The Catholic Spirit - August 28, 2015

MN abortion law 14 • Siena Symposium 15 • Gay and Catholic 23 August 27, 2015 Newspaper of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis

SCHOOLSUPPLIED

Volunteer Eugenia Torres, right, hands out donated backpacks to Alondra Lezama, center, of St. Paul and her five siblings, clockwise from left, Leonardo, Tania, Damian, Stephany and Yahanan, at an event at St. Patrick in Inver Grove Heights Aug. 22 called the Back to School Bash. Volunteers from St. Patrick and several other local churches, including Inverhills Church, which sponsored the event, handed out 1,500 backpacks filled with school supplies to grade school and high school students in need. Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit

• Bishop Andrew Cozzens, Catholic

education vicar, and Jason Slattery, director, outline vision for new schools mission office — 3 & 6

• City Connects program aims to bridge achievement gap in seven urban Catholic schools — 7

• Schools share new leadership and initiatives, from multimillion-dollar buildings to yoga class — 8

• Three local principals describe what it’s taking to turn their schools around — 12-13

ALSO inside

The embargo question

Embracing independence

Brewing monks

Ahead of Pope Francis’ Sept. 19-22 visit to Cuba, what are the spiritual costs of not trading with the Caribbean nation?

— Page 9

Parish life played a part in helping a woman with cerebral palsy overcome anxiety and live fully.

— Page 16

Massachusetts Trappists say fermentation can lead to evangelization.

— Page 18

PAGE TWO

2 • The Catholic Spirit in PICTURES

August 27, 2015

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

Pope Francis speaking at a general audience Aug. 19, where he cautioned against the “dangerous tendency” to consider a worker’s family obligations an obstacle to productivity and profit

NEWS notes • The Catholic Spirit

‘Fans of Francis’ to make comeback at State Fair Following the success of last year’s “Fans of Francis” promotion, the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity plans to distribute fans with a photo of Pope Francis Aug. 30 at the Minnesota State Fair. Seminary representatives will man the University of St. Thomas booth 9 a.m.-9 p.m. in the Education Building, where visitors will also be invited to pose for a photo with a lifesized Pope Francis cutout.

Panel to discuss implementing ‘Laudato Si’’ HOPE GROWS Mary Jo Copeland, center, founder and director of Sharing and Caring Hands in Minneapolis, dances her way toward a new addition to Mary’s Place, along with Bishop Andrew Cozzens, during the dedication Aug. 25. The expansion of this housing facility for families in need includes a new teen center, children’s center and eight housing units, bringing the total to 100 units. The new units will serve an additional 250 to 300 people a year, on top of the current number of 400 children and 140 adults. Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit

“Natural and Human Ecology: A panel discussion on Laudato Si’ ” will delve into themes of the recent encyclical by Pope Francis and consider ways in which Catholics can put them into practice. The event — hosted by the Minnesota Catholic Conference, Catholic Rural Life and the University of St. Thomas Center for Catholic Studies — will be 9-11:30 a.m. Sept. 9 at the University of St. Thomas Anderson Student Center, Woulfe Alumni Hall, 2115 Summit Ave., St. Paul. Admission is free; reservations are requested for seating but not required. For information, visit www.mncc.org.

Final Cathedral centennial organ concert Sept. 10 Virtuoso Samuel Backman will perform all French music — a tribute to the Beaux Arts-styled Cathedral of St. Paul — in the final organ concert of the Cathedral’s centennial year celebration series 7:30 p.m. Sept. 10.

Backman, music director at Good Shepherd in Golden Valley, will use the Cathedral’s new moveable console, which will allow the audience to see the Duluth native and Yale-trained organist play in front of the Cathedral’s main altar. The concert of selections by composers Gigout, Guilmant, Alain and Duruflé is free, but donations will be accepted.

Brother-artist to lead Day of Prayer with religious

GARDEN OF MERCY Divine Mercy in Faribault hosted a blessing and dedication of its Garden of Mercy Aug. 23 after its 10 a.m. Mass with Bishop Andrew Cozzens. The parish describes the garden as a place where all who seek mercy can find peace. A section of the garden is dedicated to children who died either before or after birth for any reason. As part of the dedication, rocks with names of children who died were placed near the water feature (pictured). Courtesy Sharon Wilson

WHAT’S NEW on social media Bob Zyskowski reviews “Blessed by Less” by Susan V. Vogt (Loyola Press, 2014), writing that her suggestions “are right in sync with the recent encyclical of Pope Francis that encourages better stewardship of the earth’s resources and valuing all creation.”

“Patrum,” the new app from the Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums, launched in mid-August. Part social network and part crowdsourcing, the app lets museum fans communicate with each other and make donations online.

St. Patrick, Inver Grove Heights; St. Peter, Mendota; and Cretin-Derham Hall High School in St. Paul are among parishes and schools on Instagram @TheCatholicSpirit.

The Catholic Spirit is published bi-weekly for The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis Vol. 20 — No. 16 MOST REVEREND BERNARD A. HEBDA, Publisher TOM HALDEN, Associate Publisher United in Faith, Hope and Love

MARIA WIERING, Editor

Oblate of St. Francis de Sales Brother Mickey McGrath, an award-winning artist and author who presents on the connections between art and faith, will speak Sept. 13 as part of a Day of Prayer with women and men religious, a celebration for the 2015 Year of Consecrated Life. A free event of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, it will be held 1-4:30 p.m. at St. Mary’s University Center, 2540 Park Ave., Minneapolis, and will include a panel response, small group sharing and prayer. Registration is requested but not required to YCL2015@archspm.org.

Aim Higher to host Catholic school tuition gala The Aim Higher Foundation, an independent entity that raises funds to remove financial barriers to Catholic education in the archdiocese, is hosting its third Night of Light gala 7-9 p.m. Sept. 26 at The Depot, 225 S. Third Ave., Minneapolis. Table sponsorships and individual tickets are available. The foundation has awarded more than $1.8 million in tuition assistance. For more information, visit www.aimhigher.org.

CORRECTIONS In “Too young to drive but smart enough for college” in the Aug. 13 edition, the first name of Lucas Kramer’s chemistry professor was incorrect. Her name is Amanda Long.

In a caption on page 2 of the Aug. 13 edition, the location of St. Albert parish was incorrectly listed. It’s located in Albertville.

We regret the errors.

Materials credited to CNS copyrighted by Catholic News Service.

All other materials copyrighted by The Catholic Spirit Newspaper.

Subscriptions: $29.95 per year: Senior 1-year: $24.95: To subscribe: (651) 291-4444: Display Advertising: (651) 291-4444; Classified Advertising: (651) 290-1631.

Published bi-weekly by the Office of Communications, Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, 244 Dayton Ave., St. Paul, MN 55102 • (651) 291-4444, FAX (651) 291-4460.

Periodicals postage paid at St. Paul, MN, and additional post offices.

Postmaster: Send address changes to The Catholic Spirit, 244 Dayton Ave., St. Paul, MN 55102.

TheCatholicSpirit.com • email: catholicspirit@archspm.org • USPS #093-580

August 27, 2015

FROM THE BISHOP

The Catholic Spirit • 3

New office to support schools sharing of Catholic vision

A

s we head back to school, there have been some exciting new developments for our Catholic schools. This summer the Archdiocese opened the new Office for the Mission of Catholic Education. We started by hiring an excellent Catholic educator, Jason Slattery, to lead this new office. In the past, our Office for Catholic Schools operated as a quasicentralized school district with central services from technology to marketing.

Now, the focus is more on our mission: to help our schools become evangelistic environments that form disciples. The OMCE will still provide many services, but other community partners have come forward to help us have the resources our schools need to thrive.

The purpose of OMCE is two-fold. First, we want our Catholic schools to be places our students meet Jesus Christ. Pope Francis loves to quote Pope Paul VI, who said, “the Church exists to evangelize.” Our Catholic schools exist for the purpose of proclaiming the merciful love of Jesus Christ to our world, especially young people.

While our schools serve many non-Catholics, Pope Francis told the Congregation for Catholic Education in February 2014: “Catholic educational institutions offer to all an approach to education that has as its aim the full development of the person, which responds to the right of every person to access knowledge.”

He pointed out that we are still called to evangelize, saying we “are also called upon to offer, with full respect for the freedom of each FROM THE person and using the methods appropriate to BISHOP the scholastic environment, the Christian belief — that is, to present Jesus Christ as the meaning Bishop of life, the cosmos and history.”

This is connected to OMCE’s second goal: to Andrew Cozzens

assist our schools in presenting that integrated Catholic worldview — “Jesus Christ as the meaning of life, the cosmos and history.” This is what makes Catholic schools unique: our understanding that Jesus Christ reveals what it means to be fully human. We desire to share that understanding and form the whole child — mind, body and soul. We teach that there is no contradiction between faith and reason, that one can be a person of profound faith while achieving excellence in every area of life.

For this reason, the entire curriculum and daily activities within our schools must be founded on a Catholic vision for life. If they are formed in this environment, our students will be equipped to help heal our culture and transform the world.

To accomplish this, the new office is focusing on several core competencies in which we aim to support our schools: 1. Virtue: Forming behavior of personal integrity and high moral standards 2. Spirituality: Developing habits of prayer and the importance of a personal relationship with God 3. Apostolic Service: Making gifts of our lives and living Catholic social teaching to make a difference in the world 4. Intellect: Instilling not only facts, but also a love for truth, wisdom, beauty and goodness 5. Vocation: Discerning God’s call to each individual to a particular way of life with him For the past 18 months I have served as the vicar general of Catholic education and have visited dozens of our schools. I am so impressed by their excellence in education and faith. It is wonderful to see the dedicated faculty and to meet parents who are making real sacrifices to provide this lifechanging experience for their children.

Please pray for our Catholic schools, which are such an important part of our Church. Please also consider sending your child to one of our schools if you don’t already. It is our intention that the investment lasts forever.

La nueva oficina apoyará a las escuelas compartiendo la visión Católica En este tiempo de regreso a la escuela, ha habido algunas novedades interesantes para nuestras escuelas católicas. Este verano la Arquidiócesis inauguró la nueva Oficina de la Misión de la Educación Católica.

Comenzamos contratando a un excelente educador católico, Jason Slattery, para dirigir esta nueva oficina.

En el pasado, nuestra oficina de escuelas católicas funcionaba como un distrito escolar centralizado con servicios centrales de tecnología y de mercadeo.

Ahora, el enfoque está en nuestra misión: ayudar a nuestras escuelas a fomentar ambientes de evangelización para la formación de discípulos. El OMCE (por sus siglas en inglés) proporcionará todavía muchos servicios, pero otros socios de la comunidad han salido adelante para ayudarnos a tener los recursos de que nuestras escuelas necesitan para prosperar.

El propósito de la OMCE (por sus siglas en inglés) tiene dos metas. En primer lugar, queremos que nuestras escuelas católicas sean lugares donde nuestros estudiantes se encuentren con Jesucristo. Al Papa Francisco le encanta citar al Papa Pablo VI, quien dijo que “La Iglesia existe para evangelizar.” Nuestras escuelas católicas existen con el propósito de proclamar el amor misericordioso de Jesucristo a nuestro mundo, especialmente a los jóvenes. Mientras que las escuelas sirven a muchos no católicos, el Papa Francisco dijo a la congregación para la Educación Católica en febrero de 2014: “las instituciones

educativas católicas ofrecen a todos un enfoque educativo que tiene como objetivo el desarrollo integral de la persona, que responde al derecho de toda persona de tener acceso al conocimiento.” Señaló que todavía estamos llamados a evangelizar, diciendo “también están llamados a ofrecer, con pleno respeto a la libertad de cada persona y utilizando los métodos adecuados al ambiente escolar, la creencia cristiana, es decir, presentar a Jesucristo como el significado de la vida, el cosmos y la historia.”

Esto está conectado con la segunda meta de la oficina: ayudar a nuestras escuelas en la presentación que integre una visión católica del mundo: “Cristo Jesús como el significado de la vida, el cosmos y la historia.” Esto es lo que hace único a las escuelas católicas: nuestro entendimiento de que Jesucristo revela lo que significa ser plenamente humano.

Queremos compartir ese conocimiento y formar al niño en su totalidad: mente, cuerpo y alma.

Enseñamos que no hay ninguna contradicción entre la fe y la razón, que uno puede ser una persona de profunda fe y alcanzar la excelencia en todos los ámbitos de la vida. Por esta razón, el currículo completo y las actividades diarias dentro de nuestras escuelas deben basarse en una visión católica de la vida. Si se forman en este entorno, nuestros estudiantes estarán bien equipados para ayudar a sanar nuestra cultura y transformar el mundo.

Para lograr esto, la nueva oficina se centra en varias

competencias para apoyar a nuestras escuelas: 1. Virtud: Formar un comportamiento de integridad y de altos estándares morales 2. Espiritualidad: Desarrollar hábitos de oración y resaltar la importancia de una relación personal con Dios 3. Servicio Apostólico: Hacer de nuestras vidas un regalo y vivir la doctrina social de la iglesia católica para hacer una diferencia en el mundo 4. Intelecto: Inculcar no sólo hechos, sino un amor por la verdad, la sabiduría, la belleza y la bondad 5. Vocación: Discernir el llamado de Dios de cada persona a una forma particular de vida con Él Durante los últimos 18 meses, he servido como vicario general de la educación Católica y he visitado docenas de nuestras escuelas. Estoy tan impresionado por su excelencia en la educación y en la fe. Es maravilloso ver a los educadores tan dedicados y conocer a los padres que están haciendo verdaderos sacrificios para proveer esta experiencia de cambio de vida para sus hijos. Por favor oren por nuestras escuelas Católicas, que son una parte tan importante de nuestra iglesia. Por favor considere enviar a su hijo a una de nuestras escuelas si no lo ha hecho ya.

Nuestra intención es que esta inversión dure para siempre.

OFFICIAL His Excellency, the Most Reverend Bernard Hebda, has announced the following appointments in the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis: Effective August 15, 2015

Effective August 19, 2015

• Reverend Randal Kasel, appointed temporary parochial administrator of the Church of the Holy Trinity in Goodhue. This is in addition to his current appointment as pastor of the Church of Saint Michael in Pine Island and the Church of Saint Paul in Zumbrota.

• Reverend Thomas McKenzie, appointed chaplain to Convent of the Visitation School in Mendota Heights. This is in addition to his current appointment as parochial vicar of the Church of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton in Hastings.

4 • The Catholic Spirit

LOCAL

an Aug. 19 meeting for pastors and Catholic school leaders, Director of Ministerial Standards and Safe Environment Tim O’Malley reviewed the code of conduct for Church personnel and its objectives, addressing practical implementation approaches for leaders. This summer, the archdiocese began rolling out its “Enhanced Essential 3,” which requires safe environment re-training, a background re-check and re-signing of the appropriate code of conduct every three years. The enhanced requirements will be phased in over the next two years and eliminate “lifetime credentials,” said Mary Kane, director of the Office for the Protection of Children and Youth.

OPCY also implemented an online program for parishes and schools to track “Essential 3” requirements through the VIRTUS website. All of the archdiocese’s safe environment policies and codes of conduct are listed at www.safecatholicspm.org.

in BRIEF ST. PAUL

‘Largest ever’ crowd protests at Planned Parenthood Aug. 22 Although estimates of the numbers vary widely, the largest-ever crowd to protest outside the St. Paul Planned Parenthood office Aug. 22 is a sign of renewed support for the pro-life movement, according to Scott Fischbach, executive director of Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life. The demonstration in St. Paul was one of more than 300 held in cities across the country that day. The protests followed the release this summer of undercover videos showing physicians and others associated with Planned Parenthood describing the harvesting of fetal tissue and body parts during abortions at their clinics and the cost to researchers. While organizers estimated there were 4,500 protesters at the Planned Parenthood facility at 671 Vandalia St. in St. Paul, police estimated 1,000 took part.

MCCL’s Fischbach said his organization long ago gave up on playing the numbers game. “What should be said about the demonstration at Planned Parenthood Saturday is that it is clearly a reaction that people are shocked and horrified at what Planned Parenthood is doing,” Fischbach said. “It was a real mass outcry against Planned Parenthood. . . . To have the biggest group ever protesting at Planned Parenthood is a positive,” noting that since the release of the hiddencamera videos, more people have joined MCCL.

