The Catholic Spirit - April 9, 2020

April 9, 2020 • Newspaper of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis

thecatholicspirit.com

HOLY WEEK AT HOME

Blessing the city

With the Triduum falling during Gov. Walz’s stay-at-home order and as the suspension of public Masses continues, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis offers a week-long virtual retreat, and Catholic families share ideas on how to still make Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday the pinnacle of the Church year.

— Pages 10-11

Archbishop Hebda blesses Twin Cities and prays for archdiocese during Holy Hour outside Cathedral doors March 27.

— Page 5

Financial aid Archdiocesan task force, CCF fund established to help parishes, Catholic schools affected by coronavirus-related changes.

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Not guilty Australia High Court unanimously overturns Cardinal Pell’s abuse conviction.

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Wedding adjustments Couples still get married, but not how they initially envisioned.

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Mask makers

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Catholics join efforts to provide protective gear to medical professionals.

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Meet St. Corona The pandemic inspires renewed devotion to obscure teenage martyr.

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OUTDOOR ADORATION Mary Ann Louie, left, of St. Paul in Ham Lake kneels with her husband, Jason, and their five children during a blessing at Perry Park in Arden Hills March 27 by Father Paul Shovelain, right, of St. John the Baptist in New Brighton. Father Shovelain went to the park and walked through the parking lot with the Eucharist to bless everyone who came. He made a total of seven stops in parks near the church so that people could come to pray, adore Jesus in the Eucharist and receive a blessing. “For me, it was very touching to be in the presence of our Lord,” Mary Ann Louie said. “It’s amazing to be able to come together as a community and be here putting our faith and our trust in God, where it always should be.”

Suspension of public Masses continues through Easter week

By Barb Umberger The Catholic Spirit This won’t be a traditional Easter in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Because of the novel coronavirus, the suspension of public Masses with distribution of the Eucharist that began March 18 will continue through Easter Sunday and the seven days that follow, Archbishop Bernard Hebda said in an April 1 memo to priests and deacons.

For Tim Costello at the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis, and others across the archdiocese who have been preparing since September to enter into full

communion with the Church at the Easter Vigil, this strikes particularly hard. But he is trying to take it in stride, and he had some warning as the pandemic’s impact grew in Minnesota, where people are encouraged to stay home as much as possible as cases of the illness continue to grow.

“I understand that things happen, and it’s a kind of faith journey I want to go on regardless of how long it takes,” said Costello, who as a catechumen in the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults is preparing for baptism, first Communion and confirmation. “I know it will be worth it and fulfilling.”

Archbishop Hebda suggested the

weekend of Pentecost, May 30-31, as a time that parishes might consider holding the rites of initiation into the Church, in hopes that by then the suspension of public Mass can be lifted and larger groups of people can celebrate together.

Priests still could initiate people into the Church at the Easter Vigil, but only with proper social distancing and adherence to health officials’ requirements, the archbishop said. Organizers in at least three parishes — the Basilica, Risen Savior in Burnsville and St. Ambrose in Woodbury — said they are considering PLEASE TURN TO MASSES ON PAGE 5

VIRTUAL HOLY WEEK RETREAT Online daily from Palm Sunday­to Easter Vigil

9 a.m.: Mass/Morning prayer • 7 p.m.: Retreat Conferences & Triduum Liturgies Details at archspm.org/holyweekretreat

2 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

APRIL 9, 2020

PAGETWO

“

This has been an incredibly inspiring time in a very unexpected way. … All of a sudden, if you walk down the street, you see people walking around and getting some fresh air and talking to each other and waving to each other in ways that I have never before seen in my life. (God’s) calling us to be one, to look after each other. Sometimes we forget that he’s there, and that’s what he’s calling us to do.

Father Erik Lundgren, pastor of Sts. Joachim and Anne in Shakopee, in a Star Tribune video speaking about his parish’s March 26 “curbside confessions” and the coronavirus pandemic.

NEWS notes

14 COURTESY ROSEMARY THUENTE DISTANCE PRAYING Ella and Dominic Thuente, a first-grader and kindergartner respectively, pray the rosary online with classmates from St. Charles Borromeo Catholic School in St. Anthony. Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis have transitioned to distance learning after closing around March 18 to help slow the spread of COVID-19.

The channel of St. Michael Broadcasting, an antenna-based (not cable) Catholic television station that airs several Masses daily. Other local TV Mass options include St. Olaf, Minneapolis: 8 p.m. Sundays and 10 a.m. Mondays on MCN Cable Channel 6; Our Lady of Grace, Edina: Noon Sundays on Fox 9+ (Dish/Direct 29, Comcast 10/807; Over Air 9.2); Diocese of St. Cloud: 11 a.m. Sundays on KSTC-TV/45. Many local parishes are also livestreaming daily and weekend Masses and other devotions online. Find a list at archspm.org/live.

2013

The year the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis hired Kinsale Management Consulting to review all of its clergy files for allegations of sexual abuse. The firm is led

by Kathleen McChesney, who will receive the University of Notre Dame’s 2020 Laetare Medal, the university announced March 22, Laetare Sunday, the fourth Sunday of Lent.

McChesney is the former No. 3 official at the Federal Bureau of Investigation as well as the former head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Office of Child and Youth Protection. McChesney was involved in the archdiocese’s 2014 selection of Tim O’Malley to lead the Office of Ministerial Standards and Safe Environment. The Laetare Medal has been awarded to Catholic leaders since 1883.

$418,483

The amount Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis raised through Catholic United Financial’s annual Catholic Schools Raffle Jan. 17 to March 1. The amount is the highest raised by Catholic schools in the archdiocese since the raffle began in 2009, the organization said in a March 17 news release. Students from 89 schools in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota participated, including 30 schools in the archdiocese, raising a collective $1.3 million. Because Catholic United Financial provides the prizes and promotional materials, schools receive 100% of the profits. Students sold tickets for $40,000 in prizes, including a new Buick SUV. Winners were announced March 12 by Super Bowl Champion Matt Birk and Miss Minnesota 2019 Kathryn Kueppers. Since its founding, the program has raised a total of $2,944,028 for schools in the archdiocese.

38 COURTESY GUARDIAN ANGELS, OAKDALE

WE ARE THE CHURCH Members of the Uke family, parishioners of Guardian Angels in Oakdale, stand outside their Woodbury home with a sign reading “We are the Church,” part of a project to photograph parish families on their porches initiated by Sara Fleetham, the parish’s elementary faith formation coordinator. Pictured from left are Agiounim, 16; Benyin (holding the family dog, Sky), 10; Ekaetel, their mother; Unu, 8; Ushang, 18; Andokieil, 12; and Ingiete, 13. Read more about the project at TheCatholicSpirit.com.

5

The number of months the Good Friday Holy Land Appeal has been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Now scheduled for Sept. 13, the annual collection raises important funds for the Church’s work in the Holy Land.

REDISCOVER hour On the show that aired April 3, Redisover:Hour host Patrick Conley interviewed Bishop Andrew Cozzens on the archdiocese’s virtual Holy Week, Father Stan Mader of St. Joseph in Waconia about the parish’s recent “Big Fat Catholic Wedding” and Father Chris Alar, a Marian Father of the Immaculate Conception, about the upcoming movie “Fatima,” scheduled for release in theaters Aug. 14. Listen each week on Fridays at 9 p.m., Saturdays at noon, and Sundays at 2 p.m. on Relevant Radio 1330 AM. Find past shows at archspm.org.

The Catholic Spirit is published semi-monthly for The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis Vol. 25 — No. 7 MOST REVEREND BERNARD A. HEBDA, Publisher TOM HALDEN, Associate Publisher MARIA C. WIERING, Editor-in-Chief JOE RUFF, News Editor

The number of links, many translated in Spanish, at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ website dedicated to Catholic resources during coronavirus. The website, usccb.org/coronavirus, includes links to Mass, daily readings, and coronavirus-related prayers and prayer cards, as well as tips on livestreaming Mass and a “Faith on Facebook Toolkit.” New resources are also being added to the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ coronavirus resource page at archspm.org/covid19.

26

The amount in millions the Minnesota Legislature passed in a COVID-19 emergency response bill that will support additional space, hygiene and sanitation efforts in homeless shelters. Nearly $10 million of the $330 million passed March 26 will help food shelves remain stocked, and $5.53 million will support a temporary increase in housing support.

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APRIL 9, 2020

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 3

FROMTHEARCHBISHOP ONLY JESUS | ARCHBISHOP BERNARD HEBDA

The Lord rising in the ‘strangeness’

“S

omething strange is happening — there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness.” Those words, from an ancient homily on Holy Saturday, first intended to describe the world on the cusp of the first Easter, seem eerily all-too-applicable to our own situation in 2020. Our almost empty churches, our deserted streets, our attempts at social distancing, all suggest that “something strange” is indeed happening. Many have told me that they have never experienced such desolation in our communities, never struggled so hard to find hope, never felt so defeated.

It was into a situation such as this that the Risen Lord first proclaimed his Easter victory over sin and death.

The earth-shattering good news of the Resurrection was shared first with a heartbroken, frightened and confused band of disciples, so downtrodden that they couldn’t even easily recognize their beloved Jesus in their midst.

Father George Aschenbrenner, a Jesuit of the Maryland province, has been a great blessing in my life. He preached at my First Mass, having

El Señor se levanta en la ‘extrañeza’

“H

oy está sucediendo algo extraño, hoy hay un gran silencio en la tierra, un gran silencio y quietud”. Esas palabras, de una antigua Homilía del Sábado Santo, destinadas por primera vez a describir el mundo en la cúspide de la primera Pascua, parecen muy aplicables a nuestra propia situación en 2020. Nuestras iglesias casi vacías, nuestras calles desiertas, nuestros intentos de distanciamiento social, sugieren que “algo extraño” está sucediendo de hecho. Muchos me han dicho que nunca han experimentado tal desolación en nuestras comunidades, nunca lucharon tan duro para encontrar esperanza, nunca se sintieron tan derrotados.

Fue en una situación como esta que el Señor resucitado proclamó por primera vez su victoria de Pascua sobre el pecado y la muerte. La buena noticia de la Resurrección, fue compartida primero con una banda de discípulos desconsolado, asustado y confundido, tan oprimido que ni siquiera podían reconocer fácilmente a su amado Jesús en medio de ellos.

El padre George Aschenbrenner, un jesuita de la provincia de Maryland, ha sido una gran bendición en mi vida. Predicó en mi primera misa, habiendo servido pacientemente como mi director espiritual cuando yo era seminarista. Fue él quien me presentó por primera vez la contemplación ignaciana, un acontecimiento que cambió la forma en que oré y se relacionó con los Evangelios. Semana tras semana me animaba a pedir al Espíritu Santo que me llevara a una escena evangélica, considerando lo

patiently served as my spiritual director when I was a seminarian. It was he who first introduced me to Ignatian contemplation, a development that changed the way I prayed and related to the Gospels. Week after week he would encourage me to ask the Holy Spirit to lead me into a Gospel scene, considering what I would have heard and seen and smelled had I been with Jesus at the Wedding of Cana, or at the healing of blind Bartimaeus, or at the encounter with the woman at the well. He would have me consider: What was the experience of those touched by Christ?

What did Christ say to me when he looked at me with the gaze of love?

This year it’s much easier to tap into the emotion of John the Beloved at the foot of the cross, or of Peter as the cock crows, or of Mary Magdalene as she makes the trek to the tomb, having lost the one friend who understood her and loved her. In a world changed by COVID-19, it’s easier to understand their emptiness — an emptiness that the Lord allowed to create space for the joyous news of the Resurrection.

I can’t pretend to know why our God has let our world be turned topsy-turvy by a virus, but I have confidence in St. Paul’s proclamation that we have a

que habría oído, visto y olido si hubiera estado con Jesús en la Boda de Caná, o en la curación de Bartimao ciego , o en el encuentro con la mujer en el pozo. ¿Cuál fue la experiencia de aquellos tocados por Cristo? ¿Qué me dijo Cristo cuando me miró con la mirada del amor?

Este año es mucho más fácil aprovechar la emoción de Juan el Amado al pie de la cruz, o de Pedro como el gallo canta, o de María Magdalena mientras hace el viaje a la tumba, habiendo perdido al único amigo que la entendía y la amaba. En un mundo cambiado por COVID-19, es más fácil entender su vacío, un vacío que el Señor permitió crear espacio para las alegres noticias de la Resurrección.

No puedo pretender saber por qué nuestro Dios ha dejado que nuestro mundo se haya convertido en un virus, pero tengo confianza en la proclamación de San Pablo de que tenemos un Dios que hace que todas las cosas funcionen por el bien de los que lo aman. Tal vez está creando en nosotros el espacio para conocerlo con una nueva intimidad que permite que la proclamación de Pascua se arraigue en nuestros corazones, como lo hizo con los primeros discípulos.

Dejando a un lado nuestro apego a los días de apertura y ESPN, o eliminando la falsa sensación de seguridad que proviene de una cartera financiera saludable, o reuniéndonos alrededor de la mesa de la cena familiar de una manera que renueve nuestros lazos y estimule el verdadero encuentro personal, podría el Señor está creando las condiciones justas para que cada uno de nosotros diga “sí” a su llamada con renovado vigor esta Pascua?

Con un sentido más profundo en este período de ayuno eucarístico de nuestro anhelo de la Misa y la santa Comunión, el hambre de hoy nos está preparando para fortalecer nuestro compromiso con nuestras comunidades parroquiales y llevándonos

God who makes all things work for the good of those who love him. Perhaps he’s creating in us the space to know him with a new intimacy that allows the Easter proclamation to take root in our hearts, as it did for the first disciples.

Stripping aside our attachment to opening days and ESPN, or removing the false sense of security that comes from a healthy financial portfolio, or assembling us around the family dinner table in a way that renews our ties and stimulates real personal encounter, might the Lord be creating just the right conditions for each of us to say “yes” to his call with renewed vigor this Easter?

With a more profound sense in this period of eucharistic fasting of our yearning for the Mass and holy Communion, might today’s hunger be preparing us to strengthen our commitment to our parish communities and leading us to endeavor to “become what we receive,” going forth from the Lord’s table with greater zeal to serve one another? Might our growing realization of the fragility of each human life deepen within us a sense of gratitude for the gift of each day and a greater respect for our brothers and sisters, especially those who are most vulnerable?

I continue to be inspired by the stories I hear about those in our archdiocese who

a esforzarnos por “convertirnos en lo que recibimos”, yendo de la mesa del Señor con mayor celo para servirse unos a otros? ¿Podría profundizar en nosotros la creciente comprensión de la fragilidad de cada vida humana un sentido de gratitud por el don de cada día y un mayor respeto por nuestros hermanos y hermanas, especialmente los más vulnerables?

Sigo inspirándome en las historias que escucho acerca de aquellos en nuestra arquidiócesis que están dando heroicamente de sí mismos en estos días. Me siento edificado por la obra de nuestros sacerdotes en el cuidado de los enfermos, especialmente de nuestros capellanes del hospital que no quieren nada más que ser instrumentos de la compasión de Cristo en un momento de necesidad. Me sorprenden nuestros ministros laicos, que han sido tan creativos en la búsqueda de maneras para que las parroquias permanezcan conectadas y se cuiden unas a otras. Me conmueve la desinterés de nuestros profesionales médicos, socorristas, cuidadores y servidores públicos, que constantemente anteponen las necesidades de los demás a las suyas. Me alienta escuchar de padres que están haciendo todo lo que está en el poder para traer un sentido de esperanza y seguridad a las vidas perturbadas de sus hijos, para que realmente puedan creer que Cristo ha resucitado.

