The Catholic Spirit - December 21, 2017

Supporting ‘Dreamers’ 8 • Pope Francis in 2017 11 • Mass obligations 21 December 21, 2017 Newspaper of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis

Merry Christmas!

Look for our next issue Jan. 11

The

Word

became

flesh

This Nativity scene is depicted in a stained glass window at St. Francis Xavier in Buffalo. The parish is celebrating the church’s 100th anniversary this year. Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit

ALSO inside

‘Mama Carol’

Creation symposium

Christmas greetings

Twin Cities native makes herself a mother for abandoned Zambian street children.

Speakers address gender and transgenderism through personal, pastoral, medical and academic perspectives.

— Page 14

Red Wing deacon helps inmates send personalized cards to loved ones during the holidays.

— Page 16

— Pages 12-13

2 • The Catholic Spirit

PAGE TWO

December 21, 2017 OVERHEARD

in PICTURES

“So, let the tree stand and let the [Christmas] lights begin to flicker, but let us not forget what God is doing for us in these four weeks of preparation toward the feast of Jesus coming to take our human nature.”

Cardinal Peter Turkson, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, in a Dec. 9 homily of the opening Mass of the fourth Louisville Archdiocesan Black Catholic Congress.

NEWS notes

Relevant Radio to broadcast Christmas Masses Relevant Radio 1330 AM will broadcast the Cathedral of St. Paul’s Midnight Mass with celebrant Archbishop Bernard Hebda Dec. 24. The broadcast will begin at 11:15 p.m. with the prelude of carols. Relevant Radio will also broadcast the Cathedral’s 10 a.m. Christmas Day Mass with celebrant Bishop Andrew Cozzens. For more Christmas Mass times at the Cathedral, visit www.cathedralsaintpaul.org.

SEEKING ANSWERS From left, eighth-graders Colin Sullivan and Eric Mans of St. Rose of Lima Catholic School in Roseville put their brains to work during the first round of the annual Quiz Bowl Dec. 18 at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. Forty-two Catholic schools participated, with a total of 168 eighthgraders competing. Sullivan’s father, Rick Sullivan, competed for St. Rose of Lima in the first Quiz Bowl 25 years ago, with his team capturing the championship. “It was really fun,” Colin said. “He [his father] said he thinks I’ll do great, and he’s really proud that I got here.” Colin’s team finished seventh in the consolation bracket. St. John the Baptist in New Brighton won the event, defeating St. Thomas Academy in Mendota Heights in the final round, 18-14. It was the school’s first title. Read more about the Quiz Bowl at www.TheCatholicSpirit.com. Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit

Archbishop’s Discernment Retreat Dec. 29 The archdiocesan Office of Vocations is hosting the Archbishop’s Discernment Retreat Dec. 29-31 at Christ the King Retreat Center in Buffalo. The annual retreat is for men who are seniors in high school to age 50 and are discerning priesthood. It includes talks by Archbishop Bernard Hebda, prayer, confession, recreation and food. For more information and to register, contact 651-962-6890 or stpaulpriest@10000vocations.org, or visit www.10000vocations.org.

‘Feminine genius’ retreat Jan. 13 Endow, a national apostolate for women, will host A Day with Endow 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Jan. 13 at St. Olaf in Minneapolis with speaker Mallory Smyth, Endow’s director of program growth. Exploring the topic of “feminine genius,” the retreat includes presentations, small groups, personal reflection and lunch. The retreat is in collaboration with the archdiocesan Office of Evangelization. For more information and to register, visit rediscover.archspm.org or contact Susanna Parent at 651-291-4411 or parents@archspm.org.

Marriage in Christ seminars start in 2018 The archdiocesan Office of Marriage, Family and Life is collaborating with Marriage in Christ to bring the Eagan-based organization’s seminars to local parishes. The five-week seminar is for couples who desire to strengthen their marriage and establish good patterns of prayer and friendship. For more information and a list of dates and locations, visit www.archspm.org/marriageinchrist.

ITALIAN-STYLE BIRTHDAY Pope Francis blows out a candle on a 13-foot-long pizza during a special meeting to celebrate his 81st birthday Dec. 17 at the Vatican’s Paul VI hall. CNS/L’Osservatore Romano

ONLINE exclusives At All Saints in Minneapolis Dec. 16-17, Cardinal Raymond Burke celebrated the anniversary of Pope Benedict XVI’s 2007 “Summorum Pontificum: On the Use of the Roman Liturgy Prior to the Reform of 1970,” which allowed churches to administer the sacraments in the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite in accordance with the missal of St. John XXIII, published in 1962. All Saints is administered by the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter. Archbishop Bernard Hebda and Bishop Andrew Cozzens, along with clergy and seminarians, participated in the Gaudete Sunday liturgy. See a photo gallery at www.facebook.com/fsspminneapolis.

Ever wonder why Jesus is said to have been born at midnight? Father Michael Van Sloun explains at www.catholichotdish.com.

The Catholic Spirit is published semi-monthly for The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis Vol. 22 — No. 24 MOST REVEREND BERNARD A. HEBDA, Publisher United in Faith, Hope and Love

TOM HALDEN, Associate Publisher MARIA C. WIERING, Editor

Grandparents legacy writing seminar Jan. 28 Bill Marsella, director of partner relations at the Catholic Community Foundation of Minnesota, will present “Your Life, Your Legacy – Grandparents Legacy Seminar” 12:30-1:30 p.m. Jan. 28 at St. Joseph in Rosemount. Marsella, a certified Legacy Facilitator with nearly 40 years of gift planning experience, will present on legacy writing as part of estate planning. Attendees are invited to 10:30 a.m. Mass, as well as a Knights of Columbus pancake breakfast from 8 a.m.-noon. A free-will offering will be accepted for both the breakfast and seminar. For more information and to register, contact Susanna Parent at 651-291-4411 or parents@archspm.org, or visit rediscover.archspm.org.

CORRECTION In the Dec. 7 edition, the children who portrayed the three wise men in the outdoor live nativity at St. Michael in Kenyon were misidentified.

Playing the three wise men were Nathan Keller, Padraig Vizina and Nick Keller. The Catholic Spirit apologizes for the error.

Materials credited to CNS copy­righted by Catholic News Service.

All other materials copyrighted by The Cath­olic Spirit Newspaper.

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FROM THE BISHOP

December 21, 2017

The Catholic Spirit • 3

Learn to love like Jesus this Christmas

O

ne of the great struggles of the Christian life is that none of us lives our life as well as we want to. It is a part of our common struggle that we know we are called to live a fully Christian life loving God with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength, and loving our neighbor as ourselves — yet, we always fail. This can be disheartening. In this struggle, the gift of Christ at Christmas is meant to be for us an incredible sign of hope.

What is hope? What is Christmas?

Hope is that virtue that helps us live in the mean between two extremes.

One extreme is despair, where we believe that we will never be able to really live the Christian life as we should, so we give up trying. We give up believing that God can actually change us or our world, and we settle for where we are and the way things are: “Things will never change.” “I guess I’ll always struggle with this sin.” “God must not really want more from me.” When we despair, the call that the Lord gives us to holiness becomes only an ideal that we accept to never reach, and we give up trying.

The other extreme of hope is presumption. Once again, this is a reduction of the call to radical love and holiness that the Gospel proposes. We know that we don’t live a fully Christian life, but we think it doesn’t matter to God. Again, we settle for the way things are because we judge it good enough. “I’m a good person; isn’t that enough?” “I go to Mass on Sunday, and I go to confession once or twice a year — isn’t that enough?” With presumption, I know that I should do more to really try to love God and neighbor, but I just don’t really think it matters that much, so I don’t change. In the end, I ignore the true call of the Gospel to deeper love and conversion.

If these are the extremes, what is hope? Hope is the virtue that makes me want more. Hope is the virtue that causes me to long to love like God, to live with God and even to be holy like God. But I know that I’m weak. I often sin. I don’t really live my Christian life the way I should. If I fail so often, how can I still hope to change? The answer is this: I can hope for a life of true love and holiness because God himself took on our human flesh and transformed it.

Christian hope is a fact based on the central truth of the Gospel.

If God has become one of us, then “nothing will be ONLY JESUS impossible to God.” St. John Paul II said it so clearly in one of my favorite Bishop Andrew Cozzens

Aprende a amar como Jesús esta Navidad

U

na de las grandes luchas de la vida cristiana es que ninguno de nosotros vive la vida tan bien como queremos. Es parte de nuestra lucha común que sepamos que estamos llamados a vivir un Dios plenamente cristiano y amante de la vida con todo nuestro corazón, mente, alma y fuerza, y amando a nuestro prójimo como a nosotros mismos; sin embargo, siempre fracasamos. Esto puede ser desalentador.

En esta lucha, el regalo de Cristo en Navidad debe ser para nosotros una increíble señal de esperanza. ¿Qué es la esperanza? ¿Qué es la Navidad?

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

Effective January 1, 2018 Reverend Msgr. Thomas Richter, assigned as Vice Rector of The Saint Paul Seminary in Saint Paul. Msgr. Richter is a priest of the Diocese of Bismarck, North Dakota.

La esperanza es esa virtud que nos ayuda a vivir en el medio entre dos extremos. Un extremo es la desesperación, donde creemos que nunca podremos vivir realmente la vida cristiana como deberíamos, así que abandonamos el intento. Renunciamos a creer que Dios realmente puede cambiarnos a nosotros o a nuestro mundo, y nos conformamos con dónde estamos y cómo están las cosas: “Las cosas nunca cambiarán.”

“Creo que siempre lucharé con este pecado.” “Dios debe realmente no quiero más de mí. “Cuando nos desesperamos, la llamada que el Señor nos da a la santidad se convierte en un ideal que aceptamos no alcanzar, y renunciamos a intentarlo.

El otro extremo de la esperanza es la presunción. Una vez más, esto es una reducción del llamado al amor radical y la santidad que propone el Evangelio.

Sabemos que no vivimos una vida completamente cristiana, pero creemos que no le importa a Dios. Nuevamente, nos conformamos con la forma en que son las cosas porque lo juzgamos lo

Effective January 2, 2018 Deacon Gordon Bird, assigned to exercise the ministry of a permanent deacon at the Church of Saint Joseph in Rosemount. Deacon Bird was ordained to the diaconate on December 9, 2017.

Deacon Daniel Brewer, assigned to exercise the ministry of a permanent deacon at the Church of the Transfiguration in Oakdale. Deacon Brewer was ordained to the diaconate on December 9, 2017.

Deacon John Cleveland, assigned to exercise the ministry of a permanent deacon at the Church of the Guardian

passages of his writing, found in “Veritatis Splendor”: “It would be a very serious error to conclude ... that the Church’s teaching is essentially only an ‘ideal’ which must then be adapted, proportioned, graduated to the so-called concrete possibilities of man, according to a ‘balancing of the goods in question.’ But what are the ‘concrete possibilities of man’? And of which man are we speaking? Of man dominated by lust or of man redeemed by Christ?

This is what is at stake: the reality of Christ’s redemption. Christ has redeemed us! This means that he has given us the possibility of realizing the entire truth of our being; he has set our freedom free from the domination of concupiscence. And if redeemed, man still sins, this is not due to an imperfection of Christ’s redemptive act, but to man’s will not to avail himself of the grace which flows from that act. God’s command is, of course, proportioned to man’s capabilities; but to the capabilities of the man to whom the Holy Spirit has been given; of the man who, though he has fallen into sin, can always obtain pardon and enjoy the presence of the Holy Spirit.”

To live the Christian life is to live a paradox. It is to seek, always imperfectly, to live up to the ideal that Christ himself sets. When we fail, he gives us the grace to begin anew, always with hope that Christ will be triumphant in us.

It is this paradox that Christmas brings home to us. To celebrate Christmas is to be invited to ponder a mystery, the greatest mystery the world has ever known. It is a mystery of darkness and light, a mystery of time and eternity, a mystery of poverty and wealth, humanity and divinity, sin and grace, life and death.

The mystery is seen so profoundly in the scene of the Nativity itself. Here is the God of all the universe, the one who created all the stars in our incredible galaxy, and he is born and takes on our human flesh as a helpless, tiny, cold, hungry baby. The paradox is almost beyond belief, that God would come so close to us as to be held in his mother’s arms.

The meaning is meant to be quite clear — God is not afraid of our poverty or our humanity. God is not afraid of our weakness or even our sin. God enters into our sinful world. He comes to transform this world from the inside out. He comes not only to teach us how to live and love, but also to die and pay the price for our redemption. He comes to share with us his life so that, despite our weakness, we can hope to learn to live a fully human life.

This Christmas, let us renew again our hope. As we kneel before holiness incarnate, let us ask him to be born again in our hearts so that we might begin to hope for a better world through learning to love like him.

suficientemente bueno. “Soy buena persona; ¿No es suficiente? “” Voy a misa el domingo, y me confieso una o dos veces al año, ¿no es suficiente? “Con presunción, sé que debería hacer más para tratar de amar a Dios y vecino, pero realmente no creo que importe mucho, así que no cambio. Al final, ignoro el verdadero llamado del Evangelio a un amor y una conversión más profundos.

Si estos son los extremos, ¿qué es la esperanza? La esperanza es la virtud que me hace querer más. La esperanza es la virtud que me hace desear amar como Dios, vivir con Dios e incluso ser santo como Dios. Pero sé que soy débil. A menudo peco Realmente no vivo mi vida cristiana como debería. Si fallo tan a menudo, ¿cómo puedo todavía esperar cambiar? La respuesta es esta: puedo esperar una vida de verdadero amor y santidad porque Dios mismo tomó nuestra carne humana y la transformó.

La esperanza cristiana es un hecho basado en la verdad central del Evangelio.

Si Dios se ha convertido en uno de

Angels in Chaska. Deacon Cleveland was ordained to the diaconate on December 9, 2017.

Deacon Patrick Hirl, assigned to exercise the ministry of a permanent deacon at the Church of Saint Hubert in Chanhassen.

Deacon Hirl was ordained to the diaconate on December 9, 2017.

Deacon Alan Nicklaus, assigned to exercise the ministry of a permanent deacon at the Church of All Saints in Lakeville. Deacon Nicklaus was ordained to the diaconate on December 9, 2017.

Deacon Paul Ravnikar, assigned to

nosotros, entonces “nada será imposible para Dios”.

Vivir la vida cristiana es vivir una paradoja. Es buscar, siempre imperfectamente, vivir de acuerdo con el ideal que Cristo mismo establece. Cuando fallamos, él nos da la gracia de comenzar de nuevo, siempre con la esperanza de que Cristo triunfe en nosotros.

Es esta paradoja que la Navidad nos trae a casa. Celebrar la Navidad es ser invitado a reflexionar sobre un misterio, el mayor misterio que el mundo haya conocido. Es un misterio de oscuridad de luz, un misterio de tiempo y eternidad, un misterio de pobreza y riqueza, humanidad y divinidad, pecado y gracia, vida y muerte.

