The Catholic Spirit - April 20, 2017

ACCW leaders 6 • Assisted suicide in U.S. 8 • Bach’s ‘St. John Passion’ 18 April 20, 2017 Newspaper of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis

Happy Easter!

Young

love at 95

St. Paul couple shares reasons why marriage stays strong for 74 years

— Page 14

Leona and Vince Arceno pause to smile at each other during their daily walk in their St. Paul neighborhood April 6. The two, both 95, have been married for 74 years, and say their walks and going to Mass together are an important part of their relationship. Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit

He is risen! Alleluia!

Why Jesus’ empty tomb matters • 10-11 Pope Francis’ Easter message • 11 Connecting Divine Mercy to ecology • 16

ALSO inside

Meeting of the minds

Concert 4 Hope

Seeking silence

At St. Thomas, Cornel West and Ross Douthat prove conversation on ideologically divisive topics need not actually divide.

— Page 5

Catholic musician Audrey Assad will perform at a concert in St. Paul to benefit a nonprofit helping the poor in Tanzania.

— Page 7

Retreat leaders and participants explain the importance of silence for prayer and offer tips on finding it.

— Page 12

2 • The Catholic Spirit

PAGE TWO

April 20, 2017 NEWS notes • The Catholic Spirit

OVERHEARD

Parishes to host Divine Mercy Sunday events

“I was a feminist before I was pro-life, and I’m honestly pro-life because I’m a feminist.”

Parishes throughout the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis will pray Divine Mercy chaplets and host celebrations April 23, Divine Mercy Sunday.

St. John Paul II inaugurated the feast honoring devotion to Christ’s mercy for all humanity on the Second Sunday of Easter in 2000, when he canonized St. Faustina Kowalska, the Polish nun and visionary of Jesus as the Divine Mercy. For a list of local events, visit www.thecatholicspirit.com/ divinemercy. For a list of events throughout Minnesota, visit www.3oclockhour.org.

Aimee Murphy, founder and executive director of Rehumanize International in Pittsburgh, speaking at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., April 10 in a panel discussion on whether pro-life advocates can be feminists.

Siena Symposium on women priesthood April 26 in PICTURES

Sister Sara Butler will speak on “The Catholic Priesthood as Sacramental Reality: Women’s Ordination in Ecumenical Perspective” 7:30 p.m. April 26 at the University of St. Thomas’ Owens Science Building’s 3M Auditorium, 2115 Summit Ave., St. Paul. The lecture is part of the 2017 Siena Symposium for Women, Family and Culture. A Missionary Servant of the Most Blessed Trinity, Sister Sara is the author of “The Catholic Priesthood and Women: A Guide to the Teaching of the Church” (Hillenbrand Books, 2007). She is the interdisciplinary symposium’s 2017 Humanitarian Leadership Award recipient. For more information, visit www.stthomas.edu/sienasymposium.

SPS seminarians to present ‘Hamlet’ April 28-30 St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity seminarians and students will offer three performances of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” April 28-30 at the University of St. Thomas’ BEC Auditorium. The play is directed by Deacon Andrew Thuringer. It is free and open to the public. Shows are 7:30 p.m. April 28 and 29 and 2 p.m. April 30. For more information, visit www.spstheatre.org.

Resources available for national Brothers Day The inaugural Religious Brothers Day will be May 1, the feast of St. Joseph the Worker. Parishes, schools and Catholic organizations are encouraged to honor religious brothers in a special way. The archdiocese has provided resources, including the 2015 Vatican document “Identity and Mission of the Religious Brother in the Church,” at www.archspm.org.

Archbishop Hebda to give mini-retreat at Cathedral CHRIST CRUCIFIED A man portraying Christ nailed to the cross glances at another man on a cross, who is the “good thief,” during a live re-enactment of the Stations of the Cross at All Saints Catholic Church in Houston on Good Friday April 14. CNS/James Ramos

The Cathedral of St. Paul will offer the First Saturday Morning of Recollection with Archbishop Bernard Hebda 8 a.m. May 6 at the church.

The mini-retreat is designed to foster devotion, understanding and living out of the Gospel. The 8 a.m.-noon event begins with Mass followed by eucharistic adoration, rosary, confession and talks by Archbishop Hebda.

For more information, visit www.cathedralsaintpaul.org/first-saturdays.

Family Rosary Procession in St. Paul May 7 The 70th annual Archdiocesan Family Rosary Procession is 2 p.m. May 7 at the State Capitol in St. Paul. Archbishop Hebda will lead the procession, which goes from the Capitol to the Cathedral of St. Paul. Participants are asked to gather at the Capitol at 1:30 p.m. This year’s procession commemorates the centennial of Our Lady of Fatima, who told the visionaries to “continue to pray the rosary every day.” For more information, visit www.familyrosaryprocession.org.

Seminary to host Easter procession May 7 The St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity is holding an Easter procession 7-9 p.m. May 7 at St. Mary’s Chapel. The free event will feature Byzantinestyle chant, icon images and prayerful meditations on the Gospel stories of the Resurrection. Music will be presented by the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity Chorale. For more information, visit www.stthomas.edu/spssod.

CORRECTIONS

CHEERS TO 90 YEARS Retired Pope Benedict XVI and Archbishop Georg Ganswein, prefect of the papal household, left, toast men in traditional clothing with a beer during the German pontiff’s 90th birthday celebration April 17 at the Vatican. The pope’s birthday was the previous day. CNS/L’Osservatore Romano

The Catholic Spirit is published semi-monthly for The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis Vol. 22 — No. 8 MOST REVEREND BERNARD A. HEBDA, Publisher TOM HALDEN, Associate Publisher MARIA C. WIERING, Editor

The story “St. Bernard to welcome Karenni converts at Easter” in the April 6 issue misidentified Karenni people as a sub-group of Karen people.

Although both Karenni and Karen people are from the same part of southeast Asia, Karenni people are a separate ethnic group.

Also in the April 6 issue, photographer Brian Flanary’s name was misspelled.

We apologize for the errors.

Materials credited to CNS copy­righted by Catholic News Service.

All other materials copyrighted by The Cath­olic Spirit Newspaper.

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FROM THE ARCHBISHOP

April 20, 2017

The Catholic Spirit • 3

With the hope of Easter people, let us support Dorothy Day Place

A

t 6 a.m. on a hot, muggy Saturday last July, I visited the Dorothy Day Center, just down the hill from our Cathedral of St. Paul, where 250 homeless people — men, women, elderly, disabled and ill — were roused with bright lights and a sharp voice: “Ladies and gentlemen, good morning, time to get up. We will close soon.” The sounds and forlorn faces of these children of God, our brothers and sisters, struggling to rise from thin mats, crowded together inches apart on a hard floor, made me shudder as they steeled themselves for another day on the streets, most without hope or opportunity.

As Catholic Charities of St. Paul and Minneapolis President Tim Marx explained to me that morning, the Dorothy Day Center was never intended to be a place where people spend the night. It began as a day center for meals and for connecting to opportunities. But as homelessness increased, the center took on a broader role as a “24/7/365” community “emergency room” for people in need. Finally, in 2011, it ran out of room, and camps sprung up on the streets outside. It was a community crisis, and since then, Catholic Charities has been leading a community response — a new vision called Dorothy Day Place.

Dorothy Day Place is not just an upgraded drop-in center or emergency shelter. As Tim explained, its vision is to provide an integrated set of programs, within two distinct buildings, to implement proven strategies to prevent and address homelessness. It draws on Catholic Charities’ experience with existing programs such as Higher Ground Minneapolis, which I also visited last July.

Unlike the old Dorothy Day Center, Higher Ground Minneapolis already offered people dignified bunk beds in a clean, spacious and hopeful environment, including access to permanent apartment homes in the same building. I was moved when a resident who saw my clerical collar asked for a blessing, and I was heartened when introduced to a group of residents and volunteers who were returning from a morning run as part of a wellness program. I am delighted that the new Dorothy Day Place will also implement the strategies used at the Minneapolis Opportunity Center, which provides healthy meals, job training, housing assistance, health care and veterans services. I am still grateful to all of the volunteers I met that day who had given up their Saturday morning to prepare and serve meals there.

ONLY JESUS Archbishop Bernard Hebda

The new Dorothy Day Place combines the elements of Higher Ground Minneapolis — dignified shelter and permanent housing — with an Opportunity Center for St. Paul. The first part of the new facility — Higher Ground St. Paul — opened in January, to the joy of the 473 people who

If completed, the new Dorothy Day Place will bless us with an opportunity to offer the Lord’s hope and renewal to some of the most vulnerable members of our community. now get a night’s rest in dignity, with many in their own home for the first time in years. We can be proud and grateful that this Easter, no one spent the night on a thin mat on the floor at the old Dorothy Day Center.

But there is more to do. The second part of the project — the St. Paul Opportunity Center and some additional housing, to be called the Dorothy Day Residence — still needs to be completed. While community leaders have raised millions of private dollars for what was intended to be a public-private partnership, the needed public component is somewhat slower in coming. I am happy to hear that the required public funding is being considered as part of a bonding bill this legislative session — and I’m hopeful that we can help make this critical funding a reality by making our support known.

During this Easter season we celebrate the hope and renewal offered by the resurrected Jesus, the same Lord who promised a share of his victory to those who would respond to the needs of the least of his brothers and sisters. If completed, the new Dorothy Day Place will bless us with an opportunity to offer the Lord’s hope and renewal to some of the most vulnerable members of our community.

In the spirit of this Easter season, I invite you to join me in reaching out to those who can make the final phase of Dorothy Day Place a reality — Gov. Mark Dayton and our legislators — and urge them to fully fund the new Dorothy Day Place this legislative session.

Support Dorothy Day Place Tell your legislators that you want this year’s bonding bill to include funds for the completion of Catholic Charities’ Dorothy Day Place in St. Paul. Go to bit.ly/DDPBonding to take action in supporting the new Dorothy Day Place and contacting state leaders. You can also call 651-296-8338 for help identifying your legislators.

Con la esperanza del pueblo de resurrección, apoyemos el Dorothy Day Place

A

las seis de la mañana de un sábado húmedo y caluroso en el mes de julio el año pasado, fue cuando visité el Dorothy Day Center, apenas desde la empinada de nuestra Catedral de Saint Paul, donde habían 250 desamparados — hombres, mujeres, ancianos, discapacitados y enfermos — que se levantaron con las luces brillantes y con una voz penetrante diciendo: “buenos días damas y caballeros, es hora de levantarse. Cerraremos pronto.” Los sonidos y las caras de desconsuelo de estos siervos de Dios, nuestros hermanos y hermanas, haciendo el esfuerzo para levantarse del suelo repleto de colchonetas, apenas unas pulgadas aparte, me hizo estremecerme a la vez que ellos se armaban de valor para iniciar otro día en las calles, la mayoría de ellos sin esperanza ni oportunidad.

Como me lo explicó esa mañana Tim Marx, presidente de Caridades Católicas de Saint Paul y Minneapolis, nunca se tuvo la intención de que el Centro Dorothy Day fuera un lugar en el que la gente pasaría la noche. Funcionaría para servir comidas y para conectar a las personas con las oportunidades; pero al aumentar la cantidad de desamparados, el Centro desempeñó un papel más amplio las veinticuatro horas del día, los siete días a la semana y los 365 días del año; convirtiéndose en el “lugar de emergencia” para los necesitados. Finalmente en 2011 ya no había suficiente lugar y los campamentos brotaron en las calles de las afueras. Era una crisis de la comunidad, y desde entonces Caridades Católicas ha sido la líder en respuesta de la comunidad — con una visión nueva llamada Dorothy Day Place.

Dorothy Day Place no es solamente un centro mejorado para pasar la noche o ser un refugio de emergencia. Como lo explicó Tim, su visión es brindar

un grupo de programas integrados, dentro de dos edificios distintos, para implementar estrategias que funcionan para prevenir y solucionar el desamparo.

Utiliza la experiencia de Caridades Católicas con programas ya en existencia tales como el programa Higher Ground Minneapolis, el cual también visité el año pasado en el mes de julio.

A diferencia del antiguo Dorothy Day Center, Higher Ground Minneapolis ya ofrecía camas de litera dignas para la gente, en un entorno limpio, con espacio y con esperanza, incluyendo acceso a casas apartamento permanente dentro del mismo edificio. Me sentí conmovido cuando un residente que vio mi vestimenta de miembro del clero me pidió que le diera la bendición, y me emocioné también cuando me presentaron a un grupo de residentes y voluntarios que regresaban de ir a correr por la mañana como parte de un programa de salud y bienestar. Estoy contento que el nuevo Dorothy Day Place implementará las estrategias usadas en el Centro de Oportunidades de Minneapolis, el cual proporciona comidas saludables, entrenamiento para trabajos, auxilio para vivienda, cuidado de salud y servicios para veteranos. Todavía me siento tan agradecido con todos los voluntarios que conocí ese día, quienes han pasado su sábado por la mañana preparando y sirviendo comida allí.

El nuevo Dorothy Day Place combina elementos del Higher Ground Minneapolis — con un refugio digno y vivienda permanente— y con el Centro de Oportunidades de Saint Paul. La primera parte de las nuevas instalaciones —de Higher Ground Saint Paul — abrió sus puertas en enero, para dicha de las 473 personas que ahora descansan dignamente por la noche, muchos de ellos en su propio hogar por primera vez en

años. Podemos estar orgullosos y agradecidos que esta Semana Santa ninguno pasará la noche en una colchoneta delgada en el piso en el viejo Dorothy Day Center.

Pero todavía queda mucho por hacer. La segunda parte del proyecto — el Saint Paul Opportunity Center y algo de vivienda adicional, que se llamará Dorothy Day Residence — todavía necesita terminarse. Mientras que los líderes de la comunidad han recaudado millones de dólares dentro del sector privado, la intensión que se tenía era que fuera un colaborativo público-privado, sin embargo el componente público de alguna manera se ido tardando en llegar. Me dio alegría enterarme que los fondos públicos están siendo considerados en el legislativo durante esta sesión como parte del proyecto de ley para inversión pública. Y tengo la esperanza de que este financiamiento decisivo se haga realidad al hacer saber nuestro apoyo.