Se nos da una Semana Santa y Triduo y Pascua como ninguna otra. Que Cristo resucitado nos ayude a utilizar la “extrañeza” y la “tranquilidad” de este momento para llevar la esperanza de Pascua a un mundo que la necesita más que nunca. Incluso sin los entornos familiares que asociamos con la Pascua, asegúrese de compartir unos con otros la historia de lo que Jesús ha hecho amorosamente por nosotros. ¡Que nuestros labios proclamen que él ha resucitado de verdad y que nuestra vida dé testimonio de su presencia entre nosotros!

are heroically giving of themselves in these days. I’m edified by the work of our priests in caring for the sick, especially our hospital chaplains who want nothing more than to be instruments of Christ’s compassion at a moment of need.

I’m amazed by our lay ministers, who have been so creative in finding ways for parishes to stay connected and to care for one another. I’m moved by the selflessness of our medical professionals, first responders, caregivers and public servants, who consistently put others’ needs before their own. I’m encouraged to hear of parents who are doing all in their power to bring a sense of hope and security into the disrupted lives of their children, so that they can truly believe that Christ is risen.

We have been given a Holy Week and Triduum and Easter unlike any other.

May the resurrected Christ help us to use the “strangeness” and “stillness” of this moment to bring Easter hope into a world that needs it more than ever.

Even without the familiar trappings that we associate with Easter, let us be sure to share with one another the story of what Jesus has lovingly done for us. May our lips proclaim that he is truly risen and our lives give witness to his presence among us!

OFFICIAL Archbishop Bernard Hebda has announced the following appointments in the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis: Effective March 9, 2020 Reverend Slawomir Murawka, SChr, assigned as parochial vicar of the Church of the Holy Cross in Minneapolis. Father Murawka is a priest of the Society of Christ. Father Murawka succeeds Reverend Stanislaw Poszwa, SChr, who has been reassigned outside of the Archdiocese by his religious superior.

Effective May 4, 2020 Reverend Andrew Jaspers, assigned as chaplain for Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis. This is a transfer from his current assignment as spiritual director for the Saint John Vianney Seminary. He will continue in his assignment as sacramental minister to the Church of Saint Stephen in Minneapolis.

Reverend Marcus Milless, assigned as chaplain for Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis. This is a transfer from his current assignment as chaplain for Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis and as sacramental minister to the Church of the Holy Family in Saint Louis Park.

Effective July 1, 2020 Reverend Matthew Northenscold, assigned to full-time licentiate studies in canon law at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. This is a transfer from his current assignment as parochial vicar of the Church of Our Lady of Grace in Edina.

Reverend Anthony O’Neill, assigned as pastor of the Church of Saint John Neumann in Eagan. This is a transfer from his current assignment as pastor of the Church of Our Lady of the Lake in Mound. Father O’Neill is also appointed canonical administrator of Faithful Shepherd Catholic School, effective March 24, 2020.

Reverend Brian Park, assigned as pastor of the Church of Saint Michael in Saint Michael and the Church of Saint Albert in Albertville. This is a transfer from his current assignment as pastor of the Church of the Annunciation in Minneapolis.

Reverend Peter Richards, assigned as pastor of the Church of Our Lady of the Lake in Mound. This is a transfer from his current assignment as pastor of the Church of Saint Michael in Saint Michael and the Church of Saint Albert in Albertville.

4 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

APRIL 9, 2020

LOCAL

SLICEof LIFE

LOCAL

4 • The Catholic Spirit

March 9, 2017

‘Angel’ Concrete among us message

SLICEof LIFE

St. Joseph of Carondelet Sister Avis Allmaras, center, talks with Rose Carter, left, and Irene Eiden at Peace House in south Minneapolis Feb.and 27. Sister Emma Cummings, left, IsabelAvis goes to the center and visits Kaardal of St. Markweekly in St. Paul use chalk frequent guests like Carter.

Eiden, of to draw an encouraging message on St. William in in Fridley, is athe laychurch consociate the sidewalk front of steps of the Carondelet Sisters.

Peace House is March 26. They spent several hours a day shelter for theonpoor homeless. placing messages the and concrete to “It’s a real privilege to know these help ease the tension and anxiety people over andcoronavirus hear their stories,” Sister the pandemic thatAvis ledsaid. “I could not survive on streets like they to the suspension of the public Masses do.their There are so many gifted people at parish and all churches in here.”

Said CarterofofSt. Sister the Archdiocese PaulAvis: and “She’s an angel. She“Hopefully, hides her wings under that Minneapolis. it brings hope sweatshirt.

Shethere’ll truly isbe anan angel.” to people that end to all the Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit chaos,” Kaardal said.

“It (the pandemic) is kind of scary, but we just have to trust in God.” Cummings added: “You can’t live in fear. You should live in love and National love God Catholic and trustSisters in him Week and tryisto help Marchpeople.”

8-14. AnThe official of at other twocomponent are students Women’s and Kaardal St. Agnes History School Month in St. Paul. headquartered at St.Cummings Catherine is University is an eighth-grader, a in St. Paul, the week celebrates women sixth-grader. religious and their contributions to the Church and society. View local events, including two art exhibitions, at www.nationalcatholicsistersweek.org.

Celebrating sisters

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

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LOCAL

APRIL 9, 2020

LOCAL HEADLINES u Archbishop Hebda: ‘The only way to Easter is through the cross.’ In a Holy Week talk streamed online rather than offered in person April 5, Archbishop Bernard Hebda encouraged participants to use this time under Gov. Tim Walz’s stay-at-home order to imitate Christ in sacrifice and love for others. Speaking from the Cathedral of St. Paul with the Eucharist in a monstrance on the altar, he said Catholics should look not at what they can receive, “but what we, through God’s grace, can give.” The retreat continues through Holy Week and includes 9 a.m. morning prayer and lectio divina, and included talks Sunday through Wednesday evenings. It will include livestreamed Triduum liturgies.

Participate at archspm.org/holyweek. u Parish collections down 60% due to pandemic. In an April 2 letter to Catholic Services Appeal Foundation supporters, Archbishop Bernard Hebda said that parish collections are down 60% due to disruptions caused by the spread of COVID-19. He encouraged Catholics to give to the CSAF, which supports an array of ministries in the archdiocese, as well as a new fund established by the Catholic Community Fund of Minnesota, to help sustain parishes. (See story on page 6). u Bishop Cozzens, others lead 40 Hours Devotion via Facebook Live. The April 3-4 event included several bishops and priests from across the United States taking turns livestreaming spiritual reflections in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament. Bishop Andrew Cozzens led the 8 p.m. hour April 3. u Archbishop: Outdoor Masses without Communion possible in some circumstances. Archbishop Bernard Hebda issued new guidelines April 1 “to clear up any confusion or ambiguity, and to extend the suspension of public Mass,” said Father Michael Tix, the archbishop’s Vicar for Clergy and Parish Services. The new guidelines came after the archdiocese received a few reports of public celebrations of Mass and public distribution of holy Communion the previous two weekends. Father Tix was surprised by those reports, since the archbishop had already on March 18 directed priests not to celebrate public Mass due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, Masses celebrated outdoors with the faithful remaining in their cars without receiving holy Communion might be a possibility, Archbishop Hebda said. u Priests find creative ways to share the Eucharist. On March 24, priests of northeast Minneapolis drove through their parish neighborhoods, blessing the people who live there as they prayed the rosary and other devotions. Some parishioners came to their doors or yards to pray. Some followed in their cars, forming an impromptu procession.

“The basis for all of our efforts is to remain committed to our neighborhood, as many are home, and to show that the Church is still present in these neighborhoods,” said Father Spencer Howe, pastor of Holy Cross. Across the archdiocese, priests have offered adoration in parks and parking lots, or made the Eucharist visible through church windows. u Parents surprise Deephaven teacher with birthday parade.

Emily Rohla, co-director of the Early Learning Center at St. Therese Catholic School, had planned to celebrate her 40th birthday with friends in Arizona. After the COVID-19 pandemic thwarted the trip, Rohla spent her March 25 birthday at the school, which suspended classes March 16 but kept the Early Learning Center open for the children of health care and other essential workers. Parents and students in 50 cars showed their appreciation by forming a parade in front of the school, holding signs and maintaining social distance. “For a half-second, I was embarrassed,” Rohla said, “but I know that what we need right now is to share joy with each other. And that’s one thing this community is good at — sharing joy and lifting each other up.” u A century ago, Minnesota Catholics also kept the faith during a pandemic. As the fall 1918 outbreak of the Spanish Flu in Minnesota killed almost 2,000 people, Twin Cities residents were also in the final months of World War I and the archdiocese was without a bishop, following the September 1918 death of Archbishop John Ireland. Some of the influenza symptoms resembled those of COVID-19: cough, exhaustion, fever and devastating lung damage that resulted in pneumonia. For about a month, parishes suspended some activities and worship to combat the virus’ spread.

Read these stories and more at TheCatholicSpirit.com.

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 5

Archbishop blesses Twin Cities, prays for archdiocese

By Joe Ruff The Catholic Spirit Several flights of stairs lead into the Cathedral of St. Paul’s main entrance.

They were largely empty March 27, but for Archbishop Bernard Hebda and Fathers Mark Pavlak and John Ubel, rector of the cathedral, kneeling to each side of a makeshift altar holding the Eucharist in a monstrance and flanked by candles.

Just outside the doors, at the top of the stairs overlooking downtown, they prayed for the city of St. Paul and the rest of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, caught in the thralls of a novel coronavirus that originated in China late last year and has swept the globe. Declared a pandemic, the disease has claimed more than 78,000 lives across the world and sickened more than 1 million.

At the base of the stairs and often a couple of flights up, passersby who saw the archbishop stopped to pray.

A runner dropped to his knees. A nurse in white uniform lay prostrate. An elderly woman crossed herself and knelt.

But for a few news media, no one was invited to this hour-long prayer and special blessing of the city of St. Paul due to crowd restrictions and social distancing requirements. But it was in public view, and people passing by felt its importance.

The time in prayer included the archbishop taking up the monstrance and holding it high over the city, making the sign of the cross toward the nearby State Capitol, Catholic Charities’ homeless shelter and the rest of downtown.

Archbishop Hebda said he prayed for the sick and suffering, those who care for them, lawmakers and others as the coronavirus hits Minnesota hard.

He prayed for the homeless, for the faithful of the archdiocese and its priests and for the passersby he saw reflected in the monstrance that held the Eucharist.

He prayed the same day health officials announced that to that point four people in Minnesota had died of complications from COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the virus. As of press time April 7, 34 people in Minnesota had died from COVID-19.

That night, Gov. Tim Walz’s “stay-at-home” order took effect across the state for at least two weeks, limiting business and other activities to essential services such as pharmacies and grocery stores, medical services and public safety, faith leaders and workers, hardware stores and banks. About 25% of the business done in Minnesota is affected by the order to stay home.

MASSES CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Pentecost weekend.

But even that might change.

“We have to adapt,” said Father Tom Krenik, pastor of Risen Savior.

“From my own standpoint and experience, RCIA is not meant to be a cookie cutter.”

“One of the neat things about RCIA is that it is adaptable to participants. We can meet them where they’re at, including in unusual situations,” he added.

Risen Savior has 12 catechumens and 21 candidates this year. A catechumen has not yet been baptized, and a candidate has been baptized in the Catholic or another Christian denomination and is preparing for first Communion and confirmation.

St. Ambrose presented 18 candidates this year. Nancy McGrew, the parish’s RCIA coordinator, said she is staying in touch with them by email and telephone calls to help keep their spirits up and assure them that they won’t need to start over this fall.

“There’s some uncertainty,”

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Archbishop Bernard Hebda prays in front of the Blessed Sacrament at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul right after blessing the city of St. Paul March 27.

The archbishop said he wanted to pray as the people of Minnesota enter a particularly difficult stage of the pandemic. “I realize we are moving into a more serious stage here, as we stay at home,” he said. “It was an opportunity to pray for this city, for the Twin Cities, really,” and the rest of the archdiocese.

Earlier that day, Pope Francis delivered a special “urbi et orbi” (“to the city and the world”) blessing in an empty St. Peter’s Square. (See story on page 8.) Normally delivered by a pope after his election and at Christmas and Easter, Pope Francis’ blessing included prayers for the sick and dying, for medical workers and political leaders, and a meditation that encouraged people to have faith in the midst of a turbulent storm.

Asked how people can live through this challenging time, Archbishop Hebda said prayer and reaching out to one another, helping those in need. As people cry out, “Lord, why let this happen?” it becomes a dialogue with God, who wants to hear all our prayers, he said.

“The Lord doesn’t free us from trials. But he is there with us in our trials,” he said.

The archbishop said he had received many emails, texts and notes from people letting him know of their prayers for him.

“I was praying for all of our faithful in a very particular way, that they might feel the strength of my prayers the way that I feel the strength of their prayers,” he said.

she said, “but just pray more and spend more time with God. Stay well, stay safe, keep praying.”

All told in the archdiocese, more than 160 catechumens and 300 candidates who expected to join in full communion with the Church at the Easter Vigil are preparing for whatever schedule their pastors determine is best.

Not only catechumens and candidates, but every parishioner in the archdiocese is impacted by the suspension of public Masses through at least April 19 — and a different Easter season than any in their lifetimes.

Some parishes provided blessed palms on Palm Sunday by adhering to health guidelines and maintaining social distancing.

Some parishes celebrated outdoor Masses, but only with participants remaining in their cars with windows rolled up and unable to receive holy Communion.

Archbishop Hebda encouraged parishioners to seek a spiritual Communion by participating in Mass, which was available for viewing through parish, national

and international livestreaming, television and radio.

Many parishes are offering Holy Week liturgies on the internet for Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, the Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday.

The archdiocese is offering a virtual Holy Week retreat that began Palm Sunday April 5 and concludes with the Easter Vigil Mass April 11.

Each day there is a 9 a.m. Mass or morning prayer and 7 p.m. talks or Mass, including Archbishop Hebda celebrating a 7 p.m. Holy Thursday Mass at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul and Auxiliary Bishop Andrew Cozzens presiding at a 7 p.m. Good Friday Celebration of the Lord’s Passion, also at the Cathedral.

Archbishop Hebda will preside at the Easter Vigil Mass at 8:30 p.m. from the Cathedral.

On Easter Sunday, the archbishop will celebrate Mass at 9:30 a.m. at the Basilica on WCCO radio dial 830AM. All Holy Week retreat activities will be livestreamed on Facebook at facebook.com/archdiocesespm and at archspm.org/holyweekretreat.

6 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

LOCAL

APRIL 9, 2020

Special task force, fund to help parishes, schools in archdiocese

By Joe Ruff The Catholic Spirit When Anne Cullen Miller began taking in the breadth of the financial impact the coronavirus pandemic would have on parishes and schools, she knew the Catholic Community Foundation of Minnesota would need to play a big role in helping them survive.