Dorothy Day Center expansion underway in downtown St. Paul A building that once housed union offices at Fifth and Main Streets in downtown St. Paul came down Aug. 17 to make way for Catholic Charities’ Dorothy Day Center to provide better shelter and housing for those in need. The planned five-story Higher Ground St. Paul will accommodate 278 men and women in what Catholic Charities referred to as “dignified emergency shelter” — on bunk beds instead of mats on the floor, the current arrangements for those who are experiencing homelessness. The L-shaped building will also have additional housing options for nearly 200 people who are moving toward independent living. Construction is expected to be completed in 2016. The shelter is phase one of a two-building campus. Phase two is a planned connection center plus an additional four stories of housing. The connection center, according to a Catholic Charities press release, will be “an integrated one-stop location connecting people to critical service to improve their health, income, housing stability and well-being.”

Archdiocese to monitor Boy Scouts after gay troop leader ban lifted The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis will be keeping an eye on how a recent decision by the Boy Scouts of America impacts local troops that are sponsored by Catholic parishes. A joint memo from the archdiocesan attorney and the family life director to clergy and others who work with Boy Scout troops offered detailed information about the Scout’s resolution and “a few observations,” the memo noted.

It pointed out that because the Scout’s resolution that lifted the ban on gay troop leaders also includes language that affirms the rights of religious organizations that sponsor troops, the National Catholic Committee on Scouting had given its approval of the resolution. The local Church’s guidance added, “The NCCS recognizes there is some uncertainty as to how the resolution and Church rights will operate in practice, but they acknowledge the resolution respects the needs of Catholic chartered organizations. . . . In light of the uncertainty mentioned by the NCCS, the archdiocese intends to monitor the situation.” The memo was under the signature of Joseph Kueppers, chancellor for civil affairs, and Jean Stolpestad, director of the Office of Marriage, Family and Life.

August 27, 2015

Elizabeth Boldischar of St. Michael in St. Michael joined a group of about 300 people gathered for a protest/prayer rally in front of the Planned Parenthood office in St. Cloud Aug. 22.

Similar events were held across the U.S. to protest the organization’s involvement in the harvesting and sale of tissue and organs from aborted children. A rally also took place in front of Planned Parenthood in St. Paul, sponsored by Pro-Life Action Ministries. Dianne Towalski/For The Catholic Spirit

Merged LifeCare centers plan to reopen at new site with new name Longstanding LifeCare centers in Minneapolis’ Dinkytown and St. Paul’s Highland Park are relocating to a single site on University Avenue in St. Paul and taking a new name, Abria Pregnancy Resources. The pro-life center, which will serve pregnant women and new mothers in need, is expected to open in October. Its leaders described the transition as a smart business move and an opportunity to put a fresh face on their organization.

Highland LifeCare Center and University LifeCare Center merged boards in 2012 to become Highland & University LifeCare Centers. The board decided to consolidate the two centers at a new location with a new name after extensive study of trends in medicine, abortion and pregnancy resource center best practices. The LifeCare centers are part of TLC Options for Women, a St. Paul-based organization with 30 affiliated pregnancy resource centers at 33 sites in Minnesota and western Wisconsin. The University LifeCare Center was TLC’s flagship center, opening in 1975 in response to Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion in all 50 states. The centers’ merger and service enhancements are part of the organization’s aim to be the area’s “most trusted and referred provider of life-affirming medical, personal support and material assistance services,” according to a description on its website.

Safe environment codes of conduct finalized The Office of Ministerial Standards and Safe Environment in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis now has four codes of conduct to enhance its safe environment policies. The code of conduct for clergy covers both the elements of the code of conduct for Church personnel as well as issues specific to priests, such as information they receive during confessions. Codes of conduct also are in place for adult employees and volunteers, and for youth employees and volunteers who interact with minors or vulnerable adults. The Tim codes of conduct are one of three O’MALLEY elements of the archdiocese’s “Essential 3” requirements that all archdiocesan, parish and Catholic school employees, as well as all volunteers who interact with minors or vulnerable adults, must meet. Safe environment training and a background check also are required. At

Latino Catholics welcome pope through national campaign Latino Catholics are taking to social media as part of an online campaign in honor of Pope Francis’ visit to the U.S. Sept. 26-27 as part of the weeklong World Meeting of Families. “Bienvenido Papa Francisco” launched in early August as a way for Hispanics to share their thoughts and feelings about the papal visit.

“Our goal is to reach every parish, every community, every home with the message of prayer and welcome for Pope Francis,” said Estela Villagrán Manancero, director of Latino Ministry for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, and president of the National Catholic Association of Diocesan Directors for Hispanic Ministry. “Everyone is excited about the opportunity to connect in some way with Papa Francisco.” In addition to www.bienvenidofrancisco. com, people also can participate on Facebook (www.facebook.com/bienvenidopapafrancisco), Twitter (@bienvenidopapa) and Instagram (@ bienvenidopapa). A number of national Hispanic Catholic organizations are sponsoring the campaign.

FARIBAULT

Turkey store gives $10K to St. Vincent de Paul Center to fight hunger In an effort to combat hunger in its community, the Jennie-O Turkey Store Faribault manufacturing plant donated $10,000 to the city’s St. Vincent de Paul Center Aug. 13. The Catholic-based, volunteer-run charitable organization provides food, clothing, furniture and financial aid to people in need. This is the third consecutive year Jennie-O, a division of Austin-based Hormel Foods Corporation, has donated funds to the charity. “It is our privilege to team up with St. Vincent de Paul to help support the fight against hunger in our community,” said Rand Vergin, plant manager, in a statement. The Faribault St. Vincent de Paul Society is a ministry of Divine Mercy parish.

CHIPPEWA FALLS, Wis.

Wehmeyer also to serve prison time in Wisconsin for assault Curtis Wehmeyer, a former priest currently in prison in Minnesota for sexually abusing two boys, will be incarcerated in Wisconsin once his first sentence is completed. He admitted Aug. 14 to sexually assaulting the boys’ older brother during a camping trip in Wisconsin in 2011. Wehmeyer was convicted in 2013 of abusing the younger boys in 2010 while he was pastor of Blessed Sacrament in St. Paul. The Vatican removed him from the clerical state in March 2015. Although initially facing a second-degree sexual assault charge, Wehmeyer pleaded guilty in Chippewa County Circuit Court to the lesser charge of third-degree sexual assault of the then 18-year-old. Wehmeyer is to serve a six-year sentence in Wisconsin — three in prison and three under supervision.

— The Catholic Spirit

August 27, 2015

LOCAL

The Catholic Spirit • 5

SLICEof LIFE

Are you ready for some

FOOTBALL? Be faithfully informed

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter

Totino-Grace High School seniors Nicole Newman, left, Rachel Kullas (second row), Amelia Vosen, Alex Proulx and Caitlyn Tigner cheer during the Eagles’ season opener against Eden Prairie Aug. 22 at Totino-Grace. The game was a rematch of the state Class 6A championship game last year, won by Eden Prairie 28-27. Totino-Grace was hoping to avenge that loss, but fell 38-20. The high school football season started earlier than usual this year because the dates of the state tournament had to be moved up to accommodate a scheduling conflict with TCF Bank Stadium at the University of Minnesota. Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit

6 • The Catholic Spirit

LOCAL

August 27, 2015

New education office to put mission front and center Q. How did your time in the school

Interview by Jessica Trygstad and Maria Wiering The Catholic Spirit

in different roles prepare you for what you’re doing now?

The Office for the Mission of Catholic Education launched in July under the leadership of Jason Slattery, former principal of Ave Maria Academy in Maple Grove.

With his wife and three sons, he attends Sts. Peter and Paul in Loretto. Now working on a doctorate degree in leadership and interdisciplinary studies at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, Slattery shared his vision with The Catholic Spirit for how the new office will serve Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis through its focus on forming mission-driven leaders and students in a competitive marketplace. The office was created after the Office of Catholic Schools closed in June.

Q. What appealed to you about this position?

A. Bishop [Andrew] Cozzens [vicar of education] wrote a position paper that was published last spring really articulating the vision for the office. The position paper essentially outlines a new framework, which is right at the center of where the archdiocese needs to move on the questions facing Catholic education.

And it really recognizes a couple of critical features. The first is that, unlike 30 or 40 years ago, we really do have a marketplace now of school choice, and that marketplace — although it can be very good for families to have some choice in education — has become very competitive for our schools. If we don’t live our differences clearly in this marketplace, it becomes hard, firstly, for families to find us, and secondly, to give them a compelling reason to stay with us. We really have to become clear about what makes our schools different in this marketplace and live those differences authentically.

Q. How does the office’s role differ from what it used to serve as?

A. [Bishop Cozzens] would say in that proposal that we, at least for the last 30 or 40 years, operated as a quasi-school district. But when you think of the structure in what was the Office of Catholic Schools, it never had enough resources to do anything near what a school district does. And because of that, it tended to be focused on more logistical questions and some of the day-to-day questions, as opposed to the thing that the Church can give it, which is a clearer vision of what a Catholic school is.

Q. Why was it important to start a new office rather than restructuring the old office?

A. That’s something that I

unfortunately can’t speak to as well because I wasn’t necessarily a part of those decisions. At least the rearticulation of the name was essential in the sense that it posited what our work was going to be, which was going to be concerned with the mission of every Catholic school.

Q. Tell us about your short- and long-term visions for what this office can do.

A. We have some tremendous

A. Often when I talk with principals, we start on that slate of, I was just like them — whether you’re facing very difficult budgets or trying to reach your enrollments coming in on the first day of school, or dealing with faculty turnover as it occurs. . . . So living that in a hard market on a shoestring budget taught me a lot about what was essential in the education of a child and what wasn’t.

Q. As you’re learning more about the archdiocese as a whole, what are some of the challenges some of our schools face?

Jason Slattery, director of the archdiocese’s Office for the Mission of Catholic Education, at the Opening Leadership Meeting Aug. 19 at St. Peter in Mendota. Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit community partners in [the new Catholic Schools Center of Excellence] and the Aim Higher Foundation, and a list of other people who want to help us.

I’d say long-term vision is where I’m spending the most time right now. When I look at the longer-term questions, I think that we’re going to need to look at three populations and work with them: One would be school leadership — principals and presidents — to really help them understand that a Catholic school is an essential part of our society and that it can play an important part in the role of the family, and that it’s kind of a wheelhouse for evangelization and catechesis. So, it’s creating structures to form those leaders. Second would be working with our pastors and chaplains to help them to understand their essential work in a Catholic school, the witness they give. The third area would be teachers and faculty, providing formation opportunities in the competencies. We’re very focused in this sense. We hope to branch out to work with Catholic boards in our schools and then really look at the system as a whole.

The second set of priorities outside of leadership formation is looking at how our schools are meeting the needs of our Latino brothers and sisters. This is a population that would be well served by Catholic education, but there do appear to be some roadblocks to access, so I’m interested in . . . understanding what those are and helping those children find a good Catholic education supported by their families.

Q. What excites you most about what you’re doing?

A. This vision of what a Catholic school is, living the five areas clearly — that really does excite me. (See “5 things” box at right.) A Catholic school is an opportunity for a child to encounter Christ in the classroom. And those six or seven hours a day — this is where real transformation takes place. So, the opportunity to work with faculty and with principals especially — who are our frontline in creating those environments for the Lord to work in the life of a child — this is really what drew me out of a school that I loved a great deal.

A. First, it’s a challenge for their identity in the marketplace. That is, how do we come to understand that for most of our parochial elementary [schools], the market isn’t just the parish. They’re going to have to press themselves outside of their parish population. But our schools’ resources are already awfully slim, and we ask a lot of our school leadership just in terms of running the day-to-day operations of their schools.

The thought that’s required in going out and bringing folks in, that takes a lot. So, how do we help our Catholic parents, wherever their kids are in school, to see our schools as the choice? The Catholic school is excellence. It is, in fact, the best choice for their child. It’s about equipping schools to really understand this kind of missionary focus of going

out and inviting folks in.

Q. What is the office’s connection to the new Catholic Schools Center of Excellence?

A. CSCOE is going to be a critical partner, particularly in helping our schools gain access to marketing and admissions management. They’re going to assist also . . . in understanding how to measure academic excellence. But stemming the enrollment question is going to be the one area, I hope, where they can help us in the very near term.

That organization has a lot of potential, a lot of optimism and some good leadership, so it’s going to be a matter of charting a good partnership as we walk along together.

Q. What would you want our Catholic parents — whether or not they have children in a Catholic school — to know about Catholic schools?

A. I would want them to know that a Catholic school operates on a premise of human dignity. The way a Catholic school views their child and the great gift that their child is to the family, is through, I hope, the same eyes that they would see themselves — that this is a precious gift that God has given, and this child has dignity as a child of God. And this education, then, is going to be unlike anything else they’re able to find because of the way we start.

Five things Catholic schools should do well (from Bishop Andrew Cozzens’ position paper in forming the Office for the Mission of Catholic Education) 1. Virtue formation — formation of character 2. Spiritual formation — helping students have a relationship with God and to see others through Christ 3. Apostolic formation — helping students appreciate and integrate a life of service. Slattery said a student could potentially spend 25 years in the Catholic school system if he or she enters at age 3 and attends a Catholic university. “As they move through, that they really recognize in others dignity, and seek to respond to it in service,” he said.

4. Intellectual formation — formation of the mind. “The intellect actually tends toward what’s true,” said Jason Slattery, director of the Office for the Mission of Catholic Education. “And to help a child gain those intellectual virtues that help them define what’s true and to hold onto them.”

5. Vocational formation — “God calls everyone to holiness. Responding to that, students really come to understand what God might be calling them to do,” Slattery said.

Archdiocese’s partners in Catholic education Catholic Schools Center of Excellence Formed this year, the Catholic Schools Center of Excellence is an independent nonprofit focused on helping schools in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis increase grade school enrollment and improve overall excellence. “Our Catholic grade schools produce critical thinkers with mature moral values,” said Gail Dorn, CSCOE president. “Our society needs them.”

CSCOE is collaborating with school principals and community partners, including the Aim Higher Foundation. Its website is expected to launch in September.

Aim Higher Foundation In its third year, the Aim Higher Foundation works to expand access to Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. As the primary and independent fundraising entity for schools in the archdiocese, it has provided more than $1.8 million over the past three years to 800 students in 75 of the 79 local Catholic elementary schools. “There are a lot of people who love our Catholic schools and are looking for ways to support them,” said Scott Breimhorst, Aim Higher Foundation executive director. For more information, visit www.aimhigher.org.

LOCAL

August 27, 2015

The Catholic Spirit • 7

Could new initiative bridge achievement gap?

7 urban Catholic schools take up the challenge

By Bob Zyskowski The Catholic Spirit Veteran educator that she is, Laurie Acker usually knew right away when something was troubling a student that had nothing to do with school.

“You could tell at the beginning of the day when a child needed something,” recalled Acker, a teacher and principal for almost 20 years. “At times what they needed was food — maybe they hadn’t eaten all weekend because there was no food in the house.”

Research shows that learning takes a back seat when a child is hungry, is worried about violence in the neighborhood or is troubled by issues such as the family’s immigration status.

Academic performance is also negatively impacted when a student has an untreated illness or social, emotional or behavioral issues like difficulty making friends.

All are factors that contribute to the achievement gap, the phrase commonly used to explain the difference between the academic test scores of minority and low-income students and the test scores of white and Asian students.

As the then director of urban education for the schools office of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Acker was looking for something to help urban Catholic schools close the achievement gap when she came across City Connects.

An initiative of Boston College’s Lynch School of Education, City Connects had for more than a decade shown proven advances in closing the achievement gap in urban schools in several cities.

It works by providing each student in a school with a tailored support plan that connects students to the help and services they need, thus helping the child

Courtesy City Connects engage and learn in school.

“I was amazed at how effective it was,” said Acker, who left her position with the archdiocese in December. Last fall she invited leaders Laurie of urban Catholic ACKER schools to a presentation by Mary Walsh, Boston College professor and City Connects founder, and Patrice DiNatale, Walsh’s associate.

“After hearing Mary and Pat, one of the principals said, ‘I want to start right now,’” Acker said with a smile.

Thanks to a three-year, $1.9 million grant from Twin Cities-based GHR Foundation, City Connects will launch this fall in the archdiocese at seven urban Catholic elementary schools: Ascension, Risen Christ, Pope John Paul II and St. Helena in Minneapolis; St. Jerome in Maplewood; Blessed Trinity in Richfield,

11

12 Cross Fire

St. Stanislaus Fall Festival 398 Superior St., St. Paul

Sunday, 13,7,2015, – 5pm pm Sunday,September September 2014,11 11 am am-5 Featuring turkey dinner, live music, bingo, bakery, Featuringjar turkey dinner, live music, bingo, bakery, kolache’s, kolache’s, bar, raffle, garage sale, wheel of fortune, mini golf, beer jar bar, raffle, garage sale, wheel of fortune, mini golf, beer tent, tent with Viking game showing, games, giant slide, kid games, pull tabskid and more!pull tabs and more!

