The Catholic Spirit - April 14, 2016

Possible parish lawsuits 5 • Pro-life legal challenges 7 • The Church and Cuba 16 April 14, 2016 Newspaper of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis

‘A love letter to families’

Observers say ‘The Joy of Love’ can help Church model mercy to families

News and analysis on the pope’s document on families

— pages 12-13 istock

By Dennis Sadowski Catholic News Service

P

ope Francis’ apostolic exhortation on love and the family invites the Church to see the daily struggles of families as an opportunity to encounter people the way Jesus encountered people with mercy throughout his life, Catholic observers said.

Because of its length — 256 pages — and the depth to which the pope explores love, marriage and Church teaching on the family, the document deserves to be unpacked with patience and careful discernment for mercy to take root in the Church’s response to real human needs, Catholic leaders told Catholic News Service.

The exhortation, “‘Amoris Laetitia’ (The Joy of Love), on Love in the Family,” was Pope Francis’ reflection on the discussion, debate and suggestions raised during the 2014 and 2015 meetings of the Synod of Bishops on the family.

Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, noted Pope Francis’ repeated calls of the importance of clergy taking time to get to know individual circumstances and discuss with people how they can discern God’s teaching for their lives.

The pope points to “dialogue, which requires both speaking and listening, and discerning to help people see what their next step is” as key to his call for mercy, Archbishop Kurtz, a member of both synods, said in an interview after participating in an online news conference at USCCB headquarters.

The archbishop said the pope is attempting to help people encounter Jesus and through that encounter feel the love of God. “There is that sense of being very intentional because we carry with us the capacity to walk with people to Christ.

And he’s saying husbands and wives, you also have that potential,” Archbishop Kurtz said.

“We all share that responsibility to conversion about what does it mean to deepen our sense and let Christ shine more Please turn to EXHORTATION on page 13

ALSO inside

When God closes a door

Surprised by joy

Sisters in art

Open Window Theatre postpones spring show, seeks long-term solution after building fails to meet code.

— Page 6

While holding their dying infant daughter, St. Michael couple experienced unexpected grace.

— Pages 10-11

An artist with ties to the Visitation order brings perspective to the sisters’ lives with Basilica show.

— Page 19

2 • The Catholic Spirit

PAGE TWO

April 14, 2016 OVERHEARD

in PICTURES

“Humility is the team’s greatest strength. These young men are extremely talented, but what makes them unique is how they sacrifice themselves” giving up popularity or adulation for the team’s greater good.

Augustinian Father Rob Hagan, chaplain for the Villanova Wildcats, who won the NCAA men’s basketball championship game in Houston April 4. Located near Philadelphia, Villanova University is affiliated with the Order of St. Augustine and named for St. Thomas of Villanova.

NEWS notes • The Catholic Spirit

Easter Choral Concert at St. Paul Seminary April 15 YOUTH IGNITE Junior High Youth play a game of Gaga Ball at an Ignite youth event April 9 at All Saints in Lakeville. The event, sponsored by Partnership for Youth, featured Mass, praise and worship, eucharistic adoration and guest speakers. Courtesy Partnership for Youth

Members of the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity chorale and the University of St. Thomas’ Schola Cantorem will perform Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Cantata No. 4, Christ Lag in Todesbanden” with the Bach Society of Minnesota 7:30 p.m. April 15 at St. Mary’s Chapel of the St. Paul Seminary.

Father Michael Joncas, St. Thomas’ scholar in residence, will offer remarks.

The event is free and co-sponsored by St. Thomas’ Sacred Arts Festival. www.saintpaulseminary.org or www.stthomas.edu/saf.

Ordinary for ‘Anglican-rite’ to speak at UST April 18 Msgr. Jeffrey Steenson, ordinary emeritus of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, will present “Servant of God: Adventures on the Path to Christianity” 7:30 p.m. April 18 at the 3M Auditorium in the Owens Science Hall at the University of St. Thomas. The ordinariate is a jurisdiction Pope Benedict XVI established in 2012 for Anglican groups seeking full communion with the Catholic Church. The presentation is free and part of the Archbishop Ireland Memorial Lecture series.

Men invited to Catholic Watchmen rally April 22 Bishop Andrew Cozzens will present “Overcoming Sin in Our Lives” 6:309 p.m. April 22 at Mary, Mother of the Church in Burnsville. The event is organized by Catholic Watchmen, a men’s initiative Bishop Cozzens helped to launch in February. The rally will include fellowship, eucharistic adoration, confession and dinner. A free-will offering will be collected. For more information, call 651-291-4411.

AMAZING FINISH Father Erik Lundgren of Sts. Joachim and Anne in Shakopee kisses the championship trophy after a team of priests staged a dramatic comeback to defeat seminarians from St. John Vianney College Seminary 64-63 in the annual priest/seminarian basketball tournament April 1 at Bethlehem Academy in Faribault. A three-pointer with less than a second remaining by Father Aaron Nett, left, of the Diocese of St. Cloud and a free throw after he was fouled on the shot sealed the win in the title game. It is the fourth time in the last eight years that the priests have prevailed. At far right is Father Michael Barsness of St. Vincent de Paul in Brooklyn Park. Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit

WHAT’S NEW on social media The Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network celebrates Pope Francis’ April prayer intention for small farmers, in which he thanks them, saying “what you do is essential for the life of all” and prays for just wages for their “noble work.” Watch the video at www.thepopevideo.org.

University of Minnesota sophomore Bernadette Prickel reflects on spending spring break in Anchorage, Alaska, on a St. Paul’s Outreach-sponsored mission trip. “We were blessed with amazing views, amazing people and amazing opportunities to grow closer to God and to find out each of our individual vocations,” she writes.

Pope Francis broke an Instagram record after amassing 1 million followers within 12 hours of joining March 19. The previous record for fastest growing account was set last year by former soccer star David Beckham, who took twice as long to hit the 1 million mark. Instagrammers can follow Pope Francis’ photos and videos under his Latin name, Franciscus.

The Catholic Spirit is published bi-weekly for The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis Vol. 21 — No. 8 MOST REVEREND BERNARD A. HEBDA, Publisher TOM HALDEN, Associate Publisher United in Faith, Hope and Love

MARIA C. WIERING, Editor

SPS Theatre to present ‘Moonshine Abbey’ Students from the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity will present the musical comedy “Moonshine Abbey” 7:30 p.m. April 22-23, and 2 p.m.

April 24 at the University of St. Thomas’ Brady Educational Center Auditorium. The school’s fourth annual production, the plot revolves around monks whose longtime distillery finds itself at odds with Prohibition. Tickets are free but donations will be accepted. The box office opens 30 minutes before each show. www.spstheatre.org.

Women’s argument club on workplace equality Should men and women be treated the same in the workplace? Hear lawyer Sara Gross Methner and University of St. Thomas law professor Elizabeth Schiltz argue for and against the proposition April 26 at Nativity of Our Lord in St. Paul. The Argument Club for Women event begins at 6 p.m. with a light meal. The program begins at 6:45 p.m. Cost is $10 at the door, $5 for students with ID. www.facebook.com/argumentclubforwomen.

CORRECTION A story in the March 31 issue incorrectly identified Mother Maria Francis Pale as the provincial superior of the Little Sisters of the Poor.

She is the mother superior of the local community in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, which operates the Holy Family Residence in St. Paul. The Catholic Spirit apologizes for the error.

Materials credited to CNS copy­righted by Catholic News Service.

All other materials copyrighted by The Cath­olic Spirit Newspaper.

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April 14, 2016

FROM THE MODERATOR OF THE CURIA

The Catholic Spirit • 3

Reading, conversation, prayer inspire reflection on mercy Throughout this Year of Mercy, I have found much spiritual inspiration in the book by Pope Francis “The Name of God is Mercy.” I have also read the articles in The Catholic Spirit on this theme and have learned much in many of my conversations about the deeper meaning of “mercy,” including the presentations at our archdiocesan staff Lenten retreat.

FROM THE MODERATOR OF THE CURIA Father Charles Lachowitzer

I have found my own attention to the word “mercy” heightened in the prayers of the Mass, in the daily psalms and in the Office of Readings. On Divine Mercy Sunday, following Mass, I wrote the following reflection:

Mercy when it is undeserved.

Mercy when it is unwarranted.

Mercy when grace has been squandered.

Mercy when the heart is ungrateful.

Mercy when the sin is too great to bear.

Mercy when death causes doubt, fear and anger.

Mercy when the eyes are blind and the mind closed.

Mercy when it seems foolish and naïve.

Mercy when unpopular and ill-advised.

Mercy when hubris shouts down humility.

Mercy when humiliation undermines dignity.

Mercy when disappointed and God is blamed.

Mercy when disappointed with human shame.

Mercy is God’s response to the human condition: God’s best offering in response to our worst offenses.

Our acceptance of redeeming grace is made simple by God’s mercy.

Mercy through it all, with it all, above it all and over it all.

Mercy is the gift of the Spirit of the risen Lord, Jesus Christ, so that faith endures and hope perseveres.

Love is the only acceptable sacrifice in thanksgiving to the God of Mercy.

La lectura, la conversación, la oración, inspiran la reflexión sobre la misericordia

‘Visual bucket list’

A lo largo de este Año de la Misericordia, he encontrado mucha inspiración espiritual en el libro del Papa Francisco “El Nombre de Dios es Misericordia.”

También he leído los artículos en el Espíritu Católico sobre este tema y he aprendido mucho en varias de mis conversaciones sobre el significado más profundo de la “misericordia”, incluyendo las presentaciones en nuestro retiro de Cuaresma del personal arquidiocesano. Yo he encontrado que mi atención está puesta en la palabra “misericordia” que resalta en las oraciones de la Misa, en los salmos del día y en la lectura de los Oficios. En el Domingo de la Misericordia, después de la misa, escribí la siguiente reflexión: Misericordia cuando es inmerecida.

Misericordia cuando es injustificada.

Misericordia cuando la gracia se ha desperdiciado.

Misericordia cuando el corazón es ingrato.

Misericordia cuando el pecado es demasiado grande para soportarlo.

Misericordia cuando la muerte causa duda, miedo e ira.

Misericordia cuando los ojos están ciegos y la mente cerrada.

Misericordia cuando todo parece tonto e ingenuo.

Misericordia al impopular y al no considerado.

Misericordia cuando la soberbia hace callar a la humildad.

Misericordia cuando la humillación quebranta la dignidad.

Misericordia cuando en la decepción culpamos a Dios.

Misericordia cuando la decepción nos trae vergüenza.

La misericordia es la respuesta de Dios a la condición humana: Dios nos da su mejor oferta en respuesta a nuestros peores delitos.

Nuestra aceptación de la gracia redentora se simplifica gracias a la Misericordia de Dios.

Misericordia a pesar de todo, con todo, por encima de todo y sobre todo.

La misericordia es el don del Espíritu del Señor Resucitado, Jesucristo, para que la fe perdure y la esperanza persevere.

El amor es el único sacrificio aceptable en acción de gracias al Dios de la Misericordia.

Pope Francis greets Lizzy Myers of Mansfield, Ohio, during his general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican April 6. Myers, 5, who has a disease that is gradually rendering her blind and deaf, met the pope as part of her “visual bucket list.” Pope Francis blessed her eyes. CNS/L’Osservatore Romano handout via EPA

OFFICIAL His Excellency, the Most Reverend Bernard Hebda, has announced the following appointments in the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis:

Effective April 4, 2016 Reverend John Long, appointed temporary parochial administrator of the Church of Saint Gerard in Brooklyn Park. The current pastor, Reverend Bradley Baldwin, Third Order Regular of St. Francis, is on a leave of absence.

Deacon Luis Rubi, appointed to exercise the ministry of a

permanent deacon at the churches of Our Lady of Guadalupe and Saint Michael in Saint Paul and Saint Matthew in West Saint Paul.

This is a transfer from his current appointment at the Church of Saint Stephen in Minneapolis.

4 • The Catholic Spirit

LOCAL

April 14, 2016

SLICEof LIFE

Inspiring visit

Suzy Sukalski, center, gets teary eyed while receiving hugs from third-grade students at St. Stephen School in Anoka April 8. The students learned about Sukalski, who has Down syndrome and lives in Fairmont, from a newspaper article in the Star Tribune several months ago. They corresponded with her shortly afterward and have stayed in touch since. Accompanied by her mother, Diane, and sister Kristina O’Brien, Sukalski visited the school and spoke with students about her life. Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit

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LOCAL

April 14, 2016

Dozens of parishes prepare for lawsuits

By Maria Wiering The Catholic Spirit A number of parishes implicated in child sex abuse claims should prepare for lawsuits related to those allegations to be filed before mid-May, according to the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

In a March 30 letter to members of parishes implicated in sexual abuse claims filed against the archdiocese, Archbishop-designate Bernard Hebda called the anticipated lawsuits “a normal part of the litigation process” and urged Catholics to heed Scripture and “do not be afraid.”

Archdiocesan officials have anticipated the suits since it filed for Reorganization under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code in January 2015 in response to mounting claims of child sexual abuse by clergy. The archdiocese is aiming to resolve claims against individual parishes as part of its bankruptcy proceedings, but encourages parishes that are sued to consult their own attorneys.

“All parties involved — including dozens of insurance carriers that issued policies over the past six decades — are participating in mediation with the hope of settling the more than 400 sexual abuse claims that have been brought against the archdiocese and that presumably will soon be filed against parishes arising from the same facts,” Archbishop Hebda wrote.

Pastors and parish leaders at affected parishes were encouraged to provide information on the potential lawsuits to parishioners at Masses April 2-3.