Durante esta Semana Santa celebraremos la esperanza y la renovación de Nuestro Señor Jesús resucitado, el mismo Dios que prometió compartir su victoria con aquellos que responderían a nuestros hermanos y hermanas más necesitados. Si se completa el nuevo Dorothy Day Place se nos bendecirá con la oportunidad de ofrecer esperanza y la renovación del Señor con algunos de los miembros más vulnerables de nuestra comunidad.

En el espíritu de la Semana Santa, los invito a que se unan a mí en actitud solidaria con aquellos que pueden hacer que la fase final del Dorothy Day Place sea una realidad, exhortando — al Gobernador Mark Dayton y a nuestros legisladores — para que se financie completamente el nuevo Dorothy Day Place durante esta sesión de la legislatura.

4 • The Catholic Spirit

LOCAL

April 20, 2017

SLICEof LIFE Bringing Good Friday downtown From left, Gary Vouk and his son, William, of Transfiguration in Oakdale, and Thomas Stokman of St. Joseph in West St. Paul walk in the Way of the Cross procession on Good Friday April 14. Organized by the international Catholic movement Communion and Liberation, the procession began at the State Capitol, wound its way through downtown St. Paul and ended at the Cathedral of St. Paul.

It included reflections read from the writings of the organization’s founder, Father Luigi Giussani.

Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit

Watch a video of the event at www.facebook.com/thecatholicspirit.

April 20, 2017

LOCAL

Douthat, West talk bridges political divide

By Maria Wiering The Catholic Spirit More than 1,000 people filled the University of St. Thomas’ Woulfe Alumni Hall in the Anderson Student Center April 7 to hear a conversation about Christianity and politics from two prominent public intellectuals — New York Times columnist Ross Douthat and Harvard Divinity School professor Cornel West. Dozens more viewed the nearly two-hour discussion via screens in overflow seating.

The large turnout signaled to St. Thomas law professor Elizabeth Schiltz that there’s a desire for civil conversations on challenging topics that cross ideological divides.

“The response reflected a real hunger for some model, some sample, some images of people who disagree with each other talking to each other at a level that is both polite, engaged and respectful, but one that is also deeper than the sound-bite kind of arguing that you get on television, on the web and in the blogs,” said Schiltz, who moderated the conversation.

Along with Catholic Studies professor William Junker, Schiltz co-directs the university’s Terrence J. Murphy Institute for Catholic Thought, Law and Public Policy, which sponsored the event. She said the idea to pair Douthat, a conservative who is Catholic, and West, a Christian and liberal who’s served as an adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders, was sparked by both men’s “fierce intelligence,” yet personalities that are marked by a sense of humor and “animated by Christian faith.”

The pair discussed a wide range of topics, from President Donald Trump’s April 6 missile attack on a Syrian airfield seen through the lens of just war theory to Black Lives Matters’ relationship with the 1960s civil rights movement.

The speakers showed that discussing views on difficult and often divisive topics “doesn’t need to be stressful, it doesn’t need to be tense,” Schiltz said.

“What’s been growing is a fear of talking to each other, a fear of what can happen when you really try to engage people in debates,” she said. “There’s this feeling that the things we fundamentally disagree upon are so important to different parties, and our differences [are so] intractable that there is no way we can talk to each other again, there’s no way we can ever hope to ever understand one another. The lines seem to be drawn so starkly.”

An increase in boycotts and public shaming have fueled that fear by stifling debate, she said. “There’s a fear of the other side — ‘How can you possibly not understand what’s so important to me?’ — and there’s a fear of what might happen to you if you try to go a level deeper,” she said.

Liking something about each Ivy League school, Providence Academy senior Derek Onserio decided to apply to all eight.

“I could see myself at all of the schools, essentially,” he said.

He checked online March 30, the Ivy League schools’ date for announcing applicants’ acceptance or denial of entrance.

To his surprise, he was accepted at each one — Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania.

Derek He is one of at least six students nationwide whom ONSERIO media have identified as being accepted to all eight colleges, a feat nicknamed the “Ivy League Sweep.” Onserio credits the academic and human formation he has received at Providence Academy, a Catholic school in Plymouth.

in BRIEF FRIDLEY

Totino-Grace show choir takes title The Totino-Grace High School Company of Singers won the Show Choir Canada Championships April 8 in Toronto. The team also won awards for best vocals, choreography and combo. The win was the first international championship for a U.S. show choir.

MENDOTA HEIGHTS

STA wins state Knowledge Bowl

Cornel West, left, speaks alongside Ross Douthat about “Christianity and Politics in the U.S. Today” April 7 at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. Mike Ekern/Courtesy University of St. Thomas The audience experienced what Schiltz described as a good-natured exchange marked by a “generosity of spirit,” where Douthat and West sought areas of common ground while sharing differences of perspective and opinion. The audience was generous in return, she said.

For Schiltz, the conversation’s highlights were the discussions about race, white supremacy, and liberal and conservative views of sex. She also appreciated the speakers’ response to the final audience question posed by a 16-year-old Latina, who asked West his advice to youths as “racism, discrimination and xenophobia feel more prevalent under the Trump administration.”

“I wouldn’t be obsessed with Trump,” West said.

“Don’t fetishize him, don’t give him magical powers.

He’ll come and go. The crucial thing for you ... is that you have your whole life to live.”

He suggested she dedicate herself to spiritual and moral excellence — “integrity and honesty and decency and courage that puts a smile on your grandma’s face.”

Douthat added: “There is a temptation to go out and seek out virtual experiences that confirm your anxieties and magnify them in ways that don’t reflect the reality of everyday life. And the reality of everyday life is that America in the year 2017 is decadent. ... But most periods in human history have featured evils and corruptions greater even than the ones that we confront now. People in those contexts have found ways to live their lives heroically, bravely and courageously without falling into a palsy of anxiety and victimization ... . Whatever else you do in response to the Trump presidency, live as fully as you can in flesh reality, whenever the opportunity presents itself.”

Providence senior nets ‘Ivy League Sweep’

By Matthew Davis The Catholic Spirit

The Catholic Spirit • 5

“A lot of teachers in the school emphasize formation of the person,” said Onserio, who is Seventh-day Adventist.

Onserio excels academically and in the arts. He performs in theater and sings in the music program in addition to participating in math league, quiz bowl, tennis, speech, debate and Lincoln Society, a group that explores key texts in Western culture. He said Providence Academy “gave me an opportunity to do a lot of clubs,” which he believes would have been more limited at a public school.

Onserio dedicated Saturday evenings to working on his essays for the Ivy League colleges’ applications. He also sought help from Providence Academy’s college counselors and his teachers along the way.

Onserio’s parents, who emigrated from Kenya two decades ago, will have three children attending Ivy League schools this fall. His older sisters and former Providence Academy students Rachael and Meghan attend Dartmouth and Harvard, respectively.

“It’s a remarkable success story of an American family,” said Todd Flanders, Providence Academy headmaster.

A four-member team of St. Thomas Academy students won the Class AA state Knowledge Bowl title April 7 in Brainerd. The Cadets set a school record for points with the win. This is the first Knowledge Bowl title since 2005 for the all-male college preparatory military school.

MINNEAPOLIS

Basilica Block Party releases lineup Walk the Moon, Gavin DeGraw, Ben Rector and Julia Brennan will take the stage at the annual Basilica Block Party July 7-8 at the Basilica of St. Mary. Other performers on the event’s three stages include Brandi Carlile, Need to Breathe, John Paul White, The Roosevelts, The Shins, Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness, Cobi, Night Moves, Jaedyn James & the Hunger, Nick Jordan, AWOLNation, Walk Off The Earth, Enemy Planes, Nooky Jones, Jackson and the Roosters, and J.S. Ondara. The Basilica announced the lineup April 7, and general admission tickets are on sale.

Proceeds from the 22-year-old event benefit The Basilica Landmark, which preserves and restores the historic church. A portion of all proceeds also goes to the parish’s St. Vincent de Paul outreach program, which provides services to people in need.

RICHFIELD

AHA honored for positive culture Academy of Holy Angels’ program to build a positive school culture, called The AHA Way, was recently awarded “Best Program” by the Minnesota Independent School Forum. The AHA Way was developed to create a caring, welcoming, inclusive and respectful school environment. It consists of four main principles applied with a different set of expectations for parents, students and staff. The Catholic high school will receive the award at the Private and Independent Education Awards April 30 at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul.

ST. PAUL

Catholic insurer expanding locally Catholic Financial Life plans to increase its presence in the Twin Cities with the acquisition of St. Paul-based Degree of Honor Protective Association, a non-Catholic but faith-based fraternal benefit society. The organization will continue to operate under its name as a division of Catholic Financial Life after the acquisition, which awaits approval from Minnesota and Wisconsin insurance regulators. Catholic Financial Life, a 150-year-old member-owned insurance and financial services organization, anticipates adding 40,000 members and $200 million in assets through the acquisition. The Milwaukee-based organization serves 108,000 members around the country.

UST responds to accidental shooting University of St. Thomas student Paul Rousseau, 22, has been discharged from Regions Hospital after receiving treatment for a head wound from a bullet that traveled through a dorm room wall April 7. His roommate, who has a permit to carry, told the St. Paul Police that he had been putting away the handgun in a box and pulled the trigger, not knowing it was loaded.

Charges have not been filed while the case remains under investigation. A university review process of the incident could result in the student being expelled from the school.

6 • The Catholic Spirit

LOCAL

April 20, 2017

New president wants more intergenerational connections in ACCW

By Jessica Trygstad The Catholic Spirit Ten years ago, Debbie Keller didn’t know what a Council of Catholic Women was, let alone the Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women. The wife and mother of five came across an announcement in her parish bulletin about the organization’s biennial legislative day, an event that could aid her daughter’s school project. She appreciated the ACCW’s Catholic focus, and after learning about the organization’s other resources, she was eager for more. But she discovered that the council at her parish, St. Pius X in White Bear Lake, had disbanded. But gradually, with the help of fellow parishioner Joan McGrath, Keller regrouped the CCW, which she led for three years. She also became involved in the ACCW in 2008, serving as vice chair for liturgy, and the northeast deanery.

“We recognize that ... there is strength in numbers,” Keller said. “When you connect with others who are like-minded, it builds strength and it gives you empowerment.”

Keller, 58, will take the helm as ACCW president at the organization’s 85th annual convention at St. Odilia in Shoreview April 21-22. She replaces Florence Schmidt.

“These women on this board [ACCW] have become my heroes, and I have seen what they have done,” said Keller, a graduate of the Archbishop Harry J. Flynn Catechetical Institute at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity. “I get very emotional about it because I see the sacrifices they’ve made, and I’ve heard their stories. It’s remarkable to witness. I think we’re a well-kept secret in

ACCW to honor four women for parish volunteerism The Catholic Spirit At the Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women’s annual convention April 21-22 at St. Odilia in Shoreview, leaders will present Laywomen Volunteer Awards to four women.

Linda Borchardt, St. Michael in St. Michael Borchardt, 60, has worked in the parish’s Welcome Center, served as a greeter and reader, and sung in the adult choir. She has been a eucharistic adorer since 2005. Borchardt has also been a confirmation catechist in the parish’s Learning In Faith Together program, and served on the Crew Faith Formation Planning Committee and Family Catechesis Program. For more than 20 years, she has been involved with St. Michael’s fall festival.

Borchardt and her husband, Jeff, have four children and five grandchildren.

the archdiocese.”

But she doesn’t want the ACCW to remain a secret.

Her vision for the organization that has a hand in everything from supporting seminarians and their families to promoting eucharistic adoration to funding foreign missions to raising awareness of domestic violence is grounded in its mission to support, educate and empower all women in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. “[ACCW] women have hearts that want to serve,” said Keller, Debbie who has a degree in family and KELLER consumer science from St. Catherine University in St. Paul.

“This is an organized way to address the needs in our society.”

One of her initiatives is to enhance the ACCW’s focus on the dignity and vocation of women.

“We have to understand who we are as females, who God created woman to be — why we were created male and female,” she said. “That has become so distorted in our culture, and that distortion has caused alarming things to ensue. And that’s a concern for our daughters and granddaughters and great-granddaughters.”

Keller, who worked at home raising her children, now adults, also noted how motherhood has changed over the years, and how new moms should be able to rely on “seasoned” women for support and guidance, which she’d like to facilitate through the ACCW. “We have to bond through the generations,” she said.

Kathleen Gadient, St. Columbkill–Holy Trinity in Goodhue Gadient, 83, has been an active parishioner at St. Columbkill–Holy Trinity for more than 60 years.

She remains active in its Council of Catholic Women, has held each of the officer positions and served on many committees. She is a past member of the Southeast Deanery board, serving on the Community Concerns Commission as mental health vice chair. At her parish, she has been a eucharistic minister of holy Communion, led the rosary before daily Mass and served at church functions. For many years, she was a faith formation teacher and still monitors classes occasionally. She has helped plan and worked at many funerals and cleans the church, especially before weddings, funerals and other special events. Gadient and her late husband, Bill, of 58 years, raised 12 children on their family farm. She has 40 grandchildren and 29 great-grandchildren.

Mary Limborg, St. John the Evangelist in Little Canada Limborg, 74, has been a member of the CCW for 17 years and served as president for four years. She served

“It will make us stronger. You don’t get a degree in motherhood.”

The ACCW is also partnering with the archdiocesan Office of Evangelization and Catechesis on a grandparents ministry. Although Keller has been Catholic all her life, she said it wasn’t until she was in her 30s that she became a “convicted” Catholic. She has come to realize that generations before her paved the way for her faith to grow. And she wants to see the value, reverence and respect of society’s elders restored.

“We need to get back to basics. There’s an interconnectivity among generations,” she said.

Keller describes the work of the ACCW as having a field.

