The Catholic Spirit - August 27, 2020

August 27, 2020 • Newspaper of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis

thecatholicspirit.com

Faithful citizenship What is a Catholic’s responsibility in political life?

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BACK ON CAMPUS

Confronting racism Minnesota Catholic Conference forum to examine racism through Catholic lens.

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Survivor outreach continues Safe environment coordinator leverages Zoom to help victimsurvivors heal.

Across archdiocese, Catholic schools welcome students as pandemic continues

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‘I baptize you ...’

A reminder that the right words matter, after Detroit priest discovers his own baptism was invalid.

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Seminary supporter Former rector Msgr. Callaghan still committed to forwarding the mission of The Seminaries of St. Paul.

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No more ‘men’ and ‘women’?

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

JPII Institute professors argue that under Supreme Court decision, ‘we are all transgender now.’

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Sam Lorentz, a sophomore at Hill-Murray School in Maplewood, listens to instruction during study hall Aug. 20 while following COVID-19-related school seating guidelines. New protocols for in-person learning at the school, which opened its 2020-2021 school year Aug. 19, include mask wearing and social distancing, with spacing markers like these to instruct students. For more back-to-school coverage of schools in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, see pages 10-14.

Missing the bus?

Some Catholic school students face challenges in accessing state-provided transportation

By Jonathan Liedl For The Catholic Spirit

W

ith the new school year starting over the next few weeks, most Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis have pulled out all the stops to be able to provide their students with in-person instruction in accordance with state health guidelines related to COVID-19. Masks will be required, social distancing will be followed and student mobility will be restricted.

The challenge for many of these schools now? Their students might not be able to make it to school.

Transportation assistance, along with other services like nursing, counseling and special education assistance, is a form of taxpayerfunded pupil aid that state policy dictates must be provided to all students, regardless of their school of choice. For kids who attend nonpublic schools, however, these services are provided through the applicable public school district, and in some districts where public schools are not offering in-person instruction, they’re also not offering transportation for nonpublic school students, nor other in-person services.

“That’s a serious concern for us,” said Mike Rogers, president of

Risen Christ Catholic School in south Minneapolis. Rogers says that over 75% of his student body, which mostly come from lowerincome families, rely upon district-provided transportation to get them to and from school. But up to this point, the Minneapolis public school district has said it has no plans to provide the statemandated service, which Rogers says, “makes things difficult for our families to access the education they have selected for their children, which is our Risen Christ Catholic education.”

Statute 123B.86, which governs transportation assistance for nonpublic school students, gives districts some discretion regarding how to provide busing, and districts are only obligated to provide the service when they’re in-session.

But now, some districts are interpreting the statute in a way that some local Catholic school leaders say abuses their role as stewards, not owners, of state funds allocated for students who attend nonpublic schools.

They add that though some public schools won’t begin the school year in-person, they’ll still be in-session, and are therefore obligated to provide transportation to all students in their district, noting that the state has said in-person instruction is a legitimate educational option if in accordance with health guidelines.

“Though the district administers these (pupil aids), they should rightfully accrue to public schoolers and nonpublic schoolers alike, even if the public schools decide to be online or in a distant format,” said Jason Adkins, executive director of the Minnesota Catholic Conference, which has been advocating as part of a coalition at the state level for equitable access to transportation for nonpublic school students.

PLEASE TURN TO BUSING ON PAGE 5

2 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

AUGUST 27, 2020

PAGETWO NEWS notes

300,000

The number of people in Beirut displaced and in need of essential items because of a massive port explosion Aug. 4 that killed 160 people, wounded many more, destroyed buildings and damaged whole neighborhoods. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is encouraging an emergency appeal across the U.S. that will begin in parishes in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis Sept. 5-6, and wrap up by the end of the month.

The Center for Mission in the archdiocese is coordinating the parish collections to help provide food, shelter, medical supplies and other needs. Online donations also are encouraged at centerformission.org. Catholic Relief Services will help distribute the funds through Caritas Lebanon, the official Catholic relief and development agency in Lebanon.

In addition, St. Maron in Minneapolis, a Maronite-rite Catholic parish with particular ties to Lebanon, is collecting monetary donations and specific items, including plastic sheets to cover blown-out windows in Beirut, school supplies and new clothes.

22 COURTESY MEGHAN FLANNERY

CORN DAYS Mike Dombeck wears a corn hat, corn mask, corn shirt and corn socks at St. George in Long Lake’s annual Corn Days festival. Joining Dombeck is Steve Cox, another St. George parishioner who helps at the event, which usually includes music, games, food stands and of course … corn. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the parish held “Craving a Kernel: Corn Days To Go,” with fresh and roasted corn available Aug. 8 via a curbside pick-up service for freewill donations. More than 180 cars came through and volunteers distributed nearly 3,000 ears of corn. This year is the festival’s 50th anniversary, and before the pandemic, a big celebration was planned. Look for that larger event to be held Aug. 7-8, 2021. “We wanted to give the community a little taste (of Corn Days), and let them know we’re thinking about you and we hope you’ll come back next year,” said Meghan Flannery, Corn Days publicity chairwoman.

The number of priests serving as chaplains for 336,388 soldiers (about 25% of whom are Catholic) in the Army National Guard. One of those chaplains — Father Michael Creagan of St. Joseph in West St. Paul — recently was promoted to the rank of major. In a small, official ceremony Aug. 14 in the gymnasium of St. Joseph’s Catholic School, Father Creagan’s stepfather, Jim Green, and Capt. Thomas Batina, an active duty Army officer from the Twin Cities whom Father Creagan met last year while deployed in Afghanistan, helped pin the gold leaf shoulder boards on Father Creagan’s military uniform. Father Creagan said his stepfather represented the support of family and parishioners, and Batina represented the military personnel Father Creagan is serving. Father Creagan had been promoted a few months prior, but the ceremony was delayed due to COVID-19 restrictions.

215

The number of miles traveled by 10 bicyclists over three days as part of the SMART Challenge Ride raising money for tuition costs for those most in need at Bethlehem Academy in Faribault. Two riders chose to do a one-day leg of the three-day ride, which took place July 30 through Aug. 1. The ride did not include overnight camping this year because of the coronavirus pandemic. Those completing each day of the ride included Father Brandon Theisen, associate pastor of Divine Mercy in Faribault, who also works with faith formation and youth groups at the high school and Divine Mercy Catholic School. The annual event, which since 2012 has raised more than $350,000 for Bethlehem Academy students, raised more than $27,000 this year.

REDISCOVER:Hour

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JOE RUFF | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

ROSARY FOR PEACE AND HEALING Tom Michalek of St. Michael in St. Michael stands with a rosary, praying with his family Aug. 15 at Leif Erickson Park, with the Minnesota State Capitol in the background. Michalek attended with his wife, Melissa, and their seven children. Pictured with Michalek are Sabrina, 12, and Jonathan, 11, in the foreground; Molly, 6, in the stroller, and 1-year-old Noah. More than 200 people, many bearing signs and posters with the Blessed Virgin Mary’s image and each one holding a rosary, prayed for more than an hour at a park near the Capitol. Organized by Justin Stroh of All Saints in Lakeville, who was inspired through prayer to plan the gathering and encouraged participation via Facebook, the event took place on the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Led by people taking turns at a bullhorn, participants prayed 15 mysteries of the rosary, also known as the Joyful, Sorrowful and Glorious Mysteries. Michalek, 43, and his family traveled 40 miles to the park from their parish. They came to pray “for the chaos in our world and the conversion of sinners,” he said.

That chaos includes political and racial distress and the impact of the novel coronavirus, he said. His family also plans to continue at home with a 54-day rosary novena, Michalek said, which ends Oct. 7, the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. A group of teenagers from All Saints in Minneapolis came bearing a large banner depicting the Virgin Mary. One in the group said he and his friends came to support the faith and pray for a U.S. culture that seems to be deteriorating.

The Catholic Spirit is published semi-monthly for The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis

United in Faith, Hope and Love

Vol. 25 — No. 16 MOST REVEREND BERNARD A. HEBDA, Publisher TOM HALDEN, Associate Publisher MARIA C. WIERING, Editor-in-Chief JOE RUFF, News Editor

On the show that aired Aug. 21, Rediscover:Hour host Patrick Conley interviews John Boyle and Erika Kidd for an inside look at back-to-school plans for University of St. Thomas Catholic Studies students. Conley and technical producer Paul Sadek also discuss the work of Relevant Radio in the Twin Cities, and UST professor Michael Naughton talks about his new book, “Getting Work Right: Labor and Leisure in a Fragmented World.” Listen each week on Fridays at 9 p.m., Saturdays at noon and Sundays at 2 p.m. on Relevant Radio 1330 AM. Find past shows at rediscover.archspm.org.

in REMEMBRANCE Deacon Babcock served at Basilica in Minneapolis Deacon George Babcock, who served 14 years at the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis, died Aug. 22 at Catholic Eldercare in Minneapolis, where he lived for about three years. He was 91.

A native of St. Paul and veteran of World War II who also served in the Minnesota Air National Guard, Babcock was ordained a deacon in 1983. He ministered at the Basilica until retiring in 1997, serving as director of social ministries for 10 years. His wife, Pat, said he started the Basilica’s St. Vincent de Paul Shoe Ministry, which provides vouchers for basic footwear, work shoes or boots for people who can’t afford them.

DEACON BABCOCK

Because of restrictions during the novel coronavirus pandemic, the family will hold a private funeral Mass at the Basilica. Deacon Babcock is survived by his wife, six children, 14 grandchildren and 21 great-grandchildren. One daughter preceded him in death. He will be buried at Resurrection Cemetery in Mendota Heights.

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AUGUST 27, 2020

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 3

FROMTHEMODERATOROFTHECURIA ONLY JESUS | FATHER CHARLES LACHOWITZER

Living ‘the new normal’

B

ack in March, there was little awareness that in August, facial masks would be a familiar sight and that much of the daily routine would still be based at home. The uncertainty grows, with particular attention to the start of a new school year. All the while, the economic and social impact of the pandemic unfolds with a steady march toward a still undefined “new normal.”

It is relatively certain that COVID-19 is not going away any time soon. It is also true to say that the crisis will not really be over until a vaccine is developed and widely distributed. There is the concern that there will be a new way of living that will not change even with a vaccine.

One of the hallmarks of the past century has been that the threats of the natural world have been abated.

The environment around us is “outside,” and whether in offices, cars or homes, our comfort does not depend on the weather or an ample supply of firewood. The awareness of the fragility of life, once a daily challenge to merely survive, has faded, and we can live as though sickness, disease and death are exceptions to “normal” life. Some of us know someone who has tested positive, or became ill or even died from the coronavirus. Almost all of us know someone, or have experienced ourselves, a whole range of threats to our well-being, whether cancer, heart attacks, strokes or whatever malady makes the fragility of life a far more present part of our lives than we would like to imagine.

Prayers and words of support for others bring comfort and consolation. Nonetheless, the explanations for why this crisis happened or how it happened or when it will be over seems to fall into a whole range of opinions that, unfortunately, can be light on facts and heavy on

Viviendo ‘la nueva normalidad’

E

n marzo, había poca conciencia de que en agosto, las máscaras faciales serían una vista familiar y que gran parte de la rutina diaria todavía se basaría en el hogar. La incertidumbre crece, con especial atención al inicio de un nuevo año escolar en un par de semanas. Mientras tanto, el impacto económico y social de la pandemia se desarrolla con una marcha constante hacia una “nueva normalidad” aún indefinida.

Es relativamente seguro que COVID-19 no desaparecerá pronto. También es cierto que la crisis no terminará realmente hasta que se desarrolle y distribuya ampliamente una vacuna. Existe la preocupación de que habrá una nueva forma de vida que no cambiará ni siquiera con una vacuna.

Uno de los sellos distintivos del siglo pasado ha sido que las amenazas del mundo natural se hayan reducido. El entorno que nos rodea es “exterior”, y ya sea en oficinas, automóviles o casas, nuestra comodidad no depende del clima o de un amplio suministro de leña. La conciencia de la fragilidad de la vida, que alguna vez fue un desafío diario para simplemente sobrevivir, se ha desvanecido, y podemos vivir como si la enfermedad, la dolencia y la muerte fueran excepciones a la vida “normal”. Algunos de nosotros conocemos a alguien que dio positivo en la prueba, se enfermó o incluso murió a causa del coronavirus. Casi todos conocemos a alguien, o hemos experimentado nosotros mismos, toda una gama de amenazas para nuestro bienestar, ya sea cáncer, infartos, derrames cerebrales o cualquier enfermedad que haga que la fragilidad de la vida sea una

personal viewpoints. For those who lean toward databased decision-making, it is further frustrating when the “experts” do not agree on the cause and what to do about it.

Our forebears have given countless examples of persevering with faith, hope and love, no matter the why’s, how’s or when’s of whatever chapter of death’s shadow came across their lives. Throughout the stories of the saints — particularly the martyrs — the worse the circumstances, the better the witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Just as peace is more than merely the absence of war, so, too, is the joy of life a greater spiritual gift than the elimination of woes. If we become so preoccupied with the political or economic or ideological debates that we justify divisiveness, thenCNS joy is clouded and gratitude is muted.

Few of us expected that August would be yet another month of living life differently. But for the disciples of Jesus, we should all expect that faith is not always easy.

We should know that hope needs to be a more virtuous practice than simply wishful thinking. We ever seek to more deeply understand that love is a mandate in the worst of times and not just an emotional reaction to the best of times.

The mercy and forgiveness of Jesus are daily reminders that our love for one another must be the same — a love that is bigger than sin; a joy-filled hope and trust in God that is greater than whatever threat there is to our pursuit of happiness; a faith that is a greater light leading us through whatever darkness brings night to the soul.

Our true “new normal” is a life of conversion. A new day that dawns each and every time we pray, worship and celebrate the person and real presence of Jesus Christ. Whenever we go through tough times, we do not always have to go somewhere deep inside to draw

parte de nuestras vidas mucho más presente de lo que nos gustaría imaginar.

Las oraciones y las palabras de apoyo a los demás brindan consuelo. Sin embargo, las explicaciones de por qué sucedió esta crisis o cómo sucedió o cuándo terminará parecen caer en una amplia gama de opiniones que, lamentablemente, pueden ser ligeras en los hechos y pesadas en los puntos de vista personales. Para aquellos que se inclinan por la toma de decisiones basada en datos, es aún más frustrante cuando los “expertos” no se ponen de acuerdo sobre la causa y qué hacer al respecto.

Nuestros antepasados han dado innumerables ejemplos de perseverancia en la fe, la esperanza y el amor, sin importar el por qué, el cómo o el cuándo de cualquier capítulo de la sombra de la muerte que atravesó sus vidas. A lo largo de las historias de los santos, especialmente de los mártires, cuanto peores son las circunstancias, mejor es el testimonio del Evangelio de Jesucristo. Así como la paz es más que la mera ausencia de guerra, también el gozo de la vida es un don espiritual más grande que la eliminación de las aflicciones. Si nos preocupamos tanto por los debates políticos, económicos o ideológicos que justificamos la división, entonces la alegría se nubla y la gratitud se silencia.

No, pocos de nosotros esperábamos que agosto fuera un mes más de vivir la vida de manera diferente. Pero para los discípulos de Jesús, todos deberíamos esperar que la fe no siempre sea fácil. Debemos saber que la esperanza debe ser una práctica más virtuosa que una simple ilusión. Siempre buscamos comprender más profundamente que el amor es un mandato en el peor de los tiempos y no solo una reacción emocional en el mejor de los tiempos.