NOTICE

www.ststans.org or 651-292-0303

Look for The Catholic Spirit advertising insert from

FOOD FOR THE POOR in all copies of this issue.

and St. Pascal Baylon in St. Paul. They are among the 74 sites where City Connects is active; other sites are in Massachusetts, New York and Ohio.

GHR is the family philanthropy created by Opus founder Gerald Rauenhorst and his wife, Henrietta, both of whom are now deceased.

GHR chief executive officer and chairwoman Amy Goldman noted in a press release that the foundation chose to partner with City Connects because of its proven track record in which students in both public and private schools showed significantly greater improvement than peers in comparison schools in statewide standardized tests, report card grades, classroom behavior, work habits and effort.

Identifying strengths, needs In an email interview, Boston College’s Walsh told The Catholic Spirit, “Research makes clear that two-thirds of the significant and stubborn achievement gap for kids is related to the out-of-school challenges that children can experience

in their neighborhoods and families.”

City Connects works with each classroom teacher in a school to identify each student’s strengths and needs and then, through a site coordinator, links the child to appropriate services in the community, Walsh explained.

Site coordinators also might make students and their families aware of enrichment opportunities — for example, music lessons available in the community but not at the student’s school — because research also shows that those kinds of activities help students thrive academically and socially.

Acker, now City Connects’ Twin Cities program manager, said, “I know this going to help these schools.

“We have great teachers and great learning environments, and we have so many resources in the Twin Cities,” she added. “This is going to allow teachers to teach while the site coordinators find resources to help students and families.”

Connecting school, home It’s telling that a bulletin board just inside the door of Risen Christ School at 37th Street and 12th Avenue on the south side of Minneapolis reads “Bienvenidos” and not “Welcome.”

And it’s why school president Mike Rogers perks up noticeably when explaining academic performance charts that are evidence of City Connects’ success.

One graph shows how students in the City Connects program who started out with a lower average reading score than their peers not only caught up to the others, but also surpassed them.

When he flips to the next chart that shows even greater progress in reading achieved by students for whom English is a second language, Rogers points to the rising curve on the graph and says, “That’s what really excites me, that Please turn to CITY on page 22

LOCAL

8 • The Catholic Spirit

What’s new at our schools The Catholic Spirit The Catholic Spirit asked principals of Catholic elementary and high schools in the archdiocese to share initiatives launching this year and new leadership, if applicable.

The following is a selection of their responses.

• After 11 years of fundraising, St. Peter, North St. Paul, welcomes a new gym floor in the multipurpose O’Reilley Hall, where for decades students played sports on poured composite. The floor’s first use was an Aug. 15 wedding reception for school principal Alison (Frank) Dahlman, who married Totino-Grace science teacher Jim Dahlman.

• Most Holy Redeemer, Montgomery, has added a separate STREAM (Science, Technology, Religion, Engineering, Art and Math) class for middle school students and an interactive Spanish program, and will be ending its school day with an all-school prayer and song.

• St. Jude of the Lake, Mahtomedi, plans to create an educational monarch butterfly garden, supported by a STEM grant.

• At Shakopee Area Catholic School, Shakopee, a certified Children’s Yoga

Calm instructor will help prekindergarten and kindergarten students improve physical, social and emotional balance and self-esteem through weekly yoga classes. The school is also opening a new media production lab and launching an eighth-grade capstone class where students reflect on personal growth.

• Claire Shea is serving as interim junior high principal at Benilde-St. Margaret’s, St. Louis Park, after Carol McNamara retired this summer.

McNamara was the junior high’s founding principal, serving since 1989.

• Ann Coone is the new principal of St. Raphael, Crystal, where the school is expanding its Spanish and technology programs.

• Becky Kennedy is the new principal of Our Lady of the Lake, Mound, where new monthly progress reports will help parents and teachers better evaluate the blended learning model the school implemented last year.

• Students at St. Ambrose, Woodbury, will be using new Chromebooks. The school also launched a new website.

• Lisa Simon is the new principal of St. Vincent de Paul, Osseo, where students will be working with electronic tablets, netbooks, iPads and Android technology.

• Students at St. Joseph, Rosemount, will enjoy the $28,000 playground equipment installed in May and funded in part by the annual Catholic United

Financial raffle.

• With the help of a $4.3 million capital campaign, Holy Family, Victoria, is transforming its large media center into a performance center and making an underused part of the high school an information center for collaborative work and research.

• St. Timothy, Maple Lake, is building a four-classroom addition and launching a preschool program for children ages 3 and 4. It also plans to integrate new technology, including Smartboards and Chomebooks.

• Presentation of Mary, Maplewood, is working with experts at St. Catherine University’s national Center for STEM Elementary Education for teachers’ professional development. The school also opened a second full-day kindergarten classroom.

• St. John, Vermillion, will enter the second phase of a two-year strategic implementation of differentiated instruction techniques. It is also adding a math tutor to its staff.

• Our Lady of Peace, Minneapolis, is implementing a new K-5 math program, Math Expressions, and a new middle school STEM grant. It is also expanding the length of its daily math and literature/language arts classes, and increasing the number of Spanish, art and music classes for all grade levels, K-8.

The school is also extending the school day by 10 minutes, dismissing at 3 p.m.

August 27, 2015 • St. Rose of Lima, Roseville, is celebrating its 75th anniversary Sept. 19 and has made strides in reaching out to its alumni base.

• As The Catholic Spirit previously reported, St. Alphonsus, Brooklyn Center, and St. Mark, St. Paul, are implementing a new educational model, IDEALS, aimed at reaching students’ multiple intelligences.

• Annunciation, Minneapolis, was accepted this summer as an International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme Candidate School and will begin implementing the framework this fall in grades K-5.

• Frank Miley has taken the helm of Cretin-Derham Hall, St. Paul, as president after the June retirement of longtime president Dick Engler.

• St. Thomas Academy, Mendota Heights, has revamped its military curriculum to focus on leadership skills and the school’s history, traditions and culture, military history and principles of just war theory.

• Notre Dame Academy, Minnetonka, is pairing with BenildeSt. Margaret’s Sept. 12 for a Singing for Scholars event. Opera singer Maida Khudoley will perform with the BSM choir to raise funds for NDA. • St. Agnes, St. Paul, is opening a $16.7 million student activities center with a double gymnasium, auditorium; student commons and classrooms.

Sacred Heart Church Fall Festival/ Kermesse del Sagrado Corazon Sunday, September 13, 2015 13 de Septiembre, 2015 East Sixth & Arcade Streets 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Authentic Mexican food & American food Comida Mexicana y Americana Music, Dancers, Children & Adult games, Pull tabs, Raffle & more.

Musica, Danzas, Mago, Juegos Para Ninos y Adultos

HUGE GARAGE SALE Venta de Garage

Saturday 9 a.m. — 1 p.m. & Sunday 10 a.m. — 4 p.m.

For more information call 651-776-2741

Subscribe to the print edition today!

Build Character

Grow Through Faith and Service

Proven College Prep

Find out more...

Time Tested Curriculum

Open House: November 1 @ 1:00 p.m.

Register @ Cadets.com/OpenHouse

SAINT THOMAS ACADEMY

Its ok to spill your coffee on it!

Call 651.291.4444

August 27, 2015

U.S. & WORLD

The Catholic Spirit • 9

U.S. priest: Spiritual costs of Cuban embargo have been high

By Rhina Guidos Catholic News Service The U.S. trade embargo against Cuba turns 55 in October, and its effects are clear in the dilapidated buildings, scant food supply of Cuban stores and infrastructure around the island.

But what’s not easy to see is the spiritual cost.

Trinitarian Father Juan Molina, director of the U.S. bishops’ Office for the Church in Latin America, said that the spiritual cost has been great.

“The embargo has literally put a block between two hands, two sister churches working together,” Father Molina said. “The Church in the United States is very much a missionary Church that goes to very different places around the world, not only to spend time with their brothers and sisters, but also to help them.”

The embargo has prevented Cubans from receiving supplies from the U.S., even during natural disasters and emergencies. Financial donations from U.S. Church members and groups that want to help pastoral programs for the Church in Cuba also have been blocked. But it also has eroded something even more important to the Catholic Church: a spiritual fraternity between Catholics on the island and those in the United States.

“All that has been lost for last 50 years,” Father Molina said.

LEFT A general view of the Catholic parish of San Juan Bautista, located at the historic center of Remedios, Cuba, is pictured in this undated photo. RIGHT Pope Benedict XVI is pictured in this March 28, 2012, file photo as he arrives to celebrate an open-air Mass in Havana’s Revolution Square. CNS

“Certainly the conference [of bishops] in the United States, in conjunction with the Cuban bishops’ conference, for many years, has favored that kind of action, the lifting of the embargo,” Coll said. Such a move can bring about greater dialogue, commerce and contact Restoring relations with the Cuban people and their government, and foster human Richard Coll, a foreign policy rights, freedom and democracy, just “The embargo has adviser for Latin America and global as it did in the similar landscape of trade at the U.S. Conference of literally put a block Eastern Europe after the Berlin Wall Catholic Bishops, said he sees hope, fell, he said. however, and it arrived with the Dec. “The more they were able to rely between two hands, 17 news that diplomatic relations on commerce and engage in dialogue between the two countries would be two sister churches with the West, the more possible it restored — a move facilitated by the became for their own societies to be diplomatic hand of the Vatican. working together.” able to open up to human rights “It was a day that marked Cuba,” advances and eventually to a move and one largely welcomed by the Father Juan Molina toward democracy rather than island’s denizens, said Lourdes Maria pulling away from the West,” Coll Escalona, who works at a Catholic said. formation center on the eastern end Even St. John Paul II, an ardent of the island. opponent of communism, favored In April, Cuba was removed from lifting the sanctions. the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism. Both “Embargoes,” he said while addressing a group of countries opened embassies in each other’s territory young people during his visit to Cuba in 1998, “are July 20, and on Aug. 14, U.S. Secretary of State John always deplorable because they hurt the most needy.”

Kerry raised the U.S. flag at the embassy in Havana.

The hope now, Coll said, is “that there’s no ‘Key’ to other closed doors backtracking” by Congress on the flexibility granted Any benefits that come from the historic thaw have to Americans so they can travel to Cuba, which includes permission to travel to the island for religious the potential to affect more than just relations between Cuba and the U.S., Coll said. activities. The greater hope, however, is getting rid of the embargo.

“Cuba is a key that unlocks many other doors

within Latin America,” said Coll. “You can think about the situation in Venezuela, for example . . . that’s related very much to what’s happening in Cuba.”

Success with Cuba can lead to success addressing issues such as religious freedom, violence and poverty in other neighboring nations.

Eduardo Azcarate, a native Cuban who lives in Falls Church, Virginia, said he does not like to get involved in politics and does not like to address the embargo.

But the embargo has made it complicated for Cuban Catholics like him to help the Church and its members carry out its mission.

“If the embargo did not exist . . . it perhaps would help to facilitate an openness of service, of help to the Church” in Cuba, he said.

However, he also tries to understand those who favor the sanctions and those who see it as “holding a chip” to “remind the government about the importance of human rights and religious freedom.”

The topic of the embargo almost seems unavoidable for Pope Francis, who will head directly from Cuba to the United States Sept. 22.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if the pope speaks about that,” Father Molina said, though it may not be a welcome topic in Congress.

“The challenge is that we’re going to be heading into 2016, which is a presidential election year, and I think that most candidates are going to be very cautious and most members of Congress are going to be very cautious about taking any action,” Coll said.

But the pope may see it as a priceless opportunity for world diplomacy, Father Molina said.

Going to Rome for Year of Mercy? Make Holy Door reservation

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service Drawing on the experience of the public exposition of the Shroud of Turin, Vatican officials are adopting a reservation system for pilgrims who want to cross the threshold of the Holy Door at St. Peter’s Basilica during the Year of Mercy.

The free, online registration will not be activated until October, but in late August the Vatican published a brief explanation of the plan on www.im.va, the website for the Year of Mercy that begins Dec. 8.

“Since a large number of pilgrims is anticipated, it is strongly recommended that pilgrims register their arrival in Rome and the possible times at which they wish to make their pilgrimage,” the notice said.

People with special needs, particularly regarding mobility, can enter that information on the reservation form and be assured of assistance when they arrive.

Knowing how many pilgrims to expect on a given day and giving them an appointment so they can

avoid hours of waiting in line will “ensure that the pilgrimage remains prayerful,” the Vatican said. The Archdiocese of Turin used a similar system to regulate the pilgrim flow April 19-June 24 for the public exposition of the Shroud of Turin.

Not reserving a date and time in advance will not exclude a pilgrim from crossing the Holy Door’s threshold, the Vatican said; a special pilgrims’ office will be open along the main boulevard leading to St. Peter’s Square and pilgrims can make last-minute reservations there.

“The pilgrimage to the Holy Doors at the other papal basilicas of Rome (St. John Lateran, St. Mary Major and St. Paul Outside the Walls) will not be subject to registration,” the Vatican said.

The Holy Door at St. Peter’s Basilica is located to the right of the basilica’s main entrance; between Holy Years it remains sealed with bricks as a symbolic reminder of the barrier of sin between human beings and God. At the beginning of a Holy Year, the pope opens the door to signal the opening of a special year of grace and pardon.

The Holy Door is pictured in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican.

CNS

U.S. & WORLD

10 • The Catholic Spirit

August 27, 2015

St. Augustine prepares for settlement’s 450th anniversary

By Margo C. Pope Catholic News Service The Diocese of St. Augustine, Florida, will join the city of St. Augustine in celebrating the 450th anniversary of the first permanent settlement of European origin in what became the continental United States.

Bishop Felipe Estevez of St. Augustine called the founding of the city providential.

“The founding of St. Augustine is all about evangelization, the sharing of Christianity with the Native Americans,” he said.

Conversion of the native people of Florida was an important motivation for Pedro Menendez de Aviles of Spain, who established the community in 1565.

And so was commercial development, said historian Michael Gannon.

“That evangelical impulse was nowhere more apparent than in his words at court, addressed to King Philip II in March 1565 when he asked for an ‘asiento’ (license) to colonize Florida,” Gannon explained. He cited the words of Menendez: “I would choose the settling of Florida before any other command or dignity that your majesty might bestow upon me.”

The king responded by telling Menendez that “you will include 10 to 12 religious . . . so that there may be religious instruction in the said land and the Indians can be converted to our holy Catholic faith and to our obedience. . . .”

The city’s founding date, Sept. 8, the feast day of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, was no coincidence, according to Bishop Estevez. He pointed to other examples of God’s work in the city: • Mission Nombre de Dios would become the home

of the first Marian Shrine in today’s United States: Nuestra Senora de La Leche y Buen Parto (Our Lady of Milk and Happy Delivery).

• The Franciscan mission chain that extended north, south and west of St. Augustine to Texas and California began in St. Augustine.

• The first centers of education and religious formation began in St. Augustine and the first hospital was established in the city.

• The first bishop of St. Augustine, Agustin Verot, in 1866 wrote to the Sisters of St. Joseph of Le Puy, France, requesting they come to the city to teach more than 6,000 newly freed slaves.

• A 208-foot stainless steel cross, known as The Great Cross, was erected for the 400th anniversary and continues to draw pilgrims to the mission.

“These milestones in the journey of faith over 450 years in St. Augustine give encouragement to the faithful to participate with a renewed enthusiasm in the new evangelization,” Bishop Estevez said.

Father Tom Willis, a St. Augustine native and rector of the Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine, recently supervised a $4 million restoration and renovation of the church.

“True beauty inspires people to want to find out who is the inspiration behind this place,” he said.

Father Willis invited visitors to make a pilgrimage to the cathedral, where a relic of St. Augustine of Hippo on loan from the Vatican Treasury will be on display through Sept. 30. “The history of our town and the parish community is unlike any other in our nation, not only because of its age but how central the religious mission was to the establishment of the town,” he said.

“The history of our town and the parish community is unlike any other in our nation, not only because of its age but how central the religious mission was to the establishment of the town.”

Father Tom Willis, rector of the Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine

An oil painting depicting “The First Mass” in 1565 in St. Augustine in what is now Florida previously hung in the city’s cathedral prior to the 1887 fire. CNS/St. Augustine Catholic via Archives of the Diocese of St. Augustine

These real estate agents can help you find your Home Sweet Home From condos to condos castles, performance exceeds promise From to castles,

Peggy Langeslay plangeslay@cbburnet.com

performance exceeds promise Kathy Kueppers

Kathy Kueppers REALTOR , CRS • Owner/Broker

Now is Realtor/Broker the best time to Now is the best time to sell sellyour your home. home.

