The Catholic Spirit - August 18, 2016

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August 18, 2016 Newspaper of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis

Latino leadership Edgar Alfonzo takes the helm as principal at St. John Paul II Catholic Preparatory School ­­— Page 6A

Back to school From learning to leadership, what’s new for Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis ­— Page 5A

Edgar Alfonzo is preparing for the upcoming school year as the only Latino principal currently serving in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

In June, he took over as the leader of St. John Paul II Catholic Preparatory School in Minneapolis, which has an estimated 75 percent Latino student population.

Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit

ALSO inside

2016 A city’s unrest

Scrutinizing surrogacy

Decision 2016

Archbishop of Milwaukee says violence after a recent police shooting of a black man is “a self-inflicted wound.”

— Page 7A

Opponents tell legislative commission that the practice turns people into products.

The Minnesota Catholic Conference addresses what “Faithful Citizenship” means in a contentious political climate.

— Page 12A

— Page 9A

2A • The Catholic Spirit

PAGE TWO

in PICTURES

August 18, 2016 OVERHEARD “The Lord bows down to the lowly in order to raise them up as is proclaimed in the Magnificat” (Mary’s hymn of praise to God).

Pope Francis in celebrating the feast of the Assumption at the Vatican Aug. 15, just three days after visiting a group of young women rescued from the sex trade.

Pope Francis prayed for all exploited women and girls.

“Everything we have known about ourselves is but history at this point. It will turn out to be a hollow shell, a pyrrhic victory, unless we enter into the challenge before us.”

SMASHING SUCCESS David Aguirre of Divine Mercy in Faribault swings at a piñata during Latino Family Day Aug. 13 at St. Thomas Academy in Mendota Heights. The event, hosted by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ Office of Latino Ministry, featured games, food, entertainment and Mass.

Both Archbishop Bernard Hebda and Bishop Andrew Cozzens attended. To see a video, visit www.facebook.com/thecatholicspirit. Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit

Sister Marcia Allen of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Concordia, Kansas, president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious in her address to about 800 members gathered in Atlanta for its annual assembly Aug. 9-12. She called for “a new way of exercising hope” during the conference as the number of women religious serving the Church continues to dwindle.

NEWS notes • The Catholic Spirit

The Catholic Spirit alters fall publication schedule The Catholic Spirit will next publish on Sept. 8, a change from its regular biweekly date. The next publication dates are Sept. 22, Oct. 13 and Oct. 27.

Cathedral parish celebrates 175th anniversary The Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul will kick off the 175th anniversary of its parish Aug. 21 with a 10 a.m. Mass followed by the opening of an exhibit offering a look at parish history. The exhibit will cover the history of the parish, from the first parish founded by Father Lucien Galtier in the log cabin chapel in Pig’s Eye (now St. Paul) in 1841 to the current parish, which uses the fourth Cathedral of St. Paul. On display will be photos and documents with labels taken from the history of the parish, most of which have never been on display.

KENYAN FLAVOR Bishop Joseph Obanyi Sagwe of the Diocese of Kakamega, Kenya, dances with members of the congregation at St. Alphonsus in Brooklyn Center as he prepares to celebrate Mass in Swahili Aug. 6. The Mass included the baptism of nine children of the members of the Kenyan Catholic Community in Minnesota. Members of the congregation began by singing and dancing from the rectory to the church. Courtesy St. Alphonsus

WHAT’S NEW on social media See photos of nine men who made their first profession of vows to the Society of Jesus Aug. 13 at St. Thomas More in St. Paul: www.facebook.com/ thecatholicspirit

In a Catholic News Service video, Ken Hackett, U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, explains that Blessed Teresa of Kolkata embodied what Pope Francis teaches about mercy: www.catholicnews.com/video.cfm

The Catholic Spirit is published bi-weekly for The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis Vol. 21 — No. 17 MOST REVEREND BERNARD A. HEBDA, Publisher TOM HALDEN, Associate Publisher MARIA C. WIERING, Editor

Bishops to host local politics discussion Sept. 21 Clergy, diocesan staff and those in parish ministry are invited to join Minnesota’s bishops and the staff of the Minnesota Catholic Conference for a special election year study day from 9:30 a.m. to noon Sept. 21 at Woulfe Hall in the Anderson Student Center of the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. Doors open at 8:30 a.m. “Our Corner of the Vineyard: Rediscovering the Importance of Social and Political Engagement in the Local Community” will feature a discussion aimed to help ministry leaders foster a deeper sense of public service and the importance of engagement in local community and political life. Keynote speakers include author and Steubenville, Ohio, city councilwoman Kimberly Hahn (wife of Scott Hahn); About.com Catholicism expert and Chronicles magazine editor Scott Richert; Viviana Sotro, executive director of the Sagrada Familia Apostolate; and Mike Harris, venture capitalist and former St. Paul city councilman. The event is free, but an RSVP is required. Contact MCC at info@mncatholic.org or 651-227-8777. For more information, visit www.mncatholic.org.

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FROM THE VICAR GENERAL

August 18, 2016

The Catholic Spirit • 3A

Avoid ‘dog days of faith’ by examining channels of grace

T

hroughout the summers of my childhood, my dad would drive our family to one of the many lakes just north of St. Paul for an afternoon of swimming.

After the hot, muggy days of August, but before school started, my dad would make an announcement that ended swimming for the season: “Dog days!”

Dog days happen when lakes become choked with weeds and the water turns green with clumps of floating brown slime. I’ve noticed that some lakes have dog days all year round, and in the winter, even before the feast of St. Patrick, the ice is green.

But I’ve also noticed that dog days do not occur in water that has a moving stream. It seems the more the water moves, the clearer and fresher it stays.

‘Dog days of faith’ ONLY JESUS Father Charles Lachowitzer

The image of flowing water helps us to avoid the dog days of faith, where our spiritual life becomes stagnant and choked with the preoccupations and distractions of life.

The dog days of faith can

happen when we become this little pool unto ourselves — nothing coming in and nothing going out.

An ancient image for the life of faith is the Sea of Galilee. Flowing into the Sea of Galilee from the north is the Jordan River. The river also flows out at the sea’s southern shores. The Jordan River finally ends in another sea, but because nothing flows out of this sea, there is no life in it. It is aptly named the Dead Sea. The Jordan River is a rich image for the sacrament of baptism, the beginning of our life of faith. A channel of grace is opened into our lives as the Holy Spirit moves within us.

Throughout our lives, the flowing waters of our baptism renew and strengthen us. These channels of grace continue throughout our participation in the sacramental life of the Church.

Inflow and outflow In order for the waters of our baptism to flow through us, we would do well to look at how we keep open the channels of grace coming into our lives and how we keep open the channels of grace flowing out of our lives.

The channels coming into our lives include the sacraments, prayer and reflective study.

When the spiritual graces coming into our lives are but a trickle and we still try to maintain huge

outlets of loving others, we dry up.

Likewise, if we have these great channels of grace coming into our lives, but have too few channels going out, then we ourselves are another example of the Dead Sea. Our spiritual life moves from baptism, through each step of life, through death and into the fullness of life in Jesus Christ. It is a spiritual pilgrimage in which we are called to keep moving, trusting that all along the way, the Holy Spirit will flow in us and through us and is ever with us.

We are encouraged, strengthened and renewed by the movement of grace coming into our daily lives. We are challenged, as well, to keep open the channels coming out of our lives as our witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

As baptized members of the body of Christ, what we receive we are to give. We are called to be a people who share generously and who know self-sacrifice; a people of compassion who work for justice and the common good.

We are called to move continuously toward the heaven that is yet to come. All along this pilgrim way, God’s abundant grace flows into our lives, and our generous service flows out of our lives and into the Church and the world.

Whenever the life of faith seems stagnant, look at the inlet and look at the outlet; one or the other is clogged.

Evitar ‘los días de perro de fe’ por el examen de los canales de gracia

D

urante de los veranos de mi infancia, mi padre condujo nuestra familia a uno de los muchos lagos al norte de St. Paul para una tarde de natación.

Después de los días calorosos y húmedos de agosto, pero antes de que las clases comenzaron, mi papá haría un anuncio que terminó la natación para la estacion: “días de perro!”

Los días del perro ocurres cuando los lagos son estrangulados con las malas hierbas y el agua se vuelve verde con matas flotantes marrones. He notado que algunos lagos tienen días de perro todo el año y en el invierno, incluso antes de la fiesta de San Patricio, el hielo es de color verde.

Pero también he notado que días del perro no se produce en el agua que tiene una secuencia de movimiento. Parece que el agua se mueve, la más clara y más fresca permanece.

La imagen de la agua fluida nos ayuda a evitar la canícula de la fe, que se vuelve nuestra vida espiritual estancada y estrangulada con las preocupaciones y distracciones de la vida.

Los “días de perro” de la fe puede suceder cuando nosotros mismos, se convierten en esta pequeña piscina — nada sale y nada se apaga.

Una imagen antigua para la vida de fe es el Mar de

OFFICIAL Archbishop Bernard Hebda has announced the following appointment in the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis: Effective August 9, 2016 Reverend James Notebaart, appointed parochial administrator of the Church of Gichitwaa Kateri in Minneapolis. Father Notebaart is a retired priest of the Archdiocese.

Galilea. Fluyendo en el Mar de Galilea del norte es el Río Jordán. El río fluye también hacia fuera en la orilla sur del mar. Río Jordán finalmente termina en otro mar, pero porque no sale de este mar, no existe vida en él. Por lo tanto, el nombre es Mar Muerto.

El río Jordán es una imagen rica para el sacramento del bautismo, el principio de nuestra vida de fe. Se abre un canal de gracia en nuestras vidas como el Espíritu Santo se mueve dentro de nosotros.

A lo largo de nuestras vidas, las aguas que fluyen de nuestro bautismo nos renovan y fortalecen. Estos canales de gracia continúan a lo largo de nuestra participación en la vida sacramental de la iglesia.

En orden por las aguas de nuestro bautismo fluyan a través de nosotros, debemos examinar cómo mantener abiertos los canales de la gracia en nuestras vidas y cómo mantener abiertos los canales de la gracia que fluye de nuestras vidas.

Los canales que entran en nuestras vidas son los sacramentos, la oración y el estudio reflexivo. Cuando las gracias espirituales que entran en nuestras vidas son un goteo pero todavía intentamos mantener enormes salidas de amar a demás, nos podemos secar.

Del mismo modo, si tenemos estos grandes canales de la gracia en nuestras vidas, pero tienen muy pocos canales abiertos, entonces nosotros somos otros

ejemplos del mar muerto.

Nuestra vida espiritual se mueve desde bautismo, a través de cada paso de la vida, a través de la muerte y en la plenitud de la vida en Cristo Jesús. Es una peregrinación espiritual en la que estamos llamados a seguir, confiando en el camino que el Espíritu Santo fluirá entre nosotros y a través de nosotros y está siempre con nosotros.

Estamos alentados, fortalecidos y renovados por el movimiento de la gracia en nuestra vida cotidiana.

Somos desafiados, también, a mantener abiertos los canales que salen de nuestras vidas como nuestro testimonio para el Evangelio de Jesucristo.

Como miembros bautizados del cuerpo de Cristo, lo que queremos recibir debemos dar. Estamos llamados a ser personas que comparten generosamente y que saben sacrificarse; gente de compasión que trabaja para la justicia y el bien común.

Estamos llamados a avanzar continuamente hacia el cielo que está por venir. A lo largo de este camino, la gracia abundante de Dios fluye en nuestras vidas, y nuestro servicio generoso fluye de nuestras vidas y a la iglesia y el mundo.

Cuando la vida de fe parece estancada, mirar la entrada y mirar la salida, uno u otro está obstruido.

SUMMER GRAZE Msgr. Donald Sakano greets sheep in the cemetery at the Basilica of St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral in New York City Aug. 9. The parish is using the three grazing sheep to cut the graveyard’s grass this summer. “It started with a conversation I had with a groundskeeper who was planning to retire,” Msgr. Sakano recalled. “I joked, ‘What do you expect me to do now, get sheep?’ The second I said it, I thought, ‘That might be a good idea,’ even though I knew nothing about sheep-keeping here in New York City.” Six parishioners were trained to care for the sheep, which have been named Faith, Hope and Charity.

The animals are neutered males — ages 2, 4 and 5, respectively — and weigh an average of 87 pounds. The urban shepherds’ principle responsibility is to coax the rams into a shed at night. CNS/Gregory A. Shemitz

4A • The Catholic Spirit

LOCAL

August 18, 2016

SLICEof LIFE

To the peripheries

Father Bob White, pastor of St. Victoria in Victoria, says the eucharistic prayer during Mass Aug. 5 at the home of Troy and Montserrat Sawvel of St. Victoria. About 25 people attended the event, including members of St. Victoria and surrounding parishes. The Masses take place on Fridays during the summer. “The idea is to bring the daily Mass out to the community,” Father White said. “It’s been fun.

It’s a great way to take advantage of Minnesota summers.” Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit

August 18, 2016

LOCAL

Schools plan for new buildings, expanded preschool The Catholic Spirit The Catholic Spirit asked Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis to share what’s new for the 2016-17 academic year. The following is a selection of their responses.

• Construction will soon be underway at St. Agnes School in St. Paul on the Helene Houle Auditorium, with completion expected in early 2017. The new 7,000-square-foot space is the second phase of the Ubel Activity Center, which opened last year, and was made possible with a lead gift from John Nasseff and Helene Houle.

• A new garden at St. Jude of the Lake Catholic School is designed to attract monarch butterflies and foster their development. The garden doubles as an outdoor classroom where students can study habitats, environmental change, life-cycles and migration.

