin and am fortunate to have him

After a brief stint as an associate priest at the Cathedral of St. Paul, he soon began

dormitory until 2005.

“I taught religion for 21 years, though they called it theology toward the end,” Msgr. Lavin once quipped.

He also taught at St. Joseph’s Academy, the College of St. Catherine, St. Thomas Academy and the Diocesan Teachers’ College. He later earned a master’s degree in counseling and served as St. Thomas’ director of student counseling.

Friend to students

I lived in Room 405 in Ireland Hall.

Several years after I graduated, Father Lavin moved into that room. I always assumed that he engaged in that old St. Paul tradition which goes, “you don’t live in your own house”; so when people referred to Father Lavin’s residence, it was “Brennan’s room.” As close to claiming fame as I can get.

Msgr. Lavin is best remembered as a spiritual shepherd and friend to students.

Many remember his famed peanut butter and jelly sandwiches — “Lavinburgers” — that he served to Ireland Hall residents after they joined him in praying a decade of the rosary.

In the dorm, he led a nightly prayer and was a friend in times of crisis and grief. He would lend students money to fix their cars and buy their textbooks, took them on rock climbing and snowshoeing expeditions in his early days and even bailed them out of jail.

Honored as St. Thomas’ “Humanitarian of the Year” in 1973, Msgr. Lavin also is perhaps the only priest to have a pub named after him. In 1988, the alcoholfree “Scooter’s” opened in the lower level of Murray-Herrick Campus Center. Msgr.

Lavin said at the time that he didn’t know who first named him “Scooter,” but the nickname surfaced in 1963 and referred to his brisk walk.

Msgr. Lavin “retired” in 1988 and immediately went to work in the St. Thomas Alumni Association office. He ministered to fellow residents of Holy Family Residence until just a few weeks ago.

Msgr. Lavin is survived by six nieces and nephews: Carolyn (Chuck) Dutrow, Michael (Kay) Lavin, Patrick (Annie) Lavin, Kathleen (Richard) Johnson, Thomas (Angela) O’Brien, and Michael (Mary) O’Brien.

Memorials can be made to the Little Sisters of the Poor or two University of St. Thomas funds: the Peanut Butter and Jelly Fund or the Monsignor James Lavin Endowed Scholarship Fund.

teaching at St. Thomas and resumed his residence in Ireland Hall. He lived in that

Information from the University of St. Thomas archives contributed to this story.

memorialized in my life when I received the “Monsignor James Lavin Award” from the UST Alumni Association in 1998.

There were many experiences in my time living on campus in Ireland Hall during my freshman year at the College of St. Thomas 1966-67. When Father Lavin asked any of us for help, you never hesitated because you knew that it was going to be in service to somebody else; and how could we ever pay him back for how many of us he helped so quietly.

The most memorable were the early morning (as in 5 a.m.) knocks on my door to have him drive us to shovel snow from the walks of his elderly relatives in south Minneapolis.

Most memorable however was in January 1971, when my brother Russ was fighting for his life in the kidney transplant unit at the U of M. I was in my first year out of UST and was visiting Russ regularly.

On one of those visits, I was informed by the nursing staff that I had just missed a visit by that little, quiet priest. I learned later that it was Father Lavin, and that he was a frequent visitor to Russ at all hours of the day and night. Our family never saw him on those missions but he was present and supportive in times of need; never had to say anything wise or profound. He was just there for us.

Local

SEPTEMBER 27, 2012 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Kitui, Kenya partnership Delegation visits Sept. 27 to Oct. 9

Minnesota

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The global solidarity partnership between the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Diocese of Kitui, Kenya began in 2004.

Delegations from Minnesota visited Kitui in 2005, 2008 and 2011 with the purpose of strengthening and deepening our relationship and sharing the gifts we each bring to the partnership. The archdiocese will host a group from Kitui Sept. 27 to Oct. 9. Previous delegations visited in 2006 and 2009.

Delegates will stay with families in the archdiocese and experience life in their parishes.

Kenya

Want to meet the delegates?

Welcome picnic Sept. 28, 5 p.m.

Fort Snelling State Park

3 pillars of the partnership “That’s ultimately what the partnership is all about, to become one with them and with God through them. So it’s all about mutual evangelization.”

Mike Haasl Global Solidarity Coordinator Center for Mission Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

Building relationships Strengthening faith Sharing resources

Faith formation In Kitui, the community is trying to find ways for children to be engaged in the Church between baptism and confirmation.

Delegates will get a chance to see how we do faith formation here.

Culminating Partnership Mass Oct. 7, 10:30 a.m.

St. Joseph, Rosemount “Global solidarity partnerships are a vital expression of the Church’s call to be missionary. Indeed, mission is not the sole preserve of religious or priests or the consecrated laity but should be the concern of every Catholic since it goes to the heart of what it means to be Church.”

U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

Water Throughout the visit there will be discussion about ongoing water projects, as well as the demonstration of a new water filtration system that could be used in Kitui.

Delegates will be posting on the Center for Mission Facebook page throughout their visit. Like the page to follow their posts

Infographic by Dianne Towalski / The Catholic Spirit

St. Agnes School, Providence Academy named to honor roll The Catholic Spirit Two Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis have been named to the 2012-2013 Top 50 Catholic High School Honor Roll by the Cardinal Newman Society.

St. Agnes School in St. Paul and Providence Academy in Plymouth have been recognized by the organization for excellence in the areas of academics, civic education and Catholic identity.

The award to St. Agnes indicates how far the school has come in the last five years after nearly closing in 2007. A dramatic fundraising effort saved the school, and enrollment has jumped 30 percent since then, from a low of 423 to the current 553.

In addition to strengthening its academic program to better prepare students for college, St. Agnes has also implemented major technology additions, such as Smart Boards in every classroom and more efficient computer labs, the school said in a press release. It incorporated several off-site learning experiences and rebuilt the ad-

ministrative team and faculty.

“We could not be more proud of this top 50 recognition and how far we have come since 2007,” Father Mark Moriarty, school superintendent, and Jim Morehead, principal of the K-12 school, said in a Sept. 20 letter to parents. “We will not rest on the laurels of such an award, but use it to strengthen our commitment to academic

excellence in a faithfully Catholic environment.”

The Honor Roll was created by the Acton Institute in 2004, with the Cardinal Newman Society assuming it this year. All Catholic high schools in the U.S. are eligible to apply for the biannual award; honorees this year include schools from 21 states.

This year marks the first time St. Agnes has applied for the award. Providence Academy is a past recipient.

“Honor roll schools are a reminder that Catholic education is getting better every day,” said Patrick Reilly, president of the Newman society. “We are delighted to see the increased level of competition among the schools that participated in the program this year.”

“Though the last five years has required a lot of hard work by many, we certainly recognize God’s providence first and foremost in why we are doing well, said Patrick Menke, St. Agnes School’s director of business administration. “We trust in Him for a future of hope.”

The Cardinal Newman Society states that its mission “is to help renew and strengthen Catholic identity in Catholic higher education.”

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Local

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • SEPTEMBER 27, 2012

Running a marathon for marriage

By Dave Hrbacek The Catholic Spirit

On a cold Friday morning in February, Teresa McCarthy of Holy Family in St. Louis Park faced a dilemma.

After attending Mass at the parish, someone asked her to join a group of women for coffee.

The problem?

“I gave up coffee on Fridays,” she said.

“The archbishop asked us to give up something for [the prayer intention of] religious liberty.”

Her decision?

“It was a really nice day out, so I went anyway,” she said.

The result of that gathering is McCarthy will be running her first marathon, the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon Oct. 7.

And, she and the others joining her will be doing it for another prayer intention — the proposed marriage amendment that will be on the ballot Nov. 6.

“This is really the biggest issue of our time,” said McCarthy, 49 and a mother of five.

She had no trouble convincing one of the other moms how important the issue is. Ann Larkin, 39, a mother of four who is also a Holy Family parishioner, dove in with both feet as soon as McCarthy proposed running it for that intention.

Finding a reason At the Friday morning coffee event, Larkin had approached McCarthy and asked if she was going to run the marathon. McCarthy, an avid runner, had been thinking about it, but just that morning decided not to do it. She didn’t feel she had a good enough reason.

Larkin, who also enjoys running, felt the same way, then asked McCarthy if there was an intention worthy of the miles and miles of training necessary to prepare for the 26.2-mile course.

“I said, ‘I don’t know, I’ll have to pray about it,’” McCarthy said. “Then, about two minutes later, it just struck me. I said, ‘We’re going to do it for the marriage

By Dave Hrbacek The Catholic Spirit

Dave Hrbacek / The Catholic Spirit

Teresa McCarthy, left, and Ann Larkin, both of Holy Family in St. Louis Park, display shirts they will wear at the Twin Cities Marathon Oct. 7 in support of traditional marriage.

amendment.’ And so, that was it.”

Fueled by their resolve, they told Larkin’s friends, Annamarie and Jason Adkins. Adkins is the executive director of the Minnesota Catholic Conference and has been a public spokesman for the church on the issue.

The two women particularly wanted to pray for the Adkins family and other traditional marriage supporters in the face of strong opposition, which sometimes involves vandalism on “Vote yes” signs and the houses where they are placed.

“One of the runners [in the group] had her house egged and her sign destroyed,” McCarthy said. “There were three ‘Vote yes’ signs on her block and a bunch of ‘Vote nos.’ All three of those houses [with ‘Vote yes’ signs] were egged and their signs destroyed, and all the ‘Vote nos’ were left intact.”

To make sure their message gets delivered on race day, the two women have made blue T-shirts with pro-marriage messages on the front and back. The back side has a Minnesota for Marriage logo, and

the front has a prayer for marriage that reads: “Grant us the courage to defend God’s plan for marriage — the union of one man and one woman.”

They have made 20 of the shirts and passed them out to other runners. Plus, they have handed them out to seminarians and priests at the St. Paul Seminary.

They even sent one to Archbishop John Nienstedt.

“I don’t know if he’s a runner, but it would be fun to see him do it,” McCarthy said.

Battling pain For all of the runners, getting ready has been both a spiritual and physical battle.

Larkin dropped out because of a foot problem, but will come to cheer the rest. McCarthy, too, battled some pain, but it got better and she will be at the starting line.

“St. Michael’s running with me,”she said. “When I run, I pray the rosary. “[Oct. 7] is the feast of Our Lady of Victory. That was key for Ann and I, that the feast was on that day.”

Church leaders speak in defense marriage Archbishop Nienstedt joins ecumenical gathering at State Capitol

By Barb Ernster For The Catholic Spirit

Archbishop John Nienstedt joined 40 clergy and faith leaders on the steps of the State Capitol Sept. 18 in an ecumenical show of support for the Minnesota Marriage Protection Amendment.

Carl Nelson, president of Transform Minnesota, a network of evangelical churches, introduced the archbishop as well as pastors and church leaders from different denominations, ethnicities and communities, who each gave statements affirming their support for the institution of marriage between one man and one woman, and encouraging their congregations to vote “yes” on the amendment.

“Those of us leaders here today are united in our belief in the authority of the Bible,” Nelson said in his introductory statement. “From the opening of the Bible in Genesis 2 to the teaching of Jesus in Matthew 19, marriage is presented by God as a lifelong commitment between a man

Priest will run on his birthday to raise money for parish school

and a woman. Marriage bonds a mother and father to children born from their union and creates a stable and loving family. This is the essential public purpose of marriage and the reason why we support the marriage amendment.”

Fundamental union The archbishop addressed the press conference next, stating that it is rare to hear in discussions of the marriage amendment that it is meant to be a positive affirmation of both the beauty and importance of this fundamental union for society and for the children born of that union. That positive affirmation is not intended to be hurtful or discriminatory to anyone, he said.

“Our understanding of marriage between a man and a woman predates any government, or in fact, any religious denomination. Just so, it is not an attempt to force religious understanding of marriage on society as there can be only one truth about the human person. That truth is founded in both the Bible and the natural law, and we as clergy come here to proclaim this reality today.”

The Rev. Jerry McAfee, president of the Minnesota Baptist Convention and pastor

of New Salem Missionary Baptist Church in Minneapolis, said he felt it was incumbent to state clearly their position “given the president’s and the Democratic Party’s decision to make same-sex marriage part of their major platform.”

“We believe that as God defines marriage between a man and a woman, we stand with the Word of God,” he said. “It saddens me that people are perplexed and troubled by an initiative like this, and I am just as perplexed as to how we got so far away from the Word of God that we cannot hear. It’s a wake-up call for all you Christians who are standing in the background. The time is now for you to make a decision, and I stand and say clearly, vote “yes.”

The Rev. Sergio Amezcua of Brooklyn Park Evangelical Free Church affirmed that this is not a political case, but a moral and spiritual case.

“We are called to show love and mercy, but we cannot dishonor God by doing it.

We who follow God are here representing the Gospel of Jesus, and our duty is to PLEASE TURN TO CLERGY ON PAGE 19A

Father Erik Lundgren of Divine Mercy in Faribault has an unusual idea for celebrating his birthday.

He wants to run a marathon. It just so happens that his birthday falls on the day of the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon, Sunday, Oct. 7.

“I have always wanted to run a marathon, but made my decision around last Thanksgiving FATHER LUNDGREN while I was visiting my sister Ingrid in Boise, Idaho,” he said. “When I realized the marathon was going to be on my 30th birthday, it seemed like a sign from God.” He has a much higher ambition than just finishing. He wants to raise $30,000 for Divine Mercy School. No doubt, his desire to do so is tied to being named assistant principal at the beginning of the school year. He is calling his fundraising campaign “30 for 30.”

“I think I’ll be successful because I’ve asked Our Lady of the Rosary for her help on this one,” he said. “I have been astonished by how effectively one can use Facebook to raise awareness and support for a cause. Pope Benedict is right when he says that we can use modern media to further the New Evangelization.”

In running his first marathon, he will rely on the support of family, students at the school and his fellow priests. One of them is Father Alex Carlson, his ordination classmate from 2010. Father Carlson ran the marathon last year and is behind Father Lundgren’s effort to complete the task this year.

Another priest, Father John Klockeman of the St. Paul Seminary, will be running the Chicago Marathon at the exact same time.

“I’ve had great support,” Father Lundgren said. “Parishioners are always honking and waving and shouting to me when they see me running. It’s a blast. And we have already raised quite a bit of support.

“I’m trying to stay on track but it’s hard. I ran 20 miles a couple weeks ago, but I get distracted when I see parishioners on the road, at work, or in their homes. Sometimes, I have to stop, chat for a minute, get a glass of water and say a prayer with them.”

A key focal point on race day will be the students at Divine Mercy school.

They will be at the forefront of his mind as he runs the 26.2-mile course.

“They are my inspiration,” he said.

“I believe that somehow my running a marathon will help their souls and mine get to heaven.”

Those wishing to donate can send checks to: Father Erik Lundgren, Divine Mercy Catholic Church, 4 2nd Ave SW, Faribault, MN 55021. Make checks payable to: Divine Mercy Catholic School. In the memo, write “30 for 30.”

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THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • SEPTEMBER 27, 2012

Blessed Teresa brought people close to God by loving them, says priest

By Christopher S. Pineo Catholic News Service

Blessed Teresa of Kolkata felt a calling to bring people to God by simply loving them, and her own longing to be close to God through Jesus Christ was like a thirst, said an Austrian priest who for many years was her spiritual adviser.

Msgr. Leo Maasburg, in a talk Sept.

16 at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in South Boston, described his experiences traveling and working day-to-day with Mother Teresa in her ministries.

After beginning a friendship with her MOTHER TERESA in the 1970s, he accompanied her as spiritual adviser, translator and confessor on the travels between 1984 and 1991 where she came face-toface with a Marxist dictator and his armed fighters in Nicaragua, cared for children in Soviet states, and ministered to the dying in Kolkata, India.

Later, in an interview with The Pilot, Boston’s archdiocesan newspaper, he said he took care in his 2011 book about Mother Teresa and in his talk to demonstrate the personal humanity of the woman sometimes called “the most powerful woman in the world.”

“The talk was an attempt to depict Mother Teresa from a side which she was not so well known in the media, because the media — maybe rightly — focused on her social aspects, on the way she treated the poor, her engagement with the poor and what she did,” he said.

“I wanted to center on the mystical experience she had, explaining in the first place her personality, which was Albanian. She was ethnically Albanian, and her personality was that of a very strong, fiery person. She was not a softy-softy or a goody-goody,” he said, adding that she was also witty and quick in a humorous way.

Direct style Msgr. Maasburg pointed to her very direct way of answering questions, using as few words as possible.

Once asked what the church could do better, she answered, “We could change you and me.”

He said she asked him to run a retreat for sisters of her Missionaries of Charity as a recently ordained priest. He told her he had never run a retreat and asked what he should speak to the sisters about.

“Talk about Jesus. What else?” she replied.

The priest also spoke about Mother Teresa’s views on abortion.

“She said that abortion was the biggest threat to world peace. I remember at that moment I did not understand her very well because I thought, ‘Well how can abortion be a threat to world peace?’” he said.

He said she saw the moral gray area created by allowing abortion as a threat to the world on a fundamental level.

“She said if we are allowed to kill the baby in our womb, who will keep us from killing each other? That is true. That is such a realistic view of human nature.

Human nature is that way,” he said.

He compared Mother Teresa’s longing to be close to God through Jesus Christ with a thirst, emphasizing the point with two of the savior’s final words on the cross “I thirst.”

“She had such a deep experience of the ‘I thirst,’ of the thirst of Christ for love and for souls. But, love is always free, you cannot force someone to love you,” said Msgr. Maasburg, who also gave a talk about her in New York Sept. 17.

Call to love He said he observed change in Mother Teresa. He said she had thought she needed to convert people, but later felt a calling simply to love them. She said God would convert them through love.

“Love of course is the biggest magnet to poor people to the Lord, without forcing them. That’s what she did her whole life long. She loved them and her love for them practically converted them, or gave them the chance to be converted,” Msgr. Maasburg said.

He said her day-to-day life always included a kind of internal dialogue with Christ, infusing her Catholic work with faith in Christ’s real presence in the world.

“For her, there was the same Christ present in the Eucharist as in the poorest of the poor, and you could love Christ only if you loved them,” he said.

We must know our faith well CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2A such prayers as the Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be, the Memorare and the Apostles’ Creed. In addition, the Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes, the seven sacraments, and the mysteries of the rosary should all be memorized by heart.

As a boy, I also found great inspiration in reading the lives of the saints. Many of them became life-long heroes for me. Each of these methods are important building blocks for knowing our Catholic faith so as to become an evangelizer, a herald of the Gospel!

Finally, I encourage our readership to study the text of my pastoral letter and to reflect on the practical ways in which it can be applied to your lives. As Christian disciples, we find that we are often at odds with the current ideologies of the day. To proclaim the Gospel convincingly, therefore, requires that we know our faith well and practice it with consistency.

As the Holy Eucharist attests and makes clear, Jesus Christ is alive and, indeed, he has conquered the darkness of sin and death. This indeed is the Good News! Herein lies our hope and the source of our joy.

God love you!

Letter: Prayer, sacraments essential to nurturing our relationship with Christ CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1A “There’s a quote in the letter from St. Francis: ‘Preach the Gospel. If necessary, use words,” Archbishop Nienstedt said during a recent interview with The Catholic Spirit about the letter. “I think the most telling form of evangelization is the way we live our lives.”

Catholics are also called to be “salt and light in the world” in order to witness the love of Christ and influence the broader culture, he writes.

And, he adds, he wants every parish in the archdiocese to ask itself “how it can become a welcoming and evangelizing parish where people can find ways to grow in their faith and learn to share it with others.”

“Parish councils with their pastors need to sit down and ask: ‘How do people see us? When they come on Sundays, is there somebody there to greet them? Is there somebody there to answer their questions?” Archbishop Nienstedt told The Catholic Spirit. “It’s so important that people be received with hospitality.”

Meeting today’s challenges The pastoral letter is the second one Archbishop Nienstedt has written as head of the archdiocese, and it follows last November’s letter on the Sacred Liturgy.

“I believed, therefore I spoke” is divided into five sections and includes citations from documents of the Second Vatican Council as well as Popes Paul VI, John Paul II and Benedict XVI. There have always been challenges to preaching the good news of the Gospel, and the letter acknowledges the hardships faced earlier by men such as Father Louis Hennepin, Father Lucien Galtier and Father Augustin Ravoux and the first Sisters of St. Joseph as they brought the Gospel message to this area’s native people and immigrants.

“Knowing those stories can be inspira-

tional to us,” Archbishop Nienstedt told the newspaper. “While those were the heroes of yesteryear, we can be the heroes today in a different way, but nevertheless using the same energies and relying on the same faith.”

Today’s challenges include rampant secularization, materialism and individualism that seek to draw people away from the Gospel, the archbishop writes.