For best results, call

®

Cell: (651)Cell: 470-0675 (651) 470-0675 Office: (651) 365-0230 kathykueppers@realtyexecutives.com kathykueppers@realtyexecutives.com www.kathykueppers.com

651-335-8515

33 E. Wentworth Ave. West St. Paul, MN 55118

Named a 2009 Super Real Estate Agent by Mpls./St. Paul Magazine and Twin Cities Business

Satisfying the real estate desires of Twin Cities Catholics for over 30 years!

Mike Vanderheyden 612-308-0826 Mike.Vanderheyden@results.net

A Demontreville Retreatant for over 30 years!

Mobile:

My success as a Realtor depends on the referrals I receive from wonderful people like you!

FREE MARKET ANALYSIS

Jo Ann Johanning, GRI, SFR, ABR 612-987-8200 jjohanning@edinarealty.com

St. Paul Area Association of REALTORS®

REALTOR of the Year

Christopher Burr REVERSE MORTGAGE

Text/Talk: 651.271.1855 Email: John@PicheAndAssociates.com

John Piché Personalized • Professional • Service

Trusted • Experienced • Local Mobile 651.341.0535 NMLS 42258 • email: cburr@houseloan.com

Two-story conventional and rambler homes in Kenyon, MN reasonably priced located between metro-area and Rochester, MN. Sell your highpriced metro real estate, possibly live debt free.

Smaller school system, many opportunities.

Call now (507) 251-2685

If you would like to advertise on this page, please call The Catholic Spirit Advertising Department at 651-291-4444.

U.S. & WORLD

August 27, 2015 WASHINGTON

Judge orders release of immigrant families within 60 days A federal judge Aug. 21 gave the Obama administration until Oct. 23 to release the hundreds of immigrant mothers and children being held in locked detention centers. Central California District Court Judge Dolly Gee reiterated her order of a month earlier, in which she said a long-standing court settlement over treatment of juveniles in immigration custody is violated by the government’s policy of detaining mothers and children while they pursue asylum or other ways of remaining in the country. Migration and Refugee Services of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in conjunction with the Center for Migration Studies, in May called for the centers to be closed, drawing on the feedback of several bishops who visited Texas detention centers.

PLYMOUTH, Mich.

Speakers say same-sex attraction needs more attention in parishes Clarifying the Catholic Church’s position and preaching to those with same-sex attraction are critically important to evangelizing in today’s world, speakers said during an Aug. 10-12 conference. From defining human sexuality to reaffirming the belief that God calls Christians not to hate anybody and to embrace the complete person, Church leaders are tasked with teaching congregations views that are becoming more and more countercultural. During the three-day conference, “Love One Another As I Have Loved You: Accompanying Our Brothers and Sisters with Same-Sex Attraction,” a wide variety of speakers gave their perspectives on how best to discuss same-sex attraction in a constructive, informative way. The conference was co-hosted by Courage International, the Archdiocese of Detroit and Our Sunday Visitor. Many speakers focused on the need to treat separately homosexual acts and people who have same-sex attraction, reaffirming the belief that people should be defined by more than sexuality.

GENEVA

Central African religious leaders share U.N. prize for reconciliation Three religious leaders — including a Catholic archbishop — were honored Aug. 19 for promoting interfaith reconciliation in the conflict-torn Central African Republic.

Archbishop Dieudonne Nzapalainga of Bangui, president Archbishop of the Central Dieudonne African bishops’ conference, shares NZAPALAINGA the 2015 Sergio Vieira De Mello Prize with Imam Omar Kobine Layama, president of his country’s Islamic Council, and the Rev. Nicolas Guerekoyamene-Gbangou of the Evangelical Alliance. The award, commemorating a Brazilian U.N. diplomat killed in an August 2003 bomb attack in Iraq, was intended “to draw world attention to unnoticed efforts by an individual, group or organization having done something special and unique.”

GLASGOW, Scotland

Head of Scottish bishops apologizes to abuse victims, Catholics The president of the Scottish bishops’ conference offered a “profound apology” to victims of child abuse following a national review of church safeguarding procedures. Archbishop Philip Tartaglia of Glasgow said the bishops were “shamed and pained” by abuse suffered at the hands of anyone in the Church.

“Child abuse is a horrific crime,” he said during Mass Aug. 18 in St. Andrew Cathedral. “That this abuse should have been carried out within the Church, and by priests and religious, takes that abuse to another level,” he said. “The harm the perpetrators of abuse have caused is first and foremost to their victims, but it extends far beyond them, to their families and friends, as well as to the Church and wider society. . . . We say sorry. We ask forgiveness.”

— Catholic News Service

The Catholic Spirit • 11

Labor Day statement: Reflection, action ‘critical’ for care of workers

By Mark Pattison Catholic News Service “Individual reflection and action is critical” when it comes to improving the conditions of workers in the United States and elsewhere, said Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, in the U.S. bishops’ annual Labor Day statement.

“We are in need of a profound conversion of heart at all levels of our lives. Let us examine our choices,” Archbishop Wenski said in the statement, dated Labor Day Sept. 7, but issued Aug. 24 in Washington.

“How do we participate in this wounding of human dignity,” he asked, “through choices about the clothes we wear, food we eat, and things we buy — most of which is unaffordable to the very workers who make it? Do we give a thought to this truth, that for our wants to be met, economic realities are created that cause others to live in ways that we ourselves would not?”

Still, “individual effort should not stand alone.” Archbishop Wenski said.

“Sufficient decent work that honors dignity and families is a necessary component of the task before us, and it is the Catholic way.”

He added, “In demanding a living wage for workers we give hope to those struggling to provide for their families, as well as young workers who hope to have families of their own someday.

Unions and worker associations, as with all human institutions, are imperfect, yet they remain indispensable to this work, and they can exemplify the importance of subsidiarity and solidarity in action.”

Archbishop Wenski used as Archbishop the basis for his remarks Pope Thomas Francis’ encyclical WENSKI “Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home,” quoting from it to illustrate his points.

While Pope Francis’ encyclical has been regarded as an encyclical on the environment, the pope said in it, “The analysis of environmental problems cannot be separated from the analysis of human, family, work-related and urban contexts, nor from how individuals relate to themselves, which leads in turn to how they relate to others.”

12 • The Catholic Spirit

Making the goal thrive, not simply survive

With their Catholic school family in mind, principals and staffs are l

By Jessica Trygstad The Catholic Spirit

A

sk any Catholic school principal what makes his or her school special, and many will say the students, parents and staff together forming a family.

It’s this familial structure that has motivated many local leaders to persevere through constrained budgets, limited resources and enrollment challenges, and has been the impetus for change.

With the start of the school year just days away, some Catholic school principals in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis will begin to see how their efforts to boost communication, collaboration and creativity play out — the fruits of grit, perseverance and a lot of hard work.

Showing commitment For Mike Gerard, the results are already apparent in the fact that he has a school to go back to. When he took the helm last fall as principal of Mary, Queen of Peace in Rogers, the prekindergarten through sixth-grade school was in “dire straits” — families had been leaving the school for the last five years because they weren’t confident the school would survive, Gerard said.

“There just wasn’t a lot of hope,” he said, citing a lack of finances and marketing. Despite the overall health of the school and students’ academic success, as the school kept shrinking, staff levels weren’t adjusted, Gerard explained, resulting in three staff cuts last year.

“Being an administrator of a failing Catholic school is quite a burden, because not only do you feel the responsibility to the children, to the families, to the Church, to yourself, but also, if it doesn’t work out, it’s crushing,” he said.

Formerly the principal of a similarly sized Catholic school in International Falls, Gerard learned what struggling schools could use: a reintroduction to the community. He went before the Mary, Queen of Peace parish, telling members

A message from Pope Francis at St. Anne’s School in Le Sueur greets students as they enter the building.

Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit

he was there for the long haul.

“You need a decent principal for at least three years in order not to harm [the school],” he said, adding that many Catholic schools face turnover in leadership. “If you’re the greatest principal in the world, but you leave after a year, you’re still doing damage. And really, you need five years just to get everything you want going in the right direction.”

Because Rogers is considered a bedroom community to the metro with many young families, Gerard ramped up the school’s marketing efforts through Facebook and used the school’s garage along Hwy. 81 as a billboard, attaching signs advertising enrollment availability and even the cost of tuition — taking a gamble on breaking down a barrier rather than creating one, based on Rogers’ demographics and stable economy.

“For whatever reason, Catholic schools are ashamed to talk about tuition, and the other thing is, people have no idea what tuition is,” Gerard said, adding that some people he spoke with assumed the tuition at Mary, Queen of Peace ran as high as $12,000 a year. Tuition is $3,490 for kindergarten through fifth grade, and $1,290 for preschool.

Through conversations with current families and community members, his goal was to reaffirm the importance of Catholic education and convince them that the school would be open for that purpose. He was driven by something he could work with — hope. “The families genuinely wanted the school to succeed,” he said.

He considers the school’s efforts successful.

Enrollment is steady at 49 students in kindergarten through fifth grade, whereas over the last five years, there was a drop of 20 to 30 students. Although the school offers sixth grade, it wasn’t announced in time to gain students for the 2015-2016 school year, Gerard said.

“But it’s a slow process,” he added. “There’s no magic bullet.”

Another boost was a $10,000 grant from the Schultz Family Foundation that the school put toward student scholarships and teacher technology training. The school offers a “Transfer

Mike Gerard, principal of Mary, Queen of Peace School in Rogers, says Catholic schools need committed leaders in order to succeed.

Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit

Grant Program” for students transferring from a public school.

Gerard credits the new Catholic Schools Center of Excellence (read more on page 6) for providing hope and assistance.

Having a pastor who strongly supports the school also made a “tremendous difference,” Gerard said of Father Michael Kaluza, who was appointed pastor of Mary, Queen of Peace parish last March.

“I would say the priest is 60 percent of the school’s success,” he said. “If you’re nurtured and led and cared for and fed, you’re going to do well, which is why we need those priests.”

Looking ahead, Gerard believes the next step for all Catholic schools is reintroducing them to Catholics.

“The fact that Catholic parents don’t think about sending their kids to Catholic schools is a shame,” he said. “You should always be hearing about our Catholic schools. . . . So we as Catholics need to re-embrace this gift that we’ve been given, because it didn’t happen overnight. It took a ton of sacrifice; now we don’t have the [religious] sisters, and we don’t have the brothers, we don’t have the people who are dedicating their whole lives to it, so we need to make up for that shortfall.”

Starting young Amid decreasing enrollment at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton School in Hastings, Principal Tim

Bella Bemmels, 4, gets a push from her sister, Halle, 12 school, attended St. Anne, Bella will attend the school tie-dye shirts. Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit

August 27, 2015 • 13

learning to think and act differently Sullivan — entering his second year as its leader — decided to bring the kindergarten class to the school from the church campus across town. That opened up classrooms for a pre-K program. But in order to start one, Sullivan acknowledged — and Father Dave Hennen, pastor, agreed — that they’d have to spend some money. A year later, the investment in two full-time preschool teachers has been fruitful: Enrollment jumped from 42 to 72 preschoolers. The program offered parents options in preschool days and hours — and this year, before- and after-school care. Sullivan said competitive prices with local daycares helped, too.

He hopes two-thirds of the students in the 4-yearold class will return for kindergarten next year.

Enrolling 309 this year — up from last year’s 284 — the pre-K–through-eighth-grade school operates with a philosophy of accepting students at whatever cost. It also provides incentives for students transferring from a public school.

“If they’re paying less tuition or no tuition, does that really matter in the long run?” Sullivan asked.

Appearances matter, too. Staff members have freshened the building with paint, pictures and by removing obsolete equipment.

“Our school isn’t going to look like a falling apart public school with crucifixes,” Sullivan said, crediting Father Hennen’s leadership and presence. “We need to stop talking about losing students and start talking about gaining students.”

He added that schools are more likely to

succeed if they start to work with what they have, but stressed that he’s been astounded by donors’ support.

“Sometimes you have to spend money on paint or advertising, or other things to make a more inviting environment, and everything will flow from that. I truly believe that,” Sullivan said. “And this last year we’ve seen it.”

The school’s major marketing pieces are Facebook and e-newsletters.

“If you can’t see it on a smartphone, most parents won’t give it the time of day,” Sullivan explained, citing parents as a Catholic school’s best marketing tool.

But the most worthwhile are the students serving the community, whether through a Veterans Day Mass, area pro-life groups or other organizations, he said.

By sharing the videos on the school’s website and Facebook page, Bemmels said it attracts and engages the larger community. What’s more, he said it has served as a recruiting tool for teachers — St. Anne’s has a waiting list of a handful of public school teachers who’ve reached out to him for a job.

Getting creative

Part of the school’s struggle was countering misperceptions in the community.

While leaders’ attitudes are shifting, thanks in part to the work of the Catholic Schools Center of Excellence, they’re still tasked with growing enrollment to keep their schools afloat and sustain the mission of the Church.

To help market his pre-K-through-fifth-grade school in Le Sueur, St. Anne School Principal Adam Bemmels has jumped on the music video parody bandwagon. He has pulled in students and staff to film renditions of the 2013 hit “Happy” and 2012’s “Gangnam Style” — all to promote the school’s pride in its small Catholic environment.

2, on the zipline at St. Anne’s School in Le Sueur as their dad, Principal Adam Bemmels, observes. Halle, entering public middle l’s prekindergarten program, and their sister, Gabby, 8, will be in third grade at the school. The girls are wearing their St. Anne

But the school’s heightened profile and reputation in the community took some time.

When Bemmels became principal in 2010, the school had 39 students. He recognized that the rapport among students and staff needed to improve, as well as relationships with families and the parish.

“We needed to lighten the atmosphere” and focus on Catholic identity, he said, which the staff accomplished. “It was basically grow, or go. We had to grow. We didn’t have another option.”

“There are a lot of myths out there, and there are a lot of things that go around about our Catholic schools — we’re dying and we’re losing enrollment,” Bemmels said. “We needed to come in and show that that’s not the case. We can be viable. We can be vibrant. We can be a very good option for [people’s] children’s education. So that was one of the big pieces — getting back into the community as a whole and showing we’re on the upswing.”

The school — this year enrolling 128 — does that by participating in community events such as expos and parades.

“With the work that CSCOE [the new Catholic Schools Center of Excellence] is doing and their partnership with the schools and the archdiocese, I’m as excited as I’ve ever been in my six years here about the direction of our schools,” Bemmels said.

Tim Sullivan, principal of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton School in Hastings, says students’ service is one of the biggest ways the school enhances its presence in the larger community. Courtesy St. Elizabeth Ann Seton School

Adam Bemmels, principal of St. Anne’s School in Le Sueur, credits the work and dedication of staff members for creating a fun, enriching environment for its prekindergarten through fifth-grade students. Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit

14 • The Catholic Spirit

By Jonathan Liedl For The Catholic Spirit

R

ecently released videos alleging Planned Parenthood harvests and distributes fetal tissue from aborted fetuses for profit in other states could help push a long-sought licensing and inspection bill over the final hurdle in Minnesota.

Momentum behind the legislation might rise not because there is evidence that the same practice is happening in this state, where it would be illegal, but because no such evidence can be gathered — abortion clinics in Minnesota are unregulated and unmonitored by the state, as pro-choice politicians have historically protected Planned Parenthood and other providers from any sort of government oversight.

“We need a better understanding of what goes on in those walls,” said State Sen. Michelle Benson (R), a Catholic from Ham Lake and an author of the Senate version of the bill. “Right now it’s like a black box.”

Attempts to pass a licensing bill have failed in the past, but the eight videos released by the Center for Medical Progress — which include a Planned Parenthood official discussing the “demand” for particular fetal organs over lunch and a former tissue procurement technician describing working with a Planned Parenthood clinician to harvest an aborted boy’s brain while his heart was beating — have created a new sense of urgency for those demanding government oversight.

“These videos have rekindled a strong desire in all of us to make sure this isn’t happening in Minnesota,” said Rep. Kathy Lohmer, a Republican from Stillwater who serves on her chamber’s Health and Human Services Finance and Reform committees.

Lohmer noted that a similar lack of regulation in Pennsylvania resulted in the longtime undetection of the horrific practices of abortion provider Kermit Gosnell, convicted in 2013 of murdering three infants born alive and killing a patient during a botched abortion.

“We don’t know if that’s not happening here, because we’re not licensing and we’re not inspecting,” she said.

Planned Parenthood officials have said that the edited videos distort their subjects’ words and prove no illegal activity.