Archdiocesan officials said many parishes were already preparing for the potential suits. The suits are related to the 2013 Child Victims Act, which lifted the statute of limitations in Minnesota through May 25 for the filing of civil lawsuits of child sex abuse.

Most parishes with claims against them have insurance coverage for the claims, and their insurance companies have been notified, said Joseph Kueppers, the archdiocese’s chancellor for civil affairs, in a March 30 letter to parish leaders at affected parishes. Kueppers emphasized that the sexual abuse claims are not new. “In many cases, the claim dates back 20 to 30 years or more,” he said.

The possible lawsuits are not expected to affect normal parish operations, including capital campaigns, according to the archdiocese.

“Be assured that your pastor and parish leaders are working with archdiocesan staff to keep you informed and updated on any developments,” Archbishop Hebda said in the letter to parishioners.

“It seems that the most important thing we can do now is pray for a just resolution to these claims and for all of those involved. In these first days of the Easter season, I ask for your prayers and support for all victims of sexual abuse and their families.”

in BRIEF ST. PAUL

Archdiocese raises more than $440K for retired religious in 2015 The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis raised $442,141 to support the Retirement Fund for Religious 2015 appeal. Since the appeal began 28 years ago, local Catholics have given more than $13.7 million to the collection. According to the receiving organization, funds benefit more than 33,000 men and women religious in the United States. In a March 23 letter to Archbishop Bernard Hebda, Sister of the Most Precious Blood Janice Bader, the fund’s executive director, thanked “the faithful of your archdiocese for this generosity and continuing support.”

New Ulm diocese names priests credibly accused of abuse The Diocese of New Ulm released the names March 29 of 16 priests credibly accused of child sexual abuse who served in the diocese. Twelve of the men were accused of abuse while ministering in the New Ulm diocese. The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis had previously disclosed the names of five of the men, as they had been priests of the archdiocese or had served in it: Fathers Joseph (Louis) Heitzer, (d. 1969), Rudolph Henrich (d. 1992), Harry Majerus (d. 1995), William Marks (d. 1979) and Robert Clark. Before the Diocese of New Ulm was founded in 1957, it was part of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. The New Ulm diocese and attorney Jeff Anderson jointly made the disclosures as a “result of discussions and sharing of information,” according to a March 29 statement.

As part of settlement, archdiocese recommends rectory guest policy The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis released a model policy on rectory guests April 8, the first of several actions it is taking to comply with its December settlement of civil charges with the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office. The first item was due 120 days after the settlement, April 11. A group of pastors advised the archdiocese’s Office for Ministerial Standards and Safe Environment as it prepared the policy, which provides guidance on when and how pastors should notify trustees of

long-term, non-cleric rectory guests. The policy also provides strict guidelines for overnight stays and damage to the property. “I cannot stress strongly enough how important your parish’s cooperation with — and support of — this new policy could be for the overall protection of God’s children in this archdiocese,” Archbishop-designate Bernard Hebda wrote in a letter sharing the policy with priests and parish trustees.

MINNEAPOLIS

Archdiocese plans to file a plan of Reorganization by end of May The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis plans to file a plan of Reorganization by May 31, the archdiocese’s civil attorney, Joseph Kueppers, has confirmed. In October, a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge extended the period in which the archdiocese was allowed to be the sole party to file a plan for Reorganization. That period ends May 31.

Archdiocesan officials said the plan could require multiple revisions. A schedule for plan review and consideration has not been entered. The archdiocese entered Chapter 11 Reorganization in January 2015 in response to mounting claims of child sex abuse by clergy members.

Haiti-serving organization with Catholic connections marks decade Mission Haiti, a nonprofit that began with the help of Annunciation parishioners, is marking a decade of outreach in April. The organization promotes education from primary school to college, care for the elderly and sustainable farming in Haiti. Mission Haiti continues to work closely with Annunciation parish in Minneapolis and partners in Haiti with the Sisters of the Companions of Jesus. The vision for the organization began 30 years ago, with Annunciation parishioners Don and Phyllis Sheehan, who were inspired to find solutions to the poverty in Haiti after visiting the Caribbean country. “We realize that there are a lot of people doing a lot of projects in Haiti,” said Mission Haiti President Jimmy Dunn in a video about the organization. “It’s not trying to have the most programming; it’s to have an actual change in the cycle of poverty, and for that to happen, we need to remain focused.” Watch the video at https://vimeo. com/157380722.

The Catholic Spirit • 5

LifeTeen CEO: Love, examples help teens’ faith

By Susan Klemond For The Catholic Spirit Catholic youth are experiencing their own “climate change” as they face moral challenges at a younger age and lead busier lives that don’t allow time to consider their faith seriously, said LifeTeen president and CEO Randy Raus, who spoke April 8 at the 2016 LiveFamily!

Expo at St. Raphael in Crystal.

Parishes need to reach out to young people and their parents earlier, because if youth leave the Church, it’s not likely they’ll return as adults, he said.

“Young people aren’t leaving the Catholic Church because they come to the Church and they reject the teachings of the Church,” said Raus, whose Mesa, Arizona-based Catholic youth ministry movement serves more than 1,800 U.S. parishes, including several in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. “What we’re seeing is that young people Randy leave the Church because they RAUS show up and they’re not hearing the truth of the Church, and it doesn’t seem like it’s relevant today.”

On the first day of the two-day expo called “A Mission of Mercy to the Family,” Raus gave the roughly 80 attendees — mostly marriage and youth ministry leaders and couples — ideas for loving young people and helping them grow in their faith. The expo was sponsored by the Cana Family Institute, the archdiocese and the Diocese of St. Cloud. Bishop Andrew Cozzens of St. Paul and Minneapolis presided at Mass and gave a short talk.

Married couples’ love for each other will overflow to their children, Raus said. Through their own pursuit of holiness, parents and youth leaders can be an example to youth and challenge them to grow in their faith.

Besides being an example to all youth, loving boys means assuring them they have what it takes to succeed, while loving girls means letting them know they are beautiful and worthy of pursuit, Raus said.

He also advised parents to talk to their teens about their own relationship with God and, when possible, set up opportunities for them to meet God at their parish or elsewhere. “Where young people encounter Christ is through others who’ve encountered Christ and walk with them,” he said.

Raus also suggested helping young people deepen their faith by encouraging them to learn about and perform works of mercy and go on mission trips.

“Young people will rise to the challenge if we call them to holiness,” he said.

Along with 16 marriage and family exhibitors, the expo featured interactive marriage and family skills workshops, said Jeannine Backstrom, executive director of Twin Cities-based Cana Family Institute, the parent organization for the Familia marriage and family support program. Along with ministry leaders, the expo offered support to parents, who are the primary leaders in the family, she said.

Phil and Sarah Ervin attended the expo as they prepared to celebrate their first wedding anniversary.

They were looking for ways to connect with other young couples in order to build Catholic community and spiritually strengthen their marriage, they said.

Parishioners at Holy Family in St. Louis Park, they noted that there are more resources for Catholics in different phases of life than there are for young married couples.

Bishop Cozzens spoke about the fruit of love, joy, peace and mercy, sharing how Christ’s love can heal wounds, enabling spouses to make gifts of love and life to each other and their children.

“That experience of mercy heals us, and it’s really what makes us capable of true joy and love,” he said.

“It’s what brings about the real union of marriage.”

Parents and ministry leaders’ own experience of mercy also helps them love teens, Raus said.

“If we don’t know mercy ourselves, it’s going to be really hard to show works of mercy to other people,” he said.

6 • The Catholic Spirit

LOCAL

April 14, 2016

Open Window woes Performances postponed until building meets code

By Susan Klemond For The Catholic Spirit Through the plays it stages, Open Window Theatre aims to show God’s redemption in the midst of human problems.

Now the Minneapolis theater itself is hoping for that redemption as its founders, staff and board of directors trust that God will bring good out of the postponed spring production and unexpected debt as a result of building code issues they say should be their landlord’s responsibility.

The theater’s request last year for a building permit to expand the space it leases in a former warehouse near the Basilica of St. Mary drew the attention of city inspectors, who raised concerns about zoning and other code compliance issues that Open Window Theatre co-founder Jeremy Stanbary and his legal counsel say are the property owners’ responsibility. To date, the theater has had to pay fees of nearly $10,000 in order to operate. Some of that went toward a fire inspector to be present at each performance of its winter play, “Everyman.”

It will accrue more charges and fees until the issues are resolved.

The solution could require improvements to the entire 40,000 square-foot building. Stanbary, who cofounded the theater with his wife, Sarah, in 2011, thinks the owners should pay for bringing the building up to code and is considering the theater’s legal options.

Key to success Open Window Theatre stages plays inspired by a Catholic vision of the arts, including stories about St. Thomas More and St. Maria Goretti, and St. John Paul II’s “The Jeweler’s Shop.” It also produces works with implicit Christian themes such as C.S. Lewis’ “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” which it performed in the fall.

Key to the theater’s continued success are maintaining its current mission and location, and building on momentum gained during the past five years, said Mark Blando, an attorney and Open Window Theatre board member.

As the building housing the theater is now for sale, Open Window is seeking investors to buy it, as well as launching a fundraising campaign to offset costs and provide future stability, said Stanbary, who with his family attends St. Joseph in West St. Paul.

Early in 2015, a neighboring tenant moved out, and Stanbary saw an opportunity to expand the theater’s space to 7,300 square feet, adding about 40 percent more seating, additional bathrooms, a scene shop, lobby and backstage space, he said.

Assured by building owners Kristi and Zev Oman before moving in that the space was properly zoned for

proposal addressing fire codes and other issues, raising the possibility of a building-wide sprinkler system.

Inspectors planned to close the theater pending completion of the process, but instead allowed it to stay open under the requirement that it pay a fire inspector to be at each performance.

Safety measures

Open Window Theatre’s Jeremy Stanbary is trying to address unexpected debt as a result of building code issues at the Minneapolis facility. Stanbary, who co-founded Open Window with his wife, Sarah, has had to postpone the spring performance due to the added expenses. Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit

“I don’t believe God will abandon us now. There is no redemption without the cross. Our expansion in 2015 was a huge sign of success, and that’s also brought with it big crosses.”

Jeremy Stanbary

a theater, Stanbary discovered during the expansion that it required rezoning and didn’t meet other codes.

The owners were reluctant to pay for the required rezoning and to address building-wide code issues, so Stanbary received permission to go through the process on their behalf.

The city approved the theater’s request to rezone the property for theater use last year, but Open Window faces more challenges in getting a certificate of occupancy, which the building as a whole and every other tenant lack. Ultimately, Stanbary and his legal counsel believe the property owners are responsible for obtaining it.

Inspectors are requiring the theater to submit a

Stanbary said the fees have constituted an unexpected expense, including postponing a production of “Best of Enemies” by Mark St. Germain until the fall.

“That fire watch is really just a slower death by financial strangulation,” he said.

The fire watch was a temporary compromise until the space is brought into compliance, said Steve Poor, director of development services at the City of Minneapolis’ Community Planning and Economic Development office, which has worked with Open Window on code compliance issues.

“It’s an extremely rare accommodation that we made, and it’s not that we put small business in a bad place,” he said. “We’re asking them to not let the public into a dangerous environment. We found a stopgap measure so that they wouldn’t have to give up an entire season.”

According to Blando, city records show that none of the spaces in the building or the building as a whole have a current certificate of occupancy; the last certificate on record dates back to 1969. So far, Open Window Theatre is the only occupant that has been affected. Other tenants include offices, gyms and other businesses. Spaces Unlimited manages the building.

Blando and his family, who attend Holy Trinity in South St. Paul, are season subscribers and support the theater’s mission to influence the culture through the arts.

“We think the service we’re providing to the community is vital and something you don’t see in the theater community anywhere else in the Cities or really very much in the rest of the country,” he said.

The city’s objective is ensuring code compliance, and it doesn’t generally determine who makes the changes — whether it’s owners or tenants, said Doug Determan, CPED deputy building official.

“We just need those safety measures in place for it to comply with the building code before we can give the go-ahead,” he said.

With these challenges, Stanbary believes God has a plan for the theater.

“I have seen miracles get us to the place we are,” Stanbary said. “I don’t believe God will abandon us now. There is no redemption without the cross. Our expansion in 2015 was a huge sign of success, and that’s also brought with it big crosses.”

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April 14, 2016

LOCAL

UST law prof outlines pro-life legal challenges

By Bridget Ryder For The Catholic Spirit Four specific threats to the dignity of human life are interrelated in contributing to laws that deny both the right to life and the natural rights of parents and children, said University of St. Thomas law professor Teresa Collett.

One, she explained, is gender ideology taking shape in the so-called “bathroom wars” over access to opposite-sex restrooms for transgender individuals. And, she added, the denial of the complementarity of men and women that led to same-sex marriage is also reverberating in surrogacy laws.

“Too often, the argument is that if we don’t allow commercial surrogacy, then same-sex couples will not be able to have children,” said Collett, who presented March 31 at the university’s faculty-led Siena Symposium for Women, Family and Culture, inspired by St. John Paul II. “This has been the linchpin of defeat,” Collett said of states that have liberalized regulations on the practice.

In her lecture outlining current and upcoming pro-life legal challenges, she identified three other categories of threats to the dignity of human life: • The idea that the freedom of women equals unlimited sexual expression without the consequences of children and without a commitment to any partner.

• Recasting of marriage primarily as a means of self-expression rather than a gift of self.

• Intentional degradation of both religion and family, fueled by religious fundamentalism.

In mid-March, Collett testified before the Minnesota State Legislature against the proposed, but since removed, physician-assisted suicide bill, the Compassionate Care Act. She said most testimonies opposed the bill and that the American Catholic Medical Association made a strong showing of doctors against it.

