The Catholic Spirit - August 4, 2016

Slain French priest 8 • Outreach to seniors 13 • Olympic inspiration 17 August 4, 2016 Newspaper of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis

Pope Francis walks with World Youth Day pilgrims as he arrives for a July 30 prayer vigil at the Field of Mercy in Krakow, Poland. CNS/Paul Haring

In step with

youth

Pope Francis ignites pilgrims in Krakow with the message ‘your value is priceless’

By Junno Arocho Esteves Catholic News Service

T

ake risks and do not let life’s obstacles get in the way of encountering the true joy and life that Jesus can give, Pope Francis told more than 1 million young people.

“Don’t be afraid to say ‘yes’ to him with all your heart, to respond generously and to follow him,” the pope told pilgrims at the closing Mass July 31 for World Youth Day in Krakow, Poland. “Don’t let your soul grow numb, but aim for the goal of a beautiful love, which also demands sacrifice.”

“When it comes to Jesus, we cannot sit around waiting with arms folded; he offers us life. We can’t

respond by thinking about it or ‘texting’ a few words,” he told the young people, thousands of whom had spent the night camping at an area dubbed the Field of Mercy.

The lack of sleep and morning heat seemed to have had little impact as the young men and women energetically waved flags and ran as close as possible to the popemobile to greet Pope Francis.

In his homily, the pope reflected on the Gospel story of Zacchaeus, a reviled tax collector who, due to his short height, climbed a sycamore tree to see Jesus.

The obstacles Zacchaeus faced — including his short stature — the pope said, can also “say something to us.”

“Even today we can risk not getting close to Jesus Please turn to YOUTH on page 9

ALSO inside

‘We failed’

Overcoming doubt

Food crisis

Archdiocese, Ramsey County continue collaboration after archdiocese admits wrongdoing in clergy abuse case and Ramsey County drops criminal charges.

— Page 6

Campus missionary seeks to counsel young adults on their struggles by building trust through truth and love.

Venezuela mission parish of the archdiocese is seeking remedies amid exorbitant food prices and national shortage.

— Pages 10-11

— Page 15

2 • The Catholic Spirit

PAGE TWO

in PICTURES

August 4, 2016 OVERHEARD “When there are suspicions and when there are mistrusts, you have each religion going into their own little corner.

Leaders of various religions present in Iraq . . . have to meet regularly, not to discus theology, but just to share what the communities are going through.”

Bishop Awa Royel of the Assyrian Church of the East in describing what Iraqi and Syrian minorities would need to return to their homelands after fleeing the Islamic State and other extremist groups.

NEWS notes • The Catholic Spirit

Stewardship Day is Aug. 25 in North St. Paul

MEDALS FOR PROTECTION Ruth and Paul Laursen of All Saints in Lakeville hand 73 St. Michael the Archangel medals to Lt. Jim Puncochar of the Lakeville Police Department July 25. The medals were paid for by the Lakeville Knights of Columbus Council and blessed earlier that day by Archbishop Bernard Hebda. St. Michael is the patron saint of police officers. Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit

The annual Stewardship Day for priests, parish staff members, committee members and volunteers will take place at St. Peter in North St. Paul 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Aug. 25. The cost is $10 and lunch is provided. Tom Halden, director of communications for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, will offer a session on parish communications, and Ryan O’Hara, director of mission resources for St. Paul’s Outreach, will talk about communicating stewardship to the millennial generation and engaging young families in parish life. For more information, contact Shannon Conroy at 651-290-1630 or conroys@archspm.org.

Seminary accepting alumni award nominations The St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity is accepting nominations for the 2016 Distinguished Alumni Award. Each year the seminary recognizes an ordained alumnus and a lay alumnus or exceptional friend of the seminary.

For more information, visit www.stthomas.edu/spssod.

Registration now open for annual Vianney Cup St. John Vianney College Seminary in St. Paul is accepting registrations for the annual Vianney Cup benefit golf tournament Sept. 19 at Midland Hills Country Club. The event will feature Super Bowl champion Matt Birk and former University of Minnesota and NHL player Brian Bonin. Eighteen holes of golf will be followed by a reception, dinner and program featuring more than 130 seminarians. For more information, contact Tizoc Rosales at 651-962-6843 or tizoc.rosales@stthomas.edu.

Aim Higher’s ‘Night of Light’ is Sept. 24

MASSIVE PRAISE Teens sing praise and worship songs, led by local band Sonar, at Steubenville St. Paul, an annual youth conference hosted by Partnership for Youth and held at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul July 29-31. The event, which drew 1,500 participants from seven midwestern states, included Mass, confession, music, speakers and a eucharistic procession. Courtesy Partnership for Youth

WHAT’S NEW on social media At a World Youth Day prayer service in Krakow, Poland, Archbishop Bernard Hebda reflected on Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, whose relics were present in Holy Trinity Church for the celebration: www.facebook.com/thecatholicspirit Jesuit Father David Haschka, associate pastor of St. Olaf in Minneapolis, takes a stab at what’s behind Pope Francis’ linguistic style: www.catholichotdish.com

The Catholic Spirit is published bi-weekly for The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis Vol. 21 — No. 16 MOST REVEREND BERNARD A. HEBDA, Publisher TOM HALDEN, Associate Publisher MARIA C. WIERING, Editor

The Aim Higher Foundation will host its Night of Light fundraiser Sept. 24 at the Depot in Minneapolis. The annual event raises money for needs-based scholarships for elementary and middle school students at Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Since its inception in 2011, the foundation has distributed 3,400 need-based scholarships totaling more than $2.3 million. In the 2015-2016 school year, 735 students received scholarships. Tickets for Night of Light are $150, with tables for 10 available for $1,500. For more information, visit aimhigherfoundation.org/events/night-light-celebration.

in REMEMBRANCE Msgr. Dennis Lally, 77, who served in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis in the 1960s and 70s before transferring to the Diocese of Green Bay, died July 21 at St. Joseph Residence in New London, Wisconsin.

Msgr. Lally was born in Minneapolis and attended Nazareth Hall Seminary and St. Paul Seminary, both in St. Paul. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1965 for the archdiocese and served at St. Peter Claver in St. Paul, Guardian Angels in Hastings, St. Thomas Aquinas in St. Paul Park, St. Mark in St. Paul and St. Genevieve in Centerville, where he was pastor.

He then went to serve in the Diocese of Green Bay in 1981, and was incardinated there in 1982. He ministered in parishes and the diocesan tribunal.

His funeral Mass was offered July 28 at St. Patrick in New London.

Materials credited to CNS copy­righted by Catholic News Service.

All other materials copyrighted by The Cath­olic Spirit Newspaper.

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August 4, 2016

FROM THE ARCHBISHOP

The Catholic Spirit • 3

Dialogue paved road to dropped criminal charges

J

uly 20, 2016, was an important day for this local Church. In open court, the archdiocese reported significant progress on its efforts under the Civil Settlement Agreement — reached and announced last December — to create the safest environment possible for children. Ramsey County District Court Judge Teresa Warner then commended the archdiocese and described our actions taken in concert with the Ramsey County attorney as “the right thing to do.”

A few moments later, in that same courtroom, it was announced that Ramsey County Attorney John Choi would be dismissing the criminal case later in the day. I’m convinced the fair resolution of those charges was an answer to the prayers of so many of you throughout the archdiocese, and for that I am most grateful.

Many have asked how it came to be that the Ramsey County attorney dropped the criminal charges. It was a long, involved process of calm dialogue, relationship-building and respect. That process began last fall when we attempted to negotiate a resolution of both the criminal and civil cases. I personally spent hours with Mr. Choi and his team and know that the archdiocesan staff and attorneys spent many more. I continue to be grateful that from the time of our very first meeting, we were able to agree on the paramount goal of protecting children.

However, from the outset, we disagreed with the county attorney over one important thing: an insistence that the archdiocese plead guilty to the criminal charges in some way, shape or form. The simple truth is that if we believed we were guilty, we would have pled guilty. But, I had received advice from experts in this area of criminal law and discussed the matter with the various consultative bodies in the archdiocese, such as the Finance Council, the Board of the Corporation and the College of Consultors. There was a broad consensus that the archdiocese was not guilty of a crime.

To be clear, the archdiocese failed ONLY JESUS the victims of Curtis Wehmeyer and Archbishop their family — and for that we are deeply sorry. A failure, however, Bernard Hebda

isn’t the same as a crime. That is a legal question, not a moral question. We were willing to admit to failures and even moral culpability, but we could not go into court to plead guilty to a crime we did not commit. Committing a crime implies a criminal intent and is something altogether different from failing. On that single important point — the admission or denial of criminal guilt — the negotiations failed.

Even though we were unable to agree to a resolution at that time to address both the criminal and civil charges, we did forge a positive working relationship with Ramsey County and agreed to move forward to settle the civil matter.

Settlement on the civil side would not end litigation, but it would protect children and demonstrate our willingness to be held accountable. With that in mind, we negotiated a comprehensive Civil Settlement Agreement that was deemed to be a “landmark” agreement, going well beyond what could have been required after civil litigation. In particular, it allowed the court to verify the archdiocese’s compliance with its commitments.

Still, the criminal case remained. Given our principled disagreement with the county attorney about whether our conduct constituted a crime, we had to begin to prepare our defense. On Jan. 29, we provided the county attorney with a motion to dismiss that set forth our legal reasoning as to why we were not guilty of a crime.

About two months later, on March 21, the Ramsey County attorney provided us with a memorandum outlining his legal arguments. Two weeks later, on April 4, we provided him a reply to those arguments. (Those three documents can now be found on Ramsey County’s website.)

While I was convinced that our arguments would prevail in court, the Ramsey County attorney continued to insist that the archdiocese plead guilty. In early April, however, there was an important breakthrough: The parties agreed to mediate the case. This allowed us to resume our efforts to achieve a just resolution through dialogue. Together, we chose two highly respected and experienced jurists as mediators: Jim Rosenbaum, a former chief judge of the United States District Court, and Kathleen Gearin, a former chief judge of Ramsey County District Court. They generously agreed to participate,

bringing both sides together on May 18 in a couple of conference rooms in downtown Minneapolis.

I am very grateful that on that day I was joined by, and had the wise counsel of, two of our Corporate Board members, Karen Rauenhorst and Brian Short; the Archdiocesan Finance Council chair, Tom Abood; the archdiocesan director of the Office for Ministerial Standards, Tim O’Malley; and our attorney, Joe Dixon. Our team was supported by Bishop Andrew Cozzens and a host of consultors who remained available for telephone contact throughout the day and late into the evening. The county attorney was accompanied by an experienced team as well. The mediators did a phenomenal job shuttling back and forth to help both sides understand what the law was and what justice required.

After 15 hours of hard work, we arrived at a resolution that committed the archdiocese to a public admission of our failures to protect the three children abused by former priest Curtis Wehmeyer and to enhancements to the Civil Settlement Agreement, and that also committed Ramsey County to a dismissal of the criminal charges.

I want to personally express my gratitude to Judge Gearin and Judge Rosenbaum for their vital role in helping us all achieve a just resolution for the victims and the community. Although John Choi and I may not have seen eye to eye on some legal issues, I am also most grateful to him for his willingness to work collaboratively through such complex issues and for giving us an opportunity to prove ourselves and earn his trust, as well as that of the public. I am grateful as well to the members of the two teams who contributed their time, energy and expertise to this serious work. I am also deeply appreciative of the hours of eucharistic adoration offered by our staff.

I was pleased to hear in court on July 20 that the young men who were abused, as well as their family members, were supportive of the resolution that resulted from the mediation. I am profoundly sorry for our failures to protect them and pledge to always be mindful of our past so we never repeat it. I remain grateful for their courage in coming forward and preventing others from being hurt.

Their strength and commitment should inspire us all and serve as a reminder of our duty to protect God’s children.

El Dialogo fue el camino para que los cargos fueran retirados

E

l miércoles 20 de julio del 2016 fue un día importante para esta Iglesia local. En audiencia pública, la Arquidiócesis reportó un progreso significativo en los esfuerzos obtenidos bajo el marco del Acuerdo de Conciliación Civil - anunciado en diciembre pasado - para crear un ambiente más seguro para los niños. El Juez de Distrito del Condado de Ramsey, Teresa Warner, elogió a la Arquidiócesis y describió nuestras acciones tomadas en conjunto con el Fiscal del Condado de Ramsey como “lo correcto por hacer”. Unos momentos más tarde, en la misma sala, se anunció que el Fiscal del Condado de Ramsey, John Choi, anuló el caso penal al final del día. Estoy convencido de que la justa resolución de esos cargos fue una respuesta a las oraciones de tantos de ustedes en toda la Arquidiócesis y por eso estoy muy agradecido.

Muchos se han preguntado cómo es que el Fiscal del Condado de Ramsey retiró los cargos criminales. Esto

implicó un proceso largo de calmado diálogo, de construcción de relaciones y de respeto. Ese proceso se inició el pasado otoño, cuando intentamos negociar una resolución de ambos casos, el penal y el civil. Yo personalmente pasé horas con el Sr. Choi y su equipo y sé que el personal de la Arquidiócesis y los abogados pasaron muchas más. Sigo estando agradecido de que, desde el momento de nuestra primera reunión, hemos sido capaces de llegar a un acuerdo en el objetivo primordial de proteger a los niños.

Sin embargo, desde el principio, estuvimos en desacuerdo con el Fiscal del Condado sobre una cosa importante: la insistencia de que la Arquidiócesis se declarara culpable de los cargos criminales en alguna manera, modelo o forma. La pura verdad es que si nosotros creíamos que éramos culpables, nos habríamos declarado culpables. Sin embargo, yo recibí el asesoramiento de expertos en esta área del derecho penal y discutí el asunto

con los diversos organismos consultivos de la Arquidiócesis, tales como el Consejo de Finanzas, el Comité de la Corporación, y el Colegio de Consultores. Hubo un amplio consenso en que la Arquidiócesis no era culpable de un crimen. Para ser claros, la Arquidiócesis le falló a las víctimas de Curtis Wehmeyer y a sus familias, y de eso estamos profundamente arrepentido. Un fallo, sin embargo, no es lo mismo que un crimen. Esa es una cuestión jurídica, no una cuestión moral. Estuvimos dispuestos a admitir a los fallos e incluso la culpabilidad moral, pero no podíamos ir a la corte para declararnos culpables de un crimen que no cometimos. Cometer un delito implica una intención criminal y es algo totalmente diferente a fallar. En ese único punto importante, el admitir o denegar un cargo criminal-- las negociaciones fracasaron.