These factors are among what has prompted the Church’s call for a “new evangelization” or “re-evangelization” to help Catholics rediscover the beauty and depth of the Catholic faith.

Such an effort, the archbishop writes, begins with nurturing our own personal relationship with Jesus through prayer and practices such as eucharistic adoration and “lectio divina,” the slow, meditative reading of Scripture.

It also must be nurtured through participation in the liturgical and sacramental life of the church as well as charitable works. The archbishop also encourages Catholics to develop their personal faith testimony and to practice giving it to a confidant or prayer group “so that you grow comfortable in sharing your faith.”

Witnesses in thought, action It’s clear that the task of evangelization today is the responsibility of not only clergy and religious, but also the laity, Archbishop Nienstedt said.

“My great desire for our Year of Faith is that everyone in this great archdiocese will come to a deeper lived relationship with the Lord Jesus,” he writes in the letter’s conclusion.

“If the flame of faith is burning in our hearts to its fullest extent it cannot but be spread to others by our own spoken testimony and lived witness to this same Christ,” he said.

“We must become evangelists in thought and in action.”

More parishes reach CSA goal CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2A St. Michael, Stillwater St. John the Baptist, Vermillion St. Nicholas, Elko New Market St. John, St. Paul St. Rose of Lima, Roseville St. Joseph, West St. Paul St. Peter, Mendota St. Mary of Czestochowa, Delano St. Thomas the Apostle, Corcoran St. John the Baptist, Savage Holy Rosary, Minneapolis Our Lady of Lourdes, Minneapolis St. Peter, Richfield Good Shepherd, Golden Valley St. Mary of the Lake, Plymouth St. Mary, Le Center St. Pius V, Cannon Falls St. Rita, Cottage Grove St. Francis of Assisi, Lakeland St. Joseph, Rosemount St. Francis Xavier, Taylors Falls The Cathedral of St. Paul, St. Paul St. Francis de Sales, St. Paul St. Adalbert, St. Paul St. Jerome, Maplewood St. Nicholas, Carver All Saints, Minneapolis St. Anthony of Padua, Minneapolis Holy Family, St. Louis Park St. Michael, Pine Island St. Paul, Zumbrota

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Hastings Ascension, Norwood Young America St. Anne/St. Joseph Hien, Minneapolis St. Casimir, St. Paul St. Katharine Drexel, Ramsey St. Louis, King of France, St. Paul St. John the Baptist, Hugo St. Boniface, St. Bonifacius St. Odilia, Shoreview St. Anne, Hamel St. Helena, Minneapolis Our Lady of Victory, Minneapolis Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Minneapolis St. Bridget of Sweden, Lindstrom St. Patrick, Jordan St. Mary of the Lake, White Bear Lake Sacred Heart, St. Paul St. Stephen, Anoka St. Albert, Albertville St. Michael, St. Michael St. Mary, Stillwater St. Agatha, Rosemount St. Joseph, Taylors Falls Holy Trinity, Waterville St. Michael, Kenyon St. John the Baptist, Dayton Lumen Christi, St. Paul St. Agnes, St. Paul St. John the Evangelist, Little Canada Nativity of Mary, Cleveland St. Stephen, Minneapolis

8A

SEPTEMBER 27, 2012 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Post-abortive woman embarks on ministry to help others CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1A

children, Esther and Daniel, and I could hold them.

“There was a blizzard outside. Everyone And, not long into her new adventure, she found love. Defying her Catholic for- talked about the windows shaking in the mation, she moved in with her new storm. I heard nothing. It was the best boyfriend. Very soon, his controlling be- night’s sleep I’d had, I’m sure, in over 30 havior made the apartment feel more like years.”

The tears of healing shed that weekend a prison.

Then, she became pregnant. Her return when Meyer tells her story, which she eagerly does to any boyfriend’s simple direcyoung, scared pregnant tive to “get rid of it” woman who asks. She brought them both to a never forces it on anyone, local abortion clinic. but weaves it into the lovThough still illegal, it was ing conversations she has not hard to find a place Works of with women she sees at to terminate her pregPregnancy Choices in Apnancy. ple Valley, where she has She cried during the served as executive director procedure, which took since 2010. place in January 1972.

It’s all part of her mission She went home, stuffed Archdiocesan to be what she calls a “perher emotions, and lived program helps son of mercy.” under the harsh rule of “When I come to work her boyfriend, who repeople find here and I know someone fused to let her talk about healing after who has aborted [a child] it. abortion . . . I feel pain and regret,” Just nine months later, she said. “And, it’s not reshe got pregnant again.

The Archdiocese of St. gret like shame. . . . It’s So, she made a second Paul and Minneapolis deeper and it takes me trip to the clinic, thus has developed a closer to the cross. And, having two abortions beprogram to help women that’s what I’ve come to fore the landmark and men find healing see. I never knew that I’d Supreme Court decision after abortion.

It’s called be working in this abortion of Roe vs. Wade in JanuProject Rachel, and it is realm, trying to save the ary 1973. designed to guide postlives of the mothers as well She tried to forget abortive people to as the babies. Coming in about the pain, the resources that can help. touch with the pain takes trauma. Nothing worked Those seeking help me closer to Him. It’s only — not the alcohol, not and information can call in that wound that I really her many travels, not her (651) 291-4515 or email know who he is. boyfriend’s command of RESPECTLIFE@ARCHSPM.ORG. “He gives me incredible silence on the issue.

There also is a website: graces. Sometimes, when Eventually, the anguish WWW.HOPEAFTERABORTION. I’m working in the kitchen, drove her to walk out of a ORG. I hear him — in that inbar, cross a parking lot Though similar in audible voice — say, ‘I love and step to the edge of a name, this is an outreach you. You’re mine.’ So, I’m nearby freeway, which separate from Rachel’s OK now being with the she intended to dart into Vineyard. Project Rachel pain. I tried to run from it and end her life. The provides one-to-one most of my life, but now boyfriend, chasing her support, while Rachel’s I’m OK being with it beout of the bar, grabbed Vineyard is a weekend cause if I just allow it, it her and pulled her back retreat. deepens my relationship just in time.

For more information with the Lord.”

Today, her two aborted on Rachel’s Vineyard, children have names — Offering a visit WWW.RACHELS Daniel Anthony and EsVINEYARD.ORG. Rachel’s listening ear ther Maurine. And, the Vineyard is a ministry of Yet, as much as the Holy woman, Jeanette Meyer, Priests for Life.

Spirit compels her to work 63, now works to help — The Catholic Spirit in this intense ministry other women facing unwhere the success stories planned pregnancies aare often never known, she has to, at all void the mistakes that she made. times, restrain her desire to pull women Or, if they made that mistake, she tries away from the deeply hurtful choice of to help them find healing. abortion. She knows the pain it can cause, Like she did. but must never, ever give even the slightHealing begins est hint of trying to control the pregnant That came in 2005, when a friend urged woman’s behavior — like her boyfriend her to go to a Rachel’s Vineyard retreat. in 1972 tried to control hers.

More than three decades of regret and “When people come in here, I’d like to agony roared to the surface of her soul just give them a hug and say, ‘Honey, like the snowstorm that raged outside the don’t do that [have an abortion]. But, I building at St. Thomas Academy in Men- can’t,” she said. “The most important gift dota where 20 post-abortive women God gave us is free will. And, if you don’t stayed for the January retreat. honor that, if you don’t talk about it, then “We had a memorial service for our ba- somebody with a bigger voice over here is bies,” said Meyer, a member of Mary, going to say, ‘Oh no, you’ve got to do Mother of the Church in Burnsville. “You this.’ I want them to have a voice. I want sign a certificate of life. They also give you them to know about options.” little dolls about six or eight inches long As riveting as her story is, perhaps the — no faces, but they’re wrapped in a blan- most important thing she does is listen. ket and they’re very soft. I took them and The message she wants to send to the I slept with them that night. It was like I women is that they are not alone, and she was acknowledging that they were my and the staff at her clinic believe the best

MERCY

“It takes me closer to the cross. And, that’s what

I’ve come to see. I never knew that I’d be working in this abortion realm, trying to save lives of the mothers as well as the babies. Coming in touch with the pain takes me closer to Him. It’s only in that wound that I really know who he is.

”

JEANETTE MEYER

way to do that is with their ears and not their tongues.

Another effective tool is simply time.

Though staffers and volunteers can have as few as five minutes with a pregnant woman, their goal is to slow down her thought and decision-making process.

They want her to take the time to think through her decision and her options.

In other words, they want her to have a real choice, something Meyer never had in 1972.

Fortunately, she did have enough of a conscience left after the two abortions to consult a priest she had met while living in Nebraska, Father Thomas Halley. She went to him for confession within a year, and that began a chain of events that brought her back to Iowa in 1974 and her mother, Maurine Pickerill, now 84.

It was a bittersweet reunion. On the one hand, her mother welcomed her and took her back under her roof. On the other hand, it rekindled the emptiness of being abandoned by her father when she was five.

The poor way he treated his wife and four children (Jeanette was the oldest) was bad, but the emptiness of his abandoning them may have been worse. Added to that was the instability, with the family moving nine times during Jeanette’s childhood.

But, Jeanette’s sadness upon arriving back home was short-lived. After going to a charismatic prayer meeting in Omaha during her visit with Father Halley, she started going to meetings in Iowa and ended up back together with her high school sweetheart, Tim Meyer.

They dated for a while, then Tim broke it off. In the meantime, she got to know his younger brother Marty. They shared a love for music and playing the guitar, which they did at many a prayer meeting.

The friendship turned to love, and they married in 1975. Within a few years, they moved to the Twin Cities to join a charismatic community, and Jeanette ended up bearing five children, who range in age from 23 to 35. One of them, David, lived for just one day outside the womb.

In fact, he was instrumental in his mother’s move to Pregnancy Choices. It was during a visit to his gravesite in 2010 that she saw something that triggered a desire to help other women.

Embarking on a ministry She was at Resurrection Cemetery in Mendota in the area reserved for deceased children. Looking away from his grave for a moment, a plaque nearby caught her attention. She had seen it before, but this time the words on it sank in.

“Just about 12 feet away was a plaque

where someone gathered 13 unborn babies that were aborted at the Highland Planned Parenthood,” she said. “And, they made a grave for them there. And, it says on the plaque, ‘13 unborn babies. Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.’ . . . I started crying . . . and I looked up and it just overwhelmed me.”

After hiring a Catholic life coach to help her sort out her career and vocation options, she felt like God wanted her to do ministry with abortion-vulnerable and post-abortive women.

At the same time that discernment process was happening, the executive director of Pregnancy Choices at that time, Jeri Bartek, was experiencing health issues that led her to a decision to step down from her full-time work at the center. The search for her replacement began, and Meyer became one of the three finalists.

“I asked not to be part of the interviewing process, but when I saw that she was in the pool, I started praying that she’d get the job,” said Bartek, who has known Meyer since 1978. “She just has a gentle presence here. She has a bigger vision than I did. She wants to coach clients’ lives beyond pregnancy. And, I think that’s kind of cool. We have to be for the good of these women who are under-equipped.

“I think Jeanette would say we try to leave God’s fingerprint on each of our clients. It’s not our job to evangelize them, but it is our job to love them with truth and gentle presence. They often will say, ‘I just feel good after I’ve been here.’”

Need for love No doubt, Meyer feels just as good about spending time with these women — women who remind her of the story of the woman caught in adultery from the Gospel (John 8:2-11).

This is a Scripture story that helped her understand how God feels about women who make big mistakes, and who simply seek mercy and compassion from the One who now holds their babies in his arms.

“The first thing they need is love,” Meyer said. “By loving and accepting them, we enter the wounds of Christ, as holy mothers, to greet the potential in each person, mother and child. For many [of the clients], it is an awakening to view their past lives and abortions with hope rather than despair.”

To make sure she stays true to her mission, Meyer has posted a quote from Blessed Mother Teresa on the wall above her desk. It is a simple reminder of what really matters in all Gospel-related endeavors: “We can do no great things, only small things with great love.”

“Humor is mankind’s greatest blessing.”

Mark Twain

Nation/World SEPTEMBER 27, 2012

News from around the U.S. and the globe

Cardinal and comedian talk about humor, faith

By Angelo Stagnaro

Catholic News Service

In Fordham University’s Rose Hill Gymnasium, television comedian Stephen Colbert joined forces with Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York Sept. 14 to discuss faith, humor and spirituality before an audience of 3,000, mostly made up of cheering students.

The session was moderated by Jesuit Father James Martin, author of “The Jesuit Guide to Nearly Everything” and “Between Heaven and Mirth.” He is the official chaplain of Colbert’s show as well as culture editor at the Jesuits’ America magazine.

Colbert is host of “The Colbert Report,” a pseudo-archconservative, faux news show. An active Catholic who gives religious instruction to children in his parish, he said comedians often don’t understand how he could remain Catholic.

Instead, Colbert explained that he sees the Catholic Church as teaching joy, which he called the “infallible sign of the presence of God.” Though the comedian maintains his television persona nearly all the time in front of the camera and in public interviews away from the show, in a rare moment, he slipped out of character, admitting to the nearly exclusively student audience at the Jesuit university that he loves the Catholic Church despite its human flaws. “I love my church — warts and all,” he said.

Reason for joy In his remarks, which he later posted on his blog, “The Gospel in the Digital Age,” Cardinal Dolan told Colbert he doesn’t often have a chance to watch his show but knows his nieces “are certainly among your legion of fans.”

He remarked he would keep his comments short because Father Martin “has given me only 10 minutes — which could

CNS photo / Bruce Gilbert, courtesy Fordham University

From left, political satirist Stephen Colbert, Jesuit Father James Martin, moderator, and New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan are seen during a conversation about humor, faith, joy and the spiritual life Sept. 14 at Fordham University in New York.

be the best joke of the evening, to think that a bishop would be so brief.”

Striking a serious note, he told Colbert, “Part of my admiration for you is that, while you often tease and joke about your faith and the church, there’s no denying that you take your faith seriously, and look to the church as your spiritual family.”

Cardinal Dolan said his assignment was to share “what you might call the theological reasons for laughter. Why would a person of faith be cheerful? Why is a crabby believer a contradiction?”

“Here’s my reason for joy: the cross. You heard me right: the cross of Christ!” he said.

When Jesus was crucified “on that Friday strangely called ‘Good,’ literally the ‘lights went out’ as even the sun hid in shame. . . . Jesus, pure goodness, seemed bullied

to death by undiluted evil; love, jackbooted by hate; . . . life itself, crushed by death. It seemed we could never smile again.”

But then came “the Sunday called Easter,” the Son “rose from the dead” and God had the last word, Cardinal Dolan said. “Hope, not despair; faith, not doubt; love, not spite; light, not an eclipse of the sun; life, not the abyss of death.” “’He who laughs last, laughs best,’” he added. “And we believers have never stopped smiling since that resurrection of Jesus from the dead!”

“Lord knows there are plenty of Good Fridays in our lives . . . but they will not prevail,” he said. “Easter will. As we Irish claim, ‘Life is all about loving, living, and laughing, not about hating, dying, and moaning.’ ”

Jesuits move to re-create Apostleship of Prayer

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service

The Apostleship of Prayer, the Jesuit-run outreach that has brought Catholics the pope’s monthly prayer intentions since 1890, is in the midst of a serious effort to re-create itself and broaden its outreach.

The revamping is focused on three areas: making the apostleship a digital prayer network; working with dioceses and parishes to introduce the apostleship to more people; and developing the Eucharistic Youth Movement, which is the branch for children and teens.

A working document outlining the history of the Apostleship of Prayer, its current status and specific goals and methods for re-creating the movement was posted online in the summer and publicized by the Jesuit’s press office in early September.

Too many people, including Jesuits, view the apostleship as “an obsolete ministry

that belongs to the past” or one that is “just ‘a devotion for old ladies’ that doesn’t speak to younger generations,” the document said.

At the same time, millions of people around the world see the pope’s monthly prayer intentions, share them online and make them part of their prayer lives, the document said.

Membership in the Apostleship of Prayer involves a commitment to beginning each day with a prayer offering one’s life to God and praying for the needs of the universal church and the intentions of the pope.

Members promise to end each day prayerfully reviewing their blessings and failings.

The morning offering and prayers are the basic membership requirements, and in many countries the apostleship has no registration, no groups, no fees, and no special meetings. The Jesuits estimate that about 50 million people fulfill the mem-

bership requirements in the apostleship and its youth wing, the Eucharistic Youth Movement.

The plan for re-configuring the Apostleship of Prayer encourages adaptation to local cultures and needs; emphasizes the connection between praying and working for justice; promotes spiritual formation based on Scripture and the sacraments; suggests developing prayer intentions that can be shared by other Christians and members of other religions; offering the new apostleship as a means for the new evangelization.

The plan emphasizes the use of websites and social networks to share the pope’s prayer intentions, notify people about emergency prayer intentions and create connections among people around the world, who are trying to follow Christ and are serving the church by praying for its needs and the needs of the world.

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

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Briefly Third volume of pope’s ‘Jesus of Nazareth’ expected by Christmas The third volume of Pope Benedict XVI’s book on Jesus of Nazareth should be published before Christmas, the Vatican said.

The volume, focusing on the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ infancy and childhood, will be the third and final volume in the series of books the pope has written “to make known the figure and message of Jesus,” the Vatican said in a statement Sept. 21.

The statement announced a Vatican publishing house agreement with the Italian publisher Rizzoli to handle sales of the rights to the book in languages other than Italian and the German original.

The Vatican’s plan is to release the book simultaneously in the world’s major languages, including English, in time for Christmas.

The first volume of “Jesus of Nazareth,” covering the period from Jesus’ baptism to his Transfiguration, was published in 2007. The second volume, looking at his passion and death, came out in 2011.

U.S. bishops launch new Spanish-language Facebook page The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has launched a Spanish-language version of its Facebook page as part of the U.S. church’s ongoing effort to reach Hispanic and Spanish-speaking Catholics.

“Hispanics make up 16 percent of the total U.S. population, almost 40 percent of U.S. Catholics, and 50 percent of Catholics under the age of 25,” said Bishop John Wester of Salt Lake City, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Communications.

He called it “critically important” to engage this group through social media to provide them with accurate information that helps them grow in their faith.

The page was launched Sept. 11 to coincide with National Hispanic Heritage Month, observed Sept. 15 to Oct. 15.

The page can be found at WWW.FACE BOOK.COM/USCCBESPANOL. It features a video message from Bishop Jaime Soto of Sacramento, Calif., chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Cultural Diversity. The U.S. bishops “are grateful for the rich contributions of culture and faith that Hispanics bring to this country and to our Catholic Church,” he said, inviting Hispanics to use the new page to “communicate and dialogue with us.”

— Catholic News Service

“There’s no such thing as dead languages, only dormant minds.”

Novelist Carlos Ruiz Zafón

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This Catholic Life THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Opinion, feedback and points to ponder

SEPTEMBER 27, 2012

New uses for an ancient language

By Francis X. Rocca Catholic News Service

When Msgr. Daniel B. Gallagher was a microbiology major at the University of Michigan, his growing curiosity about the “deep questions” led the pre-med student to take philosophy and other humanities courses on the side.

By the time he graduated, he had discerned his vocation to the priesthood. He had also discovered the appeal of Latin.

“I had this thirst both for the language and what it conveyed, meaning the whole tradition of the West,” he said.

Today, at age 42, Msgr. Gallagher is able to follow both of his callings as the only American on a seven-man team in the Vatican’s Office of Latin Letters, which translates the most important Vatican documents into the church’s official language.

Among other challenges, his job entails concocting Latin words for modern inventions, such as “discus rigidus” for “hard drive” or “aerinavis celerrima” for “jet.”

Everybody’s and nobody’s Some would argue that such efforts, however charming the results, are a pointless exercise in anachronism for a church with 1.2 billion members in practically every country on earth. Why not just replace the ancient tongue with the 21st century’s international language, English?

To do so, Msgr. Gallagher answers, would be to “sever us from everything that’s preceded us.” When Catholics pray in Latin, he said, “we put ourselves in a whole family of tradition,” experiencing some of the same feelings as our ancestors in faith when they sang or recited the same words.

Making a modern language the lingua franca of the church would also undermine the unity of Catholics today, he argues, by privileging one part of the universal church over others. Latin is “everybody’s language and nobody’s language,” Msgr. Gallagher said. “No single race or ethnicity possesses” it.

Of course, Latin is now a much smaller part of the church’s life than it was a generation ago. Its eclipse in Catholic worship, education and governance was just one of the many modernizing changes that followed the 1962-1965 Second Vatican Council.

“Perhaps people associated [Latin] with a certain rigidity in the church; the church wasn’t flexible and needed to be updated,” said Msgr. Gallagher, acknowledging that the “church really needed to connect to the world” at that time.