• Notre Dame Academy in Minnetonka has added a 3-year-old program to its Young Scholars prekindergarten program, as well as a STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) course for middle school students.

• Nativity of Mary in Bloomington has expanded its preschool program, adopted a National Geographic-based science program and incorporated a responsive classroom model, which aims to help students develop democratic skills such as empathy, inclusion of others and taking turns.

• Academy of Holy Angels in Richfield is issuing students a Dell Chromebook; offering a new STEM course on the fundamentals of forensic science, DNA

technology and environmental engineering; and adding new emphasis on creating a positive student environment.

• Seventh- and eighth-grade students from Holy Cross in Webster and Most Holy Redeemer in Montgomery will travel to Washington, D.C., in October for the first of what is expected to be a biannual trip to the nation’s capitol.

• Holy Family Academy in St. Louis Park is starting a prekindergarten 3-year-old program, adding to its existing 4-year-old program. All early childhood classes will now use the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd Montessori-based program. The school also is continuing its implementation of a classical curriculum by having students in grades two through five study Latin.

• In its first year, Minneapolis-based nonprofit Catholic Schools Center of Excellence helped launch or expand 55 preschool programs across the archdiocese; distributed technology grants to more than 70 schools; granted 50 scholarships to principals Please turn to SCHOOLS on page 6A

Victims’ attorneys appeal judge’s decision not to consolidate assets

By Maria Wiering The Catholic Spirit A committee representing sexual abuse claimants filed Aug. 10 to appeal a bankruptcy court judge’s July ruling that declined to consolidate the assets of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis with those of parishes and other Catholic entities in the archdiocese’s bankruptcy process.

Minneapolis attorney Robert Kugler appealed the ruling to the Federal District Court. Kugler represents the unsecured creditors committee, which includes people with clergy sexual abuse claims.

St. Paul attorneys Jeff Anderson and Associates also filed an appeal Aug. 10. The firm represents more than 350 clergy sexual abuse claimants.

The unsecured creditors committee filed a motion in May asking U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Robert Kressel to consolidate the assets of more than 200 parishes and local Catholic organizations such as the Catholic

Community Foundation, Catholic Cemeteries and some Catholic schools, with those of the archdiocese.

As The Catholic Spirit previously reported, the motion argued that the organizational relationships between the archdiocese and the institutions give the archdiocese or archbishop control over their governance and finances, thereby linking their assets.

Attorneys for the archdiocese, parishes and other Catholic entities argued that the archdiocese and other institutions were separate entities under civil law.

On July 28, Kressel dismissed the unsecured creditors committee’s motion, writing that the committee “failed to allege sufficient facts to support substantive consolidation.”

The archdiocese filed for Reorganization under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code in January 2015 in response to mounting claims of clergy sexual abuse. In May, it filed a plan for Reorganization, which listed an initial $65 million to be used primarily for sexual abuse claimant compensation.

The Catholic Spirit • 5A in BRIEF ST. PAUL

Sunday Mass offered at State Fair Those attending the Minnesota State Fair who wish to attend Mass while there have two opportunities, both on Sundays: Aug. 28 and Sept. 4. The Masses will take place 9:15 a.m. at the Family Fair Stage near the Fine Arts Center. Father Robert Nygaard, a retired priest, will celebrate both Masses.

MINNEAPOLIS

DeLaSalle grad makes Hall of Fame Jerry Miller, a 1956 graduate of DeLaSalle High School who later taught there before his death in 1996, was inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame Aug. 11. He also has ties to Benilde-St. Margaret’s School, having both taught and coached there. He returned to DeLaSalle in 1961 to coach football and teach, which he did until leaving in 1971. After more than a decade at a public school, he arrived at BSM in 1989. He coached football and taught theology until his death from cancer in 1996.

Six Catholic schools implementing new sustainability model Six schools in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis plan to work on long-term sustainability with a model developed by the New Jersey-based Healey Education Foundation. Blessed Trinity Catholic School in Richfield, Notre Dame Academy in Minnetonka, St. Alphonsus Parish School in Brooklyn Center, St. Dominic School in Northfield, St. Pascal Baylon Catholic School in St. Paul and St. Thomas More Catholic School in St. Paul are implementing the Healey Advancement Methodology, which provides assistance with enrollment management, development, governance and strategic planning.

Announced in June, the initiative is funded by grants from the Minneapolis-based GHR Foundation, the Schulze Family Foundation and the Catholic Schools Center of Excellence, which is supported by the Aim Higher Foundation and the Catholic Community Foundation.

MENDOTA

Deacons gather with archbishop Archbishop Bernard Hebda gathered with deacons Aug. 6 at St. Peter in Mendota. The group, numbering 149, included deacons, their wives and widows of deacons. It was the largest gathering of the deacon community in more than six years, according to organizers. The event featured an address by Archbishop Hebda, a presentation from Deacon George Nugent of All Saints in Lakeville, Mass and lunch.

6A • The Catholic Spirit

LOCAL

August 18, 2016

Venezuela native prepares to lead diverse Minneapolis school Edgar Alfonzo leaves law for education, finds he has a heart for students

By Sam Patet For The Catholic Spirit When Edgar Alfonzo took the role as principal at St. John Paul II Catholic Preparatory School in Minneapolis in June, the 44-year-old became the second Latino to ever serve in that capacity in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

“It’s an honor,” said Alfonzo, a parishioner of Good Shepherd in Golden Valley. “To be the [second] Latino is a big responsibility.”

He added that he will put “200 percent” of his effort into being a good principal, and to lay the groundwork for other Latino administrators who follow in his footsteps.

Edgar ALFONZO The archdiocesan Office for the Mission of Catholic Education believes its first Latino principal was Kevin Donohue, who served at St. Columba in St. Paul during the 2003-04 school year. The school closed in 2004.

Father Kevin Finnegan, pastor of Our Lady of Grace in Edina, serves as canonical administrator of St. John Paul II School. He said he’s happy to have Alfonzo at the helm.

“A [Catholic school] principal is not only the academic leader . . . but really is the spiritual leader of a school,” Father Finnegan said. He described Alfonzo as a man who loves Christ and who has an active faith.

Located in northeast Minneapolis, St. John Paul II School is supported by seven parishes. Alfonzo said nearly 110 students in kindergarten through eighth grade are enrolled for the 2016-2017 school year, up

SCHOOLS continued from page 5A and teachers for the 2016-2018 Archbishop Harry J. Flynn Catechetical Institute in St. Paul; launched a new magazine, which is available at every archdiocesan grade school; and spent more than $5 million to help archdiocesan grade schools in a variety of ways. “So many of these schools have had great financial needs for a long time, so it’s been good to invest in

Gambling Permit 4X-62107

from about 90 the previous year.

“John Paul II is kind of a miracle in northeast Minneapolis, not only because we are the only Catholic school actually in northeast Minneapolis . . . but also because our population is so unique,” Alfonzo said.

About 75 percent of the student body is Latino, he said, but noted a significant population of students with families from Africa.

A heart for students Alfonzo’s own background — both professional and cultural — will aid in his new role.

Alfonzo was born and raised in Venezuela, where he attended a private, non-Catholic school through third grade. The rest of his elementary through high school years were spent at public schools.

After graduating in 1993 with a law degree from Universidad Catolica Andres Bello in Caracas, Venezuela, he worked for 12 years at a law firm that specialized in labor law. In 2004, he immigrated to Minnesota, where he met his wife, Adriana Guerrero.

Alfonzo earned a master’s degree in nonprofit management from Hamline University in St. Paul and put it to use at two Minneapolis organizations between 2007 and 2010.

And although Alfonzo enjoyed his experiences in law and the nonprofit sector, he has most valued being a teacher. When he lived in Venezuela, he taught law courses to graduate students at three different universities. In the Twin Cities, he served as a Spanish teacher or bilingual educator at several public and private schools, including Trinity Catholic School in St. Paul (which closed in 2009) and St. John Paul II School from 2005 to 2007.

In July 2015, he became the school’s full-time director of student and family affairs.

Working at schools, Alfonzo discovered he has a heart for students.

One of them is Maria Alvarado, 14, who graduated from St. John Paul II School last year. Her father, Julio

their future,” said CSCOE President Gail Dorn. “And we want more children to be able to enroll in Catholic schools.”

On Sept. 22, CSCOE will host a Mass of the Holy Spirit for all fourth- through eighth-grade Catholic school students at CHS Field in St. Paul.

New leadership • Sylvia Beevas-Smith is the new principal of Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Minneapolis.

• Charles Briscoe is the new president

Alvarado, is excited that Maria’s sister, 5-year-old Samantha, will start kindergarten there in September.

That’s in no small part because of the way Alfonzo relates to students.

“Whether it’s a 6-year-old or a 10-year-old, he [Alfonzo] gives them the same attention, the same respect and the same approach,” Julio Alvarado said.

“And I think kids love that; that makes them feel that they’re actually important, that whatever they say is valued.”

Not only is Alfonzo ready to help his students, but he’s also just as willing to go to bat for their families.

Alvarado and his wife experienced this firsthand last year, when Maria was about to enter eighth grade.

They weren’t able to afford her tuition, even after receiving financial aid.

“Transferring would have made it quite difficult not only to get to a good high school, but . . . going to new places [would have been] a challenge,” Alvarado said.

When Alfonzo found out about their situation, he helped them find a way to pay for her final year.

“The first thing he said was, ‘Don’t worry, we’ll figure something out.’ And needless to say, he was on top of things. He looked here and there and made it through,” Alvarado said. “He helped Maria stay in school, and [the] year after, she was graduating. So, we were really thankful for that.”

Like other Catholic schools in the archdiocese, St. John Paul II School has faced challenges in remaining a viable option for families. Still, Father Finnegan is confident that Alfonzo, like his predecessors, will help the school thrive.

“He just has this breadth of knowledge and experience, but also has this world perspective, and John Paul II is a world school,” Father Finnegan said.

“We have kids from several countries and several cultures. He’s respectful of that, and I’m certain [he] will help it grow.”

and principal of Bethlehem Academy in Faribault. He previously served as principal of Hill-Murray School in Maplewood.

• Kelly Roche is the new principal of St. Joseph School in Rosemount, her alma mater, where she has also taught for 15 years.

• Nikki Giel is the new principal of Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Maplewood. She is a former student of the school and has taught there for 10 years. She succeeds Peter

Noll, who retired earlier this year.

• Brian Edel is the new upper school director at St. Thomas Academy in Mendota Heights. Erick Rome is the new dean of students, and Michelle Mechtel is the new director of academic life. Both are newly created positions at the school.

• Tim Reilly is the new principal at Our Lady of Peace in Minneapolis.

• Tom Donlon is the new principal at St. Hubert in Chanhassen.

August 18, 2016

U.S. & WORLD

The Catholic Spirit • 7A

Kolkata gears up for celebrations of ‘St. Teresa’

By Saadia Azim Catholic News Service

A gas station is seen Aug. 15 after it was burned down following the police shooting of a man in Milwaukee the previous day.

CNS/Aaron Bernstein

Milwaukee archbishop says violence in city’s unrest ‘a self-inflicted wound’ Catholic News Service Archbishop Jerome Listecki of Milwaukee called the violence that broke out in the city as part of protests over the fatal police shooting of an African-American man “a self-inflicted wound.”

“Violence is never tolerated. Protests are certainly the right of every American, but violence such as looting, burning is never tolerated,” Archbishop Listecki told the Catholic Herald in an Aug. 15 telephone interview. “It only creates a self-inflicted wound on the community.”

Protesters burned down six businesses

in the city, including a gas station, and also torched a police car late Aug. 13 in response to the police shooting of Sylville Smith as he fled a traffic stop earlier that day.

Police said Smith, 23, had a gun in his hand and had refused police orders to drop the weapon.

Father Timothy Kitzke, the Archdiocese of Milwaukee’s vicar general for urban ministry, told the Catholic Herald Aug. 15 that what happened Aug. 13 could be looked at one of two ways.

“On the one hand, it could be

Armageddon; on the other hand, it could be seen as mission territory. I see it as [the] latter,” he said. “Now, more than ever, it is important that people from all of our parishes, including those in the suburbs, must pull together. The problems of racial divisiveness and helplessness must be addressed by everyone.”

Father Kitzke, who also is pastor of a Milwaukee parish and administrator of two others, said he has been in contact with the pastors of the four inner-city parishes asking them to meet with him to continue to address the concerns of the community.

“What do we do with the anger?” the priest said. “We need to address the issues that cause the anger and the hopelessness that lead to violence. And the Church has to be a part of that.”

An Aug. 14 statement from Religious Leaders for Racial Reconciliation in Milwaukee, formed last year to address race issues in the city, said the city “was taken to another level of violence where the devil is trying to lead us.”

The group identified three issues that need to be addressed with the city’s dispossessed: “We need to build relationships with them, look for the root causes of what is going wrong in their lives, and then we need to empower them to change.”

“Have you ever lost your keys? Think about that feeling you had when you couldn’t find them, looking all over, and retracing your steps backwards,” the statement said. “That is how the lost are feeling, that pit in their stomach, and emptiness in their heart, the yearning for something that they don’t yet even know what it is. They are waiting for one of us to show them his love and lead them to their savior, Jesus.”

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker put the National Guard on standby in case of a repeat of the violence Aug. 14, but afterdark protests were peaceful.

A group of young independent photographers are busy clicking away, taking photos of Kolkata, India, the “City of Joy.” Their photos, part of the crowdsourced “Sainthood Project,” will be displayed in several locations in Rome in early September to coincide with the canonization of Blessed Teresa of Kolkata. The photographers are volunteers, trying to highlight aspects of the young Mother Teresa, who founded the Missionaries of Charity to serve the “poorest of the Blessed poor” in India. The Teresa of young people are KOLKATA funding their own travel to Rome to participate in the ceremony and exhibit the photographs in open-air galleries.