La misericordia y el perdón de Jesús son recordatorios diarios de que nuestro amor

The Christian life is not defined by what is happening in the world around us.

That is just contemporary context. The Christian life is defined by our ascent of faith, openness to grace and our relationship with Jesus Christ. from a dwindling reservoir of persistence. Grace is God’s gift to us to strengthen faith, hope and love, especially when the powers of sin and evil weaken our resolve.

Through our baptism, we began a “new normal,” a new day every day with hearts open to grace. By that same grace, we pursue the virtues and persevere in service with a joyful spirit. The Christian life is not defined by what is happening in the world around us.

That is just contemporary context. The Christian life is defined by our ascent of faith, openness to grace and our relationship with Jesus Christ. We need not fear a change in our ways of life. As disciples, we seek change.

Lifelong conversion. A new day every day and a “new normal” as a way of life.

In the words of Annie Johnson Flint, from a plaque given to me at my ordination: “God has not promised skies always blue, flowerstrewn pathways all our lives through.

“God has not promised the sun without the rain, joy without sorrow, peace without pain.

“But God has promised strength for the day, rest for the labor, light for the way, grace for the trials, help from above, unfailing sympathy and undying love.”

mutuo debe ser el mismo: un amor que es más grande que el pecado; una esperanza llena de gozo y una confianza en Dios que es mayor que cualquier amenaza que haya para nuestra búsqueda de la felicidad; una fe que es una luz mayor que nos guía a través de cualquier oscuridad que trae la noche al alma.

Nuestra verdadera “nueva normalidad” es una vida de conversión. Un nuevo día que amanece con todas y cada una de las veces que oramos, adoramos y celebramos la persona y la presencia real de Jesucristo.

Cada vez que atravesamos tiempos difíciles, no siempre tenemos que ir a algún lugar profundo para sacar provecho de una reserva menguante de persistencia. La gracia es el regalo de Dios para nosotros para fortalecer la fe, la esperanza y el amor, especialmente cuando los poderes del pecado y el mal debilitan nuestra resolución.

A través de nuestro bautismo, comenzamos una “nueva normalidad”, un nuevo día cada día con corazones abiertos a la gracia. Por esa misma gracia, perseguimos las virtudes y perseveramos en el servicio con un espíritu alegre. La vida cristiana no se define por lo que sucede en el mundo que nos rodea. Ese es solo un contexto contemporáneo. La vida cristiana se define por nuestro ascenso en la fe, la apertura a la gracia y nuestra relación con Jesucristo. No debemos temer un cambio en nuestra forma de vida. Como discípulos, buscamos el cambio y conversión de por vida. Un nuevo día cada día y una “nueva normalidad” como forma de vida.

En palabras de Annie Johnson Flint, de una placa que me dieron en mi ordenación: “Dios no ha prometido cielos siempre azules, senderos llenos de flores a lo largo de nuestra vida.

Dios no ha prometido sol sin lluvia, gozo

OFFICIAL Archbishop Bernard Hebda has announced the following appointments in the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis:

Effective August 17, 2020 Deacon Robert Wagner, retired from diaconal ministry. Deacon Wagner has served the Archdiocese as a deacon since his ordination in 1994, most recently as deacon of the Church of Saint Wenceslaus in New Prague.

Reverend Gregory Wiest, C.Ss.R., assigned to residence at the Church of Saint Alphonsus in Brooklyn Center. Father Wiest is a priest of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, Denver Province.

Effective August 28, 2020 Deacon John Vomastek, assigned to exercise the ministry of a permanent deacon at the Church of Saint Ambrose of Woodbury.

This is a transfer from his current assignment at the Church of Saint Patrick in Inver Grove Heights and as Associate Director for Diaconal Formation for the Archdiocese. sin dolor, paz sin dolor.

Pero Dios ha prometido fuerza para el día, descanso para el trabajo, luz para el camino gracia para las pruebas, ayuda de lo alto, simpatía inquebrantable y amor eterno”.

4 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

AUGUST 27, 2020

LOCAL

SLICEof LIFE Joined to Jesus

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

If you suspect abuse of a minor, your first call should be to law enforcement.

You are also encouraged to contact the archdiocese’s Victim Assistance Program at (651) 291-4475.

For confidential, compassionate assistance from an independent and professional local care provider, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, contact Canvas Health at (651) 291-4497.

Justin Prom holds what’s known as a “vow cross” shortly after professing his first vows to the Society of Jesus, commonly known as the Jesuits, at St. Thomas More in St. Paul Aug. 7. The Cedarburg, Wis., native was one of seven men who made first vows, having spent two years in formation at the Jesuit Novitiate in St. Paul. “Receiving this cross is a symbol of my entering into the company of some of my greatest heroes and friends,” said Prom, 25. “It was a humbling moment for me, to sit with that cross in my hands after professing my vows. I think it unites me with Jesus and my Jesuit brothers in a very special way.” Prom has been “missioned” to study philosophy and theology at Loyola University Chicago, and said he feels a calling to the priesthood. The novitiate is located next to St. Thomas More parish and school, which are also served by the Jesuits.

Give and still receive.

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THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 5

MCC webinar Sept. 9 to focus on Church’s response to racism

By Barb Umberger The Catholic Spirit George Floyd’s May 25 death sparked international conversation about racial inequity and injustice.

Questions about race and identity — and the ability in the United States for people to live together in peace and with justice as a racially diverse nation — remain at the forefront of the public discussion, said Jason Adkins, executive director and general counsel of the Minnesota Catholic Conference.

“To be all things to all people and better preach the Gospel for such a time as this, we must consider how we as a Church foster racial reconciliation in our own community, so as to better foster it in the world,” he said.

To further that conversation, the MCC, public policy voice of the Catholic Church in Minnesota, is hosting a Zoom webinar 10 a.m. to noon Sept. 9 titled “Open Wide our Hearts: The Catholic Church Confronts Racism.”

Primarily intended for priests, deacons, educators and lay ecclesial ministers, the webinar is free and open to the public.

“What can we do to change it to better evangelize, so that all people see the Church as the place where they encounter the living God through his son,

BUSING CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Through its action, including more than 1,000 constituent messages sent to Gov. Tim Walz’s office and the Minnesota Department of Education, the coalition was able to persuade MDE to revisit guidance issued in early August that originally stated that school districts only needed to provide nonpublic transportation if and when public schools were meeting in person.

A modified version of the guidance, issued Aug. 18, maintains that stance, but now includes language that encourages school districts to “collaborate with their nonpublic school colleagues to develop creative solutions that work for both parties.” Additions also emphasize that choosing to not provide nonpublic school transportation now may affect the amount of funding public school districts receive in the future, and suggest that school districts consider reimbursing parents for the costs of transporting their kids to nonpublic schools. Previous language also made clear that local school districts could work with nonpublic schools to contract independent busing services with the state funds allocated for transportation assistance.

While Adkins is happy that these changes were made, he says the department can and should do more than merely offer suggestions to school districts, especially given Walz’s broad emergency powers.

Another remaining issue is an apparent discrepancy in guidance for how districts provide busing to charter, as opposed to nonpublic, schools. MDE guidance says districts, no matter what learning model they choose for their public schools, are still required to provide transportation for students who attend charter schools that are meeting in person. Adkins says this is slated to play out with some charter schools in Minneapolis, where students who attend nonpublic schools like Risen Christ are not being offered the same access to services.

“We think that’s irrational and discriminatory, and though the governing statutes (regulating charter and nonpublic transportation assistance) are different, we don’t think it requires the district to behave differently toward nonpublic students than charter students,” said Adkins, noting that poorer families with limited alternatives will be the most significantly impacted. He also pointed out that if mitigating health risks

Jesus Christ?” asked Adkins. “It’s our hope that the discussion will help point us in the right direction, and offer practical suggestions from Black Catholic leaders about a way forward.”

Fortunately, Adkins said, the Catholic Church “has the best antidote to racism” — a sin that is fundamentally incompatible with Christian faith — which is to affirm everyone’s common huma nity as children of God. Catholics don’t always do a great job of preaching that message loud and clear, he said.

Some people perceive the Catholic Church as a “white institution” infected with racism, Adkins said, despite the fact that the Church is the most ethnically and racially diverse religious community locally, nationally and globally.

“I think for all of us in the Church, we’re looking at how the current social situation plays out inside the Church,” said Father Erich Rutten, pastor of St. Peter Claver in St. Paul, a historically African American parish.

“And I think that this is especially significant for people who are in official leadership positions,” he said, including priests, deacons, educators and lay ecclesial ministers. “We’re all grappling … to make sense of social changes around us and the importance of standing on the side of … reconciliation and peacemaking, understanding the dignity of each and

for employees is the ultimate concern for the school districts, it doesn’t make sense that they’re willing to bus kids who attend charter schools, but not nonpublic ones.

Adkins says MCC will continue to push for change, and that legal action could be a possibility, but much of the action now is taking place between Catholic schools and their school districts. He encouraged parents to get involved by attending local school board meetings or circulating petitions that ask for equitable access.

The archdiocese, meanwhile, is providing support by assigning a dedicated liaison to each Catholic school to assist school leaders, according to Gayle Stoffel, the archdiocese’s associate director of Catholic Education.

In some districts, there have been positive developments. At Nativity of Mary School in Bloomington, Principal Ryan Pajak says that the school district informed him it will be able to provide busing five days a week, after making the decision to move its public schools from a hybrid model that would include only two days of in-person learning entirely to a distance model. And in Osseo, after first being told its students would only be able to use district-provided transportation twice a week like public school students, Principal Kari Staples of St. Alphonsus Catholic School in Brooklyn Center reported that, as of the morning of Aug. 24, the local school district will provide busing four days a week for students at St. Alphonsus and nearby St. Vincent de Paul Catholic School in Brooklyn Park.

Pajak and Staples said they have families who have no other option for getting their kids to school than district-provided busing.

Rogers at Risen Christ has been in correspondence with his local school district, but has received no response to his request to use the funds dedicated to his students’ transportation needs to contract an independent service. He says paying for busing out of pocket isn’t an option, so his school will have to plan for contingencies as it approaches the Sept. 8 start date.

Staples summed up how many of her Catholic school colleagues feel amid these difficult conversations with local school districts: “It’s not ‘us versus them’ or ‘me versus them.’ It’s about the 175 students who are going to walk through my door on Sept. 1,” she said. “We’re going to do our best.”

every person, all of those kinds of questions.”

And those in leadership need to ask, “What does this mean for the Church today?” Father Rutten said.

The webinar will be held on the liturgical calendar’s memorial of St. Peter Claver, a 17th-century Spanish Jesuit known for ministering to West African slaves in the Caribbean, and a patron saint of both African Americans and interracial justice.

The webinar’s featured speaker is Bishop Shelton Fabre of Houma-Thibodaux in southeastern Louisiana.

He is chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Subcommittee for African American Catholics and a member of its Committee on Cultural Diversity in the Church.

Archbishop Bernard Hebda and Bishop John Quinn of Winona-Rochester will offer remarks and prayer.

The session also includes a panel discussion and time for questions and answers. Panelists are Damon Clarke Owens, an international speaker and evangelist on St. John Paul II’s theology of the body and its implications for marriage and family life; Loralean Jordan, a member of St. Peter Claver and an advocate for social justice in her church and community; and Lannette Turicchi, a Catholic convert and former Walt Disney Company executive.

For more information and to register, visit mncatholic.org/openwideourhearts.

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

From left, first-grader Filomena Opack gets ready to enter Nativity of Our Lord School in St. Paul on its first day of school Aug. 24, as her mother, Katie, stands with her. Nativity is among Catholic schools that have lost access to resources typically provided through their public school district.

IN ST. PAUL, NURSES NOT IN Less than a week before St. Agnes School’s Aug. 25 start date, Kevin Ferdinandt received some distressing news: St. Paul Public Schools would not be providing in-person nursing to schools located in the district, including nonpublic schools like St. Agnes that had made the decision to open with in-person instruction. The St. Agnes headmaster said he didn’t learn of this development directly from SPPS, but only when the nurse who had been assigned to his school in accordance with the state’s pupil aid policies informed him that she would not be able to work on-site, “per SPPS mandate that all employees work remotely.”

“Having that information come to us one week before we start the school year puts us in a heck of a bind,” said Ferdinandt, who noted that if the school district does not provide health care services to the 785 St. Agnes students who are legally entitled to it, the school will have to rely on volunteers or hire someone else out of pocket. He has requested that SPPS reverse its decision, writing in an email to Superintendent Joe Gothard and board members that “such a policy does not support the kids whose parents’ taxpayer dollars are supposed to receive services at their nonpublic schools, especially in the era of COVID-19.”

Ferdinandt said that at a later meeting with school district personnel, he requested that the funds allocated for his students be used to provide for an independent health care option that could provide service on-site, but the district said its contract with the employee union would not allow contracting health care out as a separate service.

The SPPS decision mandating employees to work from home, detailed in an Aug. 18 letter from Gothard, also applies to special education services, Title I instruction, and guidance and counseling. At Nativity of Our Lord Catholic School in St. Paul, Principal Kate Wollan learned her school would no longer be able to use Title IV funding to bring to school a counselor whom they’ve worked with since January 2018, because it would violate SPPS policy. Instead, Nativity will have to pay for something state law says the school is entitled to.

“Our parents are paying taxes,” Wollan said. “They’re paying for these services. But their kids are being denied equitable access to them.”

— Jonathan Liedl

6 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

LOCAL

AUGUST 27, 2020

Clergy abuse support group meetings go virtual

Father Sthokal served for decades at Demontreville Jesuit Retreat House

By Barb Umberger The Catholic Spirit The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted lives in many ways — from schools to workplaces, sports to socializing. It also has impacted the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ efforts to assist victim-survivors of clergy sexual abuse.

Since starting in June 2019 as the archdiocese’s outreach coordinator for restorative justice and abuse prevention, Paula Kaempffer has developed a list of healing events, presentations on restorative justice, listening sessions and other opportunities available through the Office of Ministerial Standards and Safe Environment.

And last September, she started an in-person support group to help victim-survivors of sexual abuse. It met monthly for about 90 minutes in a Twin Cities-area local library. In-person attendance had been sparse, Kaempffer said, but those who participated valued the experience.

So, when the pandemic in March drove schools to online instruction and many adults connected to work virtually, Kaempffer wondered if technology could serve support groups.

She chose Zoom videoconferencing to connect participants.

By late March, she offered the first of four monthly online support groups for anyone victimized by clergy. A second group helps people who were sexually harmed by clergy as adults. A third group is for men who have suffered from clergy sexual abuse. And a fourth is for those sexually abused or harmed by clergy or others.

To spread the word about the virtual sessions, Kaempffer contacted several dioceses and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, asking them to notify victim assistance coordinators and “safe environment people,” and any victims and survivors they knew. It worked.

While an in-person group typically attracted a couple of people, the first online support group in late March brought 18. Now, an average of 12 to 14 people meet online in each group.

Kaempffer said attendees from across the U.S. participate.

“The response has been wonderful,” Kaempffer said. “I think the surprise of the pandemic is that many people joining our virtual support groups find an extra layer of safety being in their own homes during a meeting.”

Some participants have asked that the online groups continue after social distancing ends.

Besides giving people an option to connect, it means being part of a larger group, Kaempffer said. “They’re starting to recognize one another and get to know one another. The verbal support they give each other and the verbal affirmations they offer is just quite remarkable.”