“But the changes happened so fast that people didn’t realize what was being tossed out,” he said. Thus, half a century later, “young people are experiencing a dryness at not being able to connect to what preceded us, both ecclesiastically but also simply historically in the West.”

CNS photo / Paul Haring

U.S. Msgr. Daniel B. Gallagher is pictured in Rome Sept. 18. Father Gallagher is a Latin expert who works in the Vatican Secretariat of State.

“Part of re-evangelizing that culture has to

reconnect [Europeans] with Latinity in its large sense, not just the language but the whole human tradition in which the Christian message was presented 1,500 years ago.

”

MSGR. DANIEL B. GALLAGHER

New interest Msgr. Gallagher said the church has “hit bottom” in terms of Latin knowledge among clergy, and the trend is now steadily upward. A quarter century ago, most seminaries were offering hardly any Latin instruction, he said, but in the past 10 years, future priests have shown a “tremendous increase” in desire to learn the language.

Pope Benedict XVI’s decision to lift most restrictions on the traditional Latin Mass in 2007 certainly helped “spark interest” in liturgical use of the language, Msgr. Gallagher said, but the current movement within the church is part of an even wider trend, reflected in the resurgent popularity of Latin classes at secular universities.

“Young people . . . are searching to un-

derstand who they are and where they’ve come from, and themselves choosing to take Latin,” he said.

That development offers a momentous opportunity for service, Msgr. Gallagher said. As the primary custodian of Latin in the centuries since it ceased to be Europe’s language of literature, law and scholarship, the Catholic Church is singularly well positioned to help others restore the linchpin that once held together a now-fragmented Western culture.

To that end, the Holy See is considering a plan for a Pontifical Latin Academy, which would promote the study of Latin, among other ways by sponsoring international conferences in conjunction with major secular universities and organizing intensive summer language courses.

Such activities would inevitably bring the Vatican into contact with nonCatholics, including atheists and agnostics, who share its interest in the classical heritage, Msgr. Gallagher noted, and that would make the Latin academy a natural part of the new evangelization, Pope Benedict’s project for reviving Christian faith in an increasingly secular West.

At a Synod of Bishops dedicated to the new evangelization next month in Rome, Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington, the synod’s recording secretary, will deliver two addresses in Latin, and Msgr. Gallagher hopes that other bishops also choose to speak and even hold discussions in the language.

It might seem paradoxical that the church’s attempt to reach out to the 21st century should involve recourse to an ancient tongue, but in Msgr. Gallagher’s view, nothing could be more fitting.

The de-Christianized European culture at which the new evangelization is principally aimed “grew out of a culture that was imbued with Latinity,” he said. “So part of re-evangelizing that culture has to reconnect [Europeans] with Latinity in its large sense, not just the language but the whole human tradition in which the Christian message was presented 1,500 years ago.”

This Catholic Life / Commentary

SEPTEMBER 27, 2012 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

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Ten ways Catholics can enter into the Year of Faith To honor the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council and the 20th anniversary of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI has announced a Year of Faith, starting Oct. 11 and ending Nov. 24, 2013.

The goal is to strengthen the faith of Catholics and draw the world to faith by their example.

Bishop David Ricken of Green Bay, Wis., chairman of the ComU.S mittee on EvangelizaConference of tion and Catechesis of Catholic the U.S. Conference of Bishops Catholic Bishops, offers “10 Ways Catholics Can Live the Year of Faith.”

Rooted in guidelines from the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, some of these suggestions are already requirements for Catholics; others can be embraced

by Catholics at all times and especially during the Year of Faith.

The list complements suggestions that can also be found in Archbishop John Nienstedt’s pastoral letter on the new evangelization. The letter is inserted inside this issue of The Catholic Spirit.

Guest Column

1. Participate in Mass.

The Year of Faith is meant to promote the personal encounter with Jesus. This occurs most immediately in the Eucharist.

Regular Mass attendance strengthens one’s faith through the Scriptures, the Creed, other prayers, sacred music, the homily, receiving Communion and being part of

a faith community.

2. Go to confession.

Like going to Mass, Catholics find strength and grow deeper in their faith through participation in the sacrament of penance and reconciliation. Confession urges people to turn back to God, express sorrow for falling short and open their lives to the power of God’s healing grace.

It forgives the injuries of the past and provides strength for the future.

3. Learn about the lives of the saints.

The saints are timeless examples of how to live a Christian life, and they provide endless hope. Not only were they sinners who kept trying to grow closer to God, but they also exemplify ways a person can serve God: through teaching, missionary work, charity, prayer and simply striving to please God in the ordinary actions and decisions of daily life.

4. Read the Bible daily.

Scripture offers first-hand access to the word of God and tells the story of human salvation. Catholics can pray the Scriptures (through “lectio divina” or other methods) to become more attuned to the word of God. Either way, the Bible is a must for growth in the Year of Faith.

5. Read the documents of Vatican II. The Second Vatican Council (1962-65) ushered in a great renewal of the Church.

It impacted how Mass is celebrated, the role of the laity, how the Church understands itself and its relationship with other Christians and non-Christians. To continue this renewal, Catholics must under-

stand what the council taught and how it enriches the lives of believers.

6. Study the catechism.

Published exactly 30 years after the start of the council, the Catechism of the Catholic Church covers the beliefs, moral teachings, prayer and sacraments of the Catholic Church in one volume. It’s a resource for growing in understanding of the faith. Another helpful resource is the U.S. Catholic Catechism for Adults.

7. Volunteer in the parish.

The Year of Faith can’t only be about study and reflection. The solid grounding of the Scriptures, the council and the Catechism must translate into action. The parish is a great place to start, and each

person’s gifts help build up the community. People are welcome as ministers of hospitality, liturgical musicians, lectors, catechists and in other roles in parish life.

8. Help those in need.

The Vatican urges Catholics to donate to charity and volunteer to help the poor during the Year of Faith. This means to personally encounter Christ in the poor, marginalized and vulnerable. Helping others brings Catholics face-to-face with Christ and creates an example for the rest of the world.

9. Invite a friend to Mass.

The Year of Faith may be global in its scope, focusing on a renewal of faith and evangelization for the whole Church, but real change occurs at the local level. A personal invitation can make all the difference to someone who has drifted from the faith or feels alienated from the Church. Everyone knows people like this, so everyone can extend a loving welcome.

10. Incorporate the Beatitudes into daily life.

The Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-12) provide a rich blueprint for Christian living.

Their wisdom can help all to be more humble, patient, just, transparent, loving, forgiving and free. It’s precisely the example of lived faith needed to draw people to the Church in the year ahead.

More information on the Year of Faith is available online: WWW.USCCB.ORG/BELIEFS-ANDTEACHINGS/HOW-WE-TEACH/NEW-EVANGELIZA TION/YEAR-OF-FAITH/INDEX.CFM.

Encouraging an economy of participation

T

he U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Labor Day statement, “Placing Work and Workers at the Center of Economic Life” declares that the cure to our current crisis is a “national economic renewal that places working people and their families at the center of economic life.”

It is precisely through the family that the Church may, according to Pope John Paul II, “fruitfully carry out her worldwide mission.”

Although employment figures have improved since 2009, and some have seen Richard their financial standAleman ing increase significantly during that time, the crippling 8.1 percent unemployment rate is devastating to the middle class and the working poor.

Current economic policies need to be evaluated based on how they foster participation in the labor market and in the productive use of capital, as well as ensure distributive justice.

Faith in the Public Arena

Being accountable Foremost, economic policies should be assessed by how well they value or undermine the dignity of the human person.

When profits are privatized and losses are socialized, when the bottom line becomes more important than those who participate in the economy, the consequences hit the poor the hardest.

When private and public interests — that is individual, businesses and governments — are not held accountable to the common good, they contribute to dispossession, that is, they diminish the chances of the poor to own the land, tools and

“Foremost, economic policies should be assessed by how well they value or undermine the dignity of the human person. When profits are privatized and losses are socialized, when the bottom line becomes more important than those who participate in the economy, the consequences hit the poor the hardest.

”

RICHARD ALEMAN

other resources necessary for their families to flourish.

Economies of dispossession lead to dependence upon finance capital, austerity measures or bailouts to keep the heart of the economy pumping. But these bandaids cannot sustain themselves over long periods of time. An economy unaccountable to the common good will ultimately lead to economic bubbles and Great Depressions — which always devastate the poor first, and then the middle class.

Harmonizing capital, labor The constant theme in the Church’s social teaching concerning the economy is the unequivocal call for harmony and brotherhood among capital and labor because their actions benefit or corrupt the general welfare of society. Capital needs labor to produce goods, and labor needs capital to earn a wage.

Wages should be sufficient for the laborer to provide for one’s family, own a little property and live a frugal life. Re-

ducing workers to conditions of poverty deprives them of the fair return on their labor to which they are entitled, and this has detrimental consequences for their families.

Because the family is the cornerstone of society and directly contributes to the well-being of the broader community, the priorities of the business world and government should be secondary to the needs of the family.

‘Economy of participation’ One way families can flourish is to support the right of association among the working poor to secure fair wages and safe working conditions. This right of workers to form associations to defend themselves from exploitation is consistently upheld throughout Catholic social teaching.

Another is to encourage an economy of participation as a successful social model for society.

“The law, therefore, should favor ownership,” writes Pope Leo XIII, “and its pol-

icy should be to induce as many as possible of the people to become owners.” The worker-contract should be, according to Pope Pius XI in “Quadragesimo Anno,” “somewhat modified by a partnershipcontract.”

More ownership, not less, is rarely explored today as an answer to poverty issues because we have accepted the separation of ownership and work as the gold standard of economic progress.

And, while profit-sharing approaches have been useful measures to lift people out of poverty in the past, a new civic economy enabling the working poor to access and control their own land, tools or other resources can help shift the wagelabor system into an economy of microenterprises and local worker-owned businesses.

Community participation perfectly illustrates how the Catholic social principle of subsidiarity and fraternity, as Pope Paul VI wrote, “infus[es] a Christian spirit into the mentality, customs, laws and structures of the community in which [we] live.”

To empower the ordinary, that is, to enable the working poor to penetrate an inaccessible marketplace, will give them greater influence over their economic security and a greater sense of contribution to the social wealth.

What better way to place workers at the center of economic life than by encouraging economic participation? What better way to create jobs than by creating jobs of our own?

Richard Aleman is an outreach coordinator for the Minnesota Catholic Conference.

/ This Catholic Life Lessons from spending time outside a linguistic empire

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Commentary

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • SEPTEMBER 27, 2012

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Intellect and Virtue John Garvey

Our success as linguistic imperialists has moved other people to learn our language, but Americans feel almost no need to learn theirs

hat do you call someone who speaks two languages? Bilingual. And three languages?

Trilingual. And someone who speaks just one language? An American, of course.

It’s an old joke that speaks for itself, but behind it there’s a long back story. We Americans are victims of our own success — with a bit of the credit going to our British forebears.

By the 19th century the sun never set on the English language. And its world dominance came with the rise of America’s military and then economic power in the mid-20th century. It has turned us all into linguistic imperialists.

Of commerce and culture English is the mutt of European languages, having borrowed heavily from nearly every linguistic family on the continent. Its diversity of background has made it one of the most subtle, nuanced and difficult languages in the entire world. English orthography, which has been settled for only a couple of centuries, nonetheless contains nearly as many exceptions as rules.

It is also perhaps the most entrepreneurial language. Unlike others — French, for example, whose purity is strictly guarded by an established authority — English vocabulary re-

United States and the most widely used in the Catholic Church. Almost 40 percent of the world’s Catholics live in Latin America, and 40 percent of Catholics in the United States are Hispanic.

“Every college student should study a

foreign language. Even better, everyone should spend a year of his or her academic career in a non-Englishspeaking country.

Studying abroad

”

JOHN GARVEY

mains a virtual free-for-all, with thousands of new words simply invented and widely accepted every year. The same is true of English usage and even English grammar, whose evolution over short periods is shockingly fast.

Nearly every European learns English in school; so do many Asians, Africans and Latin Americans. It has become the language of commerce and world culture, much like Latin in medieval times and common Greek in the ancient world. It is the only approved language for pilots and air-traffic controllers to use when airlines take off and land in 157 countries around the world.

This has struck me during my visits to universities in Italy, Spain, Argentina and Chile, and in receiving visitors from Taiwan, China, Ukraine and Poland. We almost always speak English to one another. Oddly, that’s

why I come away from these visits feeling inadequate.

How is it that the rest of the world speaks several languages, and we Americans know only our own? Our success as linguistic imperialists has moved other people to learn our language, but Americans feel almost no need to learn theirs.

The demand for foreign languages among our young people varies with the prominence of the countries where they are spoken. When I was young and the Cold War was hot, everyone wanted to learn Russian.

Today it’s Chinese and Spanish, the two most widely spoken native tongues in the world.

There is growing demand for Chinese and Arabic in our Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at Catholic University, but the most popular is Spanish, the second most commonly used language in the

It’s my job to think about how to educate our children, and this prompts me to think about two things. One is what a great gift it is for children to grow up in a home where people speak a language other than English — it is the easiest way to pick up a second language. It comes naturally, without tests or homework, and it gives one a flawless accent.

The other thing is that every college student should study a foreign language. Even better, everyone should spend a year of his or her academic career in a non-Englishspeaking country. There exists in the academic world a tension between the two goals of broadening students’ cultural horizons and preparing them for future careers.

I cannot think of anything else that advances both goals so well as time spent outside our linguistic empire.

Garvey is president of The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

In Lebanon, Pope Benedict’s presence was the message

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hen Pope Benedict XVI stepped off the plane in Beirut Sept. 14, he said he had come to Lebanon, and to the Middle East in general, as a “pilgrim of peace.” In five major talks over the next three days, the pope repeatedly called for peace and underscored the role of Christians in promoting it. Yet his most eloquent message of hope to the troubled region lay not in the diplomatic language of his public statements, but in his very presence and the response it evoked from his hosts.

Throughout his Francis X. trip, Pope Benedict Rocca limited himself to general statements of principle on the most contentious political issues, and he avoided some topics altogether.

His insistence that religious freedom is a basic human right and a prerequisite for social harmony was a bold statement in the context of a region where most countries restrict and even prohibit the practice of any faith besides Islam.

But like the document he came to Lebanon to present, a collection of his reflections on the 2010 special Synod of Bishops dedicated to Christians in the Middle East, the pope said nothing specific about where and how the region’s Christians are regularly deprived of that right.

The pope twice deplored the human cost of the civil war in neighboring Syria, but his only practical recommendation for an end to the fighting there was a neutral call to end the importation of military arms, which he called a “grave sin.” With regard to religiously inspired violence, the pope made a single generic reference to terrorism and a possible allusion to the subject in the statement that “authentic

came at this difficult moment is an indication that Christians here are not forgotten,” said Habib Malik, a professor of history at Lebanese American University.

The pope’s visit served as a showcase for Lebanon, which for years was a model of peaceful coexistence and religious freedom in the Middle East. The show of enthusiasm across sectarian and political lines, in a nation still recovering from the 1975-90 civil war, was a dramatic statement of unity to the outside world and to the Lebanese themselves.

Analysis

Warm welcome

CNS photo / Paul Haring

Pope Benedict XVI waves as he arrives in the popemobile to celebrate Mass on the waterfront in Beirut Sept. 16.

faith does not lead to death.”

Canceling trip never an option Pope Benedict said nothing at all about the incendiary subject that dominated news coverage in the run-up to his trip: an American-made anti-Islamic film that had inspired often-violent protests in at least a dozen Muslim countries, including Lebanon.

Awareness of that furor no doubt heightened the caution with which the pope treated the most volatile topics during his trip. Ironically, the crisis may also have helped him to get his message across.

With turmoil over the movie spreading

across the Middle East, the papal visit suddenly became a much more dramatic and thus more appealing story to the secular press, which probably gave it more coverage as a result, observed Msgr. John Kozar, president of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association, who attended the papal events.

For the Lebanese, the pope’s willingness to travel in spite of security concerns — he told reporters on the plane from Rome that he had not considered canceling the trip and that no one had advised him to do so — powerfully underscored his commitment to the country and the region.

“The mere fact that the Holy Father

Epitomizing the welcome by Muslim leaders, Lebanon’s grand mufti gave Pope Benedict a written message stating that “any attack on any Christian citizen is an attack on Islam.” And as Lebanon’s Daily Star newspaper reported Sept. 17, Lebanon President Michel Suleiman cited the unanimity among political factions over the weekend in arguing that the “way to capitalize on the pope’s visit is via dialogue.”

Pope Benedict would no doubt agree, while limiting his short-term expectations.

As he told the president in his arrival speech, Lebanese society’s “equilibrium, which is presented everywhere as an example, is extremely delicate. Sometimes it seems about to snap like a bow which is overstretched or submitted to pressures which are too often partisan, even selfish, contrary and extraneous to Lebanese harmony and gentleness.”

What precisely those pressures might be, the pope prudently declined to say.

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

This Catholic Life / Commentary

SEPTEMBER 27, 2012 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

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Tackling poverty and helping people to flourish this in perspective by saying that feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, etc., are requirements for entering the kingdom.)

The following is the eighth article in the series “Catholics Care - Catholics Vote.” The series, which will run until Election Day, Nov. 6, unpacks and explores the themes addressed by the U.S. bishops in “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship,” their document on political responsibility. For past articles in the series, visit THECATHOLICSPIRIT.COM.

Subsidiarity is the principle that says care for the poor — and all human problems, in fact — should be addressed at the lowest level possible and the highest level necessary. It promotes the robust network of relationships in society, from the individual to the global. It can be seen at work when, for instance, funding from the federal government goes to finance antipoverty programs that are regulated and administered at the state or local level, often by charities, sometimes by Catholic charities.

By Don Clemmer “The poor you will always have with you, and whenever you wish you can do good to them,” Jesus says in Mark’s Gospel.

This would, at face value, seem like a fairly open-ended statement. But it gets a pretty heavy degree of specificity from the U.S. bishops in the introductory note to the reissued “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship,” when the bishops cite “an economic crisis . . . , increasing national and global unemployment, poverty, and hunger; increasing deficits and debt and the duty to respond in ways which protect those who are poor and vulnerable as well as future generations” as one of their six areas of concern going into the 2012 elections.

If these are issues that are supposed to matter to Catholics, the bishops have certainly led by example in this area. For the church, political engagement isn’t just about what happens in a voting booth in November; it’s about consistently bringing one’s values and perspective to the public discussion.

The U.S. bishops have brought their values to the issues of debt, poverty, unemployment and hunger in numerous letters to leaders in Congress. The Vatican has even tackled the more overarching chal-

Duty shared by everyone The goal is always human flourishing.

The tangled, interconnected mess of joblessness, the economy, poverty, etc., is a political concern for the bishops because it impacts the lives and dignity of so many.

CNS photo / Gregory A. Shemitz

Men eat lunch in a Brooklyn, N.Y., soup kitchen in this photo from 2010.

lenge of financial reform.

Of course, every Catholic is called to engage the political process, as voters, lawmakers, advocates, etc. And all Catholics are called to, as Jesus said, do good for the poor, through whatever means are at their disposal, whether they’re a teacher educating the next generation, a banker engaging in responsible lending practices or a legislator shaping public policy that will impact millions of lives. In his encyclical “Caritas in Veritate,” Pope Benedict XVI called this the “institutional path of charity.”

On this path, Catholic teaching places a crowded cast of characters, all with their

own responsibilities: government, businesses, churches and other organizations, and individuals. The church’s vision for society involves all of these stakeholders working together in a way that allows people to flourish, living life with a sense of dignity and reaching the potential God intended for them. In Catholic terms, everyone has a responsibility to promote the common good.

To keep this from becoming stifling or chaotic, the church prescribes principles like solidarity and subsidiarity.

Solidarity is the recognition of the responsibility of everyone in society to care for those who are poor and vulnerable.

(The words of Jesus in Matthew 25 put

“Work is more than a way to make a living,” the bishops write in “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship,” “it is a form of continuing participation in God’s creation.”

And, as so many people struggle in financial hardship to regain that part of their lives, it becomes apparent that “The poor you will always have with you” isn’t a license to ignore the poor or assume they will disappear when times improve for everyone.

Rather, it’s a reminder of a duty shared by everyone and articulated by the bishops: “The economy must serve people, not the other way around.”

Clemmer is assistant director of media relations for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Faithful citizens care about marriage because they care about poverty

I

hear it a lot, from non-Catholics and even Catholics: “Why doesn’t the Church spend more time fighting poverty and less time telling people what kind of family is best? Quit spending time on an outdated ideal of marriage and feed the hungry, clothe the naked and take care of the sick.”