“This is our tribute to Mother,” said Srijita Deb Burman, 25, a business professional. “These images will depict the inspiration that must have attracted Mother to this city.”

Although the Sept. 4 canonization is at the Vatican, Kolkata is making preparations. Scholars, priests, students and artists are holding seminars, exhibitions and prayer meetings every day across the city to propagate “Mother Teresa’s philosophy toward humanity.”

Park Street, Kolkata’s vibrant street and a prominent hangout for young people, has already been renamed Mother Teresa Sarani. Special festivities will continue in that area until Christmas.

At Mother Teresa’s home, the headquarters of the Missionaries of Charity, the doors are open for all, and followers and admirers come every day, visiting and praying in her tomb. Many say they have been doing so for a long time and vouch that their prayers have been heard. Some people drop in to be counseled by the sisters, asking for solace; others come looking for medicine or other daily items.

“Mother Teresa has always been the icon for the confluence of faiths, and that’s why I have such devotion for her saintly powers,” said Aarti Kumari, a Hindu and a regular visitor who comes for counseling from the nuns on family issues.

Mother Teresa’s home is already a place of worship, where novices and ordinary people can be seen carrying their books to the tomb seeking blessings.

Mother Teresa’s relics have been placed near her tomb on the ground floor of the motherhouse, but very soon the place will be dedicated for veneration of the saint. Representatives of the Missionaries of Charity say they have plans for regular special Masses and prayer meetings.

A thanksgiving Mass will be held Aug. 26, Mother Teresa’s birthday, ahead of the canonization. On Sept. 4, nuns, novices and followers will participate in the canonization in St. Peter’s Square through a live viewing party.

8A • The Catholic Spirit

U.S. & WORLD

August 18, 2016

in BRIEF WASHINGTON

Biden called ‘counterwitness’ to Church teaching for presiding at wedding By officiating at a same-sex wedding, Vice President Joe Biden as a prominent Catholic politician has created confusion over Church teaching on marriage and “the corresponding moral obligations of Catholics,” three U.S. bishops said Aug. 5. “Questions revolving around marriage and human sexuality are deeply felt in our homes and communities,” said Joe BIDEN the bishops. “We join with our Holy Father Pope Francis in affirming the inviolable dignity of all people and the Church’s important role in accompanying all those in need. In doing so, we also stand with Pope Francis in preserving the dignity and meaning of marriage as the union of a man and a woman.” Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, was joined by two USCCB chairmen in writing a blog post about Biden presiding at a same-sex wedding of two longtime White House aides Aug. 1. Signing on to the blog were Bishop Richard Malone of Buffalo, New York, chairman of the Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth; and Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami, chairman of the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development.

Catholics surveyed say election issues mentioned at Mass Catholics, by and large, haven’t heard endorsements for one presidential candidate over the other while in the pews this presidential election season.

But they reported they have heard about religious liberty, abortion, immigration and the environment as among the topics coming from the pulpit, according to a survey released Aug. 8 by the Pew Research Center in Washington. Just one out of 10 or fewer Catholics “say their clergy have publicly supported or opposed particular candidates,” reported the Pew center in its survey conducted online and by mail June 5-July 7 among a national sample of 4,602 adults who say they attended religious services at least once or twice in the few months before the poll was conducted.

NEW ORLEANS

Assembly OKs document marking 50 years of Lutheran-Catholic dialogue A key action at the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America Churchwide Assembly in New Orleans was the approval Aug. 10 by 980 voting members of a document that marks 50 years of Lutheran-Catholic dialogue. Titled “Declaration on the Way: Church, Ministry and Eucharist,” the new 120page document marks the progress in

Catholic-Lutheran relations over the past 50 years and maps the remaining steps needed to achieve full unity. The document was prepared by a joint task force of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs and the Chicagobased Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, which has more than 3.7 million members in 9,300 congregations across the United States. It was affirmed last October by the ELCA Conference of Bishops, an advisory body, which asked the ELCA Church Council to forward the document to the 2016 ELCA Churchwide Assembly, its highest legislative body.

VATICAN CITY

Pope praises witness of 10 on Refugee Olympic Team In a personal message addressed to each of the 10 members of the new Refugee Olympic Team, Pope Francis wished them success in their events and thanked them for the witness they are giving the world.

Naming each of the team’s athletes from South Sudan, Syria, Congo and Ethiopia, Pope Francis said he had read some of the interviews with team members “so that I could get closer to your lives and your aspirations. I extend my greetings and wish you success at the Olympic Games in Rio — that your courage and strength find

expression through the Olympic Games and serve as a cry for peace and solidarity,” he said in the message, signed in late July. The 2016 Summer Games marked the first time a refugee team officially participated in the Olympics.

Team members marched under the Olympic flag and, in the event a team member wins a medal, the Olympic anthem was to be played instead of the national anthem of the athlete’s home country. Pope Francis expressed his hope that through the team “humanity would understand that peace is possible, that with peace everything can be gained, but with war all can be lost.”

— Catholic News Service

CAPE TOWN, South Africa

CRS uses lessons learned from Ebola to fight Zika The dust had hardly settled on Catholic Relief Services’ work fighting the world’s worst Ebola outbreak before the team was putting together a response to the Zika virus in the West African island nation of Cape Verde. “We put an enormous amount of effort into public education” fighting Ebola in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, “and this experience is now helping us in our response to Zika” in Cape Verde, Michael Stulman, CRS regional information officer for West and Central Africa, told Catholic News Service from Dakar, Senegal. The two-year Ebola outbreak in West Africa that started in early 2014 left 11,310 people dead. Cape Verde, a tiny archipelago of islands about 300 miles off the west coast of Africa, has about 7,500 confirmed Zika cases in a population of 500,000 people. However, Roberta Rezende, who is coordinating CRS’s work in Cape Verde, said the number of infected people in the former Portuguese colony could be higher because, unlike Ebola, the symptoms of Zika are mild and often go unreported. “We already have 400 volunteers doing door-to-door visits, helping families in their communities to identify and eliminate breeding sites” of mosquitoes that spread Zika, Rezende said in an Aug. 10 telephone interview from Santiago, the largest island of Cape Verde. “We find that it is more effective to do this with families rather than simply telling them what they should do.”

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August 18, 2016

FAITH & CULTURE

Editor’s note: This is the first story in a series on surrogacy, which a Minnesota State Legislature commission is studying as it prepares to make public policy recommendations on the practice. Follow the series at www.thecatholicspirit.com.

surrogate is not genetically related to the child.

Instead, the intended mother may be the genetic mother of the child — if her egg was used for fertilization — or the arrangement can be more complicated. If a donor egg is used, the child may not have a genetic relation to its birth mother nor its intended mother. If the intended parents are a samesex couple, the child will necessarily lose a genetic connection.

F

eminists, children of surrogate mothers and biomedical ethicists united to send a clear message to a Minnesota State Legislature commission studying surrogacy: The practice turns people into products.

In a July 19 hearing that focused on the possible health and psychological effects on surrogate mothers and children born of surrogacy, the commission also raised the question of abortion. For surrogacy opponents, abortion’s role in surrogacy contracts highlights how this form of third-party reproduction commodifies women and children.

“The foremost goal of public policy should be to protect vulnerable people from exploitation and commercial commodification. Above all, that’s what we hope this commission will do. We do not create public policy that assumes best-case scenarios. Rather, we need public policy in Minnesota that protects people against worst-case scenarios,” said Kathryn Mollen, policy and outreach coordinator for the Minnesota Catholic Conference.

MCC backed legislation passed earlier this year to establish the Legislative Commission on Surrogacy, which is charged with developing public policy recommendations on surrogacy, when a woman contracts to become pregnant and gestate a child to be raised by someone else. Minnesota law currently does not recognize surrogacy, meaning current in-state arrangements navigate a tenuous landscape.

Composed of state lawmakers and representatives from the state’s Department of Health, Department of Human Services and State Supreme Court, the 15-member commission is holding a series of meetings over the next several months and will submit a report on its findings to the Legislature by Dec. 15.

In July, commission members wanted to know whether surrogacy contracts could potentially force a woman to have an abortion, if, for example, the baby had a chromosomal disorder, or the surrogate had conceived multiples when the intended parents had expected a singleton. The answer from Steve Snyder, surrogacy attorney and surrogacy agency owner, left the question up in the air.

He insisted that a surrogacy contract could not infringe on a woman’s “right to choose,” but could merely obligate her to “consult” with the intended parents. Nevertheless, he said, if a surrogate refuses to abort, she could be considered in breach of contract, in which case, “she would then be leveraging it into her pregnancy.” The intended parents who had commissioned the pregnancy and the child would then not be obligated to support the surrogate mother and the child.

Abortion ‘a way of returning the product’ Navigating the surrogacy web of rights, responsibilities, abortion, and wanted or unwanted children has proven more difficult than parsing out the terms of a contract. Matthew Eppinette, executive director of the California-based Center for Bioethics and Culture who wrote the 2014 documentary “Breeders: A Subclass of Women?,” laid before the commission the stories of the four surrogate mothers chronicled in the film.

One of those women was Heather, a three-time surrogate mother. The last couple she bore a child for wanted her to abort because the doctors had detected a birth defect. After consideration and consultation with a specialist, Heather decided she “couldn’t play God” and declined. The couple then said they didn’t want the child and distanced themselves from her. On her own, Heather found an adoptive family for the baby, but when she informed the intended parents, they changed their minds again, deciding they actually wanted the baby. In the film, Heather described how at the birth the baby boy whose life she had fought for was taken away from her so quickly that she had to beg for a glance at him. She hasn’t heard from the family since.

For surrogacy opponents such as Eppinette, situations like these highlight how surrogacy treats

The Catholic Spirit • 9A

Surrogate-child connection

Think of the children?

Surrogacy touches abortion, children’s rights

By Bridget Ryder • For The Catholic Spirit women and children like a commodity, a product that can be bought and sold, taken or cast off by means of contracts and money.

Alana Newman, the daughter of an anonymous sperm donor, agrees. “Abortion is a way of returning the product,” she told the commission.

Third-party reproduction, also known as donorassisted reproduction, refers to any form of reproduction that uses donor sperm, eggs or womb for bringing a baby into being. Though sold as the cure for infertility, the selfless service of one woman to a family in need, and just a method of “family building,” the commercial nature of third-party reproduction is always lingering in the background. In a 2008 New York Times article “Her Body, My Baby,” Alex Kuczynski recounted her own struggle with infertility and eventually engaging a surrogate mother to have a child.

“While no one volunteering to have our baby was poor, neither were they rich,” Kuczynski wrote. “The $25,000 we would pay would make a significant difference in their lives. Still, in our experience with the surrogacy industry, no one lingered on the topic of money. We encountered the wink-nod rule: Surrogates would never say they were motivated to carry a child for another couple just for money; they were all motivated by altruism. This gentle hypocrisy allows surrogacy to take place. Without it, both sides would have to acknowledge the deep cultural revulsion against attaching a dollar figure to the creation of a human life.”

For many children born through these measures, the revolt against the contractual nature and the exchange of money at the origin of their existence is not cultural but personal.

“When you know that a huge part of the reason that you came into the world was due solely to a paycheck and that after that you are disposable, given away and never thought of again, it impacts how you view yourself. As a product of surrogacy, when I express this viewpoint to others, I am told, ‘Look how much your parents wanted you and saved to have you. You should be grateful and thankful for them.’ But at the end of the day, the adults were looking out for themselves, and what they needed and wanted,” Jessica Stern, a 33-year-old born via surrogacy, stated in a written testimony to the commission. She writes about her struggle and third-party reproduction at her blog, “I Am a Product of Surrogacy.”

Stern was genetically related to her surrogate mother — what the industry calls “traditional surrogacy.” With improvements to in vitro fertilization, “gestational surrogacy” has become the norm. In this method, the

But, experts say, no matter the gene pool or the contract, the child in the womb knows only one mother: the woman who is carrying him or her.

Nancy Verrier, whose 1993 book “The Primal Wound” has become widely read in the adoption field, identified the loss that even infants experience when separated from their birth mothers.

“The child is primed to be welcomed into the world, protected, and nurtured by this mother with whom he has been physically, emotionally and spiritually connected for nine months. Every sensory aspect of the child expects her, knows her, wants her. Therefore, when an infant is whisked away and placed in a nursery away from mom and then placed in the arms of another woman, it is disorienting, confusing and terrifying,” she wrote in another essay.

Tanya Prashad, a Minnesota surrogate mother also featured in “Breeders” who is now in a custody battle for a daughter she bore as a surrogate, described in the film how, after she gave the girl to the intended fathers, the baby became colicky, crying almost constantly. However, when she would visit as they had initially agreed, the child would quiet as soon as it was placed in her arms.

Neonatal and neurological research has also well documented the innate mother-child bond that forms even in utero. Surrogacy necessarily breaks that bond, even before birth, since surrogates are encouraged to remain emotionally detached from the child as it is not their baby. In written testimony provided to the commission, Dr. Matthew Anderson, a physician at the AALFA Family Clinic in White Bear Lake, described the behavior of a surrogate mother he cared for. When she developed a condition that could lead to early delivery and health complications for the baby, she refused to follow Anderson’s orders to decrease activity and quit work to bring the baby as close to term as possible.

According to Anderson, she said, “What do I care?

It’s not my kid.” Her non-compliance led to an early delivery.

Even under the best of circumstances, children of surrogacy have greater risks for health complications. A 2002 study in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that children born through assisted reproduction were more likely to have low or very low birth weights. Studies in several American journals have also shown that children conceived though IVF are more likely to have fetal abnormalities.