Kaempffer said she is aware of only a few dioceses in the United States to offer these types of online groups.

One is the Archdiocese of Chicago.

Tom Tharayil, director of its Office of Assistance Ministry, said Kaempffer is a leader within victim assistance programs nationwide in offering virtual support groups for victims of clergy

in REMEMBRANCE

By Barb Umberger The Catholic Spirit

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Karen Gillespie, a licensed marriage and family therapist, is scheduled to give a talk Sept. 28 during a Zoom presentation on symptoms of trauma and recovery in light of clergy sexual abuse. The presentation will be offered through the Office of Ministerial Standards and Safe Environment of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Learn about the new virtual series at TheCatholicSpirit.com. sexual abuse. He started a virtual group in late March after hearing from victimsurvivors that they were feeling isolated during the pandemic.

Tharayil sees advantages to both in-person and virtual support groups.

A virtual setting opens up the possibility for victim-survivors to connect with people who are reluctant to show up in person, he said. And it’s a low level of risk to engage in a process that might help someone.

“You can be anonymous,” he said.

“You don’t have to be seen. You can spend all of your time listening.”

He has heard victim assistance coordinators say it can be difficult to have many victim-survivors show up in person. But a virtual group can bring people together from small towns to large cities across the country.

Two local victim-survivors of clergy sexual abuse said the Zoom meetings conducted in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis are convenient and a respectful, safe environment for sharing. Participants email Kaempffer to register ahead of time. Then she emails them a link to the Zoom session for which they registered.

Paul, 62, from Minneapolis, who asked that his last name not be used to protect his privacy, said he has participated both in person in a general support group for survivors of abuse and through two virtual groups.

“People are Zooming right and left,” he said. “So, it’s not that unfamiliar to participate in an online group.”

Paul said he has been through a lot of therapy and is surprised at the growth he is experiencing from the online group.

“When I’m with these people, there’s some sort of soul recognition … that has opened me up even more to feeling,” he said. “I feel more whole and more comfortable in a new way being around these people, and it’s surprising.

“I say this with some caution, but to me it is a ministry in the broadest sense of the word,” he added. “When we

are able to … fully be present to each other there, there’s an existential love that shows up. And that’s the power of the Spirit showing up and healing together.”

Paul said he appreciates that the archdiocese is open to this kind of work of the Spirit in the world. “It really says a lot about the largeness of heart and spirit coming from the archdiocese,” he said.

“What I’m finding in these groups is that the healing is coming from each other,” said Kaempffer, who experienced clergy abuse as an adult.

“And it’s pretty amazing how they are supporting one another, how they affirm one another. They don’t try to fix one another,” she said. “We just share our experience in a restorative justice framework. It’s just wonderful to witness.”

Deborah, a 60-year-old clergy abuse survivor from Coon Rapids, who also requested that her last name not be used, said she has participated both in-person and with virtual support groups. She said she struggled before with “if people knew who I am and what’s happened, they wouldn’t want me here.” But now she has a place to be with those she describes as “the wounded lambs of the Church,” where she also is able to offer compassion and listen to and validate people.

Having participants from other parts of the United States provides different perspectives, she said.

Whether she participates in person or via Zoom, Deborah said she is reminded of her childhood and growing up seeing the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

“He’s showing you his wounded heart,” she said, “and it’s like what I experience with each of these people who come and share a little story.

It’s like, here’s Jesus in that person showing me and … the feeling you get when Jesus shows you his heart in the pictures: ‘What can I do to heal you?’

Well, here he is sitting in front of you and this wounded member of the body of Christ. … You can help with healing someone.”

Jesuit Father Edward Sthokal, who served for decades at Demontreville Jesuit Retreat House in Lake Elmo, died Aug. 11 at St. Camillus Jesuit Community in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin.

He was 98.

A native of Milwaukee, Father Sthokal was ordained June 16, 1954, and made final vows Aug. 15, 1958. He served as an associate pastor and as a teacher at a Jesuit high school in Wisconsin before FATHER STHOKAL moving to the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Father Sthokal arrived at the Demontreville Jesuit Retreat House in Lake Elmo in 1958, served as its director for more than 20 years and retired there in November 2017.

Through his work and that of the many Jesuits he recruited to offer weekend retreats at Demontreville, thousands of Catholic men from the Twin Cities area participated in the retreat center’s experiences.

Deacon Stephen Boatwright, who serves at St. Joseph in Rosemount and as a chaplain at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis, said he met Father Sthokal at the first Demontreville retreat he attended in 1988. He continues to participate once a year and became friends with Father Sthokal. “I used to call him ‘Mr. Demontreville,’” he said.

Among his memories, what stands out is Father Sthokal’s “high-level humor.”

“Father is a true icon,” he added.

The St. Camillus Jesuit Community in Milwaukee plans to celebrate a private Mass for Father Sthokal at a later date. Plans also are being made for a memorial service at St. Thomas More in St. Paul.

AUGUST 27, 2020

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 7

NATION+WORLD

Bishop Cantú: Californians ‘on edge’ as historic wildfires rage

By Rhina Guidos Catholic News Service Some of the few Masses available for Catholics in California's Bay Area came to a halt the weekend of Aug. 22 as bishops urged parishioners to pray for one another, for firefighters, and to stay home as air quality diminished in some parts of the state because of some of the largest wildfires in California history.

“People are just stunned, with the pandemic and the downturn in the economy and the racial issues and then on top of that, the wildfires,” said Bishop Oscar Cantú, head of the Diocese of San Jose in an Aug. 24 interview with Catholic News Service. “It makes you wonder, what else? All we need is an earthquake.”

Evacuation orders have affected more than 250,000 Californians, including many Catholics in the Archdiocese of San Francisco and the dioceses of San Jose, Sacramento and Monterey. All except Monterey are on a list of cities trending at the national level for fast-rising COVID-19 rates.

More than a million acres in the area burned in the span of a week, The Associated Press reported, causing seven deaths as of Aug. 24. The blazes, which began Aug. 14, are believed to have been caused by lightning strikes and made worse by drought conditions.

Because of the rising rate of contagion, some dioceses in California have only had the option of holding Mass outdoors. Like fellow prelates from nearby dioceses, Bishop Cantú said he gave pastors the option of canceling them because being outdoors could harm people’s health. The fires have affected parishioners at more than half a dozen of the diocese's 52 parishes, he said. Many others are under threat.

“One of the largest (fires), in East San Jose, is right next to us ... then there's another large fire to the west

CNS

A firefighter from Chula Vista, Calif., monitors the LNU Lightning Complex Fire in Lake County Aug. 23. of us in Santa Cruz,” he said. “So, we feel sort of boxed in and so that really has put people on edge.”

Even with all the chaos, people have stepped up to help others, he said. The diocese has given pastors information to share with their parishioners, connecting those who have lost their homes to resources available in the area and issuing information about what to prepare ahead of time should they be evacuated “and to be ready to go at a moment's notice,” Bishop Cantú said.

“We're sharing that information, as well, and our Catholic Charities continues to distribute food, which they've been doing (because) of the pandemic,” he said. “And so, especially now, they're collecting funds to support those families who have lost their homes during the fires.”

In an Aug. 23 video message posted on Facebook,

Monterey's Bishop Daniel Garcia said the fires “in our diocese alone” had caused “profound damage” for hundreds of families.

He called on Catholics to “come together as the body of Christ to pray for one another,” even if they couldn't physically gather to do so and asked them to be mindful that pastors could decide to cancel outdoor Masses because of poor air quality.

Sacramento Bishop Jaime Soto, too, asked Catholics in a letter to stay home as much as possible and said he had asked pastors to livestream Masses “for the benefit of those who have vulnerable health conditions.”

The fires come at a trying time for Californians, said Bishop Cantú, and have taken away the only respite some had.

“You know, the one piece of joy that that people have (during the pandemic) is to go outside and take a walk or take a jog,” he said. “We can't do that now because the air quality is so bad. We're keenly aware of the fires because we can smell the smoke for the past eight days or so and it's been very thick, and it's gotten so bad.”

Catholic schools in San Jose had just resumed classes online and the fires now have added a layer of stress, he said.

“Parents are exhausted because, those that are able to work from home, they're multitasking, supervising their children and trying to work from home amid all of the distractions and then, on top of that, to worry about fires,” he said. “It's been one thing after another, but there's something about our faith in the message of our God: He's with us especially in difficult moments.”

As people look at Scripture, at the lives of the saints, “it's especially in the darkest moments that we are reminded constantly that God does not abandon us, and that's what our message has been to our parishioners,” he said.

In new term, Supreme Court once again takes up religious liberty

By Carol Zimmermann Catholic News Service As part of what seems to be a new trend for the Supreme Court, it will once again take up a religious liberty case in its new term, with oral arguments Nov. 4 in a case about a Catholic social service agency excluded from Philadelphia’s foster care program for not accepting same-sex couples as foster parents.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference and a few Catholic Charities agencies joined more than 30 other religious groups, states and a group of Congress members urging the Supreme Court to protect the faith-based foster care in Fulton v. Philadelphia.

They argued in amicus briefs that the court should allow the city’s Catholic social service agency to continue its foster care role and protect faith-based ministries nationwide by ensuring their First Amendment religious exercise rights.

Court observers do not have to look far back to see how the high court could potentially rule on this case, since it set out a road map of sorts just last term, with rulings on a number of religious liberty cases. These decisions dealt with teachers at religious schools, religious exemptions from federal mandates and state constitutional provisions blocking religious schools from receiving school scholarships.

“All of the court’s religion-related decisions harmonized around the principle that, despite all our honest and deep-seated disagreements about

important questions, robust protection for religious dissenters is essential to our living together in a pluralistic society,” said Mark Rienzi, president of Becket, a religious liberty law firm, and law professor at The Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law. Rienzi, writing for scotusblog, which covers the Supreme Court, said: “The court’s move toward anchoring a pluralistic approach within the law of religious liberty is part of a long-term trend.” He pointed out that two terms ago, the court’s ruling on the Peace Cross in Maryland emphasized “the religion clauses of the Constitution aim to foster a society in which people of all beliefs can live together harmoniously.”

He thinks the court will extend this line of interpretation next term with the Fulton case, where Becket is representing the foster women defending the Catholic Social Services policy.

Reinzi said recent rulings “show a court systematically building precedent on the foundational idea that religious freedom can help people in a diverse, pluralistic society live together in peace — even amid deep disagreements over fundamental issues.”

As he sees it, religious liberty protections also “can help society avoid zero-sum disputes in which one side of a polarized debate must win a complete victory, while the other must be completely vanquished or excluded.”

Richard Garnett, another law professor at a Catholic university, also weighed in on the court’s most recent religious liberty cases in a scotusblog symposium this summer.

CNS

The U.S. Supreme Court is seen in Washington July 2. Legal experts have noticed a pattern in how the court handled religious liberty cases in the last term.

Garnett, professor of law and political science at the University of Notre Dame and director of the university’s program on church, state and society, said many scholars and commentators have found fault with recent court decisions involving religion, saying they represent a destruction of separation between church and state or they “supply evidence of a judicially ascendant ‘Christian nationalism.’”

But that’s not his take. He said the court has “moved the law of religious freedom and church-state relations toward coherence and clarity, and better aligned it with American history, tradition and practice and with an appropriate understanding of judges’ capacities and the judicial role in a democracy.”

This action by the court on religious questions, he said, comes after its first 150 years when it had “almost nothing to say about the judicially enforceable content of the right to religious freedom,

about the role of religious believers and arguments in politics and public life, or about the terms of permissible cooperation between church and state.”

In more recent years, there has been a smattering of religious liberty cases.

In the past year, the court specifically focused on cases that involved exemptions for religious exercise and accommodations for religious people.

Garnett said the current court, under Chief Justice John Roberts, “has several times affirmed, sometimes unanimously, that religious exercise may, and should, be legislatively accommodated and may be treated as ‘special’ by governments in keeping with the particular solicitude shown for it in the First Amendment’s text and throughout American history.”

He said the long-running dispute over the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptioncoverage mandate, which returned to the court last term with Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania, showed the court’s “willingness to interpret legislative accommodations of religion broadly.”

And next term, he said, the court could go a step further with the Philadelphia adoption case where the Catholic social service agency was excluded from the city’s foster program for refusing, based on religious reasons, to certify same-sex couples as foster parents.

Garnett said the court could rule for the agency on the narrow ground that the city’s policies are not really neutral or generally applicable, similar to its 2018 decision in Masterpiece Cakeshop v.

Colorado Civil Rights Commission, where it favored the baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple.

8 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

NATION+WORLD

AUGUST 27, 2020

Detroit priest’s invalid baptism had ripple effect, archdiocese says

By Michael Stechschulte Catholic News Service The Archdiocese of Detroit is seeking to contact anyone who may have received invalid sacraments after a priest of the archdiocese learned his own baptism as an infant 30 years ago was invalid.

On Aug. 6, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a note clarifying that baptisms using an improper formula — namely, those using the phrase “We baptize you ...” instead of the Church’s ancient formula, “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” are not valid.

Father Matthew Hood, associate pastor of St. Lawrence Parish in Utica, contacted the Archdiocese of Detroit after discovering that his own baptism, captured on video in 1990, used improper wording.

Because the sacraments of confirmation and holy orders can only be conferred upon validly baptized Catholics, Father Hood was “devastated” to learn that not only was he not baptized or confirmed, but he also was not a validly ordained priest.

“There was definitely shock and sadness at finding out 30 years later that I was never baptized. It was an alienating sense that even though I was following the Lord, I wasn’t a Christian, and I wasn’t a priest and I wasn’t a deacon,” he said.

As a consequence of the invalid baptism, Father Hood lacked the ability to confer most sacraments since he thought he was ordained in 2017, Archbishop Allen Vigneron said in an Aug. 22 letter to Catholics in the archdiocese.

“The parishes where Father Hood has been assigned — Divine Child in Dearborn and St. Lawrence in Utica — will be working with the archdiocese to contact those who sought out the sacraments with Father Hood, so that each individual’s circumstance may be examined and rectified,” the archbishop said.

According to a news release from the archdiocese, Father Hood’s family presented him for baptism at St. Anastasia Parish in Troy in 1990, where Deacon Mark Springer was presiding. Deacon Springer attempted to baptize him using the words, “We baptize you ...” instead of the Church’s prescribed formula.

Although there had been questions about the altered formula, the Vatican’s doctrinal note put all confusion to rest.

A graduate of Sacred Heart Major Seminary, Father Hood said he was shocked when he learned the consequences, and immediately reached out to the archdiocese, which worked quickly to remedy the situation. On Aug. 9, he was validly baptized, confirmed and received the Eucharist, and after a week on retreat, he was ordained a transitional deacon and priest two days later on Aug. 17.

“The archbishop called me, and I could tell he was even more concerned about it than I was, and I

HEADLINES u Knights of Columbus remove trees, give out food after Iowa storm. Since an Aug. 10 derecho storm devastated parts of Iowa, local members of the Knights of Columbus have been helping out in any way possible, from moving trees to delivering food. The severe storm’s winds topping 100 mph caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage and destroyed more than 10 million acres of corn. The storm created an urgent need for assistance, and churches have become distribution hubs for people in need. In Iowa, the Knights provided food for local communities and prepared and distributed more than 3,000 meals for first responders and homeless shelters.

Members have been working alongside other Catholic charitable organizations, such as Catholic Charities, during the recovery. Efforts are expected to take time because most communication lines are down around the state.