“We have a very strong anti-assisted suicide movement in this state, and our governor isn’t going to push us on this,” she said.

Religious freedom issues Before her presentation, Collett, a scholar on marriage, religion and bioethics, received the Siena Symposium’s fifth annual Humanitarian Leadership Award. A parishioner of Nativity of Our Lord in St. Paul, Collett is a consultor for the Pontifical Council for the Family.

“We realized we had a heroine in our own midst,” said Deborah Savage, co-director of the Siena Symposium, as she introduced Collett.

Collett’s lecture also touched on the Affordable Care Act, contraception and the Little Sisters of Poor case currently before the U.S. Supreme Court.

“Society has persuaded itself that contraception is necessary to carry on the ‘American dream,’” she said of the ideology behind the federal mandate that insurance plans provide contraception, sterilization and abortifacients.

The Catholic Spirit • 7

ACCW to honor four women for parish volunteerism The Catholic Spirit

“Society has persuaded itself that contraception is necessary to carry on the ‘American dream.’”

Teresa Collett

Women religious and others demonstrate against the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate March 23 near the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington. CNS However, she noted, the Little Sisters’ case looks hopeful. In an unusual decision, the Supreme Court has done something it rarely does — it essentially asked the two sides to find agreement.

“The court doesn’t want to decide the case, so in a remarkable move, it said, ‘Tell us how it can be done, and Little Sisters, you get to comment,’” Collett explained. “They are calling for a settlement.”

This decision was prompted by the possibility that if forced to rule, the case would be ruled in favor of the Little Sisters.

The religious order has a compelling case, Collett said. “Facts tell and stories sell.”

The “story” that the Supreme Court would tell nuns in full habit who serve the elderly at no cost that they have to cover birth control costs in their employee health insurance plans “would be rejected as a movie because it’s too preposterous,” Collett said.

To her law students, she uses an analogy to explain the “injustice of the government providing contraception through the sisters’ insurance plan.”

She tells her students to imagine that they jointly own a lake house with a married man. The other owner calls them one day and says, “I know you are going to the lake house this weekend, but I want to go there with my mistress. All you have to do is just not show up.”

She said her students understand that the other owner would take offense at an immoral use of his lake house.

“You don’t get to use my lake house for that purpose with my knowing it,” she explained.

A majority of the justices on the Supreme Court might understand that, too.

“At least that is my prayer and my hope,” she said.

At its annual convention April 29-30 at St. Vincent de Paul in Brooklyn Park, the Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women will present Laywomen Volunteer Awards to four women.

Margee Adrian, St. Francis de Sales, St. Paul For more than 30 years, Adrian has been an active member of St. Francis de Sales, serving as CCW president, vice president, secretary and as family concerns commission chairwoman. She has chaired the Home and School Association and fundraising committee as well as the pro-life committee, served on the pastoral Margee council and volunteered for the St. Vincent de Paul Society. She has ADRIAN also taught faith formation classes.

She and her husband, Denny, deliver Meals On Wheels. A mother of six and grandmother of 18, Adrian is passionate about pro-life work and volunteers at a LifeCare center and Birthright.

Upon retirement, she and Denny started to scour garage sales, thrift stores and church rummage sales for cribs, car seats and baby clothes, which they refurbish and deliver throughout the metro to families in need.

Mary Lorentz, St. Pius V, Cannon Falls Lorentz has been an active CCW member, serving as president and vice president and on many planning committees for CCW-sponsored events. She is the chairwoman for parish funeral lunches and the parish wedding coordinator. For 10 years, Lorentz taught secondgrade faith formation classes, Mary preparing children for first LORENTZ Communion. She was an extraordinary minister of holy Communion for eight years and serves as sacristan one Sunday a month and for Friday morning Masses. Lorentz has also been involved in the community, serving on the local fair board for 26 years and at the food shelf. She has been a member of the local business owners group for 30 years, where she has held several offices. Lorentz and her husband, Ed, have been married for 58 years and have three children and seven grandchildren.

Dorothy Pumper, St. Dominic, Northfield For more than 30 years, Pumper has been an extraordinary minister of holy Communion at her parish, even serving in the role at the funeral Mass Please turn to ACCW on page 18

8 • The Catholic Spirit

U.S. & WORLD

A ministry of mercy tackles suicide epidemic on Lakota reservation Catholic News Service A sad reality on a number of Native American reservations is the high suicide rate. That is especially true on the Rosebud Reservation in south central South Dakota.

In 2007 — at the height of an ongoing suicide epidemic — the number of deaths by suicide on Rosebud was roughly 13 times the national average, making it, according to one report, the highest in the world.

To help address this crisis, St. Francis Mission, a Jesuit ministry on this Lakota reservation, has started a suicide and crisis hotline.

For its director, Geraldine Provencial, the work has a strong personal motivation. “What inspires me to work with the suicide and crisis hotline is the experience I have had with suicides in my own immediate family,” she said. “I lost a sister to suicide, a brother to suicide and my grandson’s mother to suicide, which has resulted in my taking care of my grandson today, who is 11 years old. He is my inspiration.”

Not having had support as she dealt with these suicides is what spurs Provencial today to reach out to others who are experiencing these difficulties.

“To work with this type of program takes courage because there is a lot of sadness that is part of the suicide crisis,” she told Catholic Extension magazine.

“The hurt and pain that people are carrying within themselves does not go away when they take their lives.

The pain just gets passed on to us family members, and we feel that for the rest of our lives.”

She relies on her faith to carry her through and help her find hope, so that, in turn, she can help others and “be there for them when those kinds of thoughts cross their minds.” She also has found that “faith is a huge piece in people’s recovery and helps them to find what they are seeking. The Catholic faith can give a person something they can lean on to find direction in their lives and better their lives.”

On the 24/7 hotline, Provencial and her trained volunteers talk both with individuals who are contemplating suicide and with family members concerned that someone may be thinking about ending his or her life.

“The hotline is providing that last grasp of hope,” she said. “Some of the individuals will ask for prayers for strength to help them get through their most difficult time, which is part of the reason why they reach out to us.”

In emergency situations, “the main priority is to keep the person on the line and talking. This could mean being on the phone for a couple of hours,” she said. The responders work to identify the caller’s location and to get the tribal police to get him or her to the local Indian Health Services emergency room for mental health and support services.

Geraldine Provencial, director of the suicide and crisis hotline started by St. Francis Mission in South Dakota, pictured in a July photo. She says her ministry is providing the “last grasp of hope” for those in crisis served by the mission, a Jesuit ministry on the Rosebud Reservation. CNS “When people in crisis call,” Provencial said, “we never know what type of call it is going to be. Some of the callers just need someone to listen to them.”

Provencial also directs the Icimani Ya Waste’ (Lakota for “good journey”) Recovery Center, where she facilitates a monthly, four-day program to tackle the family dynamics involved in addiction and holds recovery-related meetings and 12-step programs.

Drug and alcohol abuse, 10 times the national rate, is a major contributing factor to the reservation’s high suicide rate, and both are rooted in a larger bleak socioeconomic reality. The Rosebud Reservation has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country — about 83 percent — and Todd County, where Rosebud is located, is the third poorest county in the United States.

Domestic violence, sexual assault and gang violence also have been identified as major factors contributing to despair and suicide on the reservation.

Catholic Extension, an organization that supports the work and ministries of U.S. mission dioceses, has had a long-standing relationship with St. Francis Mission, going back to helping build the mission in 1910. Today Catholic Extension helps fund the mission’s healing and recovery ministries.

According to its president, Jesuit Father John Hatcher, the mission’s focus on healing ministries has come from asking the question, “Where are people hurting, and how can the Church minister to them?” Addressing alcoholism and the suicide epidemic are top priorities.

“Through the hotline, we’ve been able to intervene with people who are in extreme danger of killing or hurting themselves or being hurt by someone else,” Father Hatcher said. “Once we’ve sent out emergency vehicles, we can follow up with them and continue the healing.”

April 14, 2016

Pope to visit Greek island with Orthodox to highlight refugees’ plight Catholic News Service In an effort to highlight the dramatic situation of refugees left in limbo on the Greek island of Lesbos, Pope Francis and other Christian leaders will meet with migrants April 16.

“Naturally, the pope wants to be there in order to draw attention to the sense of solidarity and responsibility” of all Christians, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, told reporters April 7.

The pope wants to go to Lesbos for the same reasons that drew him to visit the Italian island of Lampedusa: to point to “the reality of refugees and immigrants” and because “he sees an important emergency” unfolding there, Father Lombardi said.

The joint visit by the pope and two top Orthodox leaders in the region also shows “that the Christian churches are united on the frontlines of major challenges, before humanitarian emergencies, problems of justice and peace in the world today,” Father Lombardi said.

The pope accepted invitations by Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, the Istanbul-based spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox, to make the one-day visit, the Vatican said.

The pope and patriarch will also be joined by Orthodox Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens and all of Greece when meeting with the refugees on the island.

Pope names papal nuncio to Mexico to be new nuncio to the U.S. Catholic News Service Pope Francis has appointed Archbishop Christophe Pierre, papal nuncio to Mexico since 2007, to be the new apostolic nuncio to the United States.

He succeeds Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, who has been in the post since 2011. Archbishop Vigano turned 75 in January, the age at which canon law requires bishops to submit their resignation to the pope.

As president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky, shared “a heartfelt greeting and my prayerful support” of the newly named nuncio “as he embarks on his service to our country.”

“A shared closeness with the Church in Mexico already creates a strong fraternal bond between us,” said the archbishop about the April 12 appointment.

“With fond affection, allow me also to thank Archbishop Vigano for his selfless contributions to the life of the Catholic Church in the United States,” Archbishop Kurtz added.

Archbishop Pierre was born in France and has previously held posts as nuncio to Haiti and Uganda.

Principal/Director of Educational Ministries St. Michael’s Lakeside School, located in Duluth, MN, voted best place to live in the US, seeks highly qualified applicants for the position of Principal/Director of Educational Ministries beginning July 1, 2016. Our school, founded in 1921, is part of St. Michael’s parish, a vibrant, faith-filled community of approximately 800 families. Current enrollment, preschool through grade 5 is 110 with anticipated growth to 150 within 3 years. Our student/teacher ratio is 15:1. St. Michael’s is accredited through the Minnesota Nonpublic School Accrediting Association. Our school building has capacity for 250 students, includes a sports fields, a gymnasium, an extensive library, a full computer lab with over 30 desktop computers for student use, a number of IPADs for classroom instruction, Smart Boards in every classroom, and other interactive learning tools.

Our goal is to select a Director of Educational Ministries who will lead the school forward with energy and vision while honoring the academic, religious, communal, and spiritual traditions the school has forged over the last 95 years.

The Director, along with senior parish staff and the school board, will also have the opportunity to develop a plan to bring to completion the parish’s desire to expand the school’s offerings through Grade 12.

The successful candidate will be a spiritually motivated practicing Roman Catholic who is an excellent communicator, is able to establish a strong academic vision, is knowledgeable of current educational methods and best practices, has proven leadership and managerial skills, and carries the positive energy necessary to manage a dynamic school community. Additionally, the successful candidate should have a minimum of a master’s degree, sixth-year or specialist (post-graduate) degree in educational administration or educational leadership or a closely-related field (can be in process) and at least three years of teaching experience, and completion of an elementary principal internship or one year as an elementary assistant principal; or an equivalent combination of education, training and/or experience necessary to successfully perform the essential functions of the work.

Interested candidates should submit a cover letter, resume, writing sample, and three references to Dr. Chris McMahon at chrism@stmichaelsduluth.org by April 21, 2016. View a full job description at www.stmichalsduluth.org

“To change the world, we must be good to those who cannot repay us.”

Pope Francis

Nominations for the 2016 Leading With Faith awards are being accepted through May 2 at www.TheCatholicSpirit.com.

Call 651-251-7709 for more information.

U.S. & WORLD

April 14, 2016

The Catholic Spirit • 9

in BRIEF VATICAN CITY

At Vatican trial, former consultant denies leaking financial documents A former consultant to a pontifical commission vehemently denied giving private documents regarding the Vatican’s financial reform to two journalists.

Francesca Chaouqui, a member of the former Pontifical Commission for Reference on the EconomicAdministrative Structure of the Holy See, replied, “absolutely not” when asked by a Vatican prosecutor if she gave documentation to Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi. She also denied having had a sexual relationship with Spanish Msgr. Lucio Vallejo Balda, the secretary of the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See. The trial resumed April 6 after the court granted Chaouqui, who is pregnant, a three-week postponement after her doctor recommended 20 days of bed rest.

Chaouqui is on trial along with Msgr. Vallejo Balda, Nicola Maio, the monsignor’s former assistant; and two journalists: Nuzzi, author of “Merchants in the Temple,” and Emiliano Fittipaldi, author of “Avarice.”

details. On its website, the SSPX said the meeting took place the evening of April 1. “Pope Francis had wanted a private and informal meeting, without the formality of an official audience,” the SSPX note said. The meeting “lasted 40 minutes and took place under a cordial atmosphere. After the meeting, it was decided that the current exchanges would continue. The canonical status of the society was not directly addressed, Pope Francis and Bishop Fellay having determined that these exchanges ought to continue without haste.” Last September, Pope Francis had expressed his hopes that “in the near future solutions may be found to recover full communion with the priests and superiors of the fraternity. In the meantime,” the pope wrote in the letter, “. . . I establish that those who, during the Holy Year of Mercy, approach these priests of the Fraternity of St. Pius X to celebrate the sacrament of reconciliation shall validly and licitly receive the absolution of their sins.” According to SSPX’s U.S. district, it has two chapels in the boundaries of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Qaryatain, SYRIA

Pope meets head of traditionalist Society of St. Pius X April 1

Saint’s relics found in rubble of church destroyed by terrorists in August

As discussions continue between Vatican officials and leaders of the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X, Pope Francis met at the Vatican with Bishop Bernard Fellay, head of the society. The Vatican press office confirmed April 4 that the meeting took place but provided no

The relics of Syrian St. Elian, which originally were thought to have been destroyed by members of the so-called Islamic State militia, have been found amid the rubble of the desecrated Mar Elian Church in Qaryatain, Syria. The sanctuary was bulldozed in August

2015, according to Fides, the news agency of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. Father Jacques Mourad, the prior of the Syriac Catholic monastic community, was kidnapped three months earlier when the terrorists initially raided the church.