A pesar de que no fuimos capaces de acordar una resolución en ese momento para abordar tanto los cargos criminales como los civiles, logramos

forjar una relación de trabajo positiva con el Condado de Ramsey y acordaron avanzar para resolver el asunto civil. El acuerdo en el lado civil no pondría fin a un litigio, pero este protegería a los niños y demostraría nuestra voluntad de hacernos responsables. Con esto en mente, hemos negociado un Acuerdo de Solución Civil integral que se considerará como un acuerdo “histórico”, que va mucho más allá de lo que podría haber sido requerido después de un litigio civil. En particular, esto permite a la corte verificar el cumplimiento de la Arquidiócesis con sus compromisos.

Aun así, el caso criminal se mantuvo.

Teniendo en cuenta nuestro desacuerdo de principios con el Fiscal del Condado acerca de si nuestra conducta constituye un crimen, tuvimos que comenzar a preparar nuestra defensa. El 29 de enero, proporcionamos el Fiscal del Condado con una Moción de Anulación que muestra nuestro Continued on page 19

4 • The Catholic Spirit

LOCAL

August 4, 2016

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Takin’ it to the street Destiny Anderson, 18, of Apple Valley dances to the music of The Not Guilty Band during the third annual Lourdes Northeast Block Party July 23 at Our Lady of Lourdes in Minneapolis.

Anderson’s father, David, is a singer in the band. The event featured food, music, kids’ activities and Mass celebrated

by Archbishop Bernard Hebda.

Dave Hrbacek/ The Catholic Spirit

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LOCAL

The Catholic Spirit • 5

Parishes, others not forced to merge assets with archdiocese

By Maria Wiering The Catholic Spirit A U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge ruled July 28 that the estates of parishes and other Catholic entities should not be consolidated with those of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis as it seeks to compensate clergy sexual abuse victims as part of its bankruptcy resolution.

“Even if I had the authority to substantively consolidate the debtor with non-consenting, eleemosynary [nonprofit] non-debtors, the committee failed to allege sufficient facts to support substantive consolidation,” Judge Robert Kressel wrote in a 10page decision.

The ruling responded to a motion filed May 23 by attorney Robert Kugler, who in the Reorganization process represents the unsecured creditors committee, which includes sexual abuse claimants. Kugler asked the judge to substantively consolidate the archdiocese’s assets with those of other Catholic institutions with ties to the archdiocese, such as Catholic Cemeteries, the Catholic Community Foundation and several Catholic high schools.

The motion argued that the organizational relationships between the archdiocese and the institutions — some of which are mandated by civil and canon law — mean that the archbishop or archdiocese has control over important aspects of their governance and finances, thereby linking their assets.

In his ruling, Kressel outlined and then refuted the reasons the unsecured creditors committee gave for consolidating the assets of parishes and Catholic organizations with those of the archdiocese.

Joseph Kueppers, the archdiocese’s chancellor for civil affairs, said he was thankful Kressel took his time in analyzing the motion, and that the judge came “to a legally correct conclusion.”

“It means that now we can start to move ahead to work with the other parties to get a consensus on a plan of Reorganization,” he said. “We hope that now that this sub-con legal issue is behind us, we can all work together. It’s our hope and desire to work collaboratively with all parties to get a resolution in the near future.”

During a July 7 court hearing, attorneys representing parishes and the archdiocese argued that the archdiocese and the other institutions were separate legal entities. They also said the court didn’t have standing to rule on a matter based on the entities’ relationship under Church law, only civil law, and to cross the line between the two was government encroachment into religious affairs.

“[The ruling] means that now we can start to move ahead to work with the other parties to get a consensus on a plan of Reorganization.”

Joseph Kueppers, archdiocesan chancellor for civil affairs

Confidence going forward In the ruling, Kressel stated that the creditors committee’s motion for substantive consolidation “fails to show how the interrelationship [between the archdiocese and other Catholic entities] requires consolidation.”

“There is no doubt that the Catholic Church is hierarchical in its organization and authorization in doctrinal matters. But those characteristics are insufficient for a court to ignore its corporate legal structure,” he wrote. “The typical substantive consolidation is reserved for situations where the finances of two or more debtors are so confusingly intertwined that it is impossible to separate them.

Nothing of the sort is alleged here.”

He also determined that despite financial transactions between the archdiocese and some other Catholic entities, “their finances are distinct and not tangled or intertwined.”

Because other factors compelled him to deny the motion, Kressel declined to rule on whether he had constitutional standing to authorize a substantive consolidation of the entities in this case.

Kueppers said the ruling should give Catholics in the archdiocese confidence that the archdiocese has acted “absolutely properly in all respects related to its finances” and disclosed all of its assets in its plan for Reorganization.

Asset-hiding allegations false

archdiocese, accused the archdiocese of “hiding” as much as $1.7 billion in assets by not including the assets of other Catholic organizations. At a June 2 hearing, Kressel challenged that characterization.

“The motion that the committee made nowhere mentions anything about hiding assets or misleading the court,” Kressel said.

“Of course, the whole premise of the motion made is that these aren’t the archdiocese’s assets. They’re someone else’s, and you want them consolidated.

Making accusations like that in public are not supported by the motion and are not helpful to proceeding forward,” he added.

Despite the judge’s admonition, Anderson reasserted in a statement following the July 28 ruling that the archdiocese’s actions were “deceptive” and he promised to “continue to fight this injustice.”

In a July 28 statement, Archbishop Bernard Hebda said he was thankful Kressel “was not swayed by the allegations that the archdiocese had hidden assets and engaged in deceptive practices or by the other arguments that had been submitted in support of the motion.”

“The archdiocese has fully and appropriately disclosed its assets,” he said. “We certainly concur with Judge Kressel’s earlier comments that inflammatory allegations to the contrary are not helpful as the case moves forward. Further litigation could needlessly prolong the process and take away funds from claimants.”

The motion was filed four days before the archdiocese filed its plan for Reorganization, which listed an initial $65 million in cash to be used primarily for sexual abuse victim compensation. The archdiocese expects additional funds to be obtained from insurance carriers.

Attorney Jeff Anderson, who represents more than 350 people with sexual abuse claims against the

He added: “The archdiocese nonetheless continues to stand ready to work with counsel for sexual abuse claimants to provide fair compensation as part of our plan for Reorganization.”

equip them to strengthen their parish communities through ministerial service. The six parishes are Ascension, Holy Rosary, Gichitwaa Kateri and St. Anne/St. Joseph Hien in Minneapolis; Sacred Heart in St. Paul; and St. Nicholas in Carver. In 1995, Father Stanley Sledz established New City Ministry in memory of his uncle, Father Henry Joseph Sledz, who served the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis for nearly 60 years and enjoyed traveling and learning about the traditions and customs of different cultures.

Since its inception, New City Ministry has granted approximately $10,000 each year from its fund, which is held and managed by the Catholic Community Foundation.

The schedule is as follows: St. John the Baptist in New Brighton Aug. 10-11, Blessed Sacrament in St. Paul Aug. 13-14, St. Charles Borromeo in St. Anthony Aug. 16-17, Holy Family in St. Louis Park Aug. 20-21, St. Michael in St. Michael Aug. 25-26 and St. Joseph in West St. Paul Aug. 27-28. The exhibit, which is in both English and Spanish, is free, and people are encouraged to bring prayer intentions. Pope Francis plans to canonize Blessed Teresa of Kolkata, better known as Mother Teresa, Sept. 4 in Vatican City.

NEW BRIGHTON

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ Office of Parish Operations has changed its name to the Office of Financial Standards and Parish Accounting. The new name aims to better reflect the office’s role in serving parishes and Catholic schools, according to its leadership. The office helps parishes and schools standardize financial operations by providing financial, accounting and administrative support, as well as an opportunity to scale back office functions and help in administrative emergencies.

The archdiocese entered Reorganization under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code in January 2015 in response to mounting claims of child sexual abuse by clergy.

in BRIEF MAPLEWOOD

Hill-Murray names new stadium Hill-Murray School in Maplewood announced that it is naming its new stadium Mary, Queen of Victory, Stadium. The name reflects a decades-long tradition of the school’s sports teams reciting a prayer invoking Mary, Queen of Victory. The grand opening of the $3.5 million renovated stadium will take place at the school’s homecoming football game Sept. 16.

Pete Bercich, the new Hill-Murray head football coach and former Minnesota Viking, said, “The new facility is a signature piece of the Hill-Murray campus. The name of the stadium is fitting for a school that is built on values, community and the highest educational outcomes. We are thankful to the donors who made this possible for the students, coaches and faculty of Hill-Murray School.”

MINNEAPOLIS

New City Ministry awards grants At the 21st annual New City Ministry Banquet July 13, the program gave $10,000 in grant money to 18 individuals in six parishes as part of its ongoing effort to train Catholic men and women of color and

Mother Teresa exhibit to tour locally An exhibit featuring the life and work of Blessed Teresa of Kolkata is coming to the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis from Chicago and will be open to the general public for viewing Aug. 10-28.

More than 75 color panels with photos, quotes and information about her life will be on display.

ST. PAUL

Archdiocesan office changes name

6 • The Catholic Spirit

LOCAL

August 4, 2016

Archbishop Hebda: ‘We failed’ in case of abusive priest Criminal charges dropped; Archdiocese continues collaboration with county attorney’s office, bolstering December agreement

By Maria Wiering and Jessica Trygstad The Catholic Spirit Standing before reporters and cameras in Hayden Hall July 20, Archbishop Bernard Hebda said that the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis failed in its handling of the case of Curtis Wehmeyer, a former priest who pleaded guilty in two courts of abusing three brothers while pastor of Blessed Sacrament in St. Paul.

“We failed to give priority to the safety and well-being of the children he hurt over the interests of Curtis Wehmeyer and the archdiocese,” Archbishop Hebda said. “In particular, we failed to prevent Curtis Wehmeyer from sexually abusing children. Those children, their parents, their family, their parish and others were harmed. We are sorry. I am sorry.”

The archbishop’s statement followed the announcement that the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office, under the leadership of Ramsey County Attorney John Choi, had dismissed criminal charges filed last year against the archdiocese, and the parties had amended a settlement agreement they reached in December on a related civil petition.

“Words are not enough,” Archbishop Hebda acknowledged. “We must, we will, and we are doing better. Far-reaching changes are underway.”

He pointed to the archdiocese’s inclusion of more lay people in its safe environment protocols, as well as the impact of Ramsey County’s oversight of the archdiocese’s policies and procedures and compliance with them.

“Over the past year, we worked with Mr. Choi and his team to define how the archdiocese can best create and maintain safe environments for children in our parishes, schools and communities,” Archbishop Hebda said. “Over the past six months, we have demonstrated our commitment to that path. Today, we humbly acknowledge our past failures and look forward to continuing down that path to achieve those vital, common goals that together we all share.”

Deputy Director of Ministerial Standards and Safe Environment Janell Rasmussen noted that since the agreement was reached, archdiocesan leaders have been working closely with Choi and his team and will continue to seek their advice and assistance.

Describing the day as one of “solemn reckoning and self-assessment,” Rasmussen said their work will never be done. “Today, tomorrow and every day we will ask ourselves, ‘Are we doing all we can to make sure children are safe?’”

Collaboration instead of conflict In June 2015, the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office, whose jurisdiction includes St. Paul, filed criminal charges and a civil petition against the archdiocese, alleging it failed to protect children in its handling of Wehmeyer’s case. The charges included three counts of contributing to the need for protection or services, and three counts of contributing to a juvenile’s delinquency.

In the summer of 2010, Wehmeyer, then a priest of the archdiocese and pastor of Blessed Sacrament, sexually abused two brothers — ages 12 and 14 — in a camper trailer he had parked on parish grounds, and on a camping trip. The boys disclosed the abuse two years later, and Wehmeyer was removed from ministry. In 2013, their older brother revealed that he, too, had been abused by the priest during camping trips in 2008, 2009 and 2011. In several instances of the abuse, Wehmeyer provided alcohol or marijuana to the boys.

Wehmeyer pleaded guilty in 2013 of sexually abusing the two younger brothers in 2010. He also pleaded guilty in August 2015 in a Wisconsin court of sexually assaulting the third brother on a camping trip. Pope Francis dismissed him from the clerical state in 2015, meaning he can no longer exercise priestly ministry or present himself as a priest. He is currently in prison.

The Ramsey County charges alleged that the

Archbishop Bernard Hebda addresses media at a press conference July 20. Standing behind him are, from left, Janell Rasmussen and Tim O’Malley, who lead the archdiocese’s Ministerial Standards and Safe Environment Office.

Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit archdiocese had information that should have prompted its leaders to remove Wehmeyer from ministry before Archbishop Harry Flynn appointed him administrator of Blessed Sacrament in 2006 or Archbishop John Nienstedt appointed him pastor in 2009, and it did not follow its own protocols, despite known instances of Wehmeyer’s “risky behavior” and violations of safe environment standards.

Ten days after the charges were filed, Archbishop Nienstedt, who had led the archdiocese since 2008, and Auxiliary Bishop Lee Piché resigned as leaders of the archdiocese. Pope Francis appointed Archbishop Bernard Hebda, then coadjutor archbishop of Newark, New Jersey, to the temporary role of the archdiocese’s apostolic administrator alongside Auxiliary Bishop Andrew Cozzens. In March, the pope named Archbishop Hebda the archdiocese’s permanent archbishop, and he was installed in May. “When I arrived here about a year ago, criminal and civil charges against the archdiocese had just been announced,” Archbishop Hebda said. “A decision had to be made: Do we fight the charges in court — which would have taken years of time and considerable resources — or do we work with the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office to try to make amends to those harmed and achieve justice for all in the broadest possible way? We chose the latter.”

He added: “Cooperation was the right avenue to achieve a just solution.”

In December, the archdiocese reached a settlement agreement with the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office on the civil petition, in which it agreed to continue child protection protocols it had already implemented as well as additional measures, and to Ramsey County’s oversight of its safe environment procedures for three years.