Esta Navidad, volvamos a renovar nuestra esperanza. Mientras nos arrodillamos ante la encarnación de la santidad, le pedimos que nazca de nuevo en nuestros corazones, para que podamos comenzar a tener esperanza de un mundo mejor aprendiendo a amar como él.

exercise the ministry of a permanent deacon at the parish cluster of the Church of Saint Michael in Saint Michael and the Church of Saint Albert in Albertville.

Deacon Ravnikar was ordained to the diaconate on December 9, 2017.

Deacon Michael Redfearn, assigned to exercise the ministry of a permanent deacon at the Church of Saint Bonaventure in Bloomington. Deacon Redfearn was ordained to the diaconate on December 9, 2017.

Deacon James Reinhardt, assigned to exercise the ministry of a permanent

deacon at the Church of the Risen Savior in Burnsville. Deacon Reinhardt was ordained to the diaconate on December 9, 2017.

Deacon Ronald Schmitz, assigned to exercise the ministry of a permanent deacon at the Cathedral of Saint Paul.

Deacon Schmitz was ordained to the diaconate on December 9, 2017.

Deacon Donald Tienter, assigned to exercise the ministry of a permanent deacon at the Church of the Nativity of Our Lord in Saint Paul. Deacon Tienter was ordained to the diaconate on December 9, 2017.

4 • The Catholic Spirit

LOCAL

December 21, 2017

SLICEof LIFE

Saintly sweets

From left, fifth-grader Lucia deLeon of St. Croix Catholic School in Stillwater offers treats to fifth-grade teacher Sister Magdalena Dudenhoeffer Dec. 13, the feast of St. Lucia, who was martyred in 304 A.D. At right is deLeon’s twin sister, Francesca. Tradition in the school is for a fifth-grade girl, ideally named a version of Lucy, to portray the saint with a costume that includes a wreath-crown with candles, and pass out pastries and coffee to teachers and staff members of the school and adjacent St. Michael parish. The tradition has roots in Sweden. “I think it is a very nice way of showing teachers and staff that we care for them and we appreciate everything that they do here,” said school receptionist Christy Eberhardt, who has children attending the school and accompanied the deLeon girls on their rounds. Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit

LOCAL

December 21, 2017

Catholics asked to open hearts to migrants

By Maria Wiering The Catholic Spirit When Myrtis Allotey heard of the Dec. 9 Mass of Solidarity at the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis, she immediately knew she wanted to attend. Immigration had a new context for the self-described “Eden Prairie girl,” a Basilica parishioner and an avid traveler. She had just gotten married, and her husband is from Ghana.

“I wanted him to see something like this. This is his second week in America,” said Allotey, 70. “It was important to me to make a statement saying as Catholics we welcome all people. We can’t isolate people that are in need.”

The Alloteys were among more than 400 people who attended the Dec. 9 Mass of Solidarity. Leaders in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis organized the 90-minute evening liturgy in response to Pope Francis’ Share the Journey initiative, which aims to spread awareness of and support for refugees and migrants around the world.

Archbishop Bernard Hebda presided at the Mass, which observed the Second Sunday of Advent. Concelebrating were Bishop Andrew Cozzens; Father John Bauer, Basilica pastor; Father Dale Korogi, pastor of Ascension, Minneapolis; Father Donald Willard of St. Alphonsus, Brooklyn Center; and Father Augustine Truong of St. Anne-St. Joseph Hien, Minneapolis.

The Mass included cultural representatives from across the archdiocese, including members of the Camaroonian, Karen, Karenni, Korean, Latino and Vietnamese communities who participated in the procession and other parts of the Mass. The first and second Scripture readings were proclaimed in Spanish and Swahili, respectively. Deacon Naokao Yang of the Hmong community at St. Vincent de Paul in St. Paul proclaimed the Gospel. The petitions were offered in seven languages.

Choirs from several immigrant communities sang in their languages before and during the Mass. Atzec dancers participated in the entrance procession, the Camaroon Choir of St. Peter Claver in St. Paul performed the “alleluia” before the Gospel with dance and cultural rhythm instruments, and Vietnamese dancers with pink fans led the offering procession. Prior to the Mass, indigenous people from Gichitwaa Kateri in Minneapolis offered a call to worship with drums and incense.

Bishop Cozzens gave the homily in English and Spanish. He said the Church is a family and God’s kingdom, and “in God’s kingdom, there are no borders.”

“In this kingdom, every human being, no matter their race or origin, no matter where they were born, has the same dignity and the same inherent human rights,” he

The Catholic Spirit • 5 in BRIEF MINNEAPOLIS

Pro-life groups blast Smith’s Senate appointment for abortion ties Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life President Leo LaLonde called Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton’s Dec. 13 appointment of Lt. Gov. Tina Smith to the U.S. Senate “overwhelmingly disappointing to the state’s pro-life majority” in a Dec. 13 statement. “An abortion industry insider, Ms. Smith is a former vice president of Planned Parenthood in Minnesota, the state’s leading performer of abortion. The choice of Ms. Smith is particularly egregious to Minnesota’s pro-life citizens, who will have no representation in the Senate.” Students for Life of America President Kristan Hawkins also criticized the choice of Smith, a Democrat. With a marketing background, Smith served as vice president of external affairs for Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota from 2003 to 2006. She will replace Democrat Sen. Al Franken, who announced Dec. 7 that he planned to resign due to sexual misconduct allegations.

ABOVE Celine Do of St. AnneSt. Joseph Hien dances with other members of her Minneapolis parish during the Mass of Solidarity Dec. 9 at the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis.

PLYMOUTH

Appeal hits $9.3 million pledge goal

RIGHT From left, Pamela Kigham, Finara Fang, Kibong Fondungallah and Elian Mambo of the Cameroon Choir of St. Peter Claver in St. Paul perform before Mass. Photos by Dave Hrbacek/ The Catholic Spirit said. “We’re having this Mass of Solidarity because we want people not to feel alone.”

He said “the problem with migration has never been greater,” citing the United Nations that 65 million people around the world are displaced from their homes, including 2 million refugees “living in often very difficult circumstances.”

“Most of these people would have preferred to stay in their homes but could not,” he said.

“They had to leave, fleeing for their lives. They had to leave behind their livelihoods. Many of them have had to come to new countries and new places where they’ve depended deeply on the generosity of others.”

He added: “Some came as official refugees, some came as immigrants seeking a better life, but all of them have come with the same hopes and desires that every human has.

They want to raise their family.

They want to provide for their children. They want to worship their God. If these things are criminal, then we’re all criminals together.”

Bishop Cozzens asked Catholics to support legislation in Congress enacting Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a program that allowed as many as 800,000 young adults who were brought into the country without authorization as children, and who met certain conditions, to work, attend college and have a driver’s license.

Minnesota’s Catholic bishops plan in early January to initiate a postcard campaign urging Congress to enact DACA before the deadline.

(See related story on page 8.)

“Advent reminds us that we’re all

on this pilgrimage together, that actually none of us is in our homeland, because we weren’t made for this earth,” he said. “Our true homeland, our true home is the house that our heavenly Father has prepared for us in heaven, where there is a place with each of our names on it.”

He said that people’s goal in Advent is to prepare their hearts for that homeland, which requires people to open their hearts to one another. “We must make room in our hearts for our brothers and sisters, especially those who are most in need,” he said. “We don’t want to be like those persons on that first Christmas who told Mary and Joseph that there was no room in the inn.”

The homily struck a chord with Milton Melgar, 40, who attended the Mass with his wife, teenage daughter and friends from their parish, St. Stephen in Anoka.

“It means a lot to us, what [Bishop Cozzens] said,” he said.

“We are immigrants, and we know what it feels [like] to be immigrants. … We are like anybody else. We came over here looking for hope [and] better lives for our children.

We are all the same. We are all seeking for a better life, no matter who we are, what we are and wherever we’re going. Everybody’s looking for a better future.”

Melgar came to the United States from El Salvador in 2003. He was impressed by the cultural display in the Mass, and he said it was important for the Catholic Church to show that it supports immigrants. “We feel welcomed coming to the Church,” he said.

“Maybe it’s one of the only places that we feel comfortable to be.”

The Catholic Services Appeal Foundation announced Dec. 15 that $9,366,184 has been pledged toward the 2017 campaign, exceeding its $9.3 million goal. “While this is an amazing accomplishment, each year there is approximately $300,000 that is pledged but not fulfilled, so we need to have approximately $9.6 million to pay out the ministries in full,” CSAF Executive Director Jennifer Beaudry wrote in an email to appeal supporters. The annual appeal supports 17 local ministries. As of Dec. 15, the foundation had received more than $8.75 million.

ST. PAUL

U.S. appeals court hears creditors’ challenge to lower court rulings An attorney representing unsecured creditors in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ bankruptcy proceedings argued in a Dec. 12 hearing before a three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that prior rulings by a U.S. bankruptcy court and federal district court should be overturned. Those rulings held that the archdiocese and all parishes and other Catholic organizations in its geographical boundaries are legally separate organizations, and the assets of the parishes and separate organizations cannot be used to satisfy claims against the archdiocese. Briggs and Morgan attorney Richard Anderson, who represents the archdiocese, said that the legal position of all of the parishes and other Catholic organizations is clear, and many of them have been separate legal organizations for more than 100 years. The Unsecured Creditors Committee represents more than 400 clergy sexual abuse claimants. There is no deadline for the appeals court to make its ruling.

Bishops: Tax bill should help families, poor, vulnerable The Minnesota Catholic Conference asked the state’s congressional delegation to support the tax bill only if it “meets key moral considerations,” including policies that would not increase the tax burden on people with low incomes or working families. “Policy that is good for workers, families who welcome life, families who are struggling to reach (or stay in) the middle class and the very poor, has by design been a part of our tax code for years,” Archbishop Bernard Hebda said in a Dec. 12 statement. “Any modifications to these important priorities should be made only with a clear understanding and concern for the people who may least be able to bear the negative consequences of new policy.” MCC added its support to a Dec. 6 letter to Congress by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Social Development chairman.

6 • The Catholic Spirit

LOCAL

December 21, 2017

To serve, not to be served Ten new deacons look ahead to parish ministry

By Susan Klemond For The Catholic Spirit The deacon is a powerful icon of Christ the servant that the Church and world need today, said Archbishop Bernard Hebda as he ordained 10 permanent deacons Dec. 9 at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul.

He told the candidates, “Your message, which is again the Church’s message, will be credible to the extent that you are able to manifest the image of Christ who … came to serve and not be served.”

Approximately 1,700 gathered to celebrate the ordination, including Auxiliary Bishop Andrew Cozzens, priests, deacons, family and friends. It took place on the feast of St. Juan Diego, to whom Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared in Mexico and gave her image on his tunic, called a tilma, in 1531. Parts of the liturgy were proclaimed and sung in Spanish.

Noting that Mary accompanied St. Juan Diego, Archbishop Hebda told the candidates, “As you engage in this important ministry in the Church, you won’t be wearing the tilma, but you’ll be wearing the stole and dalmatic [vestment] that should be a reminder to you that you go with the Church.”

The new deacons and their home parishes are: Gordon Bird, All Saints in Lakeville; Dan Brewer, St. Joseph in West St. Paul; John Cleveland, St. Therese in Deephaven; Patrick Hirl, St. Gabriel the Archangel in Hopkins; Alan Nicklaus, Our Lady of Peace in Minneapolis; Paul Ravnikar, St. Vincent de Paul in Brooklyn Park; Michael Redfearn, St. Wenceslaus in New Prague; James Reinhardt, Holy Family in St. Louis Park; Ronald Schmitz, Holy Trinity in South St. Paul; and Donald Tienter, St. Cecilia in St. Paul.

During the two-and-a-half hour liturgy, the archbishop honored the candidates’ wives for their support. The candidates declared their intention to become deacons and prostrated themselves before the altar. Archbishop Hebda laid hands on their heads and said the prayer of ordination. The newly ordained deacons were then vested in a diaconal stole and dalmatic.

The archbishop placed the Book of Gospels in their hands and said: “Receive the Gospel of Christ, whose herald you have become. Believe what you read, teach what you believe, and practice what you teach.”

After the archbishop offered the new deacons a fraternal kiss of peace, more than 50 archdiocesan deacons did the same.

Children of all ages attended the ordination, reflecting the fact that some of the new deacons have young families.

Deacon Michael Redfearn, 40, said his three sons, ages 15 and younger, have been supportive during his formation and have also been blessed by it. Following the ordination, he said that he felt joyful and elated.

“It feels wonderful, but it’s only the beginning of whatever God has in store for us,” said Deacon Redfearn, who will minister at St. Bonaventure in Bloomington.

Deacon John Cleveland, 63, said he continues to feel humbled that he is called to serve the Lord and his Church. He said he felt the prayers of all those who guided him through the formation process. Deacon Cleveland, who will serve at Guardian Angels in Chaska, added, “I’m looking forward to helping out wherever I can.”

Denise Hirl, wife of Deacon Patrick Hirl, read the second reading from 2 Corinthians in Spanish during the liturgy. The high school math and science teacher said the journey to the diaconate has been great for both her and her husband. However, realizing the diaconate creates a permanent spiritual mark on his soul was disturbing at first, said Denise, 52.

From left, Deacons Donald Tienter, Ronald Schmitz, James Reinhardt, Gordon Bird, Daniel Brewer, Patrick Hirl, Alan Nicklaus and Paul Ravnikar pray during Mass. Photos by Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit

Deacon Alan Nicklaus greets his daughter, Cecilia, after Mass.

From left, Deacons Daniel Brewer, John Cleveland, Gordon Bird and Donald Tienter celebrate during the ordination Mass Dec. 9 at the Cathedral of St. Paul.

New deacons’ assignments Archbishop Bernard Hebda has assigned the newly ordained deacons to the following parishes: Gordon Bird • St. Joseph in Rosemount Dan Brewer • Transfiguration in Oakdale John Cleveland • Guardian Angels in Chaska Patrick Hirl • St. Hubert in Chanhassen Alan Nicklaus • All Saints in Lakeville Paul Ravnikar • St. Michael in St. Michael Michael Redfearn • St. Bonaventure in Bloomington James Reinhardt • Risen Savior in Burnsville Ronald Schmitz • Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul Donald Tienter • Nativity of Our Lord in St. Paul Read profiles of the new deacons at www.TheCatholicSpirit.com.

“I didn’t want him to change, but as ordination got closer, I just felt Mary our mother so close to us and all the wives, and we are very much at peace,” she said.

John and Maureen Nesheim and their daughter, Renee, came to see the ordination of Maureen’s

brother, Deacon Alan Nicklaus. They’re parishioners of Mary, Mother of the Church in Burnsville.

“He’s been very faithful in seeking the Lord in this,” Maureen, 51, said of Deacon Nicklaus, 53. “He puts the Lord first.”

Renee, 21, said she is excited for her uncle.

“He’s really extroverted, so I think he has a lot of natural energy for being around people, and I think [being a deacon] will be really enjoyable for him,” she said.

Steve Clark, 52, of All Saints in Lakeville, attended the ordination to support his fellow parishioner, Deacon Gordon Bird, who has inspired him in his own diaconal discernment.