CNS

Archbishop Allen Vigneron of Detroit lays his hands on Father Matthew Hood to ordain him to the priesthood Aug. 17 at the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament. Father Hood, a graduate of Sacred Heart Major Seminary, was originally ordained in 2017, but recently discovered his baptism as an infant — and therefore subsequent sacraments — were invalid.

WRONG LANGUAGE In a note sent to leaders in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis Aug. 20, Father Tom Margevicius, director of worship, shared the text on baptism validity from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In addition to the unapproved formula “we baptize you,” he noted that the language of “in the name of the Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier” is also invalid, and those baptized with this language must be “(re)baptized.”

— The Catholic Spirit was very concerned about it,” Father Hood said. “To know of his pastoral care for me, for my vocation, was a huge grace from the very beginning.”

Now, the archdiocese is attempting to contact anyone else who might have been invalidly baptized by Deacon Springer, who is retired and is not in active ministry.

Although Father Hood was not able to validly perform some marriages, celebrate Mass, grant absolution, administer confirmation or anoint the sick, any baptisms he performed are presumed valid, since a priest is not required to baptize so long as the correct formula, matter and intention are present, said Father Stephen Pullis, director of evangelization and missionary discipleship for the archdiocese.

“Some of the things Father Matthew did were invalid, but his baptisms were valid because you don’t need to be a priest to perform baptism,” Father Pullis said, although the Church strongly prefers a priest or deacon except in cases of emergency. “If someone was baptized

by Father Matthew, they should have no doubt their baptism was valid.”

For other sacraments, people can use an online form to contact the archdiocese and find out if any action is needed. “People can submit questions, and myself or another priest will be able to accompany the individual in walking through how to understand whether this was a valid sacrament or not,” Father Pullis said.

Though some might be tempted to view the matter as a technicality, the language used in conferring a sacrament is deeply important, he added.

“When someone is baptized, it’s not just a symbol or recognition of something that’s already happened.

It’s actually making a change in the person,” Father Pullis said. “Because the sacraments actually bring about an effect, we have to be very precise in both the words, the form, and the matter, the objects, that we use.”

“That means we have to do it in the way the Church tells us to do it,” he continued. “We can’t use Mountain Dew or milk instead of water, and we can’t use other words, like ‘I baptize in the name of the Creator ...’ or ‘We baptize ...’ instead of the words the Church gives us.”

The Church uses the phrase “I baptize” to signify that the person baptizing is standing in the place of Christ, Father Pullis said, not the community.

“It is always a personal act of the Church when a sacrament is conferred,” the priest said. “God uses individuals to communicate the grace that the sacraments offer — in this instance, the sanctifying grace that baptism offers.”

“We can be assured that all those who approached Father Hood, in good faith, to receive the sacraments did not walk away empty-handed,” Archbishop Vigneron wrote. “We know that Our Lord, in his unending love for us, supplied some measure of grace. God is drawn to hearts that are open to Him in love.”

The archbishop apologized for the “human error” that led to the disruption of the sacramental life of some of the faithful and pledged to rectify the situation.

Father Hood is still bewildered, but he is confident God was present in the situation. “It’s a grace to realize that God is not a liar,” he said. “Any experience of the sacraments, even if they were celebrated invalidly, God was still active in some mysterious way and God still honors the dispositions of those who were there in some way.”

u Philadelphia archbishop laments ‘senseless act’ after lector punched. A lector at the Cathedral Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul in Philadelphia was punched in the face by an assailant after reading Scripture during an Aug. 23 Mass. The assault was televised as the Mass was being livestreamed on the archdiocese’s Vimeo channel and on the Facebook page of Philadelphia Archbishop Nelson Perez. The assailant was identified but charges were deferred Aug. 25. Archbishop Perez, in an Aug. 23 statement, called the assault “a senseless act of aggression.” u Planned Parenthood drops suit against Indiana abortion law on ultrasounds. Ending three years of legal dueling, Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill announced Aug. 20 that Planned Parenthood has conceded defeat in a lawsuit that challenged a state law requiring women to undergo an ultrasound at least 18 hours before having an abortion. After the Indiana Legislature passed the ultrasound bill in 2017, Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky was successful in getting a court injunction that prevented the law from being implemented. The organization claimed the law was unconstitutional and would prevent some women from getting abortions, especially low-income women who would be forced to travel to clinics located farther away because not all Planned Parenthood offices have ultrasound equipment. u Military base, archdiocese mourn death of chaplain who took his own life. A spokesman for Sheppard Air Force Base said Aug. 20 the military community was mourning the loss of Father Timothy Hirten, an Air Force chaplain, who was killed by a train the night of Aug. 16 at a railroad crossing in Wichita Falls, Texas. On Aug. 17, police ruled his death a suicide, according to the Times Record News daily paper. In a letter, Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services urged priests serving in the military archdiocese as chaplains to take care of themselves and not hesitate to reach out to the auxiliary bishops, the vicar general “and me for anything that we might be able to do to make your burden lighter.” u Bishop Bransfield repays diocese, publicly apologizes to W. Va. Catholics. The Congregation for Bishops in Rome told Bishop Michael Bransfield, former head of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, to publicly apologize to West Virginia Catholics and repay the diocese $441,000 to fulfill Pope Francis’ requirement that he “make personal amends for some of the harm he caused” while serving in the diocese. Bishop Mark Brennan, Wheeling-Charleston’s current bishop, said Aug. 20 that the decision comes after extensive input from him and with consideration of governing factors in both civil and canon law. Bishop Bransfield has now repaid the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston the amount stipulated for “unauthorized benefits received from diocesan resources.” The diocese also has received his letter of apology, dated Aug. 15, which has been made public on its website. u Academy unveils effort to fight mafia’s ‘deviant spirituality’ of Mary. Given the many criminal organizations and gangs worldwide that have distorted the true role and image of Mary, the Pontifical Marian International Academy has unveiled a new department dedicated to fighting “this deviant spirituality.” It will be working with the Italian government and law enforcement on a number of initiatives through the department dedicated to the “analysis, study and monitoring of criminal and Mafia-related phenomena” and to promoting “a theology of liberation from the Mafia,” according to its website.

— Catholic News Service

NATION+WORLD

AUGUST 27, 2020

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 9

‘Faithful Citizenship’ reminder: Gospel cannot be parsed in partisan terms

By Dennis Sadowski Catholic News Service The U.S. bishops’ quadrennial document on political responsibility is rooted in the Catholic Church’s longstanding moral tradition that upholds human dignity and the common good of all, Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City said.

“The document is meant to give Catholic voters an opportunity to reflect upon how their faith intersects with their political and civic responsibilities,” said the archbishop, who chairs the bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development.

Titled “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship: A Call to Political Responsibility From the Catholic Bishops of the United States,” the document has been offered as a guide to Catholic voters every presidential election year since 1976.

It has been updated and revised at four-year intervals to reflect changes in the issues confronting the country since it first appeared.

One thing “Faithful Citizenship” is not is a mandate on which candidate for public office to vote for, Archbishop Coakley said.

Voting, he added, is a responsibility to be taken seriously that requires prudential judgment in determining who can best serve the common good.

“No candidate will likely reflect all of our values,” he told Catholic News Service Aug. 18. “But I think we need to begin in prayer. We need to know our faith.

We need to study our faith. We need to have recourse to the catechism and what it might teach about certain questions.

“This document is intended to be that, an official guide for the formation of consciences that Catholics can utilize as they weigh these questions,” the archbishop said.

Furthermore, he continued, “the Gospel cannot be parsed in political or partisan terms. The Gospel calls us to live by standards and our Catholic faith calls us to embrace standards that are not divisible into left or right, Republican or Democratic terminology.”

The document went through no major revisions for this year’s election, but it is being supplemented by an introductory letter, which underwent a long debate before its adoption by the full body of bishops during their fall general assembly in November.

This time around, the document also is accompanied by a series of five videos that highlight vital public policy issues.

The document has three parts.

The first part outlines the responsibility of Catholics to incorporate Catholic teaching as they consider their vote as well as their support for myriad public policy issues that confront society.

The text explores a series of questions related to why the Church teaches about public policy issues; who in the Church should participate in political life; how the Church helps Catholics to speak about political and social questions; and what the Church says about social teaching in the public square.

Part two outlines policy positions of the bishops on

Voters cast their ballots to vote in state and local elections Nov. 5, 2019, at Robious Elementary School in Richmond, Va. CNS

Voters cast their ballots to vote in state and local elections Nov. 5, 2019, at Robious Elementary School in Richmond, Va.

numerous issues. Topics addressed include human life and dignity, promoting peace, marriage and family, religious freedom, economic justice, health care, migration, Catholic education, promoting justice and countering violence, combating unjust discrimination, care for the environment, communications, media and culture, and global solidarity.

The bishops said they wanted to “call attention to issues with significant moral dimensions that should be carefully considered in each campaign and as policy decisions are made in the years to come.”

Part three lists goals for Catholics’ participation in political life, whether they are citizens, candidates or public officials. Notably, it invites Catholics to assess moral and ethical questions emanating from public policy issues. It also lists nine goals for Catholics to weigh in public life.

“Faithful Citizenship” also draws from the teaching of Pope Francis, Pope Benedict XVI, St. John Paul II, St. John XXIII, the Second Vatican Council, and the “Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church.”

The introductory letter reminds Catholics that “we bring the richness of our faith to the public square” and that “faith and reason inform our efforts to affirm both the dignity of the human person and the common good of all.”

The letter also says, “The threat of abortion remains our preeminent priority because it directly attacks life itself, because it takes place within the sanctuary of the family, and because of the number of lives destroyed.

At the same time, we cannot dismiss or ignore other serious threats to human life and dignity, such as racism, the environmental crisis, poverty and the death penalty.”

It concludes by reminding Catholics to “bring their faith and our consistent moral framework to contribute to important work in our communities, nation, and world on an ongoing basis, not just during election season.”

The full document also is available in Spanish.

The text of “Faithful Citizenship” can be downloaded as a free PDF from usccb.org, or it can be purchased by going to store.usccb.org.

In addition to English, the videos were produced in

Spanish, Tagalog and Vietnamese.

The productions explore various aspects of Catholic social teaching while reflecting on the teaching of Pope Francis.

The videos are posted on the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ website at faithfulcitizenship.org and the USCCB’s YouTube channel at bit.ly/31DHDGN. They are part of the bishops’ effort to broaden their outreach through the document.

“People respond to different media,” Archbishop Coakley said. “This is a very technically savvy audience today, especially younger voters. The videos use powerful images and brief statements that illustrate some of the teaching embodied in the formal document.”

Four English-language videos of about two minutes in length examine participation in public life, protecting human life and dignity, promoting the common good and loving others. The fifth video is a six-minute compilation of the highlights of the four shorter pieces.

The foreign language videos are slightly longer.

Each video was produced with young people in mind, said Jill Rauh, director of education and outreach in the USCCB’s Department of Justice Peace and Human Development.

Along with the images and voices of young people, each piece features one bishop narrating an aspect of Catholic social teaching. Each production closes with a different prayer specifically written for the series.

Scenes showing people feeding the hungry, protecting God’s creation, comforting the elderly, caring for children, migrant people and families, and engaging in civil discussions are prominent in the productions.

“The videos are meant to reflect the teaching of the bishops in ‘Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship,’” Rauh said. “The videos are really trying to make that teaching more accessible.”

Other wide-ranging resources are being made available to parishes, schools, prayer groups and other interested parties through the faithful citizenship web page.

As summer ends and Election Day, Nov. 3, nears, dioceses and parishes have been gearing up their use of “Faithful Citizenship” resources, according to social ministry directors across the country.

Archbishop Coakley said the bishops expect the guidance offered in the “Faithful Citizenship” materials will gain wider attention this year.

“My hope and prayer is that Catholics who really want their faith to influence their decision making when it comes to going to the polls will give the reflections in this document consideration rather than just going to their favorite news source,” he said. “That’s going to be a very different kind of guidance than what they receive from their favorite cable news anchor or pundit.

“This is our chance,” he said, “to bring a different light to bear to a very important fundamental civic responsibility.”

Making the poor a priority isn’t political, it’s the Gospel, pope says

By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service Church teaching on giving priority to the well-being of the poor and marginalized is not a political or ideological choice; it lies at the very heart of the Gospel, Pope Francis said.

The preferential option for the poor, which includes feeding the hungry and drawing close to the excluded, “is the key criterion of Christian authenticity,” he said Aug. 19 during his weekly general audience.

The principle also would include making sure that any vaccine developed for the novel coronavirus helps everyone, he added.

“It would be sad,” he said, if priority for a vaccine “were to be given to the

richest. It would be sad if this vaccine were to become the property of this nation or another, rather than universal and for all.”

During his audience, livestreamed from the library of the Apostolic Palace, Pope Francis continued a series of talks on the principles of the Church’s social doctrine as a guide for healing and building a better future, particularly as the world is struggling with a pandemic and its negative effects.

In fact, he said, a proper response to the pandemic is twofold: “On the one hand, it is essential to find a cure for this small but terrible virus, which has brought the whole world to its knees. On the other, we must also cure a larger virus, that of social injustice, inequality of

opportunity, marginalization and the lack of protection for the weakest.”

“It would be a scandal if all of the economic assistance we are observing — most of it with public money — were to focus on rescuing those industries that do not contribute to the inclusion of the excluded, the promotion of the least, the common good or the care of creation,” the pope said.

These are the four criteria that should be used “for choosing which industries should be helped: those which contribute to the inclusion of the excluded, to the promotion of the least, to the common good and the care of creation.”

Pope Francis said the COVID-19 pandemic “has exposed the plight of the poor and the great inequality that reigns

in the world” and it has made those inequalities and discrimination even worse.

One of the responses that must not be missing is the preferential option for the poor, he said.

This key element of the Church’s social teaching “is not a political option, nor is it an ideological option,” he said; it is “at the center of the Gospel.”

Jesus “stood among the sick, the poor, the excluded, showing them God’s merciful love,” he said.

The preferential option for the poor is a duty for all Christians and communities, he said, and it means doing more than providing needed assistance; it requires remedying the root causes and problems that lead to the need for aid.

10 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOLS BRACE FOR UNPREDICTABLE YEAR, LEARNING FROM THE SPRING

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By Christina Capecchi For The Catholic Spirit

T

he fear that Catholic schools would be hit hard by remote learning because the cost of tuition would be more difficult to justify has not panned out.

The opposite, in fact, is proving true.

Word is spreading that area Catholic high schools are uniquely suited to provide high-quality distance learning and are also equipped to provide more inperson learning than many of their public-school counterparts. As administrators finalize their plans for an unpredictable school year, they’re seeing a surge in interest from new families. It’s shaping up to be the busiest August in memory.

“If anyone had any idea how many hours are going into planning for next year, they’d be mystified,” said Frank Miley, president of Cretin-Derham Hall in St. Paul, which will use a hybrid model this fall, combining inperson and online learning.

Ian Parzyck, a science teacher, described a similar process at Holy Family Catholic High School in Victoria, which will reopen for full-time, in-person learning this fall. “When I think about all the things that have gone on this summer, it’s ‘no stone left unturned,’” he said. “We have looked at every angle and created a contingency plan for each angle, so we feel really comfortable about our return.”

The return also makes him feel really happy, he added.

“Last spring was gut-wrenching for me,” he said. “I became a teacher so I could be in a classroom, teaching science, and that was removed.”