Extended oversight On July 20, the archdiocese presented a six-month progress report on its compliance with the agreement to Ramsey County District Court Judge Teresa Warner.

Attorneys for the archdiocese and the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office described their strong, ongoing collaboration and affirmed the report satisfied the county attorney’s requirements and demonstrated a significant effort to protect children.

Warner accepted the report and commended the work of the archdiocese and county attorney’s office.

“What happened to kids in this case cannot be undone, but steps to work together . . . [are] significant,” she said. “You rolled up your sleeves, and you looked at what you could do to protect kids going forward.”

Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Thomas Ring noted that in the settlement, the archdiocese had agreed to take on “something more comprehensive than a court may have been able to offer.” At a later press conference, Choi explained that a court likely wouldn’t have been able to mandate county oversight of the archdiocese’s protocol implementation due to laws separating church and state.

At the hearing, Ring submitted an amendment to the settlement agreement, which included the public

admission of wrongdoing from the archdiocese regarding Wehmeyer’s victims, the archbishop’s participation in at least three restorative justice sessions, the lifting of prior confidentiality agreements made with victims, and a commitment to maintain the position of a director of safe environment and ministerial standards. The county’s oversight of the settlement was also extended one year.

“If the efforts of the first six months continue for the next three-and-a-half years, it means kids are being protected and that the right thing is being done,” Warner said.

The amended agreement also allowed Choi to appoint a position on the archdiocese’s Ministerial Review Board, which reviews cases of clergy misconduct and makes recommendations to the archbishop. Choi appointed Patty Wetterling, a St. Joseph resident who became a leading child protection advocate in the state following the abduction of her son, Jacob, in 1989.

The archdiocese’s director of ministerial standards and safe environment, Tim O’Malley, worked on the Wetterling case as an agent with the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

“I understand the vital importance of the work of the Ministerial Review Board in keeping our communities as safe as possible,” Wetterling said in a July 20 statement.

“For me, this is a great opportunity to help champions that I have always admired build a world where children can grow up free from sexual exploitation.”

Dismissed criminal charges At the end of the hearing, Ring announced that his office was dropping the criminal charges against the archdiocese. Choi said that his aim from the start was for the archdiocese to admit fault and wrongdoing in its role in failing to protect Wehmeyer’s victims.

“Without such an admission by the archdiocese or a determination by a court, there could never be true accountability,” Choi said. “It was not only Curtis Wehmeyer who harmed children, it was the archdiocese as well.

“Today, through the leadership of the new permanent archbishop, Bernard Hebda, that direct and public admission of wrongdoing has now been made,” he said.

“In light of this admission of wrongdoing and the additional requirements that are now part of the amended civil settlement agreement, I have chosen to dismiss the pending criminal case against the archdiocese.”

The victims, their family and their attorney supported dismissing the charges, he said.

“With this amended civil agreement, all of the goals we articulated when we brought forth our legal actions have been realized,” Choi said. “We have achieved an admission of wrongdoing, [and] we have put additional legal safeguards in place to ensure the archdiocese does not repeat its failures.”

Choi said the victims are likely abuse claimants in the archdiocese’s case of Reorganization under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, which it entered in January 2015 in response to mounting claims of clergy sexual abuse in the midst of a three-year lifting of the state’s statute of limitations on child sexual abuse claims. The archdiocese filed a plan for Reorganization in May. Choi also explained his office’s decision not to charge individuals.

“We’ve thoroughly investigated just about everything,” he said. “The key issue here is that for us to bring criminal charges against anyone, whether it’s a corporation, whether it’s an individual, we have to believe that there is sufficient evidence to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt. . . . In the context of all the facts that we had gathered, to say that one particular individual was responsible for contributing to the harm done to these three children, that would be a harder thing to prove in court.”

Ongoing steps Ahead of the July 20 hearing, O’Malley said its first report to Ramsey County details the archdiocese’s work Please turn to ARCHDIOCESE on page 19

LOCAL

August 4, 2016

The Catholic Spirit • 7

Archbishop Hebda elaborates on charge dismissal, Archbishop Nienstedt investigation The Catholic Spirit Archbishop Bernard Hebda responded to questions on the archdiocese’s child-protection efforts, decision not to plead guilty to the criminal charges and plans for the release of documents tied to the 2014 internal investigation of Archbishop John Nienstedt.

Q. Archbishop Hebda, the Ramsey County

attorney dismissed the criminal case he had initiated against the archdiocese last June. What does this mean for the archdiocese? For victims?

A. Having acknowledged our past failures, our hope

is to work with victims and others to achieve our common goal of protecting children — a goal that we share with the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office and a goal that is of extreme importance to those who have been harmed. In particular, for victims and survivors of abuse, the dismissal means that we can now attempt to further the healing process through the restorative justice initiatives envisioned in the Settlement Agreement (see page 6). The dismissal of the criminal charges could also have a positive impact on the ability of the archdiocese to work with others to provide just compensation for victims who are claimants in the archdiocesan bankruptcy proceedings.

Q. You publicly admitted that the archdiocese failed to protect the three children abused by Curtis Wehmeyer, who once served as a priest in this archdiocese. Why didn’t the archdiocese simply plead guilty?

A. If we believed we were guilty, we would have pled guilty. As I discussed the matter with the various consultative bodies in the archdiocese, such as the Finance Council, the Board of the Corporation and the College of Consultors, there was a broad consensus that the archdiocese was not guilty of the crime with which we were charged. Our compelling reasons are set forth in the brief that now appears on the website of the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office. To be clear, the archdiocese failed those three minors and their family — and for that we are deeply sorry. A failure, however, isn’t the same as a crime. That is a legal question, not a moral question. Rather than enter into protracted arguments about the law, we chose to acknowledge publicly our failures while agreeing to be held accountable for creating and maintaining a safe environment, as set forth in the Settlement Agreement.

The Ramsey County attorney and the judge both emphasized that we have agreed to far more than what could have ever been achieved through litigation. By dismissing the criminal charges, the Ramsey County attorney did the right thing. This is a fair resolution and consistent with what the law requires.

Q. The archdiocese has apologized for the sexual abuse of minors by clergy on previous occasions over the years, yet people have been abused. What makes this time different?

A. This time, the apology of the archdiocese is accompanied by an admission of failure. Moreover, it is supported by the Settlement Agreement and by statements from both the court and the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office that the archdiocese is in compliance, as proven through verified actions, with a standard that goes beyond even what could have ever been imposed by a court. I’m hoping that establishes our good faith in a way that shows we’re serious about this apology and that makes our words ring true.

Q. Can you tell us more about restorative justice?

A. The focus of restorative justice is to bring victims and offenders together — sometimes along with other representatives from the community — in forums where victims take an active role in the process and offenders apologize, all with the ultimate goals of healing, being held accountable for past actions and preventing future offenses. It is a much different model than traditional legal proceedings that focus primarily on punishment rather than healing and prevention.

Our senior staff was moved after attending a presentation on restorative justice by Jeanne Bishop, a Chicago attorney, author and restorative justice expert, whose sister was murdered, and I was personally energized during preliminary sessions that we have held with Justice Janine Geske, a retired justice of the Supreme Court of Wisconsin, who has graciously assisted us in exploring avenues for restorative justice.

Q. How involved were you in the Ramsey County case over the past year?

A. Making sure that we are protecting children has been a constant focus since I arrived as administrator in mid-June of 2015. Addressing the charges in both the civil and criminal cases has been a priority for me and for archdiocesan leadership. We had weekly

meetings of the senior staff with our attorney on this matter, Joseph Dixon of Fredrikson & Byron, to monitor the case, and the matter was routinely reviewed with the archdiocesan Finance Council, the College of Consultors and the Corporate Board.

Bishop [Andrew] Cozzens, Tim O’Malley and I met directly with Mr. [John] Choi and his staff on a number of occasions throughout the year. Some of those sessions lasted many hours. Ultimately, it was at an all-day session capably mediated by two former judges, Judge James Rosenbaum and Judge Kathleen Gearin, that we finally arrived at the agreement that resulted in the dismissal. I am grateful to both mediators. I will also always be grateful for the wisdom offered not only by the small team of lay leaders that we assembled from our Finance Council and Corporate Board for that day, but also all those who made themselves available by phone for consultation throughout the day and late into the evening.

Q. What about the investigation into Archbishop John Nienstedt?

A. Here is what I learned about what happened: In January 2014, Archbishop Nienstedt charged Bishop [Lee] Piché with investigating for the archdiocese allegations that had been made about Archbishop Nienstedt, stemming from his days in Detroit and New Ulm. Bishop Piché engaged a local law firm, Greene Espel, to conduct the investigation. The investigation began broadly looking at allegations from Archbishop Nienstedt’s past. Greene Espel made a progress report to Bishop Piché in April 2014 with affidavits from those who were making the allegations. After consulting with others, Bishop Piché, Bishop Cozzens and Archbishop Nienstedt went to Washington, D.C., to update the nuncio regarding the allegations that had emerged.

On their return, Bishop Piché continued his efforts to complete the investigation. He focused the scope of the inquiry on whether there was credible evidence that Archbishop Nienstedt had committed a “grave delict or crime,” which is the standard under canon law that determines whether punishment is merited.

In early July, after Greene Espel had interviewed Archbishop Nienstedt and others, Bishop Piché directed Greene Espel to conclude its report without conducting additional investigation beyond what it Please turn to ARCHBISHOP on page 18

After document release, Archbishop Nienstedt maintains misconduct allegations are false With the closure of the criminal case, the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office made public documents from its investigation of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, including memos and affidavits addressing an inquiry of whether Archbishop John Nienstedt, then head of the archdiocese, may have mishandled a clergy sex abuse case because of his friendship with former priest Curtis Wehmeyer and his own alleged sexual misconduct.

The documents include references to an internal investigation of Archbishop Nienstedt the archdiocese initiated in January 2014 into allegations of sexual misconduct as a priest and bishop of Detroit and New Ulm. In a statement to The Catholic Spirit, Archbishop Nienstedt reiterated that the allegations are “absolutely and entirely false” and said he was “relieved by the release of the information.” He stated that he is heterosexual and has been celibate his whole life.

“I believe that the allegations have been made as a personal attack against me due to my unwavering stance on issues consistent with Church teaching, such as opposition to so-called same sex

marriage,” he said, acknowledging the “he said, he said” nature of the allegations. “It is my word against the accusers, and, as much as they want to seem to discredit me, I don’t want to harm them.”

Among documents released by the county attorney July 20, 2016, was a memo written on July 7, 2014, by Father Daniel Griffith, pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes in Minneapolis and then the archdiocese’s delegate for safe environment, who outlined the investigation from his perspective. He stated that the information gathered up to that point by the investigators, attorneys from the Minneapolis law firm Greene Espel, prompted several archdiocesan leaders to conclude that Archbishop Nienstedt might need to resign. Father Griffith wrote one leader “stated that even if the archbishop was innocent, the evidence was damaging enough that it would render him incapable of leading the archdiocese.”

According to the memo, Bishop Lee Piché and fellow auxiliary Bishop Andrew Cozzens presented the information to the apostolic nuncio, or papal representative, to the U.S., then

Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, in April 2014, hoping to reach a “pastoral resolution.” Father Griffith’s memo speculates that Archbishop Nienstedt “may have convinced” Archbishop Viganò that the allegations were false.

The memo also indicates that the nuncio may have asked archdiocesan leaders to have Greene Espel bring the investigation to a conclusion after interviewing Archbishop Nienstedt.

According to the memo, Greene Espel withdrew as counsel in early July. Father Griffith’s memo alleged that not allowing the original investigators to complete the investigation as initially proposed would be seen as a “cover-up.”

According to Archbishop Bernard Hebda, who succeeded Archbishop Nienstedt as the archdiocese’s leader, Greene Espel submitted a concluding report in late July that reflected the investigation’s narrowed scope, in which the investigators identified further inquiries that could be made.

Bishop Piché hired Minneapolis attorney Peter Wold to follow up on those inquiries and submit a report. The archdiocese sent both reports to the nuncio in 2015. (See Q&A above.)

Archbishop Nienstedt resigned his position in the archdiocese in June 2015, following the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office filing of criminal charges and a civil petition against the archdiocese on its handling of the Wehmeyer case, in which the former priest sexually abused three brothers who were his parishioners at Blessed Sacrament in St. Paul.

“Words cannot express the sorrow I feel for the victims and survivors of clergy sexual abuse, their families, their friends and our Catholic community,” Archbishop Nienstedt said. “In particular, I am sorry for the way the archdiocese, under my leadership, addressed the allegations against Curtis Wehmeyer. As the archbishop, I should have asked more questions, I should have demanded more answers, and I should have insisted those within the archdiocesan administration at the time share more information with each other. I am sorry. I ask for continued prayers for the well-being of the archdiocese, its leaders and all those hurt by those who have led.”

— Maria Wiering

8 • The Catholic Spirit

U.S. & WORLD

August 4, 2016

Clinton’s VP pick, a St. Paul-born Catholic, faces criticism for his stand on abortion

By Colleen Dulle Catholic News Service

People hold a banner with a picture of French priest Father Jacques Hamel that reads, “Where there is hatred, let me sow love,” after a July 27 Mass at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. CNS/Benoit Tessier, Reuters

Iman: Slain French priest an attack on ‘all of us’

By Carol Zimmermann Catholic News Service Father Jacques Hamel’s gruesome murder in northern France July 26 — by men claiming allegiance to the Islamic State — prompted sorrow and outrage from Muslim leaders around the world.

“This attack in a place of worship and on innocent worshippers in particular demonstrates that there are no boundaries to the depravity of these murderers,” wrote Imam Qari Muhammad Asim, senior imam at the Makkah Mosque in Leeds, England.

The knife-yielding attackers slit the throat of 85-year-old Father Hamel and also injured two others in the church, Eglise St.-Etienne, before they were fatally shot by police.

“In this extremely difficult time for the Catholic community, we stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters of all faiths,” the English imam said in a statement. “An attack on any place of worship is an attack on a way of life of faith communities and therefore an attack on all of us.”

That solidarity was evident July 31 when Muslim leaders and community members attended Masses at the Notre Dame Cathedrals in Paris and Rouen, France, and Catholic basilicas in Rome.