One answer is to point out that the Church, speaking of her simply as an institutional structure, already does David Paul a great deal of work with the hungry, Deavel naked and sick. It’s rightly said that the Catholic Church is the largest social service agency in the world.

A deeper answer is that marriage and poverty are, indeed, tightly tied together in the real world. The Church isn’t interested in stable marriages simply out of nostalgia for an era of “Leave it to Beaver” perfection. In 2,000 years, the Church has had a lot of experience with family structures of all kinds. Both revelation and reasoning, derived from that experience, lead to the conclusion that marriage is a key ingredient in warding off not only poverty but a whole host of other social ills.

Earlier this year, Isabel Sawhill of the Brookings Institution wrote an opinion piece for the Washington Post titled, “20 years later, it turns out Dan Quayle was right about Murphy Brown and unmarried moms.” In 1992 then Vice President Quayle had criticized the television sitcom “Murphy Brown” for its storyline glamorizing the title character’s decision to have a child outside of marriage. Sawhill writes that while the campaign speech kicked up a lot of dust at the time, today “Quayle’s words seem less controversial than prophetic.”

While the number of births to single mothers and co-

Commentary

“Marriage is a key ingredient in warding off not only poverty but a whole host of other social ills.

”

DAVID PAUL DEAVEL

habiting parents has mushroomed in the United States, so too has the number of studies from social scientists — across the left-to-right spectrum (the Brookings Institution being center-left) — showing that kids do best on a whole range of outcomes with their married, biological mothers and fathers.

Second best are children in divorced families (with little difference whether the divorced parents remarry — the benefits of married parents are largely absent from step-families). The worst outcomes are produced by children of never-married mothers — cohabitation also does not bring the same benefits marriage does in large part because of their fragility. As Sawhill and others have pointed out, half of cohabiting couples have separated by their fifth anniversary.

Economic benefits Sawhill observes that research she has done with colleague Adam Thomas indicates that if single mothers were matched with demographically similar unmarried men, the child poverty rate would fall by about 20 per-

cent. Married mothers have significant economic benefits over single mothers that lead to significant economic advantages for their children. While government certainly has a role to play in helping single and divorced parents financially, Sawhill concludes that “no government program is likely to reduce child poverty as much as bringing back marriage as the preferable way of raising children.” (Sawhill favors subsidies or tax credits for child care as well as the earned income tax credit.)

But human flourishing is not just about economic benefits. Married biological parents don’t just produce fewer poor children; they produce children less likely to: drop out of school, get pregnant before marriage, attempt suicide, commit crimes, and have emotional or medical problems. Married two-parent biological families are not just about extra “economic input.” They are about flourishing.

In the name of Christ, the Church understands the messiness of life and accepts all people no matter what the state of their lives are. We are not a society of the perfect. But as a matter of duty, the Church keeps speaking in the public arena about marriage, divorce and cohabitation precisely because these issues mean so much in the fight to feed, clothe and heal a hurting world.

David Paul Deavel is associate editor of Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture and adjunct professor in the department of Catholic Studies at the University of St. Thomas. He is a frequent contributor to the Minnesota Catholic Conference blog Unique for a Reason: why marriage matters (MARRIAGEMATTERS. MNCC.ORG).

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Some 1,700 teens come together to celebrate their faith, love for Jesus

By Jennifer Janikula For The Catholic Spirit

Jesus, the archbishop, and about 1,700 of the “greatest people in the world” were “marooned” on an island Sept. 15.

It wasn’t a new reality TV show — rather, it was Archbishop John Nienstedt’s perfect description of the first annual Archdiocesan Youth Day at DeLaSalle High School, located on Nicollet Island in Minneapolis.

Archbishop Nienstedt welcomed the contingent of high school-aged Catholics from across the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis to rediscover and share their “reason for hope” — Jesus Christ.

The theme of the day was from 1 Peter 3:15: “. . . sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope.”

Over the course of the seven-hour celebration of faith, the young Catholics listened to dynamic speakers, attended Mass with the archbishop, had an opportunity to receive the sacrament of reconciliation, enjoyed uplifting music by the band Sonar, and honored Jesus’ presence during a candlelit adoration procession.

Touching hearts The day reflected Archbishop Nienstedt’s commitment to the spiritual growth of young people in the archdiocese. He wanted participants to be proud of being Catholic, to see others who are proud to be Catholic, and to get out of their comfort zone and let the Lord touch their hearts.

The excitement of the youth was palpable — standing ovations for the archbishop who spent the whole day with the youth, dancing and clapping along with the music during Mass, and tears during adoration. Several teenagers said they were thankful for the opportunity to worship with each other and with the archbishop.

“I go to Mass every Sunday, but I don’t feel those goose bumps like I did today. It just felt good — all those teens around me.

That’s what I really liked,” said Yami Dominguez of Immaculate Conception in Columbia Heights.

Jacob Hornecker, a member of St. John the Baptist in Excelsior, said he enjoyed “the opportunity to get to know the priests [who attended] and the archbishop better. I want to learn from them because they are the holiest people I know.”

Others like Morgan Windsperger and Laura

Tweets from the day A Twitter feed for Archdiocesan Youth Day captured some of the experiences of the youth. The following is a sample of the day’s tweets.

■ “The crazy amount of young people who came to the Archdiocesan Youth day was AMAZING! #AYD2012 #AYD12” ■ “Lord your love never fails. It never gives up. It never runs out on me. #pumpedtobeacatholic #ayd12” ■ “That was such an inspiration. I can’t wait to go out to the world and praise <3 #ayd12 #lifechanging” ■ “That was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. #ayd12” ■ “Adoration made me tear up. He is with us <3 #ayd12” ■ “‘I deserve to be loved’ #AYD12” ■ “‘I have worth’ #AYD12” ■ “I’ve always wanted to spend 8 hours with 2000 of my friends. #GREATDAY” #Ayd12”

the teens.

Adrian Ahlquist, who often attends daily Mass at Holy Family in St. Louis Park before school, said he appreciated the message that God is not just a fad and our faith is deeper than just emotion.

Ellen Brough from St. Odilia Church in Shoreview said she “loved the talk about the T-shirts,” adding that “Jesus needs to be the Lord of our T-shirt drawer and we need to think about how we present ourselves as Catholics.”

Other youth like Dominic Shovelain from St. Albert in Albertville thought the talk was a great reminder that we should think about what might “be in the way” that prevents Jesus from being the center of our lives.

In addition to the keynote talk, the youth attended one of several breakout sessions.

Freshmen girls heard they are children of God who deserve to be loved and respected.

Freshmen boys were told about the need to have courage and strength — that they are capable of greatness and called to live it.

All juniors and seniors heard about the importance of living their vocation and not being afraid to go where God calls.

Engaging with technology

Hertzog of Immaculate Conception Church in Watertown commented that their favorite part of the day was receiving Communion from the archbishop.

T-shirts, tattoos and Jesus

Event organizers created a Twitter hashtag (#AYD12) to generate a real-time discussion of the day’s events.

“That was one of the most amazing experiences of my life,” tweeted one participant.

“Adoration made me tear up. He is with us,” said another.

View a video story about Archdiocesan Youth Day at THECATHOLICSPIRIT.COM/FEATURED /VIDEO-ARCHDIOCESAN-YOUTH-DAY-2012.

Two participants, reacting to the day’s po itive messages, said they learned that “I d serve to be loved” and “I have worth” in world that often promotes messages antithe ical to the Gospel.

Youth were also encouraged to text que tions to Archbishop Nienstedt for a questio and-answer session moderated by Father Er PLEASE TURN TO TWITTER ON PAGE 16A

Keynote speaker Father Michael Schmitz, director of youth/young adult ministry in the Diocese of Duluth, challenged the young Catholics to embrace Jesus as their hope and their purpose.

“Is Jesus just another T-shirt in your drawer — you put him on one day and take him off the next?” he asked. “We are called for more than this. Sanctify Christ as the Lord and center of your life.”

Father Schmitz explained that the world offers comfort, but God did not make us to be comfortable. We need to “live with courage because there is a reason for hope.”

“Will you accept the Lord — will you accept the hope that he has offered?” Father Schmitz asked. “When you were baptized, someone made that decision for you. Now you have this decision to make. Let the Lord be a tattoo on your body — irrevocably — forever.”

The T-shirt/tattoo analogy resonated with PRESENTING SPONSORS

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SEPTEMBER 27, 2012 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

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Q&A with the archbishop

Dave Hrbacek / The Catholic Spirit

Father Erik Lundgren of Divine Mercy in Faribault gives a high five to Archbishop John Nienstedt during a question-and-answer session.

Archdiocesan Youth Day provided an opportunity for young Catholics to get to know more about Archbishop John Nienstedt. The teenagers were encouraged to pull out their cell phones and text questions to him. Here is an abridged sample: How were you called to the priesthood?

At 3 years old, I told my mom I wanted to be a priest. In fourth grade, my teacher asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I explained that as long as anything, I’ve known that I want to be a priest. Then, in high school, I went to parties, met girls, liked to dance. When I was a junior in high school, I realized that I needed to make a decision about the seminary. While kneeling for an hour during adoration, I said to God, “I need to know before this hour is over if I should go to seminary. Don’t be subtle. A lightening bolt would be fine.” Nothing earth-shattering happened, but at the end of the hour, I had a deep sense of peace and had to go try seminary. Besides, they should know what a good priest looks like. If I didn’t fit in, they would tap me on the shoulder and say get out of here.

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All Photos by Dave Hrbacek / The Catholic Spirit

Top: Danielle Dehmer, left, Molly Keister, Kristen Haller and Sammi Metzger, all of St. Michael in St. Michael, enjoy praise and worship during Archdiocesan Youth Day Sept. 15 at DeLaSalle High School in Minneapolis.

Above: Father Michael Schmitz of the Diocese of Duluth brings Eucharist in a monstrance to youth participating in Archdiocesan Youth Day. Eucharistic adoration capped the seven-hour event, which featured speakers and Archbishop John Nienstedt, who spent the entire event with the youth.

Left: Vanessa Nguyen, left, Jennifer Nguyen and Maria Dang of St. Anne/St. Joseph Hien in Minneapolis react during Archdiocesan Youth Day. They came with a group of youth from their parish.

SPONSORS

What is your favorite sport?

Hockey.

A kid in my confirmation class came out on his Facebook page. How should we all treat him now that we know he is gay?

This person is made in the image and likeness of God. It could be that he has been struggling with the issue. I think you need to offer him friendship and understanding and just treat him like a decent human being.

Q: Besides doing things related to church, what do you like to do?

I love to read novels. If I can get a couple novels read on vacation, that’s a good vacation for me. When I go with priest friends, they call me the video king. I’m the one to go down to the video store and pick out all the movies we watch in the evenings. I go for walks, I walk every morning.

Are you allowed to go to confession

over text message?

The short answer is no. But why? Jesus says in St. Matthew’s gospel that where two or three are gathered together, He is present with them. So the sacramental encounter really presumes that at least two people are together representing the body of Christ. And so the priest has the awesome resposibility of standing in the place of Christ, but it has to be direct and it has to be an auricular confession, meaning that I am going to tell him my sins in their kind and number.

What are your favorite prayers?

Our Father, Memorare, rosary.

Which saints do you pray to?

St. John the Evangelist, St. John the Baptist, St. John Vianney, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, St. Joseph.

What have been your most memorable experiences as archbishop?

I like confirmation — meeting individuals and families — watching them come together. I like visiting our Catholic high schools and our Catholic elementary schools. I also like visiting the parishes. I have been to 175 of the 203 parishes in the archdiocese. I plan to visit all of them.

How can we keep our faith alive in college?

Focus on Christ. Use your time well — advance your education and human formation and relationship with Christ.

Then you will come out a better person in four years.

What is your greatest hope for us as youth and what we can do to serve our local church?

Right now you are serving the local church and you are doing it well. My greatest hope is that you will grow in your faith, you’ll grow closer to Christ, and you’ll come to respect and be a participating member in the body of Christ. It’s an awesome church. It’s an awesome faith, and you have so much to give. The world and the church are just waiting for you to give it.

— Jennifer Janikula

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SEPTEMBER 27, 2012 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Tickets available for Champions lunch The Catholic Spirit Tickets are still available for the annual Champions for Life Award luncheon recognizing outstanding pro-life activities and achievements of Catholics in the archdiocese.

Winners of this year’s awards, given by the archdiocesan Office of Marriage, Family and Life, will be honored at a lunch with Archbishop John Nienstedt Oct. 18 at St. Peter in Mendota. For tickets, visit WWW.ARCHSPM.ORG or call (651) 291-4506.

Cost is $35 and the deadline is Oct. 4.

Stephen Thie, a recent graduate of St. Thomas Academy and member of Holy Spirit in St. Paul, is being honored in the youth category for his work and leadership with STA’s Respect Life group.

The winner in the church, school or group category is Prenatal Partners for Life, a group that assists parents receiving a poor diagnosis for an unborn child and connects them with others who have Dave Hrbacek / The Catholic Spirit

Congratulations to

Archbishop John Nienstedt, left, talks with Sean Hamilton, Grant Mosser and Lucas Friederichs of All Saints in Lakeville during a break.

Twitter, texting play role at youth day CONTINUED FROM PAGE 14A Lundgren, associate priest at Divine Mercy in Faribault.

Responding to specific questions, Archbishop Nienstedt talked about his call to the priesthood, what he likes to do in his free time (read, watch movies, take a walk every morning), his favorite sport (hockey), his favorite prayers (Our Father, Memorare), and his Read the thoughts about archbishop’s country singer Taylor homily to Swift (“I think she’s awesome.”) youth at He also addressed THECATHOLIC more serious topics, such as the imporSPIRIT.COM tance of defending the Catholic Church’s teaching about marriage and how to respond in a Christlike way to a peer who has “come out” as someone with same-sex attraction.

Archbishop Nienstedt said his greatest hope for the youth was for them to grow in their faith and to be participating members in the Body of Christ.

Support for the day Many organizations came together to make Archdiocesan Youth Day faithfilled, fun and free of charge for all participants.

Among organizations that contributed were the presenting sponsors, University of St. Thomas and St. Catherine University; major sponsors, The St. Paul Seminary and Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas; and sponsors, Catholic United Financial and St. Mary’s University of Minnesota.

The sponsors were proud to be part of the excitement. “We support the archdiocese and we are convinced of the value of sustaining and encouraging the faith of young people,” said Father John Bauer, speaking on behalf of the University of St. Thomas and St. John Vianney College

been through a similar experience.

Pat and Sandy Foley of St. Michael in West St. Paul are the winners in the team, couple or family category. Pat has been the director of the Wakota Life Care Center since 1983. Sandy uses her background as a nurse to help at the center, and their seven children have been actively involved as well.

Andrea Kullmann of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Hastings is the adult category winner. She has been the executive director of the Hastings Life Care Center since 2009 and has been active in the pro-life movement for the last 26 years.

A special award will be given to Father Richard Hogan, who was active in the pro-life movement until his death last June.

Stephen Thie,

STA Class of 2012, for his Champions for Life Award!

Cadets.com

Joe Towalski / The Catholic Spirit

Signs for Archdiocesan Youth Day decorated the walls of DeLaSalle High School.

What is God’s plan for me?

Pat Millea, director of high school faith formation and confirmation at St. Michael in Prior Lake, shared his thoughts about God’s purpose for juniors and seniors as they prepare for adulthood.

He reminded the youth God’s path is not narrow: “Morality is choosing between good and evil. Discernment is choosing between two good things.

As long as it’s not sin, it can fit in God’s plan.”

Millea outlined four steps to discern God’s will and purpose.

Step 1: Become obsessed with Jesus.

Step 2: Know your options — the pros, cons, joys and challenges.

Step 3: Pray.

Step 4: Do something. Act!.

651.683.1515

In Recognition of being Champions for Life the Parish of St. Raphael in Crystal

congratulates & thanks

Mary Kellett Prenatal Partners for Life

and shares in honoring

Seminary.

Fr. Richard Hogan

Other partners for the day included Partnership for Youth, TEC Twin Cities and NET Ministries.

Parochial Vicar, St. Raphael, 1981-1988

Next year, the Archdiocesan Youth Day will take place Sept 21.

Pastor, St. Raphael, 2009 – 2011

— Jennifer Janikula

Do you dish? http://CatholicHotdish.com

(1951-2011)

May we all continue this labor in Christ

“For whoever is not against us is for us.”

Mark 9:40

The Lesson Plan SEPTEMBER 27, 2012

Reflections on faith and spirituality

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

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Working to reach our true potential as Catholics

W

e spend a lot of time thinking and talking about the future. We look at our gifts and abilities, reflect on our experiences and try to think what is truly possible. In other words, we look at the present in order to understand what the future may hold — what our true potential may be.

As a result, our potential can become a source of excitement and hope. Or, if there is little potential, there can be feelings of sorrow, sadness or Deacon hopelessness.

Jake Greiner Sports are a prime example. Our culture spends a tremendous amount of time talking about the potential of sports teams. If there are good reports from the practices before the start of the season, excitement builds. However, if the star player is injured in practice be-

Sunday Scriptures

fore the start of the to excess. As is typiReadings season, frustration cal of this epistle, the Sunday, Sept. 30 can dominate disexhortation makes it 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time cussion of the team. clear that something ■ Numbers 11:25-29 When it comes to must be done to ■ James 5:1-6 our lives of faith, quell the “fattened ■ Mark 9:39-43, 45, 47-48 what is our potenhearts” of those who tial as Catholics? will not commit to Reflection Everyone has the living a life in service What needs to be cut out of your potential to become of God and neighlife in order to make room for God? a saint. This is the bor. Our potential to ultimate goal for become saints is limeach and every single person no matter ited by worldly attractions and desires. the particular vocation.

What needs to be cut out of our lives in This means we are called to be in union order to make room for God? with God through his son, Jesus Christ, Our Gospel for this weekend then helps by the power of the Holy Spirit now and to bring the first and second readings into in eternal life. We are called to cooperate a stronger focus. Jesus tells his disciples with God’s grace. The challenge is trying not to focus on the actions of a man who to live up to this potential in our daily performed a healing in Jesus’ name, but lives, and our readings this weekend offer rather focus on how this action could fursome insights into how we, as Catholics, ther the overall mission of bringing forth can live out our true potential and calling. the Kingdom of God. The second reading from St. James foJesus further tells, in no uncertain terms, cuses on the potential life of those who how we ought to approach those areas of commit injustice and commit their lives our life that lead us away from God: Cut

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service

Sunday, Sept. 30 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time Numbers 11:25-29 James 5:1-6 Mark 9:39-43, 45, 47-48

Sunday, Oct. 7 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time Genesis 2:18-24 Hebrews 2:9-11 Mark 10:2-16

Monday, Oct. 1 St. Therese of the Child Jesus, virgin and doctor of the church Job 1:6-22 Luke 9:46-50

Monday, Oct. 8 Galatians 1:6-12 Luke 10:25-37

Wednesday, Oct. 3 Job 9:1-12, 14-16 Luke 9:57-62 Thursday, Oct. 4 St. Francis of Assisi Job 19:21-27 Luke 10: 1-12

Deacon Jake Greiner is in formation for the priesthood at the St. Paul Seminary for the Diocese of Davenport, Iowa.

His home parish is Holy Trinity Parish in Keota, Iowa, and his teaching parish is Mary Queen of Peace in Rogers.

Christians, Muslims must give joint witness for peace, pope says

Daily Scriptures

Tuesday, Oct. 2 The Holy Guardian Angels Job 3:1-3, 11-17, 20-23 Matthew 18:1-5, 10

it out of your life even if it will hurt. In fact, radical acts of denial may be needed to cut out sin. But this is always done so that we can be free to reach our potential, with God’s grace, of being saints. Saints cut everything out of their life that does not help them love God and neighbor.

All of us have the potential to become saints if we are open to God’s grace and work to cut out the sin that holds us back.

There are constant graces being offered, but we must work to cooperate with these graces. We must cut off all those sins that keep us from holiness in Christ.

Let us pray that we become more and more conformed to Jesus Christ, who is the model of all saints, so we can one day experience the fullness of joy promised to all saints in heaven: our true potential.

Tuesday, Oct. 9 St. Denis, bishop, and companions, martyrs; St. John Leonardi, priest Galatians 1:13-24 Luke 10:38-42 Wednesday, Oct. 10 Galatians 2:1-2, 7-14 Luke 11:1-4 Thursday, Oct. 11 Galatians 3:1-5 Luke 11:5-13 Friday, Oct. 12 Galatians 3:7-14 Luke 11:15-26

Friday, Oct. 5 Job 38:1, 12-21; 40:3-5 Luke 10:13-16

Saturday, Oct. 13 Galatians 3:22-29 Luke 11:27-28

Saturday, Oct. 6 St. Bruno, priest; Blessed Marie Rose Durocher, virgin Job 42:1-3, 5-6, 12-17 Luke 10:17-24

Sunday, Oct. 14 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time Wisdom 7:7-11 Hebrews 4:12-13 Mark 10:17-30

Pope Benedict XVI said his three-day trip to Lebanon convinced him that now is the time for Christians and Muslims to bear witness together against violence and in favor of dialogue and peace.