“I think he’s a very humble man who just has a real quiet stillness, and he’s going to be great as a deacon,” Clark said. “I’m here to celebrate this moment and my own personal love for Jesus, and to celebrate his love for Jesus and his willingness to serve in that role.”

Before ordaining the candidates, Archbishop Hebda told them that God has given them pastoral hearts and that they will serve God’s people on the frontlines.

“Use that gift well,” he said. “Trust that, indeed, as you serve you’ll be drawing ever closer to Christ. That’s his desire for each one of you. In the great plan of salvation, he calls you to serve as his servants.”

LOCAL

December 21, 2017

The Catholic Spirit • 7

Support groups available for victims/survivors

By Jessica Trygstad The Catholic Spirit Jim Richter discovered that it wasn’t until he began to reach out to victims/survivors of clergy sexual abuse and provide them with opportunities to tell their stories and be honest about how it’s affected their lives that he started to understand how outreach was part of his own healing from being sexually abused by a priest.

“I felt, for many years, like there was a locked room in my life, and I just put a lot of things into that very dark and very cold, very locked space ... and I just wouldn’t deal with them,” he recalled. “And it was a lot of years of shoving stuff into that space until I realized that what I really needed to do ... was to unlock it, open it up and empty it of the shame and pain, and make room for something much more constructive and much healthier and much more wonderful for me.”

Richter, 47, wants other victims/survivors of clergy sexual abuse to find that same healing. In September, he started the Twin Cities Peace Circle, a monthly gathering open to people who have been sexually abused by clergy and others affected by the abuse — victims’ friends and family members, often referred to as “second survivors” — as well as those who’ve experienced any type of sexual abuse.

The group meets the fourth Monday of each month, September through May, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the North Regional branch of the Hennepin County Library in Minneapolis. Sessions aren’t sequential, but Richter, who serves as the facilitator, said people should plan to attend a session’s entire duration. He hopes that a core group will form to provide continuity and familiarity.

Richter, a parishioner of St. Joan of Arc in Minneapolis, said the group does not entail counseling.

Rather, it involves a facilitated conversation in a community support system. The goal is to give people a space to make connections with one another.

“That connection — giving people an opportunity to meet other people who can be empathetic to how they feel, to their circumstances, to their life experiences and to some of their struggles — is a way of bringing people

from shame and fear and loneliness and hurt into something that is more normal [and] something that is more healthy,” he said. “There is nothing quite as comforting and honest and real as talking with someone who knows exactly how you feel.”

Richter, a medical doctor and transfusion medicine fellow at the University of Minnesota hospital, said that at the gatherings, people begin by introducing themselves, and that might be the extent of their talking, although all are invited to speak; they can participate in whatever way they’re comfortable. Each session has a theme such as “How I tell my story,” “Being afraid” and “What gives me hope.”

Richter moved to the Twin Cities in 2014, when the clergy sexual abuse scandal in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis was unfolding. In an effort to create a space for victims/survivors that is safe, confidential and respectful, he brought the peace circle model from a group he started in the Archdiocese of Chicago, where he was abused between the ages of 14 and 16 by a priest. He remains involved with that group, now two years in. The Twin Cities Peace Circle is independent of the archdiocese.

With its ongoing bankruptcy proceedings to compensate victims/survivors of clergy sexual abuse, Richter said it’s especially important for victims/ survivors to connect with one another. He serves on the archdiocese’s Ministerial Review Board, which is composed of laity and clergy who examine claims of clergy misconduct.

For more information about Twin Cities Peace Circle, contact Richter at 773-412-0909 or richter316@aol.com.

Another clergy sexual abuse support group started in April. Like the Twin Cities Peace Circle, it’s independent of the archdiocese, free to attend, and family members and friends are invited. That group will meet every Wednesday in January from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at 9001 E. Bloomington Freeway, Bloomington. Deb Riba, a licensed marriage and family therapist, leads the group.

For more information and to register, call Riba at 952-881-9883.

Father Garvey remembered for love of Cabrini parish The Catholic Spirit Father Tom Garvey retired from active priestly ministry in 1994. His last assignment was at St. Frances Cabrini in Minneapolis.

He continued to attend to Mass there until the end of his life. Described by long-time staff member and friend Chris Kosowski as a “man of deep compassion,” Father Garvey died Dec. 16 at Iris Park Commons in St. Paul. He was 88.

He had a habit of coming to the 9 a.m. Mass on Sunday, even after he stopped driving several years ago.

“Generous parishioners would pick him up each week Father Tom and accompany him,” Kosowski said. “He loved it and they GARVEY loved it.”

Born April 3, 1929, in St. Paul, he attended Nazareth Hall and graduated from Cretin High School in 1947. He later attended the St. Paul Seminary. He was ordained to the priesthood Feb. 18, 1957, by Archbishop William Brady.

He served parishes in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis from 1957 to 1994. They include St. Rose of Lima in Roseville, St. John the Baptist in Excelsior, St. Anthony of Padua in northeast Minneapolis, St. Luke (now St. Thomas More) in St. Paul, St. Andrew (now merged with Maternity of Mary) in St. Paul and St. Frances Cabrini in Minneapolis (1987-1994).

“Everywhere he went, he was friendly to people,” Kosowski said. “He loved his faith; he lived it fully.”

Visitation will take place 4-7 p.m. Dec. 28 at St. Frances Cabrini, with vigil prayer at 7 p.m., followed by an all-night vigil. Another visitation will take place 10-11 a.m. Dec. 29, followed by the funeral Mass at 11 a.m. Burial will take place at a later date.

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Celebrate the Glory, the Wonder, the Miracle of Christmas with us!

8 • The Catholic Spirit

LOCAL

December 21, 2017

Mother of three ‘Dreamers’ fasts on Hill for passage of DREAM Act

By Kelly Sankowski Catholic News Service Antonia Alvarez, the mother of three DACA recipients and one U.S. citizen, began a 10-day fast Dec. 4 outside the Capitol in Washington to advocate for the passage of the DREAM Act. The measure would allow her children and 800,000 other so-called “Dreamers” to remain in the country and gain a path to citizenship.

Alvarez, 47, a parishioner of Incarnation Sagrado Corazon in Minneapolis, is originally from Mexico City and said she immigrated to the United States 16 years ago because of dangerous conditions in Mexico. She lives in New Brighton, where she has done similar fasts throughout the past few years.

But President Donald Trump’s announcement in September that he would end DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, added urgency to Alvarez’s advocacy.

To get the attention of members of Congress, she decided to travel to D.C. to hold a fast in front of their offices. In ending DACA, Trump called on Congress to come up with a legislative solution by March to keep the program.

Many are calling for passage of the proposed Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, or DREAM Act, to do just that.

Alvarez traveled to Washington with a group from the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis — including fellow Incarnation parishioners — to speak with congressional leaders, then stayed behind to pray and fast. Among legislators she spoke with were Reps.

Tom Emmer, Jason Lewis and Rick Nolan, who represent districts in Minnesota.

Alvarez said she planned to fast until passage of the DREAM Act or when Congress was scheduled to recess for the holidays Dec. 15.

Every day from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., she planned to sit in a section of the Capitol grounds directly between the House office buildings and the Capitol, urging lawmakers to take action on the bill.

“Sometimes I said, ‘God, I stay alone,’” she said, expressing fear about being by herself. “But I listen [and hear] ‘You’re not alone.’”

With just a jacket, boots and hat in the 40-degree weather, Alvarez said she slept on the Capitol grounds. And she didn’t remain alone.

People from other Christian churches in a variety of states joined her, as did Daniel Galan, a 25-year-old electrician from Chicago. On Facebook, he saw what Alvarez was doing and decided to hop on a bus from Illinois to join her.

Galan, a parishioner of St. Paul Catholic Church on Chicago’s South Side, was brought to the United States from Mexico City at age 8. He and his girlfriend are both DACA recipients, so he said he was fasting for both of them, as well as for many other “Dreamers” he knows who couldn’t make the trip to Washington.

“Our family is poor. My mom didn’t see any future for me in Mexico, so she brought me here so I could go to school, work and become something of myself,” Galan told the Catholic Standard, newspaper of the Archdiocese

Daniel Galan and Antonia Alvarez advocate for the passage of the DREAM Act near the U.S. Capitol building in Washington Dec. 5. They were fasting and praying for 10 days to draw attention to the immigration issue. CNS/Jaclyn Lippelmann of Washington.

Alvarez’s three children who are DACA recipients are 24, 25 and 28 years old. Her oldest child is a businessman, and the other two are in school, with one getting her bachelor’s degree and the other pursuing her master’s degree.

She also has a 12-year-old daughter who is a U.S. citizen.

“Every day she is crying for her brother and two sisters,” Alvarez said.

Alvarez, who has a house cleaning business, said her family has paid for all of her children’s education.

“We don’t want crumbs,” she said.

“We are working for everything.”

Unlike herself, Alvarez’s children are now in the legal system, she pointed out, since they had to give personal information and go through a vetting process to be covered by DACA. This would make it easier for them to

get deported.

“ICE [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] has all of our information,” Galan said. “They know where to find us, know where we live and know where we work.”

Alvarez was catching the attention of several members of Congress who came out to speak with her, some of them bringing her hot water or inviting her inside for a break. Alvarez declined to go inside and instead invited them to come visit her whenever they wanted a break.

As the two stood outside next to their table that supported a large cross, Galan spoke about his hopes for the future. He has not seen his father since he left Mexico, but he speaks to him frequently; Galan’s mother and brother live in the United States.

Galan hopes to someday get a green card so that he’ll be able to travel back

Supporting immigrants Minnesota’s Catholic bishops have launched a postcard campaign to help Catholics encourage their legislators to support the DREAM Act of 2017.

The postcards include a message about protecting young immigrants, described as contributing members of society who shouldn’t have to live “in constant fear of deportation at any moment or separation from their families.”

In September, President Donald Trump announced he was ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, that allowed some 800,000 young adults who were brought into the country illegally as children and who met certain conditions to attend school, work and have a driver’s license. Though Trump ended the program — which was initiated in 2012 under the Obama administration — he urged Congress to find a solution before the first of the program’s permits expire as early as March.

If passed, the DREAM (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors) Act would provide a path to citizenship for so-called “Dreamers” and others in the country without documentation.

The bishops’ postcard campaign coincides with Immigration Sunday Minnesota, which they began in 2009 to highlight the Church’s teaching on immigration and raise awareness about Minnesota’s immigration issues. Designated on the feast of the Epiphany of Our Lord, the commemoration will be Jan. 7, 2018.

For more information and resources about the postcard campaign and Immigration Sunday, visit www.mncatholic.org.

— The Catholic Spirit and Catholic News Service

and forth to visit his dad, and maybe someday bring him to the U.S. legally if he becomes a citizen.

He hopes to start his own electric company. But he fears that he will lose his job once his DACA benefits expire, since the company he works for checks employees’ legal status. He recently renewed his DACA participation; it expires in March 2019.

But until Congress passes a more permanent piece of legislation, Galan said he would “be contemplating the day I lose everything I’ve worked for.”

Noting her family’s situation, Alvarez said, “My kids are afraid, but I’m not afraid. I’m fighting for protecting my children. … Always I pray to God, always I believe in God, always my faith is in God.” With tears in her eyes, Alvarez said one of her daughters feels so afraid that she wants to leave the country and move to Ghana, where her boyfriend is from, because she thinks they would not be discriminated against there.

Alvarez said she not only prayed for her own family and for “Dreamers,” but also for Trump, asking God to bless him.

“I’m angry, but [I don’t] hate. That is not my position,” she said.

On its Facebook page, Incarnation posted Alvarez’s photos and video updates. In one video, a group voiced their support for Alvarez in Spanish.

And in another posted Nov. 29, Alvarez, co-founder of Asamblea de Derechos Civiles — the Assembly for Civil Rights — talks about her fast as one for “justice for children.”

“If it is necessary to offer my life to defend the dignity of my children, I will do it, and I’m going to do it in an act of love,” she said in the video, adding that “Dreamers” shouldn’t have to live in the country’s shadows.

— The Catholic Spirit contributed to this story

December 21, 2017

U.S. & WORLD

Vatican renews call for peace, negotiated solution on Jerusalem

By Junno Arocho Esteves Catholic News Service Following days of violence and backlash after President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, the Vatican appealed for “wisdom and prudence” to prevail.

The Holy See “reiterates its own conviction that only a negotiated solution between Israelis and Palestinians can bring a stable and lasting peace and guarantee the peaceful coexistence of two states within internationally recognized borders,” the Vatican said in a Dec. 10 statement.

Trump announced his decision Dec. 6 to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, fulfilling a promise he made during his presidential campaign.

The announcement sparked anti-U.S. protests throughout Asia and the Middle East, including a fourday protest in the Palestinian territories, Reuters reported. An Israeli security guard in Jerusalem, the report said, was in critical condition after he was stabbed by a Palestinian man at the city’s bus station.

Pope Francis expressed his “sorrow for the clashes in recent days” and called for world leaders to renew their commitment for peace in the Holy Land, the Vatican said.

The pope “raises fervent prayers so that the leaders of nations, in this time of special gravity, commit themselves to avert a new spiral of violence, responding with words and deeds to the desires of peace, justice and security for the populations of that battered land,” the Vatican said.

Trump’s decision also drew warnings from Middle Eastern and European leaders that overturning the United States’ long-standing policy would further complicate peace negotiations.

Former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush had made similar promises to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital during their presidential campaigns.

However, once in office, they did not carry through with the move, citing its potential negative impact on

Inside the parish hall of St. Gabriel the Archangel in New Orleans, the personal stories flowed as freely as the tears.

One by one, descendants of the 272 enslaved men, women and children sold as a group in 1838 to a Louisiana plantation by the Jesuits who ran Georgetown University in Washington partially to relieve the school’s debts, described what it was like upon learning — through the meticulous records kept and maintained for nearly 200 years by the Society of Jesus — their hidden and bitter family story.

The sale of the 272 — known as the GU272 — placed them on a plantation in Iberville Parish in the town of Maringouin, located between Baton Rouge and Lafayette.

Others were placed on plantations in Ascension and Terrebonne parishes, which are like counties.

The first name on the slave manifest was Isaac Hawkins, who was 65 when he was sold from the Jesuits’ plantation in southern Maryland.

On Dec. 9 at St. Gabriel, Myrtle Hawkins Pace, Isaac Hawkins’ great-granddaughter, and her husband, Johnny Pace, described how their world was turned upside down when they received a telephone call in April from a cousin, who told her Georgetown University was renaming a building “Isaac Hawkins Hall” in honor of her ancestor.

They were living near San Francisco and had never had an inkling of Myrtle’s ties to the 1838 sale.

The gathering at St. Gabriel was one of two listening sessions organized by the GU272 Descendants Association and the Society of Jesus, which was represented by Jesuit Father Tim Kesicki, president of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States,

Court seems divided in cake case examining religious rights, expression

By Carol Zimmermann Catholic News Service

Palestinians burn a U.S. flag during clashes with Israeli troops near the West Bank city of Ramallah Dec. 7. CNS Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

The Arab League, a regional organization consisting of 22 Arabic-speaking member states, held an emergency meeting in Cairo, Egypt, Dec. 9 to discuss Trump’s announcement, calling it “dangerous and unacceptable.”

Recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital goes “against international law and raises questions over American efforts to support peace,” said Ahmed Aboul Gheit, the Arab League’s secretary-general.

Just hours before Trump had announced his decision, Pope Francis urged respect for “the status quo of the city in accordance with the relevant resolutions of the United Nations.”

In his appeal, Pope Francis said, “Jerusalem is a unique city, sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims who venerate the holy places of their respective religions, and has a special vocation to peace.”

The Vatican consistently has called for a special status for Jerusalem, particularly its Old City, in order to protect and guarantee access to the holy sites of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Descendants of Jesuit-owned slaves speak out

By Peter Finney Jr. Catholic News Service

The Catholic Spirit • 9

and Jesuit Father Bob Hussey, provincial of the Maryland Province.

Father Kesicki said the listening sessions with the Louisiana descendants of those who were enslaved were just the beginning of a lengthy dialogue process, “one of many visits moving forward.” He reiterated what he told a large group at Georgetown April 18, when several campus buildings were renamed to honor the memory of those who were sold south.

Referring to the penitential rite at Mass, Father Kesicki said: “As Jesuits, we have greatly sinned, in what we have done and in what we have failed to do. Father Hussey and I are here today because we are profoundly sorry.”

Father Hussey said one of the purposes of the Jesuits’ visit was to “extend the meaning and the grace and the conversation of those events” to a wider audience of descendants.

After meeting in New Orleans, they traveled to Maringouin, about 105 miles northwest of New Orleans.

They also toured the Whitney Plantation, which gives an unvarnished account of the slave-holding economy in Louisiana in the 1800s.

When the descendants took the floor, they described a variety of feelings and emotions. Sandra Green Thomas, president of the GU272 Descendants Association, said the Jesuits must seek reconciliation through concrete acts beyond renaming buildings on the Georgetown campus or giving descendants the regular benefits that the children of any Georgetown alumni or professors would receive.

“You have a tremendous amount of resources that you could use to uplift and support,” she said. “In Maringouin, they don’t even have a high school. People live in poverty. There are things you could do to ameliorate this.”

The U.S. Supreme Court seemed equally divided in the long-anticipated oral arguments Dec. 5 about the baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple because of his religious beliefs.

Even Justice Anthony Kennedy’s comments went right down the middle, from expressing concern for those who would be shut out of services to later stressing that “tolerance is a two-way street” and saying the state of Colorado, where the bakery is located, seemed to be “neither tolerant or respectful” of the baker’s views.

The case, Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, pits anti-discrimination laws against freedom of speech and freedom of religious expression.

It drew strong feelings on both sides long before the court heard the arguments with the filing of 100 friend-ofthe-court briefs months ago, and the crowds lined up for days hoping to get into the court during the arguments.

Crowds also gathered on the Jack Supreme Court steps under PHILLIPS cloudy skies and warm temperatures, chanting and holding aloft placards such as “Justice for Jack” (the baker) and “Open for All.” The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops filed a friend-of-the court brief in support of the baker joined by the Colorado Catholic Conference, Catholic Bar Association, Catholic Medical Association, National Association of Catholic Nurses-USA and National Catholic Bioethics Center.

And after the hour and a half of oral arguments, chairmen of three USCCB committees issued a statement saying: “America has the ability to serve every person while making room for valid conscientious objection.”

It also said it hoped the court would continue to “preserve the ability of people to live out their faith in daily life, regardless of their occupation,” noting that artists “deserve to have the freedom to express ideas — or to decline to create certain messages — in accordance with their deeply held beliefs.”

The statement was issued by Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky, chairman of the Committee for Religious Liberty; Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput, chairman of the Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth; and Bishop James Conley of Lincoln, Nebraska, chairman of the Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage.

The case before the court at the end of 2017 was five years in the making, beginning in 2012 when Charlie Craig and David Mullins asked the Colorado baker, Jack Phillips, to make a cake for their wedding reception. Phillips refused, saying his religious beliefs would not allow him to create a cake honoring their marriage.

The couple filed a complaint with the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, which decided the baker’s action violated state law. The decision was upheld by the Colorado Court of Appeals. The Colorado Supreme Court wouldn’t take the case, letting the ruling stand.

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the case.

The bulk of the defense for the baker focused on his freedom of speech rights, which attorneys argued would be violated by forcing him to make this cake.

The arguments against the baker questioned if failing to provide services to same-sex couples was discriminatory.

10 • The Catholic Spirit

U.S. & WORLD

December 21, 2017

In #MeToo movement, Church can play role

in BRIEF LOS ANGELES

Archbishop Gomez sees God’s presence even in fiery destruction As wildfires raged near Los Angeles, Archbishop Jose Gomez called on those who have lost their homes and those offering assistance and fighting the flames to remember that God is accompanying them in their sorrow and acts of sacrifice. “He is there in all these stories of sharing and self-sacrifice, in all those who are opening their homes to strangers, in all those who are risking their lives to save others,” the archbishop wrote Dec. 12 in its online news magazine.

NEW HAVEN, Conn.

Knights give aid to churches still rebuilding, repairing after hurricanes The Knights of Columbus announced it is committing $1.4 million to repair or help rebuild churches destroyed or badly damaged by the hurricanes that hit Texas, Florida and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The Knights of Columbus also has earmarked a significant amount of money for upcoming church repair efforts in Puerto Rico. The Knights earlier donated $100,000 to the Archdiocese of San Juan and provided generators, food, water and other necessities to aid relief efforts.

Some days before the Knights’ announcement, three churches in Texas and two synagogues in Florida sued the Federal Emergency Management Agency over being denied disaster-relief funds because current federal law prohibits houses of worship from receiving disaster relief for reconstruction from FEMA.

NEW YORK

New York archdiocese pays $40M to clergy sexual abuse victims The Archdiocese of New York has resolved claims from 189 victims of clergy sexual abuse in the amount of $40 million. The figure was contained in a report released Dec. 7 under the archdiocese’s Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program. The program is part of the archdiocese’s continuing effort to renew its contrition to those who suffered sexual abuse as a minor by a priest or deacon and to bring a sense of healing to victims/survivors.

WASHINGTON

After terrorism attempt, Trump calls for end to immigration programs President Donald Trump called on Dec. 12 for an end to two immigration programs — the diversity visa program, popularly known as the visa lottery, and also a program that grants visa preferences to relatives of U.S. citizens or residents. Two immigrant men who came legally into the U.S. through those programs have recently been accused of domestic terrorism. “There have now been two terrorist attacks in New York City carried out by foreign nationals here on green cards,” Trump said, a day after authorities arrested an immigrant from Bangladesh in New York, who police say tried to detonate a bomb in a subway station at the height of the morning rush hour in New York.

Study: More Americans don’t view Christmas as religious The percentage of Americans who see Christmas as a religious holiday continues to slide across nearly all demographic lines. In a telephone survey of 1,503 U.S. adults conducted Nov. 28-Dec. 4 for the Pew Research Center, 55 percent said they mark Christmas as a religious holiday. The figure in 2013, when Pew last asked this question, was 59 percent. “Most respondents in the new poll say they think religious aspects of Christmas are emphasized less in American society today than in the past. But relatively few Americans both perceive this trend and are bothered by it,” the Pew survey said.

— Catholic News Service

By Carol Zimmermann Catholic News Service The wave of accusations of sexual harassment, misconduct and assault from Hollywood to Capitol Hill and many places in between in recent months has been described as a revolution, a moment and a time for national reckoning.

The accused — abruptly fired or resigned — have issued apology statements or denied wrongdoing.

Those who have come forward — predominantly women, but also some men emboldened by the solidarity of the #MeToo movement — were named “Silence Breakers” by Time magazine and honored as its 2017 Person of the Year.

“We’re still at the bomb-throwing point of this revolution,” the Time article points out, stressing that for true social change to happen, private conversations on this issue are essential.

And that’s where some say the Catholic Church has something to offer both from its lessons learned — and how it could do more — to support victims and foster healing.

The U.S. Catholic Church — tarnished by the clergy sexual abuse scandal that made headlines in 2002 — has taken steps in all of its dioceses to address and prevent the abuse of young people and will keep doing this forever, according to Deacon Bernie Nojadera, executive director of the U.S. bishops’ Secretariat for Child and Youth Protection.

As it continues its training, education, background checks and reporting, the Church must similarly “face the reality of sexual harassment,” said a Dec. 11 editorial in America magazine, pointing out that what the Church went through with the abuse crisis shows “it is possible to begin turning even an organization as large and as old as the Church toward primary concern for victims. “ But the Church faces hurdles in just getting into this discussion, acknowledged Helen Alvare, a law professor at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School and consultor for the Pontifical Council of the Laity, noting that people can accept Church teaching on global warming or refugees but its teachings on sexuality “is the thing that gets people mad.”

With papal encyclicals such as “Humanae Vitae” (“Of Human Life”), she said the “Church was onto something” when it spoke of what would happen when sex was separated from love and responsibility,

stressing that if “sex is robbed of its full meaning, it is bound to hurt someone.”

And that’s what the country is seeing now. As she points out: “We are not talking about women complaining that men stomped on their feet or slapped them really hard, it’s sex,” which explains the “depth of humiliation and anger” these women feel who have come forward.

“This is not a moment for triumphalism. I don’t see anyone in the Church taking that approach,” Alvare said. “What I do see is people saying: ‘Let’s look at what’s happening; let’s name what we’re seeing and think about how to fix it.’”

“We’re part of that solution,” she added, noting that the experience of the Church reaching out its hand and saying: ‘We’re here if Helen you’re suffering,’ is very powerful.”

ALVARE Part of the Church’s role can’t help but stem from lessons learned in the abuse crisis.

As Deacon Nojadera said: “Clergy sexual abuse should not have happened, but it is part of our history and our landscape” and the Church is “healthier and holier” for taking stock of what went wrong and learning to “listen intently” to victims, something he said it didn’t do initially.

He also knows the current abuse allegations go beyond the worlds of entertainment and politics and are closer to home with people coming forward in recent months under the tagline #ChurchToo to share their experiences of abuse in Church environments of all faiths. These victims have often expressed the added pain of being told they did something to bring about the abuse.

Deacon Nojadera said the Catholic Church needs to help all who have been abused, not just address wrongs of its own past. When he gives talks around the country, people often pull him aside to talk about spousal abuse, domestic violence and bullying.

He told Catholic News Service that the Church’s policies, adopted across the board in 2002 in its “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People” put protocols in place for anytime someone calls a parish or diocesan office seeking help with ongoing or previous abuse or assault.

Pope: Satan, not God, leads us into temptation

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service The Italian and English translations of the “Our Father” can give believers the wrong impression that God can and does lead people into temptation, Pope Francis said.

The Italian bishops’ television channel, TV2000, has been broadcasting a series of conversations between the pope and a Catholic prison chaplain looking at the Lord’s Prayer line by line.

The episode broadcast Dec. 6 focused on the line, “Lead us not into temptation.”

Father Marco Pozza told the pope that friends have asked him, “Can God really lead us into temptation?”

“This is not a good translation,” the pope said.

The standard versions of the prayer are translated from the Latin, which was translated from the New Testament in Greek.

While he said nothing about ordering a new translation, Pope Francis noted how the French bishops had decided that beginning Dec. 3, the first Sunday of Advent, French Catholics would change the line to the equivalent of “do not let us enter into temptation.”

French-speaking Catholics in Benin and Belgium began using the new translation at Pentecost last June.

The common Spanish translation already is “no nos dejes caer en la tentacion” or “do not let us fall into temptation.”

The Italian bishops’ conference in 2008 adopted a new translation of the Bible; for the Lord’s Prayer both in Matthew 6 and Luke 11, they chose “do not abandon us in temptation,” although they did not order the change in liturgical use. The New American Bible, revised edition, is the basis for the Lectionary used at English-language Masses in the United States; the petition from the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew and Luke is translated as: “do not subject us to the final test.”

Pope Francis told Father Pozza, “I’m the one who falls. But it’s not [God] who pushes me into temptation to see how I fall. No, a father does not do this. A father helps us up immediately.”

“The one who leads us into temptation is Satan,” the pope said. “That’s Satan’s job.”

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, in its discussion of the Lord’s Prayer, says, “our sins result from our consenting to temptation; we therefore ask our Father not to ‘lead’ us into temptation. It is difficult to translate the Greek verb used by a single English word: the Greek means both ‘do not allow us to enter into temptation’ and ‘do not let us yield to temptation.’”

Referring to James 1:13, the Catechism says, “‘God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself tempts no one’; on the contrary, he wants to set us free from evil.

We ask him not to allow us to take the way that leads to sin.”

December 21, 2017

U.S. & WORLD

The Catholic Spirit • 11

YEAR IN REVIEW

In Rome and abroad, pope urges unity, care for poor

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service Pope Francis spent much of 2017 preaching and teaching about the need to value differences rather than fear them, and he adopted legislation that would allow more room for diversity within the Catholic Church.

In his frequent comments about migration and on most of his foreign trips, the pope also tried to convince political, civic and religious leaders that being welcoming, respecting differences and being willing to listen to another’s point of view and experience, actually enrich a society.

From his trips to Egypt, where anti-Christian violence has sorely tried Christian-Muslim relations, to Colombia, which is recovering from a civil war, and most recently to Myanmar and Bangladesh, Pope Francis tried to convince people that peaceful coexistence and even unity do not require the erasing of all differences. In fact, during his trip to the two Asian nations, he defined as “ideological and cultural colonization” the political and social pressures to homogenize society.

“The unity we share and celebrate is born of diversity,” he told the bishops of Myanmar Nov. 29.

“Never forget this — it is born of diversity! It values people’s differences as a source of mutual enrichment and growth. It invites people to come together in a culture of encounter and solidarity.”

Pope Francis gave legislative weight to that view in October when he created two new eparchies, or dioceses, for the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church in India and extended the boundaries of two others. In a letter to all of the country’s bishops, Latin- and Eastern-rite, he said the presence of two Catholic rites each with its own bishop in the same territory should not be seen as a sign of disunity, but of the richness of the one faith.

The other legislative decision that potentially could lead to greater diversity in the Church was contained in Pope Francis’ document “Magnum Principium” (“The Great Principle”). It included changes to the Code of Canon Law to give national bishops’ conferences greater responsibility in the process of translating liturgical texts into local languages. The document was published Sept. 9 and went into effect Oct. 1.

In a letter giving further explanation three weeks later, Pope Francis said that while in the past “the judgment regarding the fidelity to the Latin and the eventual corrections necessary was the task of the Congregation [for Divine Worship],” the new norms give “episcopal conferences the faculty of judging the worth and coherence of one or another term in translations from the original, even if in dialogue with the Holy See.” Pope Francis also grabbed headlines late in the year for two statements indicating further developments in Catholic social teaching, specifically regarding the death penalty and nuclear deterrence.