“We till the soil, we plant the seeds, we tend to the plants, and we harvest, and we make the meal,” she said. “It’s that whole sense of, we go to a grocery store to get the food, bring it home, cook it and eat it. But there are hidden people behind why we have food on the table.” Women, Keller continued, bring the hospitality and nurturing components.

“It’s all in that environment of welcoming in and embracing someone who comes no matter what the environment is,” she said. “It’s all about de-cluttering someone’s soul and their heart, and allowing them to put forth what they need to.”

The ACCW convention, which begins at noon April 21, accepts same-day registrations. The two-day event includes vendors, speakers, meals, prayer, reconciliation and Mass with Archbishop Bernard Hebda.

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

as an extraordinary minister of holy Communion at St. John’s Hospital in Maplewood for two years.

Limborg, a Third Order Lay Carmelite, has been active in pro-life work for the past 15 years. She is a founding board member of a Catholic Worker House and served on the board of directors of the Holy Family Adoption Agency in St. Paul for six years. She and her husband, Jerry, have been married for 54 years and have three children, three grandchildren and three greatgrandchildren.

Joyce Nevins, Holy Childhood in St. Paul Nevins, 71, has been an active member of Holy Childhood since 1974. She has held numerous positions in the Women’s Club and has helped with many of the parish’s and former school’s fundraising events. Having been a sidewalk counselor outside Planned Parenthood for many years, Nevins helped to open Philomena House, a home for homeless, pregnant women. At Philomena House, she has served as volunteer director, grant writer, recruiter, trainer and labor coach. Nevins and her husband have seven children and 24 grandchildren.

St. Michael Catholic Church, St. Michael and its local Council of Catholic Women

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The Catholic Spirit • 7

Audrey Assad concert to benefit nonprofit helping Tanzania

By Dave Hrbacek The Catholic Spirit

A

n upcoming concert will draw on a soulful voice to help poor villagers in Tanzania access muchneeded water.

Audrey Assad will perform May 7 at the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul to benefit Partners 4 Hope Tanzania.

Molly Druffner, a parishioner of St. Michael in Stillwater, launched the nonprofit in 2015. The proceeds from the event, Concert 4 Hope, will be used to buy water tanks for people in the village of Bwambo.

Druffner said the organization aims to raise $30,000 to fund 100 water tanks for families’ homes and farms.

“There’s plenty of water on top of the mountain,” Druffner said, “[but] there’s just no way for people to access it because it costs $500 to buy a water tank, and nobody has $500. Most people live on $1 a day.”

Druffner has been making trips to Tanzania annually since 2009 with her husband, Mark, and seven children.

They serve through Los Angeles-based Mission Doctors Association. Mark is a physician and spends a month or more seeing patients in a Tanzanian hospital, while the rest of the family serves the hospital and village in other ways.

Out of that grew Partners 4 Hope Tanzania. Among its projects are helping local women start businesses and children attend Catholic schools.

“We started Partners 4 Hope because we saw a lot of other needs, specifically in the parishes,” Druffner said.

“We saw the needs of the village being much greater than just Mark volunteering at the hospital. Because I loved meeting the people and working with the people so much, this just kind of grew out of that.”

One of the current projects is the building of a church in the village of Ngujini, a project funded, in part, by St. John the Baptist in New Brighton. The relationship started with a trip that its pastor, Father Michael Skluzacek, made to Tanzania two years ago. The parish then raised $30,000, about half the cost of the new church.

Construction began in January 2016 and is scheduled to be completed in October, when the building will be dedicated by Bishop Rogath Kimaryo of the Diocese of Same. Druffner will be there for the dedication, along with Father Skluzacek.

“There were a couple hundred people coming to Mass underneath a tree for the past 40 years,” Druffner said.

“He [Father Skluzacek] had been at the site, and he actually baptized two kids there.”

Beyond the new church, Druffner hopes to build partnerships between the 22 parishes in the Diocese of Same — where Partners 4 Hope Tanzania serves — and parishes in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. St. Michael and St. Mary in Stillwater are already on board. So is St. Jude of the Lake in Mahtomedi; some of its members and the pastor, Father Audrey Cory Rohlfing, are going to the ASSAD dedication of the new church in October.

Druffner emphasized that the need is dire.

“Every parish in the Diocese [of Same] is struggling from poverty, including the priests,” Druffner said.

“Some of the priests don’t even have enough food or water themselves. ... In fact, one of the priests came to our hospital because he was malnourished, just a couple weeks ago.”

The idea to invite Assad, a Catholic, to perform for a fundraiser came from a love for her music Druffner shares with Rita Bagley, Partners 4 Hope’s executive director and a parishioner of Transfiguration in Oakdale.

“Rita and I listen to Audrey Assad Radio on Pandora in our office every single day, all day,” Druffner said.

“So, we’re just huge fans of hers. So, Rita just decided to call her up one day and ask her if she would do this concert. And, she said yes.”

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Molly Druffner, founder of Partners 4 Hope Tanzania and a parishioner of St. Michael in Stillwater, visits with women in Tanzania. Courtesy Molly Druffner

If you go Catholic musician Audrey Assad will perform “Concert 4 Hope” 2 p.m. May 7 at the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul to benefit Water 4 Life, an initiative of Partners 4 Hope Tanzania. Tickets are $40 for general admission and $20 for ages 12 and younger.

For more information about Partners 4 Hope Tanzania and the concert, visit www.partners4hopetanzania.org.

Tickets are available at www.etix.com.

8 • The Catholic Spirit

U.S. & WORLD

April 20, 2017

More states consider assisted suicide legislation

By Mark Pattison Catholic News Service More states are considering assisted suicide legislation, although few seem to be making inroads in adding themselves to the five states and the District of Columbia where it is legal.

A bill in Alaska closely modeled after Oregon’s Death With Dignity Act, which took effect 20 years ago, was the subject of a legislative hearing April 6. But lawmakers in a divided Legislature are in session for only 90 days, and coming to agreement on a state budget appeared to be taking up lawmakers’ time.

At a March 28 hearing on the bill, Margaret Dore, an attorney from Washington state where assisted suicide is also legal, said advocates of doctor-assisted suicide are misleading the public about the real impact on society’s most vulnerable. Dore, who also is president of Choice Is an Illusion — a nonprofit that opposes assisted suicide and euthanasia — said the bill does not deal only with those who are dying. For example, Oregon’s suicide bill lists diabetes as a “terminal illness,” Dore cautioned.

In addition to Oregon, Washington state and the District of Columbia, assisted suicide is also legal in California, Colorado and Vermont.

Arizona lawmakers passed a bill in March that would protect state health care providers and medical facilities from discrimination if they refuse to assist in services or provide items that result in the death of a person. The bill is meant to shield doctors, nurses or medical facilities that choose to exercise personal conscience in not participating in end-of-life situations.

Although Colorado voters approved a medical aid-indying referendum last year, within two months of the vote, around one-third of hospitals in Colorado ­— including the state’s largest health system, Centura Health — had decided to opt out of offering medical aid in dying.

In Hawaii, the state house’s Health Committee in March unanimously voted to defer a bill that would have

Assisted suicide is legal in the District of Columbia and five states: Oregon • Washington • California • Colorado • Vermont legalized physician-assisted suicide for terminally ill patients two weeks after the Senate had overwhelmingly voted in favor of the bill. Bishop Larry Silva of the statewide Diocese of Honolulu called physician-assisted suicide a “wolf in sheep’s clothing,” adding his concern that legalizing assisted suicide would open the door to a “culture of euthanasia” and abuse of the elderly.

A similar bill was introduced in Iowa by two Senate Democrats, but it has little chance of succeeding in a Republican-dominated Legislature.

Companion bills were introduced in both houses of Indiana’s Legislature to provide “end-of-life options.”

No action had yet been taken on the bills.

Kansas’ Death With Dignity bill also is modeled closely on Oregon’s law. A patient requesting aid-indying medication will have to be at least 18 years old, a Kansas resident, mentally capable of making and communicating health care decisions, and diagnosed with a terminal disease that will result in death within six months.

Kentucky’s legislative session ended without any assisted-suicide bill passing.

In Maine, dozens of people turned out April 5 to argue for and against a pair of bills that would allow Maine doctors to prescribe life-ending drugs to those suffering from terminal illness.

The two sponsors of Maryland’s End of Life Option Act withdrew the bill in March when they realized they didn’t have the votes to pass it in the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee.

Assisted suicide advocates in Massachusetts are trying for the eighth time to get a bill passed. Companion bills

Catholic leaders in Syria criticize U.S. missile strikes Catholic News Service Two prominent Catholic leaders in Syria criticized the U.S. missile strikes against their nation, wondering why they occurred before investigations into the origins of chemical attacks reported April 4.

But U.S. President Donald Trump said Syrian President Bashar Assad “launched a horrible chemical weapons attack on innocent civilians” and “choked out the lives of helpless men, women and children.”

“No child of God should ever suffer such horror,” he said April 6, announcing that he had ordered the strike against the air base from which he said the chemical weapons attack was launched.

Syriac Catholic Patriarch Ignace Joseph Younan, who called the attack an aggression, said: “It is a shame that the United States administration didn’t wait until an honest United Nations investigation was thoroughly made into what is said to be a chemical air strike in Khan Shaykun.

“The agglomerate media and the supremacist policy of the USA just want the killing and destroying conflict in Syria to continue, and this primarily to kill whatever attempt to resolve the bloody crisis,” added Patriarch Younan, who was born in Syria and served for 14 years as bishop of the New Jersey-based Diocese of Our Lady of Deliverance for Syriac Catholics in the United States and Canada.

Bishop Georges Khazen, who serves Latin-rite Catholics in Aleppo, told the Rome-based Fides news agency that he was baffled by “the speed with which it was decided and carried out, without any adequate investigation into the tragic massacre with chemical weapons which took place in Idlib province.”

He said the attack “opens new disturbing scenarios for all.”

The U.S. launched 59 missiles from the USS Ross and USS Porter in the Mediterranean early April 7 local time.

U.S. officials said they targeted Shayrat Air Base’s airstrips, hangars, control tower and ammunition areas.

In his statement, Trump said, “There can be no dispute that Syria used banned chemical weapons, violated its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention and ignored the urging of the U.N. Security Council.”

The president also said it was vital to U.S. security interests “to prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons.”

Syrian officials called the attack a “blatant aggression.”

The Syrian state news agency SANA reported nine civilians, including four children, were killed in the U.S. attack.

SANA said the civilians died in villages near the air base and that seven more people were wounded. It was not clear whether this figure included any of the six dead announced by the Syrian army earlier.

were introduced in the winter. The state’s legislative session runs through 2018.

A bill was reintroduced in the Minnesota Legislature to give terminally ill patients access to medication to end their lives — but the measure has little chance of passing. Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life warned that passing the bill would open the door to new kinds of pressure and coercion, citing Oregon statistics the organization says show that 40 percent of those obtaining life-ending medications have expressed concern about being a burden on family and friends.

Competing bills were introduced in Mississippi: a Death With Dignity Act and a bill that declares that “no person shall receive a prescription for medication to end his or her life.”

New Jersey might be the closest to being the next jurisdiction to allow assisted suicide. A bill passed the full House last fall during the 2016-17 legislative session, and then was approved by a Senate committee in November.

After New Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled against the right to die last year by refusing to overturn a law making it a felony to help end the life of a terminally ill patient, lawmakers tried again. An End of Life Options Act was introduced in the state House in January and approved by the House Health and Human Services Committee the next week. A companion Senate bill was voted on by the Senate Public Affairs Committee March 3. It was taken up by the full Senate and defeated 22-20 in a March 15 vote.

In Oklahoma, one bill, the Death Certificate Accuracy Act, introduced in January, would require listing “suicide” as the cause of death under any assisted dying law that may pass in the future. It passed the House and was pending in the Senate Health and Human Services Committee.

In Wisconsin, a day after the state passed a measure allowing the terminally ill to have access to experimental drugs that have not yet been approved for use by the federal Food and Drug Administration, an aid-in-dying bill was introduced. Its fate is uncertain.

U.S. & WORLD

April 20, 2017

At ‘mother of all vigils,’ U.S. Church welcomes thousands of new Catholics Catholic News Service During what the Roman Missal describes as the “mother of all vigils,” the U.S. Catholic Church welcomed thousands of new Catholics at the Easter Vigil April 15 in churches big and small across the country.

About 60 of the nearly 200 dioceses in the United States reported numbers of catechumens and candidates entering the Church in 2017 to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington.

Catechumens receive the sacraments of initiation — baptism, confirmation and first Communion — during the Easter Vigil, having prepared for this moment through the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults. Candidates, who are already baptized, also go through the preparation program to receive confirmation and first Communion to enter full communion with the Church.

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles, the largest diocese in the United States, welcomed 1,756 catechumens and 938 candidates, while the Archdiocese of GalvestonHouston reported 1,667 catechumens and 708 candidates. The Archdiocese of Seattle had 679 catechumens and 409 candidates, and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis reported 201 catechumens and 623 candidates.

The Diocese of Brooklyn, New York, had 387 catechumens and 528 candidates. Its diocesan newspaper reported that the numbers of new Catholics entering the Church and those seeking full communion in the Church were so staggering that the diocese had to hold two different ceremonies for the Rite of Election in early March.

On Holy Saturday, at the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Brooklyn, the “greatest and most noble of all solemnities” took longer than usual this year. In addition to the dramatic symbols of light and the seven Old Testament readings, 52 catechumens and 25 candidates were welcomed into the Church.

“Now that I am an adult, I better understand my call to faith. I have a responsibility to cooperate with my faith in God,” said Kari Morales, a native of Mexico, who was joining the Church at Easter.

“I’ve heard a lot of misconceptions about the Church,” added Morales, a psychologist at a public school. “There’s a lot of negativity out there. The period of preparation opened my eyes to the truth.”