Suffering denied Surrogacy opponents say children are the forgotten victims of third-party reproduction arrangements, including surrogacy. One of the first films produced by the Center for Bioethics and Culture focused on children of anonymous sperm donors. CBC president and film producer Jennifer Lahl considers the film, “Anonymous Father’s Day,” her favorite of the four she’s made, but says it’s the least favorite among audiences. In screenings across the country — and even among conservative, Catholic, pro-life viewers — “audiences don’t sympathize with the children,” she said.

These children, however, have another, and seemingly unlikely, ally: Kathleen Sloan, the selfidentified pro-choice and radical feminist executive director of the Connecticut chapter of the National Organization for Women and former program manager for the Massachusetts-based Council for Responsible Genetics. Sloan has worked closely on the issue of surrogacy with Lahl, a pro-life Christian, as well as the MCC, which is part of the local coalition Minnesotans for Surrogacy Awareness.

Please turn to SURROGACY on page 14A

10A • The Catholic Spirit

FOCUS ON FAITH

The readings this week speak of God offering love and redemption to all, though not everyone will receive it or reciprocate.

SUNDAY SCRIPTURES

Deacon Matthew Quail

True love involves some suffering I once had a priest tell me, “If you want good friends, you first have to be a good friend.” Since I heard this, I have tried to be a good friend when my friends call on me. That has included staying up late with friends who are going through a difficult time, dropping everything I’m doing to pick up someone who went walking and then got caught in the rain, and being vulnerable and asking for forgiveness when I have done something to offend a friend.

In these experiences and more, I’ve learned that love suffers. In order for love

August 18, 2016

to be real, deep and life-changing, some suffering is inevitable, if only it be feeling uncomfortable.

Similarly, parents know what it is to suffer for love. Waking up eight times a night with a newborn, shuttling kids around to their various activities and listening patiently to all the troubles of growing up are just some examples of their sacrifices for love. They are willing to suffer for love because they know their children, and they are willing to do anything for them. These are glimpses of the Father’s love for us.

First, Isaiah speaks of God gathering all the tribes of Israel to himself. The letter to the Hebrews speaks of God teaching those he has called how to love as a kind of “disciplining.” Jesus in the Gospel speaks of entering the master’s house through the narrow gate. Many will try, but few will enter. The only way to the master’s house, which is the Father’s house, is through Jesus Christ. And, to follow Jesus Christ means to follow the path of love, which inevitably includes suffering. That’s what the cross shows us.

Jesus Christ reveals that the Father is willing to give us everything, including his only son. And, how much do we return to the Lord with our whole hearts?

We can only enter and stay on this narrow path when we fall in love with Jesus Christ. When we know how he has loved us, we learn what love looks like and how it behaves. Praying, regularly receiving the sacraments and reading

Sunday, Aug. 21 Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time Readings • Is 66:18-21 • Heb 12:5-7, 11-13 • Lk 13:22-30 Scripture reveal his love for us, and only then are we willing to love him and love others like he does.

Real, deep, life-changing love involves a little suffering, and few dare to stay on the path of Christ-like love because it can be uncomfortable. But, it is the only way.

Deacon Quail is in formation for the priesthood at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. His teaching parish is St. Bartholomew in Wayzata, and his home parish is Nativity of Our Lord in St. Paul.

DAILY Scriptures Sunday, Aug. 21 Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time Is 66:18-21 Heb 12:5-7, 11-13 Lk 13:22-30 Monday, Aug. 22 Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary 2 Thes 1:1-5, 11-12 Mt 23:13-22 Tuesday, Aug. 23 2 Thes 2:1-3a, 14-17 Mt 23:23-26

Wednesday, Aug. 24 St. Bartholomew, apostle Rev 21:9b-14 Jn 1:45-51 Thursday, Aug. 25 1 Cor 1:1-9 Mt 24:42-51 Friday, Aug. 26 1 Cor 1:17-25 Mt 25:1-13

Saturday, Aug. 27 St. Monica 1 Cor 1:26-31 Mt 25:14-30 Sunday, Aug. 28 Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time Sir 3:17-18, 20, 28-29 Heb 12:18-19, 22-24a Lk 14:1, 7-14 Monday, Aug. 29 Passion of St. John the Baptist 1 Cor 2:1-5 Mk 6:17-29

SEEKING ANSWERS

Father Kenneth Doyle

Priests and family counseling; Catholics and tithing Q. Recently, our bishop spoke about how cold and unwelcoming some parishes can seem. I recall one instance where I asked our priest to meet with three family members and myself (all of us regular parishioners) to try to resolve some personal matters that we had. I was shocked when he told me that family counseling was not a part of his training unless it involved a matter of religion, which it did not. He had no suggestions as to where I could seek help and seemed bothered that I had even brought the matter to his attention.

My husband and I have been so put off by his response that we have not been to church since. Where does the Church stand on parish priests counseling their parishioners?

A. I agree with the priest on the matter, but not (if your portrayal is accurate) on his manner. Very few parish

Tuesday, Aug. 30 1 Cor 2:10b-16 Lk 4:31-37

priests are trained thoroughly in the science or art of counseling as a professional psychiatrist or psychologist might be.

Often in my own 50 years in the priesthood, I have declined to take on the role of primary counselor for someone with deep-seated issues, for example, acute marital conflict, a long history of family tensions or even suicidal thoughts. I felt that it would have been irresponsible to assume an identity far beyond my skill set.

What I have tried to do, though — and what I think is always a priest’s obligation — is to show sympathy and a desire to help. I regularly refer parishioners to our diocesan counseling center with its trained staff of professionals.

What I sometimes do, too, when I think an inquirer might find it more comfortable, is to meet with a person initially, try to clarify the issues and offer support, and then make the contact

Wednesday, Aug. 31 1 Cor 3:1-9 Lk 4:38-44 Thursday, Sept. 1 1 Cor 3:18-23 Lk 5:1-11 Friday, Sept. 2 1 Cor 4:1-5 Lk 5:33-39

myself with our center to arrange an appointment for the one in need.

I do want to comment on your decision to stop going to church because of the way you were treated. I disagree with the priest, as I have mentioned, and I apologize for his evident lack of concern. But the only one you are hurting now is yourself — by depriving yourself of the strength of the sacraments.

Why not just pick a different parish?

Q. We have a new pastor who

several times already has brought up the notion of tithing. He says that, as Catholics, we are called to give 10 percent of our annual gross income to charity, and he promises us that “God will not be outdone in generosity.”

Can you explain the Church’s teaching on tithing: Is it really a requirement, like Sunday Mass attendance, that Catholics tithe? The Catechism of the Catholic Church simply says that the faithful “have the duty of providing for the material needs of the Church, each according to his abilities” (No. 2043). I agree, but we also have to balance that against our responsibility to provide for the material needs of our children.

A. The practice of tithing was formally established in the Torah, the Jewish law of the Old Testament. A person offered to God, by giving to the Temple, one-tenth of the harvest of grain of the fields or the produce of fruit of the trees. That practice carried over into the

Saturday, Sept. 3 St. Gregory the Great, pope and doctor of the Church 1 Cor 4:6b-15 Lk 6:1-5 Sunday, Sept. 4 Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time Wis 9:13-18b Phlm 9-10, 12-17 Lk 14:25-33

early centuries of the Church’s history, and in the eighth century, Charlemagne made tithing to the Church a civil law.

Today there is no obligation for Catholics to donate a specific fraction of their income — only, as you mention, the general obligation that all Catholics should, to the extent of their abilities, contribute to the material support of the Church.

In addition to the passage you cite from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Church’s Code of Canon Law says that “the Christian faithful are obliged to assist with the needs of the Church so that the Church has what is necessary for divine worship, for the works of the apostolate and of charity” (Canon 222.1).

Studies have shown that Catholics typically give between 1 percent and 2 percent of their income to local parishes, but to that figure must be added the considerable donations made to religious orders as well as to Catholic hospitals and Catholic Charities, which make up the largest private network of health care and social service agencies in America.

Father Doyle writes for Catholic News Service. A priest of the Diocese of Albany, New York, he previously served as director of media relations for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Questions may be sent to askfatherdoyle@gmail.com and 40 Hopewell St., Albany, NY 12208.

THIS CATHOLIC LIFE • COMMENTARY

August 18, 2016

The Catholic Spirit • 11A

EVERYDAY MERCIES

Alyssa Bormes

With St. Bernard, finding the humanity in the holy Sometimes saints can seem “dusty” and not able to relate to us today.

Among them is St. Bernard of Clairvaux — a mystic, preacher, contemplative and doctor of the Church.

Oddly, I am none of these, so what could he teach me?

There is something in each of his titles that conjures an image of perfection — especially “doctor of the Church” and “saint,” and even “mystic” and “contemplative” — ­ which might make him feel more distant from the average Catholic in the pew.

How can we relate to him? What is the humanity of St. Bernard?

Maybe we can find it through his life as a preacher.

His preaching took place about 900 years ago, which might suggest that he has nothing to share with people now.

However, let’s put that fact aside, and pick a universal topic: love and sorrow.

In what is known as “Sermon 26,” St. Bernard reveals a sorrow that is overwhelming. He speaks of his late brother Gerard, who was also a Cistercian monk. At Gerard’s death, funeral and burial, Bernard tried to

show no emotion. He did this because Gerard nearly died while traveling with Bernard. Bernard prayed, “Wait O Lord, till we return home. Let me give him back to his friends, then take him if you wish, I shall not complain.”

Upon their return home, Gerard died.

In his sermon, Bernard explains how he kept dry eyes while others wept, because he had promised this to God. However, he deeply regretted the death of his brother. Bernard admits that by suppressing it “the sorrow . . . struck deeper roots within, growing all the more bitter . . . because it found no outlet.”

One day, his sorrow overflowed in a rush of emotion during a sermon to his fellow monks. This is “Sermon 26.”

Shared love, grief Sorrow is universal. Bernard has lost a blood brother and brother monk, his companion and friend. His heart breaks not only because of his own loss, but also because of his own fall. He asked God for a specific favor, which was granted, but selfishly he was not

CATHOLIC WATCHMEN

Jeff Cavins

Prayer: Regular stops on a long journey When people are asked how their prayer life is, most will say, “It could be better.” This awareness of our need to spend more time with God is also experienced in our relationships with our spouses and children. While it is true that we need to spend more time with God and our families, we often miss the most important point: the quality of time spent.

At its core, prayer is a relationship and not merely a mechanical obligation or duty to repeat spiritual words. Prayer is a conversation with God that involves both the mind and heart, and one that should color all that is said and done throughout the day.

The content of our daily prayer should manifest in what we say and do at home, work and in our social circles.

Often times Jesus would go away and spend time alone with his Father in heaven. The Catechism of the Catholic Church gives us some insight into the content of his prayer: “His words and works are the visible manifestation of his prayer in secret” (No. 2602). If you

wanted to know the content of Jesus’ prayer back when he was walking the hills of Galilee, all you would have to do is listen to what he said and observe what he did.

Prayer as a pit stop This concept of prayer having a direct influence on what we say and do during the day was recently illustrated in a long motorcycle trip I took. I joined about 20 men on an adventure to Canada and Montana, and each day we would ride between 400 and 700 miles.

We didn’t just get on the motorcycles and ride, however. We stopped many times throughout the day to check maps, confer with one another, refuel and pray. The content of each stop changed our schedule in terms of where we went, when we ate and how we watched out for each other.

Like our periodic stops throughout the day, prayer is our regular stop in life that ensures that we are going in the right direction and avoiding potential danger. The small stops become essential

In a moment of raw emotion, Bernard uses his pain, the wound of love, to preach and to tell of God’s mercy.

prepared for the outcome. Who would be?

In a moment of raw emotion, Bernard uses his pain, the wound of love, to preach and to tell of God’s mercy. He speaks of Jesus weeping at the death of Lazarus.

“These tears were witnesses to his human kindness, not signs that he lacked trust,” he said.

He goes on: “In the same way, our weeping is not a sign of lack of faith, it indicates the human condition.”

He praises God for having entrusted Gerard to them, and says that Gerard’s death was only God taking what was his from the beginning.

Bernard asks God to impose a limit on his tears. Why? Because we love so dearly that our tears splash with loss.

Love and sorrow are universal.

Bernard of Clairvaux is not a dusty saint who has nothing to teach us.

Instead, he lived a life of heroic virtue, which means rising after each fall.

His feast is Aug. 20. In honoring him, we can share in his love and sorrow, and he will help Christ, who, as the Book of Revelation tells us, “will wipe away every tear from [our] eyes, and death shall be no more . . . .”

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

At its core, prayer is a relationship and not merely a mechanical obligation or duty to repeat spiritual words.

Prayer is a conversation with God that involves both the mind and heart, and one that should color all that is said and done throughout the day. to the success of the overall journey.

The men who are journeying together in the Catholic Watchmen movement are invited to spend some time every day with the Lord. By consistently spending a few minutes daily in prayer, men will come to know the voice of Jesus in their life. When men come to know the heart of their heavenly Father and gain an understanding of his deeds in history, they will be more willing to trust him with their daily life.

A familiar voice We understand this from our earthly relationships. I know the voice of my wife, Emily, because we have spent massive amounts of time together.

Every morning we spend time drinking tea and talking. There is no human voice I know as well as the voice of my wife.

This is true with the Lord as well.

Through prayer we come to know his worldview and his will for our lives.

By finding a regular place and time to pray, you will come to know the voice

of God in your life and become more focused on what needs to change in your mindset and conduct.