“I think we were aware in real time that the impact of social distancing was going to be absolutely devastating to our parishes and schools,” said Miller, president of the St. Paul-based foundation. “We help meet the spiritual, educational and financial needs of the community. We are where philanthropy and needs meet. We needed to lean into that.”

Conferring with Archbishop Bernard Hebda and others in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis in mid-March, Miller and others at the CCF, which provides grants to schools, parishes and other agencies that act in accordance with the Catholic faith, decided to invest time and energy into a new fund: the Minnesota Catholic Relief Fund.

Early fundraising efforts have raised more than $560,000, Miller said.

People are encouraged to continue their regular tithing to parishes, particularly through electronic giving. But those who have more resources are asked to give to the fund, she said.

“We are asking those who are blessed to pass on those blessings now,” Miller said.

In a letter to supporters March 28 and a broader announcement March 29, Miller described the fund and how it would be managed.

Working in conjunction with a newly-formed archdiocesan Economic Impact Task Force, CCF will put the money it raises toward parishes and schools gravely impacted by rising expenses, as they face the loss of weekly plate collections and other revenue with the suspension of public Masses to help slow the virus’

SHARING EXPERTISE The Catholic Community Foundation’s Minnesota Catholic Relief Fund Advisory Committee includes: uAnne Cullen Miller, CCF president u Frank Forsberg, consultant for education policy and a former senior vice president of Greater Twin Cities United Way uDoug Milroy, former chairman and CEO of G&K Services Inc. uMeg Payne Nelson, CCF’s program officer uJeanne Schaaf, parish administrator at St. Odilia, Shoreview u Father Ralph Talbot, pastor of St. Mary of the Lake, White Bear Lake and exectutive director of the Presbyteral Council u Estela Villagran Manancero, director of the archdiocese’s Office of Latino Ministry The archdiocese’s Economic Impact Task Force includes: u Dan Statsick, chairman of the Archdiocesan Finance Council and the archdiocese’s Corporate Board of Directors uDoug Milroy (see above) u Father Charles Lachowitzer, the archdiocese’s moderator of the curia and vicar general u Al Erickson, managing director of Catholic Finance Corp., a financial advisory firm serving parishes and schools in the archdiocese u Jean Houghton, president of the Aim Higher Foundation uTom Mertens, the archdiocese’s chief financial officer u Jason Slattery, archdiocesan director of Catholic education spread. Higher costs include setting up and maintaining the technology needed for distance learning as students learn from their homes because schools are closed.

Other costs include deep-cleaning churches and schools, Miller said.

The CCF is developing criteria to determine which parishes or schools might qualify for assistance. At the same time, the archdiocese’s task force has been in touch with most parishes and schools, and it will

continue to monitor their financial situations through an archdiocesan-wide software program that provides up-to-date information, said Dan Statsick, a member of the task force and chairman of the Archdiocesan Finance Council and the archdiocese’s Corporate Board of Directors.

Statsick stressed the importance of parishioners regularly giving to their parishes, particularly through electronic giving while public Masses are suspended.

Signing up for electronic giving on a parish website or in a parish office takes less than 10 minutes, and it makes a tremendous difference, Statsick said.

Many parishes also are reaching out to their parishioners about electronic giving, he said.

The task force also is helping identify additional resources, public and private, that can help. Members of the task force meet Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and the panel will remain in place as long as it is needed, Statsick said.

“The ETF is committed to the successful outcome of all parishes and schools during this crisis, no matter the length of time,” he said.

Parishes and schools will bear no expense in creating or administering the fund, Miller said. “In addition, we’re shifting some of our own assets, like human capital, to focus on this fund,” she said. “Financially supporting the needs of our Catholic community is the core of our mission. The needs are great, and the time is now.”

As organizers discussed the fund and organized their efforts, it was clear the Holy Spirit was at work, Miller said.

“It is a sacred space,” she said of meeting the needs of parishes and schools. “I am so honored and so proud of how this committee came together for the common good.”

Learn more about the Economic Impact Task Force at and the Minnesota Catholic Relief Fund at ccf-mn.org/relief. archspm.org/etf

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LOCAL

APRIL 9, 2020

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 7

Catholic school leaders protest St. Paul relief fund exclusion; city relents

By Barb Umberger The Catholic Spirit

Following protests from Catholic school leaders and others, the city of St. Paul is now including families with students in nonpublic schools among those eligible for a COVID-19-related relief effort: a one-time, $1,000 payment for emergency housing assistance.

Families must meet income guidelines and have lost income as people in St. Paul and across the state are ordered to stay home to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

At a special meeting April 1, the City Council, acting as the Housing and Redevelopment Authority Board, voted to allocate $3.25 million to the St. Paul Bridge Fund, with the goal of helping low-income families and small businesses. Philanthropic and economic partners added to the fund, which stands at $3.85 million. An earlier version of the proposal limited assistance to families with students in public schools.

Kevin Ferdinandt, headmaster of St. Agnes School in St. Paul, and 10 other leaders of Catholic schools in the city sent a letter March 30 to Mayor Melvin Carter and members of the HRA. “We ask that you set aside the school attendance requirement present in early drafts of the fund,” the letter said.

The assistance package now allows all eligible St. Paul families with at least one minor child to apply for assistance.

Families must have a gross household income at or below 40% of Twin Cities-

area median income, or about $40,000 for a family of four, and have suffered a significant loss of income because of COVID-19.

“Some of our families have very low incomes and they need relief, and it can’t come soon enough,” Ferdinandt said.

“Some families send three children to our school and their family income in St. Paul is $25,000 a year,” he said. “They make sacrifices to pay some of their income to this Catholic school because they want their kids there. And they shouldn’t be discriminated against by the city of St. Paul just because they choose to send their kids to a private school.”

There is a misconception that private schools are exclusively places for the wealthy, and that those who attend pay full tuition, said Jason Adkins, executive director of the Minnesota Catholic Conference. “Many Catholic schools, for example, are financially fragile ministries that serve low-income families and communities,” he said.

Students often attend through special scholarships and the generosity of parishes, Adkins said. “Parents have determined that those schools are the best places for their child to flourish.

Low-income families should not be punished because they have made that choice.”

Underperforming public schools also can face enrollment declines, Adkins said. Because money for public education follows the student, public schools benefit from higher enrollment. “Hence the need to incentivize public school

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attendance,” he said.

“But it is wrong, discriminatory and possibly unconstitutional to condition the reception of public benefits on sending your child to public school,” Adkins said.

Small businesses in St. Paul hit economically by the ripple effects of COVID-19 also can apply for Bridge Fund grants. School leaders asked the mayor and HRA to include nonprofit organizations, but details of the fund on the city’s website indicate businesses must be for-profit, independently owned and operate a retail-oriented business.

Ferdinandt said he was disappointed nonprofits were not included.

Adkins said COVID-19 grant programs that assist only for-profit businesses suffer from the misperception that they provide more benefit to the community as employers than nonprofit organizations.

“Nonprofits may not pay taxes, but they employ people who often work for reduced salaries because of a dedication to serve the community,” he said.

“Furthermore, the nonprofit sector provides front-line services to the community that go undone, and for which the government may have to take responsibility if nonprofits close down,” Adkins said. “Assisting nonprofits during this time is an investment in the longterm well-being of our city.”

To learn more about the St. Paul Bridge Fund, visit st.paul.gov and search for “Bridge Fund.” Families can apply online from April 8 to April 19; a lottery system will determine awardees from among

eligible applicants.

A similar challenge is playing out in the city of Minneapolis. A proposal there would allocate up to $1 million in emergency housing stability funds to eligible families of students in all 39 of the Minneapolis Public Schools’ elementary schools.

The existing Stable Homes Stable Schools’ Housing Stability Fund provides one-time or short-term assistance to families experiencing homelessness or housing instability. It is being expanded to address COVID-19-related housing instability on an emergency basis.

Eligible families must have at least one child enrolled in one of Minneapolis Public Schools’ 39 elementary schools, and incomes at or below 50% of the Twin Cities-area median income.

“We are concerned that all children who live in the city of Minneapolis have access to emergency funding during this time of crisis, including children in all nonpublic schools,” said Patricia Stromen, president of Ascension Catholic Academy. The academy includes Ascension Catholic School and St. John Paul II Catholic School in Minneapolis, and St. Peter Claver Catholic School in St. Paul.

A vast majority of the families with children in the three schools live in poverty and might be eligible for the funds, Stromen said.

“Access to any assistance during this crisis would be important to help them maintain stability and care for their families,” she said.

8 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

APRIL 9, 2020

NATION+WORLD COVID-19 is not God’s judgment, but a call to live differently, pope says

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service The worldwide coronavirus pandemic is not God’s judgment on humanity, but God’s call on people to judge what is most important to them and resolve to act accordingly from now on, Pope Francis said.

Addressing God, the pope said that “it is not the time of your judgment, but of our judgment: a time to choose what matters and what passes away, a time to separate what is necessary from what is not. It is a time to get our lives back on track with regard to you, Lord, and to others.”

Pope Francis offered his meditation on the meaning of the COVID-19 pandemic and its implications for humanity March 27 before raising a monstrance with the Blessed Sacrament and giving an extraordinary blessing “urbi et orbi” (to the city and the world).

Popes usually give their blessing “urbi et orbi” only immediately after their election and on Christmas and Easter.

Pope Francis opened the service — in a rain-drenched, empty St. Peter’s Square — praying that the “almighty and merciful God” would see how people are suffering and give them comfort. He asked to care for the sick and dying, for medical workers exhausted by caring for the sick and for political leaders who bear the burden of making decisions to protect their people.

The service included the reading of the Gospel of Mark’s account of Jesus calming the stormy sea.

“Let us invite Jesus into the boats of our lives,” the pope said. “Let us hand over our fears to him so that he can conquer them.”

Like the disciples on the stormy Sea of Galilee, he said, “we will experience that, with him on board, there will be no shipwreck, because this is God’s strength: turning to the good everything that happens to us, even the bad things.”

The Gospel passage began, “When evening had come,” and the pope said that with the pandemic and its sickness and death, and with the lockdowns and closures of schools and workplaces, it

CNS

Pope Francis leads a prayer service in an empty St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican March 27.

At the conclusion of the service the pope held the Eucharist as he gave an extraordinary blessing “urbi et orbi” (to the city and the world). The service was livestreamed in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. has felt like “for weeks now it has been evening.”

“Thick darkness has gathered over our squares, our streets and our cities; it has taken over our lives, filling everything with a deafening silence and a distressing void that stops everything as it passes by,” the pope said. “We feel it in the air, we notice it in people’s gestures; their glances give them away.

“We find ourselves afraid and lost,” he said. “Like the disciples in the Gospel we were caught off guard by an unexpected, turbulent storm.”

However, the pandemic storm has made most people realize that “we are on the same boat, all of us fragile and disoriented,” the pope said. And it has shown how each person has a contribution to make, at least in comforting each other.

“On this boat are all of us,” he said.

The pandemic, the pope said, has exposed “our vulnerability and uncovers those false and superfluous certainties around which we have constructed our

daily schedules, our projects, our habits and priorities.”

In the midst of the storm, Pope Francis said, God is calling people to faith, which is not just believing God exists, but turning to him and trusting him.

As Lent and the pandemic go on, he said, God continues to call people to “convert” and “return to me with all your heart.”

It is a time to decide to live differently, live better, love more and care for others, he said, and every community is filled with people who can be role models — individuals, “who, even though fearful, have reacted by giving their lives.”

Pope Francis said the Holy Spirit can use the pandemic to “redeem, value and demonstrate how our lives are woven together and sustained by ordinary people — often forgotten people — who do not appear in newspaper and magazine headlines,” but are serving others and making life possible during the pandemic.

The pope listed “doctors, nurses,

supermarket employees, cleaners, caregivers, providers of transport, law and order forces, volunteers, priests, religious men and women and so very many others who have understood that no one reaches salvation by themselves.”

“How many people every day are exercising patience and offering hope, taking care to sow not panic but a shared responsibility,” he said. And “how many fathers, mothers, grandparents and teachers are showing our children, in small everyday gestures, how to face up to and navigate a crisis by adjusting their routines, lifting their gaze and fostering prayer.”

“How many are praying, offering and interceding for the good of all,” he said.

“Prayer and quiet service: These are our victorious weapons.”

In the boat, when the disciples plead with Jesus to do something, Jesus responds, “Why are you afraid? Have you no faith?”

“Lord, your word this evening strikes us and regards us, all of us,” the pope said. “In this world that you love more than we do, we have gone ahead at breakneck speed, feeling powerful and able to do anything.

“Greedy for profit, we let ourselves get caught up in things and be lured away by haste. We did not stop at your reproach to us, we were not shaken awake by wars or injustice across the world, nor did we listen to the cry of the poor or of our ailing planet,” Pope Francis said.

“We carried on regardless, thinking we would stay healthy in a world that was sick,” he said. “Now that we are in a stormy sea, we implore you: ‘Wake up, Lord!’”

The Lord is calling on people to “put into practice that solidarity and hope capable of giving strength, support and meaning to these hours when everything seems to be foundering,” the pope said.

“The Lord awakens so as to reawaken and revive our Easter faith,” he said. “We have an anchor: By his cross we have been saved. We have a rudder: By his cross we have been redeemed. We have a hope: by his cross we have been healed and embraced so that nothing and no one can separate us from his redeeming love.”

Cardinal Pell released from prison after Australian court overturns conviction

By Michael Sainsbury Catholic News Service Cardinal George Pell has been released from prison after 405 days behind bars after the seven judges of the High Court of Australia unanimously overturned the original December 2018 jury verdict that found him guilty on five counts of molesting two 13-year-old choirboys in 1996.

The court’s decision, read April 7, concluded there was “a significant possibility that an innocent person has been convicted because the evidence did not establish guilt to the requisite standard of proof.”

A few hours later, the 78-year-old Cardinal Pell was driven from Barwon prison to a Carmelite monastery in Melbourne.

“I have consistently maintained my innocence while suffering from a serious injustice,” Cardinal Pell said in a statement, adding that he holds “no ill will toward my accuser.”

“I do not want my acquittal to add to the hurt and bitterness so many feel; there is certainly hurt and bitterness enough,” he said.

The Vatican said in a statement that it “welcomes

the High Court’s unanimous decision concerning Cardinal George Pell, acquitting him of the accusations of abuse of minors and overturning his sentence.”

The statement said the Holy See “has always expressed confidence in the Australian judicial authority,” and noted that “Cardinal Pell has always maintained his innocence and has waited for the truth to be ascertained.”

“At the same time,” the statement continued, “the Holy See reaffirms its commitment to preventing and pursuing all cases of abuse against minors.”

The court reversed the result of Cardinal Pell’s June 2019 appeal to the Victoria Supreme Court, which had upheld the jury verdict by a majority of 2-1. The High Court said the Victoria court should have overturned the verdict based on reasonable doubt about the cardinal having an opportunity to commit the offenses immediately after a Mass in the Melbourne cathedral.

The most senior Catholic to be convicted of child sexual offenses, Cardinal Pell originally was sentenced to six years in prison — with a possibility of parole after three years and eight months — for sexually abusing two choirboys in 1996 and 1997. One of the

men has since died.