Planning for the 2020-2021 school year began with assessing last spring’s rapid-fire switch to distance learning. The administrators of the archdiocese’s Catholic high schools forged a close collaboration, conducting weekly online meetings to swap strategies and offer support. As their teachers and students adapted to a new norm and reports emerged on widespread struggles at public schools, it became clear that Catholic high schools were rising to the challenge.

Looking back, administrators identify a number of advantages that set them up to succeed. Some pertained to technology. First, students in the Catholic high schools already had access to technology, including many one-to-one tablet or laptop programs. Second, the students had ample experience with that technology, and some, such as Cretin-Derham Hall, DeLaSalle High School in Minneapolis and Benilde-St. Margaret’s School in St. Louis Park, had been using it for distance learning on snow days.

“Our students and faculty had a built-in understanding of how the digital resources and tools worked,” said Sue Skinner, principal of BenildeSt. Margaret’s. “There was not a huge learning curve on that end, so our teachers were able to quickly select tools, digital resources and instructional strategies that provide the best virtual experience for students.”

A third factor that equipped Catholic high schools to excel, administrators said, is that their teachers and families are extraordinarily dedicated. This proved crucial. Together, they were invested in making remote

learning work, Parzyck said. “That’s the Holy Family way: Give us the Rubik’s cube, and we’ll figure it out and find a way to create some connectedness.”

That’s not to say the Rubik’s cube was easy, he added.

“If I have to stay up till 2 a.m. to get it ready, I’ll stay up till 2 a.m. to get it ready. This will be my 19th year of teaching, and my hardest year was last spring.”

But the effort paid off. Local Catholic high schools transitioned to online learning last March far more swiftly than public schools. Holy Family had even conducted a trial run, keeping the students at home one day in early March and then evaluating the online experience together the following day back in the classroom.

Extra effort was poured into communication, the glue to effective remote learning, Parzyck said. The veteran science teacher emailed his students weekly plans and posted them on Twitter. He constantly referenced their schedule and published his lectures on YouTube.

That leads to a fourth factor that enabled Catholic schools to thrive: a stronger sense of community. The close-knit ties that were cultivated long before COVID-19 were nurtured during closures, often in creative ways, including hair contests via Zoom and meme challenges.

These games were intended to inject levity amid a pandemic, said Annie Broos, Cretin-Derham Hall’s director of communications. “One of the things that the Catholic schools, as a system, did phenomenally well (last spring) is we cared for the whole child. What about their spiritual needs? What about anxiety in trying to figure this out? What do parents need to know so they can be helpful? That’s the secret sauce in terms of academic success: how to connect with the students.”

Listening to student feedback and circulating surveys allowed teachers to adapt on the fly. Some Catholic high schools switched to a block schedule — where students only take half their courses a day for longer periods and then switch to the other half the following day — to create less stress on families coping with the coronavirus.

More will make the switch this fall to accommodate online learning.

Having lower teacher-student ratios also made the online experience more adaptable.

A fifth factor that provided a safety net last spring was the generosity of benefactors. Catholic high schools were determined to help families who suddenly lost jobs or business, and their donors stepped up in a big way to offer tuition relief.

Cretin-Derham Hall raised $400,000 on one day. “I couldn’t believe it!” Miley said.

Those donations provided financial aid for more than 80 families, he said — and additional funds are allocated to help their families in the future.

Meanwhile, DeLaSalle raised $200,000 for a COVID-19 support fund that offered tuition assistance to more than 130 families.

These five factors converged to make for a successful spring in the midst of the pandemic, lifting the value of a Catholic education into sharp relief. And word spread.

Firsthand testimonials traveled around cul-de-sacs and across Zoom calls as July’s heat wave bore down.

They converged with another reality: Twin Cities

Catholic high schools seem more equipped to re-open their buildings this fall, thanks in part to smaller class sizes and better facilities. Cretin-Derham Hall students, for instance, will enjoy fuller access to their campus this year by eating lunch outside and going outside between classes, a 5-minute period that may be extended to 10 minutes.

Now, as administrators continue to review the state’s “Safe Learning Plan” announced by Gov. Tim Walz July 30 and to finalize their re-opening plans, many local Catholic high schools are seeing a surge in interest from prospective families.

New families have recently been contacting Holy Family because they’re seeking in-person learning and they’ve heard how special the school is, according to Scott Breimhorst, vice president for enrollment.

Meanwhile, at DeLaSalle, where a hybrid model will be used this fall, Director of Marketing Matt Lehman is seeing a similar uptick. “We are encouraged by the many families who have expressed interest in DeLaSalle for this school year, and have seen interest pick up following a decision by other local schools and districts who will begin the year with a full distance-learning model,” he said.

As of the first week of August, Academy of Holy Angels in Richfield had not announced the model it would use for re-opening, but enrollment was already up from last year’s 636 to 645 and climbing, said Sarah Hauer, marketing and communications officer.

“Parents are looking to give their kids a greater chance at the option of in-person or hybrid school, and our smaller class sizes in comparison to public schools increases that,” Hauer said. “Additionally, word of mouth spread about our success in AHAOnline, our distance-learning program.”

Holy Angels later announced that this fall, it will use a hybrid model.

Faculty have been busy building on the successes found in distance learning.

For instance, Cretin-Derham Hall teachers hope to make the online portion of their lessons more synchronous. “The faculty brought that up themselves,” Miley said. “We did a good job, but we can do better at that.”

He’s invested in new technology to make it happen: 360-degree cameras from Swivl.

Holy Family is making a similar investment to allow for online learning that feels more like a live broadcast than pre-recorded lecture videos, Parzyck said.

“There will be some kids who can’t come, so our job is to create an environment that makes it feel like they’re here even though they’re not,” he said. “I’m ridiculously ecstatic about that commitment (to the software and hardware). Part of what makes it fun to be a teacher is to be unscripted. But in an online world, I became heavily scripted. I had checklists. There’s less wiggle room for the creativity that flows in a teaching environment. I’m really excited because for me, as a teacher, that was what made my heart hurt. I was missing that opportunity to be with my kids and to be my creative self.”

“

The end of my sophomore year will definitely be one to remember as we had 10 weeks of online learning. Luckily, our teachers knew just what to do to make that time worthwhile and full of learning. One thing that I think really helped our online learning was our online practice day. The week before everything closed, Holy Family anticipated that they would move to online school, so they set up a practice day. All the teachers had assignments posted online and we had meetings in every class. The next day, we went back to school and collaborated about what went well and what didn’t work as well. From the programs used to the amount of work, everything was discussed to better help our learning. Through this, the teachers were able to learn about online classes from the students’ point of view and personally assist anyone that needed help. The following week, when online school was made mandatory, I felt 100 percent prepared and was able to learn with almost no difference from in class learning. I am really appreciative of Holy Family for always being willing to do what needs to be done for the students. We are always the No. 1 priority. I feel ready for my junior year because I know I finished my sophomore year out strong.

— Ellen Ries, Holy Family incoming junior

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AUGUST 27, 2020 • 11

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Siblings Ben and Olivia Kimlinger stand outside Cretin-Derham Hall high school in St. Paul Aug. 19 wearing masks the school will be giving to each student at the start of the school year. Ben will be a senior, Olivia a sophomore.

IN THEIR OWN WORDS

“

u

Reflecting on their experience with remote learning last spring, three high school students in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis shared the following:

I was definitely scared. I’ve never done online school, I’ve always had the same routine. Weirdly, I really missed taking tests in class. Just the environment of everyone around me focusing on the same thing and knowing the teacher was right there — it’s not the same doing it at home.

BSM has always placed a great emphasis on utilizing technology in the classroom, so when distance learning began, students were already equipped with the resources to succeed at home.

They were also familiar with the system, as we have online school rather than a school cancellation due to inclement weather. Additionally, teachers ensured that we had face-to-face connections with them at least once a week through a video conference with the whole class, and they were available for office hours every day, whether it was to get help on an assignment or to just chat about life. BSM worked hard to make sure that academic help was still readily accessible during remote learning. The administration conducted surveys and listened to our feedback to continuously revise the format of online school to allow students to have the most success.

Obviously, it was very different than being at school, but the transition to online school was smooth because of the hard work of the technology coordinators, teachers and administration.

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

u

— Sarah Luong, Benilde-St. Margaret’s graduating senior DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

u u

Teacher Ian Parzyck at Holy Family Catholic High School in Victoria holds a HuddleCam that he will use during class this fall. It can track his movements inside the classroom to help engage students who are learning from home. “It really is a game changer,” he said of the camera, which he will use for the first time in class. “It has already changed my thought process of how I am going to be able to do this as we walk back into school in a couple of weeks. I am super excited about it.”

u

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— Kerry Salisbury, Cretin-Derham Hall incoming senior

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Steve Pohlen, director of learning and technology at Benilde-St. Margaret’s School in St. Louis Park, stands in a classroom with technology used to both teach in the classroom and conduct distance learning for students who are at home. BSM will integrate more technology into everyday learning this year.

Shared screen and split screen capabilities utilizing classroom Promethean boards enables teachers to conduct lessons for their in-person and virtual students in tandem. The Zoom platform, along with classroom live stream conference cameras and Macbooks, allows for connectivity between students and teachers that is essential for learning.

12 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

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PAID ADVERTISEMENT

Thank you Catholic education is a priority for the Church.

Our Catholic schools and parish catechetical programs are served by extraordinary people committed to the mission of Catholic education.

As we plan for the safe return to our programs this fall, we are grateful for the dedication of our priests, leaders, teachers, catechists, and staff of our Catholic schools and parish catechetical programs. Their witness and commitment to partner with families in the education and formation of children is a reminder of the gift and essential work of Catholic education.

As we begin this academic year, be assured of our continued prayers and solidarity. ~ Office for the Mission of Catholic Education​​ Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis

United in Faith, Hope and Love

AUGUST 27, 2020

AUGUST 27, 2020

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THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 13

The first Catholic school to open this fall, Hill-Murray ‘pioneers’ COVID-19 protection plan

By Barb Umberger The Catholic Spirit

G

race Lavigne drove herself from her home in Woodbury to Hill-Murray School in nearby Maplewood the first day of the school year.

As vice president of the student council, the 16-yearold arrived early to decorate and join other council members greeting students in grades 6-12 at the school’s two main entrances.

The Aug. 19 opening is the earliest, in-person Catholic school opening in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, making it a forerunner in bringing students back to campus during the COVID-19 pandemic. As students arrived, they heard music playing and saw a big “Welcome Back” sign, school flags waving and two students dressed as mascots “Ma and Pa Pioneer.” Seniors enjoyed a “sunrise breakfast” followed by a prayer service before school.

Freshman Maggie St. Sauver, 14, also from Woodbury, and new to Hill-Murray, was understandably nervous as her mom drove her to school the first day.

“I told her it was perfectly normal because you’re a freshman, you’re switching schools and you’re coming back during a global pandemic,” said her mother, Wendi, a graphic designer who works at the school.

“But she was also pretty excited to be in a bigger school and where her mom works.”

When Maggie stopped by her mom’s office to pick up her lunch, she had two new friends in tow. “She loved it,” Wendi said. “It was a great day. I asked her how she would rate her first day on a scale of 1 to 10, and she said ‘a high 8.’”

Wendi was impressed that every student she saw throughout the day wore a mask and kept it on.

School staff wear masks or face shields.

Signs in the school remind students of new safety precautions and hand sanitizer is readily available.

Desks are spaced apart, and teachers’ desks have Plexiglas guards. In the cafeteria — used by some students who arrive early — chairs were marked with stickers, indicating which could be used and which were “spacers.”

Bobby Lawrence, newly 18, is among students starting their senior year. “It was great being back and just being in the classroom, even with restrictions, masks and stuff,” he said. “But it felt really good.”

Lawrence said he hadn’t seen about half of the friends he used to see at school since mid-March, when schools across Minnesota suspended in-person classes and moved to distance-learning due to the novel coronavirus. No hugs are allowed, but there were a few elbow bumps.

Lavigne, the student council vice president, shared Lawrence’s enthusiasm at being around classmates again.

“I think people are just really happy to be able to have that social aspect again because we lacked that for six months,” she said. “And I think it’s definitely taken a toll on everybody.”

The senior class met first thing with Erin Herman, high school principal and director, to go over expectations for the year.

“It was a pretty special feeling knowing that they were doing everything they could to get us back in school, and a lot of other schools couldn’t do that,” Lawrence said. Some schools in Minnesota are continuing with distance learning as their only option this fall. Most Catholic schools in the archdiocese are beginning the year with in-classroom learning.

At Hill-Murray, students were reminded throughout the day to avoid touching or hugging, and to keep a safe distance from one another to help prevent the virus’ spread, Lawrence said.

“You just have to move past that and … enjoy the good things about school,” he said. “It sounds kind of weird but … finally learning with your teacher right in front of you was really refreshing. You’re not staring at a screen six hours a day. They’re asking how you’re doing.”

Kelly Schwartzbauer, who teaches seventh- and ninth-grade English, said that with students returning, the school was full of life and energy again. On the first day, “I just lit up, knowing I’d have kids in my

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Teacher Jennie Sabraski helps junior Kristin Kaufman during honors pre-calculus class at Hill-Murray School in Maplewood Aug. 20, the second day of the 2020-2021 academic year. room again,” she said.

Many things felt familiar, she said, like hearing of a student who forgot a locker combination. But some things are quite new, such as box lunches delivered to her classroom for students who ordered them, because the cafeteria isn’t being used to serve food.

Even while facing a classroom of masked students carefully spaced apart — and teaching under a face shield — the first day felt incredibly normal and, overall, very joyful, Schwartzbauer said.

It sounds kind of weird but … finally learning with your teacher right in front of you was really refreshing. You’re not staring at a screen six hours a day.

They’re asking how you’re doing.

Bobby Lawrence More than 800 hours of staff time were spent developing a health and safety plan for the school, said Hill-Murray President Jim Hansen.

He said the team first identified the school’s value systems, with decisions made based on those values.

“We placed the educational commitment we have to parents, to provide a rigorous academic experience, equal to the commitment we have for safety. Trying to keep academics of equal importance with safety was … a constant struggle for us,” he said.

During its 2020 summer program, 790 students participated in classes, arts and learning activities and athletics, Hansen said. Precautions and actions mirrored what would happen when the school year began. The school hired an additional nurse during the summer program, whose duties included taking random temperature checks.

Two students tested positive for coronavirus during the summer session, Hansen said. Neither had significant symptoms. One attended baseball camp, so the camp was closed for three days. The other was in the football program and that student was quarantined. “So we didn’t need to shut down school,” he said.

Today, each classroom is disinfected after every class, Hansen said. The school’s cleaning staff also cleans at night.

“Just hearing the kids in the hallway is so uplifting

EARLY START In June, school leaders decided to start the 2020-2021 school year nearly two weeks earlier than planned and extend it into June. That was based on a pandemicrelated model used in Germany last spring.

Rather than closing schools, German students were asked to stay home during a two-week quarantine period. Students were then brought back to classrooms for three weeks followed by another quarantine period, and then brought back, so they were able to complete the school year. “We thought that made a lot of sense, so we are using a similar type of schedule this year,” said Jim Hansen, president of Hill-Murray School.

So Hill-Murray moved up the beginning of its school year, starting Aug. 19 and 20. The school is in session for a couple weeks, followed by a school break built into the schedule, then three weeks of classes and another break period, then three weeks followed by Thanksgiving break, and three weeks and then a two-week break at Christmas.