It is a good idea to begin a prayer life by adopting some of the great prayers of the Church, such as the Lord’s Prayer, the rosary or Divine Mercy Chaplet. As the discipline of prayer matures, you will find yourself praying from the heart in a more spontaneous way, bringing praise, needs and concerns to Jesus.

The key to a fruitful prayer life is to choose a place and time to meet with Jesus and make up your mind that this will be the new norm for the rest of your life. Your relationship with the Lord will mature and you will go deeper and deeper with God as the months and years pass.

Cavins is former director of evangelization and catechesis for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and co-founder of Catholic Watchmen, an archdiocesan initiative to help men deepen their Catholic faith.

12A • The Catholic Spirit

THIS CATHOLIC LIFE • COMMENTARY

FAITH IN THE PUBLIC ARENA

Jonathan Liedl

Getting voting right The level of distaste for both major parties’ presidential candidates is at a historic high. In the midst of this discontent, the traces of two distorted approaches to voting have become clear.

One approach is to avoid voting altogether because of a dissatisfaction with the presidential candidates and an understandable (but incorrect) perception that all politicians are crooks, along with an attitude that voting doesn’t make much of a difference anyway.

The other extreme overstates the importance of voting, turning a weighty responsibility into a pseudo-sacrament, as though the establishment of the kingdom of God depended on picking the right candidate. People with this mindset can easily fall into the trap of “putting their trust in princes,” leading to unrealistic expectations of a candidate’s capacity to do good and selfimposed blindness to his or her flaws.

The proper approach to voting is somewhere in between these extremes. It treats voting with the same measured perspective with which we are to consider other forms of political participation in a pluralistic, liberal democracy: as a prudent, practical engagement with an imperfect system for the sake of the common good. To borrow a phrase from theologian Gilbert Meilaender, this approach sees the importance of voting as “chastened, but not denuded.”

A duty of charity In their 2016 update of Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, the U.S. bishops remind Catholics that “responsible citizenship is a virtue.”

While political participation can and should take many forms, exercising the right to vote in a representative democracy is a privileged duty. In fact, the Catechism of the Catholic Church

MAKING SENSE OF BIOETHICS

Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk

Talking to kids about porn and human sexuality A growing concern today involves the role of pornography as the next generation’s instructor in human sexuality. For Catholic parents, this raises the critical challenge of how best to approach these matters with their children, given that kids as young as 8 or 9 may already be acquiring information and viewpoints about human sexual behaviors from Internet pornography. I would like to present six practical suggestions for parents, culled from parental testimonies and insights, from other experts in the field, and from former users of pornography.

First, steer away from “The Talk” and opt for a more integrated approach.

Having “The Talk” relies on the misguided notion that parents have educational content or factual knowledge that they are duty-bound to try to deposit

into their children’s brains. This approach is not only awkward and paternalistic, but also can convey a sense that sexual education is a one-time, get-it-over-with ordeal. Kids require ongoing guidance and support from their parents — an expressed willingness to enter into these important discussions that stress the beauty of sexuality in marriage and what it is really for, rather than just telling them what not to do or scaring them away from sexually transmitted diseases.

Second, be attentive to opportune moments to share wisdom and stories.

Because we live in a highly pornified culture, opportunities for parents to share and discuss important value assessments regarding human sexuality with their children arise often. Driving by a billboard with a risqué picture or seeing something on TV might, for example,

says it is “morally obligatory” (2240).

Why such strong language? The Church teaches that all of us are compelled by an evangelical mandate of charity to work for the well-being of our brothers and sisters. One form of this work includes advocating for policies that foster human dignity and the common good, and electing representatives who will prioritize these values.

Voting, though an imperfect system, is an important tool we can use to help shape the contours of our political landscape. Politics will not, nor does it aim to (when properly understood), bring about the kingdom, and voting will never put perfect candidates in office (because, who is perfect?).

But if done in an informed and principled manner, your vote can be used to protect innocent human life and promote the conditions for all to flourish — or at least mitigate the political damage that can be done.

An imperfect system The obligation to exercise one’s right to vote does not mean we are required to vote in every race or for only those candidates likely to win. “Faithful Citizenship” informs us that one “can take the extraordinary step of not voting for any candidate” if all candidates

serve as an opportunity to note how it’s against the love of women to use them as sex objects.

Third, avoid Internet access in bedrooms. Sometimes parents might say, “The kids have access at school and everywhere else, so I let them have unrestricted access at home — they’ve got to learn how to handle it anyway.”

But the home setting needs to differ from the outside world, serving as an oasis and a protected environment for children.

Fourth, be wary of Internet access on cell phones. “Due diligence” with cell phones for children might mean looking for handsets that function strictly as phones without Internet access, or maybe the kids should be given a phone only at those times when they are dropped off at events. As children grow older and show signs of maturing, restrictions and limitations can be scaled back.

Fifth, monitor Internet usage. Check browser history, and make use of monitoring software, even though a particular child may be an angel. Keep the family computer in a shared space like the living room with the screen visible, so family members can be aware of each other’s online activities. In family life, we are called to serve as our brother’s keeper. Set limits on “screen time” for children, and maintain password/access control over devices. Have the neighbor’s

August 18, 2016

promote intrinsic evils. Sometimes the candidates are so flawed that it can be nearly impossible to reasonably discern who is the least-worst option.

But such a decision should not be taken lightly, and should only come after serious discernment and study. We should not be so naïve as to always expect perfect candidates with the right position on every issue or without any personal flaws, and then avoid voting generally because no one meets our exacting standards. Even when one cannot in good conscience justify a vote in a particular race, we should remember that the ballot is full of important elections. Disgust with the presidential election by itself is not a good reason to stay home on Nov. 8.

We are called to be faithful citizens within an imperfect system, prudently using our vote to bring about a limited good as best we can. As an unknown Church father wrote regarding the civic responsibilities of Christians, “So noble is the position to which God has assigned them that they are not allowed to desert it.”

Liedl is the communications manager for the Minnesota Catholic Conference, the public policy voice of the Catholic Church in Minnesota. For voting resources, visit www.mncatholic.org/ election or call 651-227-8777.

kids deposit their electronic devices on the kitchen table during visits to diminish the temptation to slip away to a private part of the house and surf the net, perhaps with younger siblings in tow.

Such practices may also serve to indirectly evangelize other families in the neighborhood regarding the serious threats from Internet porn.

Sixth, set appropriate rules regarding relationships, and be involved in the kids’ dating practices. Doing so serves as a sign of a parent’s love and concern for them. Whenever parents determine that dating should begin, it offers further opportunities and occasions to discuss problems and scenarios that can help teens set moral boundaries.

Talking to kids and helping them to become good stewards of the gift of human sexuality bestowed by God is hard work. In a culture that forcefully communicates a pornified counter-gospel, though, it is certainly one of the most important and enduring gifts a parent can seek to provide for the happiness and well-being of their children.

Father Pacholczyk earned his doctorate in neuroscience from Yale and did post-doctoral work at Harvard. He is a priest of the diocese of Fall River, Massachusetts, and serves as the director of education at the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia.

NOTICE

Look for The Catholic Spirit advertising insert from

AMERICA NEEDS FATIMA in some copies of this issue.

CALENDAR

August 18, 2016 Dining out Knights of Columbus benefit breakfast for St. Francis of Assisi — Aug. 21: 8 a.m.–1 p.m. at 1910 S. Greeley St., Stillwater. www.stillwaterkchall.com.

Music Summer Sunday Organ Recitals — Aug. 28: 2–3 p.m. at the Basilica of St. Mary, 1600 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis. www.mary.org.

Sts. Joachim and Anne Marystown Festival — Aug. 21: 11 a.m.–8 p.m. at St. Mary’s of the Purification, 15850 Marystown Road, Shakopee. www.ssjacs.org.

Prayer/worship

St. Thomas the Apostle parish festival — Aug. 21: 11 a.m.–3 p.m. at 20000 County Road 10, Corcoran. www.saintsppta.org.

Taize Prayer — Third Friday of every month: 7 p.m. at The Benedictine Center at St. Paul’s Monastery, 2675 Benet Road, Maplewood.

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

St. Henry Fun Fest — Aug. 27-28: 4–10 p.m. at 101 E. Seventh St., Monticello. www.sthenrycatholic.info.

St. Anne parish festival — Aug. 28: 11:30 a.m.– 4 p.m. at 200 Hamel Road, Hamel. 763-478-6644.

Ongoing groups Faithful Spouses support group — Third Tuesday of each month: 7–8:30 p.m. in Smith Hall (second floor) of the Hayden Building, 328 Kellogg Blvd. W., St. Paul. For those who are living apart from their spouses because of separation or divorce. 651-291-4438 or faithfulspouses@archspm.org.

St. Mathias Fun Fest — Aug. 28: 10 a.m. at 23315 Northfield Blvd., Hampton.

Career Transition group meeting — Third Thursday of every month: 7:30 a.m. at Holy Name of Jesus, 155 County Road 24, Medina. www.hnoj.org/career-transition-group.

St. Timothy carnival — Sept. 9-11: 5 p.m. at 707 89th Ave. NE, Blaine. 763-784-1329 or www.churchofsttimothy.com.

Dementia Support Group — Second Tuesday of every month: 7–9 p.m. at The Benedictine Center at St. Paul’s Monastery, 2675 Benet Road, Maplewood. 651-777-7251 or www. stpaulsmonastery.org.

Parish events

Block Party — Sept. 3- 4: 6–11 p.m. at St. Bridget of Sweden, 13060 Lake Boulevard. www.stbridgetofsweden.org.

Holy Family Maronite Lebanese Festival — Sept. 9-11 at 1960 Lexington Ave. S., Mendota Heights. www.holyfamilyevents.org.

Stars are Out Tonight — Sept. 9: 5–9 p.m. at Academy of Holy Angels, 6600 Nicollet Ave. S., Richfield. www.academyofholyangels.org.

First Friday Day of Prayer — Sept. 2, Oct. 7, Nov. 4 and Dec. 2: 8 a.m.–8 p.m. at 7540 Penn Ave. S., Richfield. www.strichards.com/first-fridays.

Young adults Cathedral Young Adults Sport Night — Fridays through September: 6:30–9 p.m. at Rahn Athletic Park, 4440 Nichols Road, Eagan. www.cathedralsaintpaul.org/cya.

Other events Art exhibit: Movement = Life — Aug. 30-Nov. 18: 9 a.m.–6 p.m. at St. Paul’s Monastery, 2675 Benet Road, Maplewood. Free exhibit features work of interdisciplinary artist, Lara Hanson. www.stpaulsmonastery.org.

Pottery retreat — Sept. 11 (1 p.m.) and 12 (noon) at St. Paul’s Monastery, 2675 Benet Road, Maplewood. www.stpaulsmonastery.org.

Iconography workshop — Sept. 12-16 at St. John the Baptist, 4625 W. 125th St., Savage. www.stcroixiconography.org.

The Catholic Spirit • 13A CALENDAR submissions DEADLINE: Noon Thursday, 14 days before the anticipated Thursday date of publication.

Recurring or ongoing events must be submitted each time they occur.

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

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

(No attachments, please.)

FAX: 651-291-4460 MAIL: “Calendar,” The Catholic Spirit 244 Dayton Ave., St. Paul, MN 55102 A note to readers As of Jan. 1, 2016, The Catholic Spirit no longer accepts calendar submissions via email.

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

St. Jude of the Lake Cornfest — Sept. 10: 3–10 p.m. at 700 Mahtomedi Ave., Mahtomedi. www.stjudeofthelake.org.

Corn Fest at St. Gerard — Aug. 19-20: 6–11 p.m. at 9600 Regent Ave. N., Brooklyn Park. www.st-gerard.org.

St. Ignatius parish festival — Sept. 10: 4–9 p.m. at 35 Birch St. E., Annandale. www.stignatiusmn.com.

Holy Trinity Festival and BBQ Competition — Aug. 20: 4–9 p.m. at 506 Common St., Waterville. www.holytrinitymn.org.

Friday, September 9

Spirit Fest at Holy Spirit — Sept. 10: 4:30 p.m. at 515 Albert St. S., St. Paul. www.holy-spirit.org/ church-home/menu/parish-groups/spirit-fest.

Blessed Sacrament Fun Fest — Aug. 20-21: 9 a.m.–10 p.m. at 2119 Stillwater Ave., St. Paul. www.blessedsacramentsp.org.

Centennial Mass and luncheon reception — Sept. 11: 11 a.m. at Holy Name, 3637 11th Ave. S., Minneapolis. RSVP by August 30. www. churchoftheholyname.org.

St. Genevieve parish festival — Aug. 21: 11 a.m.–3:30 p.m. at 6995 Centerville Road, Centerville. www.stgens.org.

Veseli Ho-Down at Most Holy Trinity — Aug. 21: 11 a.m.–6 p.m. at 4939 N. Washington, Veseli. www.mhtveseli.com/events/the-ho-down.

St. Paul Divine Mercy mission — Sept. 11-13: 7 p.m. at 1740 Bunker Lake Blvd. NE, Ham Lake.

Father Angelo Casimiro presents three talks on mercy. www.churchofsaintpaul.com.

47th

ANNUAL WILD RICE FESTIVAL AND CHICKEN DINNER 45th ANNUAL WILD RICE FESTIVAL

Germanfest at St. Mary’s Church

St. Mary’s Church AND CHICKEN DINNER 423 S. 5th St., Stillwater

Friday, Sept 9, 2016 Food, Beer, Music $10,000 5:00 p.m.~10:00 Grand p.m. Raffle 21 and older Only 200 tickets sold at each national Celebrate 150+ years of$100 our German $10,000 winner! parish on the Friday1 before the Wild Rice half the value of total tickets sold) Festival outside(orunder the tents and stars!