“The High Court found that the jury, acting rationally on the whole of the evidence, ought to have entertained a doubt as to the applicant’s guilt with respect to each of the offenses for which he was convicted, and ordered that the convictions be quashed and that verdicts of acquittal be entered in their place,” the brief judgment stated.

The High Court agreed with Cardinal Pell’s legal counsel who argued that the judges on the Victoria court did not take into account the testimony of witnesses who said that the cardinal, who was archbishop of Melbourne at the time, might not have had the opportunity to commit the offenses, thus raising reasonable doubt about his guilt, and therefore should have overturned the jury decision.

Australia’s final court of appeal issued its judgment less than a month after a two-day hearing by the justices on March 9-10. The decision was delivered initially by a Twitter message on the court’s official feed linking to the decision, due to the unique circumstance of the COVID-19 pandemic that has infected more than 5,000 Australians and claimed more than 40 lives.

APRIL 9, 2020

NATION+WORLD

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 9

Pandemic’s economic toll starting to show

By Mark Pattison Catholic News Service After 11 years of U.S. economic growth, the statistics are staggering.

First-time applications for unemployment benefits, which had been hovering in the low 200,000s from week to week, soared to 3.3 million in the March 26 report, then nearly doubled to 6.58 million in the April 2 report.

Those two weeks by themselves topped all unemployment benefit filings for the first six months of the “Great Recession” of 2008.

All of the jobs added in the U.S. economy since Donald Trump assumed the presidency in 2017 are now effectively gone. And, depending on whether there’s another round of bad news or some thread of hope to cling to by Wall Street traders, all of the stock market gains since January 2017 are gone, too. And fast.

The March unemployment figures released April 3 go through only March 12 — the day after the National Basketball Association suspended its season, with pro hockey and baseball following suit — at that time the most shocking signal yet that these were new and highly uncertain times.

Even so, the climb from a 3.5% unemployment rate in February to 4.4% in March, representing a loss of 701,000 jobs, does not reflect all that has happened in the following weeks: spiking COVID-19 positive tests results — and death rates; restrictions on public gatherings and the issuance of “stay at home” orders; the closure of shops, stores and restaurants, throwing as-yetuntold numbers of people out of work; and people who do have money having far fewer places, and inclinations, to spend it.

The May jobs report, due May 8, will take into account all that has happened with jobs and the economy into mid-April, said Elise Gould, a senior economist with the Economic Policy Institute.

It also will show which sectors of the economy were hit hardest, as well as the demographic groups affected most severely by the pandemic-related economic stall.

Figures from Washington state, the first epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, while themselves preliminary, give a clue to what the rest of the nation could expect. Three job categories suffered month-to-month doubledigit job losses: accommodation and food services, 16.5%; arts, entertainment and recreation, 11.3%; and “other services” outside of public administration, 10.9%.

The $2 trillion stimulus package hammered out by Congress and signed into law by Trump in late March is “not stimulus so much as relief and recovery,” Gould said.

“What we need to do right now is ease people’s pain ... ease people’s pain from these job losses.”

She added, “People are losing their job and they’re not going to be able to put food on the table, this CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief

NATION+WORLD HEADLINES u USCCB president calls for national moment of prayer on Good Friday. Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles has invited U.S. Catholics to join him on Good Friday, April 10, to pray the Litany of the Sacred Heart at noon (EDT), 11 a.m. central. A livestream of the Litany of the Sacred Heart with Archbishop Gomez will be available on the Archdiocese of Los Angeles’ website, lacatholics.org and at facebook.com/usccb. The text of Litany of the Sacred Heart can be found in English and Spanish on the Los Angeles archdiocesan website. Additionally, with special permission received from the Apostolic Penitentiary of the Holy See, a plenary indulgence is available for those who join Archbishop Gomez in praying the Litany of the Sacred Heart on Good Friday.

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A restaurant in Glendale, Calif., is seen March 18 during the coronavirus pandemic. and Economic Security) Act, what it does, it expands unemployment insurance so that more people can get it for a more expansive number of reasons related to COVID-19.”

Gould said more action will need to be taken in Washington to get the country through and past the pandemic.

“It’s probably a good generalization” that those who have the least have thus far been hurt the most by the sudden economic upheavals, said Clayton Sinyai, executive director of the Catholic Labor Network.

For Sinyai, it’s personal. “My brother-in-law is a cab driver in Honolulu and is an immigrant.

He is trying to figure out how to navigate the system,” he said. “It’s really challenging for someone who does not have a lot of experience accessing benefits or things like that.”

The Catholic Labor Network has been working with food service workers at the airports serving the Washington area. “They’ve all been furloughed or something similar to that. Restaurants are in the same category,” Sinyai said. “Those of us who are able to continue working are disproportionately in white-collar jobs and able to work online and not working with our hands — and not sitting on our hands and hoping to get the relief Congress and the taxpayers have just offered.”

At Georgetown University in Washington, the contractor that employs food service workers sent them home without pay when Georgetown closed the campus. After complaints to university leadership by the union representing those workers and by students, a deal was worked out that paid workers until the end of the term. “That was at some expense to Georgetown itself,” said Sinyai, noting the university also had rebated dorm-dwelling students the unused portion of their dorm charges.

In the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, the nation’s largest diocese, “where we can, we will continue to have folks working,” said Annabelle Baltierra, senior director of human resources.

“As this continues to go on, we don’t have donations coming in, although our bishop (Archbishop

Jose Gomez) is encouraging, for example, our parishes talking with their donors about continuing, our parents continuing to pay their tuition. Resources will make it doable.”

Next steps? “Then we start thinking about reducing staff hours across the board. The bishop encouraged the clergy to set an example and consider taking a cut in their salary,” Baltierra said, although they should not go below the minimum wage in doing so. “A last resort,” she added, “is to have our employees go on furlough, which would mean they wouldn’t have any income, but they would be able to utilize their vacation time until the government passes another emergency bill.”

The National Conference on Catechetical Leadership had to call off its annual conference in Dubuque, Iowa, even though its bylaws mandate an annual meeting. “We didn’t realize how much the Spirit would force us to look at who we are and how we do things,” said executive director Margaret Matijasevic, noting that was part of the conference’s theme.

“It forced us to do that quicker than we thought.”

The future requires a longerrange look than merely rescheduling a meeting, according to Matijasevic.

“What other options we move into, it would be completely shifting our business model,” she said. “We really have no measurement of engagement or buy-in for anything that we consider moving into. There will be some loss, some loss of our identity as an organization, which we’ve already been looking at” as a result of a leadership crisis in the Church, she added.

Membership dues are sources of revenue for many national Catholic organizations. Another revenue source is convention and conference fees. NCCL’s convention is over before it began; strike two.

“The other main revenue stream for many Catholic organizations is their investments. That becomes a point of crisis for some of us, as it is for many dioceses,” Matijasevic said. “Most nonprofits are using that as their supplemental reserve.”

u Vatican approves special ‘Mass in the Time of Pandemic.’

The Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments announced March 30 a special “Mass in the Time of Pandemic” to plead for God’s mercy and gift of strength in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. The Mass opens with a prayer that God would “look with compassion on the afflicted, grant eternal rest to the dead, comfort to mourners, healing to the sick, peace to the dying, strength to health care workers, wisdom to our leaders and the courage to reach out to all in love.” u Vatican confirms pope does not have COVID-19. Neither Pope Francis nor any of his closest collaborators have the COVID-19 virus, said Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press office. He confirmed March 28 that a monsignor, who works in the Vatican Secretariat of State and lives in the Domus Sanctae Marthae, where Pope Francis lives, did test positive for the coronavirus and was hospitalized. u Catholic entities expect to receive aid under emergency relief bill. Catholic hospitals, parish schools and charitable agencies are among the entities hoping to receive partial relief under a massive $2.2 trillion emergency aid package unanimously approved by Congress in response to the crippling new coronavirus. President Donald Trump signed the legislation into law soon after he received it from Congress March 27. Senators approved the 880-page Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, or CARES Act, during a late-night vote March 25. The House approved the measure by an overwhelming voice vote March 27 after members were forced to return to Washington by Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Kentucky, who insisted that a quorum be present. Despite such a large expenditure, about half of the federal fiscal year 2020 budget, leaders of Catholic organizations said they expect another package will be needed before the coronavirus runs its course. u Knights of Columbus offers short-term loans to help dioceses meet needs. The Knights of Columbus announced a new program March 27 to assist U.S. dioceses with short-term financing to help them and their parishes “weather the financial impact of the pandemic,” said Carl Anderson, the Knights’ CEO, in a statement. The Knights has established a $100 million fund, with up to a $1 million secured line of credit per Catholic diocese. The program will be available for 60 days beginning March 30. u Catholic organizations urge communities to respond to U.S. census. A baker’s dozen of Catholic organizations, from dioceses to religious orders to Catholic Charities affiliates, have signed on to a joint statement urging all to take part in the 2020 U.S. census. “We affirm the right of all people to participate in the 2020 census and remain committed to helping our neighbors be counted,” said the statement, issued March 26 by the group Faith in Public Life. “All people, regardless of race, religion or immigration status have God-given dignity and it is imperative that our government counts every person living in this country.”

The Catholic signatories were part of a larger multi-faith effort to encourage participation in the decennial census, which is a constitutional mandate. u Despite opposition, abortion is now legal in Northern Ireland. A right of access to abortion was included in the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation) Act 2019, which passed into law last October, and a legal framework for abortion provision was announced March 25.

It allows abortion on demand in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy,

abortions up to 24 weeks for undefined mental or physical health reasons, and abortion up to birth if the fetus is considered to be disabled. The regulations, which were opposed by 79% of respondents during a consultation with the public on how they should be framed, took effect March 31.

— Catholic News Service

10 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Holy Week at home

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‘Liturgical living’ experts offer ideas for a meaningful Triduum

By Maria Wiering The Catholic Spirit

his is a Holy Week like no other.

No in-person Masses, Holy Thursday processions to the altar of repose, communal kissing of the cross, or gathering with fellow parishioners outside, in the dark faces lit by the glow of the fire as the Easter Vigil begin But that doesn’t mean that it still can’t be an incred week, say Catholics who have experience marking the Triduum with traditions in their home.

As Minnesotans continue to stay at home to slow the spread of COVID-19, Archbishop Bernard Hebda has suspended public Masses with distribution of the Eucharist through at least the Triduum, Holy Thursday through Easter Sunday, and the seven days that follow He and Bishop Andrew Cozzens are encouraging Catholics to participate in Masses via television, radio internet, and they’re offering a virtual Holy Week retre to bring Catholics together for prayer and livestreamed liturgies.

Meanwhile, there’s an array of things Catholics can at home — whether alone, with a spouse or housemat or with children. And even if they’re new, they may fe familiar.

“Part of the beauty of it is that you’ve got the rhyth of the Church here, where things come around again

Triduum in the d Above all, keep whatever you do simple, several moms advised. Going overboard with new activities and stirring up stress defeats the purpose. There’s a wealth of ideas and activities available online for kids and adults, from LEGO-based Passion videos, to the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra’s rebroadcast streaming of Johann Sebastian Bach’s “ St. John Passion” April 10 and 11.

With in-person Masses canceled around the world, watch Triduum liturgies online and look for other unique possibilities via the web. For example, on Holy Saturday, April 11, the Archdiocese of Turin, Italy, will host a special online exposition of the Shroud of Turin, which many believe is the burial cloth of Jesus. And follow your parish on social media: Many pastors are offering short video reflections for their flock.

HOLY THURSDAY

Hot cross buns, a spiced sweet bread, are a tradition that continues in many Catholic homes.

They are marked with a cross recalling the Crucifixion. Recipes are available online. iSTOCK PHOTO | TEGAN THORNEYCROFT

Several families interviewed by The Catholic Sprit about their Triduum traditions noted that they wash each other’s feet, and, like the Tierneys, have a Seder-inspired meal. Holy Week is typically an unusually busy week for Megan Hume, assistant coordinator of liturgical celebrations at the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis. However, she likes to create a Seder plate with a hard-boiled egg, bitter herbs and unleavened bread, and she uses it to connect the Exodus story to the Last Supper for her three children, ages 5, 7 and 9. She talks about Passover and Jesus being the New Covenant, fulfilling the promises

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APRIL 9, 2020 • 11

again,” Kendra Tierney, a wife, mom of 10 and writer in Los Angeles, told The Catholic Spirit.

The author of “The Catholic All Year Compendium: Liturgical Living for Real Life” (Ignatius Press, 2018), Tierney, 43, literally wrote the book on how to celebrate the Church’s feasts and fasts in the home. She’s been doing it for about 15 years as a way to teach her children the faith, and she’s been detailing her family’s traditions for a decade on her blog, “Catholic All Year.” She follows the Church’s liturgical calendar, and draws inspiration from cultural traditions and devotions for honoring the saints and feasts marking Christ’s life.

Even without the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic, it can be difficult for families with young children to participate in special liturgies at their parishes, which is why — with kids ranging in age from 5 months to 17 years — Tierney focuses on bringing the liturgical year into her home.

“I think it just really makes our faith so much more alive,” said Tierney, who was scheduled to be the featured speaker at the Minnesota Catholic Home Education Conference next month in St. Paul. “It’s just a practical part of our day-to-day life in our family. It’s just really been so fruitful for our family to have church not be something that you (only) ‘go to,’ that it’s something that is part of your life.”

That’s especially true this year, she said, as Catholic families across the U.S. are under stay-at-home orders and can’t attend the Triduum liturgies in person.

“To me, it would feel crazy to just skip it, you know, just say, well, no Holy Week this year,” Tierney said. “I want the Holy Week this year. I want the Triduum. …

This can be a really special, memorable time for us and our families.”

It can feel a little funny or awkward to do things at home that families otherwise might have done previously at church — or never attempted before at all. But it’s a hurdle worth overcoming, Tierney said. Her website, catholicallyear.com, includes helpful resources for Holy

Week meals, Stations of the Cross and even a Passion play script. She created some resources specifically for this year’s unusual Triduum.

But for the Tierneys, many things this week are familiar. Her family uses the first part of Holy Week for spring cleaning, as a way to prepare the house for Easter.

On “Spy Wednesday” — the day Judas betrayed Jesus to the Sanhedrin for 30 pieces of silver — Tierney hides 30 quarters around the house for her kids to find. And as her kids knock each other over while looking for them, she turns the squabbles into a lesson about how money can motivate people “not to be our best selves,” she said. They also read from the Bible about Judas’ betrayal.

On Holy Thursday, the Tierneys have a meal inspired by the Passover Seder, although Tierney doesn’t try to replicate the Jewish tradition. They eat lamb, salad with bitter herbs and unleavened bread. And they shape Rice Krispies treats into a lamb for dessert. They talk about how Jesus used the Last Supper to give the Church the Eucharist and institute the priesthood. They sing “Pange lingua gloriosi,” St. Thomas Aquinas’ hymn about the Eucharist, which is traditionally sung on Holy Thursday as the Eucharist is processed from the church’s tabernacle to the altar of repose.

“How poignant that’s going to be this year as so many of us are separated from (the Eucharist),” Tierney said.