“We’ve built some natural quarantine periods into our calendar,” Hansen said. “So we will be prepared and, if we need to, could do distance learning around one of those weeks, which gives us 14 days naturally built into our calendar. That way, parents could make vacation plans and manage it.”

Hansen said that if an outbreak occurs, this schedule would give school leaders a way to manage it. “We could just send everybody home for a week, plus a week of vacation already built in.”

Hansen said “contact hours” — classroom time — with students remain the same as a normal school year. “So we’re back to the values statement,” he said, referring to the values that guided Hill-Murray’s school plan. “We were equally concerned about not just safety, but with their academic experience. So by starting earlier, we could keep the number of contact minutes with kids the same, but still provide all these extra breaks throughout the year.”

— Barb Umberger

for all of us who work here,” Wendi St. Sauver said.

“The teachers are excited to have the kids back. The halls are full of energy because you can feel the kids are so happy to be back.”

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AUGUST 27, 2020

COVID-19 changes campus classes, dining halls, dorms and maybe fees

By Carol Zimmermann Catholic News Service

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he fall semester at Catholic colleges and universities around the country will look and feel very different.

As the nation continues to grapple with the coronavirus pandemic, university life is cautiously stepping back into the fray of bringing students, faculty and staff members together under extreme restrictions.

Crowded lecture halls, sporting events and dining halls will be a thing of the past. Instead, classes will either be predominantly online or significantly smaller, with separated seating and plexiglass barriers. Dorms will be at reduced capacities and primarily singlesonly rooms. Grab and go meals will replace self-serve buffets in dining halls.

Fall sports at many schools have already been canceled.

And that’s just the start.

Catholic colleges and universities, like their public and private counterparts nationwide, will be operating on an entirely different playbook this fall.

School emergency response teams at most colleges have put together COVID-19 guidelines detailing what’s required at every level of university life, with plenty of emphasis on social distancing, sanitizing, health checks and contact-free services.

The Chronicle of Higher Education, which is tracking 1,250 colleges, reported July 26 that 50% of colleges and universities are planning in-person classes this fall and 35% are planning a hybrid model. Only 12% of institutions will start the semester with just online programs; 2.7% are considering a range of scenarios and less than 1% were still undecided.

These plans all come with the caveat that they are subject to change following national and local guidelines and COVID-19’s unpredictable spread.

Catholic higher education’s fall plan is a similar mix of online, in-person and hybrid scenarios.

A chart developed by the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities shows that most Jesuit schools across the country are planning a hybrid combination of in-person and online classes with only a few schools saying they were specifically one or the other.

Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles, Loyola University Chicago and the University of San Francisco plan to offer primarily remote learning while Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, Loyola University in New Orleans, St. Louis University and Xavier University in Cincinnati plan to be inperson.

Georgetown University, which had planned to be a mix of in-person and online, announced July 29 that it would be virtual for the fall semester due to the trajectory of the COVID-19 pandemic and new restrictions put in place by Washington’s mayor.

“This was a very difficult decision — and one that I know will disappoint members of our community who have been eagerly anticipating a return to campus,” the university’s president, John DeGioia, said in an announcement on the university’s website.

Another change for almost all U.S. colleges this fall is the academic calendar.

Most colleges are starting earlier,

MARIA WIERING | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

St. Catherine University displays a sign with COVID-19 policies outside its iconic campus gate in St. Paul. eliminating fall holidays and ending their in-person session either just before Thanksgiving break or concluding the semester virtually, with online exams, in the first few weeks of December.

One of the first Catholic colleges to announce they were using this plan was the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. A letter to faculty posted May 18 by the university’s president, Holy Cross Father John Jenkins, said the school would begin classes during the week of Aug. 10 and continue without a fall break in order to end the semester before Thanksgiving. By not having breaks, the school hopes to eliminate students coming back to campus with potential infections. However, shortly after beginning the fall semester, the university temporarily transitioned to distance-only learning due to a COVID-19 outbreak. (See sidebar.)

On campuses, posted signs will remind people to social distance and wear face masks. Cleaning supplies will be at the ready and students will have to wipe down some areas before using them.

Another big change is student housing.

To keep the numbers down, many colleges are only offering on-campus housing to freshmen and not allowing visitors after move-in day.

Loyola Chicago announced it is reducing the number of students living on campus by nearly 50% and is making all of its double rooms single. The campus will not be taking out the excess furniture, so the school advised students in an online form to think of creative ways to use that extra twin bed, desk and dresser.

Another new twist this semester will be the requirement by many colleges for faculty, students and staff members to do daily health checks either online or on a campus app.

What colleges can’t control, of course, is what students do off hours with parties, group gatherings or going to bars.

Some schools are asking their students to sign a pledge promising to wear a mask and keep safe distances even at off campus events. In the pledge from St. Mary’s University of Minnesota, a Lasallian school in Winona with a Minneapolis campus focused on graduate-level studies, signers promise to protect themselves and others by following basic protocols and keeping personal and shared spaces clean as well as “observing protocols for group gatherings.”

Other schools, like Providence College in Rhode Island, include behaviors to stop spread of COVID-19 in their conduct codes. Providence is requiring students to sign a form acknowledging

that they have read and understand the expectations and potential sanctions for not adhering to social distancing or wearing face masks.

Another change students might notice this year will be in costs. Most colleges and universities indicate on their campus websites they will help students obtain federal emergency financial aid grants available to those impacted by the pandemic.

Some schools, like Mount St. Mary’s University in Los Angeles, are freezing the cost of tuition for returning students.

Georgetown University had already planned to give students not living on campus a 10% reduction in tuition. And now, with the school changing its plans for all-virtual learning, it is reducing fall semester tuition for all undergraduates by 10%.

Walsh University, founded by the Christian Brothers, in North Canton, Ohio, has gone some steps further by offering students financial incentives, new majors and a more flexible eightweek term.

The school is offering free on-campus housing for eight weeks of the fall semester for freshmen and transfers and will freeze tuition for sophomores, juniors and seniors.

“This is in addition to the already planned freshman tuition freeze,” the school’s president, Tim Collins, said, noting the tuition freeze is meant to provide financial stability during this challenging time.

While all Catholic colleges and universities have implemented major changes, some, in more rural areas, did not have to do quite as much adjusting because with their smaller size they already have some built-in social distancing.

For example, the University of Mary, in Bismarck, North Dakota, which like other universities, has detailed protocols in place for this fall, points out in a news release about the school’s reopening that the university is one of a few nationwide with a 24/7 dining hall that has less crowding at peak times and allows students to eat where they want when they want without space issues.

The school’s large classrooms with its small student body — 14 to 1 student-tofaculty-ratio — also means classes did not have to be significantly modified.

But even its rural location and smaller student body population do not make the school immune to the coronavirus pandemic. To combat the virus, the school has identified levels of risk, from level one or “new normal” where it can continue operations with heightened hygiene and cleaning standards, to a fifth “critical level” where all classes move to online and only essential employees work from campus.

When the university begins the fall semester Sept. 8, the campus will be on level 3, “moderate risk.”

“We are all in this together. So, in order for this to work successfully, students, faculty and staff need to adhere to the designated guidelines and protocols at each specific risk/action level,” said Jerome Richter, the school’s executive vice president.

But using the term potential risk levels in a school reopening message highlights just how different this school year already is.

— The Catholic Spirit contributed to this story.

LOCAL APPROACH At the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, plans are in place for a hybrid approach, with “a mixture of in-person classes (in larger rooms with more space between seats) and online/remote instruction,” according to its website. In an Aug. 18 message to the university’s faculty and staff, President Julie Sullivan said the university has reached a level of readiness that allows it to return to operating under normal business hours. She noted that law school students planned to return Aug. 24. Undergraduates’ first day of classes is Sept. 9.

“I know many of you, however, are feeling anxiety due to the unknowns of the upcoming semester and news reports from campuses around the country that have already started their fall classes. Please know that I share many of your concerns,” Sullivan said in the letter. “As we reopen campus, it is important that we remain flexible in our response to COVID-19 and vigilant in our behavior. We will continue to closely monitor the virus, its impact on our community and our ability to respond to keep our campus as safe as possible.

While I hope we will not need to dial back our operations, we are prepared to make decisions necessary to provide a healthy and safe environment for our students, faculty and staff.”

She said that keeping campus open depends on the university’s ability to “cover up,” “space out” and “wash up” — wearing masks, social distancing, and regularly washing and sanitizing hands.

St. Catherine University in St. Paul has a similar preparedness plan, which includes classes being delivered in three models: face-to-face, hybrid and online, beginning Sept. 9. In an Aug. 14 letter to the university community, President Becky Roloff reiterated main points from the health and wellness policies.

“Our goal for the fall semester is to take a cautious and conservative approach to return to an engaged, vibrant campus carefully over time and as it is safe to do so,” Roloff said. “The health and well-being of our students, faculty and staff remain at the center of our decisions, and we remain committed to and guided by our mission to educate women to lead and influence and values of academic excellence, community, integrity, social justice and reflection.”

— The Catholic Spirit

NOTRE DAME GOES VIRTUAL The University of Notre Dame announced Aug. 18 that it is suspending its in-person classes for undergraduates for two weeks after a rise in COVID-19 cases on its campus in South Bend, Indiana. Since classes resumed Aug. 10, Notre Dame’s campus has seen a steady increase in positive coronavirus cases among students, primarily seniors living off-campus. As of midday Aug. 18, 146 students and one staff member tested positive among the 927 who have been tested since Aug. 3. Also, on Aug. 18, the university had its highest number — 80 positive cases — of coronavirus. During the school’s second week of in-person classes, the university reported that some of its coronavirus cases could be traced to an off-campus party.

— Catholic News Service

AUGUST 27, 2020

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 15

FROMAGETOAGE

Retirement?

Not just yet for seminary booster Msgr. Callaghan

By Dave Hrbacek The Catholic Spirit

M

sgr. Aloysius Callaghan willingly and gracefully handed over the role as rector of The St. Paul Seminary to Father Joseph Taphorn in 2018. But, he is working as passionately as ever to help an institution he led for 13 years continue forming priests to serve the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

He still has an office in the building, personalized by pictures of bishops he has served during his nearly five decades of priesthood, plus a stuffed dog given to him

by Archbishop Harry Flynn, who brought him on board in 2005, and with whom Msgr. Callaghan had a deep friendship until the archbishop’s death in September 2019.

“Archbishop Flynn was my hero,” said Msgr.

Callaghan, who will turn 74 Sept. 15. “He’d light up a room. And, I’ve always said — and I say it today — I never was with him at any time that I didn’t walk away feeling just better. I so admired him.”

That inspiration continues to drive Msgr. Callaghan into passionate service of the archdiocese. Now, he works in community relations and advancement for the seminary, and would be in his second year going

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Msgr. Aloysius Callaghan continues to serve at The St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul, after working as its rector from 2005 to 2018. to Rome with seminarians of St. John Vianney College Seminary at the University of St. Thomas — except the fall semester at the Pontifical Irish College, where the students live, was canceled because of COVID-19. He is hopeful that the program will resume during the spring semester, and that he then could go to Rome with the seminarians.

In the meantime, in addition to his seminary duties, he is serving at two parishes in the western part of the archdiocese: St. Timothy in Maple Lake and St. Ignatius in Annandale. He lives at the rectory at St. Timothy, and was quarantined there in May after he and two priests who serve at the two parishes, Father John Meyer, pastor, and Father Andrew Stueve, parochial vicar, tested positive for COVID-19.

Fortunately, no one became seriously ill. Msgr.

Callaghan said he “had a raspy throat, runny nose,

some fever, some nausea” and fatigue.

“We called ourselves the ‘corona kids,’” he said, in reference to the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19. “I said we won the trifecta because three of us got it at one time.”

As the priests lived isolated during the month of May, they came up with the idea of doing a weekly video that they call “From a Distance.” Father Meyer, who was ordained in 2008 and was in formation at the seminary while Msgr. Callaghan was rector, teams up with Msgr.

Callaghan to give parish updates, answer questions people send in, and bring in guests to talk about a particular topic or ministry. The format is similar to what Msgr. Callaghan calls a “fireside chat.”

Doing this and other types of parish ministry “keeps me active, which I like to be,” Msgr. Callaghan said.

He also finds great fulfillment in his continued involvement at the seminary. At one time, he supervised Tom Ryan, longtime vice president for institutional advancement. Now, they work side by side, with Msgr. Callaghan using his charismatic personality and joyful demeanor to promote the seminary and help in fundraising. Once the pandemic ends, he plans to speak to groups about a seminary whose theme “Joyful Catholic Leaders” is written on his heart.

“My 13 years as rector… gave me life,” Msgr.

Callaghan said. “I loved every minute of it. I told Father Taphorn (about the transition to being rector emeritus), ‘Well, I’m going from being father to grandfather.’”

And, this “grandfather” looks back with pride on how the seminary has benefited the local Church.

“In my time here, we had about 74 priests ordained for this archdiocese, and maybe a hundred and seventysome altogether,” he said. “I told the archbishop, ‘You can be proud of our men.’ … I think they’re doing wonderful work, and they’re excited about being priests.”

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AUGUST 27, 2020

16 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

FOCUSONFAITH SUNDAY SCRIPTURES | FATHER NELS GJENGDAHL

Remaining open to God’s will

I have had the privilege of being a high school chaplain for eight years. It was not the assignment that I imagined having when I was ordained a priest, but I have found such great joy in serving God in this capacity. One of the gifts of being in the high school setting and teaching is the unique opportunity to see students grow in all areas of knowledge. Often, students will enter their freshman year with interest to learn. Then, by sophomore year, they are convinced that they know everything. Often, during junior or senior year, the students rediscover the importance of applying themselves to the great joy of learning.

There are, however, those sad moments when I see a student who has decided that he or she knows everything necessary for life and his or her spiritual well-being. At this point, they are done learning.

When they are convinced that they know it all, their wills shut down and they cease to grow, discover or better themselves. And sadly, this same thing can happen in our spiritual lives.

In the letter to the Romans we hear at Mass on the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Paul writes, “Do not conform yourselves to this age, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that you may discern what is the will of God ... .” Paul was writing this to people who already had been baptized and were trying to live the Catholic life. They were, in a certain sense, already “enrolled” in school.

However, Paul detected in them that they were growing stagnant

FAITH FUNDAMENTALS | FATHER MICHAEL VAN SLOUN

Anointing with oil during confirmation

A special kind of oil, sacred chrism, is an integral part of the celebration of the sacrament of confirmation. The minister dips his right thumb into a small bowl of chrism, then raises his oiled thumb, places it on the forehead of the candidate, and with a stroke down and a stroke across, anoints the forehead in the shape of a cross with the words, “Be sealed with the Gift of the Holy Spirit.” The anointing with holy oil imparts the seal of the sacrament.

The sacred chrism (s.c., “sacrum chrisma”) that is used for confirmation is a sacramental, a blessed substance. It is one of three types of holy oil, along with the oil of the catechumens (o.c., “oleum catechumenorum”) and the oil of the sick (o.i., “oleum infirmorum”). All three holy oils are blessed by the bishop at the annual chrism Mass, distributed to the parishes throughout the diocese, and often reserved in a special repository called an ambry.

In addition to its use for confirmation, sacred chrism is also used for baptism and holy orders and to consecrate sacred objects such as an altar, chalice, paten or church building.

Olive oil is the preferred oil for sacred chrism, although any kind of vegetable oil may be used. Balsam, a fragrant substance, is often added to give it a sweet-smelling aroma.