Immediate push On July 20, six days after the release of the first CMP video, 65 pro-life Republican legislators signed and sent a letter to Gov. Mark Dayton, urging him to provide the people of Minnesota with “a thorough and transparent account of Planned Parenthood’s operations.”

The governor rejected the call for an investigation, stating that GOP politicians were “grandstanding” and that local Planned Parenthood officials had assured him that fetal tissue harvesting wasn’t happening in Minnesota.

But the issue is expected to be taken up in the next legislative session, which begins March 8, 2016. State legislators interviewed by The Catholic Spirit say that in the wake of the CMP videos, they’ve received an influx of calls and emails from constituents demanding changes to the state’s abortion laws.

“I’ve heard from the usual pro-life activists, but I’ve also been hearing a lot from people who don’t normally speak out on this issue,” said Rep. Ron Kresha (R), a Catholic member of the Legislature from Little Falls.

“These newcomers are very energized and fired-up.”

Clearly, the videos have struck a nerve.

“To treat a human being at the earliest stages of development as nothing more than raw material for research is very disturbing to people,” said Bill Poehler, the communications director of Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life. “People don’t like to think of the bodies of babies being dissembled.”

Minnesota abortion laws Abortion holds a privileged place in Minnesota law. In the 1995 case Doe v. Gomez, the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled that abortion was a constitutional right, requiring the state to pay for abortions requested by women who cannot afford them.

This means that even if Roe v. Wade were overturned at the federal level, state-funded abortions would still be required to be available in Minnesota, as they currently are. According to a report of 2014 state abortion

ANALYSIS

Could videos prompt passage of MN abortion oversight law?

Pro-life legislators, advocates say time is ripe to push regulation statistics, 3,858 of the 10,123 abortions performed instate were funded at least in part by tax dollars.

This is a reality that the MCCL says makes the state’s abortion laws the “most extreme in the nation.”

But in other ways, Minnesota’s abortion laws are more restrictive than other states. Clinics are not allowed to distribute the remains of abortion victims for general research if the fetus has “cartilaginous structures, fetal or skeletal parts,” which experts say typically develop by six to eight weeks of pregnancy.

This law was passed in 1987 after several aborted babies were found in a dumpster behind an abortion clinic in Robbinsdale. It requires “the dignified and sanitary disposition of the remains of aborted or miscarried human fetuses,” with exceptions to immediate burial or cremation only allowed for medical testing in specific circumstances.

August 27, 2015 Dayton’s veto of the licensure bill. “We were trying to close a loophole.”

Supporters of more oversight for abortion facilities often like to say that tattoo parlors in the state of Minnesota are subject to more government scrutiny than are clinics where abortions are provided.

But Benson makes the point a different way. She notes that birthing centers — facilities that allow for the comfort of a home birth but with medical resources on hand — are subject to inspection and licensure requirements that abortion clinics are not, a discrepancy she finds nonsensical.

“Abortion is an invasive process that can also have complications,” she said. “It seems reasonable that if we license places where childbirth is occurring, we should also have licensing for a place where something as unnatural as abortion is occurring.”

Kresha said that abortion providers’ lack of transparency raises suspicions. “If [abortion providers] have nothing to hide,” he asked, “why aren’t they opening the doors and showing us what they’re doing?”

A tough fight

Benson has already introduced the new version of the licensure and inspection bill that she co-authored, and there’s a companion version in the House; both are before their respective Health and Human Services committees.

Despite bipartisan support for licensure requirement bills in the past and the added momentum from the CMP videos, most of the legislators and policy experts interviewed for this story acknowledged that passing the bill into law would be a tough fight. It will be a challenge to get both HHS committees to approve similar bills.

And, while passage through both chambers of the Oversight needed Legislature is possible, there is the familiar threat of a According to the 2014 study, the remains of 4,417 veto waiting at the governor’s desk. aborted fetuses were cremated in the past year in Some legislators pointed out that the challenge is less Minnesota, while 35 were buried. The disposal method with Dayton and more with his lieutenant governor, of more than 5,000 fetuses was not reported, allegedly Tina Smith. Smith is a former vice president of Planned because they had not reached the stage of development Parenthood of Minnesota, North Dakota and South when burial or cremation is required.

Dakota and an ardent supporter of unrestricted However, Jason Adkins, the Minnesota Catholic abortion. Some legislators say she has demonstrated Conference executive director, said there’s no way of unprecedented clout and involvement for a lieutenant independently verifying that abortion clinics are governor, and is being groomed as the DFL’s likely following the law as long as the government has no nominee for replacing Dayton when term limits prevent regulatory power over them. him from running for re-election in 2018.

“If we have these laws [mandating the dignified An uncertain future means now might be the best disposal of fetal remains] we should have a mechanism opportunity the pro-life community has to pass laws to make sure they’re followed,” he said. “We don’t say regulating abortion. If they’re going to do so, legislators that because a company says it’s not polluting we don’t and policy experts agree the focus needs to be on an investigate them,” he incremental approach. added, critiquing by “If it’s presented well, comparison Dayton’s and not just situated as an “It seems reasonable that if we willingness to take attack on Planned Planned Parenthood at its Parenthood, the licensing license places where childbirth is word. bill actually has a chance The exemptions of passing,” Adkins said. occurring, we should also have Planned Parenthood and He urges pro-lifers to other abortion providers civil discourse licensing for a place where something maintain have from government and not “get sucked into regulations are the product as unnatural as abortion is occurring.” the political battle,” of a relationship with which is too often fueled progressive politicians. by emotions.

Sen. Michelle Benson Democrats for Life But pro-life politicians identifies only eight can’t do all the heavy incumbent Minnesota DFL lifting. Constituents need legislators as pro-life. None to care about this issue and convey the importance they The Catholic Spirit contacted for this story were place on this issue to their elected officials. available for an interview.

“I am pro-life, but I know that our public policy can’t Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, North Dakota and move faster than our public conversation,” said Benson, South Dakota contributed more than $220,000 to the who sees the CMP videos as valuable tools in helping campaigns of Dayton and other DFL politicians last move the issue forward. year.

Kresha sees an important role for religious leaders to This relationship makes it difficult for legislation play. “We need stronger messages from our pastors, and restricting abortion to take effect in Minnesota, pro-life we need to really have people standing up and making advocates said. In 2012, Dayton assured pro-choice this a priority,” he said. activists that as governor he would not allow laws to be Although the CMP videos have opened a unique enacted that limit abortion rights. Later that year, he window of opportunity, Lohmer said it will close vetoed an abortion facility licensure bill that passed quickly if it doesn’t translate into political action among both the House and the Senate by nearly 2 to 1 margins; constituents. it was one of at least four bills restricting abortion that “Unless the people at large are outraged and make he has vetoed in his tenure. their voices known in a big way, I don’t know what “He claimed that we were trying to single out realistically can be done,” she said. “My hope is that abortion clinics for special treatment, but really it was people don’t forget about this issue and want to do just the opposite,” said the MCCL’s Poehler regarding something about it.”

FAITH & CULTURE

August 27, 2015

The Catholic Spirit • 15

Workshop explores ‘Letter to Families’ ahead of World Meeting

By Bridget Ryder For The Catholic Spirit While protesters gathered at Planned Parenthood on University Avenue in St. Paul Aug. 22, approximately 70 people came together at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul for a workshop on St. John Paul II’s “Letter to Families.”

The Siena Symposium for Women, Family and Culture hosted the workshop.

“Our colleagues are fighting evil by protesting, and we are building something good — that’s the mission of the Siena Symposium,” said Deborah Savage, co-director of the symposium and professor of philosophy and pastoral ministry at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity.

The workshop looked at the insight the saint-pope offered for building up the family.

In her introductory remarks, Savage said that organizers decided to focus on St. John Paul II’s “Letter to Families” in honor of the upcoming World Meeting of Families and the Synod of Bishops on the Family.

Even before the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision earlier this summer to legalize same-sex marriage in all 50 states, she saw the timing of the family-themed event as more than a coincidence.

“Our reflections this morning have been divinely ordained in a way and have added urgency,” she said.

She hoped participants would learn from the letter the deep love that the family engenders and also leave with renewed hope in the future of the family.

Basis for ‘civilization of love’ The workshop broke down the 1994 letter through three talks presented by Savage, Mary Lemmons and Heidi Giebel. Lemmons co-directs the Siena Symposium

unity of body and soul.

When this happens, she said, bodies can easily be treated as raw material for consumption, as when fetal body parts are harvested for research — the situation prompting the Planned Parenthood protests.

‘Christianity for dummies’

Deborah Savage, left, co-director of the University of St. Thomas’ Siena Symposium for Women, Family and Culture, and Jake and Shannon Voelker of St. Joseph in West St. Paul discuss St. John Paul II’s “Letter to Families.” Jake is holding their daughter, Siena. Bridget Ryder/For The Catholic Spirit and is a philosophy professor at St. Thomas; Giebel is a member of the symposium’s advisory board and also a St. Thomas philosophy professor. The speakers discussed the family as the building block for a civilization of love, the family in its relation to Christ as the “Bridegroom of the Church,” and the context of the letter as a response to secular culture.

Lemmons focused on the importance of parents honoring their children by acknowledging their value as unique individuals created by God. Lemmons also said the love between spouses as the foundation for a civilization of love is “the most underappreciated point [of the letter] in our culture.” She asked the participants to consider how parishes can help families form friendships of mutual support.

Giebel discussed the pope’s teaching of the tragic cultural consequences of a modern philosophy that understands the person as only his or her mind, not a

Savage explained the context of the letter. “Note well,” she said, “that John Paul II wrote the letter in 1994 for the United Nation’s Year of Family and not for a commemorative year marked by the Church.”

She said this shows how much the Church has been working to provide Catholics with the intellectual understanding of the primacy of the natural family in society.

It is also an example of the Church taking the opportunity to reach out to the prevailing culture.

She also explained that though other documents on the family have been promulgated since 1994, the “Letter to Families” is still considered the fullest and most beautifully expressed modern Church teaching on the family.

“It gives us everything we need to build a culture of life,” Savage said, and encouraged everyone to read the entire letter.

The workshop concluded with a large group discussion during which each table shared a synopsis of their reflections.

“The family is the ‘Christianity for dummies,’” one group shared. “It’s where we learn to love. In other words, the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.”

Others shared the importance of not letting technology such as smart phones become an obstacle to making personal connections and the important role parishes can play in connecting to families and single people.

Our Lady of the Prairie Belle Plaine, MN

Sunday, Sept.

Sept. 13, 14, 2015 2014 Sunday, FESTIVAL MASS AT 10 A.M.

Chicken & Ham Dinner Serving 11 a.m-2 p.m.

Adults $10 — Children (3 to 12) $5 Under 3 FREE Take out Orders Available ($10)

FLYING MUSICIANS ERNIECLOUD STUMPF BAND

11:30-2 PM • Country Store • Crafts • Children’s Games • Raffle and Refreshments • Wood Auction at 2 p.m.

• Bingo Fun for the Whole Family!

Congratulations Father Xavier Thelakkatt!

On your 34th Anniversary of your Priesthood ordination and thank you for your service in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Blessings and prayers on your return to India.

The parishioners of Sacred Heart Church of Rush City and Father Shane Wasinger, Pastor.

TheCatholicSpirit.com

FROM AGE TO AGE

16 • The Catholic Spirit

For woman with cerebral palsy, parish is joyful stop on faith journey

August 27, 2015

“I just know that [prayer] is my function because I can’t volunteer and do the physical stuff other people do, but I can pray.”

Terry Adamson

By Susan Klemond For The Catholic Spirit Almost every day Terry Adamson takes a Metro Mobility bus from her New Hope apartment to St. Joseph in West St. Paul.

When she arrives, fellow parishioners are drawn to her joyful, loving presence.

“Terry has become the heart of the parish,” said Marcelle Diedrich, a St. Joseph parishioner and friend. “She brings the light of Christ to all of us. . . . I think she’s opened people’s eyes to what it’s like to have a disability and live in a wheelchair.”

Adamson, 55, has cerebral palsy. Along with growing in her faith, she said she tries to share her joy with people she meets. She tells how Christ filled her with his love when she came back to the Church and how he’s helped her deal with anxiety, depression and the difficulties of her disability.

“My biggest joy is coming into church and learning about how kind, merciful and loving God is, because I didn’t know,” said Adamson, who uses a power Continued on the next page

Terry Adamson, left, talks with Marcelle Diedrich before Mass Aug. 20 at St. Joseph in West St. Paul. “She lights up this church,” Diedrich said of Adamson, who goes to daily Mass several times a week. “Sometimes after Mass everybody has to take a number to talk to her. Everybody smiles when they see her.” Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit

GREEN LINE

GREEN LINE

OPENING JANUARY 2015: Minnesota’s first nursing home designed around the gamechanging GREEN HOUSE Model of Care.

All aboard for Midway Village - three new senior residences with the Green Line at the door!

Imagine living with the Fairview Avenue Green Line Station (and the rest of the world) right at your door! The Terrace at Iris Park is the first senior residence in town to offer Catered Living, a concierge approach to meeting your needs as they change. All apartments have already been spoken for, but you are welcome to join the wait list. There’s no obligation, and you’ll start building seniority so there’s a better chance that an apartment will be ready when you are. Midway Pointe has raised the bar on affordable Independent Living. As with The Terrace, all of its apartments have already been spoken for, but you are welcome to join the wait list. Someday, we hope to greet you with, “Welcome Home!”

Therapy pool

The Plaza

Call Deb Veit for the whole story! 651-632-8800 Or visit EpiscopalHomes.org

Episcopal Church Home - The Gardens will provide the closest thing yet to the experience of living in a private home with family caregivers.

It will consist of six 10-person homes. Every Elder will have a private room with private bath and enjoy four times more personal attention than in conventional nursing homes.

The GREEN HOUSE Model of Care is forever changing the face of LongTerm Care. It’s about time!

Call Deb Veit to learn more: 651-632-8800.

Or visit THE GREEN HOUSE PROJECT online.

thegreenhouseproject.org

FROM AGE TO AGE

August 27, 2015

The Catholic Spirit • 17

Continued from the previous page wheelchair. “Going to [St. Joseph] was kind of like going to a lay person’s seminary where I learned all about Jesus and Mary and what they do.”

For the past three years Adamson has sought housing closer to the parish but hasn’t been successful. She believes God wants her at St. Joseph, and the travel offers an opportunity to evangelize.

Adamson, who is a greeter and concierge at an Eden Prairie hotel, plans to attend the annual Mass for Persons with Disabilities at 3 p.m. Sept. 13 in St. Mary’s Chapel at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity. The Mass will include a celebration of the sacrament of confirmation for people with disabilities who’ve completed confirmation classes.

Annual Mass for Persons with Disabilities When: 2:30 p.m. singalong followed by 3 p.m.

Mass (includes a sign language interpreter) with Bishop Andrew Cozzens Sept. 13 Where: St. Paul Seminary (St. Mary’s Chapel), 2115 Summit Ave., St. Paul The sacrament of confirmation for persons with disabilities who have completed confirmation classes also will be celebrated. Stay for socialization and light refreshments after Mass.

Closer to Christ Adamson has happy memories of growing up Catholic in the 1960s in Kenosha, Wisconsin, with her brother and sister. Most buildings — including her family’s home and parish — weren’t wheelchair accessible then, and often she was carried up and down stairs.

Anxiety she struggled with in high school later caused her to leave technical school.

“I knew there was a God, but I thought he was far off doing the big huge things,” she said.

Adamson spent the next nine years at home alone each day while her parents worked, with her father coming home during his lunch hour to care for her.

She now sees that God was there through her suffering.

“I always had the hope and the knowledge back in my head that I had more to do than stay home and veg,” she said. “I didn’t know when, but I had this

dream of being in my own apartment and having own my life.”

Looking back, Adamson said she is grateful to her parents for taking care of her for 29 years, at a time when there were no personal care attendants and fewer services for people with disabilities.

Relaxation tapes helped her overcome anxiety enough to consider living on her own. When a friend told her about what is now Courage Kenny Rehabilitation Institute in Golden Valley, Adamson moved there in 1990. She thrived in the new environment and a year later got her own apartment.

Still, she wasn’t happy.

In 2000, someone suggested she see a chiropractor in West St. Paul. Thinking it was crazy, she made the two-hour round trip to Endris Chiropractic Inc. She liked the clinic and became friends with the

greeter and scheduler, Paul Cernohous, who said of Adamson, “She’s kind of a kindred spirit. We’ve got a lot in common.”

What they would share most is faith. About five years ago Cernohous invited her to the Divine Mercy cenacle at St. Joseph, two miles from the clinic. She’d been away from the Church for almost 40 years.