On Good Friday, the Tierney family eats hot cross buns, and while they have frosting and are somewhat sweet, Tierney keeps them small and restricts each person to two, which is where the sacrifice comes in, because it’s tempting to have 10, she said. They also venerate the cross, each taking a turn to kiss a large cross. It doesn’t have to be fancy, Tierney insists: Take a crucifix off the wall. Make one out of sticks. Whatever works.

“You can lay it down with the top on a step or something, a pile of books, so that the top is higher than the bottom,” she said. “And you just say, ‘Behold the

wood of the cross.’”

The Tierneys also use the same words traditionally used for Stations of the Cross: “I adore you O Christ and I praise you, because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.”

They spend noon to 3 p.m. in quiet and prayer.

Kids color Stations of the Cross pictures. Tierney recommends talking a walk, praying the rosary, reading about the Crucifixion or doing the Stations of the Cross.

On Holy Saturday, the Tierneys don’t do community Easter Egg hunts — they always wait until Easter actually arrives, and this year’s social distancing means there won’t be any hunt invitations to politely turn down. But they typically dye eggs and prepare the house for Easter Sunday, replacing Lent décor with Easter decorations. Those decorations are especially important this year, she said, since families likely won’t be out-andabout to see even secular Easter decorations elsewhere.

With Easter Sunday, the Tierneys begin a celebration that lasts the entire 50 days of the liturgical season. The kids enjoy treats and screens — things they give up for Lent — and they continue to have Easter egg hunts well beyond Easter Sunday. They also sing Easter hymns, which is great for families who love to sing carols together at Christmas.

For all the effort Tierney puts into “liturgical living,” she says it’s still a concession.

“I don’t want ever to come across as saying that this is as good as these celebrations in a parish and community,” she said. “These celebrations are intended to be used in a community, in a whole parish, in a whole town, in a whole city, in a whole country. These celebrations of patron saints, celebration of days during Holy Week, there should be big parades down the main street of the town. But when that’s not possible — and it’s the least possible right now than it’s ever been — we have recourse to doing these things in our homes, so that we don’t forget, so that they are real for our families.”

domestic church

made to the Israelites. would love to take a deep dive in ogy with my kids, but it’s not really sible for them,” said Hume, 32, earned a theology degree from the ersity of St. Thomas in St. Paul. “So the gs we try to do are really simple, but y to do things that are interesting and ory.” na DeBoer, a parishioner of St. Paul am Lake, said that her parish’s family ation program has inspired her to porate more Catholic traditions in the e. On Holy Thursday, the 43-year-old her dinner table with the family’s nicer es and she uses candles some of her hildren — ages 4 to 15 — received for first Communion. Her oldest daughter s unleavened bread in the shape of a host with a cross in it, and everyone glass of wine or grape juice. They t also try to recreate the tradition of even Church Visitation virtually, by ing” seven churches online, DeBoer

OD FRIDAY

st year, DeBoer and her children t their Good Friday participating in a ession at St. Stephen in Minneapolis, ng outside of Planned Parenthood Paul and serving food at the Ronald onald House at Children’s Hospital. noted that this year’s Good Friday ook much different. Like Tierney, the y sets some part of the day aside for

quiet reading, with Play-Doh time or Bible story videos for younger children.

The DeBoers also plan to have a “Passion lunch,” with items that symbolize aspects of Jesus’ passion, such as an olive for the Mount of Olives, a Hershey’s Kiss for Judas’ betrayal and a pretzel for the crown of thorns. They plan to do the Stations of the Cross at home, symbolizing each station with household items like nails, a cloth (for Veronica’s veil) and Band-Aids (for Jesus’ falls).

The Divine Mercy novena also begins on Good Friday, nine days before Divine Mercy Sunday, April 19 this year.

HOLY SATURDAY In a Facebook post on observing Holy Week, Laura Kelly Fanucci, a Catholic writer and parishioner of St. Joseph the Worker in Maple Grove, suggested filling Holy Saturday with stories. “Easter Vigil is packed with Scripture, so fill the day with favorite stories you would have heard at church. Take turns reading with your spouse, your kids, or a friend over the phone,” she posted April 5.

“To counter today’s news full of fear, fill your head with words of love and hope.”

In the first evening “conference” of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ virtual Holy Week retreat April 5, Archbishop Bernard Hebda suggested families light a candle to remind them of the fire used at the beginning of the Easter Vigil to light the paschal candle, and to ring bells together to recollect the “Gloria” of that liturgy.

DeBoer plans to adapt a children’s liturgy from the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd that reminds her of the Easter Vigil, and have an Easter bonfire for lighting a homemade “Easter candle,” decorated with the same symbols as the large candles used in parishes.

And when the kids go to bed, she’ll change the house’s decorations for Easter.

EASTER SUNDAY Have a hand-me-down lamb-shaped cake pan? Pull it out (if you haven’t already).

Lamb cakes have long been an Easter staple in some families, including the Hadzimas, parishioners of Holy Trinity in South St. Paul. It was a tradition Brigid Hadzima had growing up, and now she includes it with her Easter celebration, too. (The Tierneys’ Holy Thursday no-bake Rice Krispies treat lamb could be used on Easter Sunday, too.)

“It just symbolizes Jesus, the Lamb of God, the unblemished sacrifice, drawing from the Passover … and then fulfilling it in the New Covenant at the cross,” Hadzima said.

Even though Hadzima uses liturgical living to teach her children, ages 1 to 11, “I still love these things and I’m 34 years old,” she said. “It’s still a grounding for me. It’s a link to the past. It’s a link to my mom, to my grandma. And ultimately, it’s a link to our faith. It’s something I can see, touch, hear, and reminds me of what we’re about, where our heavenly home is, where our home is ultimately.”

The point of these special activities is to elevate Easter over other days, including other Sundays. And that goes for people who are living the Triduum and Easter Sunday alone, too, said Karen Perez, a parishioner of St. Agnes in St. Paul, who started celebrating the Church’s feast days with her husband, Juan, years before they had their three children. Now that they do have children — ages 6, 2 and 7 months — they do it to ingrain a Catholic culture in their children, said Perez, 35.

“We live in a culture that is so not centered on God, that by having our life just revolve around our faith, and our faith being such a central part of everything we do, it just helps our faith be a part of them,” she said.

DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY In 2000, St. John Paul II established Divine Mercy Sunday on the Sunday following Easter, with the canonization of St. Faustina Kowalska, whose visions in the 1930s inspired widespread devotion to Christ and his Divine Mercy (including the image of Divine Mercy, which was based on a vision St. Faustina had of Jesus in 1931). Since parishes likely will not host Divine Mercy prayers and devotions due to continued social distancing, look for livestreamed Divine Mercy Chaplets to be prayed around 3 p.m. For more information, visit 3oclockhour.org. ­— Maria Wiering

12 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

APRIL 9, 2020

FAITH+CULTURE

Love in the time of coronavirus Couples find creative ways to scale back weddings in the midst of COVID-19 pandemic

By Dave Hrbacek The Catholic Spirit

B

ecause of her devotion to St. Joseph, Anne Spinharney wanted her wedding to be on his feast day, March 19. But when she and her now-husband, Jordan Spinharney, were planning their 2020 wedding, they noticed the feast fell on a Thursday.

“I was like, ‘No way, I’m definitely not getting married on a Thursday,’” she said. “Then, throw in a pandemic, and before you know it, you get married on a Thursday on the solemnity of St. Joseph in the middle of Lent.”

Such is the way the coronavirus has impacted couples planning weddings in the next few months.

The Spinharneys had originally selected April 18 for their wedding Mass at Holy Family in St. Louis Park. But, like some other couples in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, they moved it up due to restrictions on large gatherings imposed by both state officials and Archbishop Bernard Hebda.

Anticipating the eventual suspension of public Masses in the archdiocese, they made a hurried decision March 13 to move up their wedding to March 19.

In addition to the restriction on gatherings, they were concerned about Jordan’s father, Robert Spinharney, who has advanced cancer and is experiencing a steady decline. They were wondering how he would be doing April 18, and that became another reason to move the wedding up a month.

“It was really hard to let go of all our plans and hopes,” said Anne, 30. “We had a very large wedding planned. We had over 300 guests invited. And, we wanted it to be really big and happy and Catholic. Jordan’s brother, who’s a priest, was supposed to be our celebrant.

And, it was just a lot to give up, and there was a lot of sadness. … But, in the midst of that, one thing that we just kept returning to is we think the Lord’s hand was in this (change).”

Likewise, John and Catherine Braun saw God’s intervention as they, too, decided to move up their wedding, which was held March 21 at St. Francis Xavier in Buffalo, the parish where the groom grew up.

Their original date was April 25, and they scrambled to put together a scaled-back wedding that included just 10 people inside the church, in keeping with the state’s recommendation at that time to keep groupings to 10 people or fewer. Both sets of parents, a maid of honor and best man, plus Father Kyle Kowalczyk made for an intimate gathering that gave the event a special flavor.

“It was really quite great, honestly,” said John, 25. “It took some of the distractions out, on a practical level. We could really just pay attention to each

ABOVE Tony and Annie Eicher celebrate the conclusion of their wedding ceremony in the empty chapel at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul March 17.

COURTESY MARK BROWN | UNIVERSITY OF ST. THOMAS

FAR LEFT Anne and Jordan Spinharney walk inside the church of Holy Family in St. Louis Park on their wedding day March 19.

COURTESY KATZIE AND BEN PHOTOGRAPHY

LEFT John and Catherine Braun pose for a picture while wearing masks after their wedding ceremony at St. Francis Xavier in Buffalo, March 21.

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

other because we didn’t have 500 eyes on us.”

The hardest part for Catherine, 27, was not having all of her immediate family there. She said she is very close to her four siblings, and one of her strongest desires was to have them there during the ceremony.

Instead, her brothers and sisters waited in the parking lot and listened to a livestream of the ceremony, then cheered and waved when she and John emerged outside newly married. She had to keep her distance, of course, but tears flowed freely as she took in the sight of not only her siblings, but relatives and friends standing by to offer their congratulations.

“It was just overwhelming that so many people would drive out to see us just for a moment, because really all we could do was wave at them and pass by them and thank them for being there,” she said. “People drove between an hour and an hour-and-a-half to just say hi to us for five minutes. So, the outpouring of love that so many people came out to be with us and to celebrate was just

breathtaking for me. I really just kind of lost my breath when I came out of the church.”

For Jordan Spinharney, one of the most beautiful parts of the day was a treasured moment he had with his ill father before the ceremony. He had feared Robert might not make it through the original wedding date.

“Having him there for me was a necessity,” said Jordan, 32. “I wanted my dad there, I needed my dad there.

Before the Mass, I just had a moment with him. Really, it was just the two of us sitting in the church, when everyone (else) seemed to have disappeared. … I asked for his blessing and knelt in front of him, and he gave me his blessing.

We wept together in each other’s arms and it just was a great moment of connection.”

Perhaps one of the smallest weddings during these times was between Tony and Annie Eicher, who chose March 17, St. Patrick’s Day, for their wedding at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul.

The two alumni exchanged vows in the chapel with just a priest, Conventual

Franciscan Father Steven McMichael, and Annie’s parents present as witnesses, plus a few other people who helped with the ceremony. The couple decided just the day before to move up their ceremony from their original date of March 21. For them, the lack of guests did not diminish the meaning of the ceremony.

“It was a very special day. I don’t think we have any regrets (about) how it went down,” said Tony, 31. “It was just as special as we could ever have imagined it.”

In the end, the three couples had a keener focus on the sacramental nature of the event, something that was on their minds long before they tied the knot.

“One thing that John was saying to me in the days leading up to our wedding was, ‘What do we need? This is a vocation between you and God and I, and that’s all we really need,’” Catherine said. “It’s not about having a big party and having all these other people — even though we love them — be there.

But, it’s about the vocation, and that’s what we’ve been preparing for the last seven months anyway.”

FAITH+CULTURE

APRIL 9, 2020

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 13

Theater overcomes obstacles to re-open, only to close again due to COVID-19

By Susan Klemond For The Catholic Spirit

SPOKEN WORD PROJECT

O

pen Window Theatre’s temporary closure in March because of COVID-19 — just months after it re-opened in a new location — is one more opportunity to trust God, one of its co-founders said.

The Lord’s hand was evident in establishing the small, Catholic-inspired theater in its new Inver Grove Heights location, said Jeremy Stanbary, 41, co-founder and executive artistic director.

“That gives us confidence even though we don’t know what next week holds, what next month holds, we don’t know how we’re going to keep operating into the near future,” he said. “Still, we walk by faith, not by sight, and right now we’re just trusting that God has a plan for this and will provide the path forward.”

Government restrictions on public gatherings put in place last month to avoid spread of the coronavirus have Stanbary and managing director Cole Matson, 35, seeking revenue streams in a difficult season as they try to maintain their new theater space after four years of closure. Ever trying to rely on God’s providence, they’re developing new ways to reconnect with patrons and donors, while attracting new followers.

Stanbary and his wife, Sarah, who are parishioners of St. Joseph in West St. Paul, co-founded Open Window Theatre in 2011 as a professional theater that brings together art and a Catholic worldview through plays such as “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” based on C.S. Lewis’ novel and “The Jeweler’s Shop” by Pope St. John Paul II. A disagreement with their original Minneapolis theater space’s management forced the Stanbarys and staff to close the theater three-and-a-half years ago. A

Until social gathering bans are lifted, Open Window Theatre is offering free online semi-weekly poetry readings through its new Spoken Word Project. Video of the readings by staff members, and actors, as well as former NFL star Matt Birk, will be posted at openwindowtheatre.org, Vimeo, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The project reflects the theater’s desire to contribute hope to the virtual sphere during a time of isolation, co-founder Jeremy Stanbary said. “We want to bring some hope and inspiration to all of our lives because without beauty we risk sinking into despair.”

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

In the midst of a closure to help curb the spread of the coronavirus, Jeremy Stanbary, co-founder of Open Window Theatre, is hoping to find new ways to stay connected with patrons and donors, as well as attract new followers. mutually agreeable legal settlement reached in 2018, together with a fundraising campaign, enabled them to re-open late last year in Inver Grove Heights.

The 9,600-square-foot space is one-third larger than the previous site and required modifications not originally in the budget, Stanbary said. The auditorium seats 170 for staged productions.

Near the end of the theater’s first production at the new location, the new state restrictions on public gatherings forced Stanbary and Matson to cancel the rest of the season. A second production they’d hoped would generate needed revenue was postponed until the fall.

They have raised $6,000 of the $40,000 needed for the coming months, Stanbary said, but fundraising when many have been hit economically is challenging.

Matson, a parishioner of St. Charles in Bayport, is also applying for government disaster aid and loans.

Stanbary plans to announce the theater’s 2020-2021 season before Easter, which he hopes will generate season ticket sales. Included will be “Tolkien” about the friendship between writers J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, previously scheduled for this spring.

Later this spring, the theater plans to livestream a reading of Pope St. John Paul II’s play, “The Jeweler’s Shop.” In the fall, Stanbary plans to present his oneman drama on the life of St. John Paul II, which he performed nationally and internationally from 2003 to 2011. A children’s play is also planned for July.

“When we can root ourselves in prayer and put those roots ever deeper in the Lord, that’s where we get nourished with hope and trust and the faith we need to know (that) somehow — we don’t know how — somehow God is going to provide.”