An anointing with oil has many layers of symbolism both in sacred Scripture and in ancient society. Kings were installed, consecrated or raised to their high office with an anointing of oil: Saul by Samuel (1 Sm 10:1), David by the elders of Israel (2 Sm 5:3), and Solomon by Nathan the prophet and

in their spiritual lives. They were beginning to rely on their own power and forgetting that to live the life of a disciple of Jesus meant that they needed to foster and nurture their relationship with God every day. It is God who is perfect, and it was their continual task to conform their mind, soul and heart to the will of God. The danger, as Paul identifies, is when they stop the “renewal” of their mind, when they think they have reached perfection. And in the Gospel reading (Mt 16:21-27), we see why this is a danger.

Peter and the Apostles had the privilege of being close to Jesus, to be “insiders” to God’s messianic plan. Yes, they had left everything and followed Jesus; they were beginning the life of faith. But Peter fell victim to the temptation of thinking that he was perfected in his knowledge of God’s will. This is why, when Jesus revealed that the Messiah was to be crucified, Peter tried to correct Jesus, which received a divine rebuke of memorable magnitude. Jesus was forceful to Peter, not because he hated Peter, but because he loved Peter and wanted the best for Peter — namely to be aligned with the perfect will of the Father. And so it must be for us today.

Just as with Peter, we may be tempted to think that we have reached perfection in living the Catholic life: We follow the Ten Commandments, we attend Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation, we go to the sacrament of confession and contribute to our parish. It is at this moment we must listen to St. Paul and turn to the Lord in prayer asking: “In what way can I be conformed to your will even more? What am I still holding on to that is preventing me from being closer to you? What is it that I do not yet see in my life?

What is standing in the way of me becoming a saint for you?”

When we ask these questions in prayer and humility, we open ourselves to the Holy Spirit even more to allow the grace of God into our lives, to allow us to conform ever more to the perfect will of God. Then, we will be even closer to the saints that God wills us to be.

Father Gjengdahl is chaplain of Holy Family Catholic High School in Victoria.

Zadok the priest (1 Kgs 1:34, 39). People who are confirmed are consecrated and raised to a new and greater spiritual status, dedicated to God, called to a unique vocation, given the power and authority to take control of their lives, acknowledge Jesus as their king, dedicate their lives to him, embrace his mission, share in his work and give witness to him.

An anointing with oil is a seal that connotes ownership. Military officers anointed their soldiers. Masters anointed their slaves.

People anointed during confirmation belong to God, offer their lives in service to God and willingly agree to take their orders from God and obey them.

Soldiers were anointed before going to war, wrestlers before going into the ring and gladiators before facing an opponent. The anointing made their muscles glisten with the appearance of power and strength, thus intimidating their opponent, and it made them slippery, which made it easier to escape the grasp of their adversary.

When people are confirmed, they are given strength for the battles to come, the daily confrontation with the devil, temptation, wrongdoers and those who oppose Jesus, his Gospel, goodness and truth. Not only does the oil give strength to fight sin with valor and courage, it soothes muscles wearied by battle fatigue and gives relief, and promotes healing to the cuts and gashes suffered in war with the darkness.

Oil is also a sign of worship (Ex 25:6b), light (Ex 27:20), nourishment (Ex 29:2; Ez 16:13), an abundant harvest (1 Kgs 5:25) and how God provides (1 Kgs 17:12-16). It is a sign of cleansing (Ru 3:3; Ez 16:9), care for another (2 Chr 28:15), tithing (Tb 1:7), a seat at the eternal banquet (Ps 23:5), gladness (Ps 45:8; Is 61:3; Heb 1:9), selection by God (Ps 89:21; Is 61:1; 2 Cor 1:21-22) and the presence and power of the Holy Spirit (Is 61:1; Acts 10:38). It is a sign of repentance (Lk 7:38), welcome (Lk 7:46), healing (Mk 6:13; Lk 10:34), reverence for the body (Mk 16:1), love (Jn 11:2) and respect (Jn 12:3).

Father Van Sloun is pastor of St. Bartholomew in Wayzata.

This column is part of an ongoing series on confirmation.

Find the series at TheCatholicSpirit.com.

DELPIXART | ISTOCK

DAILY Scriptures Sunday, Aug. 30 Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time Jer 20:7-9 Rom 12:1-2 Mt 16:21-27 Monday, Aug. 31 1 Cor 2:1-5 Lk 4:16-30 Tuesday, Sept. 1 1 Cor 2:10b-16 Lk 4:31-37 Wednesday, Sept. 2 1 Cor 3:1-9 Lk 4:38-44 Thursday, Sept. 3 St. Gregory the Great, pope and doctor of the Church 1 Cor 3:18-23 Lk 5:1-11 Friday, Sept. 4 1 Cor 4:1-5 Lk 5:33-39 Saturday, Sept. 5 1 Cor 4:6b-15 Lk 6:1-5 Sunday, Sept. 6 Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time Ez 33:7-9 Rom 13:8-10 Mt 18:15-20 Monday, Sept. 7 1 Cor 5:1-8 Lk 6:6-11 Tuesday, Sept. 8 Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Mi 5:1-4a Mt 1:1-16, 18-23 Wednesday, Sept. 9 St. Peter Claver, priest 1 Cor 7:25-31 Lk 6:20-26 Thursday, Sept. 10 1 Cor 8:1b-7, 11-13 Lk 6:27-38 Friday, Sept. 11 1 Cor 9:16-19, 22b-27 Lk 6:39-42 Saturday, Sept. 12 1 Cor 10:14-22 Lk 6:43-49 Sunday, Sept. 13 Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time Sir 27:30‒28:7 Rom 14:7-9 Mt 18:21-35

AUGUST 27, 2020

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 17

COMMENTARY YOUR HEART, HIS HOME | LIZ KELLY

Where you face resistance in letting Jesus approach, remember who you are!

‘Where does it hurt?’

Some months ago, at a seminar on healing prayer, the priest leading the study told us a charming — and instructive — story. It went something like this: Out riding his bike as a little boy, he took a bad spill. It was summer and he had been wearing shorts. His exposed legs took the brunt of the fall, gathering up a slew of pebbles and dirt in the scrape. A typical, burning “road rash.”

He ran into the house crying and sure that he would die. His mother, a nurse, assured him he would be all right and took him upstairs to the bathtub to clean his leg. Of course, this notion brought on a new trauma: The cleaning would hurt. A bubbling hydrogen peroxide bath doesn’t sound all that appealing to a child in pain — he wouldn’t allow his mother to wash the wound.

But, washing it was necessary for it to heal. So, in a stroke of motherly genius, his mother asked, “Where does it hurt the most?” The boy pointed to the worst of the scrape, and his mother leaned down and lightly kissed the spot.

And suddenly, the pain was much more tolerable for the boy, and his mother was able to gently clean the wound — she was an expert at this after all, trained and experienced as a nurse — and the little boy’s world was set to right once again. With a bandage in place, a peck on the head and a deeper confidence in his mother’s care, he went back outside to play.

As a spiritual director, you are frequently instructed to encourage the directee to talk about what they don’t want to talk about. “Go precisely where you don’t want to go; go where it hurts.” For that is where our spiritual work is. Like a little child who’s taken a painful tumble from a bike, we do not want to present this wound for washing. Resistance of this kind often reveals exactly where our spiritual work needs be done.

CATHOLIC WATCHMEN | DEACON GORDON BIRD

Spiritual support through small groups “Encourage yourselves” daily while it is still ‘today’…” (Heb 3:13). When spiritual leadership is a robust, encouraging presence in the household, the faith tends to resonate and stick in multi-fold fashion in the heart of the family.

As a result, evangelization, prayer and catechesis manifest both within and outside the home, giving sound reasons why the family is such a vital unit of society. It provides an example of virtuous Christian living in faith, hope and charity to others. A family that witnesses its domestic, faith-based fellowship to neighbors, friends, its parish and the greater community ignites others to follow their lead in the virtues. The Holy Family, the first domestic Church, brought the answer to everlasting life into the world — as a small group.

Small groups are gaining traction nowadays — somewhat by restriction — but mostly by the need for communal relationships on a safe pod with trusting

STEFANAMER | ISTOCK PHOTOS

Where you face resistance in letting Jesus approach, remember who you are!

Much of the Christian life and certainly spiritual direction could be likened to this tender moment between the little boy and his mother. Jesus — the master of healing and forgiveness — approaches us in our woundedness and gently asks, “Tell me, where does it hurt the most?” The hard part is to allow him to tend to those places that feel most vulnerable — whether it be the sin we are most ashamed of, or a sin that has been committed against us, leaving us wounded and raw.

Where you face resistance in letting Jesus approach, remember who you are! Paul says it so convincingly

friends. To thrive, people need friendships. While the cautious, sensitive environment in which we live today can dampen our spirits at times, personal engagement via small group activities provides an encouraging response that strengthens its participants in striving for holiness. Christian fellowship is personal, prayerful and active — which makes engaging regularly in fellowship with others in small groups so powerful. By encouraging each other via a common end in mind — eternal life in friendship with Christ — we work to better imitate Jesus in spreading the Good News.

Manifesting a life of faith does not require a major pep rally. After Pentecost — where 3,000 were evangelized and subsequently baptized by the Apostles — spreading and sharing the faith was practically all about engaging others in small groups. A more personal approach still works most effectively today.

Christ knew that people who create common bonds of fellowship become stronger. That is the premise behind the discipline within the Catholic Watchmen movement that asks men to engage regularly in small groups for encouragement and strength. “Iron sharpens iron, like one man sharpens another” (Prv 27:17). All disciplines of the initiative are meant to be a dynamic marquee inside the hearts of men. (Visit the Catholic Watchmen website for daily, weekly and monthly disciplines.)

Building fraternity and evangelizing men in regular group fellowship is the anchor of the movement. It makes men better spiritual protectors, providers and leaders at home.

Research shows that when men deem to be better spiritual fathers on the home front, it complements the faith-driven efforts of those with whom they live.

Small group fellowship via Watchmen disciplines

in Ephesians 1:5-11: “He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ. … In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us. … In him you … were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit.”

Grace has been lavished upon you. You are marked and chosen as a child of God, sealed with the Holy Spirit — and no sin-tumble in you is beyond the tender touch of heaven.

Merciful Father, teach my heart to trust you with those places where it hurts the most.

Kelly is the author of seven books, including the awardwinning “Jesus Approaches” (2017) and the “Your Heart, His Home Prayer Companion” (2019). Visit her website at lizk.org and Instagram @lizktoday.

Christian fellowship is personal, prayerful and active — which makes engaging regularly in fellowship with others in small groups so powerful.

provides encouragement and accountability, helping men be better men — something we all want to improve upon. This is the qualitative dimension of the Christian friendship that reaches beyond data sets.

Through trusting relationships, men need to hear other men’s struggles and testimonies on how Christ has impacted their lives. This close and personal experience is the first step in evangelization. Families can truly benefit and flourish in holiness as men become more accountable and step up to be spiritual leaders. When families flourish, neighborhoods, parishes, workplaces and societies flourish. And that’s a great reason to start up or join a small group today!

“The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of seeds, but …” (Mt 13:31).

Deacon Bird ministers at St. Joseph in Rosemount and All Saints in Lakeville, and assists the archdiocese’s Catholic Watchmen movement. Reach him at gordonbird@rocketmail.com. Learn about the Catholic Watchmen at archspm.org/faith-communities/men or at facebook.com/thecatholicwatchmen.

18 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

COMMENTARY

AUGUST 27, 2020

FAITH IN THE PUBLIC ARENA DAVID CRAWFORD, MICHAEL HANBY AND MARGARET HARPER MCCARTHY

LETTERS More teaching on racism needed

The abolition of man and woman

I much appreciated the article about racism from Laura Kelly Fanucci (“Teach us to fight racism,” July 16). I agree about not hearing anything about racism from the Catholic Church. Someone needs to teach us about it and help us to teach our children.

Janet Bauch St. Michael, Pine Island

Editor’s Note: A version of this column first appeared June 24 in The Wall Street Journal.

It is reprinted by the Minnesota Catholic Conference with permission.

The commonplace assumption of American liberalism, that courts merely preside over contests of rights, conceals the limitless power of the judiciary to decide questions of truth without thinking deeply or even honestly about them. Bostock v. Clayton County is a case in point.

Justice Gorsuch claims, in writing for the majority, that the Supreme Court’s decision to include LGBT identity under Title VII’s definition of “sex” is a narrow ruling about “sex discrimination” in employment, leaving concerns like locker rooms and religious liberty for future litigation. But underneath the false modesty of this declaration lies a much more fundamental decision with vast implications. The court has intervened in the most bitterly contested question of our time — a question of philosophy before it is a question of law — and codified a radical new conception of human nature with a dubious ideological history. It has inscribed the abolition of man and woman into law.

The entire argument of the case, repeated ad nauseam throughout its 30 long pages, is that adverse employment decisions based on LGBT status are necessarily a form of “sex discrimination.” Why? Because it is impossible to make these decisions without treating similarly situated individuals differently, based on their sexes. If a male employee who “identifies” as a woman were in fact a woman instead of a man, he would not have suffered adverse treatment. Hence, Justice Gorsuch confidently tells us, “she” is necessarily the victim of discrimination based on sex.

The argument would be laughable were its implications not so humanly disastrous. Crucial to observe are the argument’s presuppositions. Justice Gorsuch thinks that a man who “identifies” as a woman is similarly situated to a woman who “identifies” as a woman. For him to think this, he must assume that the relationship between our embodiment as male and female and our personal subjectivity (as expressed in “identity”) are essentially arbitrary and that they therefore lack any organic or natural unity. These assumptions then imply that a man who “identifies” as a woman might really be a woman, that to be a woman is a mental state, that we really are Cartesian “ghosts in the machine.” Without such assumptions, Justice Gorsuch could not claim that such a man and woman are similarly situated.

These are metaphysical judgments. Yet Justice Gorsuch naively fails to recognize that the crux of his argument relies on and effectively codifies them. The question of sex discrimination in employment is relatively unimportant compared to the momentous imposition by law of these very questionable philosophical propositions with their vast implications for society.

It is impossible to redefine human nature for just one person. When a fourth-grade girl is required to affirm in thought, word and deed that a boy in her class is now a girl, this does not simply affirm the classmate’s right to self-expression. It radically calls into question the meaning of “boy” and “girl” as such, thereby also calling into question both her own “identity” and that of everyone in her life, from her mother and father to her brothers and sisters, and all of her friends and relatives.

As well it should. If each of us is defined by a sexual or gender “identity” only arbitrarily related to our male and female bodies, now relegated to a meaningless biological substrate, then in fact there is no longer any such thing as man or woman as heretofore understood. We are all transgender now, even if gender and sexual identity

SEPT. 1: WORLD DAY OF PRAYER FOR THE CARE OF CREATION In 2015 Pope Francis established World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation as an opportunity for individuals and communities “to reaffirm their personal vocation to be stewards of creation, to thank God for the wonderful handiwork which he has entrusted to our care, and to implore his help for the protection of creation as well as his pardon for the sins committed against the world in which we live.”

In stewarding creation, we must recall that Pope Francis tells us in “Laudato si’” that our bodies place “us in a direct relationship with the environment and with other living beings.” Therefore, we must learn to “accept our body, to care for it and to respect its fullest meaning” and value our bodies in their femininity and masculinity.

You can learn to become a better steward of all of creation with the “Minnesota, Our Common Home” resources, including a six-week study guide and the “Ecological Examen” — a prayer resource. To find these, visit mncatholic.org/ourcommonhome.