Need not be present to win.

Parish Office 651-439-1270

St. Mary’s Church

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2016 423 S. 5th St., Stillwater

Dinner served from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2014 Adults $10 • Children 4-10 $5 • 3 & under FREE Dinner served from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

•Adults Wild Rice • Chicken • Potatoes Rolls •FREE Fruit Pie $10 • Children 4-10•$5Relishes • 3 &•under Kids and Teens Crafts, Homemade Quilts,•Bingo, • Wild Rice •Games, Chicken • Potatoes • Relishes Rolls •Silent Fruit Auction Pie

Kids and Teens Games, Crafts, Homemade Quilts, Bingo, Silent Auction

“She’s spent a lifetime looking after me. Now I can return the favor.”

Announcing St. Therese Southwest is now The Glenn Catholic Senior Communities.

With age comes wisdom. And an opportunity to define the next chapter. Whether you’re looking for a new living option or helping a parent on their search, we can help. The Glenn is a welcoming Catholic community that provides daily spiritual support, a warm sense of family, and the ability to modify your living arrangements from independent to assisted or memory care to suit your needs. Visit us at TheGlennHopkins.com | 952-467-8498 or TheGlennMinnetonka.com | 952-479-8160.

Saturday, September 10

14A • The Catholic Spirit

SURROGACY continued from page 9A

www.TheCatholicSpirit.com CatholicHotdish.com www.facebook.com/thecatholicspirit www.instagram.com/thecatholicspirit

Sloan, who also testified before the commission, sees surrogacy as violating a myriad of human rights.

“It is children intentionally severed from genetic and biological sources of identity, human rights be damned. In essence, it is the ultimate manifestation of the neo-liberal project of capitalist commodification of all life to create profit and fulfill the narcissistic desires of an entitled elite,” she told state lawmakers.

This intentional severing gets to the heart of the objection to third-party reproduction by many children born of it.

“When we have children in this world who already need homes, why are we intentionally creating children to go through adoption traumas?” asked Stern, the 33-year-old born of traditional surrogacy, in her written testimony to the commission.

Kathleen Ruby, whose search for her genetic father, an anonymous sperm donor, has been featured on WYNC Studios’ Radiolab, also writes on her blog “Child of a Stranger,” “Long before we were born, our parents, clinic and donor made a decision on our

behalf that we would never be allowed to know half of our genetic family. We are a product of this contract, yet we had no voice or ability to advocate for our own needs.”

It can be difficult for children of surrogates to find their voice, Lahl said.

They are raised with the narrative of being the “wanted child,” a “narrative that doesn’t allow them to speak out.”

Speaking out has had negative consequences for some. Stern and Newman’s activism has strained their relationships with their families.

Children raised by same-sex couples have the added pressure of being the face of the new American family, Lahl added.

Some children’s deep loyalty to the circumstances of their birth were on display at the commission hearing, where only children of same-sex couples testified in favor of surrogacy.

Malina Samard-Halm, 20, born of a surrogate mother for her two fathers in Santa Fe, New Mexico, urged the commission to liberalize regulations around surrogacy for the sake of her self-worth and status in society.

“More legal obstacles broadcast to the world that children like me are second-class citizens, we’re unhealthy, and we shouldn’t exist” she said. “Any

August 18, 2016

ruling on surrogacy is also a ruling on my worth and my family’s worth.”

In Newman’s testimony before the commission, however, she challenged the idea of a link between self-worth and surrogacy affirmation.

“There is a false dichotomy that if you are against the way you were created you are against your own existence,” she said. “My existence is not a problem. The obliteration of my father is a problem. I assume it’s the same for the obliteration of the mother in surrogacy.”

Former surrogates have also recognized the problem of downplaying the children’s best interest.

“I felt like someone that sold my child. When she was right there in my arms, all those little pieces of paper that we signed kind of just fell away,” Prashad, the Minnesota surrogate now fighting for custody of her daughter, said in an interview with ABC News in 2014. “I never for a second thought about what was right for her and what she deserved.”

To read a longer version of this story, visit www.thecatholicspirit.com. Follow the Legislative Commission on Surrogacy’s work at www.lcc.leg.mn/lcs.

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August 18, 2016 The Catholic Spirit • 15A

Congratulations

to The Catholic Spirit’s 2016 Leading with Faith winners vvv

vvv

Steven Arndorfer Owner, SMA Construction, Inc. St. John the Baptist, New Brighton

Kathleen Groh Regional Director, Ignatian Volunteer Corps St. Jude of the Lake, Mahtomedi

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Roger Bona Owner/President, St. Anthony Mobil (recently retired) Immaculate Conception, Columbia Heights

Dan Moran Senior Financial Advisor – Managing Director, Wealth Management, Merrill Lynch Our Lady of Grace, Edina

vvv vvv

Father Martin Fleming Founder & Chairman Emeritus, Trinity Sober Homes St. Olaf, Minneapolis

Robert Murphy Chairman, Japs-Olson Co. St. Olaf, Minneapolis vvv

LaDonna Hoy Executive Director & Founder, Interfaith Outreach & Community Partners (IOCP) St. Bartholomew, Wayzata

Thank you!

The Leading with Faith staff sends a very special thank you to all of our partners.

Without your support, Leading with Faith would not be possible.

Presented by

Congratulations Fr. Byron Hagan, Fr. Peter Hughes, Fr. Bruno Nwachukwu, Fr. T.J. McKenzie, Fr. James Stiles, Fr. John Powers, and Fr. Jake Anderson

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16A • The Catholic Spirit

THE LAST WORD

August 18, 2016

From marshy to manicured

Vatican Gardens’ gruesome past grows into green haven

CNS/Paul Haring

By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service

T

oday’s lush and immaculately manicured Vatican Gardens were once just a sprawl of mosquitoinfested swamps, clay hillsides and hardy grape vines.

The wild, unpopulated landscape on the fringes of early Rome slowly shifted as it changed to accommodate historical events over the course of 2,000 years: the martyrdom and burial of St. Peter; the blossoming of Christianity; the growth of papal power; and the eventual establishment of the world’s smallest sovereign nation.

The gardens make up almost half of Vatican City State’s 109 acres, and their colorful evolution is documented in a newly updated volume: “A Guide to the Vatican Gardens: History, Art, Nature,” curated by historians and experts from the Vatican Library and Vatican Museums. Illustrated with full-color photographs and historic black-and-white engravings, the book has been translated into English.

From circus to sacred In the first century AD, the Roman Emperor Caligula set up a circus for chariot racing near a villa his mother, Agrippina, had built in the area, which was still far on the outskirts of ancient Rome. Shipping over a red granite obelisk from Egypt, he decorated the circus with the monument, which now stands in the center of St. Peter’s Square.

Emperor Nero expanded the circus, using it to showcase his cruelty against Christians, such as burning them alive to light his evening parties on the hill’s gardens and crucifying others, like St. Peter, who was then buried in a roadside cemetery nearby.

As the apostle’s tomb became a place of worship, the “circus fell into disrepair, Agrippina’s villa decayed, and the uninhabited hill returned to wild scrub,” wrote the book’s co-author, Ambrogio Piazzoni, vice prefect of the Vatican Library.

After Emperor Constantine converted and granted Christians the freedom to practice their faith, he ordered the construction of the first basilica dedicated to St. Peter, which meant razing part of the hill and covering over part of the cemetery.

A few small buildings were constructed nearby over the next four centuries, including a monastery, but the popes — the successors of Peter — didn’t start living in this “rustic and unprotected location” by the basilica until the fifth century, Piazzoni wrote.

With the Saracen Raid in 846, Pope Leo IV constructed a fortressed wall to defend the Vatican area from marauders. Inside the walls, there were meadows, vegetable gardens, orchards and vineyards, while outside — which is part of today’s gardens — were more pastures and woods.

Flora and fauna Once popes started residing permanently at the Vatican, they added their own personal touches to the vast expanse of greenery surrounding them.

Pope Nicholas IV had his doctor, Simon of Genoa, cultivate medicinal plants and aromatic herbs in the tradition of the Benedictine monks, who were known for creating treatments for illnesses and distilled liqueurs and tinctures.

This 13th-century papal initiative was to become the oldest botanical garden in Italy and marked the beginning of the formal scientific study of botany as a branch of medicine, “predating by centuries the teaching of botany” in academies and universities, Piazzoni wrote.

Pope Pius V made sure the medicinal plant studies continued in the 16th-century by hiring a Tuscan botanist and geologist to take care of the gardens. The pope gave him the title of “medicinal plant expert of Our Lord” and furnished him with a “safe conduct pass,” allowing him to travel anywhere in search of rare plants.

The Vatican medicinal garden gradually lost importance — becoming a humble lawn — after Pope Alexander VII built a newer and larger botanical garden, which is still one of the largest in Italy, along the Janiculum hill in 1660. The Vatican lost that and many other properties after the loss of the Papal States in 1870.

Given the variety of habitat and papal proclivities at the time, the Vatican Gardens were also home to a menagerie of wild animals, including the brief upkeep of a leopard during the pontificate of Boniface VIII in the 13th century and Hanno, the elephant, which was a gift to Pope Leo X from Portugal’s king in 1514.

Pope Pius XII found an injured finch in the Vatican Gardens and nursed it back to health.

“Gretchen,” the finch, would keep the pope

company and sit on his shoulder at mealtime while hopping down to peck at crumbs.

Today, green parrots nesting in palm trees and a small sampling of cats are the only free-range fauna easily sighted in the Vatican Gardens.

Modern uses The gardens went largely unchanged from its Renaissance heyday at the end of the 1500s to the end of the 1900s, primarily, Piazzoni wrote, because the popes had moved their main residence to the Quirinale Palace — judging it to be “more comfortable, functional and situated in a sunny and healthy place.”

Despite the disuse, the gardens were still cared for and embellished with additional fountains, shrines, statues and exotic or rare plant life.

With the end of the Papal States, the pope moved back to the papal residence at the Vatican.

Being largely confined to the small property, Pope Leo XIII spent a lot of time caring for the gardens and pursuing his love for hunting and viniculture. He reportedly tended his small vineyard himself, hoeing out the weeds, and visiting often for moments of prayer and writing poetry. He had a papal guard on duty with orders to shoot to scare off birds threatening his grape harvest.

Modern-day popes still use the gardens for exercise, restful relaxation and meditation.

Retired Pope Benedict XVI takes his daily walk there, praying the rosary along the wooded paths.

Not just for popes anymore, the gardens were opened to the public several years ago as part of an organized tour either on foot or on an environmentally friendly open bus.

The tours highlight the gardens’ blend of art, nature and faith, but also help visitors sense what the book describes as the harmonious coexistence of so many species of flora and fauna, which “reinforce the ideals that constitute the universal mission of this extraordinary place” — the love and care for God’s creation.

The Catholic Spirit • August 18, 2016

innovation

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Newspaper of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis

development

communication

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success

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LEADERSHIP support inspiration ideas faith

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n the wake of scandals at prominent businesses such as Enron, Qwest and World-Com in the early 2000s, The Catholic Spirit deemed it appropriate to honor men and women business and community leaders who integrate their Catholic faith in their workplaces.

Leading with Faith Award. We’re honoring five

The Catholic Spirit is marking the 15th year it has recognized such men and women in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis with the

St. Paul with Archbishop Bernard Hebda. Their

men and two women who work in diverse fields but share a commitment to cherishing the dignity of their employees, sharing their talents and relying on God to see them through.

The Catholic Spirit celebrated honorees at an Aug. 18 luncheon at St. Catherine University in stories are on the following pages and have been edited for length and clarity.

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August 18, 2016 • The Catholic Spirit

Derived from love, Catholic social teaching serves as guide Message from Archbishop Bernard Hebda

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consider it a great privilege that for the second year in a row I will present the Leading with Faith Awards to individuals from this archdiocese who have distinguished themselves by reason of their outstanding contributions to our community.

This is the 15th year The Catholic Spirit has honored individuals whose willingness to bring their faith and Gospel values into the workplace has been recognized by their co-workers or colleagues. After reading the stories that are shared in this special section about this year’s recipients, I am eagerly looking forward to meeting them and learning more about their inspiring example.

The Church clearly teaches that there should be a connection between what we believe and how we act in the marketplace or workplace. The fathers of the Second Vatican Council cautioned that a “split between the faith, which many profess, and their daily lives deserves to be counted among the more serious errors of our age” (“Gaudium et Spes”). All of us are called to conduct our lives in accordance with the social doctrine of the Church, a body of teaching based on the application of ageless moral principles to the concrete circumstances of the modern world.

Those social teachings, building upon the doctrine articulated by Pope Leo XIII in his encyclical “Rerum Novarum” (on capital and labor), and explained in greater detail in the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church (2004), directly impact the life of Catholic business leaders.

The foundation of all of Catholic social teaching is the great commandment of love: Love God above all things, and love your neighbor as you love yourself. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has identified seven themes in our Catholic social doctrine that flow from that great commandment, all of which are demonstrated in this year’s recipients:

Life and dignity of the human person

need to imitate that concern.

Central to our Catholic understanding is the belief that every person is created in the image and likeness of God and deserves to be respected and supported from conception through natural death. That core understanding naturally has an impact on the way we treat employees, customers, vendors and competitors.

Pope Francis continues to teach us that we need to recognize that people are more important than things.

Dignity of work

Call to family, community and participation As taught at the Second Vatican Council, we were created to be social beings, and unless we relate ourselves to others, we can neither live nor develop our potential (“Gaudium et Spes” 12). For Catholic leaders, it means that what they do has to be evaluated in terms of the impact it has on families and on how it advances the common good.