Yahya Yahe Pallavicini, vice president of the Islamic Religious Community of Italy, attended Mass at Rome’s Basilica of the Holy Cross of Jerusalem with about two dozen representatives of the community.

At a gathering before Mass, he said they came to “demonstrate brotherhood and to defend the sacred values of religion.”

Across the city, at Rome’s Basilica of St. Mary in Trastevere, dozens of Muslims joined members of the Community of Sant’Egidio and parishioners for the main morning Mass. Mohammed ben Mohammed, imam of a nearby mosque, told worshippers that

those who murdered Father Hamel “have nothing to do with Islam.”

“They are dangerous and the enemies of Islam,” he said.

The support among religious leaders also was immediately apparent after news spread about the murder of the beloved priest described as a grandfather figure at the parish in the Normandy working class town of St.-Etienne-du-Rouvray.

That’s in part because French President Francois Hollande not only assembled security officials after the church attack, but he also gathered representatives of Christian churches and Muslim, Buddhist and Jewish leaders to display interfaith unity.

Mohammed Karabila, president of the Regional Muslim Council of Normandy, told a French newspaper he was “distressed at the death of his friend” Father Hamel and pointed out that the two of them had worked together in an interfaith committee for nearly two years since the beginning of Islamic State attacks in France.

He described the priest as “a man of peace, of religion, with a certain charisma. A person who dedicated his life and his ideas to his religion. He sacrificed his life for others.”

Ahmad el-Tayeb, grand imam of Egypt’s al-Azhar mosque and university, who met with Pope Francis in May after years of suspended dialogue with the Vatican, said in a July 26 statement that the church attackers lacked “any sense of humanity and all the values and principles of Islamic tolerance, which invite us to peace and to avoid the bloodshed of innocents, without any distinction of religion, color, gender or ethnicity.”

The imam also called for an “intensification of efforts and joint initiatives to deal with the cancer of terrorism that now threatens the entire world, destroys innocent souls and threatens world peace.”

Papal academy summit to tackle world refugee crisis Catholic News Service A papal think tank is convening a summit to tackle the threat to global stability posed by today’s refugee crisis.

The Vatican summit will study ways to end the war in Syria; establish humanitarian corridors worldwide, not just in Europe; not punish Great Britain for its disenchantment with current European Union mandates; help the “disaffected working class” through increased social spending; offer amnesty to victims of human trafficking; and foster development in low-income countries.

“Walls and fences won’t stop millions of migrants fleeing violence, extreme poverty, hunger, disease,

droughts, floods and other ills. Only global cooperation toward social justice can do that,” the Pontifical Academy of Sciences said on its website.

Titled “Europe: Refugees Are Our Brothers and Sisters,” the summit was scheduled for Dec. 9-10. A list of participants was not yet available as invitations were still being sent, a source told Catholic News Service July 28.

The academy said it was responding to Pope Francis’ ongoing call to do more to prevent humanitarian crises and deliver concrete, adequate and timely responses to those most in need.

“Supplying tents and drinking water that arrive after everyone is dead of cold and dehydration is totally unacceptable,” it said.

Only a week after Donald Trump chose as his running mate Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, who was raised a Catholic and today is evangelical, Hillary Clinton chose as her vice presidential running mate U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, a practicing Catholic who has never lost an election.

Kaine was born in St. Paul at St. Joseph’s Hospital; grew up in Kansas outside Kansas City, Missouri, where he attended the Jesuit-run Rockhurst High School; and graduated from the University of Missouri School of Journalism before taking time off from Harvard Law School to work in Honduras with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps. He has been a member of St. Elizabeth Parish in Richmond, Virginia, for 30 years and is an on-andoff choir member — he sang a solo verse of “Taste and See” at Mass there July 24.

Still, the vice presidential Sen. Tim candidate has faced criticism from Catholics for his stances KAINE on issues such as abortion and the death penalty.

Bishop Thomas Tobin of Providence, Rhode Island, posted on Facebook July 23 that Kaine’s positions on abortion and same-sex marriage, among other issues, “are clearly contrary to wellestablished Catholic teachings; all of them have been opposed by Pope Francis as well.

“Senator Kaine has said, ‘My faith is central to everything I do.’ But apparently, and unfortunately, his faith isn’t central to his public, political life,” the bishop wrote.

Similarly, Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life, released a July 22 statement denouncing Kaine’s abortion stance, including his opposition to a bill that would have prevented abortions after 20 weeks, had it passed in the Senate.

“Senator Kaine is good at hiding behind his Catholic background,” Tobias said, “but no one should be fooled. His record and his openly declared legislative goals are as pro-abortion as they come.”

Bishop Francis DiLorenzo of Richmond, Kaine’s home diocese, issued a July 22 statement as well “regarding Catholics in public office” that reiterated the Church’s pro-life stance though it did not mention Kaine by name.

“We always pray for our Catholic leaders that they make the right choice, act in the best judgment and in good conscience knowing the values and teachings of the Catholic Church,” the statement read.

Kaine’s platform has become more accepting of abortion since his time as governor of Virginia from 2006 to 2010, when he approved funding for crisis pregnancy centers and upheld abortion restrictions such as a 24-hour waiting period and parental notification. He followed this term with two years as chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

Since his 2012 election to the Senate, he has had a perfect rating from NARAL Pro-Choice America, though he has supported the Hyde Amendment, which forbids federal funding for most abortions and continues to be included in many federal appropriations bills for abortions. He hasn’t yet commented on the DNC’s platform update, which says the party aims to repeal the Hyde Amendment.

“I have a traditional Catholic personal position, but I am very strongly supportive that women should make these decisions, and government shouldn’t intrude,” Kaine told CNN earlier in July.

U.S. & WORLD

August 4, 2016

The Catholic Spirit • 9

in BRIEF VATICAN CITY

Pope names 12 to panel to study women deacons

Pilgrims cheer after the Way of the Cross during World Youth Day in Blonia Park in Krakow, Poland, July 29. CNS/Paul Haring

Youth hear pope’s message in Gospel story of Zacchaeus Continued from page 1 because we don’t feel big enough, because we don’t think ourselves worthy.

This is a great temptation; it has to do not only with self-esteem, but with faith itself,” he said.

By not accepting themselves and their limitations, Christians deny their “real stature” as children of God and see themselves as unworthy of God’s love.

At the same time, he said, people will try to convince Christians that there are others who are unworthy of God’s love.

“People will try to block you, to make you think that God is distant, rigid and insensitive, good to the good and bad to the bad,” he told the young people. “Instead, our Heavenly Father ‘makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good.’

About 50 pilgrims attended World He demands of us real courage: Youth Day in Krakow, Poland, July the courage to be more powerful 25-31 on a pilgrimage organized by than evil by loving everyone, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and even our enemies.”

Minneapolis under the leadership of The pope noted that Jesus Justin Stroh, director of faith looks at all people with the same formation at Divine Mercy in gaze he looked at Zacchaeus, not Faribault. Auxiliary Bishop Andrew taking into account his sins, wealth or social standing.

Cozzens served as their chaplain.

“God counts on you for what Stroh posted regular video and you are, not for what you possess. photo updates to the Facebook In his eyes the clothes you wear page WYD16 Archdiocese of Saint or the kind of cell phone you use Paul and Minneapolis. are of absolutely no concern. He Archbishop Bernard Hebda also doesn’t care whether you are attended the event and led a prayer stylish or not, he cares about you. service July 28 at a Krakow church, In his eyes, you are precious and where he encouraged youth to your value is priceless,” the pope follow the example of Blessed Pier said.

Giorgio Frassati — a patron saint of Another obstacle, the pope continued, is the “paralysis of young adults whose relics were shame,” one that Zacchaeus there on display — and “truly live overcame by climbing the out the call to become men and sycamore tree at “the risk of women of the beatitudes.” appearing completely ridiculous.”

Pope Francis encouraged the young men and women to not be ashamed of bringing “everything to the Lord in confession, especially your weaknesses, your struggles and your sins.”

As he did with Zacchaeus, Jesus looks beyond appearances and faults to the heart — something young people are called to imitate, the pope said.

“Don’t stop at the surface of things; distrust the worldly cult of appearances, applying makeup on our souls so we seem better than we are,” he said. “Instead, establish the most secure connection, that of the heart that sees and transmits goodness without tiring.”

Although the Mass brought the World Youth Day celebrations to an end, Pope Francis invited the youth to continue along the path that began with their pilgrimage to Krakow and bring the remembrance of God’s love to others.

“Trust the memory of God: His memory is not a ‘hard disk’ that saves and archives all our data, but a tender heart full of compassion that rejoices in definitively erasing every trace of evil,” the pope said.

Before concluding the Mass with the recitation of the Angelus prayer, the pope invited the youths to carry the “spiritual breath of fresh air” back to their countries and communities and “wherever God’s providence leads you.”

The pope also announced that the 2019 World Youth Day will be held in Panama.

Pilgrims in Poland

Pope Francis has appointed six men and six women to a commission to study the issue of women deacons, particularly their ministry in the early Church. In addition to the 12 members named Aug. 2, the pope tapped Archbishop Luis Ladaria Ferrer, secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, to serve as president of the commission. The pope set up the commission at the request of the International Union of Superiors General, the organization for the leaders of women’s religious orders around the world. Meeting the group in May, Pope Francis said that while his understanding was that the women described as deacons in the New Testament were not ordained as male deacons are today, “it would be useful for the Church to clarify this question.” The International Theological Commission, a body that advises the doctrinal congregation, included the question of women deacons in a study on the diaconate almost 20 years ago.

Pope appoints head of CUA to Vatican agency Pope Francis appointed John Garvey, president of The Catholic University of America, to the board of directors of a Vatican agency overseeing institutes of higher learning. Garvey, a former dean of Boston College Law School and onceassistant to the solicitor general of the United States, was named to the Agency for the Evaluation and Promotion of Quality in Ecclesiastical Universities and Faculties. The Vatican made the announcement July 25.

Pope Benedict XVI created the agency in 2007 as a way to “promote and develop a culture of quality within the academic institutions that depend directly on the Holy See” and help these institutions identify, evaluate and improve their mission and objectives, according to the agency’s website.

AMMAN, Jordan

Bombing of Aleppo destroys hospitals, traps kids Only a small number of civilians in Aleppo are using humanitarian corridors to flee weeks of intensive bombardment; activists say people do not trust that the routes are safe. Sonia Khush, who directs Save the Children Syria, told Catholic News Service that civilians trapped inside the city’s eastern neighborhoods have experienced bombing that has destroyed homes and hospitals, leaving children crippled and dead. She recounted a story from a staffer at a partner agency at the scene of an airstrike, where children were buried beneath the rubble. “A child less than 10 years old ran to me shouting, ‘Sir, please put my arm back.’ His left arm was amputated and he held it with his right hand. He was begging me to put it back, and this is only one of so many tragedies that we see,” the aid worker said.

HOUSTON

Charges against undercover video creators dropped The Harris County district attorney’s office dropped the last remaining charges against David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt July 26.

Daleiden, who founded the pro-life Center for Medical Progress in California, and investigator Merritt created a series of undercover videos last year alleging that Planned Parenthood affiliate officials committed improprieties regarding fetal tissue and organs. The officials are shown discussing the illegal marketing and sale of fetal tissue with Daleiden and Merritt, who posed as representatives of a mythical fetal tissue procurement firm. Planned Parenthood said any allegations it “profits in any way from tissue donation is not true” and that any money it received from labs were processing fees. Daleiden and Merritt had been charged with a felony and a misdemeanor for tampering with government records and using fake IDs to enter a Planned Parenthood facility, the Houston Chronicle reported.

WASHINGTON

Measure to protect gay rights said to target religious colleges A small independent Catholic college in Escondido, California, has joined the opponents of a state law aimed at banning discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students by depriving colleges of state and federal student-aid funds. The president of John Paul the Great University, which has an enrollment of 350, said the bill would prevent some students from enrolling and the college from having policies in line with Catholic teaching, and could force Catholic colleges to host samesex weddings in campus chapels. Derry Connolly said his school doesn’t discriminate against gay or transgender students and has had no discrimination complaints since it was founded in 2003.

The matter of same-sex weddings “seems to be the biggest concern,” he said. The Catholic Church opposes same-sex marriage.

It upholds marriage between one man and one woman and teaches that sex outside of traditional marriage is a sin. The Church also teaches that homosexuals must be “accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity.

Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided.”

ST. LOUIS

Catholic senator earns victory against HHS mandate A Missouri senator won’t be forced to pay for health insurance that includes “religiously objectionable” medical services, according to a judgment issued in federal court. Judge Jean Hamilton of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri granted Republican state Sen. Paul Wieland and his family permanent protection from the federal Health and Human Services mandate that individuals, businesses and non-church entities must purchase health insurance coverage for contraceptives and sterilizations. The case represents an unusual angle in which a family has earned a victory against the mandate, preserving its right to religious liberty, said lawyers from the Thomas More Society of Chicago. The court rejected the U.S. Justice Department’s arguments that the Wielands suffered no substantial adverse burden from having to comply with the mandate.

— Catholic News Service

10 • The Catholic Spirit

Part 10 in a 14-part series highlighting local Catholics who live out the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.

I

Acts o

n May, Jimmy Abbott and his housemate, Austin Riordan, had just returned from a run when their conversation turned to forgiveness. Abbott shared an ongoing struggle: Despite going to confession and feeling assured of God’s forgiveness, he had long wrestled with some hurt he had caused his mom and brother.

“It’s just one of those things I’ll never be able to forgive myself for,” he told Riordan.

Riordan, 23, disagreed. He listened to Abbott and then prayed with him, and he offered simple counsel, advising the 22-year-old to ask for God’s help to let it go, in the name of Jesus. And Abbott did.

The burden was lifted, and it hasn’t returned, he said.

“From here on out, there’s been a great peace with that,” Abbott said.

Riordan’s friends say he has a special ability — rooted in prayer and sustained by God’s grace — to help people overcome doubts about God and their faith.

Riordan recognizes it, too. He believes God puts people in his path who can benefit from his past struggles with doubt, trust and prayer.

It’s easy to think of counseling the doubtful — a spiritual work of mercy — as helping people bridge the divide between agnosticism and faith. Riordan, however, finds doubt to be subtler.

He sees doubt express itself in the students at his alma mater, the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, where he serves as a mission leader for St. Paul’s Outreach, a college evangelization organization based in Inver Grove Heights.