Christian approach I do not understand anyone who is opposed to wearing a mask especially those calling themselves Christians. I always felt that if you are a Christian, then you would most certainly care about others.

This does not seem to be the case. When you wear a mask, you are protecting others from getting the virus. When others wear a mask, they are protecting you. There is nothing that says God does not want you to protect yourself. He gave you a brain to make smart decisions. There are doctors and nurses at hospitals that are flooded with people dying. Do you not have compassion for our healthcare workers? It’s sad when people only think of themselves in this time of need.

Roxanne Sandquist St. Pius X, White Bear Lake

Banning David Haas’ music What we are dealing with here is nothing less than a war on the very principle of reality itself. And everyone has just been pressed into service. accidentally coincide in a great majority of instances.

To settle questions of truth by force of law is a characteristic of totalitarian regimes. And this example shows just how totalizing this ruling really is. It requires everyone to live for all public and practical purposes as if what they know to be true in their pre-ideological experience of reality — an awareness we drink in with our mother’s milk — were officially false, a “stereotype.”

Even worse, it requires everyone to live for all public and practical purposes as if what they know to be false were officially true. Ironically, what is now “true” is nothing but stereotypes, that bundle of mannerisms, dress, makeup and hairstyles by which one imagines what it feels like to be a woman or a man. Worse still, it prefers them especially when they are at odds with ones’ actual sex.

The war on pronouns, an assault upon the very language by which we recognize a world in common, follows of necessity. What we are dealing with here is nothing less than a war on the very principle of reality itself. And everyone has just been pressed into service.

There is no totalitarianism so total as that which claims authority over the meaning of nature. Increasingly we find the courts assuming this authority, though this power is typically exercised in part unconsciously, or even ignorantly, and in part dishonestly and subversively, all under the pretense of “neutrally” mediating between interests, rights, powers and authorities. Or in this case, simply parsing “plain English.” But this is bosh, and no one believes it. Not for a second.

The burdens on free speech, free exercise, and perhaps most fundamentally, free thought, are obvious. But the burden on the basic unity of human society is even weightier; for the Supreme Court has just abolished the fundamental fact on which every civilization depends, indeed on which the human species depends. We have just been pushed over the edge. It’s breathtaking.

As C.S. Lewis said in “The Abolition of Man,” we will now need the “beneficent obstinacy of real children for preserving the human race in such sanity as it still possesses.” We can only hope that such children will come along to point out the naked truth to our new emperors.

Crawford, Hanby and McCarthy are professors at the John Paul II Institute in Washington, D.C.

Recently, several accusations of sexual misconduct and abuse have been made against popular Catholic liturgical composer and Twin Cities resident David Haas. Following our archdiocese, about a third of U.S. dioceses have announced that they will no longer play songs written by Mr. Haas during Masses. Though these decisions were surely made in good faith, I believe they are mistaken. By the same logic, we should also cease to sing the Psalms at Mass. Their composer, David, was a powerful king who used his position to force himself on Bathsheba and send her husband Uriah to his death. Yet we retain the Psalms because they help us praise the Lord.

Supposing that Mr. Haas is guilty of this heinous conduct, does it diminish the great spiritual value so many have derived from his songs through the years? Will banning these songs help or hinder the praise of God? Nathaniel M. Fouch Our Lady of Lourdes, Minneapolis

A different scandal In response to the Aug. 13 letter to the editor, criticizing Archbishop Hebda’s word choice in his statement regarding face masks undermines the severity of the COVID-19 crisis. Characterizing his intentions as ill will denotes lack of charity and a misunderstanding of the archbishop’s pastoral duties to promote the spiritual and physical health of his flock. The writer’s single point in support of the argument, i.e., disregard for “legitimate medical reasons,” is moot and uninformed. Our churches conscientiously accommodate, in liturgy, education and fellowship, the special needs of parishioners. The writer’s false argument renders this viewpoint spurious, if not scandalous. Rather than demonstrate an authentic concern for the archbishop’s word choice or intention, the stated opinion works to deepen the politicization of the Church and disregard for Jesus’ teachings on love and charity. This thinly veiled attempt to undermine Catholic faith and values is demonstrated in the first and last sentences wherein the first disclaims a mask preference and the latter decries the state mask policy which is based on medical and scientific research and a commitment to the health and safety of all God’s children.

Ted May St. Maximilian Kolbe, Delano Share your perspective by emailing TheCatholicSpirit@archspm.org.

The Commentary page does not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Catholic Spirit.

AUGUST 27, 2020

CALENDAR

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 19

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THE LOCAL CHURCH | ANGELA JENDRO

Grilled pork chop on a stick to go — Aug. 29: 3–7 p.m. at St. Joseph Church parking lot, 13900 Biscayne Ave., Rosemount. The Leprechaun Days favorite grilled pork chop on a stick will be available for pick-up from your car with pre-order option. The proceeds will benefit organizations that assist the mentally and physically challenged. This fundraiser is hosted by Knights of Columbus Council 5569. stjosephcommunity.org “Breaking Through the Paralysis of Shame by Opening Ourselves to Compassion” — Aug. 31: 6:30–7:30 p.m. virtual presentation. Join Dr. Michael Bland for a virtual presentation on the difference between shame and guilt, with the hope of breaking the paralysis of toxic shame through compassion. Contact Paula Kaempffer for link and details at kaempfferp@archspm.org.

“Will We Welcome the Stranger?” — Aug. 31: 7–8:30 p.m. virtual presentation. This St. Frances Cabrini Tegeder Talk with Archbishop Bernard Hebda and Bishop Ann Svennungsen, Minneapolis Area Synod, ELCA, will expand on an earlier statement on migrants and refugees by Minnesota Catholic and ELCA bishops entitled “Resettlement Policy: Create a Welcoming Society, Not More Barriers, for Refugees” (December 2019). Register for this live, free online event at cabrinimn.org/tegeder-talksignup to receive the link.

St. Timothy, Blaine, online silent auction — Sept. 8-13. View items at 32auctions.com/StTim2020.

Raffle tickets available for sale at 763-784-1329. churchofsttimothy.com “Open Wide Our Hearts: The Catholic Church Confronts Racism” — Sept. 9: 10 a.m.–noon online.

Hosted by Minnesota Catholic Conference. The tragic death of George Floyd has ignited a public conversation about ongoing racial inequity and injustice in America.

How can the Church uphold the dignity of all human persons and foster the common good during these contentious times? What issues do we need to address with our own Church that prevent an appropriate response? The Minnesota Catholic Conference, the public policy voice of the Catholic Church in Minnesota, is hosting this forum for priests, deacons, educators and lay ecclesial ministers on the memorial of St. Peter Claver to provide an opportunity for formation and reflection on these critical issues in our community, and how we as a Church can respond. mncatholic.org/openwideourhearts Book discussion: “He Leadeth Me” by Walter Ciszek — Sept. 9: 7 p.m. online. Hosted by St. Thomas More, St. Paul. Jesuit priest Father Walter Ciszek spent 23 agonizing years in Soviet prisons and labor camps after being captured during WWII. In his book, he recalls how his utter reliance on God allowed him to endure. Read the book and participate in an in-depth discussion via Zoom.

Registration required at morecommunity.org/he-leadeth-mediscussion.

Laboring in the field of students’ minds and hearts

Subjects might be interesting, policies can direct behavior, but it’s teachers who inspire.

“Then he said to the disciples, 'The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest’” (Mt 9:37).

While preparing for the new school year as a middle and high school teacher, I am once again struck by the astonishing privilege of tending to students’ minds and hearts. Teachers have a special role laboring in God’s fields — the encounter of mind to mind, or as Cardinal St. John Henry Newman puts it, where “heart speaks to heart.” Such a sacred place!

It calls to mind a hymn popular in my youth titled “This is Holy Ground.” The words of the first verse meditate: “This is holy ground, We’re standing on holy ground For the Lord is present And where He is is holy.”

In the nascent stages of students’ spiritual journey, teachers get to labor on the sacred ground of these children’s souls.

What does this work look like? Laborers both pick and protect fruit. This means affirming and developing students’ gifts, together with countering weeds of influence that try to choke them out. I remember a teacher doing this for me in second grade. After our weekly morning Mass at my

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Catholic school, I innocently exclaimed, “I love Mass” as I got ready for recess. As this little fruit of the Spirit burst out in the hall, two classmates scoffed, causing me to shrink back. My teacher overheard, scolded the girls, then affirmed my feelings. In that moment of confusion for me, she pulled a weed of doubt and harvested a lifelong love for Mass.

Teachers’ work is better described as a craft. We acquire skills necessary to teach but must apply them thoughtfully and creatively to each student. To cultivate so many different fruits amidst such a wide array of weeds takes nothing less than divine grace. Thus, teaching necessitates a deep prayer life and docility to the Holy Spirit’s guidance.

We are the laborers, but God is still the Master.

The Lord impressed this lesson on me by experience. I vividly recall a day I resisted the Holy Spirit. I had a wellprepared lesson which would be simple to execute after such hard work. As class began however, I felt the Holy Spirit urge me to put it aside and try to engage them in a class discussion instead. I stubbornly went ahead with my lesson, but it fell flat on students’ hearts. In contrast, once when I was re-reading St. Faustina’s diary, the Holy Spirit inspired me to incorporate it into my next unit. I labored to put together some excerpts and guided study questions. It struck a particular student right to the heart and kindled the fire of her faith. Years have passed since then, but Faustina has remained an important part of her spiritual life and vocation. What a work of the Spirit!

Cardinal Newman believed that true education happens through personal connection. What students learn is greatly affected by who we are and how we teach. If we express passion for our subject and its connection to God our creator, students imbibe that spirit of faith and the interconnectedness of knowledge. When we treat them with love and patience, we impress upon them their dignity and worth. Subjects might be interesting, policies can direct behavior, but it’s teachers who inspire. As Cardinal Newman beautifully stated, “Persons influence us, voices melt us, looks subdue us, deeds inflame us.”

The Lord has produced a rich harvest. As we approach this new year, let us pray for laborers and be laborers of prayer.

Jendro, a member of Holy Name of Jesus in Medina, teaches theology at Providence Academy in Plymouth. A Catholic speaker and writer, her website is taketimeforhim.com.

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20 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

AUGUST 27, 2020

THELASTWORD

‘In sickness and in health’ — over seven decades Pandemic effects are latest hurdle for St. Paul couple

By Joe Ruff The Catholic Spirit

R

ebecca Arellano Montez, 86, can’t celebrate her 70th wedding anniversary Sept. 2 with her husband, Jesse, the way she would like.

Their efforts to avoid contracting COVID-19 make it impossible for them to receive a special blessing at a Sunday Mass at Our Lady of Guadalupe in St. Paul, or to host a meal in a big hall with lots of family and friends, music and dancing.

“We plan nothing, absolutely nothing,” Montez said.

“We’re just lucky to be here.”

But they want their friends to know about their milestone anniversary, and to know that without the pandemic, many people would be part of their special day. They also bring 70 years of perspective to their lost opportunity to celebrate, and to the challenges everyone is facing in these trying times.

Married in 1950 at age 16 (“They always say, ‘Oh, those young marriages never last.’ I don’t go by that.

But our religion was very strong.”), Montez contracted tuberculosis at age 21 and was hospitalized for a year in St. Paul. Her husband was able to visit, but not the first two of their five children, ages 4 and 5 at the time.

“A couple of times we would go to the window, and I would see them through the window,” she said. “At that time, there were a lot of people dying of tuberculosis. One family I knew lost three children.”

Now, there is medication to treat tuberculosis. But in 1955, Montez was not getting better. She was tested every six weeks and consumed bottles and bottles of milk as part of her treatment, but remained exhausted and confined to bed. Doctors finally recommended and then removed part of her lungs. That turned the corner for her, she said.

“I’m a person who has a lot of energy,” said Montez, who — with 89-year-old Jesse — recently worked on areas of their home’s foundation to keep moisture out. “I fully recovered. I got it all back.”

Her hospital stay wasn’t the only time Montez was pulled away from family. Her husband’s job with a large meatpacking company brought them to Washington state from 1979 to 1983, a move that placed them hundreds of miles from Montez’s five sisters, other family and friends.

During their stint in Washington, Montez’s mother, Carlotta, and her husband’s mother, Regoria, died in the same week. Montez and her husband returned for their funerals in 1982, but bore most of their mourning alone.

“My mother died on a Monday. My mother-in-law died on that Friday. Being alone over there, without support, I cried and cried. I wanted to be here, and I couldn’t,” Montez recalled.

For Montez, that mourning manifested physically through an outbreak of shingles, a painful rash caused by the same virus as the chicken pox.

“If I’d had my sisters with me, I don’t think I would have been so bad. And I’m trying to help my husband mourn, and I’m mourning,” she said. “That’s when I got the shingles. I got the shingles so bad.”

None of those experiences takes away from the seriousness of COVID-19, she said. They lost an elderly nephew who was living in Shoreview to COVID-19 a couple of months ago. The state of her own lungs has Montez particularly worried about the pandemic.

“I wouldn’t make it,” Montez said. “COVID attacks the lungs. I wouldn’t make it.”

Her family and friends don’t enter their home right now. If one of their children, nine grandchildren or 11 great-grandchildren swing by with some food or other goods to share, they leave it on a picnic table in the

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Rebecca and Jesse Montez are approaching their 70th wedding anniversary, but are drastically scaling back their plans to mark the Sept. 2 day due to concerns about COVID-19.

You take one crisis at time.

If you have a crisis and you get over it, you have another crisis. And you take them as they come.

Rebecca Arellano Montez

KEEPING A MARRIAGE STRONG Being pulled away from family and friends during their marriage was not easy, Rebecca Montez said of the time from 1979 to 1983 that she and her husband left St. Paul to live in Washington state. They had to say goodbye to their parish, Our Lady of Guadalupe in St. Paul, where they were very active, and which her husband’s parents and grandparents helped found in 1931.

But they had each other, Montez said.

COURTESY REBECCA MONTEZ

A photo of Jesse and Rebecca Montez from their wedding in 1950. backyard, protected from the weather by a large patio umbrella. She leaves the house once a week to shop for groceries.

Montez talks on the phone every day with each of her five sisters, but they used to get together all the time.

Her activities with friends at the parish have temporarily ended, including assisting with the annual enchilada Lenten dinners and cleaning linens and candlesticks as necessary to prepare the altar for Masses.

“This is a bad thing,” Montez said of COVID-19.

“There is no getting around it. That was a bad time (her tuberculosis). We just got over it. And we’re working at getting over this. And we will. It’s just going to take time.”

Through 70 years of marriage and 86 years of a very full life, Montez said she has learned an important lesson.

“You take one crisis at time,” she said. “If you have a crisis and you get over it, you have another crisis. And you take them as they come.”

“Our religion was very strong,” she said. “My husband and I are very close. Very close. I’ve known him my whole life. He lived across the street from me (growing up). I was at 225 State St., he was at 214 State St. His grandparents lived behind me.”

When they moved to Washington, they bought mopeds and drove into the mountains and along the ocean. “We’d sit and drink pop, the scenery was beautiful,” she said.

They had a mobile home and traveled the state and other parts of the country.

Back in St. Paul, they were among 25 couples who danced as a folk troupe and performed in city parks and civic centers. She sang the national anthem at events, in Spanish.

“We had a very good social life,” Montez said.

“Now, people just go to bars and drink. There’s no socializing. Or they stay up all night watching TV.” “When you do things together, it’s quality,” she said.

— Joe Ruff