In Lebanon, he said, Muslims “welcomed me with great respect,” and their presence at each of his public events “gave me an opportunity to launch a message of dialogue and cooperation between Christianity and Islam.”

“I believe the time has come to give a sincere and decisive witness together against divisions, against violence and against war,” the pope said Sept. 19 at his weekly general audience.

Reviewing his Sept. 14-16 trip to Lebanon, the pope told an estimated 7,000 people gathered in the Vatican audience hall that the “relaxed and constructive climate” of meetings with Lebanese religious leaders, government officials and crowds made up of Christians and Muslims was “a strong sign of hope for the future of humanity.”

The general audience opened with the reading — in six languages — of a passage from the Gospel of St. John: “My peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.”

Pope Benedict said that despite the current tensions in the Middle East, particularly because of the continued fighting in Syria, he was strongly committed to making the trip “because I was convinced that a father must be alongside his children

From the Vatican

when they face serious problems. I was motivated by a deep desire to proclaim the peace the Lord left his disciples.”

Lebanon’s tradition of different religions not only coexisting in peace but working together for the good of the country must be treasured, strengthened and seen as an example for the whole region, the pope said.

“In the face of the dramas and sufferings that continue in the Middle East,” he said he wanted to show his support for “the legitimate aspirations” of the region’s people. “I am thinking in particular of the terrible conflict tormenting Syria and causing thousands of deaths and a flood of refugees fleeing in a desperate search for safety and a future.”

At a general audience attended by dozens of groups of high school and university students from around the world, Pope Benedict said he was especially touched by the festive atmosphere that marked his meeting Sept. 15 with young people from Lebanon and surrounding countries.

“Watching young Christians and Muslims celebrating together in great harmony, I urged them to build together the future of Lebanon and the Middle East, and to oppose together violence and war.

Agreement and reconciliation must be stronger than the temptations of death,” he said.

The pope said he returned to Rome convinced that sincere faith and a desire to do God’s will can and must be the basis for social harmony because faith in God gives birth to true peace.

Lesson Plan What does it take to cultivate a spirituality of stewardship?

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THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • SEPTEMBER 27, 2012

Renee Allerheiligen is a member of Our Lady of Grace in Edina and the Archdiocesan Stewardship Committee. The following are excerpts from a recent interview with her conducted by The Catholic Spirit about the spirituality of stewardship. It is the first in a three-part series on stewardship.

What do we mean by a “spirituality of stewardship”?

To get at the spiritual root of something is to go back to its original reality — in this case, to discover the essence of stewardship. Catholic spirituality has real meaning in our lives and the lives of others because we connect to the source of that meaning, Jesus Christ and his church. The spirituality of stewardship seeks to integrate the truths of our Catholic faith, the sacred Scriptures and the Mass into our daily actions. Because of this, stewardship as a response of a ALLERHEILIGEN Christian disciple is a way of living, not a program offered through a parish. This daily living reality circles back ultimately to the Scriptures and living daily the realties offered to us in the Eucharist.

What are the scriptural roots/basis for stewardship?

The textbook of stewardship is the sacred Scriptures.

Search the Bible and you will find myriads of references in the Old and New Testaments about living out a life of discipleship through gratefully recognizing, receiving and sharing the gifts God gives us out of love for God and our neighbor. The sacred Scriptures and our tradition assisted the U.S. bishops in crafting their pastoral letter on stewardship, “Stewardship: A Disciple’s Response.” Every person and everything is a gift from our generous God who gives us all that is good.

“Stewardship as a response of

a Christian disciple is a way of living, not a program offered through a parish. This daily living reality circles back ultimately to the Scriptures and living daily the realties offered to us in the Eucharist.

”

RENEE ALLERHEILIGEN

Stewardship is the manifestation that we are disciples, and we see it most clearly in thesacred Scriptures. In the Scriptures, we constantly see God pouring out his life and love, his abundant gifts. Each outpouring solicits a response in the Scriptures just as it does today. The parable of the steward is a more obvious story, but search the Scriptures and you will see this theme consistently played out. God calls us to full stewardship of all he has entrusted to us, and to care for and return with increase (good) in some way all he has given out of sheer love for us. This includes our time, talent and treasure, but it also extends to our relationships and truths of the faith we have been entrusted with.

How is a spirituality of stewardship best cultivated among individuals and churches?

If the “textbook” for stewardship is the sacred Scriptures, then the “school” for stewardship is the Mass. The most vibrant stewardship parishes are focused on the source of these gifts — God. Jesus Christ gives himself and remains with us in the Eucharist — the source and summit of the church’s life. Parishes with a strong devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, a strong a sacramental life with frequent offerings for confession and Mass, and that help parishioners cultivate God’s life of love in their parish activities and outreach, not only have vibrant parishes but also seek to build and promote strong families and vocations.

More tactically, parishes that seek to build their parishes as places of hospitality, prayer, formation, service and evangelization have a stronger sense and plans on how to facilitate a stewardship way of life in parishes and families. Pastoral planning helps parishes do this in a more intentional way. Stewardship parishes seek to build up these “pillars” that support the parish and the parishioners therein.

Individual stewards should also seek to build themselves and their relationships as hospitable, prayerful, well-formed, servant-oriented who want to share the good news of God’s goodness and love. These are some of the most faithful stewards and witnesses of the Gospel.

How can the church cultivate this spirituality successfully among youth and young adults?

Providing a eucharistic focus in meaningful ways and frequent opportunities for confession to young people is important. As young people come to know Jesus Christ in prayer, the sacraments, catechesis and solid youth programs, they begin to see how abundant his blessings are and are eager to serve. Young people have PLEASE TURN TO FAMILIES ON PAGE 19A

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THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • SEPTEMBER 27, 2012

Gift of personal Bible inspires students

By Christina Capecchi For The Catholic Spirit

Freshmen at Visitation School in Mendota Heights received a special gift from the religion department on the second day of the school year: their own Bibles.

The gift-giving ceremony that took place in the monastery chapel is part of an initiative begun six years ago to encourage more robust Scripture study. The Bibles are intended for their four years of high school and beyond.

Each freshman received a third edition of the Catholic Youth Bible published by St. Mary’s Press, which is sprinkled with vignettes that personalize Scripture passages, as edited by Catherine Cory, an associate professor of theology at the University of St. Thomas. Their study is informed by material from local Catholic Jeff Cavins, a national Bible expert, and well timed as Visitation’s religion program inaugurates the new curriculum designed by the U.S. bishops.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 18A an energy and idealism that should be embraced as well as guided. Families that seek to live a life of stewardship set a great example for children, and this often leaves a lasting impression through adulthood. Teaching young people the value of good personal leadership, temperance, prudence, and generosity in daily life, especially in the midst of abundance is important.

And, like most of us, young people need to be invited, encouraged and empowered to live a life of stewardship. They are often most generous if they have made a personal connection with someone in the church.

Received with gratitude It was the first Bible Stephanie Puma, 14, a member of Holy Rosary in south Minneapolis, had ever been given.

“It’s really special to me,” she said. “Now, whenever I feel sad, I can look at the word of God and be comforted.”

“Having these Bibles is going to be a great gift for us,” added classmate Anna Evans, 15, a member of St. Joseph in West St. Paul. “I really like the Psalms, especially Psalm 139 — ‘I praise you, God, that I am wonderfully, fearfully made.’” Those words are a source of encouragement for any teenager struggling with self acceptance, Evans added.

Colleen Scallen, 15, who belongs to Nativity of Our Lord in St. Paul, said she’s looking forward to digging deeper into Scripture, especially after attending a predominantly Baptist summer camp where she was reminded of how well-versed Protestants tend to be with the Bible. “The Bible is way more important than a textbook because it shows us examples of how to live,” Scallen said.

Catholics may not be as adept at citing verse and chapter, said religion teacher Mary McClure, but she’s teaching her students to recognize patterns. For instance, if they’re seeking Scripture about the Virgin Mary, they should turn to the Gospel of Luke.

A solid foundation The Bibles were presented to the freshmen by Sister Jane de Chantal Smisek and Sister Mary Paula McCarthy,

Christina Capecchi / For The Catholic Spirit.

Sister Jane de Chantal Smisek presents a Bible to Visitation freshman Colleen Scallen

who gave the students handwritten cards with various passages about the power of Scripture, such as Psalm 119: 105: “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light for my path.”

Sister Jane de Chantal said she was pleased by the students’ response to the gift. “They are darling girls and eager to have their own Bibles. Their hearts are in it, and at this stage, when their lives are really beginning, you need a foundation,” she said.

The soft-spoken nun elaborated on the role of the Bible. “Scripture study is the basis of our religious belief,” she said. “We know we got it directly from the source, and I believe in going to the source.”

Scallen said she was struck by Sister Jane de Chantal’s message when she presented the gift. “She gave me the Bible and smiled at me and said: ‘You’d be surprised by how smart God is. You should go to him for everything, little or big.’”

Clergy gather in support of amendment CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6A protect the institutions that God put in the Word,” he said.

A statement from the Rev. Don Fondow, president of the Minnesota North District of the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod, read in part, “The Minnesota Marriage Amendment can help protect that which God has established and designed to be the foundation for society and the continuation of the human race. May we all work together to strengthen and preserve the unique meaning of marriage as the union of a man and a woman and the precious gift that it is to society.”

Also presented were statements by Bishop Fred Willis Washington, head of the Minnesota jurisdiction of the Church of God in Christ, Bishop Richard Howell of Shiloh Temple, representing the Minnesota-Wisconsin district council of Pentecostal churches, and the Rev. Paul Wesche, president of the Minnesota Eastern Orthodox Christian Clergy Association.

Addressing the issue of equal rights, Rev. Troy Dobbs, senior pastor of Grace Church in Eden Prairie, said people with same-sex attraction should have, and do have, the same civil rights as everyone else. But this is not about equal rights, he added, it’s about certain people getting extra rights to redefine something that has been defined biblically, historically and sociologically.

“None of us can redefine set societal understandings and definitions according to our desires without it adversely impacting everyone else,” he said. “Ultimately if marriage is redefined, the words ‘husband’ and ‘wife’

Families that seek to live a life of stewardship set great example for children

Dianne Towalski / The Catholic Spirit

Archbishop John Nienstedt speaks in support of the proposed marriage amendment during a press conference on the steps of the State Capitol Sept. 18. Surrounding him are about 40 clergy and leaders of Christian denominations in the Twin Cities who also support the amendment.

and ‘mother’ and ‘father’ will be redefined as well. Men and women provide unique gifts to each other and their children. They are not interchangeable, so I’m going to vote ‘yes’ and I encourage my congregation to do so as well because I believe that marriages need to be strengthened, not redefined.”

How do you live out a spirituality of stewardship in your own life?

Like most things, living a life of stewardship is a process. I started giving myself a little bit at a time. As this happened I discovered that true joy resided there.

It also evolves as one life’s circumstances change.

Regardless, it is ultimately about sharing and self gift.

Today, I try to attend Mass as often as possible every week and pray each day. We attend Mass on Sundays as a family whenever possible, although sometimes we have to go to Mass at different times on Sunday. From there our family seeks to give our time, talent and treasure in our parish, school, archdiocese and community. My husband serves differently than I do.

As our talents develop and circumstances change we listen to how God is calling us to use our gifts. The given: He is calling us.

As a wife and mother of young children with experience in training and development and working in the Catholic Church, I felt called to spend time to give energies volunteering at our parish, my kids’ school and serving the archdiocese in various endeavors. Giving stewardship and leadership talks and retreats is another way I try to practice stewardship.

Additionally, our family tithes. We don’t like to talk about money, and stewardship is not about money.

But Jarod, my husband, and I found that the giving of money is a manifestation of our values and beliefs and truly representative of what God has given. My husband is an accountant, but audit statements and tax returns are not how he is compensated for the gift and talents of his employment — his paycheck is. When we were first married, we started tithing 2 percent, the next year 3 percent, then 4-5 percent and so on. Once we realized we could really do this by ordering our lives as such, we moved to higher percentages of tithing.

When you speak to anyone about stewardship, what is the one thing you want to impress upon them most?

That God’s life is love and we are called to be active, grateful recipients as well as participants in that love through a life of stewardship. We are stewards of everything and everyone entrusted to us, and in all circumstances. God calls each personally to give of ourselves in the church and in the family. Not if, but a certitude that God is calling us to this life. That leaves us with a choice. As we choose to live as stewards, the Mass comes even more alive for us because we are actively participating in a deeper way. When the gifts are offered at Mass, we offer the Lord our stewardship, which he blesses. This provides us great hope and strength to live as his disciples, his faithful stewards.

God returns the gifts we offer back to him: bread, wine and our very lives with the holy exchange of his own life and love in the body and blood of Christ.

I can always tell if I am being a good steward by the degree of my joy. Stewards are joyful people. If I am down, I can trace it back to a need to be a better, more grateful steward. When I am joyful, I notice it is because I am living stewardship more intentionally.

For more information about stewardship and to access the Parish Stewardship Tool Kit, visit WWW.ARCHSPM.ORG/ DEPARTMENTS/DEVELOPMENT-STEWARDSHIP.

“The trouble with retirement is that you never get a day off.”

Abe Lemons

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Retirement Planning A Catholic Spirit special section

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

SEPTEMBER 27, 2012

Smart planning includes funeral, cemetery arrangements The process “We use a three-legged stool analogy,” said SisAs retirement approaches, people meet with fi- ter Fran Donnelly, director of Life Transition nancial and legal advisers to review investments, Ministries at The Catholic Cemeteries. She said purchase long-term care insurance, write health the planning process involves conversations with care directives and revise wills. representatives from a Catholic cemetery, a fuBut people tend to forget or even fear conversa- neral home and a local parish. tions with funeral or burial advisers.

A conversation with a family services counselor “Funeral and cemetery preparations fit into at The Catholic Cemeteries helps people underthe package of smart retirement planning,” said stand their choices in the context of the Catholic John Cherek, director of The Catholic Cemeteries tradition. in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, “People are surprised by all of the options for through which he serves as the director of five burial,” Sister Donnelly said. “They don’t realize cemeteries. cremation is an option and mausoleums and “If you plan ahead,” Cherek said, “your family niches are an alternative to earthen burial.” members will be in a better financial and spiriPLEASE TURN TO FUNERAL ON PAGE 21A tual position to take care of arrangements at the time of death.”

By Jennifer Janikula For The Catholic Spirit

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TheCatholicSpirit.com

Retirement Planning

SEPTEMBER 27, 2012 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Funeral planning offers chance for families to talk CONTINUED FROM PAGE 20A Pre-planning discussions with a funeral director would include options for managing the remains from the time of death until burial.

“We work with the parish and the cemetery to make sure that we adhere to the rituals of the church,” said Dan Delmore of Gearty-Delmore Funeral Home in Robbinsdale.

Pre-planning should also involve a discussion with local parish officials.

“Many people worry about logistics and costs and forget the role of the parish until the last minute,” said Sister Donnelly.

Support for pre-planning varies by parish. Sister Donnelly explains that some larger parishes like St. Peter in Mendota or Lumen Christi in St. Paul have pas-toral ministers on staff and may be able to record and store funeral liturgy plans.

Both Sister Donnelly and Cherek agree that even if a parish does not offer preplanning, people should ask about guidelines regarding music, eulogies, readings, etc., and note their favorite Scripture passages and songs.

Sharing your plans After meeting with funeral advisers, most people share funeral and burial plans with loved ones.

“Planning presents an opportunity for families to come together and talk — so they can understand and honor your wishes at the time of death,” Cherek said.

For more information about funeral and cemetery planning, contact your parish office or local funeral home.

Or, speak to one of the family services counselors at The Catholic Cemeteries by calling (651) 228-9991.

Upcoming planning seminars Free funeral and cemetery planning seminars will be hosted in October by The Catholic Cemeteries. The seminars will provide an overview of cemetery options and costs.

Locations: ■ Gethsemane Cemetery, New Hope ■ Resurrection Cemetery, Mendota Heights ■ St. Mary’s Cemetery, Minneapolis Dates and times for all three locations: ■ Thursday, Oct. 4 at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m.

■ Friday, Oct. 5 at 1 p.m.

■ Saturday, Oct. 6 at 10 a.m.

Call The Catholic Cemeteries at (651) 228-9991 for details.

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21A

22A

Retirement Planning

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • SEPTEMBER 27, 2012

Meals on Wheels collaborator gives her spin on the road to retirement

By Kristi Anderson For The Catholic Spirit

Barb Arrell spent most of her life developing programs for senior citizens, most notably working with agencies and churches in bringing the Meals on Wheels program to the Twin Cities metro area. In July, she retired after 28 years as the executive director of the Senior Services Consortium of Ramsey County.

Arrell’s dedication to service was instilled in her when she attended Our Lady of Victory School in North Minneapolis.

“Those days with the nuns were inspiring days,” said Arrell, a member of St. Stanislaus in St. Paul. “We were taught at an early age about social justice issues and about helping and caring for others.”

John E. Trojack Law Office, P.A.

Start in community service Arrell attended the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, where she received a degree in education. She taught two years — one in Flint, Mich., and one at St. Vincent de Paul school in St. Paul, now closed — before joining AmeriCorps VISTA, a national service program designed to fight poverty.

“I thought I was going to the mountains of North Carolina to teach,” Arrell said. “When you think about the era we were in, the ’60s, there was a lot going on in the world regarding social justice issues. I spent a lot of time doing community outreach and this was my first

TRUSTS • WILLS • PROBATE PROCEEDINGS

Jim Bovin / The Catholic Spirit

Respect For The Human Person

Barb Arrell retired recently after 28 years as the executive director for Senior Services Consortium of Ramsey County.

real experience working with people from all walks of life.”

And she liked it. When she came back to Minnesota, Arrell accepted a position with Catholic Charities.

“At that time, it was one of the only agencies that offered senior programs,” PLEASE TURN TO PLANNING ON PAGE 23A

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THECATHOLICSPIRIT.COM

Retirement Planning

SEPTEMBER 27, 2012 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

23A

Planning ahead can ease anxiety of retirement CONTINUED FROM PAGE 22A she said. “I remember thinking nursing homes shouldn’t be the only option for senior care. I was just 20-something but I saw a need for the expansion of senior services.”

Over time, Arrell’s work branched into what is now a collaboration of nine agencies in Ramsey County.

“One of my favorite quotes is, ‘God writes straight with crooked lines.’ You never know what experience is going to take you to the next one,” she said. “Cost was always a struggle and we had to go out and find ways to make a difference, but we always maintained a high quality service by working together. It was the era of ‘let’s band together and try something.’”

Looking ahead Nancy Utoft, who previously worked at Catholic Charities of St. Paul and Minneapolis and St. Paul Seminary, has replaced Arrell as the executive director and comes to the organization with a strong marketing and communications background.

“Nancy brings incredible communication skills that are so needed right now,” Arrell said. “You run a program for 28 years and get a little nervous when someone new comes in, but I am thrilled with the person she is. She will be a great asset to the program.”

Arrell will stay on as chair of the board of Metro Meals on Wheels, a combination of Ramsey and Hennepin counties’ agencies. She has seen firsthand the benefits seniors have received from various agencies, churches and organizations.

“I value this area,” Arrell said, “because many people and agencies worked collaboratively to provide wonderful services. I appreciate what has evolved and what is on the horizon.”

Down the road Her personal rewards came after her

“One of my favorite quotes is, ‘God writes straight with crooked lines.’ You never know what experience is going to take you to the

”

next one.

BARB ARRELL

parents moved to the metro area from Brainerd.

“It was gratifying to have my parents utilize services that I had been involved with,” Arrell said. “My dad used programs available to veterans and when my mom fractured her femur, she received assistance with transportation. There are services that seniors don’t know about until the need really hits them.

“Now I know what I need to do in my retirement,” she continued. “My mom and grandma didn’t have these opportunities and resources for planning for the future. I can think ahead and be more conscious of what needs I might have and what areas have the services I might need.”

Arrell recommends that people not live in fear but “don’t stick your head in the sand either,” she said. “If you can do some thinking about what could happen, it helps to be prepared and lessen some of the anxiety about what you may need down the road.”

For more information on what programs are available in your area including Meals on Wheels, call the Minnesota Senior LinkAge Line at (800) 333-2433.