In his experience, young adults aren’t rejecting God’s existence. They want to believe he exists and hope that he does.

Trust builder

Campus missionary says love can help young people overcome doubt

By Maria Wiering • The Catholic Spirit “The biggest arena of doubt on [a] college campus is not the question of whether God exists, but rather students are asking if they are enough for God,” he said.

It’s a question he strives to answer through conversation and friendship.

“When I’m meeting with students, they don’t bring up their doubts,” he said. “The way to address doubt is love over time.”

‘You need other people’ On a Tuesday in May, Riordan spent his noon-hour playing Spikeball — a lawn game one player described as “reverse volleyball” — before grabbing lunch with a student. For SPO, building personal connections is key to

helping students deepen their relationship with God. Those connections made a difference for Riordan.

As a college freshman and sophomore, he struggled with questions about Church teaching and Christ’s real presence in the Eucharist.

A native of Plover, Wisconsin, Riordan went to Catholic schools and described faith as something that naturally interested him, although it wasn’t important to him in high school. When he entered college in fall 2011, he had a hard time meeting new people. He developed depression, he said, and would cycle between eating and exercising binges.

During January of his freshman year, he took a theology class in Rome and befriended some fellow students who were devout Catholics. They took him to daily Mass — something Riordan had never experienced outside of Catholic school. He didn’t understand the Italian, but he prayed and started to develop a personal relationship with God, he said.

“I had the courage to do that because I was with people who accepted me and were loving to me,” he said. “That changed my life course, going from lukewarm to taking deeper steps in my faith.”

Friendships were central to Riordan’s faith journey.

“I would have never gone to daily Mass by myself unless someone invited me to actually go with them,” he said.

“I would have never been talking about Jesus or about the Catholic faith if someone else hadn’t initiated. I wasn’t going to walk through the doors of campus ministry by myself. Somebody needed to walk me in there, in the metaphorical way. When I think about that with my own

The Catholic Spirit’s Acts of Mercy series is mad National Catholic Society of Foresters. Learn abo

of

Mercy

August 4, 2016 • 11

Counsel the doubtful

By Father Michael Van Sloun

“The biggest arena of doubt on [a] college campus is not the question of whether God exists, but rather students are asking if they are enough for God.” ABOVE St. Paul Outreach Mission Leader Austin Riordan, right, plays Spikeball with University of St. Thomas students Kuba Bursey, left, Richard Adrian and Robert Klemm.

Austin Riordan

LEFT Austin Riordan, right, eats lunch and talks with student Robert Klemm.

Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit work, I know that the people who really need campus ministry aren’t the people who are going to walk in there by themselves.”

As an undergraduate growing in faith, Riordan felt torn between the truths of the Church and how they demanded that he change his life.

He went through a stretch during his sophomore year when he doubted Catholicism and Christianity in general.

He had been going to daily Mass for a while, but on one particular Sunday, he walked out of church halfway through Mass.

He remembers thinking, “I don’t believe in the Eucharist, so why am I here?”

He went to a nearby park and just walked as he mulled over his interior conflict.

“I was really running the race on my own, and that’s what allowed doubt to seep in,” he said. “Even though I had been very committed to the practices of our faith, doubt could still creep in if I didn’t have brothers or a community around me that could help remind me of the truth.”

That’s why SPO became so important to Riordan’s faith.

He moved into an SPO household as a college senior.

“You need other people there to help fight with you,” he said, pointing to the household structure, which includes regular meals, community prayer, and the expectation of vulnerability and problem sharing.

Riordan sought out an SPO pastoral leader, Nick Redd, who listened to his struggle. Redd didn’t always know the answers to Riordan’s questions, but his presence and love steadied the undergraduate.

“The confidence in the Church came with time,” Riordan said. “Once I saw people living out the actual words in the Catechism, the words in the Bible, I started to believe in the goodness of them, and that allowed me to trust them.”

Gaining trust Now Riordan works to be an example of God’s goodness.

He finds students are rarely overt about their particular doubts. “You have to build up a lot of trust over time for someone to bring up their doubts to you,” he said. “We combat doubt by stepping out in faith.”

As a mission leader, Riordan focuses on genuine relationships with students. “It’s about building a real friendship,” he said, “and if we’re living our Christian lifestyle well, the name of Jesus will come up, but in a natural way, and people will wonder why we live this way, and they’ll begin to ask questions.”

Most of St. Thomas’ students have a faith background, Riordan said, whether they attended Catholic schools or a Lutheran Bible camp, but they arrive as searchers.

“You’ve come to college and you think of ‘searching,’ you don’t think of going back to what you’ve already been told,” he said. “You need someone else to present the

de possible in part through a grant from the out the organization at www.ncsf.com.

Gospel in a way that you haven’t heard before.”

Many college students struggle with self-hatred or shame, he said, from engaging in activities such as premarital sex and binge drinking.

“There is immense doubt in people’s lives, especially young Catholics, who doubt that they are enough or have done enough for God to receive his mercy,” he added.

A communications and journalism major, Riordan started a video production business while in college, but his main focus continues to be his SPO missionary work.

Last year, he also assisted in overseeing a household of nine men — mostly students — who live on Grand Avenue near St. Thomas.

“Austin is a great leader, but he’s a better brother. . . .

That’s how he relates,” said Abbott, a welding student at St. Paul College in St. Paul. He attributes Riordan’s ability to listen and counsel to his “phenomenal prayer life.”

“This is what he believes: You can’t give what you don’t have,” he said. “He seeks wisdom from the Lord, and therefore the Lord gives it to him and uses him as an instrument. It’s as simple as that.”

Housemate and St. Thomas junior Kuba Bursey describes Riordan as someone who sincerely cares about others’ wellbeing and who has built Bursey’s confidence in his role in SPO. “He’s just so ready to listen, and he understands where people are at,” he said. “He has no shame in telling people that he loves them and praying with them. He’s the Navy SEAL of missionary life.”

Modeling the Christian life Riordan makes himself available for conversation or prayer with his housemates — even if it’s late at night or early in the morning. Some of those discussions address doubt. He recalled praying with a sick housemate for healing, but who expressed doubt that God would do that for him.

Given the evil in the world, young adults also struggle to reconcile pain and suffering with the basic Christian belief that God is good. Riordan said it’s hard, for example, to understand how a loving God would allow the clergy sex abuse scandal.

“We would all hope for a really good, loving God, and maybe they haven’t seen examples of that in their lives, in Christians who have been living that out, unfortunately,” he said. “What I’ve come to think is that people’s barriers to God — where the doubt is stemming — is not believing in God’s goodness.”

Riordan aims to combat that by being a Christian witness.

“Students are more willing to trust my experience because I’m closer to their age,” he said. “We are people who are showing other people how to live the Christian life. . . . This is how we live a full, rich, joyful life, a life that is giving of service to other people throughout our entire lives.”

He added: “If they don’t see that in me and in my co-workers and the guys I live with . . . how are they going to believe what we talk about?”

To counsel the doubtful is a spiritual work of mercy. Doubt is a spiritual burden, and it is an act of mercy to offer counsel and help lighten the load.

A person who is doubtful is uncertain, undecided or confused about what to think or believe; unsettled or hesitant about a decision to be made; wavering about what to do next; or afraid.

Counsel comes from the Latin word “consilium,” and it means to give advice, help make a plan, develop a strategy, resolve a problem or help make a decision. It Father Michael requires prudence. The prefix “con” means “with,” which VAN SLOUN implies that counsel is done by two parties together in a cooperative process, rather than as a one-sided affair in which an expert provides the answer.

As a spiritual work of mercy, it focuses on spiritual matters. It is not about the dinner menu or the right paint color, but rather, values, beliefs, meaning, personal relationships, vocational choices and the guiding principles for a decision.

There are vastly different approaches to counsel.

Worldly counsel asks, “What would make you happy?” “What would be healthy or beneficial for you?” Spiritual counsel asks, “What is God’s will in this?” “What is right and true?” “What is the ethical or moral thing to do?”

The Christian doubtful want counsel from a person who is grounded in Jesus and the Gospel; has a compassionate heart and a listening ear; is respectful, empathetic, honest, humble, gentle, open and wise; provides an opportunity for discussion; gives personal attention and constructive feedback; and offers new perspectives, alternatives, encouragement and prayers. The doubtful do not want condescension, a rush job, quick answers or pat answers.

A spiritual counselor prays for the doubter, seeks the guidance of the Holy Spirit and intercedes with Mary, who is both the Seat of Wisdom and Our Lady of Good Counsel. Then, the counselor listens before speaking, explores the person’s past experiences and present concerns, attempts to see things from the person’s vantage point, and thoroughly discusses the issue, particularly the Christian call to virtue and holiness. Instead of providing the answer, a good spiritual counselor helps the person come to his or her own decision.

Jesus encountered many who were doubtful throughout his ministry. The classic example is St. Thomas, who doubted the resurrection; Jesus appeared to him and showed him his wounds to strengthen his belief (Jn 20:24-29). Nicodemus was confused about what to believe, and Jesus discussed the nature of faith with him throughout the night (Jn 3:1-15). St. John the Baptist doubted that Jesus truly was the Messiah, and Jesus cited evidence to reassure him (Mt 11:2-5). The disciples were confused about the parable of the sower, and Jesus called them aside to explain it to them (Mt 13:1-9, 18-23). St. Peter doubted as he sank into the sea, so Jesus reached out his hand to help him up (Mt 14:31). A rich young man was confused about what is necessary for eternal life, and Jesus patiently explained what is needed (Mt 19:16-22).

The disciples were terrified during a storm at sea, and with a mighty deed Jesus calmed their fears (Mk 4:35-41).

Jesus had great compassion for the doubtful, and with mercy he helped them to achieve greater clarity and confidence.

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

12 • The Catholic Spirit

August 4, 2016

Congratulations

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

vvv

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

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

vvv

vvv

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

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

vvv

vvv

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

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

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

We will honor the winners at the Leading With Faith Award luncheon, Thursday, Aug.18, at St. Catherine University in St. Paul.

For details, visit www.archspm.org/leadingfaithlunch Presented by

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

Partnering with

Friendship Partner

From the priests, faculty and staff of The Saint Paul Seminary School of Divinity

www.saintpaulseminary.org

Celebrating 15 years

Lawinger Consulting

If you are a past winner (2002 – 2015), you are invited to attend this year’s luncheon as our guest.

Call or email Mary Gibbs for your reservation: 651-251-7709 or gibbsm@archspm.org

FROM AGE TO AGE

August 4, 2016

The Catholic Spirit • 13

Nonprofits partner to respond to growing senior housing needs

By Matthew Davis For The Catholic Spirit A bigger challenge than distance awaited Evon and Charles Wells-Ellis in their decision to have Evon’s mother, Grace Wells, move into their St. Paul home.

Wells, 83, from Omaha, Nebraska, needed wheelchair access and other physical adaptations to live at Wells-Ellis’ Aurora-St. Anthony neighborhood home near St. Peter Claver. The cost of the changes looked daunting at $40,000-$50,000.

“Anyone who was past the age of 70 and no longer working who [was] maybe existing either on their retirement, from their benefits or their Social Security as [a] whole, it’s virtually impossible,” Evon said about affording such changes.

Around 40-50 volunteers from Rebuilding Together Twin Cities helped clear that hurdle by coming to the Wells-Ellis home to make the renovations needed.

RTTC received a Social Impact Grant of $10,000 from the Catholic Community Foundation this year to assist in making such projects possible.

“What the grant allowed us to do is to keep doing more fall prevention measures that we install into seniors’ homes,” RTTC Executive Director Kathy Greiner said.

Each year, the St. Paul-based CCF distributes grants for varying social needs. Senior citizen services receive funds from CCF once every three years as part of the Catholic organization’s rotation of programs for the elderly, youth and young parents.

“This is a strategy that allows us to provide larger, more focused grants and hopefully be more strategic about them in terms of their impact since we can get to know the current issues that face vulnerable elderly in a focused way, rather than trying to be all things to all people each year,” said Meg Payne Nelson, CCF data and grants program manager.

RTTC does renovation projects in metro-area counties for senior citizens with an income at 50 percent or more below the median for the area. The nonprofit also requires the residency of at least one disabled person at the home.

Wells-Ellis’ project didn’t just accommodate Wells.

Charles Wells-Ellis, a retired engineer, needed assistance following recent knee and back surgeries.

“In order for it [the house] to be accessible for them to be able to move about, there were drastic changes that had to happen,” Evon said, “like door knobs that

From left, Tom Schermerhorn and Paul Thornton, members of the Honeywell Retired Volunteer Program, work with Rebuilding Together’s Ramp Program to build a wheelchair ramp for a local homeowner.

Courtesy Angela Dimler/Catholic Community Foundation needed to be knobs more than they needed to be handles because my mother also has arthritis in her hands.”

Evon returned from a work trip the same week renovations on her home began.

“It was just really humbling to talk to some of the guys and ladies that came out to do the volunteer work and just to know they were taking pride in [being useful],” she said.

Twin Cities United Way expects the number of seniors 65 years and older to double by 2030.

United Way also reports that 7.6 percent of seniors live in poverty now, a number at risk of ballooning over the next 15 years. RTTC, which does 120 projects per year, can’t keep up at its current pace if the projected growth transpires.

“It’s going to be a need of great concern moving forward,” Payne Nelson said.

It doesn’t come down to funding alone, though.

Organizations such as RTTC will need the volunteer power, and under-tapped resources still exist.

Although RTTC received CCF funds, no Catholic

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To ADVERTISE in The Catholic Spirit call or email our sales representatives Dick Martens 651-251-7717 martensr@archspm.org

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parishes are volunteering to work on the housing projects at this time.

“We’re always looking for volunteers that want to do this on an ongoing basis,” Greiner said.

Evon knows well the need for more help in her neighborhood. Multiple people from the community stopped by her home to inquire about the project. She has already referred another five residents from the area to Rebuild, a simple response to what she has received.

“It wouldn’t have gotten done if Rebuilding didn’t have good relationships with companies like Opus . . . and for whatever reason, took interest in our project,” she said.

Such collaboration will allow Wells-Ellis’ family and her mother to stay in their home of 35 years well into their golden years. It also meets what the CCF set out to do.