Around the same time, her friend Diane Vorwald of St. Pius X in White Bear Lake introduced her to eucharistic adoration at Jesus Heals Ministry in St. Paul. She discovered praying in adoration lifted her depression. Adamson said she heard God asking her to pray for everyone who crossed her path.

“I just know that is my function because I can’t volunteer and do the physical stuff other people do, but I can pray,” she said.

Cernohous later brought Adamson to St Joseph’s perpetual adoration chapel where on most days she prays for the parish, its priests and others.

Adamson returned to confession and hasn’t had further anxiety problems. She loves parish activities, but her face lights up as she talks to parishioners such as Diedrich and Florence Stifter, widows who attend daily Mass. Both care for Adamson, but Diedrich especially has filled in for Adamson’s mother, who still lives in Wisconsin.

“People just go to her [Adamson] because they know she’s a woman of prayer, wisdom and insight with a heart full of kindness for anyone that approaches her,” Cernohous said.

In turn, Adamson said the parish’s welcome has helped her find more peace with her disability.

While Adamson finds joy in her life, she also thinks about her heavenly home. Recalling a friend’s vision in prayer of her dancing in heaven in a beautiful dress, she said, “I just sit there and try to imagine it.

Everything we go through is worth it.”

Sister Jennifer Rausch Celebrates 50 years of Apostolic Ministry!

Congratulations on your Jubilee!

Thank you for your faithfulness in helping us build a caring, friendly, faith-based and welcoming community where people of all faiths age gracefully and enjoy the fullness of life!

A Community of Gracious Retirement Living at Its Best!

St. Therese Southwest is a beautiful, yet affordable senior care community for adults 62 and over located in Hopkins, Minnesota. Our faith based senior campus is situated on 14 breathtaking acres of natural beauty.

Independent Living • Assisted Living • Memory Care Short Term Stay Suite • Adult Day Program • Home Healthcare • Elegant Dining • Homemaking Service • Wellness Center • A Faith Base Community offering Catholic Mass & Interfaith Worship Weekly • •

GET inspired www.TheCatholicSpirit.com

Call Today to Schedule your Tour & Complimentary Lunch

There is so much more online!

1011 Feltl Court Hopkins, MN 55343

Phone: (952) 467-8498 www.StThereseSouthwest.com

Full calendar of events • Catholic Hotdish Blog • Photos and videos • Search the archives

18 • The Catholic Spirit

CONSECRATED LIFE

August 27, 2015

Beer bubbles music to brewing monks’ ears

By Chaz Muth Catholic News Service The whoosh of the beer tap opening, the gentle glug of the golden brew pouring into the goblet and the sizzle of the foaming mousse are joyous sounds to Trappist Brother Jonah Pociadlo’s ears as he prepares to savor the signature ale created in his monastery’s brewery.

The monk — swathed in his trademark black and white habit — then holds the glass above his head, squinting to examine the bubbling liquid inside, before drawing it to his nose to savor the aroma radiating from the tumbler, which is ornamented with the name of the brew, Spencer Trappist Ale. “It’s got a wonderful smell to it,” said Brother Jonah, as his eyes gently close and his satisfied grin grows wider. “I hesitate to describe it, because it’s something I think is pretty subjective.

But I can almost taste it without it even touching my lips.”

He then joins his fellow beer-brewing monks and lay workers to taste the ale at the Spencer Brewery, which officially began operations a little more than a year ago on the grounds of St. Joseph’s Abbey in the tiny hamlet of Spencer, Massachusetts, home to 57 monks who are Cistercians of the Strict Observance, more commonly known as Trappists.

First in U.S. Though Trappist Monastery brew houses have existed in Europe for at least 300 years, this community of monks

opened the first Trappist brewery in the United States.

When the idea for the first American Trappist brew house was pitched to the International Trappist Association, a few of its members were dubious, Trappist Father Isaac Keeley, director of the Spencer Brewery, told Catholic News Service during a spring tour of the new state-of-the-art facility.

“They’re very protective of the Trappist beer brand and they always want to ensure that a brew with that label meets the high standards they’ve set for it,” Father Keeley said.

The association requires all beer with the Trappist name to be brewed at a Cistercian monastery, either by monks or laypeople supervised by monks.

Trappist breweries must be monitored to assure the quality of the beer is impeccable, and the brewers are required to observe business practices that keep the monastic way of life at the forefront, meaning no profits are to be made.

The income earned is intended to support living expenses for the monks and maintain the buildings and property at the monastery. All money left after those expenses are met must be donated to charity.

Aim to self-support St. Joseph’s Abbey is a contemplative monastery, making the mission of the Trappists different from many Catholic religious orders that oversee ministries in parishes, schools, universities or other

fit with their monastic schedule.

So, the order sold off the cattle and morphed into a business called Trappist Preserves, which had an agricultural quality.

“Around the year 2000, we realized jams and jellies are great, we love them, but they’re labor intensive and the revenue we’re going to generate is limited, so we need another revenue stream,” Father Keeley said. “So, we did a long study; that’s how we looked at doing the brewery.”

Trappist Father Isaac Keeley takes a whiff of Spencer Trappist Ale during an April 29 taste testing at the new state-of-the-art brewery on the grounds of St. Joseph’s Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts. The monks began operating the first American Trappist brewery about a year ago. CNS photo/Chaz Muth social settings.

Their monastic community doesn’t oversee such ministries. Their primary function is to lead a life of prayer, meditation and study, and to sustain that existence they add a manual labor component.

“We have a very explicit commitment to being self-supporting,” Father Keeley said. “Traditionally, we’ve been farmers.

We came to Spencer in 1950 in order to really continue as dairy farmers.”

In the 1960s, dairy farming in New England became agribusiness, a much more intense and industrialized way of farming, and the monk said that didn’t

Brewing brings new energy While the profits are not yet flowing to help the charities they support, the ale they are selling, the new brews they are testing and the craft beer industry in general is energizing the monks and the lay workers.

“What I like about the beer is its color, the whole texture (and) the great taste,” said Robert Littlehale, Spencer Brewery’s assistant head brewer. He said that working with the monks has helped him rekindle his faith and it dispelled preconceived notions about the monastic way of life. He was surprised to find they do not take a vow of silence and are often carefree with a boisterous sense of humor.

Father Keeley and Brother Jonah also hope the beer serves as an evangelization tool, so when people drink the beer, they think about who is brewing it and why.

Perhaps, they said, it will help them reflect on their own faith.

WEB/SOCIALMEDIA ArchSPM.org • TheCatholicSpirit.com Rediscover-faith.org • CatholicHotdish.com facebook.com/ArchdioceseSPM• facebook.com/TheCatholicSpirit facebook.com/Rediscoverfaith • facebook.com/CatholicHotdish twitter.com/ArchdioceseSPM • twitter.com/CatholicSpirit twitter.com/Rediscoverfaith • twitter.com/CatholicHotdish youtube.com/user/ArchdioceseSPM • youtube.com/user/TheCatholicSpirit youtube.com/user/Rediscoverfaith Instagram: TheCatholicSpirit • Pinterest: CatholicSpirit

THIS CATHOLIC LIFE • COMMENTARY

August 27, 2015

COMMENTARY Bob Zyskowski

Don’t get angry; get creatively generous Frustration.

Irritation.

Anger.

If you’re human, you’ve had those emotions.

While terrorism, crime, violence and greed around the globe and close to home can worry and trouble us, many of the incidents that spike our blood pressures are piddling things.

The driver of the car in front of you sits through the red light, then, as the light turns to green, puts on his left-turn signal, and you’re stuck waiting behind him.

You rearrange a busy day to attend a meeting only to have the meeting canceled at the last minute.

When you get home, the replacement part the guy at the home remodeling store gave you turns out to be the wrong part.

All the scenarios above might be brushed off as “First World” problems, small beer compared to the daily effort to

simply survive that so many in the Third World face.

Yet, it is in the First World that we’ve been graced to live, and it is here that we are called to follow the example of Jesus and the teachings of the Church.

We may not personally be able to solve Third World issues — although we can certainly be part of working toward solutions — but we can take a different approach to the way we respond to the frustrating, irritating, angering incidents in our own lives.

Think differently Put this phrase — “creative generosity” — on a Post-it Note, then tape it to the fridge or stick it somewhere you’ll see it frequently.

Like your dashboard, maybe.

It’s a reminder to change your perspective, to see things from someone else’s eyes, to question instead of to judge.

And then to use your creative ability to

GUEST COMMENTARY Christopher Thompson

Pray ‘creation mysteries’ to reflect on encyclical’s themes Pope Francis has declared Sept. 1 the “World Day of Prayer for Creation” and has asked us in his encyclical, “Laudato Si’,” to develop an ecological spirituality. Why not take time that day to pray the rosary, but with the theme of creation as your focus? The repetitive nature of this prayer form makes recollection upon the various spiritual themes or “mysteries” relatively easy.

It seems that with this newest call to focus on the gift of creation, the rosary might be a good way to bring together the ancient and the new. As a form of private devotion, such an approach might enrich your contemplative encounter with Christ.

First Mystery of Creation: The incarnation “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”(Jn 1:14) This famous line from the opening of the Gospel of John marks an excellent point of departure for prayer for at least two reasons: First, the earth is not alien to God, not in the least. Instead, dwelling among us, God chose to enact his plan of love and redemption on this

land. Second, at a deeper level, all of creation bears the impress of the Word, the Logos, the one through whom all things are made. Awe before the beauty of creation is a kind of adoration of the Son. In this first decade, we can reflect on those occasions of awe and thank God for this presence in our lives.

Second Mystery of Creation: The power of beauty “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.”(Mt 6:28) In this second mystery, consider something beautiful; perhaps have a flower on hand as a spiritual aid, ponder its incredible intricacy, its delicate nature, its beauty, its fragility — and yet, its power — to produce something beautiful for God. Jesus uses this occasion of a flower to remind us not to worry. God is in charge and we can take comfort in him. In knowing something beautiful, we know God is with us. In this second decade, we can recall a wondrous location and consider

think generously.

It works like this.

• “I wonder if that driver who now is turning left in front of me is lost. I’ll bet he’s from out of town.”

• “I hope there’s nothing wrong that caused the boss to reschedule our meeting. Whatever it is, it must have been important.”

• “Maybe the guy who sold me the wrong part thought this was the right one. It’s not that far back to the store.”

Taking the tack of creative generosity doesn’t just apply to life’s minor inconveniences or annoyances.

A humble priest once showed a creative and generous heart when, upon hearing that someone had embezzled from a Church organization, his very first response was, “The poor woman. I wonder what led her to do that.”

Before you judge . . .

A test to try when things — and people — appear to go wrong is this: Do I have enough information to be judgmental?

What might I not know?

That’s where creative generosity comes into play.

Try to imagine several possible extenuating circumstances that would explain what is frustrating, irritating and angering you. What would be a reasonable explanation — or even a good excuse?

Two benefits come to mind for applying the creative generosity approach to life’s irritations.

The Catholic Spirit • 19

“A test to try when things — and people — appear to go wrong is this: Do I have enough information to be judgmental? What might I not know? That’s where creative generosity comes into play.”

Bob Zyskowski

The first is that it could help bring down your level of stress and your blood pressure. The second is that it’s free!

Being creatively generous doesn’t cost a thing. Instead, it pays off in that you’ll have less frustration in your life, fewer irritations and you’re likely to avoid getting angry so much.

But wait — there’s more.

If you start today, you’ll have a jumpstart on the Dec. 8 opening of the Jubilee Year of Mercy that Pope Francis has called for.

Zyskowski is former editor and associate publisher of The Catholic Spirit. Reach him at zyskowskir@archspm.org.

how God seeks to meet and care for us there.

Third Mystery of Creation: The power of Christ “Who is this that even winds and sea obey him?” (Mt 8:27) We need to be honest; encountering nature is not always a rosy experience.

Pondering the beauty of a flower is one thing; bracing for the impending storm on the horizon another. Especially with the introduction of sin, we can count on misunderstanding nature and resenting its ways. But Christ takes the occasion of ill weather to remind the disciples of the importance of faith, and that inordinate fear has no place for one who rests in the Lord. In grasping the power of nature, we can learn to trust in God. In this decade, we pray for the graces to trust in the providence of God for all creatures.

Fourth Mystery: The future of creation “All things were created through him and for him.” (Col 1:16) It is not unusual when standing under a starry sky to wonder: What is all of this for? Well, it’s for us, in many ways. The glory of this universe is the setting in which we live out our lives in gratitude to the Father. Christ joins us in this desire, especially in the Eucharist, and it is there, in that

universal prayer of the Church, that the world is given its final purpose and direction. In this decade, we pray that we may return the gifts of creation, including our labors, to the Father.

Fifth Mystery: The renewal of creation “Behold, I make all things new.”

(Rv 21:5) What is the status of the earth and its creatures in the final judgment and the kingdom? In “Laudato Si’,” Pope Francis makes the bold suggestion that “eternal life will be a shared experience of awe, in which each creature, resplendently transfigured, will take its rightful place. . . .” Though theologians have offered various interpretations, one thing is clear: The life that we lived here on earth will be fulfilled, not dismissed.

How we have loved God, neighbor and God’s creatures will be a testament to our faith. In this decade, we pray for the courage and hope to live out our remaining days giving thanks to the Lord for the gift of his earth.

Thompson is academic dean of the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity in St. Paul.

FOCUS ON FAITH

20 • The Catholic Spirit

SUNDAY SCRIPTURES Deacon Joe Zabinski

Only God’s laws bring true freedom “Freedom!”

In the movie “Braveheart,” William Wallace roared this powerful word while leading the Scots in their first war of independence against the oppressive King Edward I of England.

We all desire to be free and to truly live our lives as we are meant to live them. We can try to achieve this in different ways. We can see that the Scots tried to achieve political freedom through fighting a war against the English. Moses tells Israel to observe the

Lord’s statutes and decrees “that [they] may live and may enter in and take possession of the land” that God gives them. But more than land and space to live, the first reading for Aug. 30 shows us that God and his law bring true freedom.

At that time, God freed the Israelites from the oppression of the Egyptians and promised them a new land they could call their own. Before they could enter, Moses told the people that they must observe God’s laws and decrees so

August 27 , 2015

that they may live truly free in that land, and so to “take possession” of that land.

Observing the law would bring true freedom for the Israelites, but after living in the Promised Land for some time, the Israelites fell into the slump of idolatry — not following the laws and decrees God gave them, which ultimately led to their exile.

Sometimes we find ourselves in similar situations. Living in the land of the free might bring some of us to take for granted the joys and liberties that we have here in America. In order for us to avoid oppression, we must “be sober and alert for the devil is prowling like a roaring lion looking for a soul, a people to devour and oppress” (1 Peter 5:8). Like Wallace in the movie “Braveheart,” we might also have to fight for these enjoyed freedoms. We certainly need to fight to keep the devil from ourselves, our families and even our communities.

This can be done through prayer, fasting, having good Catholic friends and being involved with the Church community.

Since God’s law brings true freedom,

Sunday, Aug. 30 Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Readings

• Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-8 • James 1:17-18, 21b-22, 27 • Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23 whenever his law is violated it brings oppression. When this happens, we need to fight to defend God’s law so as to regain our true freedom, enabling us to live authentic lives as he intended from the beginning. The laws and decrees from God are truly a gift, bringing us freedom and joy. Let us not be afraid to step up and fight for this gift.

Deacon Zabinski is in formation for the priesthood at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. His teaching parish is St. John the Baptist in Jordan. His home parish is St. Charles Borromeo in St. Anthony.

DAILY Scriptures Sunday, Aug. 30 Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-8 James 1:17-18, 21b-22, 27 Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

Wednesday, Sept. 2 Colossians 1:1-8 Luke 4:38-44

Saturday, Sept. 5 Colossians 1:21-23 Luke 6:1-5

Monday, Aug. 31 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 Luke 4:16-30

Thursday, Sept. 3 St. Gregory the Great, pope and doctor of the Church Colossians 1:9-14 Luke 5:1-11

Sunday, Sept. 6 Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time Isaiah 35:4-7a James 2:1-5 Mark 7:31-37

Tuesday, Sept. 1 1 Thessalonians 5:1-6, 9-11 Luke 4:31-37

Friday, Sept. 4 Colossians 1:15-20 Luke 5:33-39

Monday, Sept. 7 Colossians 1:24–2:3 Luke 6:6-11

SEEKING ANSWERS Father Kenneth Doyle

Vatican and the Middle East; papal trip expenses Q. I am a faithfully practicing

Catholic and read the Bible daily. As a supporter of Israel, I see their task in protecting the Holy Land as difficult but necessary. I find it hard to accept the Vatican’s proposal of a two-state agreement as a solution to the woes of the Middle East. I base my opinion on the history of the Palestinians’ actions and on their too-close affiliation with the terrorist organization Hamas. I feel guilty disagreeing with the Vatican, but I see this personally as the moment to side with Israel. Because of my Catholic faith, am I wrong to think this way?