The Catholic Spirit • 9

in BRIEF WASHINGTON

New Supreme Court justice says he’s humbled by call to serve high court After he was sworn in for the U.S. Supreme Court in a public ceremony at the White House Rose Garden April 10, Justice Neil Gorsuch said he would be “a faithful servant of the Constitution” and of the laws “of this great nation.” Justice Anthony Kennedy, for whom Gorsuch once clerked, administered the oath to the court’s 113th justice. At 49, the former federal appeals court judge from Colorado is the youngest justice to serve on the court in 25 years. Gorsuch, who also clerked for the late Justice Byron White, a fellow Coloradan, fills the seat left vacant by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia last year.

VATICAN CITY

Egypt’s attacks won’t stop pope’s visit for peace, says Vatican official Despite recent and repeated terrorist attacks against Egypt’s minority Christian communities, Pope Francis will not cancel his visit to Egypt, said Vatican spokesman Greg Burke April 10. The pope is scheduled to meet governmental and interfaith leaders during an April 28-29 visit to Cairo.

“Egyptians are looking forward to Pope Francis’ visit, although the atmosphere at present is heavy,” Father Rafic Greiche, spokesman for the Egyptian bishops, said April 10, the day after the attacks. “The pope’s mission is to be beside his brothers at the time of difficulty. Now is the real time that he can bring peace and hope to the Egyptian people as a whole and to the Christians of the East, in particular.”

Papal almoner opens laundry service for the poor The office charged with coordinating Pope Francis’ acts of charity announced the opening of a laundromat for the poor and homeless of Rome. The “Lavanderia di Papa Francesco” (“Pope Francis Laundry”) is a free service “offered to the poorest people, particularly the homeless, who will be able to wash, dry and iron their clothes and blankets,” the Papal Almoner’s Office announced April 10. The laundry service was inspired by the pope’s call for “concrete signs of mercy” during the Year of Mercy in 2016.

PHILADELPHIA

NJ teen pleads guilty to plotting attack on pope during 2015 visit A New Jersey teen pleaded guilty April 3 of plotting an attack on Pope Francis during the pontiff’s visit to Philadelphia in 2015 during the World Meeting of Families. Santos Colon Jr., 17, of Lindenwold in Camden County, pleaded guilty in a New Jersey federal court to one count of attempting to provide material support to terrorists. Court documents show Colon admitted to acting under the name Ahmad Shakoor in support of the Islamic State, though it is not clear whether he was in communication with the terrorist group. In a statement, the U.S. Department of Justice said that in 2015, Colon planned between June 30 and Aug. 14 to utilize a sniper to shoot the pope during his public Sunday Mass Sept. 27 on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia. He also planned to set off bombs in the surrounding area. Up to several hundred thousand people were in attendance on the parkway that day as the concluding Mass to the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia and the first apostolic visit of Pope Francis to the United States was celebrated without incident.

MEDJUGORJE, Bosnia-Herzegovina

Papal envoy praises ‘spiritual climate’ of Medjugorje While he said he had no authority or expertise to discuss the authenticity of the alleged apparitions of Mary at Medjugorje, Pope Francis’ envoy to the town said it was clear “there is a special spiritual climate here.” Polish Archbishop Henryk Hoser of WarsawPraga, named by Pope Francis in February to study the pastoral situation in the small town and the needs of pilgrims, held a news conference April 5 after a week in Medjugorje. Some of the six who said Mary had appeared to them daily beginning in 1981 say Mary still appears to them and gives them messages each day, while others say they see her only once a year now. Retired Pope Benedict XVI established the commission in 2010. Archbishop Hoser told reporters he hoped “the ultimate decision of the commission and of Pope Francis” would be published soon.

— Catholic News Service

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10 • The Catholic Spirit

Why the

empty tomb matters

istock/kevron2001

By Mark Pattison Catholic News Service

C

atholics and other Christians have grown up believing in the Resurrection, but the apostles themselves were among the first who were skeptical that Jesus arose from the dead.

They didn’t believe it at first when they were told by the women who had come to anoint the crucified Jesus’ body but instead found an empty tomb.

“To be fair, you can say the men didn’t believe the women, but who could believe that story? Let’s be fair to the men. They would have to see for themselves,” said James Papandrea, a Catholic who is associate professor of church history at GarrettEvangelical Theological Seminary in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois.

“I think anyone would want to see for themselves.

We believe what we see, we believe our senses, and it’s only natural that if somebody says the Lord is alive and you knew he was dead, you’d say, ‘Show me.’ The disciples, even after all of Jesus’ teachings and all his hints about death and resurrection, they seem not to have expected him to rise from the dead.

They automatically went into skeptic mode. We have Peter and John running to the empty tomb, to see that it’s empty,” Papandrea said.

Brant Pitre, a Scripture professor at Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans, said that the claim’s

corporal nature is key.

“For believers, the significance of the tomb is that when Christians were talking about the Resurrection, they weren’t just claiming Jesus’ soul went to heaven. Or that Jesus lives on in our heart,” he said.

“They’re saying something happened to Jesus’ corpse, Jesus’ body. That’s the other essential story of the Resurrection.”

‘Dead people stayed dead’ Some skeptics, Pitre said, talk about the concept of life after death as being just “the immortality of Jesus’ soul. They would have said that about anybody in the Old Testament.”

That is what makes the Resurrection not just different, but unique, according to Pitre, author of “The Case for Jesus” (Image, 2016).

“The empty tomb is a necessary condition for the Resurrection, but it’s not sufficient,” Pitre said. The other element is Jesus’ appearances to the apostles.

“They needed to see in the flesh that he was alive again in his body, but in a transformed and glorified state,” he added, citing the account in chapter 24 of St. Luke’s Gospel in which the apostles initially think “they saw a spirit — which shows you the apostles believed in ghosts.” But Jesus tells them, “Look at my hands and my feet,” which had been pierced with nails when he was crucified, “for a spirit does not have flesh and bones, but I have.”

Even though the apostles — even doubting

Thomas — came to believe, it was not easy to convince others.

“One of the things skeptics will say: ‘The apostles were simple fishermen. They would believe anything, out of their simplicity,’” Pitre said.

The case even holds true for the women who found the empty tomb. “In the first century A.D., the testimony of women in a courtroom was not considered reliable,” Pitre said, adding that for more believability, “you’d want the chief priest to find the [empty] tomb.”

Papandrea said, “If something is in the Gospels, it’s in there for a reason. If they were ashamed of the fact that the women were the first ones to find the tomb, they could have easily left it out.”

At first, the apostles were “met with opposition, mockery and even doubt on the part of the disciples,” Pitre said. “Even as Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire, the Resurrection was one of the stumbling blocks,” he added, noting that St. Paul preaching about Christ in Athens to the Greeks had his audience “until he says Christ was raised from the dead. They mock him. It’s impossible; even ancient people knew that dead people stayed dead.”

‘God broke into time’ “Many of us have the advantage where it’s normal to believe in the Resurrection,” said Papandrea, whose books include “Handed Down: The Catholic

April 20, 2017 • 11

Pope Francis: In every age, the ‘Risen Shepherd’ seeks his flock The following is the English text of Pope Francis’ 2017 Easter message, given Easter Sunday April 17.

“Without Easter Sunday, Good Friday would just be one more tragic death, one more tragic execution of one more poor Jewish man crushed by the Roman Empire. Easter Sunday is the vindication of what happened on Good Friday — ­­ the atoning death of the son of God for the whole world.”

Brant Pitre, Notre Dame Seminary

Faith of the Early Christians” (Catholic Answers Press, 2015). “We grew up and our parents believed it, and why wouldn’t we?”

He added that popular culture now holds up many Christ figures. “If you watch the superhero movies, they make liberal use of Christian themes, death and resurrection. These themes recur, but they also use themes from Greek and Roman mythology, Nordic mythology, as if they have equal cultural value. A lot of people treat the story of the Passion and Resurrection of Christ as just one more myth.”

The real difference about Jesus and superheroes, according to Papandrea, is that “the resurrection of Christ is not something that happened on top of Mount Olympus before time, but God broke into time.”

The bromide that “you can’t have Easter Sunday without Good Friday” is true as far as it goes, but “it would be just as valid to wear a little gold empty tomb around your neck,” Papandrea said, noting how Protestants tend to wear a cross rather than a crucifix “because they know Jesus didn’t stay on the cross. Both make perfect theological sense.”

“Without Easter Sunday,” Pitre said, “Good Friday would just be one more tragic death, one more tragic execution of one more poor Jewish man crushed by the Roman Empire. Easter Sunday is the vindication of what happened on Good Friday — ­­ the atoning death of the son of God for the whole world.”

Today, throughout the world, the Church echoes once more the astonishing message of the first disciples: “Jesus is risen!”

— “He is truly risen, as he said!”

The ancient feast of Passover, the commemoration of the liberation of the Hebrew people from slavery, here finds fulfillment. By his resurrection, Jesus Christ has set us free from the slavery of sin and death, and has opened before us the way to eternal life.

All of us, when we let ourselves be mastered by sin, lose the right way and end up straying like lost sheep. But God himself, our shepherd, has come in search of us. To save us, he lowered himself even to accepting death on the cross. Today we can proclaim: “The Good Shepherd has risen, who laid down his life for his sheep and willingly died for his flock, alleluia.”

In every age, the Risen Shepherd tirelessly seeks us, his brothers and sisters, wandering in the deserts of this world.

With the marks of the Passion — the wounds of his merciful love — he draws us to follow him on his way, the way of life.

Today, too, he places upon his shoulders so many of our brothers and sisters crushed by evil in all its varied forms.

The Risen Shepherd goes in search of all those lost in the labyrinths of loneliness and marginalization. He comes to meet them through our brothers and sisters who treat them with respect and kindness, and help them to hear his voice, an unforgettable voice, a voice calling them back to friendship with God. He takes upon himself all those victimized by old and new forms of slavery, inhuman labor, illegal trafficking, exploitation and discrimination, and grave forms of addiction.

He takes upon himself children and adolescents deprived of their carefree innocence and exploited, and those deeply hurt by acts of violence that take place within the walls of their own home.

The Risen Shepherd walks beside all those forced to leave their homelands as a result of armed conflicts, terrorist attacks, famine and oppressive regimes. Everywhere he helps these forced migrants to encounter brothers and sisters, with whom they can share bread and hope on their journey.

In the complex and often dramatic situations of today’s world, may the Risen Lord guide the steps of all those who work for justice and peace. May he grant the leaders of nations the courage they need to prevent the spread of conflicts and to put a halt to the arms trade.

Especially in these days, may he sustain the efforts of all those actively engaged in bringing comfort and relief to the civil population in Syria — the beloved and martyred Syria — prey to a war that continues to sow horror and death.

Yesterday saw the most recent vile attack against refugees who were fleeing, which left many dead and wounded. May he grant peace to the entire Middle East, beginning with the Holy Land, as well as in Iraq and Yemen.

May the Good Shepherd remain close to the people of South Sudan, Sudan, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, who endure continuing hostilities, aggravated by the grave famine affecting certain parts of Africa. May the Risen Jesus sustain the efforts of all those who, especially in Latin America, are committed to ensuring the common good of societies marked at times by political and social tensions that in some cases have resulted in violence. May it be possible for bridges of dialogue to be built, by continuing to fight the scourge of corruption and to seek viable and peaceful solutions to disputes, for progress and the strengthening of democratic institutions in complete respect for the rule of law.

May the Good Shepherd come to the aid of Ukraine, still beset by conflict and bloodshed, to regain social harmony.

May he accompany every effort to alleviate the tragic sufferings of those affected by the conflict. The Risen Lord continues to shed his blessing upon the continent of Europe.

May he grant hope to those experiencing moments of crisis and difficulty, especially due to high unemployment, particularly among young people.

Dear brothers and sisters, this year Christians of every confession celebrate Easter together. With one voice, in every part of the world, we proclaim the great message: “The Lord is truly risen, as he said!” May Jesus, who vanquished the darkness of sin and death, grant peace to our days.

Happy Easter!

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

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12 • The Catholic Spirit

TRAVEL & PILGRIMAGES

April 20, 2017

Silent retreats can help form daily prayer habits

By Sarah Moon For The Catholic Spirit

I

n 2013, Jim Reinhardt built a cabin in western Wisconsin to have an office space near southeast Minnesota, where he often works with clients who’ve been injured on a job. But Reinhardt, who attends Holy Family in St. Louis Park, also shares the cabin with family and friends, and uses it to spend quiet time with God. “The location lends itself for peace and tranquility,” said Reinhardt, 56. “Unlike lake homes, there are no noisy boats and Ski-Doos, close neighbors or other immediate distractions.”

Another benefit of the cabin is its 10-mile proximity to St. Felix in Wabasha, where he can attend daily Mass, go to confession and pray.

Reinhardt has attended silent retreats, but decided his cabin better suits his needs. He’s found that farmland and the woods naturally draw him to silence.

“Even when I am alone on the property, it still takes self-discipline for me not to create my own noise,” he said.

But for those without a cabin or designated quiet place, silent retreats give people a space to spend time in private reflection and prayer. They might include speakers, and participants have the opportunity to meet privately for spiritual direction.

Phyllis Laing, 76, started going on silent retreats while attending St. Francis High School in Little Falls in the Diocese of St. Cloud. She usually attends three or four retreats a year and also makes time for silence during the day.

“It’s just kind of quieting myself down, learning that from going on retreat,” said Laing, who attends St. Alphonsus in Brooklyn Center. “Just saying, ‘OK, it’s just God and me time right now. Nothing else.

Whatever else comes in needs to wait.’”

Silence is a virtue that requires practice, said Father Jim Deegan, a Missionary Oblate of Mary Immaculate who’s the director of Christ the King Retreat Center in Buffalo. If people are serious about prayer, they need to have a time and place to pray, because then they’re more likely to repeat it.

“Any way in which you choose to pray is good.

There’s no such thing as a wrong way to pray,” Father Deegan said. “The only mistake we make in prayer is

“You have to step back from [distractions] to get some sense of your self identity, and some sense of your direction and purpose in life — something bigger than just a moment.”