“Our focus area was keeping the elderly in their homes for as long as possible, and that project nails it,” Payne Nelson said.

14 • The Catholic Spirit

FAITH & CULTURE

August 4, 2016

For pilgrims, Italy’s female saints show faith’s history, beauty and depth

By Clare Kolars For The Catholic Spirit

W

ine tasting, history lessons and Italy’s great female saints.

In June, 30 women, 12 from the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, spent 10 days in and around Rome as part of a “WINE and Shrine” pilgrimage with Women In the New Evangelization, or WINE, a national women’s ministry.

Kelly Wahlquist, WINE founder and parishioner of Holy Name of Jesus in Medina, said visiting the shrines of St. Catherine of Siena and St. Clare of Assisi was a great gift the women received during the Year of Mercy. The lives of the female saints encouraged the women to live their faith, especially in today’s society, she said.

“We were able to see these saints, who fought similar battles in a culture

against them, and they had the hope and faith to believe in the Lord,” Wahlquist said.

Mary Fox of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Hastings said the WINE pilgrimage included several “wow” moments, such as praying in front of the cross that spoke to St. Francis of Assisi and in front of Michelangelo’s Pieta housed in St. Peter’s Basilica.

“My husband died five years ago, and the image of the Pieta always spoke to me and helped me to understand the sorrow Mary felt when she held her son in her arms,” Fox said. “This was one reason I decided to go.”

In preparation for the trip, Fox read “Catherine of Siena” by Sigrid Undset.

“I was overwhelmed at how God used a ‘nobody’ to perform these miracles and teach the theology as she did,” Fox said. “I never knew a person like her existed.”

Fox said praying in the shrines of St. Catherine of Siena, St. Agnes and St. Clare of Assisi was an honor once she understood the gift they are to the Church.

“I feel like I’m best friends with these saints, and I want to introduce them to other women,” she said.

She added that the pilgrimage helped her to understand the beauty, depth and history of the Catholic faith as told by so many saints.

“To be surrounded by those stories

Pilgrims on the “WINE & Shrine” in June toured Siena, Italy, including the Basilica of San Domenico, where the relics of St. Catherine of Siena are housed. Courtesy Kelly Wahlquist /Women In the New Evangelization was such a wow moment, and I was able to share it with my 19-year-old daughter,” she said.

Maddie Fox, one of Mary’s three children, said she heard her mom talking about the pilgrimage over spring break and didn’t want to miss out.

“Being the youngest by 20 years made my experience so much better,” Maddie

said. “I was around inspiring women and listened to them share their stories.”

Maddie said her biggest surprise was hearing the women talk about how their faith strengthened in their hardships.

She added that seeing the head of St. Catherine of Siena was an awesome experience.

“You always think of faith as something you can’t touch or can’t see, but then you see something like that and realize it’s a real person,” Maddie said. “You never expected to see something so real when it had always been fiction before.”

The pilgrims prepared for the trip by praying and studying the lives of the saints they would visit.

Wahlquist said the trip was beyond successful because “of the hearts that were transformed, the lives that were changed and the relationships that were built and will continue to grow.”

The graces continue to flow as the women share with friends and family at home.

“We’ve already heard about women telling stories to other women and explaining how their life was changed,” Wahlquist said. “This will be a pilgrimage we want to continue every year.”

For more information about WINE, visit

www.womeninthenewevangelization.com.

www.TheCatholicSpirit.com

August 4, 2016

FAITH & CULTURE

When the cupboards are bare

The Catholic Spirit •15

In his own words Aric Aamodt, a seminarian for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, spent 11 days at Jesucristo Resucitado in San Felix, Venezuela, in July. The Catholic Spirit asked him to describe his experience of the ongoing food crisis.

What we saw

Yunni Perez holds plastic bottles used to carry water while she poses for a photo April 3 inside her home in a slum area of Caracas, Venezuela.

CNS

Venezuela, mission parish reeling from food crisis

By Dave Hrbacek The Catholic Spirit

A

s the food crisis in Venezuela continues with no end in sight, the mission parish of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis in that country continues to suffer.

“Everybody’s just going hungry,” said Father Greg Schaffer, pastor of Jesucristo Resucitado in San Felix, Venezuela, who last month was named vicar general of the Diocese of Ciudad Guayana. “You go to the grocery store and the shelves are bare.”

News reports describe a crisis that began in 2014, fueled by a severe drop in the price of oil, the country’s main export and the bedrock of its economy. Further exacerbating the problem is the ineffectiveness of the government, led

by President Nicholas Maduro, whom some citizens believe is indifferent to their plight.

People have to wait in line for up to eight hours to buy food, said Father Schaffer, who has pastored the mission parish for 19 years. Hungry Venezuelans will show up at grocery stores as early as 3 a.m. to wait for a delivery truck to arrive. Sometimes, the truck runs out of food before everyone has a chance to buy what they need.

The result is frustration that sometimes turns into violence, with desperate people breaking delivery truck windows and causing other damage when they are turned away after the food runs out.

“Everybody just has to wait in line [for food]; there’s no way around it,” Father Schaffer said. “You don’t know what time the truck is going to come and you don’t even know what’s in the truck, but you know it’s something you’re going to need. And so, you just wait in line. Then, you just buy whatever they have.”

The poor of Father Schaffer’s parish are also grappling with prices that make even the most basic food items almost unaffordable.

“For example, if you’re lucky enough to have a job that pays minimum wage and has benefits, it’s three days’ salary to buy one chicken and two days’ salary for a kilo of beef,” he said. “It’s hard to find rice. Sugar is really hard to find.”

Right now, Father Schaffer is directing food to the poorest of the poor in his parish and the neighborhoods it serves. He has been able to continue operating a soup kitchen that feeds lunch to 42 people daily Monday through Friday.

Compounding the crisis is a medicine shortage, resulting in untreated conditions that normally respond well to basic medicines. Sometimes, the outcomes are fatal.

“People are dying a lot earlier because it’s hard to get basic medicines like antibiotics,” Father Schaffer said.

A group of seminarians from the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity in St. Paul recently had a firsthand

look at the crisis and its effects on the people of Jesucristo Resucitado. Seminary Professor Father Scott Carl was in Venezuela July 11-22 with three archdiocesan seminarians — Aric Aamodt and Deacons Ben Wittnebel and Bryce Evans.

“It’s very difficult to see [people hungry and suffering],” said Father Carl, who made his sixth trip to Venezuela and the mission parish. “It makes it more real. . . . Seeing someone in person is the difference between a hug and reading a newspaper article. You experience the kindness and warmth of a person who’s struggling. You feel that this is your brother and sister.”

Father Schaffer said no humanitarian aid has reached his parish.

Although Catholic Relief Services, the humanitarian arm of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, serves more than 100 countries worldwide, Venezuela is not one of them. Jossie Sapunar, a communications specialist for CRS, said an invitation has to come before CRS can respond.

“We have to be welcomed,” she said.

“We can’t work in secret [without the approval of the government].”

When CRS does enter a country, she said, it doesn’t just bring in food, but tries to help the citizens devise ways to meet their own needs by producing food within their communities.

Despite the lack of outside assistance, Father Schaffer remains hopeful — and continues to see God at work.

“You see more people helping one another,” he said.

“You see God in people helping one another, sharing what little they have.”

To help meet the need, Father Schaffer and people in the parish are looking for ways to generate food within the community. They’re exploring several options, including creating a fish farm and hydroponic agriculture. Father Schaffer has also consulted faculty in the engineering program at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, and he’s hoping that the conversations will lead to new food sources.

In the meantime, people are taking advantage of native fruits in the region, including bananas and mangoes.

“There’s lots of fresh fruit,” he said. “We get fresh fruit juice, which is really good. We can get some fish, but fish, beef and chicken are hard to come by. We’ve tried raising chickens, but the problem is you can’t get the feed. The feed is imported, and the feed for the chickens is really, really expensive and that’s what drives up the price for the chickens.”

For people in the archdiocese who may wonder what they can do, Father Schaffer has simple advice: pray.

“That’s the biggest [thing],” he said. “Just pray that people can get fed, that people can get a fair wage for their work.”

We didn’t see as much of the food crisis as we heard about it. Before we went down we heard that some of the daily things were in short supply, like toothpaste and toilet paper. When we got down there, we learned that it is more serious than toilet paper; there is a general shortage of food and medicine.

We listened to a woman one night tell us [that] she got in line for food at 5:30 that morning, didn’t get into the grocery store until around 3 in the afternoon, was only able to get one box of pasta, and returned home at about 6 that evening. That was all she was able to get to eat for that week.

A lot of the local food, such as casabe, has little nutritional value, so even if Aric AAMODT the people can eat it every day, they are still malnourished. We went out one day with a group of young doctors to make visits to the homebound. At lunch afterwards, they told us that they, along with the doctors in the hospitals, are able to diagnose the illnesses that the people have, but they have no medicine to treat the people.

We visited a pharmacy later that night; the pharmacist had little medicine available, and what she had available costs about two weeks’ worth of a minimum wage job.

Our reaction We each had varied reactions to the poverty that we saw. Sometimes we wanted to burst into action and do anything and everything that we could in that moment to help the person in front of us; sometimes we were so overcome with sorrow for the person before us that we simply didn’t know what to do.

We certainly needed to bring what we saw before the Lord in prayer. The Lord taught me more of what it means to love the poor. The true response is not an activist approach, nor is it an indifference. Both of these ways are approaches to poverty. But the Lord’s response is not a response to poverty; it is a response to the poor. The Lord approaches the poor in love. He sees the person in all of his or her need, not just for food or medicine, but for life and love. He provides for the person in love, particularly in those ways of life and love.

Jose Antonio [Brito, a seminarian for the Diocese of Ciudad Guyana and member of Jesucristo Resucitado] told me that a person in Venezuela knows that he is blessed when he has life and has love. This is what the Lord provides: life and love.

And he calls us to join in his work of providing for the poor by giving food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, clothes to the naked and medicine to the sick. We love the poor as Christ loves the poor when we live these works of mercy in love toward the poor.

Responding from home We first need to spread the word, not only of the difficulties the people are facing in Venezuela, but also of the presence of our mission parish there. Even if we aren’t able go down there now, we can still find ways to help here, by donating money to the parish.

For more information, visit http://venezuela.archspm. org/you-can-help.

16 • The Catholic Spirit

FOCUS ON FAITH

SUNDAY SCRIPTURES

Deacon Nicholas Froehle

Practicing our faith will prepare us for Jesus During the Passover, after carrying out the instructions God revealed to Moses, the Israelites await their salvation. In their journey to the Promised Land, God reveals himself to his people, but this means the Israelites are called to adhere to the covenant. When they are faithful to the Word of God, they receive abundant blessings. When they turn away, they experience hardships, their enemies prevail, and they’re unhappy.

At the end of this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus proclaims, “Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and

still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more” (Lk 12:48).

Through God’s revelation of himself in the Incarnation, through Scripture and tradition, we have been given much.

Through our baptism we have each been brought into relationship with God. Like the people of Israel, this relationship bears upon how we carry out our lives.

We are called to be vigilant in our actions. We are called to prepare for the Lord’s return, or at the very least, prepare for when we go to meet him at the end of our life.

August 4, 2016

In the busyness of each day it is easy to forget that the Lord is indeed coming again. We are called, however, to remain vigilant in waiting for the Lord, and the way we do this is by carrying out his will.

We are fortunate to have received the grace of faith, and it is by this grace that we are able to know God’s will for us. On a universal level, we are all called to holiness. On a particular level, each of us is called to a unique way of becoming holy, whether as a priest, deacon, religious member, married or single.

Through revelation, through Scripture and tradition, God has revealed himself to us, and he has entrusted us with a task — to make his name known and loved.

The more attentive we are to undertaking this work, the more watchful we will be in our day-to-day activities. We will be like the people of Israel described in the first reading, awaiting “the salvation of the just.” We will be like the servants who are vigilant, prepared for the Master’s coming.

This focus on carrying out God’s will in each of our lives will help us live by faith and will encourage us to put our treasure

Sunday, Aug. 7 Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Readings • Wis 18:6-9 • Heb 11:1-2, 8-19 • Lk 12:32-48 in heaven. This means spending time each day in prayer listening to the Lord.

It also means spending time with the Scriptures. It means, ultimately, putting our faith into practice. When we do this, we will be prepared for the day we go to meet the Lord, or for the day when he comes to meet us.

Deacon Froehle 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 Our Lady of the Lake in Mound, and his home parish is the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul.

DAILY Scriptures Sunday, Aug. 7 Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Wis 18:6-9 Heb 11:1-2, 8-19 Lk 12:32-48 Monday, Aug. 8 St. Dominic, priest Ez 1:2-5, 24-28c Mt 17:22-27 Tuesday, Aug. 9 Ez 2:8–3:4 Mt 18:1-5, 10, 12-14

Wednesday, Aug. 10 St. Lawrence, deacon and martyr 2 Cor 9:6-10 Jn 12:24-26 Thursday, Aug. 11 St. Clare, virgin Ez 12:1-12 Mt 18:21–19:1 Friday, Aug. 12 Ez 16:1-15, 60, 63 Mt 19:3-12

Saturday, Aug. 13 Ez 18:1-10, 13b, 30-32 Mt 19:13-15

Tuesday, Aug. 16 Ez 28:1-10 Mt 19:23-30

Friday, Aug. 19 Ez 37:1-14 Mt 22:34-40

Sunday, Aug. 14 Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time Jer 38:4-6, 8-10 Heb 12:1-4 Lk 12:49-53

Wednesday, Aug. 17 Ez 34:1-11 Mt 20:1-16

Saturday, Aug. 20 St. Bernard, abbot and doctor of the Church Ez 43:1-7ab Mt 23:1-12

Monday, Aug. 15 Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Rev 11:19a; 12:1-6a, 10ab 1 Cor 15:20-27 Lk 1:39-56

SEEKING ANSWERS

Father Michael Schmitz

Gossip: Even when we need to talk about ‘secret’ things?

Q. You wrote about gossip earlier.

But don’t people need to know certain “secret” things? Wouldn’t it be irresponsible of me to keep some things to myself?

A. That is an excellent question. Life and relationships are complex. It would therefore be a bit simplistic to say something like, “Never talk about another person. Ever.” You are right in noting that there are times when we have to talk about another person. Not only that, but there will be times when we will have to talk about their faults.