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Send notice of your upcoming parish event to us:

spiritcalendar@archspm.org

Retirement Planning Age isn’t barrier to making contribution to parish, community

24A

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • SEPTEMBER 27, 2012

By Liz Quirin Catholic News Service

Recently, I went to bed with a bit of what I thought was chest pain. Could this be a heart attack? Is my number up? What should I do? I decided to say a prayer, go to sleep, and if I woke up, it obviously wasn’t a heart attack.

Since I’m sitting here typing away, you know the answers to those questions, too.

However, I know I’m closer to my “check out” time than I used to be. Looking back has much more value than it did years ago. In fact, when I heard an 11-year-old say something about a time when he was young, it sounded pretty silly to me.

Older folks aren’t sitting around waiting for their expiration date to come up.

They’re working hard at various jobs, and if they’ve retired from a workforce where

they were paid, they become the most sought after person in a parish: the volunteer.

Plenty of opportunities Parishes and Catholic schools couldn’t operate very well without their older volunteers. In school, they read stories to children in primary grades, freeing up the teacher to do something else for a few minutes. Maybe they work with a student who needs a bit more attention in class or answer the phone in the office when no one else is available. I’m sure any principal could find a few jobs for a grandparent or senior parishioner ready to volunteer.

We also see more and more older people who have taken up the banner of social justice in the church, building houses for parish or diocesan outreach, tutoring

young people in after-school programs, manning food pantries, fixing meals for the poor and homeless. They’re not only an integral part of social programs, but they’re also the reason some of those programs operate at all.

In my parish, many of the older folks belong to a group called Yesterday’s Kids.

While they have a number of outings just for fun, they also take on roles with younger parishioners as well. They might mentor engaged couples as they prepare for marriage or work with young parents as they prepare for their child’s baptism.

Who would know better about what kinds of ups and downs a family will face than people who have already ridden that roller coaster? They also console the grieving by fixing and serving meals after funerals, times when others can’t take off

from work to help.

Aging may be no fun, as my mother told me, but it can be meaningful and fulfilling, not a time to sit down and decide life’s over, waiting for the next long step into eternity. Physical aches and pains that were ignored over the years can become more than a nuisance, and once-healthy adults might have to take a few medicines to keep various body parts functioning properly.

The emotional highs and lows we’ve experienced over the years have made lasting impressions on us and often have made monumental changes in the way we look at life, love and our God. Age isn’t a barrier to making a contribution to our parishes, our communities and our world. We just have to believe it and then get moving.

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Travel with Chaplain Fr. Gerres!

Hawaiian Kings Tour

The Best 2-Week, 4-Island Vacation Available At The Most Affordable Price!

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Departing February 18, 2013 from “Carefree” best describes your vacation starting with your Polynesian tour director meeting you at the Honolulu airport. Spend 5 nights in Waikiki Beach (Honolulu) on Oahu; 3 nights on Kauai; 2 on Maui; 1 night in Hilo and 3 in Kona, on Hawaii (“the-big-island”). Escorted sightseeing includes a city tour of Honolulu, Punchbowl Crater and Pearl Harbor, the Wailua River Boat Cruise, The Old Whaling Capital of Lahaina, the Iao Valley, Hilo Orchid Gardens, Rainbow Falls, Black Sand Beaches, Volcanoes National Park and more. Includes: hotel accommodations, taxes, inter-island flights, baggage handling, escort, & sightseeing. YMT Specializes in Hawaii and has had its own office in Honolulu since 1967. Mass will be celebrated some days on tour. Your YMT chaplain is Fr. Gerres, he is Senior Priest at St. Elizabeth’s Church in Wilmington, DE. This will be his seventh trip as YMT’s chaplain.

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

a year. Demonstrations of the latest devices to improve clarity of speech will be programmed using a computer to your particular needs — on the spot — after the tests.

See (and HEAR) for yourself if newlydeveloped methods of correction will help you understand words better.

Tests will be performed at one of 20 convenient Greater Twin Cities Avada Hearing Care locations.

Call 1-877-328-9161

www.avada.com ©2012 HHM, Inc. 304

*Price per person, based on double occupancy. Airfare is extra.

For details, itinerary, reservations & letter from YMT’s chaplain with his phone number call 7 days a week:

1-800-736-7300

TheCatholicSpirit.com

“Baseball is heaven’s gift to mortals.”

George Will

Arts & Culture SEPTEMBER 27, 2012

Exploring our church and our world

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

25A

When not behind plate, umpire makes serving others a priority St. Paul native and CretinDerham Hall graduate says he’s motivated to volunteer by his Catholic faith

Petersburg.

Wegner clearly loves umpiring, but his favorite job is being a dad, he said. He is quick to show off family photos and a video of his 1-year-old son via his phone.

He also is helping his kids develop hearts for service and, in the off-season, often takes his oldest sons to serve meals to Tampa’s homeless men and women, he said.

“There’s a lot of different ways to show the love God is showing to us to other people, but when it comes down to the basic need to eat, there’s something really special here,” he said. “It is an awesome, awesome thing to be able to do this.”

When he serves homeless men and women, he looks at each person as a “child of God,” he said.

“To me, every time I come in here, I just think that it’s almost like I’m serving Jesus today,” he added. “Each person I meet, I try to be respectful to them, and try . . . to show them that they’re human beings and that I care about them and I love them.”

As Wegner sees it, offering homeless people love and respect, as Our Daily Bread does, is as important as offering food, he said.

By Maria Wiering Catholic News Service

When Major League Baseball umpire Mark Wegner, a Catholic, is in Baltimore to work at an Orioles game, one way he likes to spend his spare time is by helping people in need.

“I have free time, and I try to use it productively, but nothing is more productive than going to Mass, No. 1, but No. 2, coming to do some things like this,” said Wegner.

Dressed in an Under Armour T-shirt, baseball cap and a green apron, the umpire was working with other volunteers on a recent Friday at Our Daily Bread, a Catholic Charities of Baltimore program that serves meals to the city’s homeless.

He and the others were preparing tables, mixing salads and filling plates for the lunch crowd.

Wegner, who wears uniform No. 47, got off the field at Camden Yards at 10:30 p.m. Sept. 6, after the Orioles beat the New York Yankees 10-6. At 9 the next morning, he was part of Our Daily Bread’s 11,422nd day of uninterrupted food service.

CNS photo / Bill McAllen, Catholic Review

Local connections

Major league baseball umpire Mark Wegner, right, joins fellow volunteer Steve Norris as they staff the food line at Our Daily Bread Sept. 7 in Baltimore. Wegner, who was in town for the Orioles-Yankees series at Camden Yards, helps at the Catholic Charities' soup kitchen whenever he is in Baltimore.

Wegner, 40, tries to visit Our Daily Bread every time he is in town for Orioles games, once or twice a year, he said.

He first connected with the program 10 years ago when it was located next to the Basilica of the Shrine of Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, before it moved to a different part of the city in 2007. After attending Mass at the basilica, he inquired at Catholic Charities for local volunteer opportunities. They sent him to Our Daily Bread.

Wegner was raised in St. Paul and grad-

uated from Cretin-Derham Hall in 1990.

After one semester at the University of Minnesota while umpiring Little League, he moved to Florida to attend the Brinkman-Froemming Umpire School in Cocoa.

He did well and spent seven years umpiring in the minor leagues before moving to the major leagues 14 years ago. He lives near Tampa with his wife, Michelle, and their four children, who range in age from 1 to 14.

Wegner’s job takes him on the road six months each year, with four weeks of vacation. Our Daily Bread is the only place Wegner regularly volunteers outside of Tampa during the baseball season, he said.

He also gives time to UMPS CARE Charities, an outreach of the Major League umpires, he said.

When he is home, Wegner is an active member of his parish, Nativity, in Brandon, Fla., where his kids also attend school. Brandon is in the Diocese of St.

Attending daily Mass Wegner’s Catholic faith motivates his desire to serve. About six years ago, Wegner started attending daily Mass regularly, and searches for churches while traveling with a mobile phone app.

Daily Mass “just ends up being something I feel like I need, kind of like a workout every day,” he said. “People use different things to find their peace, and that’s been it for me.”

Wegner’s oldest sons sometimes travel with him, and he is thinking, he said, of bringing his oldest to Our Daily Bread next year.

“He’d love to do this, and it’s a great city,” he said.

26A

Calendar

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • SEPTEMBER 27, 2012

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.

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

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

Chicken/steak cookout at St. Patrick of Cedar Lake, Jordan — September 28: 5 to 9 p.m. at 24425 Old Hwy. 13 Blvd. Includes 1⁄2 grilled chicken or 12 oz. top sirloin steak. Cost is $12. Children’s meal available for $2. Take-out available.

KC booya at Transfiguration, Oakdale — September 29: 8 a.m. to noon or until the booya runs out at 6133 15th St. N. Cost is $6/quart, $12/half gallon and $20/gallon.

Dad’s Belgian Waffle breakfast at Guardian Angels, Oakdale — September 30: 8:15 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 8260 4th Street N. For information and discounted pre-sale tickets, call (651) 738-2223 or visit WWW.GUARDIAN-ANGELS .ORG. Cost is $8 for ages 13 and older and $5 for ages 6 to 12.

KC pancake breakfast at Guardian Angels, Chaska — October 7: 8 a.m. to noon at 217 Second St. Men’s Club booya at St. Charles, Bayport — October 13: Noon to 8 p.m. at 409 N. third St. Drive-thru service available. For information, call (651) 4394511.

Chili feed at St. Bernard, Cologne — October 13: Follows the 5 p.m. Mass at 212 Church St. E. Also features a cash raffle.

Parish events 70th parish anniversary celebration at St. Joseph, West St. Paul — September 27: 5:30 p.m. Mass at 1154 Seminole Ave. Dinner and music to follow.

Council of Catholic Women annual salad luncheon at Holy Trinity, South St. Paul — September 27: 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 749 Sixth Ave. S. Tickets are $6 at the door.

Fallfest at St. John the Baptist, New Brighton — September 28 to 30: 6 to 9 p.m. Friday features a market fair and teen dance at 835 Second Ave. N.W. Saturday 3:30 to 9 p.m. market fair, GB Leighton concert and fireworks. Sunday polka Mass at 10:30 a.m., more music, midway rides and food.

Rummage sale at Holy Name, Minneapolis — September 27 to 29: Preview sale 4 to 8 p.m. Thursday ($1 admission). 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m. to noon Saturday ($1 bag day.) 3637 11th Ave. S. Fall festival at St. Peter, Richfield — September 28 to 30: Bingo from 7 to 9 p.m. Friday at 6730 Nicollet Ave. S. Continues Saturday with pie tasting at 2 p.m. and country store, bake shop and bottle shop. A turkey dinner served from 5 to 7 p.m. Sunday features breakfast from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and more shops.

benefit Pope John Paul II School.

Don’t Miss

Brooklyn Center parish hosts Vatican exhibit “The Vatican International Exhibition of The Eucharistic Miracles of the World” will be hosted by St Alphonsus, Brooklyn Center from Oct. 13 to 16.

“This is a rare opportunity to tour the entire 126 miracles. An image/relic of Our Lady of Guadalupe touched to St. Juan Diego’s tilma also will be on display. The exhibit, in Spanish and English, is free and open to the public.

Hours are 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.; closes Tuesday at 2 p.m. A 40-hour eucharistic adoration will follow 5:30 p.m. Mass on Sunday.

Appropriate for children of reading age. For information, visit WWW.STALSMN.ORG or call (763) 566-4990. St. Alphonsus is located at 7025 Halifax Ave. N.

Rummage sale at St. Mark, St. Paul — September 28 to 30: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Friday and Saturday and 9 a.m. to noon Sunday at 2001 Dayton Ave. Pork roast and sauerkraut dinner at St. Bernard, St. Paul — September 29: 4 to 7 p.m. at the corner of Rice and Geranium. Cost is $8 for adults and $3.50 for children 12 and under.

‘City of Kings’ presented at St. Mary, Stillwater — September 29 and 30: Presented by The John Paul II Players, a theater arts ministry of the churches of St. Michael and St. Mary. 7 p.m.

Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday at 423 Fifth St. S. Cost is $10 in advance or $12 at the door. Children under 12 are $6 in advance or $8 at the door. Advance reservations call (651) 2086526.

Blessing of animals at the Basilica of St. Mary, Minneapolis — September 30: 1:30 p.m. at 88 N. 17th St. After the blessing service there will be an opportunity for individual blessings.

Fall festival at St. Michael, Pine Island — September 30: Mass at 10:30 a.m. followed by a roast beef dinner from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at 451 Fifth St. S.W. Also features country store, auctions and children’s games.

Fall luncheon and bingo for seniors at St. Richard, Richfield — October 2: Noon to 2 p.m. at 7540 Penn Ave. S. Cost is $8. RSVP to (612) 869-2426.

‘Voting: As a faithful Catholic, As a Responsible Citizen’ presented at Mary, Mother of the Church, Burnsville — October 2: 7 to 8:30 p.m. at 3333 Cliff Road. Bernard Evans, associate professor of Christian ethics at St. John’s School of Theology/Seminary, will speak.

Garage sale at St. Thomas the Apostle, Corcoran — October 3 to 5: 1 to 9 p.m Wednesday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Thursday (half off from 4 to 8 p.m.) and 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Friday ($4 bag day) at 20000 County Road 10.

St. Mary Harvest Bazaar at Bellechester Community Center, Bellechester — October 6: 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 101 First St. Bake sale and luncheon features soups, sandwiches and an assortment of home-baked pies. Also includes face painting, door prizes and many vendors.

MoreFest at St. Thomas More, St. Paul — October 6: Noon to 7 p.m. at Summit Avenue and Oxford Street. Features a pig roast, petting zoo, all day entertainment including fiery baton twirlers and a jazz ensemble.

Craft fair at St. Stanislaus, St. Paul — October 6: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 398 Superior St. Features more than 20 crafters. Free admission.

Blessing of animals at St. Joseph, Rosemount — October 6: 11 a.m. at 3900 Biscayne Ave. W. Deacons will be honored. Also features horseback rides, a peting zoo, canine police unit demonstration and more.

Fall festival at St. Peter, North St. Paul — October 6 and 7: Begins at 4 p.m.

Saturday with a Polka Mass followed by more live music. Continues Sunday from 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at 2600 N. Margaret St. Features “Father D’s Rockin’ Ribeye,” a car show. a craft boutique and more. Visit WWW. CHURCHOFSTPETERNSP.ORG. Parish festival at St. John Byzantine, Minneapolis — October 7: Divine liturgy at 10 a.m. followed by food, games, hand crafts and bake sale from 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 2201 Third St. N.E. Fall festival at Holy Rosary/Santo Rosario, Minneapolis — October 7: 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at 2424 18th Ave. S. Features a chicken dinner, Ecuadoran pork and Mexican foods until 2:30 p.m.

Blessing of animals at St. Richard, Richfield — October 7: 1 p.m. at 7540 Penn Ave. S. Visit WWW.STRICHARDS.COM for information.

Mass of the Lord of the Miracles at St. Olaf, Minneapolis — October 7: Noon at 215 S. Eighth St. Features music in Spanish and English. Peruvian food and fellowship follow Mass.

‘Oktoberfest Polka Mass, German Dinner and Beer Tasting’ at Immaculate Conception, Columbia Heights — October 13: 5 p.m. polka Mass and 6 p.m. dinner at 4030 Jackson St. N.E. German buffet dinner follows. Cost is adults $12, seniors $10, children 14 & under $6. Kids meal $3. German and domestic beer tasting additional charge. For information call (763) 7889062 or visit ICCSONLINE.ORG. Oktoberfest at Mary, Mother of the Church, Burnsville — October 13: Annual parish feast day celebration features Oktoberfest-style activities and dinner at 5:15 p.m. Cost is $8 with a family max of $25 at 3333 Cliff Road.

School events Bach’s Magnificat, a benefit concert presented at All Saints, Minneapolis — September 30: 1:30 p.m. at 435 Fourth St. N.E. Performed by The Hyperion Singers and featuring a 17-piece orchestra. Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for students and seniors. Proceeds

‘Rebel Without a Cause’ presented at Hill Murray School, Maplewood — October 5 to 7 and 12 to 14: 7 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays at 2625 Larpenteur Ave. E. Tickets available at the door.

‘Feed Your Sole’ 5K and 1 mile fun run at St. Michael School, St. Michael — October 6: 9:30 a.m. at 11300 Frankfort Parkway. Event-day registration is $20. For information, visit WWW.STM CATHOLICSCHOOL.ORG. 60th anniversary all-alumni reunion at St. John the Baptist School, New Brighton — October 13: Mass at 4:30 p.m. followed by social hour at 5:30 p.m. and dinner at 6:30 p.m. at 835 Second Ave. N.W. Entertainment to follow. For information, visit WWW.ST JOHNNYB.ORG.

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) 482-0406.

Singles group at St. Vincent de Paul, Brooklyn Park — ongoing second Saturday each month: 6 :15 p.m. at 9100 93rd Ave. N. Gather for a potluck supper, conversation and games. For information, call (763) 425-0412.

Other events ‘Unique for a Reason: Why the Church Promotes and Defends Marriage in the Public Arena’ at Knights of Columbus Hall, Bloomington — September 27: 8 p.m. at 1114 American Blvd.

Jason Adkins, executive director of the Minnesota Catholic Conference will speak.

Pax Christi Minnesota State Assembly at Christ Church Newman Center, St. Cloud — September 29: 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at 396 First Ave. S. Theme is “Foundations of Peace: Peace Conversion and a Pathway to Equitable and Ecologically Responsible Economics,” presented by Jack NelsonPallmeyer, a professor at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. For information and to register go to: WWW.PAX CHRISTIMN.ORG or call (507) 285-1662.

Empowering Seniors Information Series at Cerenity Senior Care-Marian of Saint Paul — October 1: 1 to 2 p.m. at 200 Earl St. Topic is Elder Financial Abuse, Sgt. Joshua Lego, St. Paul Police Dept. will speak. WWW.CERENITY SENIORCARE.ORG. KC ‘Soccer Challenge’ at Transfiguration, Oakdale — October 6: 1 p.m. at 6133 15th St. N. Open to all boys and girls ages 10 to 14. The “Challenge” is a competition designed for players to demonstrate one of the most basic soccer skills, the penalty kick.

Divine Mercy/Divine Will Conference at St. Catherine University, St. Paul — October 6: 9:30 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. at 2004 Randolph Ave. Speakers are Paul Regan and Thomas Fahy. Cost is $30 at the door. Visit WWW.3OCLOCK HOUR.ORG.

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THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • SEPTEMBER 27, 2012

Papyrus fragment with reference to Jesus’ ‘wife’ stirs debate Catholic News Service Scholars are unlikely to agree anytime soon on the authenticity of a newly published text containing a reference to Jesus’ “wife.”

But the tiny papyrus fragment, purportedly dating to the fourth century A.D., has already stirred interest in the early church’s attitudes toward marriage, sex and the role of women.

The fragment of papyrus with eight lines of Egyptian Coptic writing is the “only extant ancient text which explicitly portrays Jesus as referring to a wife,” wrote Karen L. King, historian of Christianity at Harvard Divinity School, in an academic paper she delivered Sept. 18 at an international Coptic studies conference in Rome.

“It does not, however, provide evidence that the historical Jesus was married,” she wrote, “given the late date of the fragment and the probable date of original composition,” at the end of the second century.

The best source of evidence giving an account of Jesus’ life and ministry is still the Gospels in the New Testament, King told reporters the next day, “and they are silent about his marital status.”

But she said the fragment is “direct evidence” that early Christians started debating in the second century whether Jesus could have been married or not.

Gospels are clear Father Juan Chapa, a New Testament scholar at the University of Navarra in Spain, told Catholic News Service that the “Gospels don’t mention marriage, not because they wanted to hide something, but because it was clear that Jesus did not get

could just be a symbol of the church, akin to the Gospel allegory of Jesus as bridegroom of the church.

“What if what’s missing is saying, ‘My wife is the church?’” King said.

Debate will continue

CNS photo / Karen L. King, courtesy Harvard University

A previously unknown scrap of ancient papyrus written in ancient Coptic is pictured in this undated handout photo.

married, and it’s consistent in the church’s tradition.”

He also noted that the gnostic gospel genre to which the fragment evidently belongs is one of the stories about Jesus that mainly take place after the resurrection, using language that is heavily allegorical.

Thus, he said, the fragment’s relevant words — “Jesus said to them, ‘My wife’” — were likely not meant as a literal assertion about the life of the historical Jesus.

King said that the significance of the fragment lies in the light it might shed on debates in the early church over the necessity of celibacy to living a holy life.

According to Michael Peppard, a professor of theology and Coptic language at Fordham University, a belief in asceticism saw rapid development in the second to fourth centuries, especially in Egypt where Christian monasticism was born.