Jesuit Father Patrick McCorkell, director of Jesuit Retreat House in Lake Elmo

Finding silence in daily life Oblate Father Jim Deegan, director of Christ the King Retreat Center, and Benedictine Sister Mary White of St. Paul’s Monastery gave the following tips for prioritizing silence in a noisy world.

• Recognize when you are allowing noise to take you away from your self and your present reality.

• Seek opportunities to be in quiet places.

• Frequent eucharistic adoration.

not to pray.”

Active forms of prayer, such as reading the daily Scriptures or praying the rosary are good, but people should also incorporate moments of silence into their prayer time, Father Deegan said.

“God has things he wants to communicate to us, and the only way that can happen is [if] we kind of just let go of things, be open, be available, be silent — just be that empty container so that God can begin to fill us more fully with the Spirit,” Father Deegan said.

Incorporating silence into daily life can be as simple as closing an office door, pausing to breathe and being still, said Benedictine Sister Virginia Matter, a spiritual director at the Benedictine Center at St. Paul’s Monastery in Maplewood.

“Silence can happen so quickly in just a few seconds if we are pausing to receive it,” Sister Virginia said.

Some people don’t listen to what God is trying to say to them because it hurts too much, said added.

“Silence helps us to heal, and to see what is getting in the way of our peace, of our solitude, of ourselves, [and] really listening to where is God inviting [us] at this time in [our lives],” she said.

Jesuit Father Patrick McCorkell, director of Jesuit Retreat House in Lake Elmo, said it’s important to take time for silence because the culture is full of distractions.

“You have to step back from that to get some sense of your self identity, and some sense of your direction and purpose in life — something bigger than just a

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• Try centering prayer, a form of meditation that emphasizes interior silence.

• Read sacred Scripture.

• Garden, paint or sew.

• Take walks.

• Designate a specific time and place for silence.

• Pause to “listen” to silence.

• Practice being with others without using words.

• Pause to consider the motive behind your action. moment,” he said.

For people who haven’t been on a silent retreat, Father McCorkell recommends speaking with others who have.

“You create time and space for God to have easy access to your consciousness and your desires,” he said. “You don’t have to fight through a bunch of distractions and commotion.”

Laing plans to attend her next silent retreat at Christ the King Retreat Center in June. She said she thinks those who haven’t been on a silent retreat will benefit if they allow God to do his work.

“You will come out a different person than you went in,” she said.

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April 20, 2017

TRAVEL & PILGRIMAGES

The Catholic Spirit • 13

Priest: Catholics can encounter Jesus in their own ‘Upper Room’

By Mark Zimmermann Catholic News Service

P

laces in the Bible can seem distant and remote, separated from us by thousands of miles and years.

But in a new book, a Washington, D.C.-area priest says Catholics, like the apostles once did, can encounter Jesus and have their lives transformed forever in the “Upper Room,” wherever they are.

In his book, “Meeting God in the Upper Room,” Msgr. Peter Vaghi — pastor of the Church of the Little Flower in Bethesda, Maryland — notes that the Upper Room in Jerusalem “is the most important room in Christendom.” The Upper Room is the place where Jesus celebrated the Last Supper with his apostles and instituted the sacraments of the Eucharist and holy orders.

In that room, Jesus washed the feet of the apostles, offering what Msgr. Vaghi calls “an icon of Catholic social teaching” — a loving example of service for all his disciples to follow.

Also called the Cenacle, it is the place where on the first Easter night, the risen Christ appeared to the apostles and disciples and instituted the sacrament of penance.

In the Upper Room at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came upon Mary, the apostles and disciples. Jesus’ frightened followers, who were huddled in that room, were emboldened by the power of the Holy Spirit to open the doors of the Upper Room and go forth to spread Christ’s good news.

“So much of the fundamentals of our faith are from that one room,” Msgr. Vaghi said.

For the past 30 years, the priest has been the chaplain of the John Carroll Society — a group of Catholic professionals who gather together for spiritual and social activities and who are in service to the archbishop of Washington.

During two of the society’s pilgrimages to the Holy Land, Msgr. Vaghi and his fellow pilgrims were able to visit and pray in the actual Upper Room in Jerusalem.

“Whenever we experience the living presence of God and his Church in our day, that’s an Upper Room experience.”

Msgr. Peter Vaghi

He first visited it as a seminarian studying at the Pontifical North American College in Rome.

“So much of what I do and who I am comes from that Upper Room,” said Msgr. Vaghi, who was ordained for the Archdiocese of Washington in 1985.

As a parish priest for the past 32 years, his life has centered on celebrating Mass and hearing confessions.

The pastor said he came to realize that the Upper Room is not only a physical place in Jerusalem.

“Whenever we experience the living presence of God and his Church in our day, that’s an Upper Room experience,” Msgr. Vaghi said.

The priest said each Catholic can find his or her own “Upper Room” — a place where they can seek and encounter Jesus through prayer, by receiving the Eucharist at Mass, by seeking God’s forgiveness in confession, by reaching out to serve others and by sharing one’s faith. Msgr. Vaghi added that today’s Catholics can pray to the Holy Spirit to guide them, so like Jesus’ followers in the Upper Room, they can have the courage to go forth and share their faith with the world as missionary disciples in their everyday lives.

“This is my ‘Upper Room,’” the priest said, pointing to his office in the upstairs of the Little Flower rectory, a room where he says his daily prayers and reads the Bible, and the room where he prayed as he was

recovering from cancer.

In a foreword to the book, Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington notes that Msgr. Vaghi gives readers the opportunity to “spiritually visit the Upper Room and draw strength and inspiration from our encounter with God in that sacred space.”

The priest ends each chapter of his book with a section on “preparing your Upper Room,” offering ways that Catholics can find their own Upper Room through prayer, the sacraments and service. Noting that the Upper Room was the place where Jesus promised to be with his followers always and where he called them “friends,” Msgr. Vaghi also reflects on the meaning of Christian friendship.

The book is divided into three sections about the key events that occurred in the Upper Room — the Last Supper, Jesus’ post-resurrection appearance and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

Msgr. Vaghi uses classic paintings — Leonardo da Vinci’s “Last Supper,” Caravaggio’s “The Incredulity of St. Thomas” and El Greco’s “The Coming of the Holy Spirit” — to illustrate how people today can relate to the qualities of those who were in the Upper Room with Jesus. He discusses the prayerfulness and steadfastness of Mary, the denial and ultimately the courage of Peter, the doubt of Thomas, the betrayal of Judas and the love of John.

Pope asks council for evangelization to oversee Catholic shrines Catholic News Service Highlighting Catholic shrines’ potential to strengthen the faith of Catholics and draw people to Christianity, Pope Francis transferred responsibility for coordinating the activity of shrines to the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization.

“Despite the crisis of faith impacting the modern world, these places still are perceived as sacred spaces where pilgrims go to find moments of rest, silence and contemplation in the midst of a life that is often frenetic,” Pope Francis said in a document published April 1.

Issued “motu proprio,” or on his own authority, the document moves responsibility for Catholic shrines from the Congregation for Clergy to the council for

new evangelization.

While in most cases, religious orders or dioceses run Catholic shrines, the Vatican still has responsibility for providing some regulation and, especially, for encouraging their pastoral activities.

In the document, Pope Francis praised expressions of popular piety as reflections of real faith on the part of the pilgrims who visit the shrines, whether they are the Holy Land sites associated with the life, death and resurrection of Jesus; places recognized as the site of Marian apparitions; or churches associated with the life of a saint.

“Here they experience in a profound way the closeness of God, the tenderness of the Virgin Mary and the company of the saints,” the pope wrote. “It is an experience of true spirituality that cannot be

Read breaking news affecting the Church at www.TheCatholicSpirit.com

undervalued without demeaning the action of the Holy Spirit and the life of grace.”

In addition, Pope Francis said, Catholic shrines are known as places that “throw open their doors to the sick, persons with disabilities and, above all, to the poor, the marginalized, to refugees and migrants.”

The enduring popularity of Catholic shrines, “the humble and simple prayer of the people of God,” and the Catholic liturgies celebrated in the shrines offer “a unique opportunity for evangelization in our time,” he said.

Many people today, he said, have a longing for God, and shrines “can be a true refuge” where people can be honest about themselves and “find the strength necessary for their conversion.”

14 • The Catholic Spirit

FROM AGE TO AGE

April 20, 2017

‘Longest married couple’ keeping love alive

By Matthew Davis The Catholic Spirit

V

ince and Leona Arceno first met at a St. Paul roller skating rink in 1938, and the wheels of love keep spinning for them well into their seventh decade of marriage.

Their bond of 74 years has been forged by friendship, faith and mutual support. Married at age 22, the couple maintains a daily commitment of going on walks and attending Mass — a routine they’ve honored since retiring from their jobs 36 years ago.

“You’ve got to keep busy, even now at this age,” Leona said. Both she and Vince are 95.

Parishioners of St. Pascal Baylon in east St. Paul, the Arcenos regularly attend the annual Marriage Day Mass at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul. Another couple took note last year and nominated them for Worldwide Marriage Encounter’s Longest Married Couple award for Minnesota, which they received in February. The marriage-supporting organization presents the awards annually based on nominations.

The honor surprised Leona.

“You’ve got to be kidding; there are people married longer than us,” Leona recalled saying when she heard the news. “But they weren’t nominated.”

Vince and Leona’s first encounter while roller skating led to dating off and on over the next seven years. When they got engaged, Vince was Catholic and Leona was Lutheran, and interdenominational marriages weren’t widely accepted. At first, Vince’s associate pastor at Holy Redeemer in St. Paul refused to officiate. Then, Vince’s mother, who supported their engagement, contacted the parish and spoke with the pastor about the matter. He

Leona and Vince Arceno. Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit agreed to the wedding.

On Feb. 27, 1943, Vince and Leona had a simple ceremony in the parish’s rectory, followed by a small reception.

The couple settled in St. Paul’s East Side where Vince worked at 3M. They raised three daughters — Judy, Jackie and Jill — in their one-story home. The house had only one bathroom, but its door had a knocker, used frequently as a reminder to limit time — a fact that remains a point of humor in the family.

Leona said raising their girls was easy, but having children sparked a change in her faith. As a Lutheran, she had not been attending Mass with Vince, but she began to see a need to become a Catholic.

It took Vince by surprise when she told him that she had plans to meet with the pastor at St. Pascal, Vince’s parish. “[Vince] dropped the [news]paper and said, ‘What did I do?’” Leona recalled.

She became Catholic, and the family began attending

Mass together every Sunday. Vince served at Mass, helped with collection envelopes and headed the men’s club. Leona, meanwhile, led the women’s club.

The Arcenos seem to have passed on the legacy of a long-lasting marriage. Their oldest daughter, Judy Montpetit, recently celebrated 50 years of marriage with her husband, Joel.

“My own marriage has held together because I have parents who have set a pretty high bar,” said Montpetit, a parishioner of St. Ambrose in Woodbury.

Their middle daughter, Jackie Mlynarczyk, also noted the importance of her parents’ daily witness.

“We knew loving each other was important, [and] we knew taking care of each other is important,” said Mlynarczyk, who attends St. Peter in North St. Paul.

Now with six grandchildren and 13 greatgrandchildren, Vince and Leona have their 75th anniversary on the horizon. As they near their 96th birthdays, they approach their few health challenges as opportunities to serve each other. Vince has become hard of hearing, so Leona helps him catch conversation.

Leona has macular degeneration, so Vince, who still drives, helps her get around safely.

People ask the couple how they’ve made it so long, and Leona says it’s nothing remarkable. It’s the stuff of their day-to-day actions.

Vince states it simply: “We’re blessed.”

They said they’ve faced their share of conflicts, but found a consistent way to deal with them. Leona said she would often stop arguing and start over fresh the next day.

“Sometimes, you’ve got to bite your tongue,” she said.

They spend most of their time together; their little alone time includes daily prayer, with worn prayer books to show for it. “We’ve got an arm-list long of people that we’re praying for,” Leona said.

It’s an expression of how they live their marriage vows.

“They are always looking out for the interest of the other spouse,” said Father Michael Byron, pastor of St. Pascal. “When you do that [and] when you’re that much in love, that’s how you make a marriage last.”

“Listen to your elder’s advice.

Not because I’m always right, but because I have more experiences of being wrong.”

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FOCUS ON FAITH

April 20, 2017

SUNDAY SCRIPTURES

Deacon Jayson Miller

Wounds a reminder of Christ’s sacrifice The Gospel for April 23 gives us another encounter with the risen Lord Jesus: “He showed them his hands and his side” (Jn 20:20). The risen Jesus doesn’t leave his wounds behind when he shows himself to the disciples. Rather, he shows evidence of his Passion.

Why would he do this?

For us, it might seem more fitting that a risen Jesus would show up without scars and marks. But Jesus shows his scarred hands and pierced side to the disciples.

One reason Jesus keeps his scars is to prove the identity between the once crucified and now risen body of our Lord. The same body that died on the cross now stands alive before the disciples. This evidence proved to Thomas that it was indeed Jesus who stood before him. Without the wounds, he might have been stuck in unbelief.

But another important reason for the wounds is that they show the cost of God’s love for us. When

The Catholic Spirit • 15

the human race was dead in sin, Jesus took upon himself the price of our redemption. As God and man, Christ’s self-sacrifice on the cross is the most complete and total act of love and obedience possible for the human race. The gravity of original and actual sin was so great that no number of animal sacrifices or good moral living could undo the punishment. Only God himself could bridge the chasm that separated mankind from its creator. The cross of Christ bridges that gap.

This is why the wounds are important for us. They remind us of the sacrifice of Calvary. They show us that Jesus lives forever, offering that one sacrifice to the father in atonement for our sins and the sins of the whole world. The wounds show us that the act of love, which Christ accomplished on the cross, remains a fixed reality for us. This is such a great act of Christ’s mercy, which we still experience.

Jesus then sends out his disciples as the father sent him to undo the damage of original sin. How are they to do this?