Remember, gossip (or detraction) is when a person, “without objectively valid reason, discloses another’s faults and failings to persons who did not know them” (Catechism of the Catholic Church 2477). This definition implies that there may be occasions when someone does have an objectively valid reason. For instance, there are times

when an employer will have to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of an employee with a colleague. There are times when a wife will have to process how to handle a difficult situation involving a friend with her husband.

And yet, simply because war has broken out does not mean that all bets are off. There are still some particularly helpful guidelines that we could follow if we want to make sure that the other person is honored even in the midst of necessary criticism, and avoid falling into “everyday betrayal.”

There are some obvious questions everyone should ask. Even when talking about another person’s faults is justified, before you say anything ask, “Would I say this if the person could hear me?”

Some of us have firsthand knowledge of failing in this area. Even when you are completely justified in your comments (for example, when it is your duty to assess the performance of an employee

Thursday, Aug. 18 Ez 36:23-28 Mt 22:1-14

with a co-worker), how we speak of another person can vary wildly. Are my words, even if they are not flattering, guided by a respect for the other? Or am I careless and unnecessarily abrasive? The Book of Proverbs reads, “Where words are many, sin is not wanting; but those who restrain their lips do well” (Prv 10:19).

Another critical question we must ask when speaking of another: “Does the person with whom I am sharing need to know this information?” This can sometimes get tricky because we have a tendency to deceive ourselves. We may attempt to justify talking about the faults of another by conjuring up the most random of scenarios. “Jane is meeting Mary for coffee. I had better tell Jane that Mary and her husband are having issues.

She should know that ahead of time.”

False. If Jane needs to know that, Mary will tell her. That is Mary’s information to share (or not to share). “But I want to help. We are all friends.” Again: false. You want to be the one who shared Mary’s issue. You may all be friends, but that is Mary’s information to share.

Another version of this is “holy gossip.” This is when a person gossips under the pretense of asking for prayers. I know that you can fool yourself into thinking that you “need” to share because others “need” to know what is happening so that they can pray. But that is, once again, a bunch of baloney. The amount of penance you will be doing by

Sunday, Aug. 21 Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time Is 66:18-21 Heb 12:5-7, 11-13 Lk 13:22-30

not sharing will more than make up for whatever grace might come about through your “holy gossiping.”

Side note: Talking about celebrities like this is still gossip. The fact that someone lives in the public eye does not give us license to read, listen to or share details about their personal life.

I’ve heard people argue, “But others need to know such-and-such about this person.” Fine. If they truly need to know, then it isn’t gossip. But be very careful here.

But what about “venting”? People will say that you can’t just keep everything bottled up. I wouldn’t argue that; it can be helpful to have someone to talk to in difficult moments. But let’s clarify: Venting should be about your feelings or thoughts. You may need to process a problem or a relationship. But even then, it is important to do that well. Are you focusing on the faults of others or how they were mean to you? Or are you sharing and processing how you are trying to deal with the situation?

For all of us, a good prayer to pray before going into the day might be, “Set a guard, Lord, before my mouth, keep watch over the door of my lips” (Ps 141:3).

Father Schmitz is director of youth and young adult ministry for the Diocese of Duluth and chaplain of the Newman Center at the University of Minnesota Duluth.

Reach him at fathermikeschmitz@gmail.com.

THIS CATHOLIC LIFE • COMMENTARY

August 4, 2016

The Catholic Spirit • 17

EVERYDAY MERCIES

Alyssa Bormes

Hope in headlamps and rooster crows Well, I got a nickname. It’s “Tortuga,” Spanish for “turtle.” A woman gave it to me on the Camino, which is the walking pilgrimage I’m on across Spain to the tomb of the Apostle James in Santiago.

Brenda, my stepsister, continued walking after I re-injured my knee.

Three weeks of rest later, I decided to walk again. What began was a roughly 72-mile, seven-day test.

Every hour or so, especially in the heat, someone on the Camino would check on me. My gait was so slow that others thought I was having problems. I would meet them with a big smile and an assurance of being just fine. Hence, the nickname Tortuga.

In order to avoid the heat, I began walking at 5 a.m.; the sun rose just after 7 a.m. Each morning I donned my headband headlamp, which guided my steps before dawn.

Being alone in an unfamiliar place, often in the middle of the woods in total darkness except for the small glow of the lamp, allowed for an odd sense of

being alive. The noises around me and the seeking of the trail kept me alert.

One day the dry leaves falling gave me a start; they sort of clicked as they landed. There was a day when I thought the path had come to a dead end.

Instead, upon closer inspection, there was a very narrow bridge made of just some odd rocks in order to cross a stream.

Prayer kept me moving. I said the rosary in rhythm with my footfalls. At times I would recite the intentions I carried with me. And then there were times of asking God, “What are you teaching me?” Those dark, early mornings were especially fruitful.

What was hidden in darkness at times could be very frightening. However, there was always a rooster that crowed just before dawn, announcing the light in the darkness. And the light began to flood the earth.

No matter how gnarled a tree may have been, or how rocky and uneven the path was, with the light it all began to be beautiful. It seemed that the earth

Being alone in an unfamiliar place, often in the middle of the woods in total darkness except for the small glow of the lamp, allowed for an odd sense of being alive.

allowed the light, allowing for all of the world’s imperfections to become wonderful.

My headlamp was just a taste of the whole; I was grateful to have it.

However, when a rooster crowed, it was a sign of hope. I knew he was telling the truth of what was to come: dawn.

My heart anticipated the brightness, and my steps seemed more certain, even in the darkness.

There is truth and the Church is proclaiming it. Our sin may take some

awful shapes, but there is so much hope in allowing the flood of Christ to illuminate all the dark corners, and what was once hidden and frightful becomes new.

And even if the path seems arduous, take a lesson from the Tortuga: Step by step you can make it, and you will be utterly alive when you get there!

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

TWENTY SOMETHING

Christina Capecchi

Olympic inspiration: waiting for that unifying moment On a national scale, it was a rough July, marked by division: shootings, protests, funerals, conventions.

Whether you tuned into Trump and Clinton, clicked over to the late-night comics or braced for sharp Facebook exchanges, you likely felt a sense of separation, of people moving further apart, digging in their heels and drawing circles around their camps.

“At times, it seems like the forces pulling us apart are stronger than the forces binding us together,” former President George W. Bush observed at a Dallas memorial service. “Too often, we judge other groups by their worst examples while judging ourselves by our best intentions.”

To reverse this impulse — to trust in others’ better intentions and recognize our own bad examples — is the ultimate act of mercy, the virtue we need so desperately this year.

I’m hoping August can provide what July failed to deliver: unity. And I’m banking on the Olympics to give us that lift through 17 days of drama and daring, with more than 10,000 athletes from 207 nations coming together in

306 events. It’s time to root for someone who doesn’t look or sound like you, to cheer on athletes because you like their story or their anxious mom, or because they’re young or old, because they’re shy or bold, because you can glimpse their spirit shining through.

The beauty of enduring Olympic moments is that they cannot be planned or predicted. They are unscripted. Part of the magic is watching them unfold before our eyes.

We follow the athlete with the most hype, while an underdog sneaks up and stuns. A star is born, and we feel part of it because we have given witness to it.

History is replete with golden Olympic moments. They do not require athletic supremacy, though many contain it; they do require a triumph of human spirit. Ethiopian runner Abebe Bikila ran a marathon barefoot in the 1960 Summer Games — and won.

Hermann Maier, an Austrian skier, had a devastating crash in the downhill competition at the 1998 Nagano Games, then returned to the slopes days later to win two gold medals.

The beauty of enduring Olympic moments is that they cannot be planned or predicted. They are unscripted. Part of the magic is watching them unfold before our eyes.

Eric Moussambani from Equatorial Guinea had just recently taken up swimming and gained entrance into the 2000 Summer Games through a wildcard for athletes from developing countries. He lost the 100-meter freestyle qualifying race, but set a record for his home country, wowing fans with his memorable first swim in an Olympic-sized pool.

British sprinter Derek Redmond tore a hamstring during the 400-meter semifinals in 1992 and struggled to rise to his feet. His father broke through security to join his son on the track, propping him up and helping him reach the finish line, which Derek crossed on his own.

Canadian sailor Lawrence Lemieux was expected to medal at the 1988 South Korea Olympics but noticed a competitor’s capsized boat amid dangerous winds and abandoned the

race to rescue the two injured sailors.

After handing them off to a crew, he returned to the race, still managing to beat out 11 other competitors and place 22nd out of 32. He was awarded an honorary medal for heroism.

Ultimately, epic Olympic moments reveal truth and beauty. They stir us to strive for something more.

“Sport, rightly understood, is an occupation of the whole man,” Pope Pius XII once said, “and while perfecting the body as an instrument of the mind, it also makes the mind itself a more refined instrument for the search and communication of truth and helps man to achieve that end to which all others must be subservient, the service and praise of his Creator.”

Capecchi is a freelance writer from Inver Grove Heights and the editor of www.sisterstory.org.

18 • The Catholic Spirit

CALENDAR

Music Heaven Help Us Players presents “Some Enchanted Evening, the Songs of Rodgers & Hammerstein” — Aug. 12-14: 7 p.m. at

All Saints garage sale — Aug. 10 (1–8 p.m.), Aug. 11 (10 a.m.–7 p.m.), Aug. 12 (1–6 p.m.) and Aug. 13 (8 a.m.–noon) at 19795 Holyoke

Ave., Lakeville. www.allsaintschurch.com/garagesale.

St. Bonaventure, 901 E. 90th St., Bloomington. www.saintbonaventure.org.

Corn Days Festival at St. George — Aug. 13-14: 1 p.m. at 133 N. Brown Road, Long

Ongoing groups

Corn Fest at St. Gerard — Aug. 19-20:

Faithful Spouses support group — Third Tuesday of each month: 7–8:30 p.m. in Smith

Hall (second floor) of the Hayden Building, 328 Kellogg Blvd. W., St. Paul. For those who are living apart from their spouses because of separation or divorce. 651-291-4438 or faithfulspouses@archspm.org.

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

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

Parish events Holy Cross rummage sale — Aug. 4 (10 a.m.–6 p.m.) and Aug. 5 (10 a.m.–2 p.m.) at 1630 Fourth St. NE, Minneapolis.

Fun Fest-Summer Jam Festival at Immaculate Conception — Aug. 5-7 at 4030 Jackson St. NE, Columbia Heights. 763-788-9062 or www.iccsonline.org.

St. John the Baptist parish festival — Aug. 7: 11 a.m.–4:30 p.m. at 18380 Columbus St., Dayton.

Lake. www.corndays.com.

August 4, 2016

Retreats Into The Deep summer retreats — Aug. 8-12; Sept. 17-21: www.idretreats.org.

Centering Prayer and Lectio Divina — Aug. 12-17: 1–3 p.m. at St. Paul’s Monastery, 2675 Benet Road, Maplewood. 651-777-7251 or www.stpaulsmonastery.org.

6–11 p.m. at 9600 Regent Ave. N., Brooklyn Park. www.st-gerard.org.

Schools

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

St. Pascal Baylon All School Reunion — Aug. 13: 5:30–9 p.m. at 1757 Conway St., St. Paul.

RSVP: mary.worley@stpascals.org or 651-757-1585, ext. 134.

Waterville. www.holytrinitymn.org.

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

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

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

Singles Sunday Spirits walking group for 50-plus Catholic singles — ongoing Sundays: The group usually meets in St. Paul on Sunday afternoons. Kay at 651-426-3103 or Al at 651-482-0406.

Singles group at St. Vincent de Paul — ongoing second Saturday each month: 6:15 p.m. at 9100

CALENDAR submissions DEADLINE: Noon Thursday, 14 days before the anticipated Thursday date of publication. Recurring or ongoing events must be submitted each time they occur.

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

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

(No attachments, please.)

93rd Ave. N., Brooklyn Park. 763-425-0412.

Prayer/worship

FAX: 651-291-4460

Young adults

Eighth Day of Consecration Prayers Honoring God the Father of all Mankind — Aug. 7: Noon at St. Peter, 6730 Nicollet Ave. S., Richfield.

Cathedral Young Adults Sport Night — Fridays through September: 6:30–9 p.m. at

MAIL: “Calendar,” The Catholic Spirit 244 Dayton Ave., St. Paul, MN 55102

First Friday Day of Prayer — Aug. 5, Sept. 2, Oct. 7, Nov. 4 and Dec. 2: 8 a.m.–8 p.m. at 7540 Penn Ave. S., Richfield. www.strichards.com/first-fridays.

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

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

Rahn Athletic Park, 4440 Nichols Road, Eagan. www.cathedralsaintpaul.org/cya.

Other events Catholic Charismatic Renewal Office annual summer conference — Aug. 5 (9 a.m.–8 p.m.) and Aug. 6 (6–9:30 p.m.) at St. Peter, 2600 N. Margaret St., North St. Paul. 763-571-5314 or www.ccro-msp.org.

A note to readers As of Jan. 1, 2016, The Catholic Spirit no longer accepts calendar submissions via email.

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

St. Therese Foundation Golf Open — Aug. 18: Noon at Oak Marsh Golf Club, 526 Inwood Ave. N., Oakdale. www.sttheresemn.org/golf-open.

Archbishop Hebda: It would be unwise to release investigation documents Continued from page 7 had already done to that point. As is reflected in the memorandum that was made public last week, this directive was controversial internally and led to a breakdown in the investigation. From what I know, different people had very different, yet strongly-held, beliefs on how to proceed.

In late July 2014, at the request of Bishop Piché, Greene Espel submitted a final report based on the work they had completed. In their report, Greene Espel cautioned that it had not completed all of the work it thought would be required as part of a thorough investigation. They also identified additional investigative leads that they believed should be considered. Bishop Piché then asked another attorney, Peter Wold, to follow through on identified leads to complete the investigation. Wold completed a report in early 2015. I know that Bishop Piché believes the investigation was comprehensive and completed to the best of his ability. In 2015, both the Wold report and the Greene Espel report were shared with the nunciature for advice on whether the matter should be referred for some type of canonical review or other determination.