A. The Vatican has long believed

that the way to peace in the Middle East is best served by the creation of two separate independent nations living side by side. In a May 2014 visit to Tel Aviv, for example, Pope Francis called for the “universal recognition” of

“the right of the state of Israel to exist and flourish in peace and security within internationally recognized borders.”

At the same time, Pope Francis said “there must also be a recognition of the right of the Palestinian people to a sovereign homeland and their right to live with dignity and with freedom of movement.” The position of the Vatican is that both parties should respect the legitimacy of the other with no recourse to violence. As Pope Benedict XVI told the president of Israel in 2009, “A nation’s true interest is always served by the pursuit of justice for all.”

To your question, the Catholic Church acknowledges that all issues of public policy do not carry the same moral weight and that there is a hierarchy of values. Stances regarding intrinsic evil — on racism, for example, or on the unborn child’s right to life — have special claim to a Catholic’s conscience.

Tuesday, Sept. 8 Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Micah 5:1-4a Matthew 1:1-16, 18-23 Wednesday, Sept. 9 St. Peter Claver, priest Colossians 3:1-11 Luke 6:20-26 Thursday, Sept. 10 Colossians 3:12-17 Luke 6:27-38

There are other issues, though — such as health care, immigration and foreign policy — where moral teaching, prudential judgment and political strategies are intermingled. On these, the positions taken by the Church, while deserving of thoughtful examination, do not carry the same binding authority. The two-state solution in the Middle East is one of these, and you are free to disagree.

Q. The pope will soon be visiting the United States and will speak about the treatment of the poor.

Before his visit, many millions of dollars will probably be spent to pretty up the churches in three cities, as well as the surrounding areas.

Some time ago, the same thing happened in San Antonio. Whole neighborhoods were cleaned up just for the pope to drive through them.

Could not this money be better spent for direct help to the poor and the homeless?

A. No doubt there are considerable expenditures associated with papal trips — both for the preparation of sites and for security. Those costs are shared by Catholic communities in the host areas and by municipal governments (as with welcoming any public figure or celebrity).

The hope is that direct contact with the pope will produce notable benefits — increased Mass attendance, growth in religious vocations, etc. — and such results have regularly been documented

Friday, Sept. 11 1 Timothy 1:1-2, 12-14 Luke 6:39-42 Saturday, Sept. 12 1 Timothy 1:15-17 Luke 6:43-49 Sunday, Sept. 13 Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time Isaiah 50:5-9a James 2:14-18 Mark 8:27-35

with papal travel in the past (notably, during the pontificate of St. John Paul II).

Now comes a new metric under the heading of “papal effect.” A poll by Zogby Analytics has shown that one year into the papacy of Pope Francis, a fourth of American Catholics have increased their charitable donations during that 12-month period. Seventyseven percent of those donors attribute their increased giving to the message and example of Pope Francis himself.

Concern for the poor has been a consistent highlight of the message of Pope Francis. (He said in “The Joy of the Gospel,” for example, “Not to share one’s wealth with the poor is to steal from them.”)

Consistent with that emphasis, the pope has focused on poverty in scheduling his upcoming trip to the U.S. In Washington he will meet with homeless people at a downtown church; in New York, he will speak with immigrant families at a school in East Harlem; in Philadelphia he will visit a prison.

The expectation of the Vatican — and the hope of the Catholic world — is that such visibility will be leveraged into increased concern for the poor and attention to their needs.

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

CALENDAR

August 27, 2015 Parish events Farewell Mass and open house for Father Xavier Thelakkatt — Aug. 30: 10 a.m. Mass followed by 11 a.m. reception in the parish center at St. Albert Church, 11400 57th St. NE, Albertville.

Information: Mike, Janet or Rita at (763) 497-2474.

Garage sale — Sept. 12-13: Sept. 12, 9 a.m.–1 p.m.; Sept. 13, 10 a.m.–4 p.m., Sacred Heart/Kermesse del Sagrado Corazon, East Sixth and Arcade Streets, St. Paul.

St. Rose of Lima School 75th anniversary — Sept. 19: 4-9 p.m. Prayer service, Mass, outdoor dinner, music, children’s activities, reunion meet-andgreet. 2048 Hamline Ave., Roseville. Information: www.mysaintrose.net.

Light refreshments available. Information: www.mncc.org/category/resources/events or (651) 227-8777.

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

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

50th reunion: Hill High School and Archbishop Murray Memorial High School — Sept. 11-12: Register online at www.hill-murray.org/1965Reunion.

Information: Christine Jones, cjones@hill-murray.org or (651) 748-2410.

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

Prison ministry information workshop and support group — Sept. 12: 9:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m., Risen Savior, 1501 County Road 42 E., Burnsville. Information: www. stjosephcommunity.org/prison_ministry.aspx or Kevin Connors, kjc379@gmail.com or (952) 426-8633.

ITEMS MUST INCLUDE the following to be considered for publication in the calendar:

Marian Pilgrimage Tour to Fatima, Lourdes, Paris — Sept. 7–18: Led by Father Mark Pavlik.

Information: Tony or Lisa Schmitz, (651) 245-9451 or LMS.totustuus@gmail.com.

• Time and date of event.

• Full street address of event.

Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University — Tuesday evenings, Sept. 29-Nov. 24: Holy Spirit Church, 515 Albert St. S., St. Paul. For more information and to register: www.daveramsey.com/fpu/locations/ class/1001027/atid/l_ln or call (651) 698-3353.

Parish festivals St. Patrick CountryFest — Sept. 11–13: 19921 Nightingale St. NW, Oak Grove. Information: www.st-patricks.org.

Holy Cross SeptemberFest — Sept. 11-13: 1630 Fourth St. NE, Minneapolis. Information: www.ourholycross.org or (612) 789-7238.

Holy Family Maronite fall fest — Sept. 11–13: 1960 Lexington Ave. S., Mendota Heights. Information: www.HolyFamilyEvents.org or (651) 291-1116.

St. Mary of the Lake fall festival —Sept. 12-13: Parish Life Center, 4690 Bald Eagle Ave., White Bear Lake. Information: (651) 429-7771 or www.stmaryswbl.org.

St. Michael of St. Michael fall festival — Sept.

12-13: 11200 Frankfort Parkway NE, St. Michael.

Information: www.stmcatholicchurch.org.

St. Timothy fall carnival — Sept. 11-13: 707 89th Ave. NE, Blaine. Information: (763) 784-1329 or www.churchofsttimothy.com.

St. Jude of the Lake CornFest — Sept. 12: 3–10 p.m., 700 Mahtomedi Ave., Mahtomedi.

St. Mary Fall Harvest — Sept. 12-13: 607 Elm St., Waverly.

Sacred Heart Fun Fest — Sept. 13: 11 a.m.–3 p.m., 4087 W. Broadway, Robbinsdale. Information: (763) 537-4561.

Sacred Heart/Kermesse del Sagrado Corazon fall festival — Sept. 13: 10 a.m.–4 p.m., East Sixth and Arcade Streets, St. Paul.

Guardian Angels’ Fall Festival — Sept. 18-20: 8260 Fourth St. N., Oakdale. Information: www.guardian-angels.org.

Holy Spirit SpiritFest — Sept. 19: 515 Albert St. S., St. Paul. Information: (651) 698-3353.

St. Ignatius parish festival — Sept. 19: 35 Birch St. E., Annandale. Information: (320) 224-2934 or dmos@ lakedalelink.net.

Divine Mercy Catholic Church Spirit Fest — Sept. 20: 10 a.m.- 4:30 p.m. at 139 Mercy Drive Faribault. Information: (507) 334-2266 or www.divinemercy.cc.

St. Jerome fall festival and booya — Sept. 20: 10:30 a.m. at 380 E. Roselawn Ave., Maplewood.

Information: www.stjerome-church.org.

St. Pius V fall festival — Sept. 20: 10 a.m.-3 p.m. at St. Pius V Church, 410 Colvill St. W., Cannon Falls.

• Description of event.

• Contact information in case of questions: EMAIL: spiritcalendar@archspm.org (No attachments, please.)

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

Information: www.stpiusvcf.org.

St. Canice fall festival — Sept. 20: 183 Maple St. W., Kilkenny, eight miles north of Waterville, nine miles south of Montgomery and one and a half miles off Hwy. 13 East.

Women’s mid-week retreat — Sept. 15-18: Franciscan Retreat and Spirituality Center, 16385 St. Francis Lane, Prior Lake. Information and to register: (952) 447-2182 or www.franciscanretreats.net/ register.

Schools More events online

Highland Catholic School/Lumen Christi Catholic Community Block Party — www.TheCatholicSpirit.com/ Sept. 12: 5:30-10 p.m. at Highland Catholic calendar School, 2017 Bohland Ave., St. Paul.

Food, beverages, games, Tim Mahoney performance. Information: Highland Catholic School at (651) 690-2477.

St. Maron Touch of Lebanon Festival — Sept. 2627: 602 University Ave. NE, Minneapolis.

Little Angels Christian Preschool at Guardian Angels Church in Oakdale accepting St. Pascal Baylon fall festival — Sept. 27: registrations — Classes are available for children noon–5 p.m., Third Street and White Bear Avenue, ages 33 months-5 years old. Information: St. Paul. Information: (651) 774-1585. www.guardian-angels.org/lacp, (651) 730-7450 or nlyons@guardian-angels.org.

Prayer and worship

Outdoor Harvest Mass — Aug. 29: 5 p.m. at the home of Del and Joan Eder, 4515 Julep Ave. North, Lake Elmo. Mass celebrated by Father Ken O’Hotto, past state chaplain for the 4th Degree Knights of Columbus. A light dinner will follow. Free-will donations accepted. All are welcome to attend.

Information: (651) 777-6538.

Healing Mass — Sept. 15: 7 p.m. rosary followed by Mass with celebrant Father Jim Livingston at St. Gabriel the Archangel-St. Joseph’s Church campus, 1310 Mainstreet, Hopkins. Information: Barb at (952) 933-8423 or visit stgabrielhopkins.org.

Retreats Healing Takes Time — Sept. 18-20: For those who are grieving, sponsored by the Hope United Grief Group at Franciscan Retreat and Spirituality Center, 16385 St. Francis Lane, Prior Lake. Information and to register: Marlene Hunt of Hope United Grief Group at (507) 381-1177 or email marlenehunt53@gmail.com.

46th

The Catholic Spirit • 21

Young adults Outdoor sports night — Friday evenings through September: 6 p.m. to dark, Rahn Park, Eagan.

Ultimate Frisbee, volleyball, soccer and other games.

Ages 18-39. Begin and end each night with prayer, continue fellowship at a nearby restaurant afterward.

Sponsored by Cathedral Young Adults. Information: www.cathedralsaintpaul.org/cya.

Lakes Life Care Center’s Passion for Life Banquet — Sept. 25: 5:30 p.m. at the American Legion, 5383 140th St., Hugo.Tickets and information: www.FriendsOfLakesLifeCareCenter.org or call (651) 464-0262.

Society of St. Vincent de Paul eighth annual Friends of the Poor Walk — Sept. 26: 1 p.m. at Assumption Church, 305 E. 77th St., Richfield, followed by a picnic lunch prior to the 4 p.m. Mass. A social hour and dinner will follow Mass. All proceeds and donations to benefit people in the Twin Cities area served by SVdP. Free. Information: www.fopwalk.org.

Art exhibit — Sept. 4-November: 9 a.m.–6 p.m. daily. “Beneath the Surface,” art of Chuck and Peg Hoffman, inspired by trip to the Holy Land. Free.

Benedictine Center, 2675 Benet Road, Maplewood.

St. John’s Campus — Sept 11-12 St. Joseph’s Campus — Sept 13

Other events “Natural and Human Ecology: A panel discussion on Laudato Si’” — Sept. 9: 9–11:30 a.m., hosted by Minnesota Catholic Conference, Catholic Rural Life and the University of St. Thomas Center for Catholic Studies at the University of St. Thomas Anderson Student Center, Woulfe Alumni Hall, 2115 Summit Ave., St. Paul. Delve into some of the encyclical’s themes and consider ways in which Minnesota Catholics can put them into practice. Free.

RSVP at www.mcc-laudato-si.eventbrite.com. RSVP is requested for seating, but is not required to attend.

More details on website and in September 10th Catholic Spirit ad

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

$10,000

Grand Raffle Only 200 tickets sold at $100 each 1 $10,000 winner!

(or half the value of total tickets sold) Need not be present to win.

Parish Office 651-439-1270

St. Mary’s Church

423 S. 5th St., Stillwater

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2015 Dinner served from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

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

archspm.org TheCatholicSpirit.com

22 • The Catholic Spirit

August 27, 2015

City Connects aims to help schools care for whole student Continued from page 7 academic piece. The majority of our students are Spanish speakers.”

At Risen Christ, 95 percent of school families earn income low enough for the 300-plus students to receive free or reduced-price lunch at school each day; 93 percent report that a language other than English is spoken in their home.

Mike “With the majority of students coming from poverty, they experience a lot of ROGERS stressors you and I haven’t experienced,” Rogers said, naming hunger, immigration concerns and low family education levels among contributing factors.

“The effect those stresses have is huge. We can have a huge effect when the child is in our building, but school is isolated from out-of-school factors,” he said.

The connections that the City Connects site coordinators help families make have proven to have an impact on the child’s academic performance, said Rogers, who briefly this year assumed directorship of urban education for the archdiocese. The position was dissolved with the Office for Catholic Schools’ closure in June. The office was replaced by the Office for the Mission of Catholic Education.

“Especially in our Catholic schools, we don’t have a person to find all the resources available in the community,” Rogers added, “and it would be even harder in smaller schools.”

Walsh, the program’s founder, put it this way: “Schools cannot be expected to do everything.

“The task of responding to every need of every child would

overwhelm their human and financial resources. Their main responsibility is to educate children,” she explained.

“We have known for a long time that ‘it takes a village to raise a child,’” she added. “Communities offer many opportunities and services to children and families. What is needed is a process and structure to make the right connections, for the right child to the appropriate community program or service. The City Connects program fills that need.”

Rogers said he was particularly impressed with the systematic way the City Connects site coordinators will create a plan for and track each student at Risen Christ, a kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school that serves children from several south Minneapolis parishes.

“They’ll look at the data we have on the student, have a written plan for each student, track the student, check in with the student, check in with the family,” he said. “It’s pretty impressive, and it’s shown to work very well.”

Walsh, who now has nurtured City Connects for nearly 15 years, sees the initiative as aligned with the social justice mission of Boston College, located in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, and its commitment to educate and care for the whole person — “the mission of all Catholic education more generally,” she pointed out.

Risen Christ’s Rogers agreed. “Ours is an education in faith and an education for life,” he said.

“If we can help families and students get the resources to lift them up out of poverty, that’s our goal,” Rogers said. “We hope we are showing our students and families the image of Christ.”

Deacon Pendergast, 93, served Edina parish The Catholic Spirit Longtime Edina minister Deacon Donald Pendergast died Aug. 14 at age 93. Ordained in 1978 as a member of the second permanent deacon class of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, he was assigned to Our Lady of Grace in Edina where he served 21 years before retiring in 1999.

He was born in 1921 in England and initially worked as a coal miner. He immigrated to Paynesville in 1954, later becoming a cosmetologist and owning several salons. He was baptized in 1955, the same year he married his wife, Joanna. They had two children, Kevin and Kim. His wife and children survive him.

Deacon Peter D’Heilly, a member of Deacon Pendergast’s diaconate class, remembered him as a man who was “witty, outgoing, kind and a good minister who had a lot of people skills.”

Deacon Pendergast was a longtime member of Christ the King in Minneapolis, where a funeral Mass was offered Aug. 21.

Classified Ads

Reach nearly 75,000 homes with Minnesota’s largest paid bi-weekly newspaper

Email: classifiedads@archspm.org • Phone: (651) 290-1631 • Fax: (651) 291-4457 Next issue: 9-10-15 • Deadline: 4 p.m. 9-4-15 • Rates: $8 per line (35-40 characters per line) • Add a photo for $25 ACCESSIBILITY SOLUTIONS STAIR LIFTS - ELEVATORS -WHEELCHAIR LIFTS FOR HOMES, CHURCHES & SCHOOLS Arrow Lift (763) 786-2780 10105

ANTIQUES TOP CASH PAID For Older Furniture Rugs • Pictures • Bookcases • Pottery Beer Items • Toys & Misc.