Marking the 25th anniversary of the Catechism of the Catholic Church at the Vatican Oct. 11, Pope Francis said the catechism’s discussion of the death penalty, already formally amended by St. John Paul II, needs to be even more explicitly against capital punishment.

The death penalty “is, in itself, contrary to the Gospel, because a decision is voluntarily made to suppress a human life, which is always sacred in the eyes of the Creator and of whom, in the last analysis, only God can be the true judge and guarantor,” the pope said.

Pope Francis’ remarks about nuclear deterrence came at a Vatican conference in early November. For decades, the popes had said the policy of nuclear deterrence could be morally acceptable as long as real work was underway on a complete ban of the weapons.

But at the conference, Pope Francis said that today with nuclear weapons, “the threat of their use as well as

CLOCKWISE Pope Francis meets President Donald Trump during a private audience at the Vatican May 24. Pope Francis and Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria, patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox Church, attend an ecumenical prayer service at St. Peter’s Church in Cairo April 28. Pope Francis embraces Sheik Ahmad el-Tayeb, grand imam of Al-Azhar University, at a conference on international peace in Cairo April 28. CNS their very possession is to be firmly condemned.”

He later explained to journalists that the increased sophistication of the weapons means “you risk the destruction of humanity, or a great part of humanity.”

While Pope Francis used large public Masses, his early morning Mass homilies and his Wednesday general audience talks to reach thousands of Catholics with his message, 2017 gave him an opportunity for face-to-face meetings with many world leaders, including President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

He welcomed Trump to the Vatican May 24 for a visit described in the official statement as “cordial.”

Common ground was found on the issues of protecting the unborn and defending religious freedom. But they also discussed their different positions on climate change and on the obligation to assist migrants and refugees.

Just a few days after he met the pope, Trump announced the U.S. was pulling out of the U.N. Paris agreement on climate change, an agreement the Vatican had urged him to uphold.

Just hours after Pope Francis appealed Dec. 6 for “wisdom and prudence” in protecting the status quo of Jerusalem, Trump publicly announced formal U.S. recognition of the city as Israel’s capital and a project to begin moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv. The Holy See, like the overwhelming majority of nations, has said political control of the city must be determined by negotiation as part of an IsraeliPalestinian peace process. In addition, for decades the

Vatican has urged a special status for the city to guarantee Jews, Muslims and Christians access to their faith’s holy sites.

Pope Francis also spent months urging the international community to ensure the new U.N. global compacts on migration and on refugees would support programs to help the poor stay in their countries rather than migrate, and would open safe and legal immigration pathways for people fleeing extreme poverty and conflict.

Citing U.S. sovereignty, the Trump administration announced Dec. 3 that it was pulling the U.S. out of negotiations on the global compact on migration.

Unity in diversity and care for the poorest and most vulnerable members of society also were on Pope Francis’ mind in early June when he joined celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal.

Celebrating Pentecost with tens of thousands of Catholic charismatics from around the world and with dozens of Pentecostal and evangelical leaders, the pope said, “In a way both creative and unexpected,” the Holy Spirit “generates diversity, for in every age he causes new and varied charisms to blossom. Then he brings about unity: He joins together, gathers and restores harmony.”

Christians, he said, must be “united by the work of the Holy Spirit in prayer and in action on behalf of those who are weaker.”

“Walk together. Work together. Love each other,” Pope Francis told them.

12 • The Catholic Spirit

A home for the holidays – and every Twin Cities native makes herself a mother for abandoned Zambian street children

By Dave Hrbacek The Catholic Spirit

C

arol McBrady has no biological children.

But, on the streets of Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, she is known as Mama Carol.

It started 16 years ago when she was invited to visit Africa to help care for children with AIDS. She was supposed to go to Zimbabwe, but violence rocking the country diverted the trip to Zambia.

Ultimately, the trip also changed the course of her life. After two trips to the country, she sold her home in Crystal and moved to Lusaka in 2004. Later, she started a nonprofit called Action for Children Zambia. She now helps hundreds of street children every year by providing crisis intervention, housing and — most importantly — a sense of family.

She also teaches the children how to play blackjack.

It sounds simple, but to these children, who have suffered incredible hardships such as abandonment by their parents at young ages, playing the game gives them, in many cases, their first meaningful contact with an adult.

The bond is mutual, and it’s the reason McBrady embraced these children from almost the moment she got off the plane on her first trip.

“I think the first day or the second day, they took me to the streets, and I worked with the street children and fell in love,” said McBrady, 58, of St. Timothy in Maple Lake. “They are amazing. They are amazing young people. There’s so much potential, there’s so much potential in those streets and so much humanity and so much joy. I had a lot of fun. We played blackjack, and we ate peanut butter sandwiches.”

It wasn’t long before she learned of their tragic circumstances.

Hundreds of children roam the streets of Lusaka without a parent or guardian to care for them. For various reasons, they are abandoned. The saddest cases involve one of their parents dying, and the other deciding he or she doesn’t want the children. They are left in the streets to fend for themselves.

Many turn to crime, selling drugs or stealing to put food in their mouths, McBrady said. Most of the children are sexually abused at some point in their lives. The double whammy of abandonment and abuse leads to hardened hearts and deeply rooted anger.

“Those are very difficult kids to fix because they have been so damaged,” McBrady explained. “It’s like, ‘Why are you gonna love me? Everybody else hates me. My mom died, my dad threw me out, who are you, woman?’ They’re difficult [to help].”

As McBrady thought and prayed about how to make a difference, she realized that the one thing these children need but don’t have is family. She decided to do something about that, and she carved out a role as their mother.

supposed to do, but in your heart, you’re going, ‘That’s 10,000 miles from home, there’s no electricity, there’s no water, there’s no cappuccino,’” she said. “It was a big change and a long process, but in the end, finally in 2004, I said, ‘That’s it.’

I sold my house, took the money and went [to Zambia].”

She started modestly, living in a small apartment using proceeds from the sale of her home to launch Action for Children Zambia.

In 2007, she built a residential treatment home called Salvation Home, which she uses to help rescue children from the streets and provide a stable living environment. It has 22 beds, but often more children than that live there temporarily.

Each time she hears of a child in need, especially with a medical emergency, she brings him or her to Salvation Home for immediate attention.

She later added a poultry farm called Kulanga Bana Farm to provide permanent homes for children and work opportunities.

Then, in 2016, she opened Redemption House, a boarding home for children attending secondary school. The ministry has an annual budget of $150,000, and it serves around 250-300 children annually.

Taking to the streets Though the buildings are important, the foundation of her ministry is going out into the streets to meet the children where they live.

“We do nothing but get to know the children,” she said. “We don’t go into the streets and say, ‘Come home with us.’ We go into the streets and say, ‘Hi, my name is Carol. Nice to meet you. Have you ever played blackjack?’”

One thing she has learned about these children came as a surprise — they not only want a mother’s love, but they also want an education.

Before moving to Zambia, she gave money directly to some children to go to school, which is not free in the country. She wondered if the children would really use it for school.

When she returned to Zambia and followed up, she learned that they had put their school uniforms in their backpacks and used them as a pillow at night, then dutifully attended classes.

They did not miss a day, she said.

She remembers one child she rescued at age 14 who had never set foot in a school. By the time he was 19, he had completed all 12 grades and graduated from high school.

The success stories are mounting.

“There really are thousands,” she said. “I think of Jonathan.

He came to me when he was about 8. The mother had another baby and said she couldn’t take care of him. We don’t know where the father was. So, Jonathan was supposed to go to the streets and work and bring home the rent money. He didn’t bring home enough one time, so mom kicked him out. ... So then, he’s on the street. They said, ‘Let’s go see Mama Carol.’ So they walked probably 20 hours looking for my place. We didn’t have a place then. It was just an apartment building. So, he came. They found me.”

Jonathan’s mother accompanied him, but all she wanted was

Making the move During the course of making trips in 2001 and 2003, she learned that although nonprofits send a lot of money to help the children, very little of it actually provides for their needs.

Corruption and greed funnel the money to those who are supposed to help the children, but don’t.

“I did a little research,” McBrady said. “There was so much money going into that country for street kids and orphanages and programs, and none of it was making any difference.

They’re not changing anybody’s lives, they’re not helping.

There are a few Zambians running these programs who are getting quite rich. But, nobody’s helping the kids.”

McBrady, who spent much of her career doing social work and alternative education for troubled youth in the Twin Cities, decided it was time for someone to go where these children live and become a part of their world. She said she felt called by God to go to Zambia.

“You know in your head that this is exactly what you’re

ZAMBIA t

Lusaka

iStock/Artindo

rent money.

“I said, ‘I’ll pay your rent this month. Just me,’” McBrady said. “So, I paid the rent and That was 2005.”

He was in rough shape. He had AIDS and seemed unlikely he would live very long. Bu placed him at Salvation Home, and his life t “There was no reason for this kid to be ho hopeful and wonderful,” McBrady said. “At he has finished grade 12 and he’s the house Redemption House for us. He’s alive and he

Family affair

McBrady recently got a chance to share h Archbishop Bernard Hebda, who now is am She was in the Twin Cities in November to r visit her family and parish. She has six livin mother, Mary McBrady, 85. All are involved though none has visited Zambia yet.

“Kids are important, and kids are importa said Carol McBrady’s sister, Betty Thomes, 6 St. Timothy and chairwoman of Action for C board who has been involved since the begi we’re changing lives of kids, that’s huge.”

When McBrady first told Thomes of her d Zambia, Thomes had questions and concern background in education that the family sh former school teacher and principal, and th a teacher — swayed Thomes to support the sister would make.

“She’s an amazing woman,” Thomes said. proud of her, and we would support her in a “When she first told us, it was like, ‘Are yo This is what you think God’s calling you to? really is calling her there, which is so grand.

The parish of St. Timothy, likewise, is sup ministry, all the way up to the pastor, Fathe comes to the parish on her annual visits to t and raise money.

“She’s a very dynamic, energetic and hard doing amazing work there [in Zambia],” Fat Ruth Cioni of Brooklyn Center, McBrady’ Catholic, has been to Zambia twice and seen action.

“She’s a tiny, tiny person, but she has a bi big presence,” said Cioni, 74, who is plannin Zambia in February. “Boys watch for her car space if they see her coming. They come run with her. She knows many, many of the boy name.”

As McBrady gets to know them, she begin important part of the process — making the When children move in, her staff gets to wo and even the country to find any remaining then contacts them to see if they will take th Often, the relatives say yes. McBrady said children to be with family rather than to gro institution.

“It’s really important to build families, no she said. “Our kids don’t have families, but orphanages. We make a little family for them their permanent, forever family. It’s more w it’s probably less costly.”

At the end of this month, McBrady will h children celebrate Christmas. It’s a highligh and volunteers spend hours wrapping gifts f totaling several hundred.

The Christmas story is an annual reminde doing what she does, and will continue “un to.” It also points to the most important ele ministry: faith.

“You can do nothing without faith in this she said. “It wouldn’t even make sense to ta without understanding that I am there beca am there because I really firmly believe that street children. That’s a man-made problem to solve it.”

December 21, 2017 • 13

y day

t leave him with d I took that boy.

tuberculosis, and it ut, Mama Carol turned around. opeful, but he was this point in time, e parent at ealthy.”

her story with mong her supporters. raise money and ng siblings, plus her d in the ministry,

ant to my family,” 61, a parishioner of Children Zambia’s inning. “So, when

desire to move to ns. But, the hares — Thomes is a heir mother was also radical decision her

. “And we’re really any fashion. ou kidding? Really? ? It turns out he .” pportive of her er John Meyer. She talk about her work

d-working woman ther Meyer said. ’s friend and a n Mama Carol in

ig presence, a very ng a third trip to r and save a parking nning to spend time ys, most of them by

ns the most em part of a family. ork scouring the city g relatives. McBrady he children in. it’s better for the ow up in an

ot just orphanages,” they’re not in m, and that becomes work, but in the end,

help the street ht of her year. Staff for each child,

er of why she keeps ntil God tells me not ement of her

s world — nothing,” alk about this ause of my faith. I t God did not create m, and God wants us

TOP Carol McBrady at Kulanga Bana farm, which is run by Action for Children Zambia. The boys live at the farm. Photos courtesy Carol McBrady ABOVE McBrady gives first aid to an injured boy behind Soweto, the city market in Lusaka, Zambia, something she does frequently.

RIGHT Children roam the streets of Lusaka behind the market. About 150 people sleep there every night, many of them children who bury themselves in the rubbish to avoid being beaten by older boys.

14 • The Catholic Spirit

FAITH & CULTURE

“W

ho do you say that I am?”

It’s the question Jesus put to his disciples, and it’s the question people should put to the Lord when it comes to questions of sexuality and gender identity, said Father Paul Check Dec. 11. A priest of the Diocese of Bridgeport, Connecticut, Father Check was the final speaker in the daylong symposium “Man, Woman and the Order of Creation.”

“The Church offers a consistent and coherent view of sexuality,” said Father Check, former executive director of Courage International, a Church apostolate that ministers to people with same-sex attractions, and their family and friends. “Everyone is made for truth. ... The first rule of pastoral care and of the medical profession is we don’t want to do any harm. Thus, we have to know the good that is within us, and for which we are made.”

Father Check said that for Catholics, there are no “elevator speeches” for helping people understand sex and gender from the Church’s perspective.

“For the Church, these questions are always first personal — individual men and women, individual children of God who deserve our attention in that way,” he said. “The Church is mother, and therefore, these questions are personal for her because they involve God’s children. As a result, there’s a greater challenge for you, for us, because of the need for kind[ness], patience, prayer, charity and personal witness.”

Held at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, the symposium explored issues of male and female complementarity, the theology of the sexes, gender identity and transgenderism. The event’s presenters included a medical doctor, political philosopher and social scientist. The symposium was sponsored by the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity, the Minnesota Catholic Conference, the Archbishop Harry J. Flynn Catechetical Institute and the Siena Symposium.

Opening the symposium, emcee and St. Thomas associate professor of business Jeanne Buckeye told more than 400 attendees to think of themselves as a community standing before the sacred mystery of what it means to be a man or a woman, and sharing a desire to listen, learn, understand and care for one another.

The symposium’s speakers contributed to an overall message of affirmation that men and women have real biological and social differences that complement one another in their relationships, and that there are personal, theological and social implications when male and female complementarity is discounted, or when attempts are made to separate the notion of gender from a person’s biological sex. Also addressed were pastoral approaches to people who experience gender dysphoria, which speakers said should reflect people’s inherent dignity; be rooted in love, trust, relationship and accompaniment; and convey truth with respect.

The centerpiece of the day was a presentation by symposium organizer Deborah Savage, an instructor at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity, who observed that the meaning of what it is to be a man and what it is to be a woman is “the question of our era.” Despite

Archbishop: ‘We’re seekers of the truth’ The controversial focus of “Man, Woman and the Order of Creation” symposium drew attention from protesters. Outside the auditorium, about 10 people chanted and held signs including a cross painted the pink, blue and white of the transgender pride flag.