Seminarians offer ‘Ave Maria’ for Pope Francis in video letter

By Barb Umberger The Catholic Spirit On March 25, the feast of the Annunciation, seven seminarians gathered in a semicircle in The St. Paul Seminary chapel to sing the Ave Maria.

Their intended audience: Pope Francis.

The seminarians recorded the song and shared it on social media. In a message to the pope preceding the hymn, Deacon Tim Tran said the seminarians dedicated their prayer to Pope Francis and his ministry, and to people around the world suffering, especially from the coronavirus pandemic, and who are unable to receive the sacraments at this time.

“Your holiness, at the foot of the cross our savior Jesus Christ gave us Mary as our mother, as mother of the Church, and may we receive her into our homes, into our hearts, that she might be able to say yes … and make our own personal ‘fiat’ to God,” he said, adding that he hoped that the sorrow felt because of the coronavirus pandemic “might be an opening for the Spirit, for the grace of the Resurrection, to flow into, to penetrate our minds and our hearts.”

During his nightly prayers March 18, Deacon Tran, a transitional deacon from St. Anne-St. Joseph Hien in Minneapolis, received inspiration to make the video.

He shared the idea with his three “deacon brothers” at The St. Paul Seminary.

“I thought I’d tell them the idea and see where and when the Holy Spirit takes it,” he told The Catholic Spirit.

All three were on board. The four deacons comprise the seminary’s schola and have enjoyed singing together for four years.

On March 20, again during prayer, Deacon Tran thought of dedicating the video and song to Pope Francis.

“It presented itself quite clearly,” he said. “If you’re going to make a video, why not write a video letter to the Holy Father?’”

As part of their studies, Deacon Tran and his classmates had visited the Vatican in January. Because his visit coincided with Archbishop Bernard Hebda and Bishop Andrew Cozzens’ “ad limina” visit, all 13 seminarians in his class were able to meet Pope Francis.

The encounter made a deep impression. “I sensed a fatherly,

grandfatherly figure” who emanated joy and holiness, Deacon Tran said.

He said he will never forget the pope’s advice to the seminarians: Never lose your sense of humor, stay close to Mary and pray the rosary every day.

In January, they didn’t know the suffering many around the world would soon face as a result of the coronavirus, another audience for whom the video is dedicated.

Before moving forward with the video, Deacon Tran said he needed to ensure his goal was not to “go viral,” but a pure desire to give glory to God and lead others closer to him. He wrote a short letter to the pope, and ran it by seminary rector Father Joseph Taphorn, who thought it was a great idea. “I knew then it was God’s will,” Deacon Tran said.

The result was an eight-minute video that opens with a message from Deacon Tran to the pope, followed by a rendition of composer Franz Biebl’s “Ave Maria.”

Deacon John Hayes from the Diocese of New Ulm is the schola director. At Deacon Tran’s suggestion, he chose three seminarians to join the four deacons.

While the schola specializes in Gregorian

chant, the new “members” had more experience in motet, polyphony and harmony.

With four days to prepare for the recording, Deacon Hayes said he felt confident because he knew the additional members were musically gifted. “They also had experience in choir and that wonderful ability to mix voices and … express it in a really good way.”

Deacon Paul Hedman recorded and edited the video. Deacon Hedman and Deacon Tran are among the five transitional deacons scheduled to be ordained priests for the archdiocese in May. People need a little glimmer of hope, Deacon Tran said. “We’re praying for the Holy Father. The best that we seminarians can do now is pray — to pray for the people. That was the motivation.”

Deacon Tran does not know if Pope Francis has viewed the video. But he continues to pray for the pope and hopes that anyone who comes across the video will be inspired.

“Whether he sees it or not, we offered this song as a prayer for him and to support him during this very difficult time,” Deacon Hedman said.

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14 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

FAITH+CULTURE

APRIL 9, 2020

First line of defense Catholics take part in the ‘war effort’ by making and donating masks, face shields

By Dave Hrbacek The Catholic Spirit

I

n the face of a global pandemic that frightens and overwhelms many, hundreds of local Catholics are asking themselves what they can do to make a difference. And, they are stepping forward to give of their resources and skills.

They include Mark Westlake, director of the Innovation Center at St. Thomas Academy in Mendota Heights. About two weeks ago, he and a friend came up with an idea to make face shields for doctors, nurses and other health care professionals.

Westlake, who, like other local educators and students, now stays at home, is putting his trio of 3D printers to work making about 20 shields a day, with his wife, Rebecca, and five children pitching in to help.

He started making them March 26. The process involves using plastic filaments that are inserted into the printer, then formed according to a specially designed software file to make a visor. Then, a sheet of acetate is attached to the visor to complete the shield, which can be fitted to someone’s head with an elastic band.

Within days of starting, word of Westlake’s project spread, and there are now 120 people who have contacted him to say they are going to use their 3D printers in the same way. He hopes it will soon add up to 500 shields a day that he can collect and bring to medical professionals who want them.

“The need is tremendous,” said Westlake, 57. “I get an email an hour from somebody who says, ‘Can you make some for us?’ or, ‘How soon can you get us a lot?’ People are asking for 100 or 200 at a time.”

Shortages of both face shields and masks are well documented in the Twin Cities and nationwide. A lot of the attention has been on hospitals and care centers for the elderly. One such facility, the Little Sisters of the Poor Holy Family Residence in St. Paul, has made a request for face shields, and Westlake said their request — and all others he has received so far — will be answered.

In the meantime, the Little Sisters are benefiting from donations of masks, with 100 given by Victoria Cross, 60, of St. Patrick in Cedar Lake, near Jordan.

She pumps out the masks eight hours a day on an embroidery machine. Making and delivering masks helps her feel like she’s “part of the war effort.” And, it has brought relief and comfort to the staff at the Holy Family Residence, all the way up to Mother

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Mother Theresa Louisa Wooching of the Little Sisters of the Poor Holy Family Residence in St. Paul, right, wears a donated face mask that will be used during the coronavirus pandemic. In the background and also wearing masks are Lynn Kerber, director of nursing, left, and resident Jeanne Kellett.

Theresa Louisa Wooching, who leads the group of nine sisters who staff the facility along with health care professionals who work with the 68 residents daily.

“It’s a lot of help (to get the donated masks); we can use them,” Mother Theresa Louisa said. “We don’t have a case (of COVID-19) right now, but it’s consoling for the staff to use (the donated masks) right now. … It’s a great act of charity (for people) to spend this time doing that for us.”

The masks are an important supplement for the traditional N95 mask used by health care professionals, which now are in short supply locally and throughout the country. Individuals and organizations are trying to pick up the slack by having collections.

Penny Bartzen, a health care worker at Buffalo Hospital and member of Holy Name of Jesus in Medina, asked her pastor, Father Steve Ulrick, if she could start a mask and face shield donation effort.

He quickly agreed, and there now is a cardboard box just inside the main doors of the church. People can drop off masks and face shields anytime, and she will collect them once a week. She plans to take them back to the hospital as part of a collection being run

by its parent company, Allina.

“Somebody donated a hazmat suit and a lot of elastic and fabric,” said Bartzen, 67. “And then people have been writing me saying that they’re sewing the masks with their family and grandchildren and dropping masks off in the box.”

Working as an occupational therapist brings her closer to the front lines of the pandemic, even though she herself does not work with people infected with COVID-19. She has observed other hospital employees, “and seeing their level of stress is what pushed me” to start a mask and shield donation at Holy Name. She said she will keep the collection going as long as it’s needed.

Likewise, Westlake and Cross will continue their efforts as long as the pandemic lasts. Westlake works mostly from home, but goes into the school for part of the assembly process. He has started hearing from local manufacturers in the Twin Cities who want to pitch in, and he said it is a great example of how to make a difference.

“Everybody we talk to says the same thing,” he said. “They said, ‘We hate feeling helpless, and we feel like this is a way that we can fight back.’”

APRIL 9, 2020

FAITH+CULTURE

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 15

Family in self-isolation since June offers perspective, advice for staying at home

By Joe Ruff The Catholic Spirit

C

COURTESY BRASHIER FAMILY

Cassandra Brashier reads with her children, from left, Cecilia, Gianna and Joseph, at their home in Rosemount. difficulties acknowledged by the Brashiers, who work with those issues every day through their jobs, worries about their daughter and their own home life.

“You have fear coming from all angles, with all this uncertainty,” said Mike, 44. “Basically, we have over the last nine or 10 months been faced with many of the same struggles people just now are entering into.”

One piece of advice they offer: Expect anger, resentment, hardship. But offer it to God and help each other through it. And savor the blessings God invariably offers in the midst of the trials.

“There was a period of transition when we had to get used to life slowed down,” Cassandra said. “It was really valuable. There was a way to do it. I could just sit and pray or just focus on a rosary, all by myself. Before, I was driving, in the car, half-distracted.”

On a practical level, it’s been hard for Gianna and Joseph to see other children out playing and unable to

Honoring Catholic business leaders whose faith shapes their work.

Nominate a deserving honoree by April 17 at TheCatholicSpirit.com Awardee luncheon with Archbishop Bernard Hebda Aug. 13

LEADING

FAITH

with

assandra and Mike Brashier of St. Joseph in Rosemount have been living in self-isolation since June, when they learned their 3-year-old daughter, Cecilia, had leukemia.

For the last nine months, they have maintained their financial planning jobs via computer and telephone.

They shop at odd hours to avoid crowds. When Mass was available, before the novel coronavirus pandemic had everyone staying home, they attended separately and sat apart from the rest of the congregation. They wash their hands carefully when coming home and avoid relatives who are ill. Few people come to the house, and they generally don’t go out. Their two older children, Gianna, 8, and Joseph, 5, are no longer at St. Agnes School in St. Paul, but are being taught at home. They have had to give up music, gymnastics, swimming and jujitsu.

This past year, the family missed festivities on the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Eve. Their experience is very much like what people are being asked to do now to curb the spread of the coronavirus and the respiratory illness it causes, COVID-19. There is one difference, the Brashiers insist: They chose to live this way. Doctors told them they could go on pretty much as usual, but to give their daughter the best chance they could as she undergoes chemotherapy and her immune system is compromised, and to simplify their busy lives, they chose to live in self-isolation.

Now, everyone in Minnesota and many across the country and most of the world have been involuntarily stopped in their tracks, abiding by advice from public health officials to stay home. Many are worried about their health, have children home from schools that are closed, have lost jobs or been furloughed — all

join them, the Brashiers said. They are young, but they enjoyed music and dance and self-defense classes. They were just starting to loosen some of the restrictions as Cecilia grew in strength, but now the coronavirus is a danger to everyone.

“Even if one person gets it, and gives it back to Cecilia, or even anything, the seasonal flu,” it could put her health in danger, Mike said.

The Brashiers are grateful Cecilia is doing well, but they remember sleepless nights of not knowing what was next. They’ve been told Cecilia has a 90% chance of beating her particular kind of leukemia, but realize 10% do not.

“You can talk percentages all day long, but at 90 percent, one in 10 don’t make it,” Mike said. “It’s been helpful for us to have an element of faith, because we have to put it in (God’s) hands.”

Cassandra, 38, remembers talking about the odds. It was when she abandoned it all to God. “At that moment, I knew it was in God’s hands,” she said. “That was a freeing moment, when I stopped thinking about probabilities. We’d follow protocol and it was going to be OK. No matter what. It’s given me clearance to live in the moment.”

Mike said his moment of giving the worry over to God came after a period of restless nights and nervewracking days, driven by uncertainty and doubt and a strong desire to somehow “fix” everything.

“It’s not unlike what’s happening now,” in the midst of the coronavirus epidemic, he said. “Your entire world is upside down. You try to minimize all the germs. You’re so busy, but not really connected. Finally, someone said, ‘You need to go into a church.’”

He found himself at perpetual adoration at Holy Trinity in South St. Paul.

“I was able to just let it all out in prayer. Completely abandon myself and just concentrate on (Jesus).”

“We are not in control,” Mike said. “His plans are so much greater than our own.”

G o o d Wo r k

• In

Christ

APRIL 9, 2020

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 16

FOCUSONFAITH

SUNDAY SCRIPTURES | FATHER JOHN PAUL ERICKSON

Jesus Christ is risen, alleluia!

Truly he is risen, alleluia!

Without the experience of death, the true mystery of Easter is inaccessible. It is only by entering the tomb ourselves — the tombs of loss, the tombs of disappointment, the tombs of humiliation, the tombs of isolation — that the full splendor of this eternal day is fully revealed.

For it is only there, in the darkness of the night, that the strong and steady flame of the Resurrection is seen with the eyes of faith. For the sleek and the strong, the mighty and the powerful, there is nothing to see. But for those who have been wounded by love and made little through helplessness and surrender, this is a feast of victory, a feast that begins in the dim dawn of glory shining through a glass darkly, but in the world to come will be a raging furnace that will illuminate all secrets.

In these historic days, many have entered the tomb. I am not speaking here of sheltering in place, though that certainly brings its own challenges. Rather, I speak of those who have lost their livelihoods. I speak of those who have been unable to visit elderly parents and loved ones. I speak of those who have scrambled to the point of exhaustion to provide their children with a learning environment while also working from home. I speak of those who suffer from anxiety and fear and who worry about the future. I speak of those who have not gathered in the consecrated walls of their beloved parish for weeks and who mourn the physical absence of those they love.

Into all of these tombs, and the thousands of other deaths, great

ASK FATHER MIKE | FATHER MICHAEL SCHMITZ

How to live without Mass

Q Masses have been canceled. How are we

supposed to survive as Catholics, much less continue to grow and raise our families in the faith?

A This is a great question. And it is one that

many people are asking in the midst of what seems to me to be an unprecedented moment in our history. I don’t know if there is anyone currently alive who has experienced what we are going through right now.

Before we look at how you can survive, let’s look at why officials in the Church might have made the determination to restrict public participation in the holy sacrifice of the Mass. On the surface, this is quite unreasonable. It even seems like an obvious overreaction. As others have noted, if the coronavirus were merely a virus like any other, it would be an overreaction. If this were just about individual behavior, this kind of quarantining would be unreasonable. But when we consider that we are not merely individuals who only have to think of our individual welfare, we realize that dramatic self-quarantines are not necessarily for the individual but for the common good. In other words, what would be an overreaction for an individual is not an overreaction for the community.

I’ve heard people say, “I don’t care if I get sick — I need to go to Mass.” I am in that same boat. That is my perspective as well.

And yet, this virus is reminding us that we are not called to live for ourselves. The quarantine might not be so that you don’t get sick, but so that others don’t get sick because of you. Quarantine, then, becomes an act of love, not merely an act of wisdom.

Others have said, “The bishops just don’t have supernatural faith in the midst of a crisis. They should know that we need prayer now more than ever.” While I understand the sentiment (and agree that we need prayer now more than ever), I am glad that those who make these claims have the luxury of being able to criticize. The leaders of our Church have the challenge of making decisions that will have a life or death consequence. We need to pray not only for ourselves and our loved ones, but for them.

Now, how do we survive in the midst of a world where the Mass is not being offered? The first thing to realize is that no priest is going to stop offering the holy sacrifice of the Mass for even one day. The proscription is against the public offering of holy Mass, and it comes

and small, that so many have endured since Lent began, on this great day the Lord of heaven and earth proclaims the good news that is his Person, the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end.

“Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age!”

This assurance of the Lord’s presence in the midst of crushing circumstance is not the prayer that many of us would naturally make.

Our prayer is much more often, and quite understandably, “Please Lord, make it stop.” But rather than removing our suffering, so often the Lord uses it precisely to draw us closer to him. This is not an easy truth. But I think it’s the Gospel. Only in loss do we learn how to cherish what we have. Only in shame and in sorrow do we learn how to forgive. Only in the face of death do we learn how to live, to speak and to love. Only in the tomb is the Resurrection discovered.

But Easter is much more than a metaphor for the principle of growth through challenge, like the phoenix of ancient Greece.

Rather, the Resurrected One reveals to us the life-giving though bleeding heart of the Christian way, the narrow gate of holiness: Surrender to the will of a loving Father. The saving fiat of Jesus in the garden and of Mary in Bethlehem.

This surrender is not fatalism nor stoicism. It is rather the ultimate assent of faith: I believe that I am loved and willed into being by a Father who did not spare his only begotten Son so that I, sinner though I am, may live forever.

The alleluias of Easter are not cheap. They require death to self and entering the dark tomb of loss. But this sobering path is the only way home to the mansions of the Father, where plagues and bewilderment and burials are no more. Nothing accursed will be found there anymore. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will look upon his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. Night will be no more, nor will they need light from lamp or sun, for the Lord God shall give them light, and they shall reign forever and ever.

A blessed Easter to all.

Father Erickson is pastor of Transfiguration in Oakdale. He can be reached at frerickson@transfigurationmn.org.

with the call for each priest to continue offering Mass regularly.

St. Padre Pio once noted, “The earth could exist more easily without the sun than without the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.” The Mass will continue to be offered. The grace of the Mass will continue to be available to everyone in the world and in purgatory.

How can you pray, though? How can you continue to grow?

I would like to suggest three ways.

First, the Liturgy of the Hours. Each day, every priest and religious sister and brother (and many laypeople) pray what is called the Liturgy of the Hours. This is known as the official prayer of the Church. In fact, while every priest is encouraged to offer the Mass every day, they are required to pray the Liturgy of the Hours every day. This consists of setting time aside for prayer five times a day: morning prayer, daytime prayer, evening prayer, night prayer and what is called the Office of Readings.

I would love to invite every Catholic to make the Liturgy of the Hours a regular part of his or her prayer life. They don’t have to pray all five times, but even simply starting with morning prayer could bear much fruit. Remember, when you pray this universal prayer of the Church, you are united with the entire Church throughout the world. Powerful.

Second, many parishes are keeping their church doors open so that the faithful can visit their Lord in the Eucharist. Please visit Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament! During this stay-at-home order, this could be a phenomenal way to get out of the house, as well as stoke your love for the Eucharist. Jesus is Emmanuel (“God with us”) and he truly tabernacles among us. The doors remain unlocked. Go to him. Stay with him.

Lastly, you may know what the Mass “is” and what the Mass “does.” The Mass is the offering of the great once-for-all sacrifice of the Son to the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit for the Father’s glory and the salvation of the world. The Mass is nothing less than that. Now, your priest is going to be offering that great sacrifice up for you every time he prays the Mass. But you can be a part of this through one incredible prayer.

The Chaplet of Divine Mercy is a way that Catholics can participate in and “extend” the sacrifice of the Mass into the world. Remember, the Mass is the sacrifice of the Son to the Father. That’s what is happening at every Mass. This prayer sums up briefly the action of the Mass and allows Christians to exercise their priestly character by uniting themselves to the sacrifice of Jesus offered through the ministerial priest.

The worst is not being unable to go to Mass. The worst would be to fail to pray as we can during this time when we can’t go to Mass.

Father Schmitz is director of youth and young adult ministry for the Diocese of Duluth and chaplain of the Newman Center at the University of Minnesota Duluth. Reach him at fathermikeschmitz@gmail.com.

DAILY Scriptures Sunday, April 12 Easter Sunday, Resurrection of the Lord Acts 10:34a, 37-43 Col 3:1-4 Jn 20:1-9 Monday, April 13 Octave of Easter Acts 2:14, 22-33 Mt 28:8-15 Tuesday, April 14 Octave of Easter Acts 2:36-41 Jn 20:11-18 Wednesday, April 15 Octave of Easter Acts 3:1-10 Lk 24:13-35 Thursday, April 16 Octave of Easter Acts 3:11-26 Lk 24:35-48 Friday, April 17 Octave of Easter Acts 4:1-12 Jn 21:1-14 Saturday, April 18 Octave of Easter Acts 4:13-21 Mk 16:9-15 Sunday, April 19 Second Sunday of Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday Acts 2:42-47 1 Pt 1:3-9 Jn 20:19-31 Monday, April 20 Acts 4:23-31 Jn 3:1-8 Tuesday, April 21 Acts 4:32-37 Jn 3:7b-15 Wednesday, April 22 Acts 5:17-26 Jn 3:16-21 Thursday, April 23 Acts 5:27-33 Jn 3:31-36 Friday, April 24 Acts 5:34-42 Jn 6:1-15 Saturday, April 25 St. Mark, evangelist 1 Pt 5:5b-14 Mk 16:15-20 Sunday, April 26 Third Sunday of Easter Acts 2:14, 22-33 1 Pt 1:17-21 Lk 24:13-35

APRIL 9, 2020

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 17

COMMENTARY TWENTY SOMETHING | CHRISTINA CAPECCHI

‘I’m not fine’: the power of an honest answer

Stephanie Weinert’s Instagram followers have come to expect unfiltered captions to go with her pretty pictures. That’s why she has amassed 7,000 followers, who click on images of her five young children and, in doing so, access her tips on skincare, home decor and

“

Moving beyond ‘I’m fine’ means sharing trials and triumphs.

iSTOCK PHOTO | ZARIFA

liturgical living.

Each one is offered up in the spirit of sisterhood: Here’s what works for me, maybe it’ll help you, too.

The 39-year-old Catholic from Charlotte, North Carolina, has made a habit of sharing from the heart, starting with her days as a radio host and continuing now as a homeschooling mom and a Beautycounter senior director.

Instagram suits her well, rendering her a stand-in big sister whose extended captions feel like mid-conversation with an old friend.

“I stopped doing this stupid thing I’ve done pretty much my whole life,” she wrote last month in a post.

“I stopped saying ‘I’m fine’ when someone asks me how I’m doing. And it’s been life changing.”

The text accompanied a picture of Stephanie holding her infant Beckett, smiling over her shoulder with a cascade of blond curls.

A riveting 400-word message followed: “I hate being a burden, and it’s always felt easier to just say ‘fine’ than to share hard stuff. But the truth is, when we tell our mom, our sister, our pastor, our bestie or our barista that we’re fine, we not only rob ourselves of the chance to be blessed, we also rob ourselves of

the chance to be a blessing to others.”

A host of happy encounters flashed in Stephanie’s mind, each one the result of giving an honest answer to a generic inquiry of how she’s doing. The woman behind her in a Trader Joe’s check-out who bought Stephanie flowers after learning her baby has special needs. Her longtime hairdresser who opened up about her struggles as a single mom. The woman at church who spoke freely about her challenges with college-aged children.

The lesson was clear, and Stephanie spelled it out online: “When I stopped saying ‘fine’ and started taking 10 intentional seconds to speak the truth, I found connection, solidarity, useful tips, hugs, humor and prayer support. I’ve made new friends and deepened old ones.”

Moving beyond “I’m fine” means sharing trials and triumphs. Stephanie had hesitated to talk about her business success, but has learned to open up. “I can do it in a way that honors God and also invites other women to come learn from me,” she said.

She concluded her post with brutal honesty: “So here’s me on a Wednesday. I’m not fine. I’m three months out from a traumatic labor and emergency C-section, followed by a surprise heart-defect

diagnosis and then a shocking Down syndrome diagnosis. It’s been hard and emotional. Transitioning to five kids has also been tough. ... My God, my amazing husband and beautiful friends lift me up and help me see the beauty in the chaos. ... Your turn.

How are you doing? How can I pray for you today?”

Hundreds of people responded.

“Really burnt out,” one woman wrote.

“The last 8-12 months I have not been in control,” another wrote. “To top it off, I can’t seem to pray or go to confession.”

“I’m not fine either,” another mom wrote. “I feel like I’ve been in survival mode for a long time.”

Foster-care struggles were recounted. Infertility.

Unemployment.

“Whew,” Stephanie said of the many comments.

“We are a hurting world.”

The best response is honesty: to make others feel less alone and to “witness to a story of grace,” she said. “God is with us in the good and the hard — and other people are, too. I’ve learned this firsthand, and it’s such a relief and a blessing.”

SIMPLE HOLINESS | KATE SOUCHERAY

circular communication, which reflects a mature, differentiated and abstract form of thinking, said Gerald Weeks, chair of the counseling department and a professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and Stephen Treat, director and CEO of the Penn Council for Relationships and an instructor at Jefferson Medical College, both in Philadelphia.

This thinking does not blame a spouse for something that did not turn out as well as hoped for or expected, but rather extends a mature attitude and the desire to work together to find a workable solution. Couples who work together from this perspective set good boundaries, which is what “differentiation” refers to, and “abstract forms of thinking” mean they do not get locked into old patterns of resolving issues, but rather are open to new and respectful means of speaking and relating to one another.

You may say this all sounds good, but how do we do it? We are raising kids, or perhaps we are emptynesters, and life is busy. Besides that, most marriages have a history of some negativity and non-support. We may have some resentments that have built up, and it is hard not to have those resurface at times of tension. We want to be mature and differentiated, but when those old negative feelings are rekindled, we can’t seem to get past them.

John and Julie Gottman, world-renowned researchers and clinical psychologists based in Seattle, refer to this as “negative sentiment override,” in which no matter what is said, negative feelings and unpleasant sentiments override any good that is proposed or offered.

If this happens in your home, the key is to remember that getting retriggered by old, unhealed wounds happens to all couples. When we are retriggered, or when we are less than our best with our spouse, we must remember to take a step back and maybe even take a timeout. Go cool down and think through things before engaging with each other

ACTION CHALLENGE

The sacramentality of marriage On our wedding day, we may not think as much about the sacramentality of our marriage as we should, or the sacramental nature of the mystery in which we are participating. Our focus is often on the dresses, the flowers, the music, and the reception and dance to follow the ceremony. And yet, the sacrament in which we participate will change everything for us from that day forward.

We are no longer one, because we have now agreed to be joined with this person for the rest of our lives. We have also agreed to help this partner come to understand how loved they are, through the experience of being married to us.

The Documents of the Second Vatican Council state, “Outstanding courage is required for the constant fulfillment of the duties of this Christian calling” and couples will need grace to lead such a holy life. As they practice a love that “is firm, generous and prompt to sacrifice” for the benefit of this newly formed bond, they will be forever changed as individuals, and those who follow after them will receive the benefits of this generosity of spirit. The sacrament of matrimony is not something to be entered into lightly and casually, but rather with the full intent to become the best, most gracious and loving person one is capable of becoming.

Achieving such an encouraging state in marriage requires the ability of the partners to engage in

Capecchi is a freelance writer from Inver Grove Heights.

Refuse to be overtaken by old, unhealed wounds in your relationship with your spouse. Make every effort to have only kind, respectful interchanges that lead to building trust in your relationship. further and causing more hurt. During your timeout, do all you can to manage your own retriggered feelings, defusing the situation before it gets worse by choosing not to gather more ammunition to support your perspective against your spouse.

Make a promise to yourself to not say something out of anger that you know could be hurtful to your spouse, but rather use “I” statements and be respectful. Using kind communication at times of high stress will benefit everyone involved: you and your spouse, as well as your children. The Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us that “the fundamental task of marriage and family is to be at the service of life.” If something you might say is not at the service of life, then make the choice to use words that will build up rather than tear down. Be a person you yourself can respect and be proud of.

During this lovely month of Easter, choose to bring life to every relationship you have with others, especially the relationship with your spouse. Make the extra effort to be kind and loving, encouraging and respectful. In doing so, you will enrich the lives of everyone involved.

Soucheray is a licensed marriage and family therapist and a member of Guardian Angels in Oakdale. She holds a master’s degree in theology from The St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity in St. Paul and a doctorate in educational leadership from St. Mary’s University of Minnesota.

18 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

TO HOME FROM ROME | JONATHAN LIEDL

Easter victory in a time of pandemic O death, where is thy victory?

O death, where is thy sting?

These words from St. Paul’s letters to the Corinthians become our anthem during the Easter season, when we rejoice in Christ’s triumph over death.

But at a time of year when we typically gather joyfully in our parishes to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord, many of us find ourselves confined to our homes without physical access to the sacraments and our communities. At a time when we celebrate the gift of salvation and newness of life, many across the world are facing serious threats to their health, families and livelihood as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

It may soon be Easter, but it can sure seem like death — and its entourage of suffering, sorrow and separation — has a whole lot of sting left.

If Christ is victorious and we are an Easter people, why does death and its ilk still hold such sway in our world? Why is a virus allowed to dictate the terms of how we live, encumbering us, harming us and hemming us in? Where is the fruit of Christ’s victory today, amid this pandemic? Or will we only partake of it at some distant and disconnected eschaton, like a reward after an ordeal that is otherwise pointless?

It’s in the midst of a crisis such as this that we are graciously forced to look anew at the radical Christian claim that death has been defeated. Other religious outlooks, from Buddhism to stoicism, don’t dare be so bold. They see this world as a never-ending cycle of death and life, life and death, ultimately meaningless,

THE LOCAL CHURCH | DEACON MICKEY FRIESEN

Helping to carry the cross

The Eighth Station: Jesus is helped

by Simon of Cyrene to carry the cross. Whenever we walk or pray the Stations of the Cross, we come to that point in the journey when we ponder the time when Jesus needed help.

Simon, a bystander from Cyrene in North Africa, was called out from the crowd to accompany Jesus along the way to Calvary and help him carry the cross. He could not prevent, nor possibly understand the reason for, the cruel treatment inflicted on Jesus, but he could walk with him in his suffering. Many images of this station show Jesus and Simon’s eyes meeting as they share the load of the cross.

Jesus is still suffering with people all around the world in our time. We often cannot “fix” the past or present injustices we see, or remove the problems that plague those around us. Today, so many live in fear and stress over the uncertainty associated with the COVID-19 pandemic marching across the planet and reaching closer to home every day. We struggle to be close while we are socially distant. We cannot take away the pain, but sometimes we may be in a position to lighten the load for a while. Sometimes we can give our strength, courage and talents to ease another’s burden. Sometimes all we can give is our presence — a commitment to listening, caring and praying.

How encouraging it is to find a companion who cares about our troubles and worries. In such a friend, we see a reflection of Christ who walks with us. Simon of Cyrene is an image and icon of the Church in mission.

God continues to call us to walk in solidarity with those who carry heavy crosses and suffer injustice. The

COMMENTARY and merely offer an opportunity to “escape” it all. The “salvation” they offer is far more chastened, and, in light of what’s going on in the world today, might even seem more “reasonable.”