Rights and responsibilities Pope Francis has noted that, “What we are called to respect in each person is first of all his life, his physical integrity, his dignity and the rights deriving from that dignity, his reputation, his property, his ethnic and cultural identity, his ideas and his political choices.” The Catholic tradition teaches that human dignity can be protected, and a healthy community can be achieved only if human rights are protected and responsibilities are met. Therefore, the true Catholic leader has to act in a way that recognizes that every person has a fundamental right to life and a right to those things required for human decency.

Option for the poor and vulnerable Scripture teaches that God has a special concern for the poor and vulnerable, and Pope Francis teaches that all of us, business and community leaders included,

We are grateful for those who lead with faith

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“Work is fundamental to the dignity of the person.

Work, to use an image, ‘anoints’ with dignity, fills us with dignity, makes us similar to God who has worked and still works, who always acts.” “We do not get dignity from power or money or culture. We get dignity from work.” A Catholic who leads with faith has to uphold the dignity of work and the basic rights of workers.

Solidarity St. John Paul II clarified that solidarity “is not a feeling of vague compassion or shallow distress at the misfortunes of so many people. . . . On the contrary, it is a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good; that is to say, to the good of all and of each individual, because we are all really responsible for all (“Sollicitudo Rei Socialis,” on social concern). More recently, Pope Francis has explained that solidarity “presumes the creation of a new mindset, which thinks in terms of community and priority of the life of all over the appropriation of goods by a few” (149). We truly are our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers, wherever they may be, and this needs to shape the way that Catholic leaders work, define their goals and relate to others.

Care for God’s creation Catholics who lead with faith show respect to the Creator by their use of creation, as we are reminded in Pope Francis’ ground-breaking encyclical, “Laudato Si’.”

In the Judaeo-Christian tradition, the word “creation” has a broader meaning than “nature,” for it has to do with God’s loving plan in which every creature has its own value and significance. The world that God created has been entrusted to all of us. How we relate to creation reflects our willingness to participate in God’s ongoing creative plan.

LEADING WITH FAITH • 3B

The Catholic Spirit • August 18, 2016

For construction company owner, faith at work mirrors faith in life Steven Arndorfer, 54 Company SMA Construction Inc. Title Owner Parish St. John the Baptist, New Brighton Spouse Rita Anne Children Luke, Grace, Jacob, Nathaniel Volunteer activities Cub master Pack 93, Knights of Columbus deputy grand knight council No. 14250, lector, extraordinary minister, baseball coach, St. John the Baptist parish and school volunteer Education Willmar Junior College 1982, Dunwoody Institute, 1990

What does leading with faith mean to you?

Having a good center in Christ, trusting in him, and then just going about my day, living on those terms.

How do you concretely apply your faith and Catholic values at work?

I do my best to live my faith in a secular world by sharing God’s word when I am able, helping others with their work when needed, giving an ear to those who need it, treating all those I work with fairly, and standing up for the dignity of all people, even those I may disagree with.

Tell a story about a time when applying your faith at work really made a difference.

I was recently working on a project where the project manager was having anxieties over conflicts. As we worked our way through the project, we would converse about the job, about our faith [and] about what is really important in life. At the end of the project, she shared how calming I was for her because of our conversations.

I am certain this was the Holy Spirit working through me.

Who or what has most inspired you to bring your faith to the marketplace?

www.TheCatholicSpirit.com

Steven Arndorfer says it’s important “never to leave God at the door when doing my job.” Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit People early in my career who would share their love for God, without shame, giving me a great example to follow. This has been instrumental in teaching me never to leave God at the door when doing my job.

What achievement at work are you most proud of?

That the people I work for know my mettle, which allows me to sign most all of my contracts with a handshake, not a pen. Trust begets trust.

In what specific ways have you experienced God’s presence in your workplace?

God has always been my protector. I have been saved from electrocution and severe falls, and I am certain he has saved me in many other instances of which I’m not aware. God has a plan for me.

What advice do you have for others who want to lead with faith?

Leading with faith is not so much of a prescribed itinerary, but more of a way you form your core, with the Trinity at its center, and then live your life accordingly. This is not just your faith at work, but your faith in life.

Never be ashamed of your life with Jesus; live his will, whether at home, work or play. Remember, “Deny me on earth, and I will deny you in heaven” (Mt 10:33).

I try to never be afraid to share the word of God — in word or action — with anyone, at anytime. Often, the people who I think will tell me to be quiet and go away are the ones who ask the most questions and want to hear his word the most.

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4B • LEADING WITH FAITH

August 18, 2016 • The Catholic Spirit

Bona models intellectual, inspirational, faith-filled spirit mistake in business was turning down Anheuser-Busch’s request to be the first bottled water distributor in Minnesota. Phil’s response was, “Who is going to buy bottled water?” Who knew how big that business would grow?

My biggest challenge was the business sometimes running me, instead of me running the business. We both learned from the wisdom of Bishop Sheen, whose philosophy was to learn from your mistakes and operate from strength.

Roger Bona, 66 Company St. Anthony Mobil, Bona Properties of St. Anthony Title President/Owner Parish Immaculate Conception, Columbia Heights Spouse Jane Volunteer activities Immaculate Conception Church and School: parish council, Fun Fest chairman, Queen of May dinner and auction, school beautification, basketball coach at Immaculate Conception and in Columbia Heights

What achievement at work are you most proud of?

All of my employees have been successful and able to establish a lifestyle that was conducive to long-lasting stability. They all have homes and families and live comfortably. I am proud to have been a part of making that stability possible.

Education University of St. Thomas, St. John Vianney College Seminary, St. Paul, 1976

In what specific ways have you experienced God’s presence in your workplace?

What does leading with faith mean to you?

John Haynes Holmes, co-founder of the NAACP and American Civil Liberties Union, stated, “There must appear a spiritual and moral leadership above economic and political situations. We must give the peoples of the world something to live for, as well as to live on.” This quote has always resonated with me because I believe being a witness in testimony and lifestyle to one’s coworkers will create a “spirit” that is intellectual, inspirational and faith-filled.

How do you concretely apply your faith and Catholic values at work?

I do not make apologies or compromises for our Catholic faith. We have a rich and deep faith, and I have always kept it at the heart of all I do. Respect for all, no matter where we stand, in similarities and differences, compromise and balance, rooted in our Catholic traditions, enables us to have a cohesive relationship between workers and customers.

Tell a story about a time when applying your faith at work really made a difference.

The five most important words I learned in my years of Catholic education were “Lord, thy will be done.”

These words come back to me on a daily basis. As we experience life and work, there are moments of selfdoubt, self-pity and the desire to give up. Then, divine will intervenes and reminds me of my countless blessings and opportunities. I have interactions with customers and members of my community that make

Roger Bona says that “you must respect your people before you can lead them.” Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit me feel blessed. These experiences come into play in the workplace every day. Without them, I would not have that constant reminder that God’s will is indeed being done every day.

Who or what has most inspired you to bring your faith to the marketplace?

In my early days as a business owner, I had a confidant named Phil Resha. Phil was a very successful wholesale beverage company owner. We connected and compared notes on the wisdom of Bishop Fulton Sheen.

Our conversations generally gravitated toward the trials and tribulations of being a business owner.

One interesting note was Phil sharing that his biggest

“Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you” (Lk 11:9). In any trying situation during my years of work, from customer satisfaction and hiring of personnel to establishing a business plan, I found immediate comfort in our Lord’s presence when I would refer to that Scripture passage.

An example of this was illustrated when I felt a need for assistance due to the growing demand for business. I needed immediate help. In earnest, I asked God for the quality help I desperately needed at that time. In response to my desperate pleas, Angelo Sinchi-Quito walked in the door the very next morning. This was the beginning of a remarkable, 15-year relationship. The timing of Angelo’s “coming on board” was perfect evidence of God’s presence in the workplace.

What advice do you have for others who want to lead with faith?

The pulpit of business ownership is wide open to influence, both negative and positive. People may hear your words, but they feel your attitude. To be a person of positive influence, you must respect your people before you can lead them.

Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’” In a business sense, “others” would be our co-workers. If we do our work in a faith atmosphere, we will work at a maximum advantage. This witnessing of faith tends to be reciprocal. If workers see it in their leaders, they tend to follow suit.

LEADING WITH FAITH • 5B

The Catholic Spirit • August 18, 2016

Prayer, community essential in helping people with addiction more beautiful place with you living here.”

Father Martin Fleming, 89

Who or what has most inspired you to bring your faith to the marketplace?

Organization Retired Catholic priest of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, owner of Bethany Village and chairman emeritus of Trinity Sober Homes

My faith was inspired by my family, my teachers, fellow seminarians, priests and all of God’s faithful whom I was fortunate enough to serve during my priesthood.

Parish St. Olaf, Minneapolis Volunteer activities Advisor for Trinity Sober Homes and concelebrating Mass whenever possible

What achievement at work are you most proud of?

It has been a great satisfaction to work with those recovering from alcohol and other addictions both at Bethany Village and more recently at Trinity Sober Homes. It is a great joy to see people with different problems and backgrounds “grow.” Guiding a wonderful staff to assist in finding good solutions for problems that arise within these communities has been extremely rewarding. God the Father loved Jesus, Jesus the Son loved God the Father, and with love between them, we see the Holy Spirit in action.

Education Nazareth Hall High School and Junior College, 1946. St. Paul Seminary, ordained June 7, 1952 What does leading with faith mean to you?

Leading with faith means leading a Christian life as Jesus asks us to do, seeking always to improve my relationship with God. As faith deepens, it will shine through in relationships with others. In the first century, Jesus sent the disciples out to spread the word as he had asked them to do, and this is still being continued in the 21st century.

How do you concretely apply your faith and Catholic values at work?

At each business meeting, it is essential to begin in earnest prayer, asking for God’s guidance during the meeting. The “centrality of the Jesus event” is needed in all we do, and especially in the workplace. Keeping Jesus in the center of everything we do gives us the extra “oomph” we need.

When visitors leave my home, I accompany them to their car, as I believe that is what Jesus would have done.

Tell a story about a time when applying your faith at work

Father Martin Fleming believes in “keeping Jesus in the center of everything we do.” Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit

really made a difference.

There are many stories. One story, though, was really wonderful. Our custodial engineer had either lost or misplaced a $20 bill. So, someone told him that praying to St. Anthony would help him find this lost article. So, he did pray and then looked on the ground, and there was his $20 bill.

Another story often repeated by me arises when I talk with those interested in renting. One lady said, “I feel so blessed to be able to live in this beautiful home.”

At the end of “getting to know you” meetings, I would always send them on their way with, “It’ll be a

More great stories at CatholicHotdish.com

In what specific ways have you experienced God’s presence in your workplace?

At Bethany Village, my staff and I are part of that community concept, working together to find the best possible solutions to problems that arise with renters as they live together in community. My Irish wit sometimes comes when a good laugh is needed to break up a tense situation.

What advice do you have for others who want to lead with faith?

I would advise them to slowly introduce (or reintroduce) teachings of the Catholic faith to hurting, spiritually broken, people. Think of it as “one rosary at a time” or “one Mass at a time” rather than fire-hosing people with Church doctrine expecting a radical, immediate conversion.

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gth lies.”

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Rev. Martin Fleming

Steve Arndorfer

Roger Bona

Mother Teresa

Gratefully, The Family of

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• 7B

8B • LEADING WITH FAITH

August 18, 2016 • The Catholic Spirit

Looking to saint, Groh leads volunteers to ’set the world on fire’ the road you take, but you can’t choose where it takes you.” It seems that on my life’s journey at every twist and turn there have been loving family members and good friends, challenging teachers, authors and publicists, wise figures and most of all, beautiful people of faith who have supported, encouraged and prayed for me along the way.

Kathleen Groh, 72 Organization Ignatian Volunteer Corps Title Regional Director Parish St. Jude of the Lake, Mahtomedi Children Mary Dado, Therese Faulconbridge and Thomas; 8 grandchildren Volunteer activities Association of Pastoral Ministers, faith formation catechist, community and civic volunteer activities

What achievement at work are you most proud of?

I was once told that volunteers will always be attracted to a “warm fire.” That is what I have tried to provide as I lead the IVC. Watching the steady growth of the IVC from 10 volunteers to 25 and sending them into the nonprofits that serve those who are poor and vulnerable is most gratifying. We are called by St. Ignatius to “set the world on fire,” and these men and women are lighting them all over the metro area.

Education Mankato State College, bachelor’s in elementary education, 1964; St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity, master’s in religious education, 1998 What does leading with faith mean to you?

I have always believed that faith is a verb, and that means we are called to make a difference in the lives of others.

St. Ignatius of Loyola said “Love (faith) consists in sharing what one has and what one is with those one loves. Love (faith) ought to show itself in deeds more than in words.”

In what specific ways have you experienced God’s presence in your workplace?

Every day, the God of surprises sends me a message in even the smallest of ways. I just have to take the time to become aware of it, reflect on it and be grateful for a loving God who continues to bless me daily.

How do you concretely apply your faith and Catholic values at work?

I have had the distinct privilege to serve in the Church as a lay ecclesial minister for more than 35 years. After these years of directing, teaching and leading all ages in archdiocesan parishes, I believe that the last five years directing the Ignatian Volunteer Corps is my “golden encore.” As the IVC volunteers gather monthly and on retreats, these remarkable people genuinely inspire one another and me with their reflections on the work they are doing, share their stories and deepen their Ignatian spirituality.

Tell a story about a time when applying your faith at work really made a difference.

Children have an amazing grasp of all

Kathleen Groh is the regional director for Ignatian Volunteer Corps, a job she began five years ago after serving as a lay ecclesial minister for more than 35 years. Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit things holy. Without even realizing it, their faith has made a difference in my life.