In today’s Gospel, Jesus gives them the authority to forgive sins in his name. Through this sending and bestowal of authority, Jesus continues to forgive the sins of his people today through the ministry of bishops and priests in the sacrament of reconciliation.

St. Faustina Kowalska, whose visions of Jesus’ divine mercy we celebrate today, recorded in her diary Christ’s words to her about confession: “I myself am waiting there for you. I am only hidden by the priest. ... I myself act in your soul.”

In confession, Jesus waits for us, ready to heal and

Sunday, April 23 Divine Mercy Sunday Readings • Acts 2:42-47 • 1 Pt 1:3-9 • Jn 20:19-31

forgive. He shows us his pierced hands and side and allows a fountain of mercy to flow upon us. Especially when we are most miserable and feel most unworthy to approach God’s mercy, Jesus shows us his wounds, which tell of the depth of his love for us. Again, St. Faustina writes, “Here the misery of the soul meets the God of mercy.”

We should never fear to approach God’s mercy, because Jesus has offered himself as expiation for our sins and keeps his wounds to show us the depth of his love.

Deacon Miller is in formation for the priesthood at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity for the Diocese of Fargo, North Dakota. His teaching parish is St. Lawrence and Newman Center in Minneapolis, and his home parish is St. Joseph in Devils Lake, North Dakota.

DAILY Scriptures Sunday, April 23 Divine Mercy Sunday Acts 2:42-47 1 Pt 1:3-9 Jn 20:19-31 Monday, April 24 Acts 4:23-31 Jn 3:1-8 Tuesday, April 25 St. Mark, evangelist 1 Pt 5:5b-14 Mk 16:15-20

Wednesday, April 26 Acts 5:17-26 Jn 3:16-21 Thursday, April 27 Acts 5:27-33 Jn 3:31-36 Friday, April 28 Acts 5:34-42 Jn 6:1-15

Saturday, April 29 St. Catherine of Siena, virgin and doctor of the Church Acts 6:1-7 Jn 6:16-21

Tuesday, May 2 St. Athanasius, bishop and doctor of the Church Acts 7:51–8:1a Jn 6:30-35

Sunday, April 30 Third Sunday of Easter Acts 2:14, 22-33 1 Pt 1:17-21 Lk 24:13-35

Wednesday, May 3 Sts. Philip and James, apostles 1 Cor 15:1-8 Jn 14:6-14

Monday, May 1 Acts 6:8-15 Jn 6:22-29

FAITH FUNDAMENTALS

Father Michael Van Sloun

The scriptural basis for baptism Editor’s note: With this issue, The Catholic Spirit is launching “Faith Fundamentals,” a new monthly column from Father Michael Van Sloun that explores the basics of the Catholic faith. This column begins a series on baptism.

Baptism is the first of the seven sacraments. It was established by Jesus and has a strong biblical basis.

The Gospels report that Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River (Mt 3:13-17; Mk 1:9-11; Lk 3:21-22). Jesus modeled the reception of baptism.

Jesus saw the spiritual value of baptism for himself and, in doing so, showed that those who believe in him should also be baptized.

It is unclear to what extent Jesus conducted a baptismal ministry. On one hand, it appears that Jesus did baptize people. The Gospel of John explains that, “Jesus and his disciples went into the region of Judea, where he spent some time with them baptizing” (Jn 3:22), and that “Jesus was making and baptizing more

Thursday, May 4 Acts 8:26-40 Jn 6:44-51

disciples than John” (Jn 4:1). John the Baptist said that Jesus would “baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Mt 3:11). Yet, on the other hand, the fourth Gospel also states that “Jesus himself was not baptizing, just his disciples” (Jn 4:2).

Jesus instituted the sacrament of baptism when he commissioned his disciples before his ascension. He instructed them, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” (Mt 28:19).

Jesus’ death on the cross saves sinners, and the water that flowed from his side (Jn 19:34) represents his saving grace that is poured out over believers in the waters of baptism.

Baptism held such an important place in the spiritual life of the early Church that John the Evangelist wove baptismal imagery into the encounter between Jesus and Peter at the Sea of Tiberias. When Peter saw Jesus, he “tucked in his garment,” which represents a baptismal garment, and he “jumped into the sea” (Jn 21:7), which represents the waters of baptism. When Peter said, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you” (Jn 21:15), he made a profession of faith, which is equivalent to baptismal promises.

The disciples took Jesus’ commissioning to heart and began a vigorous baptismal ministry. Peter invited his listeners to “repent and be baptized” (Acts 2:38).

He explained that those who are baptized would be forgiven of their sins and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, and “those who accepted his message were baptized, and about 3,000 persons were added that day” (Acts 2:41). He also baptized Cornelius and a

Friday, May 5 Acts 9:1-20 Jn 6:52-59 Saturday, May 6 Acts 9:31-42 Jn 6:60-69 Sunday, May 7 Fourth Sunday of Easter Acts 2:14a, 36-41 1 Pt 2:20b-25 Jn 10:1-10

number of others in Joppa (Acts 10:48).

Likewise, Philip went on a missionary journey to Samaria where he “preached the good news ... and the name of Jesus Christ, [and] men and women alike were baptized” (Acts 8:12). He also baptized Simon the magician (Acts 8:13). Another time, as Philip was traveling along the road from Jerusalem to Gaza, he came upon an Ethiopian court official, and after explaining the Scriptures to him, he baptized him (Acts 8:38).

The apostle Paul was baptized by Ananias after his conversion (Acts 9:18). When Paul arrived in Greece, he first preached in Philippi, and a woman named Lydia and her entire household were baptized (Acts 15:13-15). Later, Paul was imprisoned there, and after his miraculous release, he baptized the jailer and his family (Acts 15:33). When Paul went to Corinth, he baptized Crispus and many other Corinthians (Acts 18:8), and then many more in Ephesus (Acts 19:5).

Baptism is prefigured in a number of Old Testament events: the creation of the world when a mighty wind, the Spirit, swept over the waters (Gn 1:2); the great flood that marked the end of sin and the beginning of goodness (Gn 7-8); the crossing of the Red Sea when the Israelites were delivered through water (Ex 14:21-22); and when the Israelites crossed the Jordan River and entered the Promised Land (Jos 3:14-17).

Father Van Sloun is pastor of St. Bartholomew in Wayzata. Read more of his writing at www.catholichotdish.com.

16 • The Catholic Spirit

THIS CATHOLIC LIFE • COMMENTARY

CATHOLIC WATCHMEN

Vincenzo Randazzo

Men who turn heads — to Christ Our two cars pulled into the church lot right next to each other. We all stepped out, 10 men, suited up and looking sharp. Dressing to the nines and going to Sunday Mass is normal for my friends and me, but our normal was interrupted this particular Sunday.

From the moment we all stepped out of the car, eyes were on us as though this church was getting visited by the Minnesota Vikings — in early fall, when all of Minnesota thinks the Vikings are good. Not to sound dramatic, but it felt like slow motion as we made our way toward the steps. We were in a small Minnesota town for a friend’s wedding, and parishioners were gazing at us. I remember thinking it must be a rare sight for them to have a crew of young men at a liturgy.

So with eyes on us, we walked up the steps, down the aisle, to an empty pew. We filled it end to end, and then, in what probably looked like choreography, we knelt in unison to pray before Mass.

That gesture let everyone know that we were there for

THE LOCAL CHURCH

James Ennis

Caring for creation an act of mercy As we approach Divine Mercy Sunday, I have been thinking a lot about the mercy of God and the Church’s more recent efforts to teach us about — and remind us of — this most beautiful attribute of God. April 22, the day before Divine Mercy Sunday, also happens to be Earth Day, when many around the world promote the need to protect the earth’s precious resources.

Some readers might be thinking, “What does Divine Mercy Sunday have to do with Earth Day?” Actually, quite a lot.

Divine Mercy Sunday, celebrated in the Church since the canonization of St. Faustina Kowalska April 30, 2000, is an invitation to all people of goodwill to contemplate the rich mercy of God and to re-establish a

April 20, 2017

a reason, and we were there on a mission. And when men walk together, on a mission, people notice. And if you are one of those men noticed, you know how awesome it feels. We commanded the attention of the room, and we could feel it. We felt like the coolest, most interesting people this church had ever seen. Even the old priest looked at us and welcomed us in front of everyone as his “young guests.”

As I looked around I saw maybe two or three other men our age, each of whom were with their family or wife, so perhaps the parish’s lack of male Massgoers was the reason why people seemed so giddy to meet us afterward.

The curious old ladies were eager to ask what we were doing in town, and to know who among us was single.

While we were apparently an anomaly for this parish, this attention was an anomaly for us. We felt as though we were admired for our faith as men, which is a rare thing among our peers. The attention these Catholics gave us was unexpected, and it was a result of our presence as men of faith. We were not brought to Mass that day by our moms or wives; we are men who go to Mass with our own integrity and intention. I realized that when men bring themselves together and then enter a place that doesn’t expect them, they turn heads — and I wonder if this “marvel” doesn’t also have the potential to do more.

I remembered my experience at that little parish last month while at the Archdiocesan Men’s Conference.

That day, more than 1,000 men processed out of the field house at the University of St. Thomas behind the Eucharist held in a monstrance by Bishop Andrew Cozzens. We walked in powerful silence into the lower

quad and passed the magnanimous statue of Archbishop John Ireland, who, a friend later remarked, seemed to want to join us.

We walked through the iconic arches right on to the Summit Avenue median. There we all gathered for adoration and benediction, and we sang a hymn right on the boulevard. And, just like when I went to that small church with my crew, I saw how men of faith can disrupt people’s routine and get them thinking about higher things. People and families walking by stopped and knelt. The cars passing on Cleveland Avenue slowed down to look and see what it was that was commanding attention.

It was us men, old and young, married and single — Catholic men! We were on our knees in the spring mud, kneeling before Christ Jesus in the Eucharist. The men in procession also knew that they were being watched and that they were bringing their faith into the world. I wish campus security at St. Thomas hadn’t blocked Summit Avenue so that more people could have driven by. Perhaps their curiosity would have been sparked, too.

We ought to want more people to see the impressive image of men proclaiming their faith in unity. In this Easter season and beyond, let us look for more opportunities to come together in this way, and interrupt people’s lives with the greatest man of all, Christ Jesus.

relationship with Jesus, who offers forgiveness. As St. John Paul II stated on the day of St. Faustina’s canonization, “Divine Mercy reaches human beings through the heart of Christ crucified.” Divine Mercy Sunday amplifies the message of Easter. Mercy is a great gift from a loving God. In 2015, Pope Francis wrote his second encyclical “Laudato Si’ (“Praise Be”): On Care for Our Common Home,” because of the Church’s concern for the earth, another great gift from a loving God. Pope Francis writes: “The creation accounts in the book of Genesis ... suggest that human life is grounded in three fundamental and closely intertwined relationships: with God, with our neighbor and with the earth itself. ... These three vital relationships have been broken, both outwardly and within us. This rupture is sin. The harmony between the Creator, humanity and creation as a whole was disrupted by our presuming to take the place of God and refusing to acknowledge our creaturely limitations. This in turn distorted our mandate to ‘have dominion’ over the earth (Gn 1:28), to ‘till it and keep it’ (Gn 2:15).”

This “distortion of our mandate,” this brokenness between human beings and the land, has had serious negative consequences. As the executive director of Catholic Rural Life over the past nine years, and as the director of a sustainable agriculture program for nine years before that, I have worked with farmers,

ranchers, agriculture scientists and environmentalists from around the country who are on the front lines of some of the environmental degradation in rural communities due to the brokenness Pope Francis speaks about in “Laudato Si’.”

Earth Day, started in 1970 by Sen. Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin, was initially a grassroots effort to raise awareness of environmental degradation in the U.S. Today, Earth Day is a worldwide movement involving 200 million people in 141 countries.

Addressing both the causes and the remedies of our alienation with God, our fellow humans and the earth, Pope Francis focused the Church’s attention on mercy when he led the Church through a jubilee year of mercy from Dec. 8, 2015, to Nov. 20, 2016. During this spiritual pilgrimage, he proposed a complement to the two traditional sets of mercy: “may the works of mercy also include care for our common home.”

As a spiritual work of mercy, contemplation of the natural world — God’s handiwork — can help us perceive more about all that God wishes to teach us.

As a corporal work of mercy, care for our common home requires us to take concrete steps to change our patterns of thinking and acting that are more respectful of creation.

white supremacist friends and personal advisers. All we noticed was that he changed from pro-choice to antiabortion, assuring us of a Supreme Court that will be pro-business, anti-protection and anti-regulation (i.e., anti-clean air, water and earth). Oh, yes, and by the way, pro-life except, of course, in regards to the death penalty.

(The Catholics on the court — the conservative ones, that is — who are in the majority, are not interested in being pro-life for criminals, a non-“pelvic issue.”)

Quite literally, we have sacrificed our own Christianity, and possibly our country, for a “pelvic issue,” as Bishop Barron calls it. We didn’t even listen to our own pope in regards to Mr. Trump’s behavior and his anti-immigrant attitudes. As long as he’s against that “pelvic issue,” everything is OK. Mr. Trump has skillfully played us for the fools we are. Now there is no chance of finding common ground, seeking moral solutions and letting the world know we are Christians by our love.

Kudos for Catholics at the Capitol

Randazzo is an evangelization manager in the Office of Evangelization and Catechesis of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, and director of development at St. Stephen in Minneapolis.

Ennis is executive director of Catholic Rural Life in St. Paul.

LETTERS Problems from ‘pelvic issues’ emphasis In response to Bishop Robert Barron (“Dave Rubin, the ‘pelvic issues’ and Jewish comedians,” Feb. 9), I don’t understand why he is surprised that out of the entire interview [with political commentator Dave Rubin], most of the response had to do with “pelvic issues.” I totally agree with him, that with the Gospels and the epistles of St. Paul, “you don’t get the impression that what their authors wanted you primarily to understand is sexual morality.” Yet, that is what the majority of Catholic voters have focused on.