Meanwhile, several St. Thomas academic departments and campus groups sponsored an alternative and concurrent event, Trans Solidarity Day. Five of Minnesota’s Catholic bishops, including Archbishop Bernard Hebda and Bishop Andrew Cozzens, attended the symposium’s daytime session.

Archbishop Hebda also attended the Trans Solidarity Day’s evening event,

Symposium explores gender identity, ‘question of our era’

By Maria Wiering • The Catholic Spirit

Walt Heyer speaks during the “Man, Woman and the Order of Creation” symposium at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul Dec. 11. Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit St. John Paul II’s foundational writings on the human person and sexuality, she said, no Catholic leader has yet presented an adequately comprehensive theological account of male and female complementarity.

Scripture and science show that men and women are fundamentally equal but also distinct, and because of original sin their complementarity has become distorted, she said, and the sexes struggle to understand how they should relate to one another. In their complementary roles, she said, men and women give themselves to each other and share in the mission of not only making families, but also shaping history.

In another presentation, Dr. Michelle Cretella, president of the American College of Pediatricians, illustrated how male and female differences, evident even in the womb, permeate human biology and cannot be reduced to genital or hormonal differences.

Another presenter, W. Bradford Wilcox, director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, shared sociological research on the ways men and women parent differently.

The symposium’s first speaker was Walt Heyer, a California-native in his mid-70s who shared his experience of living with gender dysphoria, which began with a childhood desire to be a girl. In his 40s, he upended his marriage and career to pursue sex reassignment surgery, and he began living as Laura Jensen. He achieved what he described as both personal and professional success while living as Laura, and he began pursuing a degree in psychology so that he could help other people transition.

“Gender, Sexuality and the Reality of Creation: Academic Perspectives.”

Father Larry Blake, St. Thomas’ director of campus ministry, gave the event’s invocation. Panelists included St. Thomas faculty in biology, English, psychology, sociology and theology.

Panelists accused opponents of transgender ideology of cherry-picking studies that support their positions and of not listening to the experiences of transgender people, and of using the science of sex differences to perpetuate gender inequality. One panelist also encouraged people to engage in debate on the topic respectfully and not to make assumptions about their ideological opponents.

During the panel discussion, Archbishop Hebda, who was seated in the audience, was called upon to answer questions clarifying the symposium’s content. One audience member also asked the priests present

December 21, 2017 His studies, however, caused him to question the psychological basis behind his own transition, and he started to see a new therapist. She diagnosed him with dissociative identity disorder originating in his childhood. When he was 4, Heyer’s grandmother, a seamstress, sewed him a purple chiffon dress and allowed him to wear it at her house. Two years later, his parents discovered it and forbade it. His father began spanking him with a wooden plank as punishment, and he was also sexually abused by an uncle. Heyer realized that the cross-dressing and abuse had made him not want to be the young boy he was.

After having what he described as a profound experience of Christ that led to a spiritual conversion, Heyer returned to living as a man.

Building on Heyer’s testimony, speaker Ryan Anderson, a senior research fellow at The Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., said that transgender ideology has swept across the culture. His presentation aimed to put what he calls “the transgender moment” into a philosophical and social perspective.

“Not long ago, most Americans ... hadn’t really thought much about issues of gender identity,” he said.

“Now, any failure to accept or support a transgender identity amounts to bigotry.”

He said that transgender activists no longer purport that a person can have a biological sex that differs from his or her perceived gender, but that a person’s perceived gender determines his or her sex, despite biology. Therefore, with that reasoning, a person’s genitalia and chromosomes have no bearing on whether that person is a man or a woman.

Activists have been successful with this approach, he said, because they root their arguments in who someone “is,” rather than how someone “identifies.”

Studies have estimated that the U.S. transgender population is somewhere between 0.2 and 0.6 percent.

Anderson is troubled by the approach doctors are taking with children with gender dysphoria, and that the American Pediatric Association recommends that doctors help such a child live as the opposite sex by administering puberty blockers, and later prescribe cross-sex hormones and prepare for a largely irreversible sex reassignment surgery when he or she is 18. “The best studies ... show that somewhere between 80 to 95 percent naturally grow out of it,” he said.

Transitioning treatments also have not been shown to reduce the high rates of suicide among people who identify as transgender, he said. “There is a community of our neighbors who are suffering, and they’re not receiving the support they need and deserve. There’s a role here for the Christian community to be truth tellers and to be supporting people who are struggling with their own bodies,” he said.

Anderson, Father Check, Cretella and Heyer also participated in the symposium’s evening session, which drew about 550 people.

Jessica Trygstad, Susan Klemond and Bridget Ryder contributed to this story.

what “you believe the Catholic Church teaches or should teach on LGBTQ-plus, and does anyone think the Catholic Church will ever change?”

When no one else responded, Archbishop Hebda stood up and indicated that it is unfortunate that anyone would have the sense that the Church is not “pro-trans,” because the Church has to be “pro-everyone.”

“You stereotype the Church when you say we’re against anybody,” he said.

“The idea is how do we bring people to the truth. We’re seekers of the truth.

That was one of the reasons for having a conference. ... We have 2,000 years of teaching from Christ as to what it is that we think is our destiny.”

He said everyone is welcome in the Church, and as people “walk toward the truth,” it isn’t helpful to begin with the premise that Church teaching is wrong. He said he agreed with the panelists that people need to be attuned

to human experience.

“That’s one of the ways in which God reveals himself, too,” Archbishop Hebda said. “The Church wants to be able to adapt to those kinds of experiences, but all the time bringing that same central message of Christ. So, is that message going to change? No, but in terms of how it is that people are going to hear that, that’s going to change. But we have to be always present in a way that’s loving, that’s understanding.”

Pointing to Pope Francis’ teachings on “encounter” and “accompaniment,” Archbishop Hebda said, “the first step isn’t judging; the first step is walking with somebody, trying to understand what is their perspective.” An “authentically Catholic” approach, he said, is one in which a person “walks” with another, trying to draw closer to the ideal of Christ.

— The Catholic Spirit

December 21, 2017

FAITH & CULTURE

St. Thomas More gives sanctuary to two families

The Catholic Spirit • 15 MOVIE

By Bridget Ryder For The Catholic Spirit

E

ight months after declaring itself a sanctuary parish for undocumented immigrants, St. Thomas More in St. Paul has hosted two families. The parish’s hospitality gave the families time to sort out situations complicated by their lack of legal immigration status.

“You try to prepare, but then you have to listen and see what the family needs,” said parishioner Lisa Amman, 39.

Jesuit Father Warren Sazama, pastor of St. Thomas More, credits Amman with suggesting that the parish become a sanctuary church.

In April, following three discernment meetings and four working groups that explored the possibilities and implications of such a move, the parish publicly declared itself a place of sanctuary for immigrants threatened with deportation, particularly in cases where children would be separated from their parents, or young people who had grown up in the United States would be forced to return to countries they hardly knew.

To accommodate potential guests, the parish set up the Holy Family Apartment. Volunteers and contracted professionals transformed an area in the upper floor of the parish center into a two-bedroom apartment complete with a kitchen, living room and two bathrooms. It’s building code compliant for housing up to six people. In July, the parish dedicated the apartment, and a few weeks later, it received its first request to shelter a refugee family.

Calls from the chaplain at HillMurray School in Maplewood and from a social worker for Ramsey County came into the parish backto-back. In the first call, a mother and her three young children had come to the United States from Mozambique several weeks before.

Through a series of events, they became homeless, sleeping on the playground of the Catholic high school where school staff had found them one morning. They had nowhere else to go. The father of the family was still in Africa. The family had tourist visas, but they needed to apply for asylum.

The Holy Family Apartment was ready for them, but there was one complication: The family didn’t speak English, but rather French, Portuguese and their native tribal language. Father Sazama called a parishioner who was a French teacher to accompany him to pick up the family. The four spent a long weekend in the apartment before moving into Mary’s Place, the transitional housing program of

Animated characters appear in the movie “The Star.” CNS

Jesuit Father Warren Sazama, pastor of St. Thomas More in St. Paul, stands in the parish’s Holy Family Apartment, used to temporarily house immigrants. It features a two-bedroom apartment with a kitchen, living room and two bathrooms.

Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit Sharing and Caring Hands in Minneapolis.

Just a few days after the first guests left, Father Sazama received another call. This time, the pastor of a parish in Minneapolis was looking for temporary shelter for a man and his 6-year-old son. Omar, who asked that The Catholic Spirit not use his last name, had fled Honduras to avoid being forced to work as a drug runner. His brother-in-law was killed by the gang he refused to work for.

Then, when Hurricane Harvey hit Texas, where they were staying, Omar brought his son north and sought assistance. He also had a court date in Texas for a deportation hearing. The Holy Family Apartment provided the father and son a safe place to consider their options. Ultimately, Omar decided to return to Texas and try his fate before the judge, since he had family there who could care for his son in the event he was deported.

In both cases, Father Sazama explained, “We gave them emergency shelter while they figured out their next steps.”

Using its apartment as transitional housing has become the mission of the parish’s self-declared sanctuary status.

“There’s no legal status to being a sanctuary anything,” Father Sazama explained. “It’s more of a moral status that goes back to the Middle Ages.”

According to Catholic Encyclopedia, the right to sanctuary was a legally protected practice in Europe that allowed those fleeing justice or persecution to find asylum in churches. The practice ended during the 17th and 18th centuries.

Today, the moral status of churches may protect immigrants, though there is no law that would stop immigration authorities from pursuing undocumented immigrants on church property.

In the case of St. Thomas More, the parish has decided it would cooperate should an immigration agent knock on its door with a proper search warrant. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement seems to be abiding by a 2011 memo that discourages enforcement actions at schools and

churches. Earlier this year, Jeanette Vizguerra made national headlines when she sought refuge in a Denver church to avoid possible deportation. She was later granted an extension of her deportation stay so that she could remain with her family.

“I think if [immigrants] are staying here, they would be much safer,” Father Sazama said.

He reasons that the firestorm that would follow should ICE arrest a family at the parish would likely be enough to deter the agency from taking any of the church’s guests into custody on the church grounds.

Nevertheless, should ICE decide to do so, the parish has a plan that includes having observers present during the enforcement action.

Father Sazama emphasized that the main purpose of the sanctuary ministry is to offer people a place to stay and to connect them to resources.

“It’s really been very needed, and I’m glad we’re doing it,” he said.

Besides shelter, the parish offers companionship, food, clothing and connection to additional resources such as legal aid as each family may need, although helping the families find legal assistance has proved the biggest challenge. Amman said the Trump administration’s decision to end both the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy, commonly called DACA, and the Temporary Protective Status for Haitians who fled their country after the 2010 earthquake has overwhelmed immigration lawyers.

“We pulled all the strings — and this parish has a lot of strings to pull — and we still have not been able to find the family [from Mozambique] legal representation,” Amman said. The parish also engages in advocacy efforts for immigrants’ rights.

As ICE arrests have increased nationwide and the word about the parish’s apartments has spread, the parish continues to get referrals.

“Some of it’s just relational,” Amman said of how the parish has helped its guests. “We are trying to receive people as Christ.”

Director makes vocation, faith ‘The Star’ of Christmas movie

By Michael Brown Catholic News Service For Tim Reckart, filmmaking started when he was growing up in Tucson, shooting amateur video death scenes using ketchup as fake blood. With the midNovember release of “The Star,” which features the voices of Oprah Winfrey, Christopher Plummer, Patricia Heaton and other A-listers, Reckart’s directorial skills have moved a few steps forward.

During a webinar for Catholic media, Reckart said he never thought that he could garner the talents of top actors for his animated movie about the birth of Christ, but he told superiors at Sony Films to solicit them anyway.

“We said, ‘Shoot for the moon,’” he recalled, with a grin. “But then, we really got our wish on this project.”

Reckart catapulted to stardom after his inaugural foray, a 2012 11-minute stop action short “Head Over Heels,” was nominated for an Oscar. He won the IMDb New Filmmaker Award at the Bath Film Festival in 2012 and was pegged as a rising talent in the industry.

Reckart said that when Sony first approached him about directing the project, he wasn’t terribly excited about it. However, there was a certain appeal in making what could become a modern Christmas classic, one that goes to the heart of the holiday.

“Think about the movies you pull off the shelf to watch every year,” he said. “All of them are great, but none of them are about the birth of Jesus Christ. ...

That’s what families are really looking for.”

Reckart considers himself “a Christian filmmaker who doesn’t make Christian movies as such,” but rather movies “around themes and values that resonate with our faith.”

“The Star” is really a movie about vocations, he said. Bo, the donkey, longs to serve in the royal caravan, but finds himself befriending and protecting Mary from Herod’s soldiers. A key lesson, Reckart said, is “great things can come under very humble appearances.”

Reckart said he wanted to be true to biblical accounts of the Nativity, but he realized that those stories are just a prelude to the larger picture of Jesus’ ministry and message. You can’t tell the whole story, and “you can’t turn Mary and Joseph into comedy characters or action heroes,” he said.

That’s why the animals became the focal point.

It doesn’t mean that the characters of Mary and Joseph are stagnant or stiff. “We wanted to make Mary a character who laughs and who lives with gusto.”

A Catholic News Service review of the film called it a “solid choice for family viewing.” It said Reckart and screenwriter Carlos Kotkin “skillfully balance religious themes such as the importance of prayer and the value of forgiveness with a more secular message about pursuing your dreams.”

16 • The Catholic Spirit

FAITH & CULTURE

December 21, 2017

Notes home Deacon helps inmates in Red Wing facility send Christmas greetings

Kenneth Linsy smiles for the camera Dec. 13 at the Goodhue County Adult Detention Center in Red Wing.

Deacon Pat Evans of St. Joseph in Red Wing takes annual Christmas photos of inmates, such as Linsy, so they can send them to family and friends.

Photos by Dave Hrbacek/ The Catholic Spirit

By Melenie Soucheray For The Catholic Spirit

E

very December since 2004, Deacon Pat Evans has set up his personal photography gear, a backdrop and a decorated tree in the Goodhue County Adult Detention Center in Red Wing to take individual portraits of inmates to send to friends and family as Christmas gifts.

The 170-bed facility for men and women is situated a couple of blocks from the parish of St. Joseph, where Deacon Evans serves.

Cody Rieck, a 21-year-old inmate, has participated in the Christmas photo program before and called it “heartwarming.” He said it makes him happy to be able to do something nice for his friends and family. Rieck has heard other inmates say they appreciate the program, too.

“The support helps a lot,” he said. “It’s nice to know [people] care about little things.”

Janet Adams, the jail’s program coordinator, pays attention to the “little things” that make the Christmas photo shoot extra special. Each year for the shoot, she partners with the local Salvation Army to borrow photo-worthy clothes in a variety of sizes. “[Inmates] can choose what they would like to wear in the picture. That way, they are not wearing their blue jail uniform or a T-shirt or something like that,” she said.

Adams noted that the majority of the men and women who are incarcerated are fighting drug or alcohol addictions.

“When you are dealing with those kinds of issues, your health deteriorates because you usually become homeless,” she said. “You burn all your bridges and relationships. You’re couch-hopping.