Some bishops at the time “were saying

that the highest ideal was asceticism,” which included renouncing “all the trappings and worries of material life,” including marriage, he said.

But Peppard said other bishops in the same period “were figuring out how to give everyone their space,” and letting it be known it was all right for Christians to live in the world.

The new text published by King may be a sign of early Christians “pushing back” against asceticism and moving closer to mainstream Jewish attitudes “of blessing sex and procreation,” Peppard said.

Catholic teaching, Father Chapa said, holds that “Jesus’ celibacy, by differentiating him from other rabbis, underlines his unique mission to fulfill the kingdom of God, and shows how he embodied the love of God” by renouncing conjugal love.

King said the reference to Jesus’ wife

King acknowledged that there would be continued debate over the authenticity of the fragment, whose paper trail goes back only to the 1980s.

“I would say it’s a forgery,” Alin Suciu, a papyrologist at the University of Hamburg who was attending the conference with King, told the Associated Press. “The script doesn’t look authentic” compared to other fourth-century Coptic papyri.

But Roger Bagnall, a papyrologist and director of the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University, studied the handwriting, the grammar and how the ink was absorbed by the plant fibers, and concluded it was likely to date from the period between 350 and 400 A.D. “We can’t ever know or be 100 percent sure if it’s authentic or a forgery,” Peppard said.

King said any properly accredited scholar in the world is welcome to study the papyrus, and that criticism of her findings is part and parcel of any historical study.

“We want to do the best job we can with new historical data,” she said.

Father Chapa called King’s discovery “exciting,” and nothing for believing Catholics to fear.

“Anything that helps us understand our past, to understand the history of the church and how the church defined herself in history,” he said, “is very valuable and positive.”

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28A

Overheard THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Notes from this week’s newsmakers

Civil War soldier’s grave rededicated

SEPTEMBER 27, 2012 “Lord knows there are plenty of Good Fridays in our lives . . . but they will not prevail.

Easter will. As we Irish claim, ‘Life is all about loving, living, and laughing, not about hating, dying, and moaning.’”

— Cardinal Timothy Dolan of

New York, talking Sept. 14 at Fordham University in New York with television comedian Stephen Colbert about faith, humor and spirituality

“To me, every time I come in here, I just think that it’s almost like I’m serving Jesus today.”

— Major League Baseball

umpire Mark Wegner, on volunteering at Our Daily Bread, a Catholic Charities of Baltimore program that serves meals to the city’s homeless

Dianne Towalski / The Catholic Spirit

A commemoration and rededication ceremony was held Sept. 22 at Calvary Cemetery in St. Paul at the grave of Pvt. Edmund Sampare, a Catholic who was a member of the 2nd U.S. Sharpshooters and was killed Sept. 17, 1862, during the Civil War in the Battle of Antietam in Maryland. Pvt. Sampare was buried in October of 1862, but over the years the grave marker became overgrown. Last year, a worker from the Minnesota Historical Society found the marker, worn and almost unreadable. A new marker was unveiled during the ceremony, which included speakers and Civil War re-enactors. The ceremony was sponsored by the Minnesota Civil War Commemoration Task Force and The Catholic Cemeteries of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

“From Rome you came to Lebanon, bringing the peace with you. We came from all over just to tell you that you are the one who is holding us together.”

—

See a video at THECATHOLICSPIRIT.COM.

Documentary tells story of post-Katrina sisters ‘We Shall Not Be Moved: Catholic Sisters of New Orleans’ a film documenting the sisters rising from the ruins of Hurricane Katrina to continue their ministries will air at 5 a.m. Sept. 30 on KSTP-TV Channel 5. The film relates the motivations, struggles, soulThe searching and Catholic Spirit decisions that six congregations made in the face of the destruction of Katrina in August 2005.

wanted to go. They voted by placing dollar bills in boxes marked for Father Haugan or Adrian. Father Haugan was named the winner at the school’s annual Night of Spirit auction, but the auctioneer asked if people wanted Adrian to jump, too, and more money was donated. The process raised nearly $10,000 for Holy Spirit School.

News Notes

The program uses archival photos and materials, television footage of Katrina and the flood and interviews with the sisters. The Ursuline Sisters, the Congregation of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Sisters of the Holy Family of New Orleans, the Marianites of Holy Cross, the Congregation of St. Joseph and the Society of St. Teresa (Teresian Sisters) are featured in the film. For more information, including a preview, visit WWW.WESHALLNOTBEMOVEDMOVIE. COM.

Marathon for Nonpublic Education set for Oct. 6 Principal Mary Adrian (shown) and Father Daniel Haugan jumped from a plane recently to raise funds for Holy Spirit School.

Pastor and principal skydive to raise funds for school Holy Spirit principal Mary Adrian and Father Daniel Haugan jumped out of a plane at 13,000 feet as part of a fundraiser for the St. Paul school. A school family donated the jump and school families and parishioners voted for the one they

The annual statewide Marathon for Nonpublic Education is scheduled for Oct. 6. Since 1974, marathon events have given students, school families, faculty members and friends the opportunity to show their school pride and generate funds for school programs.

Typically, students solicit donations for walk-a-thons, bike-a-thons, community clean-up events and service projects. The Knights of Columbus provide financial support for marathon activities across the state. For information, visit WWW.MN MARATHON.ORG.

Youth singing as they awaited the arrival of Pope Benedict XVI, who visited Lebanon from Sept. 14-16

“I hope that Jews and Christians, growing in respect and mutual friendship, may bear witness to the world of the values that spring from the adoration of the one God.” —

Pope Benedict XVI, in a telegram made public Sept. 20 to Chief Rabbi Riccardo di Segni of Rome to mark the Jewish high holy days of Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur and Sukkot

“That was one of the most amazing experiences of my life.”

— Youth participating in Archdiocesan Youth Day at DeLaSalle High School in Minneapolis Sept. 15, via Twitter

A Pastoral Letter on

the New Evangelization in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis Archbishop John C. Nienstedt

Dave Hrbacek / The Catholic Spirit

“I believed, therefore I spoke” (2 Corinthians 4:13)

Introduction “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, knowing that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and place us with you in his presence” (2 Cor 4:13-14).

St. Paul writes in this way to the Corinthians because he wants to speak about the power of God’s grace which is constantly transforming his life even in the midst of difficulty. St. Paul was a man driven, impelled really, by a desire that others would know the love of Christ (2 Cor. 5:14). In fact, he believed that he had an obligation to preach the

Gospel, with dire consequences to follow if this obligation was not met.

As the Apostle himself says, “woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel!”

(1 Cor 9:16).

My brothers and sisters in this great Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, we, too, have this same obligation. Like our patron St. Paul, we, too, have believed and therefore we must speak. Our Lord Jesus has given us, his disciples, a charge — we must preach the Gospel to the whole world. As the words of Jesus written in stone on the front of our Cathedral say, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations” (Mt 28:19).

Our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, has declared this coming year to

Introduction Part I: Encountering the Living Jesus Changes Everything Part II: Everyone Is Called to Be an Evangelist Part III: The Work of Sharing Christ: Evangelization and the New Evangelization Part IV: The New Evangelization in the Archdiocese: Challenges and Opportunities Part V: The Plan Conclusion Special Section

The Catholic Spirit • September 27, 2012

be a Year of Faith for the Universal Church. The year begins October 11, 2012, marking both the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council and the 20th anniversary of the publication of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The year will end November 24, 2013, on the Solemnity of Christ the King. This Year of Faith will begin with the Synod of Bishops convoked by Pope Benedict on the theme, “The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith.”

In convoking this year, the Holy Father has invited us as a Church to

Istock Photo

renew our commitment to the New Evangelization and to “rediscover the joy of believing and the enthusiasm for communicating the faith” (1).

When I first heard the announcement of the Year of Faith, my thoughts turned to my first pastor as a newly ordained priest, Father Bob Bretz, now gone to God. Father Bretz was a true believer in door-todoor evangelization. He recruited half a dozen women in the parish and gave each one several registration cards of inactive parishioners.

Together, they would then find an opportunity over several weeks to drop in on these people, inquire about their spiritual needs and then invite them back to church on Sunday.

Every month, the small group would gather back in Father’s office to share their experiences and to pray for those who had been visited as well as for each other. This truly was faith in action and I learned from their example not to be afraid to ask another about his or her practice of the faith, with the hope of inviting their fuller participation in the Church as the Body of Christ.

As I stated throughout our strategic planning process, which I began shortly after I became archbishop, the purpose of restructuring our parishes and archdiocesan resources was not primarily the downsizing of parishes or simple financial survival. Rather, the chief goal lay in strengthening and re-focusing our resources so that we could more effectively begin to preach the Good News of Jesus Christ to the culture around us.

With this present pastoral letter, a letter meant to invite us as a local Church to engage and embrace this Year of Faith fully and actively, I urge every priest, every deacon, every religious, every member of the faithful, every mother and father, every young adult, every high school student — ALL OF US — to become part of the New Evangelization. By means of this letter, I want to convey the central importance of the work of evangelization in our life as a Church, and describe how parishes are to become truly evangelizing communities of faith, so that we might be equipped as Catholics to share the love of Jesus Christ and to invite others into the greatest drama of human life — the pilgrimage of faith.

2B

The Catholic Spirit • September 27, 2012

Part I: Encountering the Living Jesus Changes Everything “Man believes with his heart and so is justified, and he confesses with his lips and so is saved” (Rom 10:10).

Within just a few years after Jesus ascended into heaven, Saul of Tarsus was headed for Damascus, authorized as he was to arrest members of the new sect made up of followers of Jesus. But along the way, everything changed, for on that day, he met Jesus Christ; hit by a bolt of lightning, he realized that Jesus was alive, and that he was the Son of God. Saul came to a living faith that would make him St. Paul, the great preacher of salvation in Jesus Christ.

Faith for St. Paul was not just an assent to a set of ideas, but rather a real relationship with a living person. Throughout his life, Paul would come to know not only that Jesus was the Son of God, the redeemer, but that Jesus’ love was personal. For St. Paul, Jesus Christ is “the Son of God who has loved me and given himself up for me” (Gal 2:20, emphasis added). Therefore, St. Paul would be willing to give up everything for the sake of knowing this love of Christ: “I even consider everything as a loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have accepted the loss of all things and I consider them so much rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him” (Phil 2:8-9). These are the words of a man who indeed knows the love of God! While most people do not experience the same blinding light from heaven, it is nonetheless true that St. Paul’s experience of a lifechanging encounter with the living Jesus has been repeated over and over again throughout the centuries as millions upon millions have discovered the reality of that love which St. Paul sacrificed everything for.

Our Holy Father Pope Benedict has pointed out that growing in While most people do not faith means “not only the experience the same blinding light content of the faith, but also the act by which we choose to from heaven, it is nonetheless true entrust ourselves fully to God, in that St. Paul’s experience of a complete freedom” (2).

Sometimes as Catholics we life-changing encounter with the have often focused on the living Jesus has been repeated over objective content of the faith, and over again throughout the more than on the importance of a personal relationship. Jesus centuries as millions upon millions Christ is still alive today, and have discovered the reality of that through the power of his Holy Spirit in our midst, we can love which St. Paul sacrificed experience his love personally everything for. giving our lives deep purpose and peace. We experience it through the power of prayer or in a word of Scripture which penetrates us and strengthens us to know we are loved by him. We experience it in the liturgy, when we reverently unite our lives to the offering on the altar and approach Holy Communion knowing that Our Lord sees us and desires to come to us through his Body and his Blood. We experience it in the confessional when we humbly confess our sins to the priest and receive the deep peace that can only come from knowing our sins are truly forgiven.

The living Jesus desires today that we would know of this love in a personal way. He is longing to share it with us. We need only to turn our lives toward him and begin to live as his friends.

Even though this relationship of Jesus is personal, it is never meant to be private. Living our faith in Jesus means not only surrendering our lives personally to his love but choosing to stand as brothers and sisters with those who believe in the Lord and witness to that love.

The Lord is most fully encountered in the community of disciples which we call the Church, a Church that Jesus himself founded to carry on his mission in the world and to whom he promised the constant guidance of his Holy Spirit (Jn 14:26). Since the day of Pentecost we can see that to believe in Jesus means to join our lives with those who are called to proclaim his love to the world. This is what the early Church did, and this is what the Holy Spirit is calling us to do today in a way that is ever new yet always faithful to the truth of Jesus. As Pope Paul VI said some years after Vatican II, “[The Church] exists in order to evangelize” (3).

The work of evangelizing is, in fact, the natural reaction to Jesus’ love.

Just like the Samaritan woman at the well, who, when she discovered that Jesus was the messiah, left her bucket and went and told everyone about Jesus (see John 4), so also, when we truly experience that Jesus loves us and is calling us into a living friendship with him, we desire to share this good news with everyone we meet. When we have really been touched by love or when we rediscover the wonder of God’s love, we find it becomes a fire within us that must be shared.

I have often heard Catholics quote the famous phrase attributed to St. Francis: “Preach the Gospel. If necessary, use words.” This saying captures a very important truth: People should be able to see that I love Jesus by the way I live my life. But sometimes this can be used as an excuse not to speak about the Good News of Jesus Christ. The fact is that St. Francis himself often preached with words as did Jesus who told us, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (Jn 8:32).

There is always a risk in sharing our faith with someone else, but if we

Part II: Everyone Is Called to Be an Evangelist “If I preach the gospel, this is no reason for me to boast, for an obligation has been imposed on me, and woe to me if I do not preach it!” (1 Cor 9:16).

My brothers and sisters, how many people do not yet know the love of Jesus Christ! How many people right in our midst have never experienced the true meaning he can give to their lives, the joy of knowing his forgiveness in their unworthiness, his calming presence in their trials, his hope in their times of despair? We have been given in the love of Christ the greatest gift in the world, and we are called to share this gift with others. The fact is that every Christian is called to be an evangelist (4).

Sometimes the word There is always a risk in sharing “evangelist” conjures up bad our faith with someone else, but if connotations in our minds, because we think of television we really love our neighbor we will personalities who become rich want to share with them what is by their demonstrative preaching, or someone who most dear to us and what is forcefully tries to make others necessary for their salvation. As accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. But as Catholics we must Blessed John Paul II pointed out, remember that evangelism is “Faith is strengthened when it is our word! Its original meaning, given to others!” (6). as it pertains to the earliest years of the Church, refers to the proclamation that the day of redemption had arrived — this is, in fact, the Good News!

Hence, we call those who wrote the Gospels “evangelists.” Our own Cathedral has four enormous statues of these men — Sts. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John — one in each of its major pillars. This architectural feature shows how the Gospel is the pillar of the Catholic Church, and how we pass through the reception of this proclamation into the choirs of heaven, depicted as it is in the Cathedral dome.

An evangelist is someone who announces the good news of Christ’s kingdom of love. By saying everyone is called to be an evangelist, we are saying that everyone is called to know the Good News of Christ’s love in their heart and to desire to share that Good News with others, and thereby invite them into a relationship of eternal significance. St. Paul says, “The love of Christ impels us” (2 Cor 5:14) and as Pope Benedict comments on these words, “it is the love of Christ that fills our hearts and impels us to evangelize” (5).

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really love our neighbor, we will want to share with them what is most dear to us and what is necessary for their salvation. As Blessed John Paul II pointed out, “Faith is strengthened when it is given to others!” (6).

Especially during this Year of Faith, the Holy Father is calling the whole Church to profess publically what it is that we believe (7). This means that as individuals we must not be afraid to speak about the one whom our hearts love as well as to proclaim the truth which sets us free.

How else will people come to know the love of Jesus? As St. Paul says, “But how can they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how can they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone to preach?” (Rom 10:14).

The truth is that most people do not come to faith because they experience only a part of the Church’s message through the media or some other form of public communication. Such presentations most often do not even begin to convey the full richness of the Gospel message and its way of life. But Jesus himself showed us that most people come to faith through a personal encounter (as the Scriptures show with Nicodemus, Zacchaeus, the Samaritan woman and Simon the Pharisee).

Pope Paul VI said it so clearly: “In the long run, is there any other way of handing on the Gospel than by transmitting to another person one’s personal experience of faith?” (8). We are called to provide this personal encounter with Jesus by our willingness to share our experience of faith.

Part III: The Work of Sharing Christ: Evangelization and the New Evangelization “To me, the very least of all the holy ones, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the inscrutable riches of Christ, and to bring to light (for all) what is the plan of the mystery hidden from ages past in God who created all things” (Eph 3:8-9).

The Church has been evangelizing ever since the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. For much of her history she has had to focus on bringing the Gospel to those who had never heard of Jesus Christ, and this is still very much a need today. However, since the Second Vatican Council, the popes have been consistently speaking of the need

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for a “New Evangelization,” which is an evangelization directed at those who have grown up in what were once Christian countries but who have lost their fervor for the faith.

As Pope Paul VI wrote in 1975, on the 10th anniversary of the closing of the Second Vatican Council, “Today there is a very large number of baptized people who for the most part have not formally renounced their Baptism but who are entirely indifferent to it and not living in accordance with it” (9). Such a way of life is indeed a practical kind of agnosticism, and it must be countered through the loving challenge of the Gospel.

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To be sure, the primary target of this outreach is meant for those who do not believe or who have walked away from the practice of the faith.

But there is a secondary target for the work of evangelization, as the late Cardinal Avery Dulles has pointed out, and that is to bring the influence of the Good News to bear upon a particular culture, by means of education, pastoral care and social action. Evangelizing individuals will be all the more difficult if the culture is not supportive of values and beliefs rooted in the Gospel (10).

Blessed John Paul II consistently proclaimed the need for this New Evangelization throughout his 26-year pontificate. Echoing Paul VI nearly verbatim, His Holiness pointed out that there are many countries which used to be considered predominately Christian but where we now find “entire groups of the baptized [who] have lost a living sense of the faith, or even no longer consider themselves members of the Church, and live a life far removed from Christ and his Gospel. In this case what is needed is a ‘new evangelization’ or a ‘re-evangelization’” (11).

My brothers and sisters, it must be admitted — Blessed John Paul II’s words apply to our archdiocese as well. Many of our fellow Catholics have drifted away from the Church and are still searching for meaning in their lives. These may be our friends and neighbors, brothers and sisters, or even our sons and daughters. Life away from a real relationship with the person of Jesus Christ fails to fulfill the ardent longings of the heart. And yet, many do not recognize this void as the source of their unfulfilled longing and suffering.

How many people do you know who say, either explicitly or by their actions, that they are not fulfilled through the Church, and have sadly given up on the sacraments? How many have stopped going to Mass and never consider seeking the ocean of mercy and profound peace found in confession?

It is up to those who have been touched deeply by Christ’s friendship and love — and experience the reward of a full participation and life in the Church — to invite, in a welcoming and loving way, these fellow Catholics to rediscover the depth and healing path of our Catholic faith. The solutions to their greatest longings — finding meaning and

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purpose, a sense of belonging, peace and healing, inner strength to face their challenges, and freedom from sin — remain in the place they have always been, in an intimate and loving personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Let us be clear: the situation in our country in this 21st century is urgent; our culture is rapidly drawing many away from the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Researchers tell us that only 23 percent of U.S. Catholics attend Mass each week (12). These same researchers tell us that the most common reasons for Catholics not attending Mass each week lies not with their disagreement over controversial issues, but rather from the fact that they have simply gradually slipped away from the faith (13). The statistics about our young people are even more concerning, since the same research shows that as many as six out of 10 who grow up practicing their faith fall away as young adults (14). This is truly disturbing.

What is it that draws people away from the practice of their faith?

Studies show many factors, but among the most compelling are secularization, materialism and individualism.

There are strong strains of secularization in our society, strains that treat religious belief purely as a private affair while at the same time accepting many of the beliefs from the predominant secular culture as unquestionably true. Even many people who claim to believe in Christ find their moral compass more from modern society than from the Gospel. The attitude seems to be that it is fine if someone wants to believe in God, but that belief ought not make demands on how others should live. We see this so clearly in our current battles around the sanctity of life and the sanctity of marriage. Pope Benedict XVI cautioned against this secularist attitude in our culture when he spoke to the U.S. bishops on his pastoral visit to our country in 2008: “Any tendency to treat religion as a private matter must It is up to those who have been be resisted. Only when their faith permeates every aspect of their touched deeply by Christ’s lives do Christians become truly friendship and love — and open to the transforming power of the Gospel” (15). experience the reward of a full In addition, we must admit participation and life in the Church that the materialism of our culture also presents an obstacle — to invite, in a welcoming and to living in Christ. There is a loving way, these fellow Catholics to great temptation in the great rediscover the depth and healing wealth of our country to seek our happiness and satisfaction in path of our Catholic faith. material things. Material things, including the advances of science and culture, can create a false sense of self-reliance, i.e., the belief that I don’t need God because human beings can find all that they need through their own efforts. This way of thinking will ultimately leave us empty and even hopeless. Again Pope Benedict spoke about this to our country: “Without God, who alone bestows upon us what we by ourselves cannot attain (cf. “Spes Salvi”), our lives are ultimately empty. People need to be constantly reminded to cultivate a relationship with him who came that we might have life in abundance (cf. Jn 10:10)” (16).