“Pelvic issues,” as Bishop Barron calls them, is why Mr. Trump is in office. As Christians, we ignored his language, we ignored his disparaging remarks about women, the disabled and the Muslims. We rationalized his business acumen and ignored his bankruptcies. We gave him a pass on his taxes and financial conflicts of interest. We didn’t seem to mind that he didn’t have any record of defending the poor; we didn’t even mind his

Elizabeth Rosenwinkel St. Albert the Great, Minneapolis

Catholics at the Capitol day was a huge success and a day for all Catholics to be proud. Catholics from all corners of Minnesota came to St. Paul to share their faith and zeal in the public square. Kudos to all our bishops, many priests, deacons, sisters, seminarians, students and all who participated in this wonderful show of support for Christ’s Church! Thank you, Minnesota Catholic Conference, for spearheading this fantastic event.

Bridget Kluesner Divine Mercy, Faribault Share your perspective by emailing CatholicSpirit@ Please include your parish and phone number. The Commentary page does not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Catholic Spirit. Letters may be edited for length or clarity. archspm.org.

THIS CATHOLIC LIFE • COMMENTARY

April 20, 2017

FAITH IN THE PUBLIC ARENA

Shawn Peterson

Making sure our water works In the Land of 10,000 Lakes, it can be easy to take water for granted — it is literally all around us, even more so in the rainy month of April.

But as the recent water crises in Flint, Michigan, and the state of California should remind us, the accessibility and quality of water can never be assumed, even in the United States in 2017. There may be no known instances of systemic lead contamination in Minnesota water, nor are there major droughts on the horizon, but we face our own share of water challenges, from widespread water pollution to an inadequate water supply in too many rural communities.

As Benjamin Franklin once observed, “When the well is dry, we will know the value of water.” With a bit of foresight and ingenuity, though, we can take commonsense steps to protect our clean water supply now, so we need not discover its worth only when we no longer have it.

Troubled waters According to a 2015 report by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, half of the lakes and rivers in southern Minnesota are often so polluted that they are unsafe for swimming and fishing. Much of this pollution can be traced to phosphorus and manure in runoff from farm lands, and also from other chemicals such as detergent and road salt. These toxins flow into our lakes and rivers and can seep into the water supply.

To compound the problem, many communities in greater Minnesota are already struggling to update their aging water treatment and supply systems, which can be prohibitively expensive to improve. As a result, communities are forced to purchase hundreds of thousands of gallons of water from outside sources, doing nothing to increase their own water

WORD ON FIRE

Bishop Robert Barron

Evangelizing through the good Anyone even vaguely acquainted with my work knows that I advocate vigorous argument on behalf of religious truth. I have long called for a revival in what is classically known as apologetics, the defense of the claims of faith against skeptical opponents. And I have repeatedly weighed in against a dumbed-down Catholicism. Also, I have, for many years, emphasized the importance of beauty in service of evangelization.

The Sistine Chapel Ceiling, the Sainte-Chapelle, Dante’s “Divine Comedy,” Bach’s “St. Matthew’s Passion,” T.S. Eliot’s “Four Quartets” and the Cathedral of Chartres all have an extraordinary convincing power, in many ways surpassing that of formal arguments. So, I affirm the path of truth and the path of beauty. But I also recommend, as a means of propagating the faith, the third of the transcendentals, namely, “the good.”

Moral rectitude, the concrete living out of the Christian way, especially when it is done in an heroic manner, can move even the most hardened unbeliever to faith, and the truth of this principle has been

Ask your Minnesota lawmakers to support the Human Right to Water Act Access to clean water is a basic human right. The availability of this precious resource cannot be left solely to market dynamics, but must be secured by all levels of society.

Minnesota lawmakers can bring greater awareness to the universal right to water and renew their commitment to ensuring it is available to all citizens by passing the Human Right to Water Act (HF 1095/SF 1968). Call your lawmakers today and ask them to support this measure.

To find contact information for your state senator and state representative, call 651-296-8338 or visit www.gis.leg.mn/imaps/districts.

independence while depleting their ability to develop a long-term solution. This sort of financial burden places undue stress on the already-fragile economies of rural Minnesota.

These seemingly local issues carry with them statewide consequences. If water treatment systems are breaking down or are overwhelmed during heavy rains, polluted water can flow downstream toward our urban centers. If rural Minnesota can’t keep up with basic infrastructure needs, residents could seek greener pastures in other states. And, of course, if Minnesota’s lakes can’t stay clean, our state’s tourism industry and quality of life will be adversely affected.

Not just another commodity Minnesotans might not be in any immediate danger of losing access to drinkable water. But given the essential role of water in so much of human life, as well as our obligations to future generations, any threat to our water supply must be taken seriously.

There’s a reason scientists look for signs of water as a prerequisite for the possibility of life on a foreign planet; proven again and again over the centuries.

In the earliest days of the Christian movement, when both Jews and Greeks looked upon the nascent faith as either scandalous or irrational, it was the moral goodness of the followers of Jesus that brought many to belief. The Church father Tertullian conveyed the wondering pagan reaction to the early Church in his famous adage: “How these Christians love one another!” At a time when the exposure of malformed infants was commonplace, when the poor and the sick were often left to their own devices, and when murderous revenge was a matter of course, the early Christians cared for unwanted babies, gave succor to the sick and the dying, and endeavored to forgive the persecutors of the faith. And this goodness extended, not simply to their own brothers and sisters, but, astonishingly, to outsiders and to enemies. This peculiarly excessive form of moral decency convinced many people that something strange was afoot among these disciples of Jesus, something splendid and rare. It compelled them to take a deeper look.

During the cultural and political chaos following the collapse of the Roman Empire, certain spiritual athletes took to the caves, deserts and hills in order to live a radical form of the Christian life. From these early ascetics, monasticism emerged, a spiritual movement that led, in time, to the re-civilization of Europe. What so many found fascinating was the sheer intensity of the monks’ commitment, their embrace of poverty and their blithe trust in divine providence. Once again, it was the living out of the Gospel ideal that proved convincing. Something similar unfolded in the 13th century, a time of significant corruption in the Church, especially among the clergy. Francis, Dominic and their confreres inaugurated the mendicant orders,

The Catholic Spirit • 17

there can be none without it. From a human perspective, clean water plays an integral part in nearly every aspect of our lives: We use it to clean ourselves and our clothing, grow and prepare our food, and provide irreplaceable hydration to our bodies. And Minnesotans, in particular, look to water for recreation.

The ubiquity of water in the most essential acts of human life makes it unlike any other substance. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church affirms, “by its very nature, water cannot be treated as just another commodity among many.” Since water is needed for human flourishing, all human beings have an inalienable right to it, by virtue of our God-given dignity.

Our public policies and individual actions should contribute to the conditions in which all have access to clean, drinkable water, now and in the future. As Pope Benedict XVI stated in his address for World Water Day 2007, “... the sustainable management of water [is] a social, economic, environmental and ethical challenge that involves not only institutions, but [also] the whole of society.”

Replenishing our supply Thankfully, there are several public policy measures being considered at the Capitol that will help us to address our water worries in ways that are consistent with the principles of both subsidiarity and solidarity.

We can take steps to protect our waterways and limit the amount of pollution present in them through commonsense environmental protections such as strengthening buffer strip requirements on public waters. We can also use our surplus budget prudently by providing grants to rural communities to update their water supply system, helping them reach a status of self-sufficiency. Finally, we can affirm, as a state, our commitment to providing clean, drinkable water to all Minnesotans.

These are solutions that come from all sides of the aisle, reflecting the reality that clean water isn’t a partisan issue, but is a policy goal toward which both political parties should work. Just as all ships rise with the tide, all Minnesotans will benefit with cleaner water and greater access to it.

Peterson is the associate director for public policy with the Minnesota Catholic Conference, the public policy voice of the Catholic Church in Minnesota. which is just a fancy way of saying the begging orders.

The trust, simplicity, service to the poor and moral innocence of the Dominicans and Franciscans produced a revolution in the Church and effectively re-evangelized armies of Christians who had grown slack and indifferent in their faith.

And we find the same dynamic in our time. St. John Paul II was the second most powerful evangelist of the 20th century, but unquestionably, the first was a woman who never wrote a major work of theology or apologetics, who never engaged skeptics in public debate and who never produced a beautiful work of religious art. I’m speaking, of course, of St. Teresa of Kolkata. No one in the last 100 years propagated the Christian faith more effectively than a simple nun who lived in utter poverty and who dedicated herself to the service of the most neglected people in our society.

We have been passing through one of the darkest chapters in recent Church history. The clerical sex abuse scandals have chased countless people away from Catholicism, and a secularist tide continues to rise, especially among the young. My mentor, the late great Cardinal George, surveying this scene, used to say, “I’m looking for the orders; I’m looking for the movements.” He meant, I think, that in times of crisis, the Holy Spirit tends to raise up men and women outstanding in holiness who endeavor to live out the Gospel in a radical and public way. Once again, I’m convinced that, at this moment, we need good arguments. But I’m even more convinced that we need saints.

Bishop Barron is an auxiliary bishop of Los Angeles and the founder of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries.

18 • The Catholic Spirit

FAITH & CULTURE

April 20, 2017

St. Therese drama coming to Rogers parish

By Matthew Davis The Catholic Spirit

St. Catherine Choral Society Director Patricia Connors rehearses with Ben Dutcher, one of the tenor soloists for the choir’s performance of Johann Sebastian Bach’s “St. John Passion.”

Mara Landon/ Courtesy St. Catherine University

St. Catherine Choral Society to bring Bach’s ‘St. John Passion’ to St. Olaf

By Melenie Soucheray For The Catholic Spirit

T

he rehearsal hall in the basement of the music building at St. Catherine University in St. Paul isn’t a mid-18th century cathedral in Leipzig, Germany. But it is where “St. John Passion,” a jewel in Johann Sebastian Bach’s baroque musical crown, is coming to life.

Patricia Connors, the chair of St. Kate’s music and theater department, is preparing the St. Catherine Choral Society to perform Bach’s oratorio 7:30 p.m.

April 30 at St. Olaf in Minneapolis.

The “St. John Passion” is reputed to be one of Bach’s most complex compositions. It was originally performed in 1724 when Bach was the director of choir and music in Leipzig, Germany. Originally composed with German text, the baroque work draws on the Passion narrative in St. John’s Gospel.

The St. Kate’s choir is using a late 20th-century English translation of Bach’s work. While the piece has drawn controversy in the past because of its texts’ portrayal of Jews, Connors has adjusted some of the language to be less formal and more inclusive.

And, to compensate for Bach’s spare composer’s interpretation marks, she is exercising her conductor’s prerogative to control the tempos and dynamics. This is especially necessary in places where the original German language would have done the trick, she said.

A parishioner of Holy Spirit in St. Paul, Connors noted that if Bach were alive today, he would make the “St. John Passion” accessible to his performers and his audience.

“Bach did rewrite over and over,” Connors said.

“He would make changes in the movement, and then he would come back years later and [recover] the first version of the movement. He was a practical musician. He wrote this stuff for his choir to sing in church on Sunday.”

If you go St. Catherine Choral Society’s performance of Johann Sebastian Bach’s “St. John Passion” • 7:30 p.m. April 30 • St. Olaf, 215 S. Eighth St., Minneapolis • General admission: $15; students, St. Kate’s alumni and seniors: $10; children 12 and under: free

Connors, 62, founded the Choral Society 23 years ago as a mixed choir composed of St. Kate’s students, and men and women from the community. At one point during a recent rehearsal, Connors unraveled a four-part, heavily ornamented section that could be compared to an industrial-strength round.

First, sopranos and basses bantered, then tenors and altos took their turn as the conductor refined the pace and tuned everyone’s ear to the emotions evoked by the text. Finally, the whole choir rewove the tonal tapestry to create a rich and challenging combination of sound and passion.

Scholarship is at the root of how Connors handles the St. Catherine Choral Society. Students earn credits for the semester’s work. The community singers pay a fee to cover the cost of the music.

Rehearsal attendance is mandatory.

The singers perform major choral programs in the fall and spring, and they are instructed in music history, composition technique and interpretation, as well as vocal discipline. Connors carefully selects works that challenge the six-dozen singers without going beyond their abilities.

For more information about performances, visit www.stkate.edu/arts/music-and-theater.

Father Michael Kaluza, pastor of Mary Queen of Peace in Rogers, said he likes having a large Divine Mercy celebration at his parish. This year’s event will include a theatrical introduction to the life of a beloved saint known as “The Little Flower.”

Mary Queen of Peace will host “Thérèse: The Story of a Soul” 7 p.m. April 22 on the vigil of Divine Mercy Sunday at the parish’s St. Martin campus. The drama aims to paint a realistic and human picture of the saint’s life.

“One thing that people don’t expect is that she is so funny,” said Dallas-based actress Audrey Ahern, who performs as St. Therese in the one-woman show. “She has this really witty sense of humor that’s just incredible.”

St. Therese, the youngest of five daughters, was born Jan. 2, 1873, in France to Sts. Louis and Zelie Martin, whom Pope Francis canonized in 2015. She entered Actress Audrey the Carmelite convent in Lisieux at Ahern as age 15, and lived there until her St. Therese of death at age 24 in 1897.

Lisieux. Courtesy In that nine-year span, she St. Luke Productions developed a spirituality known as the “little way,” doing “little things with great love.”

She recorded her reflections in three different manuscripts, which her biological sister Pauline, also a Carmelite, organized into a single autobiography — “The Story of a Soul.”

St. Therese had her weaknesses, including emotional struggles in childhood with her mother’s death and her older sister joining the convent. St. Therese recognized she could only grow in holiness with God’s help, Ahern said.

“She even says that were it not for him holding her up, she would have fallen so many times,” Ahern said.