But Christianity is different. God does not merely offer us an escape from death and suffering by simply wiping all the world — including us — away. He offers us a radical fulfilment by becoming one of us, taking all that we are — including our wounded nature, our frailty, even our mortality — and transforming it, giving and revealing in it all a meaning and an orientation that could previously not be seen.

Through his death and resurrection, Christ swallows death whole, but he doesn’t merely annihilate it. Instead, he wrests death from the hands of the devil and bends it to his life-giving purposes. Death is still a reality, but it is no longer a permanent fixture. In fact, to the ultimate embarrassment of Satan, what was once an eternal holding cell of unfulfillment now serves as the gate to blissful life and communion with God forever and ever.

All things, all human experiences and events, then, are repurposed by Christ for our good. As the French theologian Henri DeLubac put it, in Christianity salvation takes a historical form: “the history of the penetration of humanity by Christ.” All of time, then, the occurrences and events of our lives and human history, little and small, are not enemies and obstacles to our fulfilment, but are precisely the means through which God chooses to bring it about. “Of necessity,” DeLubac says, “we must find a foothold in time if we are to rise to eternity; we must use time.”

We must use time. That includes this present moment, this current crisis. We must not deny the reality and the gravity of this pandemic, the sorrow of death, the seriousness of disruption and our duty to be good stewards of our health (and the health of others), nor can we allow it to thrust us into a self-survival mode that closes us off to God and others. Hands that cling to earthly life like an idol, like our only possession, are incapable of receiving whatever the Lord might be trying to give us in these moments.

In his work “Heart of the World,” Hans Urs Von

APRIL 9, 2020 Balthasar portrays time as a river of Divine Providence.

Our one task, he says, is to follow where this river flows, even to become this river, in whatever form it takes, be it a gentle brook or a thundering waterfall. Standing on the shore or trying to dam the river with rocks will prevent us from being formed by Time, “the grand school of love.”

“We grow only by being thrust into transiency,” says Von Balthasar. “We cannot ripen, we cannot become rich in any way other than by an uninterrupted renunciation that occurs hour by hour.” This renunciation is not a denial of our nature or our freedom, but of our tendencies for control. It is a renunciation that returns us to our primary posture of trust and dependency before the Lord.

What can give us the courage to live like this, in the face of such uncertainty? One avenue might be by looking to our brothers and sisters who are already witnesses to the Easter victory in this present time.

I am grateful to have seen these witnesses to Christ’s victory, these living lessons of the school of love, right here in our archdiocesan community: A dear friend (one of the greatest hostesses and most social people I know), who gave up her plans for a grand and wellattended wedding in order to not postpone embracing her vocation; another friend who had the courage to propose to his girlfriend in the midst of this time of uncertainty; and countless others who are creatively working within our present circumstances to share the love of Christ.

This will not be a normal Easter. But in a paradoxical way, the darkness of our current times allows the light of Christ’s victory to shine forth even more visibly and powerfully in the lives of those who embrace him by embracing the circumstances he has given us.

They show us that death, though present, has lost its enduring sting, and that the Easter victory of Christ is not only an event in the past or a condition yet to come, but a reality we are invited to live today.

Liedl is a seminarian in formation for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Church is a sign of Christ’s presence when we reach out to accompany those who struggle.

While we struggle to be present to our own current situation, we cannot neglect our brothers and sisters who wonder if anyone cares. In particular, I am aware of our sister dioceses in Venezuela, Kenya and Syria.

Each was already suffering before the virus added weight to the crosses they carry. In Venezuela, people are living with few basic necessities and a faltering state. In Kenya, they are facing the total loss of crops due to a locust plague sweeping across their fields. And in Syria, so many suffer the loss of home, life and limb because of the aftermath of civil war. Each of these are overwhelming by themselves, but seem mind-boggling together. Despite our social and geographic distance, there are ways to accompany them. There may be little we can do to fix their situations, but we can offer our solidarity and support, our presence and prayer.

Archbishop Samir Nassar of Damascus reflects: “This new situation has made the Church poorer also — a Wall of Lamentation where one comes to weep, to cry for help, and look without ostentation and silently for some consolation, to live out the passion of Christ before Holy Week. … A new vocation is emerging with its colors of the beatitudes and based on love, forgiveness, praise and compassion … all under the light of paschal hope. (Today) we must not let the route for Simon of Cyrene be blocked.”

God still calls us from the crowd to help Christ carry the cross. We can give our attention, our presence, and accompany our brothers and sisters in faith. Some of us may be able to give support or share a talent to lighten their load, but we can all stand in the solidarity of faith and be in prayerful communion with those who carry the cross. We can live the mission of the Eighth Station and help Jesus, disguised in the faces of the poor, the sick, the refugees and the isolated among us, carry the cross.

May the way of Simon of Cyrene remain open for us to accompany and help Jesus carry the cross in our own time.

Deacon Friesen is director of the Center for Mission in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

LETTER Sexual identity (Re: “Seminar: Gender ideology spreads false idea of person” and “Guidelines for Catholic education affirm students’ sexual identity as biological sex,” Feb. 27.) Transgenders are dismissed, ignored, harassed, joked about, misrepresented by everyone from politicians to their religious institutions, have to take crucial medications for the rest of their life that might be taken away from them if they can’t afford them or if they are imprisoned, are a part of the largest group per capita to be targeted with hate crimes and the most under-reported, they have the highest incidence of suicide, are victims of terrible violence and even murdered.

Why has God created such individuals who feel the need to identify as part of this group?

Why would parents give their consent for their children to change the course of their lives?

Why have these people gone to such extremes to live, or at least hope to live, a more fulfilling life?

All of us want to be loved and to love, to be the children of God we are. Who are we to decide who gets to do that only by doing what we think is OK? To love each other is Jesus’ greatest commandment. With love must come acceptance, of all our differences. Why else would God have created us the way we are?

Elizabeth Rosenwinkel St. Albert the Great, Minneapolis Share your perspective by emailing CatholicSpirit@archspm.org. Please limit your letter to the editor to 150 words and include your parish and phone number. The Commentary page does not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Catholic Spirit.

APRIL 9, 2020

in REMEMBRANCE Redemptorist wrote teen advice column

By Dave Hrbacek The Catholic Spirit Redemptorist Father Martin Stillmock, who once wrote an advice column for teens that appeared in diocesan newspapers across the country and who served in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis for more than two decades, died March 29 at St. Clement Redemptorist Mission Community in Ligouri, Missouri. He was 89.

Father Stillmock was born in Omaha, Nebraska, the youngest of 10 children. He joined the Redemptorists in 1953 and was ordained a priest in 1958. After serving the community for nearly four decades, he came to St. Alphonsus in 1993, where he served for 22 years before moving to Ligouri in 2015 because of declining health.

The superior of the Denver province, Father Stephen Rehrauer, 65, first got to know Father Stillmock in grade school through his column, “Dear Father Martin,” in which the priest answered questions submitted by youth. Father Rehrauer read it weekly during his childhood in Edgerton, Wisconsin. Then, when he was 14, he met the priest at a Redemptorist preparatory school he attended. The two formed a connection that lasted to the end of Father Stillmock’s life.

Partly because of Father Stillmock’s influence, Father Rehrauer joined the Redemptorists in 1974. He was ordained a priest in 1980 and had contact with Father Stillmock off and on throughout the years. One thing he knew — Father Stillmock enjoyed Minnesota and serving at St. Alphonsus.

“He loved it there,” Father Rehrauer said. “It really hurt him to have to leave there. But, he accepted it with tremendous grace, as the good religious he was.”

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, a private funeral service was held April 1 at the St. Clement Redemptorist chapel in Ligouri, with interment at the Redemptorist Cemetery there.

PLEASE NOTE As Gov. Tim Walz’s stay-at-home order continues, The Catholic Spirit has temporarily suspended providing a calendar of events. Please check event organizers’ websites for updates on previously scheduled events. Thank you.

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 19

Pandemic spotlights nearly forgotten St. Corona Catholic News Service She had become nearly forgotten. Little is known about the young woman who was killed for her Christian faith, presumably in the second century A.D. But now, a pandemic is shedding light on her: St. Corona.

The German Catholic news agency KNA reports the Church’s martyr records put the year of her death at 177 A.D. It is not certain where she lived.

A Greek account put it in Syria, while a Latin one said it was Marseilles, France and Sicily. What is proven is that she began to be honored starting in the sixth century in northern and central Italy. All the rest is the stuff of legend — propagated above all by monks in the Alpine region.

“This has nothing to do with the real history of Corona, but instead with stories aimed at deepening the faith,” said Manfred Becker-Huberti, a German theologian known in the Rhineland as an expert on folklore and customs.

The St. Corona legends are bloody. One account is that, as a 16-year-old, she was forced to watch her husband, St. Victor, being murdered because of his faith. She died in a gruesome manner: Her persecutors tied her between two palm trees that had been bent to the ground. Her body was then torn apart when the trees were set loose to snap back into standing position.

She is above all revered in Germany’s southern state of Bavaria and in Austria, KNA reports.

A chapel is dedicated to her in Sauerlach, near Munich. In the Bavarian Diocese of Passau, two churches recall her name, while in the province of Lower Austria and outside of Vienna there are two towns named “Sankt Corona.” In the cathedral of Munster in northwestern Germany, there is a St. Corona statue, currently decorated with flowers placed at its base. Some relics of the martyr were taken to the Prague cathedral in the 14th century.

As early as the 10th century, under Holy Roman Emperor Otto III, St. Corona relics were taken to Aachen, Germany. In 1910, during excavation work at the cathedral there, archaeologists came across the relics, which were removed from a crypt and placed in a shrine. This 3-foot-tall, 220-pound reliquary has, until recently, been kept in storage in the Aachen cathedral treasure vault. With the coronavirus pandemic, experts have taken it out to dust it off and conserve it.

St. Corona is not the namesake for the virus. The

CREATIVE COMMONS

A painting of St. Corona.

Latin word “corona” means “crown,” an indication that the young saint had achieved the “crown of eternal life” because of the steadfastness of her faith.

The connection with coronaviruses, named because of their crown-like structure, is just a coincidence.

Over the centuries, St. Corona was often prayed to by people seeking her help in times of trouble, be it heavy storms or livestock diseases.

People believed she had a positive influence regarding money matters, with “coronae” (crowns) being the name given to coins. As a result, treasurehunters often invoked her name. In view of how COVID-19 has triggered an economic crisis, with many people fearful about money matters looming ahead, it might not be at all far-fetched for them to call on the saint for support.

In the Catholic Church’s calendar of saints, her holiday is May 14. KNA reports some experts say it just might be by then that the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel will be in sight.

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APRIL 9, 2020

THELASTWORD

‘He shows us his wounds’

“Even the perfect one dies; he shows us his wounds” is the first work in a 12-part series by artist Kelly Kruse that explores suffering and Jesus’ passion. The work was on display this spring at the University of St. Thomas as part of the exhibition “Idealized Imperfection.”

COURTESY KELLY KRUSE

UST exhibiting artist explores suffering through Christ’s passion

By Maria Wiering The Catholic Spirit

K

elly Kruse captured the process on video: She’s standing in front of her paintings, whipping, then tearing them, leaving gashes in the canvas.

Three years ago, the artist started painting a series exploring a perennial problem of human existence: suffering. She wanted to ask why it happens, what to do with it, and God’s role in it. After six months of studying Scripture and the Christian tradition on the subject, she created 12 works inspired by the Crucifixion, the Passion, Resurrection and Ascension, and the Second Coming. Some of the works are part of this spring’s exhibition “Idealized Imperfection,” now on hiatus, at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul.

Kruse, 34, created the abstract works on 64-inch canvas panels with ink, marble dust, acrylic paint and Japanese watercolor, and drew from Psalm 51 for the series’ title, “Let the Bones That You Have Broken Rejoice.”

To convey suffering and redemption, Kruse “destroyed” her paintings with weapons that were used against Christ. She beat one painting with a reed and scourged another with a barbed whip. In others, she wove thorns, pounded nails and splattered spit-like globs. She split one with a band of wood.

Then, she mended the tears with thread, gilded them, and repainted parts of the artwork.

The concept of mending the works was inspired by the traditional Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold, called “kintsugi.” It shows the object’s “wounds” and imperfections as something to highlight, rather than hide.

It struck her that Jesus did the same thing, when his resurrected body still contained the visible marks of his

“

Our suffering is so intensely personal and we all experience it so differently, but I … was hoping to create a place where people could feel less lonely, or feel known in their suffering.

Kelly Kruse

crucifixion, which he showed to his Apostles.

“When Jesus reappeared to his disciples, he kept his wounds, and it’s like kintsugi to show the scar, because it’s in the scar that the value lies. … That’s why he’s crowned in glory, because of the suffering,” said Kruse, a nondenominational Protestant who lives in Kansas City, Missouri.

The whole artistic process was born, in part, from Kruse’s experience with Ignatian exercises, where she reads Scripture and then imagines herself present in the scene. Prayer for Kruse is often a visual experience, she said, something she learned to appreciate after she began painting seriously six years ago.

“Sometimes as Christians, we think of prayer as this dialogue that involves only words. … But I finally started to realize that God can speak to me in images, like this is a language, too. And then I try to translate it, whatever it is that I see or experience, onto the canvas,” she said.

The first painting of the series, “Even the perfect one dies; he shows us his wounds,” is a triptych — three panels — conveying Jesus Christ at the crucifixion, flanked by the two thieves. She calls the work the “thesis” of the series, the one that defines the idea of the problem of pain. With this painting, Kruse said, she was asking if anyone can escape suffering, and if not, what is its point?

“Essentially, no, no one can escape it. If even God can’t escape it or chooses not to escape it, then it’s … a part of our life we must grapple with and try to make meaning out of,” she said. “Our suffering is so intensely personal and we all experience it so differently, but I … was hoping to create a place where people could feel less lonely, or feel known in their suffering.”

People can connect their suffering to Christ because he suffered in so many ways during his Passion, from physical torment to humiliation and loneliness, Kruse said. But, she ended her work with a second triptych that shows Jesus in his glory “as the God who descends,” a reminder that the suffering has an end and that “Jesus’ own suffering created a solution to the problem.”

“Even the perfect one dies; he shows us his wounds,” Kruse said, shows three men: a good man, a bad man and the God-man, and all three suffer. The left panel is the repentant thief, who is ascending and is “the one being remade,” Kruse said, and the right panel is the unrepentant thief who is “the one being unmade.”

In the middle is Jesus, “the maker.” All three panels have elements of joy and pain, of gold leaf and ripped canvas. Some of the tears are mended, kintsugi-style, but, especially in the case of the unrepentant thief, some are sewn open, leaving a gaping hole.

The difference between the two thieves is how they related to Jesus, Kruse said. And that is reflected in their suffering.

“I think there’s immense potential in our suffering to see it as something that makes us in the end almost more beautiful or more able … to understand or be with others as they suffer, as a way to make us, as Christians, feel close to Jesus, to take part in a way in his collective suffering for all of humanity,” she said.

Kruse said the works are not about her, but about the Scripture that inspired them. She hopes the series helps viewers contemplate with a fresh perspective “the magnitude of what God did for us on the cross.”

“I’d love for them to experience (God) or experience a story or a Scripture in a way they never have before,” she said. “Maybe in a way that reveals something new.”