Father Mourad, who was freed Oct. 11, reported the discovery of the relics to Fides April 5. The relics of St. Elian, a third-century martyr, were discovered after Syrian military forces had retaken control of Qaryatain.

WASHINGTON

New rules ensure faith-based groups can vie for federal funding Nearly seven years in the making, the federal government has issued rules intended to allow faithbased organizations as well as neighborhood groups to apply for federal grants and awards on equal footing with other nonprofits. A 304-page set of rules was issued in late March outlining the details for how nine Cabinet-level agencies — the ones most likely to issue grant money — are to treat funding requests from faithbased and other groups. Those who have seen the rules say they maintain protections against bias not only toward the faith-based groups, but also toward the recipients of the services rendered by those groups with the federal funds won, so that recipients do not feel coerced into religious activity as a condition for their receiving services.

— Catholic News Service

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10 • The Catholic Spirit

‘Inside

St. Michael cou

By Dave Hrbacek The Catholic Spirit

S ABOVE Laura Fanucci holds her newborn twin daughter Abby at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis Feb. 29. Abby died later that day, about 24 hours after her twin sister, Maggie, died.

Photos by Jennifer Liv Photography, volunteer for Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep

Maggie (foreground) and Abby lay side by side in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis.

ome say there is nothing worse tha losing your child.

Laura and Franco Fanucci of St. J the Worker in Maple Grove would Yet, they were shocked to experienc amid deep grief as they held not on two dying newborns in a span of 24 hou the end of February.

The unexpected transformation began they entered Abbott Northwestern Hosp Minneapolis Feb. 27. Twenty-four weeks pregnant with twin girls, Laura had surg the morning to repair a condition that a identical twins. Their placenta had an imbalanced blood flow that could be fata the babies.

Doctors were not satisfied with the sur results, so they told Laura and her husba Franco, already parents of three boys, th would deliver the twins by C-section late day.

When the twins, Margaret and Abigail nicknamed Maggie and Abby — were bo 6:23 p.m., there was hope they would su although they each weighed less than 2 pounds. However, there was still the risk their condition in the womb could affec health. Using a cup of water, Franco bap the girls.

With her daughters in the Neonatal In Care Unit later that evening, Laura tried asleep in her hospital bed. Soon, howeve took a turn for the worse. The following morning, doctors told Laura and Franco newborn daughter had suffered a brain hemorrhage and would not survive.

The Fanuccis went to be with Abby. Th time with her was cut short, however, by that Maggie’s heart and lungs were failin she was also expected to die.

Maggie’s condition was worse, so they split-second decision to go down the hal hold her. She died in Laura’s arms after a an hour. Grief tore through her parents’ “We held her, we took pictures and cri said Laura, 35. “I sang a lullaby, and we t to her.”

Then, they faced the piercing reality th would have to do it all over again the ne this time with Abby.

‘Like a nightmare’

Franco and Laura Fanucci enjoy time with their daughter Maggie, who died in Laura’s arms Feb. 28.

Going to bed that night was awful, Lau said.

“It just felt like this nightmare,” she sa was just dread. We were so sad. I just did know how we were going to get the stren do it again. We were just overwhelmingl The couple didn’t sleep that night, said Franco, also 35. Their agony kept them a “There’s not a word that I know that adequately describes that feeling,” he sai feel like you’ve had the worst day in you and you have to do the exact same thing next day.”

A thick cloud of sadness hung over the next morning as they prepared to say go

April 14, 2016 • 11

e the heart of God’

uple surprised by joy in the midst of death to

‘The dark side of light’

an

“I want to tell you that we know the anger of emptiness, too. We have been on the dark side of light,” Laura Fanucci wrote on her blog, Mothering Spirit, April 7.

Joseph agree. ce joy ne but urs at

“When Maggie died, we did not experience light and joy. We were shattered. I felt like my heart had been physically ripped out of my chest and left to bleed,” she wrote. “When we lost a baby to miscarriage three years ago, there was no peace. No heaven. It was pure hell. Desolation without consolation.

n after pital in s gery in afflicts

“So while some people have reached out to us and said that they have experienced something similar — a strange joy in a time of deep sorrow at a child’s death — I am still standing with the ones on the dark side, too.”

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Follow the Fanuccis’ story at www.motheringspirit.com.

From left, Laura, Joseph (on her lap), Sam, Franco and Thomas Fanucci pose for a photo at their home in St. Michael. Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit Abby. They met with a chaplain at the hospital and prayed.

Then, a nurse invited them to do something that soon triggered a startling change. She suggested that Laura hold her newborn skin to skin, with Abby resting on her bare chest.

Laura balked, then agreed. This intimate contact led to what she describes as the greatest joy she has ever experienced.

“It was amazing,” she said. “It was like the most night-and-day switch I had ever felt. They put her on my chest, and it was like I was not sad anymore. There was nothing in me that was sad. There was nothing in me that felt despair or anger or hurt or sadness.

“I just could not understand: How is this even happening? I just thought it was going to be so sad when I finally held her, and it was just going to make it even harder. And, it was like the happiest I had ever been in my life. It just was this pure joy. And, I thought, ‘This is just surreal. I can’t even believe this is happening.’”

‘What heaven feels like’ Her face lit up while she cradled Abby, and Franco noticed it.

“Her face changed, and the joy was palpable,” Franco said. “The nurse would come in and she’d take some more pictures and she would say, ‘You guys are just so happy.’”

It went on for several hours. They sang, they laughed, they celebrated this small infant who captivated their hearts. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, Abby’s vital signs began to fade.

Around 4 p.m., the end was near.

Amazingly, at a time when Laura and Franco should have been emotionally drained, the joy remained. It was a flame that would not be extinguished.

“I remember saying to him [Franco], ‘This is

what heaven feels like. I have no doubt in my mind, this is what heaven is,’” Laura said. “We were not sad, we were not angry. We had no questions for God. It was not like, ‘Why did this happen? How are we going to get through this?’

It was like this complete joy. It was just the purest joy and love I have ever felt.

“We just kept thanking her [Abby], and [saying] how much we loved her and what an amazing gift she gave us. We knew it was God; we just knew it was such an amazing experience. I said it then: ‘I just feel like we’re inside the heart of God.’” That feeling made it easier to let go of Abby.

They knew they were releasing their child into the hands of God, who would take her to heaven where the feelings of joy they had felt while holding her would last forever.

They said a final goodbye, and Abby died around 5 p.m.

Just a few days later, they left the hospital and came back home to their three boys: Sam, 6, Thomas, 4, and Joseph, 1. They wondered what would happen once they re-entered the ordinary rhythm of life. Could this nearmiraculous feeling they had in the NICU possibly last?

The answer, they knew deep down, was no.

“We walked away thinking it is unlikely that we’ll ever feel like that [on] this side of heaven again,” said Franco, a mechanical engineer. “We talked about it in the days shortly afterwards.

We know our hearts are going to break a thousand times over for the rest of our lives because of this loss. But, we try to [bring] ourselves back to that moment and that time.

That’s where our daughters are, and where we’ll be someday with them.”

Raw grief, yet hope Grief inevitably settles in as life returns to

normal at their suburban home in St. Michael.

Laura, an author and stay-at-home mom, feels it.

“It’s such a huge loss; it’s just so sad,” she said. “Every day is just so hard. We’re still in such a raw place of grief.”

And yet, alongside the grief is a deep, abiding presence of God that brings hope in their mourning.

“We’re totally changed because of this; our faith is deeper,” Laura said. “I’m not scared about what comes next for us or our family.”

And, what comes next is on their minds.

Before they married in 2006, Laura and Franco had discussed having four or five children. Had the twins survived, they would have “We knew it was reached their ideal family size.

God; we just knew it “About 12 seconds after was such an amazing both the girls were gone, I said, ‘I definitely want to experience. I said it have more kids,’” Laura said.

Franco agreed. “Literally, then: ‘I just feel like right after [Abby died], we said, ‘When we can, we want we’re inside the to [get pregnant] again.”

First, they need time to heart of God.’” heal. But, they both share a deep conviction that their Laura Fanucci calling in life is to be a mom and dad to three young boys ­­— and perhaps more children yet to be born.

“This calling to be a parent is so huge,” Laura said. “To be a mom to these kids is just amazing.”

And, “these kids” includes her twin daughters now in heaven — and who will never be forgotten.

“The girls are always going to be a part of our family,” said Laura, who has memorial boxes for each of them, with plans to build a memorial garden for them in the yard. “We always want to keep their spirit and their love alive with us.”

12 • The Catholic Spirit

ANALYSIS

April 14, 2016

A little bit country: Pope looks at the nitty-gritty of family life

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service Pope Francis’ hymn to love and family life is more like a country song than a Disney tune.

In “Amoris Laetitia” (“The Joy of Love”), Pope Francis’ postsynodal apostolic exhortation on the family, there is passion and devotion, but also heartache and sweat.

The “magic” he wrote about is not momentarily sparkly, but the result of prayer, grace, hard work and a willingness to apologize ­— time and time again.

“Committing oneself exclusively and definitively to another person always involves a risk and a bold gamble,” he wrote. But the payoff is huge.

The papal reflection on love, family life and the importance of marriage and child-rearing has sections that are deeply theological, pristinely poetic or even homiletic, like his reflection on the meaning of each line of the passage from the First Letter to the Corinthians, Chapter 13, used at millions of weddings each year: “Love is patient, love is kind. . . .”

But it also got into the nitty-gritty business of life when a man and a woman leave their parents’ home and try to make one of their own. However, while it quoted from some of his past speeches on family life, it did not include references to “plates flying” during arguments and refrained from making mother-in-law jokes, as he has been known to do.

Pope Francis reviewed the whole arc of married life from new and exciting young love to old age, sitting on the porch watching the grandkids play.

“Young love needs to keep dancing toward the future with immense hope,” he wrote. “Hope is the leaven that, in those first years of engagement and marriage, makes it possible to look beyond arguments, conflicts and problems and to see things in a broader perspective.”

Realistic but lyrical While realistic about late nights and colic, the papal document is lyrical in its reflections on the blessings and challenges of welcoming children into families. He invited readers to join him standing in awe of God’s gift of children, marveling that “God allows parents to choose the name by which he himself will call their child for all eternity.”

Running after toddlers, supervising homework, trying to figure out how to be close to adolescents without

Pope Francis kisses a crying baby during his general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican April 6. CNS/Paul Haring

The pope’s hymn includes the twang of yearning for that perfect, forever love. That yearning, present in most people from every culture and religion, shows that a stable, faithful union is what responds to human nature and to God’s plan for humanity.

“Lovers do not see their relationship as merely temporary,” he wrote. “Those who marry do not expect their excitement to fade. Those who witness the celebration of a loving union, however fragile, trust that it will pass the test of time.”

To turn that dream into reality, try a little tenderness, the pope advised. Tenderness is a virtue “often overlooked in our world of frenetic and superficial relationships.”

A loving gaze also is essential, he wrote. “How many things do spouses and children sometimes do in order to be noticed! Much hurt and many problems result when we stop looking at one another. This lies behind the complaints and grievances we often hear in families: ‘My husband does not look at me; he acts as if I were invisible.’ ‘Please look at me when I am talking to you!’

‘My wife no longer looks at me, she only has eyes for our children.’”

Patience, mercy necessary “Each crisis has a lesson to teach us; we need to learn how to listen for it with the ear of the heart.”

Pope Francis in “The Joy of Love”

smothering them and, finally, negotiating the “empty nest” syndrome all feature in the papal text.

Reaching together the later stage of family life, he insisted, is possible and beautiful.

“Although the body ages,” he said, “it still expresses that personal identity that first won our heart. Even if others can no longer see the beauty of that identity, a spouse continues to see it with the eyes of love, and so his or her affection does not diminish.”

The path to the porch won’t be easy, the pope wrote.

But “each crisis has a lesson to teach us; we need to learn how to listen for it with the ear of the heart.”

Pope Francis’ ballad on family love, life and loss urges Catholics to be patient and merciful with themselves as well as with their spouses and children. “No family drops down from heaven perfectly formed,” so all must learn to grow together, including by making frequent use of the words, “Thank you,” “please” and “sorry.”

“The right words, spoken at the right time, daily protect and nurture love,” the pope wrote.

Finding the right words also is Pope Francis’ exhortation to the Church as a whole. While standing up tall for the family, the Church needs to stop whining about how often its teaching on love and marriage is attacked, he said. “We should not be trapped into wasting our energy in doleful laments, but rather seek new forms of missionary creativity.”

Family life always has been challenging, the pope wrote. Just read the Bible, which “is full of families, births, love stories and family crises.”

But the Bible, he said, also holds out the promise of “the goal of their journey, when God ‘will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore.’”

Papal doc: Share truth of family with mercy

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service The same mercy and patience that are essential for building a strong family must be shown to those whose families are in trouble or have broken up, Pope Francis said in his highly anticipated postsynodal apostolic exhortation.