I realize that some well-intended people have called for me to release the documentation that was produced in the course of the Archbishop Nienstedt investigation. Of course, at this stage, there is a great deal that is already publicly known about the investigation: the nature of the allegations was publicly reported in the media as well as released by the Ramsey County attorney; Archbishop Nienstedt also made his response publicly known; and I have provided an overview of the investigative process, its challenges and the related controversy.

On the other hand, some of those interviewed in the investigation came forward with an expectation of confidentiality. I feel obligated to do my best to honor their wishes. I also remain concerned that making even sanitized reports public runs the risk of identifying witnesses with their statements. As you would imagine, investigations of this sort necessarily involve assessments of witness credibility offered by

others, not to mention other types of confidential information. Making those assessments and that information public could unnecessarily embroil the archdiocese in further litigation.

After considering a variety of competing interests, including what would be fair and just to all involved, and taking note of the intervening resignation of Archbishop Nienstedt, I believe it would be unwise for me to release all of the documents and witness information at this point. I understand that not everyone agrees with that conclusion, but I have weighed the ramifications of my decision and believe we are better off erring on the side of caution in situations where others may be harmed.

Allow me to stress that each and every witness involved in the investigation remains free to come forward as he or she chooses. They can each make that decision for themselves, and I will not interfere in any way with their decisions.

Q. What do you know about the claim made in the memo released by the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office suggesting that there was a coverup in the Archbishop Nienstedt investigation?

A. One of the documents released by the Ramsey County attorney was a memorandum by Father Dan Griffith to Bishop Piché on July 7, 2014, regarding Father Griffith’s concerns about the breakdown in the investigation. After that memorandum was written, Bishop Piché asked Greene Espel to complete a final, limited report, which they did. Peter Wold then completed the investigation. Both reports were confidentially shared with the nunciature for advice on whether the matter should be referred for some type of canonical review or other determination. I know that those involved within the archdiocese sincerely disagreed with one another about how to best move forward with completing the investigation.

I know that Bishop Piché believes the investigation comprehensively addressed the allegations. What is apparent to me now is that the investigation was extraordinarily challenging and the process used by the archdiocese created additional issues.

As circumstances would have it, leaders of the

archdiocese were also being investigated by law enforcement. For three years, the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office, along with the St. Paul Police Department, conducted a thorough investigation of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and its leaders. As reflected in the documentation that the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office released two weeks ago, that investigation included an examination of the very allegations that had been the basis of the Greene Espel investigation. Ramsey County also possessed the memorandum that raised concerns of a cover-up.

They also interviewed the individuals they thought were important, including Father Dan Griffith, before completing their investigation.

On July 20, 2016, Ramsey County Attorney John Choi, with the benefit of all the information gathered in his investigation, concluded, as he detailed at his press conference, that there was no basis for bringing criminal charges against any of the archdiocesan leaders. He also dismissed the criminal charges against the archdiocese.

I appreciate that this only answers the question of whether there was any criminal conduct, and does not address the issue of the internal investigation, which focused on whether Archbishop Nienstedt had engaged in conduct that compromised his ability to lead the archdiocese. That internal question became irrelevant in my mind when Archbishop Nienstedt resigned. Moreover, canon law is sufficiently realistic and practical in that it doesn’t authorize bishops to judge their peers, and does not contemplate any further role in this matter for me or the archdiocese.

Given all of the problems that arose as a result of the allegations against Archbishop Nienstedt and the subsequent investigation, we have learned some lessons. Today, under the Settlement Agreement, we are committed to bringing any future allegations involving an archbishop or auxiliary bishop to the Board of Directors of the Corporation. The archdiocese will rely on the talents and expertise of both lay and clergy board members to help guide such a review. I am confident that their advice, should it be needed, will be invaluable in making certain that any future investigations avoid the pitfalls of the past.

August 4, 2016 The Catholic Spirit • 19 Continued from page 3 razonamiento jurídico de por qué no fuimos culpables de crimen. Unos dos meses después, el 21 de marzo, el Fiscal del Condado de Ramsey nos proporcionó un memorando delineando sus argumentos legales. Dos semanas más tarde, el 4 de abril, le proporcionamos la respuesta a estos argumentos. (Estos tres documentos se pueden encontrar en la página web del Condado de Ramsey).

Mientras yo estaba convencido de que nuestros argumentos prevalecerán en la corte, el Fiscal del Condado de Ramsey continuó insistiendo en que la Arquidiócesis se declarara culpable. A principios de abril, sin embargo, hubo un avance importante: las partes acordaron mediar en el caso. Esto nos permitió reanudar nuestros esfuerzos para lograr una solución justa a través del diálogo. Juntos, elegimos dos juristas de gran prestigio y con experiencia jurídica como mediadores: Jim Rosenbaum, un ex magistrado de la Corte de Distrito de Estados Unidos, y Kathleen Gearin, una ex magistrada del Tribunal de Distrito del Condado de Ramsey. Ellos generosamente accedieron a participar, reuniendo a ambos lados el 18 de mayo en un par de salas de conferencias en el centro de Minneapolis. Estoy muy agradecido de que en ese día fui acompañado y tuve el sabio consejo de dos de nuestros miembros de la junta corporativa, Karen Rauenhorst y Brian Short; el Presidente del Consejo de Finanzas de la Arquidiócesis, Tom Abood; Director Arquidiocesano de la Oficina de Normas Ministeriales, Tim O’Malley, y nuestro abogado, Joe Dixon. Nuestro equipo fue apoyado por el obispo Cozzens y una serie de consultores que permanecieron disponibles como un contacto telefónico durante el día y hasta altas horas de la noche. El Fiscal del Condado también

estuvo acompañado por un equipo experimentado.

Los mediadores hicieron un trabajo fenomenal yendo y viniendo para ayudar a ambas partes a comprender cuál era la ley y la justicia requerida.

Después de 15 horas de arduo trabajo, llegamos a una resolución que compromete la Arquidiócesis a una admisión pública de nuestros fallos para proteger a los tres niños abusados por el ex sacerdote Curtis Wehmeyer y para mejoras en el Acuerdo de Solución Civil, y el compromiso del Condado de Ramsey de eliminar los cargos criminales. Quiero personalmente expresar mi agradecimiento al Juez Gearin y al Juez Rosenbaum por su papel vital de ayudar a todos a lograr una solución justa para las víctimas y para la comunidad. Aunque John Choi y yo no nos vimos cara a cara en algunas cuestiones legales, estoy también muy agradecido por su disposición para trabajar en colaboración a través de tales cuestiones tan complejas y por darnos la oportunidad de demostrar quienes somos y ganar tanto su confianza, como la del público. Estoy agradecido también con los miembros de los dos equipos que contribuyeron con su tiempo, energía y experiencia en este serio trabajo. También estoy profundamente agradecido por las horas de Adoración Eucarística ofrecidos por nuestro personal.

Tuve el placer de escuchar en la Corte el día 20, que los hombres jóvenes que fueron víctimas de abuso, así como sus familiares, apoyaron la resolución resultante de la mediación. Estoy profundamente apenado por nuestras fallas en protegerlos y me comprometo a estar siempre consciente de nuestro pasado, para así nunca repetirlo. Quedo agradecido por su valor en presentarse y evitar que otros fueran lastimados. Su fuerza y compromiso nos deben inspirar y servir como un recordatorio de nuestro deber de proteger a los hijos de Dios.

Archdiocese continues efforts to protect children, build trust Continued from page 6 to ensure children are safe. He pointed out that more than 91,000 people have undergone safe environment training mandated by the archdiocese.

Ultimately, he believes awareness along with training is the long-term solution to keeping kids safe.

He also noted more involvement from the laity on the archdiocese’s various advisory boards, adding that a survivor of child sexual abuse by a priest is on the Ministerial Review Board.

“It’s not just a small group of like-minded individuals making decisions today,” O’Malley said.

“It’s a broader representation, and it’s a lot of diverse opinions, and that’s how you come about making the best decisions, the most informed decisions.”

He hopes the archdiocese’s efforts will result in the broader community’s trust and confidence, but more important, that people will join the effort with a heightened awareness of sexual abuse.

“We’ve demonstrated through our actions how serious we are about our commitment and that we’re going to follow through,” O’Malley said earlier of the report’s contents. “And it just takes time to earn trust.

And I believe that’s the process we needed to go through to them show that these are not hollow words, we mean it, and more than saying it, we’re doing it.”

In terms of compliance with the settlement agreement, O’Malley said the archdiocese is ahead of schedule. It’s due back in court for the next sixmonth report at the end of December.

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20 • The Catholic Spirit

THE LAST WORD

August 4, 2016

“I am the guinea pig.”

Cultural exchange Kenyan priest visible link of faith, friendship in Kitui partnership

• Kitui

By Susan Klemond For The Catholic Spirit

D

uring Father Robert Mutui’s short visits to the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis from his Kenyan diocese of Kitui, he’s learned how the two dioceses share faith, values and relationships. But now, nine months into a longer, two-year stay as part of a diocesan exchange, he’s still trying to figure out Minnesota weather.

“It was really cold [this past winter], but now I’m prepared,” he said. “I know what is coming . . . but with the winter so cold, now I can’t believe it can be this hot.”

Father Mutui, 53, arrived on his fourth visit to the Twin Cities in November. He is the first participant in a personnel exchange between Minnesotans and Kenyans in the nearly 12-year-old diocesan partnership involving growing friendships and correspondence, regular delegation visits, and developing water resources for the semi-arid area of Kitui.

“I am the guinea pig, the first to come out in that kind of an arrangement,” Father Mutui said with a laugh.

Since June, Father Mutui has served as parish administrator of St. John the Baptist in Dayton, where he is getting to know parishioners and appreciating the rural environment.

He also is working with partnership members, promoting water projects, and providing a cultural, spiritual and informational link to his African country.

Father Mutui is a visible expression of the archdiocese’s relationship with the African Church and brings knowledge of the partnership, said Mike Haasl, global solidarity coordinator at the Center for Mission, which serves the archdiocese, and a member of the partnership’s leadership team. “It’s learning deeper about culture, deeper about how they think, how the leadership there engages in a more public arena in Kenya,” he said.

Roughly one-fifth the size of Minnesota, the Diocese of Kitui sits about 100 miles east of the Kenyan capital of Nairobi in eastern Africa. Catholics make up about 22 percent of the 1.3 million people who live in Kitui County, the province where the diocese is located.

Father Mutui grew up the youngest of six boys in the Kitui village of Museve. Like most Catholics in the rural

Join the delegation The Center for Mission in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is accepting applications for the 2017 archdiocesan visit to the Diocese of Kitui as part of a nearly 12-year partnership between the archdiocese and the Kenyan diocese.

On the 16-day trip, which will take place in late May through early June, the anticipated 16-member delegation will get to know the Kenyan people, terrain and church, as well as understand how the archdiocese engages with them through the partnership.

“It’s an experience to see how our brothers and sisters worship, their way of life, their struggles of lack of water, food and rain,” said Mike Haasl, Center for Mission global solidarity coordinator and delegation co-leader.

The trip is open to Catholics in the archdiocese willing to enter a two-year commitment to the partnership.

Applications are available at www.centerformission.org.

Deadline is Nov. 30.

— Susan Klemond diocese, his parents were farmers and raised corn, beans, bananas and oranges.

He attended minor seminary and, while serving at Mass, became interested in the priesthood. In the major seminary he discerned his vocation and was ordained a priest 28 years ago.

In the Kitui diocese, Father Mutui has served as parish priest, vocations director and vicar general. In the 1990s he studied pastoral ministry and chaplaincy in Ireland.

During his years as a priest, he’s seen the Catholic faith in Kitui spread. “There’s been tremendous growth in the faith and also in vocations to the priesthood and religious life,” he said.

In some Kitui villages, Sunday Mass is held in parishioners’ homes, he said, adding that “the Church in Kitui is a singing Church. . . . Worship is singing and

Father Robert Mutui of the Diocese of Kitui, Kenya, is impressed

by Minnesota’s copious amounts of water, including the Mississippi River, which runs less than a mile from St. John the Baptist in Dayton. He said he wishes he could use “a giant pipe” to take some of the water from the river back to his country, which often experiences severe drought.

Dave Hrbacek/ The Catholic Spirit

drumming, and everybody sings.”

Father Mutui became involved with the partnership with the archdiocese in 2007.

“As far as I remember, we have stressed our meeting point as shared faith, friends and followers of Jesus Christ,” he said.

As part of the exchange, he was assigned by Archbishop John Nienstedt, who at the time was leading the archdiocese, to serve at the 400-family St. John the Baptist. The parish’s peaceful, friendly and rural character bears similarities to Kitui, Father Mutui said.

He’s been surprised by the amount of water in Minnesota as well as the vastness of the land and tall trees.

“I’m impressed by the farmers and by the corn,” Father Mutui said. “It reminds me of the maize, or corn, in Kitui. It’s so green here and it’s very healthy looking.”

Father Mutui isn’t yet licensed to drive in Minnesota, so parish volunteers provide rides, which has proven a benefit not only for him, but also for parishioners.

“He’s getting to know people, working with them and having a good time,” said Mary Murphy, 63, a parishioner and volunteer. “People are getting to know him personally.”

Father Mutui is fair and listens well, Murphy added.

“He seems to always listen to everything and will have some input into it, but he’s always kind and caring. He’s never condescending,” she said.

Haasl described Father Mutui as thoughtful, faithful to the Church and having a great sense of humor.

“He’s conscious of a lot of facets of the Church, the role of the sacramental aspect, and his concern is for the more marginalized,” he said.

Along with parish work, Father Mutui and Haasl have given talks together at area schools about the partnership’s water project. Minnesota members have contributed to the construction of five dams and the purchase of about 30 cement storage tanks for schools, Father Mutui said. In April, St. John the Baptist raised more than $2,000 for Kitui water projects.

Minnesota partnership leaders likely will send Church personnel to Kitui as part of the long-term exchange, Haasl said; it’s unclear whether that will include a priest.

The archdiocese and Kitui send delegations to each other’s countries on an alternating schedule as part of its mission promoting “the mutual sharing of our faith, our experience, our culture and our resources.” (See box for information about being part of the 2017 Minnesota delegation to Kitui.)

While in Minnesota, Father Mutui keeps in touch with the Kitui bishop, as well as his nieces and nephews.

And he is planning a trip home in January — when, he said, the Kenyan weather forecast is likely to be “very warm and dry.”