You’re probably not taking care of yourself. You don’t have a place to sleep that’s safe. It’s a multitude of issues.”

When people are detained, she said, it may be a chance for them to become healthy.

“You have a bed, you have food to eat, and if you have mental health issues, those get addressed, [and] you get medication,” she said. “People really look good after a little bit in jail, about a month or two.”

From the photo shoot, the jail provides the inmates with two copies of the 4-by-6-inch photo. They can purchase more for a minimal cost.

Candace Koehn, detention deputy in the Goodhue County Sheriff’s Office, was the jail’s activities director when the Christmas photo program started. She calls it “amazing.”

“Most inmates don’t have a lot to send [to family and friends], but this gives them something. It contributes to their outlook [on life],” she said.

Doug Wilkins does some final adjustments to his clothing before Deacon Evans takes his picture.

Deacon Evans shows Linsy photos he took of him.

History of ministry For much of St. Joseph’s 150-year history, volunteers have served men and women confined in local criminal corrections institutions.

Father Thomas Kommers, pastor of St. Joseph for 14 years, said the parish has a “great relationship” with the Minnesota Correctional Facility – Red Wing, also known as the State Training School.

“A number of parishioners volunteered for decades, especially women who have been kind of like grandmothers to the young men living in the cottages over there,” he said. “[The parishioners] worked with the young men and baked cookies and whatnot with them as they were serving their sentences.”

About 15 years ago, Archbishop Harry Flynn decided the Church needed a larger presence in the Goodhue County jail. That’s when he tapped Deacon Evans for the job.

At the time, Deacon Evans, 65, a retired Northwest Airlines pilot, was serving at St. Pius V in Cannon Falls

“Most inmates don’t have a lot to send [to family and friends], but this gives them something. It contributes to their outlook [on life].”

Candace Koehn

after being ordained a permanent deacon in 1999. He asked to be reassigned to St. Joseph to dedicate more time to the prison ministry, which he’s done full-time for about 10 years.

Evans is casual in his approach to ministering to the inmates at the jail.

“I don’t wear [a collar] over there, because I don’t want anything to separate myself from these guys,” he said. “I wear jeans, tennis shoes and a shirt. I just want to be another guy. I’ve got a wife and I’ve got kids.”

He doesn’t even want to be addressed as “Deacon.”

“Just call me ‘Pat.’ It was good enough for my folks,” he said.

Evans coordinates the activities of several St. Joseph parishioners who volunteer at the jail. Among other activities, they offer a Service of the Word for anyone who wishes to attend.

They also visit with inmates and provide the Eucharist when requested. Deacon Evans offers what support he can on a one-to-one basis whenever he’s asked.

Deacon Evans tends to dismiss the role he has played in the success of the Christmas photo program. But Father Kommers is more forthcoming on behalf of Deacon Evans and his fellow volunteers.

“This is a community that’s already open to this kind of ministry,” he said.

FAITH & CULTURE

December 21, 2017

The Catholic Spirit • 17

A grandma’s wish, a teen’s search: conversion at Christmas

By Christina Capecchi For The Catholic Spirit

A

teen’s fervent spiritual quest will reach a pinnacle at midnight Mass this Christmas, when Julia Carlone sidles up next to her grandma and participates in the Dec. 24 liturgy at All Saints in Lakeville for the first time as a fully initiated Catholic.

It was a longtime dream sparked by her devout 75-year-old grandmother, Diane Spande, and inspired by her experience at the Convent of the Visitation School in Mendota Heights, where the 18-year-old from Lakeville is a senior.

Carlone was baptized Catholic but raised Lutheran.

Since arriving at “Vis” in seventh grade, Carlone began an earnest examination of “All I wanted the Catholicism permeating the school, particularly to do was influenced by the Visitation Sisters and religion teacher further Mary McClure, Carlone’s cultivate my sponsor.

As she studied the Catholic relationship faith in school, Carlone with my endured alternating periods of yearning and confusion.

Creator.

Some nights, praying as she Suddenly I had brushed her teeth before bed, she felt distant from God. a solution: “All I wanted to do was cultivate my confirmation.” further relationship with my Creator,” she wrote in a Julia Carlone reflection. “Suddenly I had a solution: confirmation.”

That epiphany took hold junior year, propelled by the richness of the faith and her desire to participate fully. She was also awed by the stories in “Extraordinary Ordinary Lives,” Elsa Thompson Hofmeister’s 2009 book about the Visitation Sisters.

McClure was instrumental in her journey toward confirmation, Carlone said, meeting regularly to field

questions and facilitating a modified Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults formation process at nearby St. Joseph in West St. Paul. Her formation was adapted to complement her studies in religion class.

“Julia’s faith has developed in such a natural way,” McClure said. “Aware of her surroundings, she has a freedom to take in all that is beautiful and allow it to touch her life. Within this past year, Julia has demonstrated both a depth of inquiry and a delightful candor in all her questions.”

Carlone recalls those questions vividly. “The Trinity was really confusing to me. But now, because of Ms. McClure, I could give a presentation on it.”

As part of her RCIA preparation, Carlone also worked closely with school chaplain Father Mark Pavlak, associate pastor of St. John Neumann in Eagan.

“Julia’s pilgrimage of faith has been so edifying to all of us, but in particular, to her peers at Visitation,” he said. “When this young woman decided to be fully embraced by the Catholic Church, it not only increases her faith but also the faith of those around her, as if to say, ‘Perhaps there is something to this after all.’ As members of the body of Christ, we all rejoice and are honored by Julia’s fiat.”

She made her yes official at a Dec. 8 all-school Mass, where she was the first among the assembled student body to receive holy Communion and was also confirmed. The arrangement to celebrate Julia’s confirmation on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception was arrived at, with permission, because Carlone did not want to wait until Easter, the traditional time for RCIA candidates to enter the Church, and because it felt fitting to receive the sacraments at the place where her faith was cultivated.

That faith is a powerful antidote to the stressors of adolescence, Carlone said, including her looming college decision. It also reminds her to resist the commercialism of Christmas.

“I finally decided an Apple watch is not what I should be focusing on, and I’ve moved on from that,” she said.

Her grandma, who taught her the rosary, had always dreamed of having her family take up a pew at midnight Mass. Over time, that vision became Carlone’s.

TOP From left, Convent of the Visitation seniors Mary Kenny, Hannah Bursey, Julia Carlone, Molly Rosenfield and Meg Pryor celebrate Carlone’s Dec. 8 first Communion and confirmation at an all-school Mass at the Mendota Heights school. Photos courtesy Visitation ABOVE Carlone, center, renews her baptismal promises along with the entire congregation d uring the Mass. At left is Father Mark Pavlak, and at right is Mary McClure, Carlone’s sponsor and religion teacher at Visitation’s Upper School.

“It’s sentimental,” she said. To be there with her grandma — singing and worshipping and receiving Communion together — will be unforgettable. “I get giddy just thinking about it.”

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18 • The Catholic Spirit

FROM AGE TO AGE

December 21, 2017

Indiana town embodies Santa Claus and his generous spirit

By Katie Rutter Catholic News Service

B

elief in that iconic Christmas figure, the rotund merry man with a bag full of presents, inspires thousands of children to write letters addressed to “Santa Claus” each year.

Surprisingly, many of these wish lists actually do get delivered to Santa Claus.

But rather than landing in a magical workshop at the North Pole, the notes wind up in a little Indiana town that bears the same name as the jolly old elf.

“We have already answered 5,000, and we’ll be getting more this morning,” Patricia Koch, founder of the Santa Claus Museum and Village, told Catholic News Service Dec. 2. “They come from the U.S.A. and from all over the world.”

Koch and a dozen other volunteers work long hours to “help” Santa answer the letters that find their way to the Santa Claus post office. Koch calls this letter-writing a ministry and is dedicated to keeping the spirit of Santa Claus, the person, alive.

“Our world can become very selfcentered and commercialized,” she explained, “so I think Santa Claus has that spirit of love and forgiveness and peace and joy.”

The town itself, with a population just over 2,400, seems to embody the persona of Santa Claus. Streets are named “Sleigh Bell Drive” and “Candy Cane Lane,” or even “Melchior,” “Balthazar” and “Kaspar” after the traditional names of the three wise men. Unsurprisingly, the Catholics of the town named their church after the man who inspired the myth: St. Nicholas.

“Just looking at his acts, we just see this kindness and seeing those who were less fortunate,” said Father John Brosmer, pastor of St. Francis of Assisi in Dale, which encompasses St. Nicholas Church and two other nearby worship sites.

St. Nicholas, also known as Nicholas of Myra, was a bishop in present-day Turkey. He lived from about A.D. 280 to 343. He was the orphaned son of wealthy parents, and one ancient story claims that he threw bags of gold through the window of an impoverished family in the dead of night.

Patricia Koch, founder of the Santa Claus Museum and Village in Santa Claus, Ind., holds a stack of letters to be mailed Dec. 2. As the only U.S. city named “Santa Claus,” the town receives, and replies to, letters from thousands of children each year. CNS “In later versions, he drops a bag of gold through the chimney where it lands in a stocking that was hung there to dry,” explained Adam English, chair of the Christian studies department at Campbell University and author of the historical book “The Saint Who Would Be Santa Claus.”

“What’s really memorable about it is that it’s an absolutely ordinary act of charity, of goodwill. This is the kind of thing that anybody can do,” English said.

That simple act of generosity inspired generations of anonymous gift-giving.

Givers attributed mysterious presents to St. Nicholas and passed his story from culture to culture. In the Netherlands, his nickname was “Sinter Klaas,” which evolved to “Santa Claus” when Dutch immigrants arrived in New York.

St. Nicholas’ identity was forever established as a “jolly old elf” by the famous poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” penned by Clement Clarke Moore in 1822. “[The poem] starts to change him from being a Christian bishop, stern and austere and presiding over the Eucharist, to being more of a gift-giver who’s maybe more a magical creature,” English said.

Today, the familiar images of this magical man are recreated throughout the town of Santa Claus. Huge statues that adorn the main highway and the

town hall depict a smiling, rosy-cheeked figure with a large bag of toys, his red coat and hat looking nothing like clerical garb. Still, for Santa enthusiasts, even this depiction echoes Christian beginnings that were simply transformed by American culture.

“I use the expression ‘extreme makeover,’” explained Father Joseph Marquis, a Byzantine Catholic priest who runs the St. Nicholas Institute. His program, based in Detroit, teaches the saint’s history to professional portrayers of Santa.

“They took away his miter and gave him a triangular cap, and his bishop’s coat was shortened and lined with fur.

The candy cane is an evolution from the crosier,” Father Marquis said.

Nicholas of Myra likely lacked the rounded figure characteristic of a diet of milk and cookies. His place in history would paint a stature hardened by persecution, perhaps even bearing the scars of torture. A contemporary of the emperor Diocletian, Nicholas lived through the most terrible persecution of the early Church and was himself imprisoned.

“We know for sure his nose was broken,” said Father Marquis, referencing historical research done on the bones of the saint.

“They tortured his priests who were members of his flock to make him recant, and he wouldn’t do it,” Father Marquis said.

Nicholas of Myra also was hailed as a defender of justice, which might have led to Santa’s common question to young children, “Have you been good?” and the naughty-nice list that he must “check twice.” According to one legend, the bishop found out that a local judge had accepted a bribe and falsely condemned three men to death.

“Nicholas ran to the spot and literally grabbed the sword out of the executioner’s hand,” Father Marquis said.

“He pointed right at the guy for condemning them to death, and the man actually confessed that he took money to condemn them,” he said.

St. Nicholas Church hosted a visit from its namesake to anticipate his Dec. 6 feast day. A white-bearded man wearing a miter and long red robes made a surprise appearance at the Sunday Vigil Mass Dec. 2 and handed out ornaments to all the parishioners.

“You can’t get away from Santa Claus here,” laughed parishioner Deacon Jim Woebkenberg.

The voice of St. Nicholas likely pursues Catholics during every Sunday liturgy.

Historical documents confirm that Nicholas attended the Council of Nicaea in 325. While his direct contributions, if any, are unknown, it was during this council that the Nicene Creed was written.

“You have echoes of the voice of St. Nicholas every Sunday when we recite the creed, which for me as a big St. Nicholas fan, indebted to him for so many things in my life, that’s important to me,” Father Marquis said.

Just as the town of Santa Claus stays on the map even after the holiday season, the local pastor said that the true spirit of St. Nick leads Catholics to generosity all year long.

“Growing up as a Christian, you want to share your gifts, you want to give of yourself,” Father Brosmer said. “The true Christian is St. Nicholas; it’s that generosity all the time.”

More stories at TheCatholicSpirit.com

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The ‘bitter pill’ of false liberation.

A major study published Dec. 7 in the New England Journal of Medicine concludes that hormonal contraception increases the risk of breast cancer for women. The research used all of Denmark as its sample, following nearly 1.8 million Danish women of childbearing age for over a decade.

Gregorian chant called seminarian to Catholicism. A former Baptist recalled attending his first Mass nearly six years ago, where he encountered sounds he had never before heard in a church — and it was coming from the priest.

FROM AGE TO AGE

December 21, 2017

The Catholic Spirit • 19

Mosaic artist’s dream realized with Trinity Dome

By Kelly Sankowski Catholic News Service

Dome a work of art, theology

G

iovanni Travisanutto’s mosaic career began when he was an 11-year-old boy standing on a step stool to reach the workbench at the mosaic school in Spilimbergo, Italy.

It ended with him once again reaching new heights as he stood atop scaffolding 150 feet up, installing the mosaic section that would complete both his career and the original plans for the Trinity Dome in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Giovanni Conception in Washington, D.C. TRAVISANUTTO As he sat in the pews of the shrine’s Great Upper Church Dec. 7, looking up at the 18,300-square-foot mosaic, the founder of the Italian studio that completed the dome artwork recalled how he entered the mosaic craft because he had no other choice.

In the aftermath of World War II, Travisanutto’s hometown of Spilimbergo, northeast of Venice, was destroyed. The only school remaining was the Scuola di Mosaico, where people from around the world are trained in the mosaic craft. When Travisanutto completed elementary school, he began classes there.

His teacher, now 107 years old, came in his wheelchair to the large warehouse where Travisanutto, his son Fabrizio and other workers were completing the dome mosaic. Travisanutto’s studio, Travisanutto Giovanni, which he founded in 1980, also completed the mosaics for the national shrine’s Knights of Columbus Incarnation Dome, Redemption Dome, and Italian and Hungarian chapels. Travisanutto said every time he visited, he would look at the Trinity Dome and think it would be impossible to install a mosaic there.

The Trinity Dome in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., was dedicated Dec. 8, on the feast of its patroness. CNS “This one was just a dream,” he said. “We said this would never happen.”

When he received a call in 2015 from Msgr. Walter Rossi, rector of the national shrine, telling him that they wanted his studio to make the Trinity Dome Mosaic, Travisanutto, 79, said he was happy at first, but he soon thought, “Oh gee, what do we do now?” His team had the same amount of time to work on the Trinity Dome as it did for the other two domes, but it was five times larger.