The document, “‘Amoris Laetitia’ (The Joy of Love), on Love in the Family,” released April 8, contains no new rules or norms. However, it encourages careful review of everything related to family ministry and, particularly, much greater attention to the language and attitude used when explaining Church teaching and ministering to those who do not fully live that teaching.

The exhortation was Pope Francis’ reflection on the discussion, debate and suggestions raised during the 2014 and 2015 meetings of the Synod of Bishops on the family. Like synod members did, the pope insisted that God’s plan for the family is that it be built on the lifelong union of one man and one woman open to having children.

Pope Francis’ document touches on all the issues raised at the synods and gives practical advice on raising children, urges a

revision of sex-education programs and decries the many ways the “disposable culture” has infiltrated family life and sexuality to the point that many people feel free to use and then walk away from others.

Communion for divorced The synod issues that garnered the most headlines revolved around the question of Communion for the divorced and civilly remarried, as well as Catholic attitudes toward homosexuality. “In no way must the Church desist from proposing the full ideal of marriage, God’s plan in all its grandeur,” Pope Francis said.

He repeated his and the synod’s insistence that the Church cannot consider same-sex unions to be a marriage, but also insisted, “every person, regardless of sexual orientation, ought to be respected in his or her dignity.”

Particularly in ministry to divorced and civilly remarried Catholics, Pope Francis said, pastors must help each couple look at their actions and circumstances, recognize their share of responsibility for the breakup of their marriage, acknowledge Church teaching that marriage is indissoluble and prayerfully discern what God is calling

them to.

Pope Francis said it would be a “grave danger” to give people the impression that “any priest can quickly grant ‘exceptions’ or that some people can obtain sacramental privileges in exchange for favors.”

At the same time, he insisted, “the way of the Church is not to condemn anyone forever; it is to pour out the balm of God’s mercy on all those who ask for it with a sincere heart.”

Divorced and civilly remarried couples, especially those with children, must be welcomed in Catholic parishes and supported in efforts to raise their children in the faith.

Generally, without an annulment of their sacramental marriage, such a couple would not be able to receive Communion or absolution of their sins unless they promised to live as “brother and sister.”

But every situation is different, the pope said, which is why the Church does not need new rules, but a new commitment on the part of pastors to provide spiritual guidance and assistance with discernment.

The diversity of situations — for Please turn to POPE on page 13

Q&A with family life director online “Since the family is the most basic unit of society, this document is richly relevant Jean to all STOLPESTAD persons, regardless of their state in life or vocation,” said Jean Stolpestad, director of marriage, family and life for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Find out why she strongly encourages every Catholic to read “The Joy of Love” and her take on how the document might affect marriage and family ministry in the archdiocese at www.TheCatholicSpirit.com.

—The Catholic Spirit

April 14, 2016

ANALYSIS

Exhortation addresses wounds in families Continued from page 1 clearly through so people don’t see the rule [of the Church], they see the person of Jesus coming through,” he explained.

During the news conference, Archbishop Kurtz described the exhortation as a “love letter to families” that invites all people to “never stop growing in love.”

“It is also a love letter calling the Church, the family of God, to realize more and more her mission to live and love as a family,” he said.

Bishop Richard Malone of Buffalo, New York, chairman of the bishops’ Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family, Life and Youth, said the exhortation invites the Church to heal wounds that families experience because of poverty, human trafficking, immigration, domestic violence and pornography.

“We also have room to grow and improve, and we More online welcome the pope’s encouragement for the Read more renewed witness to the truth analysis at www. and beauty of marriage of a TheCatholicSpirit. more tender closeness and com. Find “The Joy families who are of Love” at experiencing real www.vatican.va. difficulties,” Bishop Malone said.

Both prelates said the exhortation builds on the teaching of the Second Vatican Council as well as Pope Francis’ post-conciliar successors, Blessed Paul VI, St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI and invites ministers to welcome people who may have turned away from the Church because they feared their status­ ­­— as single parents or being in same-sex relationships, or being divorced and civilly remarried — ­ would mean they are unwelcome in the Church.

“I think the call is for the whole Church, the bishops, the priests, the lay leadership, but also each family to be able to say ‘God has given me such beauty in my family and things with his help can be much more. I think that’s what he is talking about, the grace that is at work in each one of our lives,” Archbishop Kurtz said in response to a question.

Helen Alvare, professor of law at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University, who was the third news conference participant, described the document as balancing the natural longing for marriage in society with a “raw appreciation for how bad the situation can be on the ground.”

The pope acknowledges misperceptions about Church teaching on sex, that some perceive marriage as evil so they avoid it, the fear of raising children, and ideas that marriage has become an “empty ritual,” Alvare said.

She also identified the pope’s deep concerns for children, whose rights are often overlooked because of the challenges facing many families.

Families ‘pastoral instruments’ While the exhortation upholds Church teaching on the sanctity of marriage and cites the importance of family life to the Church, it calls people to do more than simply reiterate that teaching, but to put it into “pastoral motion,” Catholic leaders told Catholic News Service.

John Grabowski, associate professor of moral theology and ethics at The Catholic University of America and an expert tapped to attend last fall’s Synod of Bishops on the family, said the document serves to help Church leaders “form and equip families so that families can become the pastoral instruments of ministry and evangelization to families.”

“He’s not diverging from the teaching of his predecessors. He’s saying ‘Let’s put this into pastoral application now,’” he said.

Grabowski, who with his wife, Claire, lead a marriage ministry for couples in their parish, St. Ignatius in Ijamsville, Maryland, sees the need for such programs emerging from the exhortation. “We need to stop seeing marriage formation as ending at the wedding,” he said.

The pope’s exhortation discusses how the Church can be “honest, realistic and creative” in response to the needs of families, explained Jesuit Father Allan Deck,

distinguished scholar in pastoral theology and Latino Studies at Loyola Marymount University.

He said the pope’s emphasis on the need to be open to ongoing discussion within the Church and its response to “real families” would serve all families.

“He shows great sensitivity on the various positions people have in the Church,” Father Deck told CNS. “He’s not moving back from his conviction that mercy and the attitudes that flow from mercy are at the foundation of the way the Church needs to proceed because those are the qualities that we see in God.” Father Deck added that he sees the influence of the pope’s Latin American roots in the document. “That means in our dealing with people, the Church needs to show an ability to step into other people’s shoes, to go where they are instead of immediately requiring them to come where we are,” he said.

Requesting the Church’s patience Jana Bennett, associate professor of theological ethics at the University of Dayton in Ohio, said she found the document signifies an important shift in the way the Church thinks about moral theology. “We’re invited to think about pastoral discernment in a way that we’re not just looking at rules,” she said.

At the same time, the pope is calling the Church to be patient in how the exhortation is lived out or implemented in parishes, Bennett explained.

“He’s calling us to be patient with families . . . that we’re all important,” she said.

While Bennett said that Pope Francis’ immediate predecessors held up an ideal of family, the pontiff is calling the Church to recognize that image, but to realize “that we’re not going to meet that ideal.”

Father Paul Check, executive director of Courage International, which provides support for people who experience same-sex attraction, said the pope is calling the Church to recognize the value of each person first.

“It’s only by understanding who people are and who they are created to be by Christ that we can best accompany them,” he told CNS. He also said Pope Francis’ citation of “Humanae Vitae” (“On Human Life”), which affirmed Catholic moral teaching against artificial contraception, is important to note because it continues to uphold longstanding Church teaching.

Doesn’t try to answer all questions Meanwhile, Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington, a member of both synods, said that with the huge number of references in the document to the two synods, “it’s clear that Pope Francis is trying to insert in the mainstream of Catholic theological thought and tradition the expressions of the challenges that the bishops say they are facing and what the bishops brought to this whole discussion.”

“I don’t find anything surprising” in the document, he told CNS in Rome during a break from meetings, “but I welcome its welcoming tone addressed to everyone. He’s saying: ‘This is the faith of the Church.

Yes, it’s difficult to live. Yes, we know we don’t all live it as fully as we should. But we are still all part of God’s family, God loves us and we have to be making our way together.’”

Recognizing the complex variety of reasons why some people cannot and do not fully live up to Church teaching on marriage and family life, Pope Francis provides no new rules for dealing with those situations.

Cardinal Wuerl said Catholic theology and pastoral tradition “never had a one-size-fits all. The idea is that there is an ideal to which we are called, a level of perfection to which we are called — ‘Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.’ How do [we do] that? That’s the one size that fits all, but along the way the Church has always said the good pastor goes out in search of the lost sheep and surely that lost sheep is not someone who is following to perfection” the Christian ideal.

“Jesus said, ‘Seek first the kingdom and everything else will be given to you.’ He didn’t say, ‘Until you have achieved the fullness of the kingdom, nothing will be given to you.’”

“It’s a beautiful apostolic exhortation because it doesn’t say, ‘Here are the answers to everything.’”

The Catholic Spirit • 13

Pope urges pastors to help divorced Catholics discern God’s call Continued from page 12 example, that of a spouse who was abandoned versus being the one who left — makes it unwise to issue “a new set of general rules, canonical in nature and applicable to all cases,” the pope wrote. Quoting St. John Paul II, he said, “‘since the degree of responsibility is not equal in all cases,’ the consequences or effects of a rule need not necessarily always be the same.”

Pope Francis used the document’s footnotes to specify that the consequences include whether or not the couple might eventually be able to receive Communion: “This is also the case with regard to sacramental discipline, since discernment can recognize that in a particular situation no grave fault exists,” he wrote. Those who are in a state of serious sin are not to receive Communion.

Another footnote commented on the Church’s request that remarried couples who had not received an annulment and who want to receive the sacraments forgo sexual relations. “In such situations, many people, knowing and accepting the possibility of living ‘as brothers and sisters’ which the Church offers them, point out that if certain expressions of intimacy are lacking, ‘it often happens that faithfulness is endangered and the good of the children suffers,’” he wrote.

The pope said he understood those “who prefer a more rigorous pastoral care which leaves no room for confusion. But I sincerely believe that Jesus wants a Church attentive to the goodness which the Holy Spirit sows in the midst of human weakness, a mother who, while clearly expressing her objective teaching, always does what good she can, even if . . . her shoes get soiled by the mud of the street.”

Turning to those who believe allowing divorced and remarried Catholics to receive Communion waters down Church teaching on the indissolubility of marriage, the pope said, “we put so many conditions on mercy that we empty it of its concrete meaning and real significance. That is the worst way of watering down the Gospel.”

In many respects, Pope Francis wrote, Church members themselves have presented and promoted such a dreary picture of married life that many people want nothing to do with it even though they dream of faithful love that will last a lifetime.

“We have long thought that simply by stressing doctrinal, bioethical and moral issues, without encouraging openness to grace, we were providing sufficient support to families, strengthening the marriage bond and giving meaning to marital life,” he wrote. “We find it difficult to present marriage more as a dynamic path to personal development and fulfillment than as a lifelong burden.

“We also find it hard to make room for the consciences of the faithful, who very often respond as best they can to the Gospel amid their limitations, and are capable of carrying out their own discernment in complex situations,” the pope wrote.

Yet, “we have been called to form consciences, not to replace them.”

The role of an individual’s conscience made frequent appearances in the document, not only regarding the situation of those who may determine their new union is best for their family, but also regarding decisions over how many children to have.

Pope Francis praised Blessed Paul VI’s encyclical “Humanae Vitae,” which insisted every sexual act in a marriage must be open to the possibility of pregnancy, and included a large section reiterating what has become known as St. John Paul II’s “Theology of the Body.” The saintly pope definitively opposed an old idea that considered “the erotic dimension of love simply as a permissible evil or a burden to be tolerated for the good of the family,” Pope Francis said. “Rather, it must be seen as gift from God that enriches the relationship of the spouses.”

14 • The Catholic Spirit

FOCUS ON FAITH

SUNDAY SCRIPTURES

Deacon Steven Wirth

Sunday, April 17 Fourth Sunday of Easter Readings • Acts 13:14, 43-52 • Rev 7:9, 14b-17 • Jn 10:27-30

Why is the shepherd good?

Since the readings for the fourth Sunday of Easter are always on the theme of the “Good Shepherd,” this Sunday is sometimes referred to as Good Shepherd Sunday.

The Good Shepherd is certainly one of our favorite images for Jesus. It is one that we enjoy teaching to our children.

It was a favorite of the early Church as well. Indeed, the image of the Good Shepherd shows up in some of the earliest Christian art that we have discovered.

But what makes the shepherd “good”?

We know that the Good Shepherd feeds us and takes care of us, just as our psalm this Sunday says “his we are; his people, the flock he tends.” We also often think of the Good Shepherd as

April 14, 2016

kind and loving. Think of all the images you have seen of Jesus tenderly gathering the sheep, or carrying the lost sheep on his shoulders. Our psalm confirms this: “The Lord is good: his kindness endures forever.”

Our first and second readings give us another reason why we call the shepherd “good.” In our first reading, Paul and Barnabas are preaching the word of the Lord not only to the Jews, but also to the Gentiles. In the second reading, John has a vision of the great multitude, “from every nation, race, people and tongue.” In both readings we see that the flock of the Good Shepherd is not just some exclusive club, but is indeed open to all.

One more reason that the shepherd is good is the simple fact that the

shepherd is good at his job. A shepherd is responsible for protecting the sheep from all who would steal them. And what does Jesus say in our Gospel? “No one can take them out of my hand.”

We can all imagine a kind, sweet, but careless shepherd who occasionally loses a lamb. But this is not Jesus. He will not lose a single one of his sheep.