Finally, individualism creates many difficulties for living the faith in our culture. We live in a society that idolizes personal freedom and selfgratification. The freedom to fulfill myself, to do what I want to do, is valued far above what God wants me to do. This is ultimately an abuse of freedom and leads one away from the real answers to the deepest longings we have as human beings. True freedom is not the ability to

do what I want whenever I want; rather, true freedom is the ability to do what is right, and true happiness will only be found in doing God’s will for my life. Freedom cannot be separated from the truth, or else it becomes a search for self-fulfillment in selfish desires where happiness always remains elusive.

In the midst of all these ideologies and forces which draw humanity away from the Gospel, Christians stand as beacons of hope and witnesses to the true life that Jesus offers everyone who turns to him with a repentant heart. The Church and her teachings seem completely counter-cultural today, because the culture has wandered so far away from Gospel values. But Christ has called you and me, in this time, to offer to our brothers and sisters in our own neighborhoods and families a living hope. We cannot simply stand by and watch our country, our neighbors and even many of our own family members abandon the faith of Jesus Christ.

As Blessed John Paul II exclaimed already more than 20 years ago, “I sense that the moment has come to commit all of the Church’s energies to a new evangelization and to the mission. No believer in Christ, no institution of the Church can avoid this supreme duty: to proclaim Christ to all peoples” (17).

The New Evangelization is a call to each and every one of us to live our faith fully and to be ready to share that faith with others. You and I must come to know deeply the peace and joy that results in our living in Jesus’ friendship, and we must be ready to witness to this joy to those around us. As St. Peter said in his first letter, “Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope” (1 Pt 3:15). Only if we all become evangelists can we hope to influence our culture as Christ surely desires us to do. We must be salt and light in the world.

Part IV: The New Evangelization in the Archdiocese: Challenges and Opportunities “When I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Cor 12:10) The history of our great archdiocese has been marked by brave men and women who endured many hardships, living in very difficult circumstances, in order to try and bring the Gospel to the native peoples of our area and the immigrants who would come The initial evangelization of our after them.

The Twin Cities have region was carried out by priests memorialized the names of and religious sisters who were sent many of them. Hennepin Avenue is named after Father out to sow the first seeds of faith Louis Hennepin, a Franciscan on their own, directed to do so by priest who paddled up the Mississippi River in 1680 and their bishop and superiors. In our gave St. Anthony Falls its name. day, the Second Vatican Council While not remaining long nor has made clear that the task of succeeding in the way he had hoped, he nevertheless endured evangelization belongs not only to much for the sake of the priests and religious, but also to Gospel.

More than 150 years later, the laity.

Father Lucien Galtier, whose last name is familiar to most residents of the Twin Cities, arrived by steamboat to serve the first few Catholics in the area, opening the first parish at St. Peter’s in Mendota.

Recognizing the difficult circumstances facing him, he knew that his “mission and life must henceforth be a career of privation, hard trials, and suffering . . .” requiring of him “patience, labor, and resignation” (18). In the midst of his many struggles, he often pondered the words of St. Paul, “When I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12:10).

When it came time to establish a second chapel just down river from Mendota in a little landing called “Pigs Eye,” these words would inspire him to name the chapel after St. Paul. Eventually, this would be the name that everyone began to call the little town by the river. That little log chapel would become our first Cathedral.

In 1841, another significant yet lesser known figure, Father Augustin Ravoux, began full-time work with the Dakota Native Americans. He worked strenuously to learn their language, experiencing how difficult

Dave Hrbacek / The Catholic Spirit

it was to work through an interpreter. Laboring through such austere conditions as housing without heat, he managed to put together a prayer book and a catechism in their native tongue. Still, few conversions came, and soon his bishop had to assign him to the pastoral care of the slow but steady stream of immigrants of European descent. Under Ravoux’s prudent care, he not only met their spiritual needs but he also acquired land to enable the Church’s outreach to expand in the future, all the while maintaining his concern and care for his beloved native peoples.

This same Ravoux would be the one to prepare for the arrival of our first bishop, Joseph Cretin, on July 2, 1851. The bishop started his ministry with three priests and three seminarians in an area that covered 166,000 square miles stretching all the way to the Missouri River in present day North and South Dakota! On November 3 of that same year, Bishop Cretin would welcome the first group of religious sisters to our area, four Sisters of St. Joseph. These sisters soon began our first Catholic schools with a minimum of resources. In 1853, they also opened St. Joseph’s Hospital, Minnesota’s first health care institution.

These heroic men and women sacrificed to provide the seedbed for the Church in which we live today. They met many challenges of travel and survival in primitive environments, but always with deep faith and pastoral zeal, precisely because they wanted to make the name of Jesus known and loved. Today, we find ourselves in radically different circumstances. Yet, we, too, should be motivated by the same desire that moved, indeed, impelled Hennepin, Galtier, Ravoux and those heroic sisters.

The initial evangelization of our region was carried out by priests and religious sisters who were sent out to sow the first seeds of faith on their own, directed to do so by their bishop and superiors. In our day, the Second Vatican Council has made clear that the task of evangelization belongs not only to priests and religious, but also to the laity.

As Blessed John Paul II exhorted us at the outset of this third Christian millennium, “In a special way, it will be necessary to discover ever more fully the specific vocation of the laity, called ‘to seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and by ordering them

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according to the plan of God’ (LG 31); they ‘have their own role to play in the mission of the whole people of God in the Church and in the world . . . by their work for the evangelization and the sanctification of people’ (AA 2)” (19).

The lay people of this archdiocese can reach out to the people of our culture far more easily than I can and they are equally better equipped than many priests and religious to influence the culture in which they live and work. Most of the people who need to hear the Gospel today

Dave Hrbacek / The Catholic Spirit

rarely, if ever, come to church. And if they do come, they will not be able to understand fully what a Christian life is like from just one homily. They need to see the Christian life lived in those around them; they need to hear from their co-workers and friends about the gift that Christ wants to share with them.

As Pope Benedict has said, “What the world is in particular need of today is the credible witness of people enlightened in mind and heart by the word of the Lord, and capable of opening the hearts and minds of many to the desire for God and for true life, life without end” (20).

Our current situation presents many challenges. I have already mentioned the great numbers of disengaged Catholics. But, we also face the challenge of losing our youth, many of whom are so easily influenced by the prevalent, anti-Christian culture. We are also aware that many Catholics leave the Church for other Christian churches.

Fewer and fewer are choosing to get married in the Church.

Immigrants, whom we welcome in our midst, offer certain pastoral challenges for the new evangelization. We are told that 25 percent of the Catholics in this archdiocese have Spanish as their first language.

Sometimes our Hispanic brothers and sisters find a greater welcome at evangelical churches that reach out to them in their own language, and provide strong community for them to raise their children, than is found in many Catholic parishes.

These are challenges that also face the Hmong immigrants from northern Laos. Thanks to early missionaries, a small number of the Hmong have in fact embraced the Catholic faith, and our own Hmong Catholic community is vibrant and slowly growing. Yet the vast majority of their people have never heard the Gospel proclaimed, or proclaimed in its fullness. The same is true for many of the immigrants from east Africa and other places. We have an obligation to offer a loving witness to Christ for all these peoples.

At the same time, in the midst of these local challenges there are also many opportunities. Our archdiocese has much strength to build on.

We have many vibrant parishes with active and faithful Catholics. One sign of this is the many eucharistic adoration chapels in our archdiocese where the faithful are continually gathered to pray for the Church, the

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world, our families and our neighbors.

We have many active prayer groups, Bible studies and youth ministries. We have many strong Catholic schools. This archdiocese has given birth to two nationally recognized evangelistic movements: The National Evangelization Teams (NET Ministries) fields 11 teams of young people who travel the country to evangelize high school students, and St. Paul’s Outreach, which has young missionaries on 35 college campuses throughout the country. The University of St. Thomas has developed a nationally known Catholic Studies program, which is forming young people deeply in the Catholic faith and has become a model for many colleges and universities around the country.

We have two very strong seminaries which are both full to capacity with young men from both our archdiocese and other dioceses. The St. Paul Seminary in 2007 opened the Archbishop Harry J. Flynn Catechetical Institute, which has already graduated hundreds of men and women who have come to know more fully the beauty of their Catholic faith and are thus more prepared to share it.

Building on these resources, I want to see every parish begin to examine itself and ask how it can become a welcoming and evangelizing parish where people can find ways to grow in their faith and learn to share it with others. Our parishes should be places where parishioners can come to full life in Christ. Not every parish can do everything, but we can work together to become communities of faith wherein evangelization is a given priority and we engage in it with joy.

We can start by inviting and helping our fellow Catholics right here in this archdiocese to re-engage toward full life in the Church, so that they, too, may rediscover true friendship with Christ. As I want to see every parish begin one of the great scholars on the to examine itself and ask how it New Evangelization, Cardinal Dulles, once said, “If Catholics can become a welcoming and do not evangelize, the evangelizing parish where people fundamental obstacle does not lie so much in the surrounding can find ways to grow in their faith culture as in themselves. Having and learn to share it with others. failed to nourish their faith by Our parishes should be places study, prayer, and contemplation, many have where parishioners can come to become weak and flabby in their full life in Christ. adherence to the gospel and the Church. If they personally grasped the vision of faith, they would joyfully give witness to Christ, even at the cost of wealth, honors, and life itself” (21).

Part V: The Plan “[The Gospel] is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes” (Rom 1:16).

At the end the great Jubilee Year of 2000, Blessed John Paul II spoke of a new energy in the Church, inspired by all the experiences of the Jubilee Year, and he encouraged the members of the Church to not be afraid to “put out into the deep,” citing our Lord’s challenging words to St. Peter which led to the great catch of fish and ultimately to St. Peter’s apostolic call.

However, John Paul II emphasized that prior to any apostolic activity, the Church must be deeply rooted in contemplation and prayer. As he said: “Ours is a time of continual movement which often leads to restlessness, with the risk of ‘doing for the sake of doing.’ We must resist this temptation by trying ‘to be’ before trying ‘to do’” (22).

If we don’t put contemplation before action we risk seeking our own goals rather than the Lord’s, and we know “unless the Lord build the

house, they labor in vain who build” (Ps 127:1).

As we implement the New Evangelization in the archdiocese, I want to remind us that our efforts must begin, as Blessed John Paul II said, in prayer, contemplating the face of Christ. “Nemo dat non quod habet.”

We cannot give what we do not have. An on-going encounter with the living Jesus in our own lives needs to be the bedrock on which we build our efforts to evangelize. To this end, I would like to encourage the practice of “Lectio Divina,” a slow meditative reading of Sacred Scripture, a staple in my own spiritual life. In the words of Blessed John Paul II, “To nourish ourselves with the word in order to be ‘servants of the word’ in the work of evangelization: this is surely a priority for the Church at the dawn of the new millennium” (23).

A fitting way to do this is to have even a brief daily encounter with God’s word, perhaps using the Gospel from that day’s Mass, and a longer encounter with the Lord in prayer, perhaps by making a holy hour in one of our many eucharistic adoration chapels.

Our daily prayer flows from and leads to participation in the liturgy of the Church in general and Sunday Mass in particular. As Vatican II so clearly taught us, the source and summit of our faith is the Eucharist: “The other sacraments, as well as every ministry of the Church and every work of the apostolate, are tied together with the Eucharist and are directed toward it” (24). The goal of our evangelization is to draw people to Christ, who is truly present in the Eucharist (25).

The Sacred Liturgy is central to the New Evangelization because through the liturgy we not only proclaim the saving mission of Jesus Christ but also make it present in a unique and even tangible way. And we will draw strength to share our faith from the grace we receive in the celebration of the liturgy. As Pope Benedict says, “Without the liturgy and the sacraments, the profession of faith would lack efficacy, because it would lack the grace which supports The Sacred Liturgy is central to the Christian witness” (26).

We cannot be effective New Evangelization because evangelists if we are not actively through the liturgy we not only living a liturgical and sacramental life. And this proclaim the saving mission of Jesus includes regular celebration of Christ but also make it present in a the sacrament of penance.

Frequent confession to a priest unique and even tangible way. And is one of the greatest means the we will draw strength to share our Church gives us to encounter faith from the grace we receive in Christ and be able to respond to his will by gradually growing in the celebration of the liturgy. freedom from sin. A large part of the New Evangelization is calling people into freedom from their sins, which kill the life of God within them. We must practice and proclaim the beauty of the sacrament of penance, a beauty which not only forgives sins, but helps to heal and restore us to full life in Christ.

If, as St. Paul says, believing leads to speaking, then grounded in the contemplation of Christ through prayer and the liturgy, each person should be prepared to give testimony to how Christ has impacted his or her life, giving a reason for their hope (cf. 1 Pet 3:15).

One does not need a story as dramatic as St. Paul’s conversion to be effective; you only need to relate how the Lord has worked in your life.

Practice giving your testimony to a confidant or in a prayer group so that you grow comfortable in sharing your faith. Moreover, develop your own, personal testimony to meet different circumstances, e.g. a three-minute version or one that is 10 minutes. Pray to the Holy Spirit to guide you in these encounters, for as Pope Benedict has said, “It is

the gift of the Holy Spirit that makes us fit for mission and strengthens our witness, making it frank and courageous” (27).

Above all, we must also be committed to the Corporal Works of Mercy. Blessed John Paul II exhorts us that the poor need to feel at home in every Christian community. Love directed to the poor, he says, is “the greatest and most effective presentation of the good news of the Kingdom . . . Without this form of evangelization through charity and without the witness of Christian poverty the proclamation of the

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Gospel, which is itself the prime form of charity, risks being misunderstood or submerged by the ocean of words which daily engulfs us in today’s society of mass communications. The charity of works ensures an unmistakable efficacy to the charity of words” (28).

Another aspect of the New Evangelization is found in our ecumenical commitment. The focus of this pastoral letter is to help us to discover our individual responsibility to evangelize or re-evangelize those around us. Yet these efforts do not take away from the fact that we live in the midst of many other Christian believers. As I mentioned in a recent column in The Catholic Spirit, I want to encourage ecumenical prayer services and discussions during this Year of Faith, so as to help deepen an appreciation of what we share in common with other denominations, as well as to appreciate the major hurdles to that unity for which Jesus prayed so ardently.

Finally, I want to encourage as many as possible to participate in the special events we have planned during the Year of Faith aimed at igniting the New Evangelization at the level of our local Church.

Following the constant encouragement of Pope Benedict XVI that we recognize our “need to rediscover the journey of faith” (29), we have been preparing a multi-faceted program entitled, “Rediscover,” which emphasizes the works of evangelization and catechesis.

While the Rediscover initiative begins in this Year of Faith, it is not intended to close with it in November 2013. Instead, I want to see this comprehensive program, designed to reach out and invite, in particular, our fellow Catholics to rediscover a real and personal relationship with Jesus and, indeed, re-engage in the full life of the Church, become a way of life for us in this local Church. Our Lord expects no less from us if we are to call ourselves Christians and truly live out, in an authentic way, a life of Christian discipleship.

More information on the specific offerings of this program for the New Evangelization will be provided in the coming months. There will be a special unveiling of this program as we enter the Advent season and throughout our Lenten preparation for Easter during this Year of Faith.

We have the opportunity to respond fully and with a renewed commitment to our Holy Father’s call to know and love Jesus and the

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beauty of our Catholic faith. Rediscovering this “journey of faith” is for all of us, not just for some, for we are all people “on our way” for whom it is impossible to exhaust the depths of the knowledge of God’s love and his saving grace through Jesus Christ. We are called to draw ever closer to him, and to invite others, with joy and charity, to rediscover the only path that leads us to find authentic meaning and purpose in our lives, and to find the peace, inner strength and true freedom God desires for us.

Conclusion “I believed, therefore I spoke.” (2 Cor 4:13) My greatest desire for our Year of Faith is that everyone in this great archdiocese will come to a deeper lived relationship with the Lord Jesus.

As our Holy Father has said in announcing this special year, “Faith grows when it is lived as an experience of love received and when it is communicated as an experience of grace and joy” (30).

In the previous pages, we saw how the Lord Jesus worked in the life of the patron saint of our archdiocese, St. Paul. His encounter with the living Jesus impelled him to share the Good News so others would come to the fullness of life in Christ. If the flame of faith is burning in our hearts to its fullest extent, it cannot but be spread to others by our own spoken testimony and lived witness to this same Christ.

Our own experience demonstrates the need for a New Evangelization; how many of our own family members and friends have not yet come to a living relationship with Jesus united to His Body, the Church? Our culture needs a living witness to God’s love in Christ! What has to become an essential part of our identity as a Catholic is the proclamation of Christ Jesus. We must become evangelists in thought and in action.

What the world needs in order to discover the true beauty of our faith

Endnotes 1. “Porta Fidei,” 7.

2. “Porta Fidei,” 10.

3. “Evangelii Nuntiandi,” 14.

4. Many Church documents make this clear: “Lumen Gentium,” 16-17; “Ad Gentes,” 23, 35; “Evangelii Nuntiandi,” 66-73; “Christifideles Laici,” 34, 58.

5. “Porta Fidei,” 7.

6. “Redemptoris Missio,” 2.

7. “Porta Fidei,” 8.

8. “Evangelii Nuntiandi,” 46.

9. “Evangelii Nuntiandi,” 56.

10. Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J. “Vatican II and Evangelization,” in “The New Evangelization: Overcoming the Obstacles.” Edited by Steven Boguslawski, OP and Ralph Martin, (New York: Paulist Press, 2008) 1-12.

11. “Redemptoris Missio,” 33 12. Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA), “Sacraments Today: Believe and Practice among U.S. Catholics,” CARA, cara.georgetown.edu/sacraments.html (accessed July 2012).

13. Ibid.

14. See David Kinnaman, “You Lost Me: Why Young Christians are Leaving the Church… and Rethinking Faith,” (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2011).

15. Benedict XVI, “Address of the Celebration of Vespers with the Bishops of the United States of America,” www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2008/

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are authentic witnesses. People need to see that our lives reflect what we proclaim. If we are truly holy and joyful, people will be attracted to us, and this will give us a chance to speak of the reason for our hope. Pope Paul VI said it so eloquently, “Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to We must become evangelists in teachers, and if he does listen to thought and in action. teachers, it is because they are witnesses” (31).

What the world needs in order to Those who brought the Catholic faith to this part of the world met their challenges with a deep trust in God and allowed their zeal for Christ to lead them through the difficulties that at times seemed insurmountable.

We, too, in our own day, can be intimidated by the tremendous needs in our local society.

Nevertheless, we are called to approach those difficulties with the same faith and zeal as our ancestors in the faith did.

discover the true beauty of our faith are authentic witnesses.

People need to see that our lives reflect what we proclaim. If we are truly holy and joyful, people will be attracted to us, and this will give us a chance to speak of the reason for our hope.

Remember what St. Paul said, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Phil 4:13). Our world needs Christ and so it needs to hear from you.

St. Paul believed and so he spoke. My dear brothers and sisters, you, too, have come to believe. Now is the time for you to speak the saving Word of the Lord: JESUS.

april/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20080416_bishops-usa_en.html [accessed, July 26, 2012)].

16. Ibid.

17. “Redemptoris Missio,” 3.

18. “Galtier to Grace,” January 14, 1864, Archives of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Grace Papers. Quoted in Marvin O’Connell, “Pilgrims to the Northland.” (Notre Dame, IN: U. of Notre Dame Press) 2009, p.21.

19. “Novo Millennio Inuente,” 46.

20. “Porta Fidei,” 15.

21. Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J. “Vatican II and Evangelization,” in “The New Evangelization: Overcoming the Obstacles.” Edited by Steven Boguslawski, OP and Ralph Martin, (New York: Paulist Press, 2008) 11-12.

22. “Novo Millennio Inuente,” 15.

23. “Novo Millennio Inuente,” 40.

24. “Presbyterorum Ordinis,” 8, cf. “Sacrosanctum Concilium,” 10.

25. “The Most Blessed Eucharist contains the entire spiritual boon of the Church,(16) that is, Christ himself, our Pasch and Living Bread” (“Presbyterorum Ordinis,” 8).

26. “Porta Fidei,” 11.

27. “Porta Fidei,” 10.

28. “Novo Millennio Inuente,” 50, emphasis original.

29. “Porta Fidei,” 2.

30. “Porta Fidei,” 7.

31. “Evangelii Nuntiandi,” 41.