(651) 227-2469 C4185

ASSET PRESERVATION Jerry H. Biese, agent for life insurance, long term care insurance and medicare supplemental insurance (612) 382 4363 C12095

ATTORNEYS Edward F. Gross • Wills, Trusts, Probate, Estate Planning, Real Estate. Office at 35E & Roselawn Ave., St. Paul (651) 631-0616 C11270

CEILING TEXTURE Michaels Painting. Popcorn & Knock down Texture, Repairs. TextureCeilings.com (763) 757-3187.

C12327

CEMETERY LOTS Calvary lot (two cremains) $1200. Cemetery office value $1750 (651) 451-6626.

Resurrection Cemetery: single lot Value $1630; Sale $1400 (863) 858-3219.

CONSTRUCTION & REMODELING

www.ShowcaseRenovation.com COUNTERTOPS AND SINKS

EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES

Miele Concrete + Design: Specializing in artistic concrete overlays applied to your existing laminate or cultured marble countertops and vanities: WWW.FACEBOOK. COM/MIELE.CONCRETE.DESIGN (612) 386-2187 C1198

Homecare RN/LPN for woman in her home; new grads okay; flexible hours for all shifts; part-time/full-time: (651) 695-1156 C13105

DVD TRANSFER Preserve Your Slides & Film Transfer them to DVD Today!

For quality transfers at great prices call Astound Video Duplication and Transfer at (651) 644-2412.

C7811

EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES Household Manager: The Stillwater Catholic Worker Community is seeking a live-in house mother. Our home offers shelter and respite for women and children in crisis living situations. The house mothers’ role which is voluntary is to manage and maintain the home and enhance the dignity of our guests.

If your heart is to serve and you feel called please contact Kim @ 651-270-1981 C7755 Director Mpls. Knights of Columbus male chorus, liturgical and classical music, part-time. Avail. Sept; practices 2 hrs. weekly Sept. – Jun. St. Joseph’s church, New Hope.

Jerry (763) 315-0657.

C12664

TLC Options for Women of St. Paul is looking for candidates for its Development Associate position. Responsibilities include annual development planning, major donor cultivation, helping with FR events, legacy gifts and assisting TLC affiliates with same.

Prefer 4 years development experience. Send letter and resume to TLC, 525 Thomas Ave.; St. Paul, MN 55103.

C12357 Director-Clinical Services: Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Denver is seeking a Colorado licensed or license-eligible psychologist to serve as Director of our faith-based psychology services ministry, Regina Caeli Clinical Services (RCCS). RCCS provides comprehensive psychological services consistent with the teachings of the Church. In addition, RCCS serves as a national APPIC internship and residency training site. Supervisory experience is required. Must be a Catholic. Please apply at www.ccdenver.org EEO/AA

GREAT CATHOLIC SPEAKERS

PAINTING

CD of the Month Club Lighthouse Catholic Media Scott Hahn, Jeff Cavins and more! $5/month includes shipping Subscribe online at www.LighthouseCatholicMedia .com/cdclub Please Enter Code: 1195

For painting & all related services. View our website: PAINTINGBYJERRYWIND.COM or call (651) 699-6140.

C7521

C1198

HARDWOOD FLOORS

Sweeney’s Hardwood Floors

Michaels Painting. Texture and Repair.

MICHAELSPAINTINGLLC.COM. (763) 757-3187.

C12327

Dennis Heigl Painting Interior/Exterior Serving Mpls. & suburbs. Free Estimates.

(763) 543-0998 • Cell (612) 819-2438. C12048

Summer’s here! Spruce up your home with new or refurbished hardwood floors: 10% off labor. Sweeney (651) 485-8187.

C10435

PRAYERS

HANDYMAN

Thank you SHJ, Mary Miraculous Medal, St. Jude, St. Theresa, St. Pope JPII, Our Lord Jesus Christ. JTM C1111

WE DO 1,162 THINGS AROUND THE HOME! Catholic Owned Handyman Business: We will fix/repair remodel almost anything around the home. Serving entire Metro. Call today.

Mention this ad and receive 10% off labor.

Handyman Matters (651) 784-3777, C12068 (952) 946-0088.

HEALTHCARE Northwind Sleep Clinic: Sleep is very important for your health. If you or a loved one has a problem sleeping then please call 612-875-2733 to schedule an appointment at our Brooklyn Park clinic.

Place your classified ad on this page. Call: 651.290.1631 or email at: classifiedads@archspm.org

2014-2015 Official Minnesota Catholic Directories To order: please send check for $25.00 (includes shipping & handling) to: Subscription Department • c/o The Catholic Spirit • 244 Dayton Ave. • St. Paul, MN 55102

Merriam Park Painting. Professional Int./ Ext. Painting. WP Hanging. Moderate Prices, Free Estimates. Call Ed (651) 224-3660.

C11269

NOTICE: Prayers must be submitted in advance. Payment of $8 per line must be received before publication.

VACATION/FAMILY GETAWAY Knotty Pines Resort, Park Rapids, MN. 1, 2 & 3 bdrm cabins starting at $565/week. WWW. KNOTTYPINESRESORT.COM (800) 392-2410.

Mention this ad for a discount!

C12598

WANTED TO BUY $$$ for OLD SEWING Machines, Patterns, Fabric, Hankies, Postcards, Vintage Lamps, Old Photos, Jewelry, Oriental Rugs, Lighters + Collectibles (612) 823-8616. C3919 Estate & Downsizing: I buy Van Loads and Bicycles. Steve (651) 778-0571.

C6158

PURCHASE YOUR DIRECTORY!

REDUCED PRICE!

WORLD MEETING OF FAMILIES

August 27, 2015

The Catholic Spirit • 23

Amid family challenges, hope in God’s plan

By Betsy Kneepkens When someone says they see a perfect family, I say look deeper.

Families are messy, unpredictable and stressful. That is because human relationships are chaotic and capricious, and a family is the deepest form of being in relationship with others.

Early in our human history, when the soul of the human person was created by God and we ultimately turned away from him, the chance for perfect families vanished as well. We must expect the hardships that accompany sin in ourselves and those we love deeply.

Acknowledging every person’s falleness and its impact on those nearest to us is important for us as the Church so that we can serve each other charitably and with immense mercy. God never called us to be alone.

From the very beginning, the family was created in a special way to provide a plan of support to endure our own trials and the trials of those we are closest to.

For all of the dysfunction that happens in our families’ lives, God has a plan to root those ills.

He gave us the Church for the wounded so that we may grow in holiness. The Church is not necessary if all are perfect and without blemishes or adversities.

We must begin by looking first to Christ and his Church when seeking to address those troubles that cause us distress. We ought to engage necessary professionals, but looking outside the home and Church first can often deepen the dysfunction and leave those who God has intended to be your support underutilized in a families’ healing.

God created a plan to bring harmony to our falleness. He gave us the family structure to be the immediate helper, and the network of fellow families to be the secondary support serving as a tangible fount of God’s love and mercy. It is that fount that can bring the joy we seek and the healing we need.

?

Kneepkens is director of marriage and family life for the Diocese of Duluth.

Armchair pilgrimage

Not going to Philadelphia for the World Meeting of Families?

Connect to resources for all Catholics ahead of time, and follow Minnesota reporters for stories, photos and video during the congress and papal events Sept. 22-27 at www.Facebook. com/MNatWMOF, on Twitter @CatholicSpirit and on Instagram @TheCatholicSpirit.

Richard G. Evans, left, visits with his father, Donald, at a gathering Dec. 20, 2014.

Courtesy Richard G. Evans

Father’s love for gay son key to conversion

By Dave Hrbacek The Catholic Spirit

The family as a home for the wounded heart

“We had not been extremely close over the years,” said Richard, who now belongs to All Saints in Minneapolis. One thing that hampered the relationship was Richard’s growing awareness that his sexual desires were different from most boys his age.

Sensing that his father — and others — would disapprove, he kept that part of his life hidden.

That first conversation in 1992 led to many more. Lots of the talks centered on God, faith and, eventually, the Catholic Church. Richard had plenty to share about that, as he went through the Archbishop Harry J. Flynn Catechetical Institute (graduating in 2010) and joined the Knights of Columbus a year and a half ago.

Richard G. Evans remembers the day he told his father he was gay.

The conversation took place in the driveway of Donald Evans’ home in Princeton Many people, especially today, face in August 1992. It was on a Saturday during a painful situations resulting from weekend-long family reunion. Donald’s poverty, disability, illness and youngest child had summoned the courage to addictions, unemployment, and the say something Donald had suspected for a loneliness of advanced age. But while. divorce and same-sex attraction “I was nervous telling him, even though I impact the life of the family in was 36 years old at the time,” Richard said. different but powerful ways.

“He was actually tinkering on the car, and Christian families and networks of that’s a good time to catch him because he families should be sources of mercy, loved doing mechanics. So, I shared with him that I had same-sex attraction.” safety, friendship and support for What happened next changed the course those struggling with these issues.

Unconditional love of Richard’s life. Bracing himself for possible — From the World Meeting disapproval, especially after his coming out of Families As his father reached the end of his life, he led to a divorce from his wife a month earlier, had one final message for his son. He wanted he got something else instead.

Richard to know that he believed God had “a “He was very nice about it,” Richard reason he is the way he is,” Richard said. recalled of his father’s reaction. “He didn’t preach or anything like That message ultimately was interpreted by Richard as his that. He wasn’t that type of person. I believe his faith helped him father’s unconditional love. And, as Donald’s strength was fading, because he said that one of the things he truly learned in his faith he told one of Richard’s sisters to deliver this message in case he was to really be tolerant on a true level. That’s the biggest thing he died before he had the chance to tell Richard himself. said to me.”

Thankfully, Donald lived just long enough to have the face-toface encounter with Richard he was hoping for.

Back to the Church “It was important enough to him to make positively sure that I Donald continued to show support to his son, even though heard from him before he died that he really, 100 percent, no Richard was sexually active with men for about 15 more years. questions asked, accepted me,” Richard said. “That was big, and Eventually, due to his father’s love and resolving some internal that’s something that I will carry with me forever.” conflicts with the Catholic faith of his upbringing, Richard made Slowly, Richard has been able to minister to others who are a decision to become celibate in 2004. Two years later, Richard — same-sex attracted. Because he has written essays on his journey, who had been longtime engaged in Protestant ministry — was along with blog posts, people seek him out. Some express interest confirmed at the Easter Vigil Mass at St. Olaf in downtown in following his example of being Catholic and celibate. Others Minneapolis April 15, 2006. aren’t so sure they want to take that path.

He now has turned to helping others who struggle with sameRegardless, Richard wants to show them the same love and sex attraction, and he recently attended his first meeting of mercy his father showed him.

Courage, a Catholic apostolate for people who are same-sex “I take pains to not be condemning,” Richard said. “And, I also attracted. The unconditional love and acceptance he received try to do it without being from his father is something he compromising either. That’s sort of a wants to pass along to others. And, Ninth in a series: teeter totter to walk, but I think it’s he believes it was key to his journey worked pretty well for the most part. back to the Catholic Church.

A Home for the Wounded Heart Richard has become more “That’s what I think Pope Francis In partnership with the reflective of the landmark is doing a little bit differently than conversation and the relationship publications of all Minnesota some of his predecessors. I don’t with his father because Donald died dioceses, The Catholic Spirit is think he teaches anything in April at age 92. The two differently than what was already featuring an 11-part series on connected often during the later there. But, I think his idea is, ‘Let’s families based on the World years of Donald’s life, and they reach people where they’re at, and Meeting of Families’ formed a bond that didn’t exist then help them to change.’ That’s 10 themes. during Richard’s childhood. key.”

THE LAST WORD

24 • The Catholic Spirit

August 27, 2015

PASTORAL

vision

Jim Glisczinski, right, who farms near Belle Plaine, shows his robust corn crop to seminarians from the St. Paul Seminary Aug. 12 during a tour of his farm.

Glisczinski, who belongs to Our Lady of the Prairie in Belle Plaine, talked about faith and farming to the men. Dave Hrbacek/ The Catholic Spirit

Seminarians glimpse farm life in preparation for priesthood

By Maria Wiering The Catholic Spirit

O

n a casual tour of Jim Glisczinski’s Scott County farm Aug. 12, a group of seminarians peppered the farmer with a range of questions. How many acres does he plant? What does he think of GMOs? How old was he when he started farming?

To that last question, Glisczinski answered “5,” the age he first remembers carrying water to the calves on his father’s farm. He’s farmed ever since on the land his dad bought in 1962. It was 200 acres then, and has now expanded to 1,500, most planted with corn and soybeans.

With their queries, the seminarians followed Glisczinski around the farmyard, peering in the grain bin, admiring farm machinery and getting close to a few of the beef steers he raises for meat.

One question got to the heart of their visit: What would farmers want the next generation of parish pastors to know about their work?

Mike Glisczinski, Jim’s 86-year-old father, paused for a long time. “It’s really important,” he answered.

“We can put the seed in the ground and work the fields, but the rest is up to Jesus Christ,” said Jim, 57, a parishioner of Our Lady of the Prairie in Belle Plaine who also runs Glisczinski Trucking, a grain-hauling business.

“He [God] is providing this year,” he added, referring to the bumper crop of corn.

The seminarians’ visit to the Glisczinski farm was one stop of a weeklong practicum on the Church and rural life led by Christopher Thompson, academic dean of the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity, and Jim Ennis, Catholic Rural Life executive director. Their aim was to introduce seminarians in their third year of theology to the Church’s teachings on rural issues and stewardship of creation, as well as rural communities’ pastoral needs.

The course married the seminary’s aim to form future priests — many of whom are likely to serve rural parishes — and Catholic Rural Life’s focus on

“We can put the seed in the ground and work the fields, but the rest is up to Jesus Christ.”

Jim Glisczinski

renewing the Catholic faith in rural communities, Ennis said. A basic understanding of crop cycles, agribusiness and farming challenges is important for rural pastors, he said.

Each year, seminarians spend half the week in the classroom reading documents and listening to presenters, and the other half in a rural area. This year, they stayed at the Franciscan Retreats and Spirituality Center in Prior Lake, visited a pumpkin farm near New Prague and attended Mass at St. Michael in Prior Lake, in addition to their afternoon on the Glisczinski farm.

The 16 seminarians in the course were from six dioceses and one religious order. Only one, Derek Wiechmann from the Diocese of St. Cloud, grew up on a farm.

The ‘culture’ in agriculture For Thompson, the course aims to restore agriculture’s place in his students’ understanding of culture.

“If there was a bias in our intellectual formation, it’s that we understood culture to be fabrication,” he said, pointing to widespread academic emphasis on appreciating art and architecture over nature and ecology. “Agriculture is equally central to a people’s culture.”

The course is unique among American seminaries, Thompson said, but the June publication of Pope Francis’ encyclical “Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home” underscored its importance.

“‘Laudato Si’’ is a game changer,” he said. “I really think it’s the charter for the third millennium . . . [and] the new evangelization. The new evangelization can’t just be a concept or a program. It has to translate into a new and radical form of life, and in that sense, ‘Laudato Si’’ is calling for the same thing. Every epochal change has been a change in our attitude toward nature.”

Matthew Quail, a seminarian from Nativity of Our Lord in St. Paul, said the practicum impressed upon him the importance of caring for the land and being connected to it. He called the life Glisczinski demonstrated “lived humility to God’s providence.”

“Farmers have a lot of wisdom to share,” said Quail, 28. “They’re not just in the office like a lot of people.

They’re connected with life.”

Mike Glisczinski said he remembered a time when the parish priest would visit farms and bless the fields and garden. His mother planted pieces of Palm Sunday fronds at the four corners of her garden.

At the end of their visit, the seminarians revived part of that tradition, gathering in the center of the yard where one read a blessing from the Rural Life Prayerbook.

“Almighty and eternal God, you are Lord of the harvest,” he read. “Bless this crop of ours, Lord; make it plentiful and rich.”

SPS has offered the course for years, but added the on-site component about seven years ago. Jim Glisczinski said he enjoys going beyond explaining the farm as a business to seminarians, as he tries to impress on them the happiness it brings him.

That worked for Brandon Theisen, a 26-year-old from Epiphany in Coon Rapids, who previously had visited one other working farm before meeting the Glisczinskis. He said Jim Glisczinski’s passion and dedication inspired his newfound respect for farmers.

“We need to give them more credit,” he said. “Adam tilling creation — that gets overshadowed, but that’s the first command to man, to till and keep the soil.”