He is a “good” shepherd because there is nothing that can steal or wrestle even a single lamb from his flock.

As we encounter in this life struggles,

difficulties and sins that threaten to take away that life within us, let us take security in the flock of the Good Shepherd who will never fail to protect us and bring us to eternal life.

Deacon Wirth is in formation for the priesthood at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity for the Diocese of Fargo. His teaching parishes are St. Michael in St. Michael and St. Albert in Albertville. His home parish is St. Mary in Munich, North Dakota.

DAILY Scriptures Sunday, April 17 Fourth Sunday of Easter Acts 13:14, 43-52 Rev 7:9, 14b-17 Jn 10:27-30 Monday, April 18 Acts 11:1-18 Jn 10:1-10

Tuesday, April 19 Acts 11:19-26 Jn 10:22-30

Thursday, April 21 Acts 13:13-25 Jn 13:16-20

Wednesday, April 20 Acts 12:24—13:5a Jn 12:44-50

Friday, April 22 Acts 13:26-33 Jn 14:1-6 Saturday, April 23 Acts 13:44-52 Jn 14:7-14

Sunday, April 24 Fifth Sunday of Easter Acts 14:21-27 Rev 21:1-5a Jn 13:31-33a, 34-35 Monday, April 25 St. Mark, evangelist 1 Pt 5:5b-14 Mk 16:15-20

SEEKING ANSWERS

Father Kenneth Doyle

When did Holy Spirit come; wearing veil in church Q.

I have often wondered about the difference between the disciples receiving the Holy Spirit immediately after the Resurrection “on the evening of that first day of the week” (Jn 20:19-23) and the coming of the Holy Spirit upon them at Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4). Is it two different accounts of the same event, or did they receive the Holy Spirit in two different ways on two different occasions?

A. In general, Scripture scholars read this as two different events, with the gift of the Holy Spirit being offered for two different purposes. In the first incident (Jn 20), the Spirit comes to the specific group of disciples gathered on the night of the first Easter Sunday; the Spirit confers on them the power to forgive sins.

In the second account (Acts 2), the Spirit descends forcefully on the whole community of believers, empowering

them to preach the Gospel boldly, even though Jesus will no longer be physically present with them. (Note that this Pentecost event, following the Ascension, enables the disciples to be understood in many languages and that Pentecost is commonly regarded as the “birthday of the Church.”)

This interpretation seems to square best with John 7:37-39, which suggests that the Spirit will not be given in its fullness until Jesus has been glorified, and with Luke 24:49, where Jesus, immediately before the Ascension, instructs the disciples to “stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

Q. Recently, I have been “convicted” to wear a veil in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament — both when I am at Mass and during my adoration hours in our parish’s chapel of perpetual adoration. Several other women in the parish have also felt led to do so.

Tuesday, April 26 Acts 14:19-28 Jn 14:27-31a

Thursday, April 28 Acts 15:7-21 Jn 15:9-11

Saturday, April 30 Acts 16:1-10 Jn 15:18-21

Wednesday, April 27 Acts 15:1-6 Jn 15:1-8

Friday, April 29 St. Catherine of Siena, virgin and doctor of the Church Acts 15:22-31 Jn 15:12-17

Sunday, May 1 Sixth Sunday of Easter Acts 15:1-2, 22-29 Rev 21:10-14, 22-23 Jn 14:23-29

However, I am told that some of these women have been “counseled” by our pastor that he does not want this and feels the wearing of a veil to be prideful. As a child, of course, I wore a veil at my first Communion and even for some years afterward and never thought it to be prideful. I would like your opinion.

A. The custom of women wearing a veil in church finds a basis in the earliest days of the Church, as reflected in the 11th chapter of Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians. That custom, though, may well have reflected the cultural bias of the times because the same chapter says: “For man did not come from woman, but woman from man; nor was man created for woman, but woman for man.”

The 1917 Code of Canon Law (in No. 1262) said that men in church should be bare-headed while women “shall have a covered head.” (That same canon also said, “It is desirable that, consistent with ancient discipline, women be separated from men in church.”)

But in 1976, an instruction issued by the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith indicated that this 1917 directive was no longer in force.

(The CDF said, “It must be noted that

these ordinances, probably inspired by the customs of the period, concern scarcely more than disciplinary practices of minor importance, such as the obligation imposed upon women to wear a veil on their head. . . . Such requirements no longer have a normative value.”)

In the current Code of Canon Law, published in 1983, the canon about head veils was not reissued. Clearly, then, women today are not required to cover their heads in church.

Does that mean they are not permitted to? Of course not. Within the bounds of modesty, people are free to wear whatever they want — and the only one who is in a position to judge motivation is the wearer.

If you are using a mantilla, or chapel veil, out of vanity — to draw attention to yourself — then that is wrong. But if you wear it as a sign of reverence, out of respect for the dignity of the Eucharist and our unworthiness before it, then that is a laudable choice. It’s your call, left to your prayerful discretion.

Q&A

Father Doyle writes for Catholic News Service. A priest of the Diocese of Albany, New York, he previously served as director of media relations for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Questions may be sent to Father Doyle at askfatherdoyle@gmail.com and 40 Hopewell St., Albany, NY 12208.

THIS CATHOLIC LIFE • COMMENTARY

April 14, 2016

TWENTY SOMETHING

Christina Capecchi

Comfort the shipwrecked: Titanic priest a model of mercy Father Thomas Byles was 42 when he boarded the Titanic with his second-class ticket and portable altar stone. He had made arrangements with Captain Edward Smith to secure space on the ocean liner to celebrate Mass. Even on vacation a priest is never off duty, he knew, but the Catholic convert would have it no other way.

He saw his faith as “a wonderfully great gift,” he once wrote to his brother, William, “a truly marvelous and altogether supernatural support . . . .”

It was William who had prompted Father Byles’ cross-Atlantic trip, asking his oldest brother to come to New York to preside at his wedding.

The British priest had served a decade of priestly ministry and was well loved by his small rural parish, St. Helen, where folks helped pay for his Titanic ticket. It cost 13 pounds.

He boarded on Wednesday, April 10, 1912 — three days after Easter Sunday — sized up the ship, then wrote to his parish housekeeper while the Titanic was anchored at Cherbourg, France: “Everything so far has gone very well, except that I have somehow managed to lose my umbrella.” He wondered when

he would next be able to celebrate Mass and promised to write again as soon as he arrived in New York.

Clad in his Roman collar, the priest with the gentle, scholarly look — glasses, a strong nose and firm jawline — became a familiar sight throughout the week at sea. Father Byles spent most of Saturday, travel day four, hearing confessions. On the fifth day he celebrated Mass in the second-class lounge and again in the designated third-class space. He preached about the prospect of “spiritual shipwreck,” urging the Catholics to seek a spiritual lifeboat in the form of prayer and the sacraments.

At 11:40 that night Father Byles was on the deck clutching his breviary and praying Night Prayer when the Titanic struck the iceberg.

He packed a lifetime of priestly ministry into the next three hours, performing the most intense mix of corporal and spiritual works of mercy he had ever done — a model for all in this Year of Mercy.

Once he recognized the gravity of the situation, he headed down to the steerage to help third-class women and children onto the deck and into the

THE LOCAL CHURCH

Deacon Mickey Friesen

Home Missions strengthen Church in United States Editor’s note: This is the first column of “The Local Church,” a new occasional series that features reflections from leaders in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Interested in contributing?

Email your column idea to CatholicSpirit@ archspm.org.

Since the early 20th century, Catholics in the United States have generously sent and supported missionaries all over the world. These efforts made it possible for God’s word to be seen and heard. This support allowed the sacraments to be celebrated in some of the most remote places on earth. The faith was handed on to new generations of seekers. We have played a vital role in training future leaders of the Church in mission areas.

What might not be as well known is that this same generosity of spirit is needed here at home. It may be surprising to know that the Church is poorly established in many parts of our country, especially in Appalachia, Alaska, the South and Southwest along the

Mexican border, the Rocky Mountain states, and the U.S. territories in the Caribbean and Pacific Ocean.

There are vast divides where the Church is a little flock separated by many miles of prairie, pasture and natural obstacles. It is a struggle to stay connected. Even here in Minnesota, the Church remains small in much of the state’s northwest and northeast. These are the Home Missions of the U.S. “Home Missions” is the name for dioceses and Church communities in the United States and territories that struggle to provide basic pastoral services to Catholics and depend on outside help — from people like us.

More than 80 U.S. dioceses are in this situation. Many of them are rural and poor. Often it is a struggle to reach people across great distances. For example, the Diocese of Cheyenne, Wyoming, includes the whole state.

Parishes can be as far as 100 miles away from each other. It’s hard to imagine, but

lifeboats. “Be calm, my good people,” he was heard saying.

Father Byles met the haunting sights, sounds and smells with an otherworldly peace. “A few around us became very excited,” Ellen Mocklare, a young Irish woman, later told reporters, “and then it was that the priest again raised his hand and instantly they were calm once more.

The passengers were immediately impressed by the absolute self-control of the priest.”

Survivors said Father Byles was offered a lifeboat twice but refused it, determined to minister to passengers in their hour of greatest need, even though it would cost him his life. He heard confessions, gave absolution, offered blessings and led prayers, including the Hail Mary, whose back-and-forth recitation provided a steady measure amid chaos. The words “Holy Mary” rang out loud and clear.

As 2:20 a.m. neared, more than 100 people were trapped on the stern, raising perilously high, Father Byles among them. They knelt before him in an act of contrition, and he granted them general absolution.

As Ellen Mocklare was carried away on a lifeboat, she could hear the priest’s voice and murmured responses to his prayers. “They then became fainter and fainter, until I could only hear the strains of ‘Nearer, My God, To Thee’ and the screams of the people left behind.”

“There let the way appear, steps unto heaven,” the old hymn goes. “All that thou sendest me, in mercy given. Angels to beckon me nearer, my God, to Thee.”

Capecchi is a freelance writer from Inver Grove Heights and the editor of www.sisterstory.org.

some areas don’t have access to reliable Internet or even television service. So, in places like the Diocese of Boise, Idaho, which is also the entire state, it is more effective to make use of the radio to stay in contact with the Church.

Home Missions can mean, literally, reaching the ends of the earth in places as far away as Nome, Alaska, just south of the Arctic Circle and as isolated as the Marshall Islands and American Samoa in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

Home Mission communities often serve those who live on the geographic, economic and ethnic edges of our society. They can be recent immigrants living along our borders and working in the fields that grow our food. They can be Christian refugees seeking a new home. They can be native peoples living on the margins and on reservations dotted around our country.

You might be surprised to know that three dioceses in Minnesota are considered mission dioceses: New Ulm, Duluth and Crookston. For example, the Crookston Diocese serves the remote regions of the northwest corner of our state right up to the Canadian border.

The diocese depends on outside support to provide for many of its ministries to youth, as well as pastoral outreach to places such as St. Mary’s Mission on Red Lake Reservation, which suffers from 50 percent unemployment and chronic poverty. Home Missions support makes it possible for the Church to be present there.

As with our ancestors in faith who

The Catholic Spirit • 15 LETTER

Grateful for Mother Angelica In reference to your March 31 article (“Mother Angelica, EWTN founder, dies Easter Sunday at age 92”), may a faithful viewer relate a personal story of gratitude? In the year 2000, struggling with late-stage cancer and heavy chemotherapy, I found myself so often sleepless. In the dead of night, it was EWTN’s transmissions that kept me going. Over many months, a prayerful sense of hope arose in me. How comforting to participate in holy Mass as best I could with the faithful in a small chapel in Alabama. As my health improved, I drank in the benediction services, the rosary prayed in different languages and divine mercy devotions, and was challenged by thoughtprovoking interviews with new converts or those returning to the Church, with missionaries in far-flung places and with lay persons like me exploring our role in the Church. Each week, I delight in the broadcasts from Rome, cherish our Holy Father’s words, feel I am with the pope as he blesses the throngs across the world.

So, thank you, dear Mother Angelica, for the grace and courage to heed God’s call, allowing millions over time to see the beauty, the vitality and the universality of holy mother Church.

Josephine Diedrich Mary, Mother of the Church, Burnsville Share your perspective by emailing CatholicSpirit@archspm.org. The Commentary page does not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Catholic Spirit.

Letters may be edited for length or clarity.

As with our ancestors in faith who came to this land in the 18th century to blaze a missionary path and establish the Church, mission in the United States in the 21st century continues. came to this land in the 18th century to blaze a missionary path and establish the Church, mission in the United States in the 21st century continues.

We have the opportunity to be generous in our own time in sending and supporting the mission Church within our borders. On April 24, the Home Missions Appeal will take place in churches all around our country, giving us the opportunity to support the Church’s ongoing mission work in the U.S. We can play a vital role in furthering the mission of Christ and strengthening the Church at home.

Deacon Friesen is the director of the Center for Mission, which serves the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

16 • The Catholic Spirit

THIS CATHOLIC LIFE • COMMENTARY

April 14, 2016

EVERYDAY MERCIES

Alyssa Bormes

Starting at the beginning It used to be that I only had seven siblings, but then my widowed mother married a widower, and nine more siblings became a part of it. Brenda is Jim’s oldest, and I am Karol’s youngest.

We had only met two times when we decided to walk the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, which is a 500-mile trek across northern Spain, ending at the resting place of St. James the Greater’s relics. We will be leaving this summer.

The good news is that Brenda and I have met a few more times since. Once was on the final pilgrimage of my mother’s life, which was last year in Rome. None of us knew how close she was to death except Jesus. Looking back, the whole trip was a gift from him to her, and the rest of us were able to bask in the graces. We met again at her

funeral, just a few weeks after returning from Rome.