My daughter needed a last-minute childcare option for Liam, my 4-year-old grandson. I had plenty to do, but I set aside all the afternoon tasks and said I’d be happy to have him come over. Liam jumps out of the car in delight and happily exclaims, “Grandma, I am so glad you were available.”

Upon reflection, I realized that God is

absolutely delighted when we drop our agenda like the Good Samaritan and tend to the needs of others. All of us are challenged to re-check our priorities and make ourselves available whenever the need arises.

Who or what has most inspired you to bring your faith to the marketplace?

There have been too many people for me to choose from at this point in my life. I read recently that “You can choose

What advice do you have for others who want to lead with faith?

Jesus gave us a perfect model of leadership to follow. He listened, and established a vision with his apostles through witness and teaching. He never asked them to do anything he wasn’t willing to do himself. Jesus responded to the needs of others with compassion and mercy and empowered others to use their gifts and abilities to bring about the kingdom of God. Most of all, he led a life based on prayer. As leaders, we are asked to follow him to the best of our ability and do the same.

LEADING WITH FAITH • 9B

The Catholic Spirit • August 18, 2016

Hoy relies on faith, people of good will to help struggling families marketplace?

LaDonna Hoy, 82

When early in our organizational history it became clear that churches alone couldn’t bear the weight of all the need that was coming to our doors, we went to the marketplace — to the larger community — with that need. We met with businessmen and women, corporate leaders and leaders from the public sector who completely altered any assumptions I may have had about needing to persuade them to care about struggling families and kids in our community. They were already there — good, faithful people with great hearts and pent-up good will looking for ways to help, and willing to use their savvy, influence and treasure to make it better for families and kids of our community.

What was needed were structured opportunities for people of good will to do good. That became our role.

Organization Interfaith Outreach and Community Partners Title Executive Director Parish St. Bartholomew, Wayzata Spouse Tom (died in 2008) Children Patty, Judy, Tom Jr., David, John Matthew (deceased), Elizabeth, Jane, Joe, Kathy, John Michael; 13 grandchildren Volunteer activities St. Bartholomew parish and school, Meals On Wheels, West Hennepin Human Services Planning Board, Way-12, St. Thomas BeFriender Ministry Board, Park Nicollet Foundation Board, board of the School of Theology at St. John’s University Education DePaul University, 1951-52, Mundelein College, Chicago, 1952-1953; graduate studies in liturgy and catechetics at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, and St. John’s University, Collegeville, 1977-1985; mini MBA from the University of St. Thomas What does leading with faith mean to you?

Actually, faith has always led me. I grew up around people of faith, and Catholic education from grade school through college and graduate work definitely had its impact. I believe we are all called and gifted to bring forth the kingdom of love and justice in our midst, and that the God who promised to be with us always is filling what is lacking in our vision, energy, opportunity, time and courage with the just-in-time people, resources and miracles needed. My lived experience in the good times and through the hard times has only strengthened that belief. Also, at Interfaith, I’ve been privileged to work with people of all faiths over the past 37 years whose lived values have greatly inspired and enriched mine.

How do you concretely apply your faith and Catholic values at work?

I believe faith is experienced and shared in relationship and in community. The ways I strive to do work relationships and the practice that leads me have been greatly influenced by Father Henri Nouwen’s practice of radical hospitality, Michael Cowan’s work on mutuality, Robert Greenleaf’s teaching on servant

What achievement at work are you most proud of?

LaDonna Hoy strives to build relationships through her work at Interfaith Outreach and Community Partners.

Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit leadership, Regis Duffy’s view of the Church as a room of healing, and Parker Palmer’s and Martin Luther King’s reflections on community. The writings of Sister Joan Chittister, Father John Shea, Thomas Merton and more recently, Father Richard Rohr, are where I go for spiritual direction and ways to reflect on relationship as the path to each other and to God.

Tell a story about a time when applying your faith at work really made a difference.

Any and all of the difference-making stories I’ve been privileged to be part of have always been the stories of many people applying their faith together. A current and concrete example is the all-in investment of our whole community in acquiring and rehabbing a former 40,000-square-foot supermarket into Interfaith’s new Family Service and Learning Center during the 20102012 recession.

In 2010 and throughout a recession that drastically impacted nonprofit giving patterns, we were successful in raising the $5.5 million needed to acquire and rehab our new headquarters and bring the care of our community to a new level. It took a lot of believers and not just a few miracles to make that difference. There are all kinds of stories like that.

Who or what has most inspired you to bring your faith to the

I am simply more grateful than proud of any and all achievements, and can only smile at the idea of personal or organizational achievement. We’ve worked hard, there have been obstacles, but, truly, any and all of the major achievements we’ve had along the way have been the result of an amazing combination of community heart, will and just-in-time miracles that we have learned to count on.

In what specific ways have you experienced God’s presence in your workplace?

There are so many: Listening to a food shelf volunteer who recently lost her spouse share what a healing place this has become for her; hearing stories of faith from people who come here in the midst of seemingly insurmountable obstacles; seeing the joy in the eyes of our summer camp kids over simple things like the mask they made, a Popsicle, a newfound friend or the trip to the water park; welcoming the daughter of a former client to a volunteer leadership role because, as she said, “The people here were always so good to my mom;” and opening a hastily scrawled note that reads “keep up the good work” with an enclosed check from a busy CEO.

What advice do you have for others who want to lead with faith?

Start somewhere. Trust that the call to bring forth the kingdom of love and justice in our midst is not an unfunded mandate. The God who promised to be with us always is just waiting to shore up our efforts with people, power, resources and miracles of hope and healing for the people he places in our path. We only need to step out in faith and turn that power on.

The parishioners and staff of

Our Lady of Grace

Proudly congratulate and thank

Dan Moran

2016 Recipient of the Leading With Faith Award

We are proud of you!

“Making Jesus Christ Known and Loved”

10B • LEADING WITH FAITH

August 18, 2016 • The Catholic Spirit

Personal mission statement drives financial adviser’s faith journey Dr. Laura Scherf is a dear friend who weaves God into her conversations with her patients.

Dan Moran, 53 Company Merrill Lynch

What achievement at work are you most proud of?

Title Managing Director-Wealth Management

I’m proud that I didn’t get fired in my first year of work in 1988. I was 25 years old, looked like I was 12, and nobody wanted to entrust me with their money. At the end of my first year, I had opened up so few accounts that I feared they were going to let me go. I just kept cold calling eight hours every day for two straight years and eventually, through grinding hard work, I opened enough accounts so that they didn’t fire me.

It inspired me to write a personal mission statement that has been transformational in my faith journey. My mission statement is as follows: “On a daily basis, further develop and nurture my personal relationship with Jesus and live out the principles that Jesus Christ taught. To become a saint by drawing closer to Christ and living a life of virtue daily.”

I fail frequently in executing that ideal, but at least I am heading in the right direction with a sense of purpose.

Parish Our Lady of Grace, Edina Spouse Sheryl Children John and Katie Volunteer activities Family Fest Ministries, lector, men’s club and men’s choir at Our Lady of Grace Education Bachelor’s degree from St. Olaf College, Northfield, 1985 What does leading with faith mean to you?

Leading with faith means that my life’s actions reflect our Catholic faith.

How do you concretely apply your faith and Catholic values at work?

By genuinely caring about the well-being of others.

In what specific ways have you experienced God’s presence in your workplace?

Tell a story about a time when applying your faith at work really made a difference.

Twenty-five years ago I had a routine portfolio review meeting with a client. When the meeting was over, I casually asked, “Is there anything that I can pray about for you or your family?” They asked if I would pray for godly spouses for their two single boys. I regularly prayed for that request, and many years later God answered the prayer. It was a joy to attend the wedding and have the couple thank me for praying. Our business relationship had changed into a deeper friendship.

Since that positive encounter, I regularly ask my clients that question, and it has given me a greater

Dan Moran regularly asks his clients if there is anything they would like him to pray for. Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit purpose than simply creating wealth for people.

That couple recently asked me if I had any prayer requests, and I responded, “Godly spouses for our single children.” I am excited to see how God will orchestrate this.

Who or what has most inspired you to bring your faith to the marketplace?

I am privileged to manage money for some wealthy people and have been so inspired to see how many of them use their wealth for God’s glory. They give significant amounts of their wealth to charities so that the spiritual and corporal works of mercy can be carried out.

What advice do you have for others who want to lead with faith?

Discern what activities help you to sustain and grow your faith. Then, schedule those activities into your life.

Daily prayer, retreats and listening to faith-based podcasts in my car or while working out inspire me to lead with faith.

LEADING WITH FAITH • 11B

The Catholic Spirit • August 18, 2016

Printing company chairman values honesty as hallmark of faith Robert Murphy, 84 Company Japs-Olson Company Title Chairman Parish St. Olaf, Minneapolis Spouse Judy Children Patrick, Kathleen, Marjorie, Monica, Bridget, Michael; 13 grandchildren; three great-grandchildren Volunteer activities Fundraising and promotional materials What does leading with faith mean to you?

Leading with faith to me means applying the faith I have been raised with to the decisions I have to make. I believe in absolute honesty and forthrightness in my dealings with others.

Another hallmark of that faith is the virtue of honesty in dealing with those I come in contact with.

Who or what has most inspired you to bring your faith to the marketplace?

An inspiration to me was a homily delivered by Msgr. Francis Fleming many years ago, stressing the importance of faith in the marketplace. We felt the subject so important that we persuaded him to present it to our board of directors, where it received many accolades.

What achievement at work are you most proud of?

Our company is 109 years old. I’m proud of the growth we have been blessed with, which allows us to create jobs. I’m proud of our workplace, which is safe, healthy and comfortable. We try to be a good neighbor and an asset to our community.

Robert Murphy stresses the importance of honesty and forthrightness in his dealings with others. Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit

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Call to attend complimentary workshops We offer tailor-made, client-focused estate planning and related services from a Catholic Perspective

Congratulations, Dan Moran!

Leading with Faith comes naturally to not only you, but also Sheryl and your whole family. God bless you.

Trojack Law Office, P.A. • 1549 Livingston Ave., Ste. 101 • W. St. Paul, MN 55118

Phone: 651.451.9696 • www.TrojackLaw.com

Japs-Olson Company Proudly Congratulates

Robert Murphy on receiving the 2016 Leading with Faith Award!

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12B • LEADING WITH FAITH

August 18, 2016 • The Catholic Spirit

Balanced life includes time for family, work, prayer, pope says

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service

support their families and for its contribution to the community.

Creating and organizing employment is a huge “human and social responsibility, which cannot be left in the hands of a few or pushed off onto a divinized market,” the pope said.

“To cause the loss of jobs is to cause great social damage,” he said.

“It makes me sad when I see there are no jobs, when there are people without work who cannot find a job and who do not have the dignity of being able to bring bread home,” he said. “And I rejoice when I see governments making great efforts to promote employment, to find jobs and to try to make sure everyone has work.”

Work is part of the normal rhythm of life for individuals and for families, he said. It must alternate with times of rest or celebration and, especially, time for prayer.

Balance is important, Pope Francis said, for protecting individuals, their families, society and the environment.

Attitudes toward work that consider the family an obstacle to productivity, he said, also tend to see the workforce as something “to assemble, use or dispose of” only according to how much money it makes.

The family is “the proving ground” of labor policies, he said. “When the

W

ork is an important expression of human dignity and of caring for one’s family, but today there is a “dangerous tendency” to consider a worker’s family obligations as an obstacle to productivity and profit, Pope Francis said.

“But let’s ask ourselves: What productivity? And for whom?” he said at a 2015 weekly general audience.

“Work, in its thousand forms, beginning with housework, is about caring for the common good,” providing for one’s family and cooperating with God in creating goods and services that are useful to others, the pope said.

To say someone is a “hard worker,” he said, is a compliment, just as saying someone “lives off” of another is a put down. St. Paul, in 2 Thessalonians, tells Christians that if they do not work, they should not eat. “It’s a great recipe for losing weight, eh?” the pope said.

“Work — and I repeat, in all its forms — is human. It expresses the dignity of being created in the image of God, which is why it can be said that work is sacred,” Pope Francis told pilgrims gathered in the Vatican audience hall.

Work is so important for individual identity, for the ability it gives people to

Immaculate Conception Church and School Congratulates Parishioner and Alumnus

organization of work takes the family hostage or blocks its progress, then we can be certain society has begun working against itself.”

Christian families, the pope said, have a mission to remind the world of the fundamental principles of God’s creation and God’s plan: “the identity and bond between man and woman; the generation of children; work that tames and makes the world habitable.”

“The loss of these fundamentals is a very serious matter, and in our

common home there are already too many cracks,” Pope Francis said.

“The beauty of the earth and the dignity of work were made to go together,” he said. But when the family, the earth or labor are “hostage to the logic of profit,” then everything is poisoned and the poorest families suffer most.

“The task isn’t easy. Sometimes it seems that families are like David facing Goliath, but we know how that story ended,” Pope Francis said.

Congratulations

Kathleen!

Roger Bona

on receiving the 2016 Leading With Faith Award

Sarah’s is proud to be a host site for Ignatian Volunteer Corps.

Thank you

for your Christian witness and leadership!

We are grateful, God Bless You!

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Pope Francis waves as he leaves an audience with people from Lyon, France, in July.

CNS/Paul Haring

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Sarah’s Ignatian Volunteer, Annette Hegler, working with a resident of Sarah’s.

Sarah’s. . . an Oasis for Women is a home dedicated to safety and dignity for a diverse community of women where they are empowered to begin new and productive lives.

Congratulations

to our parishioner Steve Arndorfer SMA Construction, Inc. on receiving a 2016 Leading With Faith Award

We are proud of you!

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