The April 22 show will be the first time “Thérèse” has been performed in Minnesota. Patti Defilippis of St. Luke Productions wrote and directed the drama, which debuted in 1997, the year St. John Paul II recognized St. Therese as a doctor of the Church. Based in Washington state, St. Luke Productions produces Catholic dramas, films and media to inspire faith.

The drama’s success led to St. Luke’s 2004 film, “Thérèse: The Story of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux.”

Defilippis said the audience can get inside St. Therese’s mind, particularly her spirituality of doing “little things with great love.”

“In the film, you see it, but it’s subtle because you see her doing sacrificial things,” she said. “When she actually speaks about it, she’s speaking to the audience, telling them what’s in her heart. It’s very personal and intimate that way.”

Though St. Therese lived before the Divine Mercy devotion became popular, Father Kaluza finds it fitting to have the drama kick off the celebration. St. Therese’s life had similar messages to that of Divine Mercy, he said.

Admission is $5 for individual tickets and $10 for families. For more information, contact Mary Queen of Peace at 763-428-2585 or parishoffice@mqpcatholic.org.

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CALENDAR

April 20, 2017 Dining out

“Come-Join-Us” parish celebration — April 30: 11 a.m.–2:30 p.m. at St. Cecelia, 2357 Bayless Place, St. Paul. www.stceciliaspm.org.

All-you-can-eat waffle breakfast — April 23: 8 a.m.–1 p.m. at Guardian Angels, 8260 Fourth St. N., Oakdale. www.guardian-angels.org/event/947419-201704-23-waffle-bar-breakfast.

Knights of Columbus raffle/steak dinner gala/beer tasting — April 29: 6:15–9:30 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker, 7180 Hemlock Lane N., Maple Grove. www.sjtw.net/knights-news.

St. Bonaventure garage sale — May 2-4: 5:30–7:30 p.m. May 2, 9 a.m.–7 p.m. May 3 and 9 a.m.– 4 p.m. May 4 at Ambrose Hall, 901 E. 90th St., Bloomington.

Transfiguration garage sale — May 5–6 at 6133 15th St. N., Oakdale. www.transfigurationmn.org.

Prayer/worship

Wonderland Spring Salad Luncheon — April 29: Noon–2 p.m. at Guardian Angels, 8260 Fourth St. N., Oakdale. www.guardian-angels.org/event/932649-201704-29-wonderland-spring-salad-luncheon.

Ecumenical Taize Prayer — first Friday of each month through May 5: 7:30 p.m. at St. Richard, 7540 Penn Ave. S., Richfield. www.strichards.com/first-fridays.

Madonna Luncheon — May 1: Noon at St. Genevieve, 6995 Centerville Road, Centerville. www.st.gens.org.

Healing Mass with Father Jim Livingston — May 2: 6:45 p.m. at St. Michael, 16311 Duluth Ave. SE, Prior Lake. Jodi Wolf at 651-592-5580 or www.stmichael-pl.org.

Music

Retreats

St. Catherine Choral Society Spring Concert: Johann Sebastian Bach’s “St. John Passion” — April 30: 7:30 p.m. at St. Olaf, 215 S. Eighth St., Minneapolis. 651-690-6690 or www.stkate.edu/arts/music-and-theater.

Encountering God in Everyday Life — May 5-6: 5–6 p.m. at St. Paul’s Monastery, 2675 Benet Road, Maplewood. www.stpaulsmonastery.org.

A Weekend Hermitage — April 21-23: 1–3 p.m. each day at The Benedictine Center at St. Paul’s Monastery, 2675 Benet Road, Maplewood.

651-777-7251 or www.stpaulsmonastery.org.

Feast of St. Joseph the Worker – Evening of Edification, Sacred Music and Prayer — May 1: 6–9 p.m. at Holy Family, 5900 W. Lake St., St. Louis Park. www.roccaseccaproject.org.

Retreat for parish employees and volunteers — April 26-27 at Christ the King Retreat Center, 621 First Ave. S., Buffalo. www.kingshouse.com.

Parish events St. John Vianney rummage sale — April 20-22 at 840 19th Ave. N., South St. Paul. www.sjvssp.org.

Schools

“Raise the Roof II” fundraiser benefiting Christian Cupboard Emergency Food Shelf and Hope for the Journey Home — April 21: 6–8 p.m. at Guardian Angels, 8260 Fourth St. N., Oakdale. www.guardian-angels.org.

Holy Name rummage sale — April 27-29 at 3637 11th Ave. S., Minneapolis. 612-724-5465 or www.churchoftheholyname.org.

St. Odilia jewelry sale — April 29-30 at 3495 N. Victoria St., Shoreview. www.stodilia.org.

Guardian Angels crafters spring sale —

Conferences/seminars/ workshops

April 29-30: 10 a.m.–6 p.m. April 29 and 8 a.m.–1:30 p.m. April 30 at 8260 Fourth St. N., Oakdale.

Lebanese dinner — April 23: 11:30 a.m.–5 p.m. at Holy Family Maronite, 1960 Lexington Ave. S., Mendota Heights. www.holyfamilymaronitechurch.org.

Immaculate Conception open house — April 29: 9 a.m.–noon at 4030 Jackson St. NE, Columbia Heights. 763-788-9065 or school.iccsonline.org.

Benilde-St. Margaret’s treasure hunt garage sale — May 4-6: 4–8 p.m. May 4-5 and 8 a.m.–4 p.m.

May 6 at Haben Center, 2501 Highway 100 S., St. Louis Park. www.bsmschool.org.

Queen of May Dinner and Auction to benefit Immaculate Conception — May 5: 5:30 p.m. at 4030 Jackson St. NE, Columbia Heights.

763-788-9062 or school.iccsonline.org.

The Catholic Spirit • 19 CALENDAR submissions

Catholic Divorce Survival Guidance — Mondays through May 22: 7–8:15 p.m. at St. Edward, 9401 Nesbitt Ave. S., Bloomington. www.stedwardschurch.org.

Writing workshop: Poems for the Earth — April 20: 7–9 p.m. at The Benedictine Center at St. Paul’s Monastery, 2675 Benet Road, Maplewood.

651-777-7251 or www.stpaulsmonastery.org.

Daughters of Isabella Circle 888 Minnesota State Convention — April 21: 11:30 a.m. at Guardian Angels, 215 W. Second St., Chaska. www.gachaska.org.

A Day of Quiet — April 22: 9 a.m.–4 p.m. at The Benedictine Center at St. Paul’s Monastery, 2675 Benet Road, Maplewood. 651-777-7251 or www.stpaulsmonastery.org.

On Care for our Common Home — April 23: 1–3 p.m. at The Benedictine Center at St. Paul’s Monastery, 2675 Benet Road, Maplewood.

651-777-7251 or www.stpaulsmonastery.org.

“Hearts Burning Within Us” — May 2: 7–9 p.m. at The Benedictine Center at St. Paul’s Monastery, 2675 Benet Road, Maplewood. 651-777-7251 or www.stpaulsmonastery.org.

Water: Sacred and Scarce — May 4: 7 p.m. at Lumen Christi, 2055 Bohland Ave., St. Paul. www.lumenchristicc.org.

Speakers Celebrating 30 Years of Funding Women Changing Lives with Mary’s Pence — April 22: 2:30–5 p.m. at the Woman’s Club of Minneapolis, 410 Oak Grove St., Minneapolis. www.maryspence.org.

“Sharing Jesus: Bringing a Word from God into Moments of Grace” with Ryan O’Hara of St. Paul’s Outreach — April 23: 3–5 p.m. at 4741 Bald Eagle Ave., White Bear Lake. www.stmarys-wbl.org/ news-events.

“Grandparents’ Influence is Needed Now More Than Ever” with speaker Mary Ann Kuharski — April 25: 8:45 a.m. at Steiner Hall, Nativity of Our Lord, 1900 Stanford Ave., St. Paul. Lilee at 651-4149367.

Other events Blessed Trinity Fiesta Latina — April 23: 10 a.m.– 3 p.m. www.btcsmn.org.

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

Recurring or ongoing events must be submitted each time they occur. We cannot guarantee a submitted event will appear in the calendar.

LISTINGS: Accepted are brief no­tices of upcoming events hosted by Catholic parishes and institutions. If the Catholic connection is not clear, please emphasize it in your press release.

ITEMS MUST INCLUDE the following to be considered for publication: • Time and date of event • Full street address of event • Description of event • C ontact information in case of questions.

(No attachments, please.)

ONLINE: www.thecatholicspirit.com/ calendarsubmissions

FAX: 651-291-4460 MAIL: “Calendar,” The Catholic Spirit 777 Forest St., St. Paul, MN 55106

More online Alpha Women’s Center spring banquet — April 27: 6–9 p.m. at Ridges at Sand Creek, 21775 Ridges Drive, Jordan. www.icumobiletc.com.

Cerenity Marian open house — April 29: 1–3 p.m. at 225 Frank St., St. Paul. www.cerenityseniorcare.org.

Prioress dinner – sixth annual celebration of Benedictine Spirituality and Ministries — May 4: 5–8:30 p.m. at Lake Elmo Inn Event Center, 3712 Layton Ave. N., Lake Elmo. tinyurl.com/2017Prioress.

Spring women’s brunch — May 6: 11 a.m.–1 p.m. at Annunciation, 509 W. 54th St., Minneapolis. www.mybellis.org/brunch.

Life Legal Defense Foundation and Minnesota Lawyers for Life second annual benefit dinner with keynote speaker Wayne Holstad, president of Minnesota Lawyers for Life — May 6: 6 p.m. at St. Peter, fellowship hall, 2600 N. Margaret St., North St. Paul. Russ at 612-875-2733 or app.mobilecause.com/form/HGCsMQ.

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www.TheCatholicSpirit.com

20 • The Catholic Spirit

THE LAST WORD

April 20, 2017

From the

stage to the sanctuary Catholic actor brings faith to the arts

By Jessica Weinberger For The Catholic Spirit

P

rofessional actor Andrew Hey knows what it’s like to execute quick costume changes.

During the eight-month run of “Grease” at Chanhassen Dinner Theatres, Hey, 28, will routinely start his Saturday with a 1 p.m. show where he transforms into one of Danny Zuko’s dorky greasers, Doody.

When the show ends, Hey quickly changes into dress clothes before driving to the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis with just enough time to place an alb on his shoulders and touch base with the organist before leading the congregation in the opening song as the cantor. After the recessional, he returns to Chanhassen to prepare for the 8 p.m. show.

“It’s the same rush I get at church standing at the front of the Basilica singing in front of 800 people when it’s full, and then center stage at Chan belting out a high ‘C’ with my guitar and my friends around me. There’s nothing like it,” said Hey, who lives in Minneapolis.

Hey’s unconventional life-balancing work as an actor, cantor and his other role, a licensed professional counselor, is far from his original plan of becoming a physician. Although Hey lived in Maple Grove until he was 7, he spent most of his early life growing up in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He enjoyed community theater, music and singing at church, but assumed that a professional acting career was only possible in big-time markets like Los Angeles and New York City.

Always strong in academics and with a passion for helping others, Hey enrolled at the University of Minnesota to study psychology and later began medical school. But the rigor of all-day classes and long nights of studying didn’t provide the same thrill and happiness he felt while singing and performing on stage.

After making the difficult decision to take a year off from medical school, Hey drove from Sioux Falls to Chanhassen on a whim to audition for a role in “Fiddler on the Roof.” His audition left a strong impression, and he eventually filled in for another actor halfway through the run. That opportunity opened the door for future roles in “The Little Mermaid, “Hello Dolly!,” “Mary Poppins” and “Camelot,” as well as “Pirates of Penzance” at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in St. Paul.

“That one show really made a difference,” he said.

Living the Catholic faith The demands of rehearsals, memorizing lines and eight performances a week can take a toll, but Hey grounds himself by unplugging during a rare day off and finding peace in his Catholic faith. He enjoys adoration and the quietness of Sunday Mass, where he can release the pressures of his daily work.

Serving as a cantor at both the Basilica and St. Lawrence Catholic Church and Newman Center on the campus of the University of Minnesota keeps him connected to his two parish communities and focused on his faith.

“It’s a prayer,” he said, pointing out the distinct difference between his time on stage and at Mass. “I’m a high tenor in musical theater, but at church, the songs are lower, so I have to sing differently.”

GREASE IS THE WORD Catholic cantor Andrew Hey performs in “Grease,” playing at Chanhassen Dinner Theatres through Oct. 28. Dan Norman/Courtesy Chanhassen Dinner Theatres

“It’s the same rush I get at church standing at the front of the Basilica singing in front of 800 people when it’s full, and then center stage at Chan belting out a high ‘C’ with my guitar and my friends around me.

There’s nothing like it.”

Andrew Hey Hey noted that he’s usually one of the only Christians working on a production, which can be challenging, but also eye-opening as he works within a diverse group.

Fellow cast members often comment on his quick wardrobe change between Saturday shows, and Hey welcomes the opportunity to talk about his role as a cantor. When the priest mentions an especially profound story in his homily, Hey might casually chat with another cast member about its key points, or share about the positive community service efforts that both parishes lead.

“Living by example is more powerful,” Hey said about his approach to evangelization. “I try to be kind

and accepting to everybody, and that’s how I share my faith.”

One step at a time During the week, Hey sets aside his lines most afternoons as he provides in-home mental health therapy for kids ranging in age from 6 to 19. He graduated last August with his master’s degree in counseling psychology.

“It’s a puzzle sometimes to figure out what kids are going through, but when a kid is having a bad day and you come over and make them feel better about something or you see them try something new, that’s rewarding,” he said.

Looking to the future, Hey would like to have his own practice, which would allow him to pursue theater roles at venues like the Guthrie or even a touring show.

He would also like to get married and have a family.

“I used to be a big-time planner,” he said, “but I’m learning I have to be OK taking things one thing at a time. It’s OK to not know what’s to come next.”

What he does know is that theater and his faith will always have a strong presence in his life, and he hopes that young performers know that a career in the arts is possible.

“What you want to do, you can,” he said. “There’s a market for you if you work hard enough and find the right spot.”