Just this Easter, Brenda and I met for the fifth time as we both traveled home to see her dad, who is my stepdad, Jim. We have taken many walks as a part of our training, each morning walking to Mass. Our first walk together was on Easter Monday.

Brenda asked if I had been baptized at that day’s destination, St. Mary in Aberdeen, S.D. Yes, I had. So had Brenda. We set that thought aside and chatted about other things as we walked the rest of the way.

During Mass, it dawned on me that we were on our first day of training together for the Camino, and we were at the place we were each baptized.

After Mass I told Brenda that this was the best possible place to begin our

During Mass, it dawned on me that we were on our first day of training together for the Camino, and we were at the place we were each baptized.

journey — where our journey began in the first place, the place of our baptism.

We both had that moment when you ponder something, take a deep breath and smile.

Father Mark Axtmann had celebrated Mass; we told him of our pilgrimage and of our baptisms. His voice had that knowing tone: “This is the perfect place to begin your journey.” He gave us a blessing for pilgrims. We had begun.

The following day, my godmother was at the daily Mass. We, too, took a picture together at the font. It was another of those moments.

One of the days when we were walking, we spoke about the font and the providence of beginning there.

After a silence, I asked Brenda if she thought when our parents had us

baptized that they had dreamed of this — the nine and eight children becoming 17 at the marriage of Jim and Karol, and the two of us, and the Camino? We both had the moment of “hmmmm.”

Of course this wasn’t their dream. It is too wild of a dream. But Jim and Margie, and Bill and Karol, all had the same prayer: that their children would live in union with holy mother Church.

And, that life could send us on a million journeys and pilgrimages, and even some dark alleys, but they always desired us to come home ­— even if it meant starting at the beginning — right at that baptismal font.

Bormes, a member of Holy Family in St. Louis Park, is the author of the book “The Catechism of Hockey.”

FAITH IN THE PUBLIC ARENA

Jason Adkins

Cuba: a mini-compendium of Catholic social doctrine Integrating Cuba more deeply into the family of nations has been a major priority of the last three popes. Each of these popes has visited Cuba, and Pope Francis’ personal appeal to President Obama and Raul Castro has led to breakthroughs in diplomatic and cultural relations, the release of political prisoners and the removal of many travel restrictions between the two nations.

Additionally, the Church now has more space to live its mission, and there is slow progress toward greater protection of human rights.

Yet the chief source of Cuba’s isolation — the U.S. trade embargo — remains in place.

In the Church’s advocacy for an end to the trade embargo, her social doctrine comes alive in the compelling application of its principles to this concrete reality.

People over ideology The need to transcend ideology and focus on the dignity of the human person and the common good is a cornerstone of the modern papal social encyclicals. Cubans, however, have suffered greatly from ideological brinkmanship over the past 60 years.

In an effort to destabilize Cuba’s repressive Marxist regime, the United States imposed a trade embargo in 1960.

But as the U.S. bishops have noted, the “principal effect” of this embargo “has been to strengthen Cuban government

control and to weaken an already fragile civil society,” harming the poor and vulnerable far more than government elites.

Ideological grandstanding has allowed the policy to persist despite evidence that the embargo has actually worked against its purported aims while bringing additional hardships onto a suffering people.

Rather than sacrificing the well-being of human persons on the altar of ideology, the Church proposes that both nations forge a new future for Cuba, rooted in the legitimate rights and aspirations of the Cuban people. This would include greater respect for religious liberty and a more open political and economic system that protects the nation’s right of selfdetermination.

International peripheries Pope Francis has repeatedly called all of us to reach out to people on the peripheries to share the joy of the Gospel and to work for their well-being. This “theology of encounter” is a representation of the Church’s preferential option for the poor and vulnerable, and can be analogized to the international community and its member nations.

Cuba, in isolation from the international community and with deep internal difficulties, is certainly at the peripheries of the global community, and its people suffer as a result. Therefore, the

Ask Congress to end the Cuba embargo Embrace engagement with Cuba, not isolation The USCCB has long called upon Congress to end the trade embargo with Cuba and establish full diplomatic relationships. The bishops are convinced that engagement, not isolation, will help the people of Cuba achieve greater freedom, human rights and religious liberty.

The Minnesota Catholic Conference is grateful for the leadership of Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN), who are the lead sponsors of bi-partisan bills in each chamber of Congress to end the embargo.

Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) already co-sponsors Sen. Klobuchar’s bill (S. 491), but we need our representatives to support the House version. Please contact your congressperson and ask him or her to co-sponsor the Cuba Trade Act (H.R. 3238).

Not sure who represents you in Congress? Call 202-225-3121 or visit www.whoismyrepresentative.com.

Learn more about Catholic social teaching and Cuba by reading the USCCB’s backgrounder.

Visit www.usccb.org, search “Backgrounder on Cuba” and select the first option.

Church is justified in putting so much effort into fostering greater encounter and collaboration between the United States and Cuba.

Restoring Cuba’s status as a full-fledged member of the international community would benefit all parties, and not merely in a material sense that considers only the exchange of economic goods. Just as each member of society is endowed with unique gifts to contribute to the broader community, nations are each called to contribute their gifts to the community of nations. Ending the United States’s isolation of Cuba will allow each nation to work together more fully to pursue justice and peace, which is at the core of the principle of solidarity.

Engagement, encounter Though the Church remains concerned about conditions in Cuba and human rights violations, the USCCB

believes that “[i]mproving the lives of the Cuban people and encouraging democracy and human rights in Cuba will best be advanced through more, rather than less, contact between Cuban and American peoples. . . . Removing the barriers to free commerce with Cuba, and thus deepening the trade relationship, is also another step toward greater engagement.”

Engagement and encounter with those at the margins, rather than isolation and exclusion. These are long-standing principles of Catholic social doctrine that become clearer to us in Pope Francis’ exhortations and the Church’s Cuban diplomacy.

Adkins is executive director of the Minnesota Catholic Conference and a recently named member of the Engage Cuba Minnesota State Council. Become a member of the Catholic Advocacy Network by visiting www.mncatholic.org.

CALENDAR

April 14, 2016 Dining out

Prayer and worship

Grand breakfast buffet — April 17: 8 a.m.–1 p.m. at Knights

Walk With Us: A Night of Prayer — April 15: 7– 8 p.m. at

Taste of Lebanon Dinner — April 24: 11:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.

An Evening of Prayer and Healing: Mass with Father Jim Livingston — April 19: 6:45 p.m. at St. Michael, 16311

of Columbus Hall, 1910 S. Greeley St., Stillwater.

651-430-3274.

in Cedars Hall at St. Maron Maronite Catholic Church, 602 University Ave. NE, Minneapolis. 612-379-2758 or www.stmaron.com.

Music Oratorio Society “Voices of Light: The Passion of Joan of Arc” — April 15: 8 p.m. at the Cathedral of St. Paul, 239

Selby Ave., St. Paul. www.oratorio.org.

BreathLogic Benefit Concert — April 17: 3– 5:30 p.m. at

Sacred Heart, 4087 W. Broadway Ave., Robbinsdale. www.breathlogic.org.

Oratorio Society “Voices of Light: The Passion of Joan of Arc” — April 22: 8 p.m. at the Basilica of St. Mary, 88 N.

17th St., Minneapolis. www.oratorio.org.

St. Catherine Choral Society Spring Concert — May 1:

3 p.m. at 515 S. Albert St., St. Paul. www.stkate.edu/arts/ music-and-theater

Parish events St. Rita 50th anniversary Mass and celebration — April 17:

10:30 a.m. at 8694 80th St. S., Cottage Grove. 651-402-0676 or www.saintritas.org.

St. Albert the Great high tea — April 17: 2–4 p.m. at 2836

33rd Ave. S., Minneapolis. 612-724-3643.

“Evening Affirming Human Life and the Family” with Bishop Andrew Cozzens — April 21: 6 p.m. in Rowan Hall at

St. Helena, 3204 E. 43rd St., Minneapolis. 612-729-0321.

Guardian Angels Spring Fling — April 23: 6–11 p.m. at

Chaska Event Center, 3210 Chaska Blvd., Chaska. www.gaspringfling.org.

Holy Name Centennial Lunch and Memories — April 24:

11 a.m.–3 p.m. at 3637 11th Ave. S., Minneapolis. Mary Ann at 612-724-5465 or www.churchoftheholyname.org.

Book Discussion: “The Nightingale” — April 26: 7 p.m. at

St. Edward, 9401 Nesbitt Ave. S., Bloomington. 952-8357101 or www.stedwardschurch.org.

Holy Name rummage sale — April 28-30: Thursday, 4–8

p.m., Friday; 9 a.m.–6 p.m., Saturday; 9 a.m.–12 p.m. at 3637 11th Ave. S., Minneapolis. 612-724-5465 or www.churchoftheholyname.org.

All Saints Spring Gala — April 30: 6–10 p.m. at 19795 Holyoke Ave., Lakeville. www.allsaintschurch.com.

“April in Paris” gala fundraiser — April 30: 6 p.m. at

7025 Halifax Ave. N., Brooklyn Center. www.stalsgala2016.weebly.com.

St. Lawrence Catholic Church and Newman Center, 1203 Fifth St. SE, Minneapolis.

Duluth Ave. SE, Prior Lake. Jodi Wolf at 651-592-5580 or www.stmichael-pl.org.

Taize prayer — May 20 and third Friday of each month:

7– 9:30 p.m. at St. Paul’s Monastery, 2675 Benet Road, Maplewood. 651-777-7251 or www.stpaulsmonastery.org.

Retreats “Creative Light for your Spiritual Journey” — April 22-24:

6 p.m. Friday to 1 p.m. Sunday at Villa Maria Retreat and Conference Center, 29847 County 2 Blvd., Frontenac.

651-345-4582 or www.villamariaretreats.org.

Women’s April Weekend — April 22-24: 7:30 p.m. Friday to

1 p.m. Sunday at Franciscan Retreats and Spirituality Center, 16385 St. Francis Lane, Prior Lake. 952-447-2182 or www.franciscanretreats.net.

Parish professionals retreat: “Sowing Seeds of Mercy” — April 27-28 at Christ the King Retreat Center, 621 First Ave.

S., Buffalo. 763-682-1394 or www.kingshouse.com.

Half-day retreat on spiritual warfare with Father Michael Miller — May 14: 8 a.m.–12 p.m. at Immaculate Conception,

4030 Jackson St. NE, Columbia Heights. 763-788-9062 or www.iccsonline.org.

Schools Benilde-St. Margaret’s garage sale — April 29-30: April 29

preview sale, 4–8 p.m.; April 30, 8 a.m.–4 p.m. in the Haben Center, 2501 Highway 100 S., St. Louis Park.

Singles SJA Singles 50+ Sunday Supper — April 24: 5–8 p.m. at

St. Joan of Arc, 4537 Third Ave. S., Minneapolis. Karen at 952-884-5165 or www.saintjoanofarc.org.

DEADLINE: Noon Thursday, 14 days before the anticipated date of publication.

LISTINGS: Accepted are brief no­tices of upcoming events hosted by Catholic parishes and institutions.

If the Catholic connection is not clear, please emphasize it when describing your event.

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 ONLINE: www.thecatholicspirit.com/calendarsubmissions MAIL: “Calendar,” The Catholic Spirit, 244 Dayton Ave., St. Paul MN 55102

A note to readers As of Jan. 1, 2016, The Catholic Spirit no longer accepts calendar submissions via email.

Please submit events using the form at www.thecatholicspirit.com/calendarsubmissions.

Linda Harmon 2014 Small Business Honoree

Speakers “Abundant Life, Vibrant Mind” with Dr. Henry Emmons — April 16: 9 a.m.–noon. at St. Catherine University, Coeur

de Catherine Ballroom, 2004 Randolph Ave., St. Paul. www.loyolaspiritualitycenter.org.

Salad luncheon with speaker Nancy Jo Sullivan — April 16:

11:30 a.m.–2:30 p.m. at St. Patrick, 3535 72nd St. E., Inver Grove Heights. 651-453-0770 or sswillenbring@comcast.net.

Nativity Grandparents Apostolate of Sts. Joachim and Anne with presenter Father Lenny Andrie — April 18:

8:45 a.m. at Nativity of Our Lord, 1900 Stanford Ave., St. Paul.

“Love One Another: The Call to True Discipleship” with Father Michael Byron — April 19: 7–8 p.m. at St. Paul’s

CALENDAR submissions

The Catholic Spirit • 17

Monastery, 2675 Benet Road, Maplewood. 651-777-7251 or www.stpaulsmonastery.org.

Conferences, seminars, workshops “Growing through Loss” — Thursdays: April 7-May 12:

6:45–9 p.m. at St. Joseph of the Lakes, 171 Elm St., Lino Lakes. www.growingthroughloss.org.

“Good Zeal and Beginnings: The Rule of St. Benedict” — April 17: 1–3 p.m. at St. Paul’s Monastery,

2675 Benet Road, Maplewood. 651-777-7251 or www.stpaulsmonastery.org.

Earth Day Retreat and Symposium — April 23: 8:30

a.m.–2:30 p.m. at Pax Christi, 12100 Pioneer Trail, Eden Prairie. www.paxchristi.com/earthday.

Stephen Ministry Workshop — April 30: 9 a.m.– 1 p.m. at

St. Edward, 9401 Nesbitt Ave. S., Bloomington. 314-4282600 or www.stephenministry.org/workshop.

Other events Life Legal Defense Foundation and Minnesota Lawyers for Life banquet with keynote speaker Alexandra Snyder — April 23: 6 p.m. at Bloomington Knights of Columbus

Hall, 1114 American Blvd. W., Bloomington. 763-250-4216.

Cerenity Marian campus tours/senior housing and care information — April 24: 1–3 p.m. at 200 Earl St., St. Paul.

651-793-2100.

“To change the world, we must be good to those who cannot repay us.”

Do Pope Francis’ words describe somebody you know? Someone who has the courage, humility and spirit of service to Lead with Faith at their workplace? The Catholic Spirit is celebrating the 15th year of our Leading with Faith Awards, which recognize women and men in the archdiocese whose Catholic values shape their work ethic and service to others. We have been honored to include among our past winners Linda Harmon, a financial advisor whose faith enhances the care she gives her clients as they make important life decisions.

Nominations are being accepted through May 2 at www.TheCatholicSpirit.com, or call 651-251-7709 for more information.

18 • The Catholic Spirit

Franciscan convent to shelter refugees

ACCW honorees longtime volunteers Continued from page 7

for her husband, Joe, 13 years ago. She describes being able to share the cup with family and friends as a “great comfort.” She led the funeral lunch ministry for more than 25 years, and continues to serve as a volunteer. She also volunteers with others on Wednesdays to make meals for students and families involved in religious education. Beyond her parish, the Dorothy mother of nine and grandmother of 23 PUMPER volunteers for the Northfield Senior Center’s Used a Bit shop. “I haven’t done anything exceptional,” she said. “I’ve been a practicing Catholic all my life, but that doesn’t mean just going to Church.”

Mary Zweber, St. Nicholas, Elko New Market Zweber has been an active member of her parish for more than 50 years, with much of her service behind the scenes. Zweber and her husband of 60 years, Ben, were the first couple to chair the annual Catholic Services Appeal for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. She has supported parishes in the archdiocese’s southwest deanery through the donation of many quilts and other items to raise money for their causes. She serves as co-chair of the Red Cross blood drive, volunteers at the local Mary hospital and is active in the Lions Club. With 12 ZWEBER children, 24 grandchildren and 20 greatgrandchildren, she has dedicated herself to raising her children and assisting in the operation of the family farm. According to her nomination, Zweber’s strong work ethic and moral foundation have been key to her success.

For more information about the ACCW convention, visit www.accwarchspm.org.

April 14, 2016

By Carol Glatz The Catholic Spirit A medieval Franciscan convent near Assisi, Italy, opened its doors once again to offer refugees shelter and assistance.

With the support of the Order of Friars Minor in Umbria, the local arm of Caritas will provide educational, cultural and language assistance to 13 men from Senegal, Ghana and Nigeria.

The Franciscans in Assisi have been working to make their lodging and residential properties — mostly convents — throughout Umbria available for such efforts, they said in a press release April 5.

“Welcoming refugees represents a work of mercy — called for also by the appeals of Pope Francis and the entire provincial fraternity,” the Franciscan order said.

The refugees planned to move into the 15th-century Convent of “Santissima Annunziata” in the hills northeast of Assisi April 6 and live there for at least one year.

The refugees, together with Caritas workers and the two Franciscans who live at the convent, will help with the convent’s upkeep and preparing meals.

The same convent had been the temporary home for 16 Muslim and two Catholic refugees for almost two years between 2011 and 2013. That initiative also involved the collaboration of the Franciscan province and the diocesan Caritas.

Just months after his 2013 election, Pope Francis had said Church buildings that no longer house nuns, friars, monks and other religious should be used to shelter refugees.

“Welcoming refugees represents a work of mercy — called for also by the appeals of Pope Francis and the entire provincial fraternity.”

The Order of Friars Minor in Umbria, Italy

“Empty convents and monasteries should not be turned into hotels by the Church to earn money,” he said when visiting the Jesuit Astalli Center for refugees in Rome in September 2013. The buildings “are not ours, they are for the flesh of Christ, which is what the refugees are,” he had said.

Two years later, the pope called on every parish, religious community and sanctuary in Europe to take in one refugee family to help respond to the massive influx of people coming especially from war-torn Syria.

The Vatican’s St. Peter’s Basilica and St. Anne’s parish helped sponsor two refugee families, offering them housing and assistance.

The International Organization for Migration estimates that more than 1 million migrants arrived at Europe’s borders in 2015.

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FAITH & CULTURE

Visual connection

Sister Suzanne Homeyer, a Visitation Sister of Minneapolis, holds artwork depicting a Visitation nun in Annecy, France, her order’s birthplace. All Visitation sisters wear the same silver cross. Sister Suzanne said community members exchange crosses each New Year’s Day in the spirit of founder St. Francis de Sales, who didn’t want the sisters to “get attached to things.” Photos by Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit

Visitation sisters from mother monastery in France showcased in Basilica exhibit

By Jessica Trygstad The Catholic Spirit Visitation Sister Suzanne Homeyer stood in the John XXIII Gallery at the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis gazing at a recently hung painting. It depicted the back of a nun in full habit carrying a bag in her right hand, walking down a street in Annecy, France.

The painting, Sister Suzanne said, is her favorite among the some 35 pieces of the “Pray to Love: The Annecy, France, Nun Series” by Tennessee artist Anne Goetze on display at the Basilica through May 22.

“Especially in France, it’s unusual [that] one sister would be out by herself,” Sister Suzanne said, but she noted that strictly cloistered communities would have a designated “out sister” to run errands. “And she’s carrying her little bag, so I was thinking she’s probably an ‘out sister’ going out to get some kind of supplies for the community. Her head is very intentionally goaldirected, and it looks like she’s on a path. I really like that about it.”

Sister Suzanne, who visited Annecy in 2009 to celebrate the order’s 400th anniversary, said the solitude of the sister in the painting resonated with her.

“When I entered the order, I was 46. I was the only one in my class, and I was by myself quite a bit,” she recalled. “I didn’t have companions in my formation, so I could really relate to that.”

Two decades of documenting When Goetze began photographing and video recording her American-born aunt Helen, aka Sister Margarite Marie, and the other Visitation sisters at the order’s mother monastery in Annecy, she didn’t intend for the images and footage to be anything other than mementos of her trips.

But as a professional artist and photographer, she saw the beauty that was there.

“Then as I studied that deeper, it went from the visual beauty to what was deeper in that beauty,” Goetze said, referring to the sisters’ humility and gentleness.

“They’re graceful, too, in the way they walk and the way they live,” she said.

Over a 20-year span, Goetze documented the sisters’ lives in their cloistered monastery in southeastern France. After her aunt’s death in 2014, she realized the images should be shared for posterity’s sake. That’s when she took to her studio to create the “photographic paintings.” Starting with a black and white or sepia print, Goetze paints over it, creating layers and bringing depth to her original photography — realism mixed with impressionism, she explained.

“I believe the Holy Spirit is active always, but sometimes it is not until later on that I can see where and how it has been with me to guide, to counsel, to comfort,” Goetze said. “It has been that same experience as I have been with the nuns and working on the ‘Nun’ series.”

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The Catholic Spirit • 19

‘Pray to Love: The Annecy, France, Nun Series’ Photographic paintings by Anne Goetze Exhibit: April 9–May 22 in the John XXIII Gallery at the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis Reception: 4:30 p.m. May 22, with talk at 5:30 p.m.

To see a video of Anne Goetze explaining one of her pieces, visit www.facebook.com/thecatholicspirit.

Goetze said it’s that presence of the “living Holy Spirit” that she wants people to experience when they see the nun exhibit, “that they are [as] touched as I am through beauty and grace, the light of art and the enduring love that these women gift us with through their prayer.”

Goetze said she could feel the sisters’ prayers for her family from miles away.

Worldwide connection With more access to the nuns while staying in their monastery’s family quarters, Goetze captured both the dutiful and the divine of the sisters’ lives. One piece shows a nun bent over with a bucket in one hand and a broom and dustpan in the other. In another piece, a nun’s wrinkled hands grasp rosary beads.

Captions for the artworks were either taken from her aunt’s letters or were written by Visitation sisters in Tyringham, Massachusetts.

“So, it all is connected and just keeps getting more and more connected, too, which I think is the adventure of what this is turning into as it travels to each city and each monastery where the sisters are,” Goetze said.

FAR LEFT “Do You Have the Right Soul” by Anne Goetze.

LEFT Tennessee artist Anne Goetze hangs one of her pieces in the “Pray to Love: The Annecy, France, Nun Series” in the John XXIII Gallery at the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis.

While the exhibit has been in galleries and museums, Goetze now plans to take the exhibit to all 11 Visitation monasteries in the U.S. The show at the Basilica, in partnership with the Visitation Monastery in Minneapolis, is stop No. 3.

When Goetze returns to Minnesota in May for the exhibit’s closing reception, she plans to visit the Visitation Monastery and Convent of the Visitation School in Mendota Heights. With her son, Nathan Goetze, who specializes in nature photography, she’ll spend time documenting the lives of the Visitation sisters in Minnesota, again through photography and video recordings.

Ultimately, she’d like to take the exhibit to Annecy, where the subjects have yet to see the finished pieces.

Sister Suzanne said she’s excited that more people will be able to see the history of the Visitation order, and the venue is significant because the sisters regularly worship at the Basilica.

“People can make the connection — we’re not just seven or eight women living on the north side,” she said, “we’re part of a worldwide order that’s 406 years old.”

For more information, visit www.annegoetze.com.

20 • The Catholic Spirit

THE LAST WORD

April 14, 2016

The pastor wore fatigues Army National Guard chaplain returns from Kosovo with greater sense of universal Church

During his recent deployment, Father Michael Creagan, pastor of St. Joseph in West St. Paul, leads a group of U.S. and Armenian soldiers on a cultural awareness visit to Decani Monastery, a 14th-century Serbian Orthodox monastery in western Kosovo. Established in 1327, Decani Monastery still operates as an active monastery and is considered a United Nations World Heritage Site. Courtesy Father Michael Creagan

By Jessica Weinberger For The Catholic Spirit

A

t St. Joseph in West St. Paul, Father Michael Creagan serves as pastor to more than 1,900 families. But his full pastoral duties extend to hundreds more — the men and women of the Minnesota Army National Guard’s 1/34th Brigade Special Troops Battalion, part of the esteemed “Red Bulls.”

“It’s like I added another 800 people to my parish,” Father Creagan said about his commissioning as chaplain for the Bloomington-based battalion in 2013.

Last June, Father Creagan traded in his vestments for Army fatigues for his first deployment in Kosovo. As one of only 30 Catholic chaplains in the country for the Army National Guard, Father Creagan was deployed to Camp Bondsteel with soldiers based out of North Carolina and West Virginia.

The group’s mission was to provide a safe and secure environment and to promote the freedom of movement for the local people, a NATO mission that Father Creagan says has been overall successful in increasing the safety in the region.

At Camp Bondsteel, Father Creagan oversaw the pastoral care of not only the U.S. soldiers, but also all the troops representing eight nations and diverse faith backgrounds. He led daily Mass and pilgrimages to religious sites in the country, forging strong relationships with soldiers from Turkey, Armenia, Poland, Switzerland and Romania. He lived and worked alongside the soldiers, quickly discovering that the rhythm of the sacraments, prayer, relationshipbuilding and administrative work

Father Michael Creagan and a Turkish soldier speak with students from St. Joseph’s Catholic School in West St. Paul via Skype. Courtesy Father Michael Creagan mirrored his work as a parish priest back home.

Over shared meals or ping-pong games in the recreation center, Father Creagan had the opportunity to ask about the soldiers’ lives and beliefs, often comforting young soldiers away from home for the first time or supporting married soldiers worried about the spouse and children they left behind.

“Anybody feels comfortable speaking to the chaplain, whether they’re a private or a general,” said Father Creagan, who was ordained in 1997 and named pastor of St. Joseph in 2008.

“That’s one of the beautiful opportunities that a chaplain has — to be that listening ear and that source of support.”

As the designated English-speaking Catholic priest for the entire region,

Father Creagan would also travel to three other bases and one outpost to celebrate Mass.

“I had this great sense of being united with so many people around the world, because at a Catholic Mass, you could have Irish, Hungarians, Austrians and Slovenians,” he said. “It’s definitely the universal Church in that way.”

At a typical Sunday Mass at the NATO headquarters in Kosovo’s capital city of Pristina, the faithful represented as many as six nations, he said.

As Father Creagan learned first-hand about different cultures and faith backgrounds, he extended the same opportunity to the students at his parish’s school, St. Joseph’s Catholic School. Using Skype, students spoke with soldiers on the base about their daily responsibilities, faith life and customs. It’s through these experiences

that Father Creagan hopes younger generations will come to appreciate other cultures and ultimately choose to be instruments of peace.

While his fellow troops remained in Kosovo until March, Father Creagan completed his six-month deployment in December. Following a demobilization process in Texas and a flight back to Minneapolis, he was back in the hallways of the school only a few hours after his homecoming, ready to participate fully in the busy Advent season.

He’s grateful for the prayer, support and understanding of the parish while he served overseas, noting he received care packages and even handmade rosaries that he distributed around the base. Months after returning from deployment, Father Creagan continues to feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude for the many blessings within his parish and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

“It really helped me to take a step back when I was away from the parish and see folks who were working with meager resources to realize how incredibly blessed we are here,” he said.

“But while we are incredibly blessed, that means God is asking more of us.”

Nearly halfway through his eight-year term as chaplain, Father Creagan continues to minister to service men and women here in Minnesota. He encourages others to remember people in all corners of the world, and importantly, to pray for peace.

“It’s important for us to have an awareness of the universal Church,” he said. “It’s easy for us to get very focused on what we’re doing here, but we need to raise our awareness of our brothers and sisters in other parts of the world.”