Mosaic workers from different workshops in Spilimbergo joined the effort. From March 2016 until April 2017, the team worked for 10 hours a day, six days a week. The entire mosaic is made up of more than 14 million pieces of Venetian glass, called “tesserae,” which the workers hand cut with a hammer to create the right size for the design.

“When we decorate the church, you feel that you do something for your religion, for your people, for the future of your religion,” Travisanutto said.

In the years since its 1959 dedication, the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., has had three main architectural focal points: on the exterior, its Great Dome and Knights Tower over the northeast skyline, and in the interior, its dramatic Christ in Majesty Mosaic behind the main altar.

With the Dec. 8 dedication of its interior Trinity Dome Mosaic completing its original architectural and iconographic plans, the national shrine has a new dramatic focal point before it marks the centennial of the laying of its foundation stone in 2020. Msgr. Walter Rossi, the national shrine’s rector, said in an interview that it is fitting that the Trinity Dome is centrally located in the nation’s largest Catholic church, and that the Holy Trinity is central to the new mosaic’s iconography.

“The Trinity is central to the mosaic because the Trinity is central to our Christian life and faith. This is how God has revealed himself to us as Father, Son and Spirit,” he said.

Opposite the monumental figures of the Trinity in the mosaic is a nearly three-story high depiction of Mary as the Immaculate Conception, appearing as a beautiful young woman, her arms extended toward a procession of saints and holy people, ultimately pointing to her son Jesus.

Msgr. Rossi noted that those two main parts of the Trinity Dome Mosaic are based on 1953 designs by the shrine’s iconography committee as plans were underway to complete the Great Upper Church.“We altered the figures on the east and west sides to include saints of the United States, and saints who had a history with the national shrine, like Mother Teresa and St. John Paul II, and we also wanted saints that reflect the face of the people who come here,” he said.

— Mark Zimmermann, CNS

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20 • The Catholic Spirit

FOCUS ON FAITH

SUNDAY SCRIPTURES

Jacqui Skemp

Mary, the perfect model Our first Christmas as a married couple, my husband and I stood side by side at the vigil Mass, both fully aware of the child growing within me.

I had never experienced such a kinship with Mary as I did that Christmas. And while we never got to meet that child who left us all too soon, it was a great gift to wait in secret anticipation with Mary. With my hand over my belly, I knew that something miraculous was stirring where no one else could see.

Today, we wait with Mary on the brink of something so extraordinary that generation upon generation before her prayed, sung and died for.

“The power of the Most High will overshadow you,”

December 21, 2017

Today, we wait with Mary on the brink of something so extraordinary that generation upon generation before her prayed, sung and died for. iStock/mbolina the angel told Mary. She knew of whom this angel was speaking. The history of her ancestors was filled with moments where God made his presence known by a cloud covering his people. In a particular way, his presence in their temples was made known by a cloud filling and surrounding the space.

And now, here she was, a young Jewish girl standing before an angel of the Lord, God’s presence over her, and she is becoming the new temple. God incarnate will reside inside of her very body for nine months, protected in the darkness and water of her womb.

Surely, Mary ran her hand over her swelling belly, knowing the great gift that grew there.

Mary is the fulfillment of the Lord’s promise to King

David because he has literally housed himself in David’s descendant. In Mary, humanity embraced the divine will. She does not just say yes in the moment; she says yes to all that God has in store for her life. She is the perfect model for us, especially during this season of anticipation and joy. We are also meant to offer ourselves up as temples, walking dwelling places for our Lord, brimming with miraculous potential and accepting all that he lays out before us.

Skemp is a devotional writer for Blessed Is She, a ministry for Catholic women, and blogs at www.MexicanDomesticGoddess.com. Skemp, her husband and their three sons are parishioners of St. Agnes in St. Paul.

DAILY Scriptures Sunday, Dec. 24 Fourth Sunday of Advent 2 Sm 7:1-5, 8b-12, 14a, 16 Rom 16:25-27 Lk 1:26-38

Thursday, Dec. 28 Holy Innocents, martyrs 1 Jn 1:5–2:2 Mt 2:13-18

Monday, Jan. 1 Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God Nm 6:22-27 Gal 4:4-7 Lk 2:16-21

Friday, Dec. 29 1 Jn 2:3-11 Lk 2:22-35

Monday, Dec. 25 Nativity of the Lord Is 52:7-10 Heb 1:1-6 Jn 1:1-18

Saturday, Dec. 30 1 Jn 2:12-17 Lk 2:36-40

Tuesday, Dec. 26 St. Stephen, first martyr Acts 6:8-10; 7:54-59 Mt 10:17-22

Sunday, Dec. 31 Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph Sir 3:2-6, 12-14 Col 3:12-21 Lk 2:22-40

Wednesday, Dec. 27 St. John, apostle and evangelist 1 Jn 1:1-4 Jn 20:1a, 2-8

FAITH FUNDAMENTALS

Father Michael Van Sloun

The symbols of baptism Water. Water is the primary symbol of baptism. John the Baptist used water (Mt 3:11; Mk 1:8a; Jn 1:33; 3:23), as did Jesus (Jn 3:22). Jesus is living water (Jn 4:10), and when Jesus died, the water that flowed from his pierced side serves as a wellspring of his life and grace (Jn 19:34). The usual method is infusion, for water to be poured over the head. Baptism can also be done by partial or full immersion. Water is a symbol of divine life, grace, new birth, growth, power, deliverance, cleansing and the covenant.

Oil. Oil is also a symbol of baptism, and two kinds are used. The Oil of the Catechumens is used after the prayer of exorcism and applied to the chest. It represents salvation as well as the strength and power that come from Christ our savior. After the water has been poured, Sacred Chrism is used to anoint the crown of the head, and it represents salvation, participation in the priesthood of Christ, membership in the body of

Tuesday, Jan. 2 Sts. Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen, bishops and doctors of the Church 1 Jn 2:22-28 Jn 1:19-28 Wednesday, Jan. 3 1 Jn 2:29–3:6 Jn 1:29-34 Thursday, Jan. 4 St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, religious 1 Jn 3:7-10 Jn 1:35-42

Friday, Jan. 5 St. John Neumann, bishop 1 Jn 3:11-21 Jn 1:43-51 Saturday, Jan. 6 1 Jn 5:5-13 Mk 1:7-11 Sunday, Jan. 7 Epiphany of the Lord Is 60:1-6 Eph 3:2-3a, 5-6 Mt 2:1-12 Monday, Jan. 8 Baptism of the Lord Is 42:1-4, 6-7 Mk 1:7-11 Tuesday, Jan. 9 1 Sm 1:9-20 Mk 1:21-28

Christ and a share in eternal life.

Baptismal garment. The baptismal garment is a white garment either worn from the beginning of the ritual or given after pouring or immersion. It is an outward sign of the person’s Christian dignity. It also signifies that the person has become a new creation and has been clothed with Christ.

Candle. The baptismal candle is lit from the Easter Candle. The candle represents the risen Jesus, who is the light of the world (Jn 8:12). Jesus is the light that guides every baptized person. It also represents the flame of faith, which is to be kept burning brightly.

Dove. The dove is a symbol of the Holy Spirit. When Jesus was baptized, the heavens were opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in the form of a dove, and every person who is baptized receives the same Holy Spirit. Jesus baptizes with the Holy Spirit (Mk 1:8; Jn 1:33).

Flame. A flame is another symbol of the Holy Spirit, which came down as tongues as of fire on Pentecost (Acts 2:3). Jesus baptizes with fire (Mt 3:11b; Lk 3:16).

Baptismal font. The baptismal font is a large basin, usually placed on top of a pillar or stand, but it may emanate from the floor. Years ago it was customary to place the font in a baptistery, a separate room apart from the body of the church, but today it is more common to position the font in the entryway or a prominent location within the church.

Holy water fonts are often placed at the doors of the church where the baptismal font is not located, or in chapels or peoples’ homes. The holy water recalls the

Wednesday, Jan. 10 1 Sm 3:1-10, 19-20 Mk 1:29-39 Thursday, Jan. 11 1 Sm 4:1-11 Mk 1:40-45 Friday, Jan. 12 1 Sm 8:4-7, 10-22a Mk 2:1-12 Saturday, Jan. 13 1 Sm 9:1-4, 17-19; 10:1 Mk 2:13-17 Sunday, Jan. 14 Second Sunday of Ordinary Time 1 Sm 3:3b-10, 19 1 Cor 6:13c-15a, 17-20 Jn 1:35-42

waters of baptism, and when a person makes the sign of the cross, it recalls the baptismal formula.

Seashell. A seashell is sometimes used to cup and pour the water during baptism. It is one of the most common symbols of St. James, who reportedly used a seashell to baptize his converts in Spain. The seashell is often pictured with three drops of water, which represent the Trinity.

Chi-rho. A chi-rho, or a cross, is often displayed on the font or other items associated with baptism. The “chi” is the Greek letter equivalent to the English letters CH, and the “rho” is the Greek letter equivalent to the English letter R, and together are the first two letters of the Greek word for Christ. Both the monogram and the cross represent Jesus, in whose name disciples are baptized.

Fish. A single fish represents a baptized person, a group of fish represents the community of believers, and a net represents the Church, which keeps the members together and protects them (see Jn 21:11).

A fish also represents the new life of grace that a person receives in baptism.

Three fish arranged in a triangle or a circle represent the Trinity. When Jesus commissioned his disciples to go forth and baptize, he instructed them to use the Trinitarian Formula: “In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Mt 28:19).

Father Van Sloun is pastor of St. Bartholomew in Wayzata. This is the ninth column in a series on baptism.

Read more of his writing at www.CatholicHotdish.com.

THIS CATHOLIC LIFE • COMMENTARY

December 21, 2017

FAITH IN THE PUBLIC ARENA

Sarah Spangenberg

Taking battle notes from Star Wars As Catholics, we lose a lot of battles in the public arena. Sometimes giving up and opting out appears to be the best option, but it’s not. Each of us has a small but crucial role to play in God’s great story of salvation, which often doesn’t look much like earthly victory. The heroes of last year’s Star Wars film, “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” bring this dynamic to life on the silver screen and provide a profound image of our duty as Catholics in today’s culture and public arena: to be workers, ministers and prophets of a future not our own.

The standalone hero?

In 1977, the film “A New Hope” ushered in the first Star Wars trilogy, in which we followed the scrappy Luke Skywalker as he fulfilled his destiny to become a Jedi. Much of the plot follows Skywalker in his enterprises, showcasing his courage, his quick wit and resourcefulness, and his skill as a pilot and a fighter.

Luke, in many ways, is the hero of the story.

However, what looked like standalone heroism 40 years ago had another thing coming last December with the release of “Rogue One.” The film is a sort of caveat, interrupting the plot of “The Force Awakens” (continued in “The Last Jedi,” which is in theaters) to give viewers a glimpse into what took place before we met Luke Skywalker.

As it turns out, a lot of other people had work to do before Luke could shine.

Passing on the plans “Rogue One” follows a ragtag group of rebels on a mission to steal the plans to the Death Star, a space station strong enough to obliterate entire planets in one strike. Retrieving those plans, stored in an enemy base

THE LOCAL CHURCH Father John Paul Erickson

Back-to-back Masses reminder of liturgy’s ‘sublime work’ About every seven years, depending on leap years, Christmas is celebrated on a Monday. Unlike the sacred triduum, which moves about the calendar and can land anytime from early spring to late April, the date of Christmas is quite set: Dec. 25. Because of this, parishes and pastors find themselves this year in the unenviable position of celebrating the Solemnity of Christmas only hours after lighting the final candle on the Advent wreath.

I say unenviable because celebrating the sacred liturgy well requires effort and preparation. The Fourth Sunday of Advent is an important liturgical day, and it deserves its own repertoire, decoration and tone, not to mention its own homily. Without a doubt, Christmas deserves just as much effort; indeed,

Urge Congress to support ‘Dreamers’ The DREAM Act of 2017 (H.R. 3440 and S. 1615), which has bipartisan support in both the House and Senate, is intended to protect immigrant youth who entered the United States as children and know America as their only home. The young people who stand to benefit by this bill are contributors to our economy, military veterans or current service members, students in our universities, and leaders in our parishes and communities. They should not be forced to live in constant fear of deportation at any moment or of separation from their families. Members of Congress need to hear from their constituents on this pressing issue that impacts the future of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) youths and young adults. As Catholics, we believe in protecting the dignity of every human being, especially our children.

The following members of Congress have already shown their support for “Dreamers” by signing onto the bill as co-sponsors. Please call them to thank them and ask for their continued support of “Dreamers.”

Rep. Timothy Walz (1st District): 202-225-2472 Rep. Betty McCollum (4th District): 202-225-6631 Rep. Keith Ellison (5th District): 202-225-4755 Rep. Rick Nolan (8th District): 202-225-6211 The following members of Congress have not yet signed on in support of the DREAM Act of 2017. We ask you to call them today to urge their support by signing on as a co-sponsor.

Rep. Jason Lewis (2nd District): 202-225-2271 Rep. Erik Paulsen (3rd District): 202-225-2871 Rep. Tom Emmer (6th District): 202-225-2331 Rep. Collin Peterson (7th District): 202-225-2165 on a remote planet, would enable the Rebel alliance to destroy the weapon and put an end to its destructive power.

To make it happen, each member of the team has a

due to its special character and significance, it requires even more. So try not to be too hard on your pastor, choir director and church decorators if they seem a little worn out on Christmas Tuesday.

It’s a truth worthy of reflection — celebrating well requires labor. I do not mean ordinary revelry, which requires little planning or the prudent expenditure of energy. I mean the kind of celebrations we expect at wedding feasts and family holiday reunions. Most great celebrations do not simply come together at the last minute on their own, nor do they result in lifelong memories without the sacrifices of many. To party hearty often requires hearty work. For the Christian, part of the work of truly celebrating is offering God our worship for the gift of family, faith and salvation.

The sacred liturgy is not a spectator sport; it is work, the most sublime of work, for by means of it we participate in the salvation of the world. It requires the gift of self, which is no easy task.

Because the sacred liturgy is work, we naturally at times look for ways to avoid it, or to make it accommodate our own desires and harried schedules.

And so it is not uncommon to be asked, when Christmas falls on a Monday, whether the Christian could satisfy his or her obligation to attend Mass for both the Fourth Sunday of Advent and Christmas by attending one Mass on Sunday night.

The logic behind the question is reasonable: The Church clearly allows for Saturday vigil Masses to satisfy the Sunday obligation. So why wouldn’t she also allow for the Mass on Sunday evening to satisfy the obligation on Monday, even when one is attending Mass to satisfy the Sunday obligation?

The Catholic Spirit • 21

small but crucial role to play. Just how crucial each man’s part is can be seen most dramatically in one scene in which a line of rebels passes the plans along like a sprinter’s baton as Darth Vader cuts them down. The last man standing just manages to slip them through a closing door before meeting his own end. It’s clear in this moment that if one single actor in this great heist fails to execute — even if his only job was to pass the plans from one man to the next — the plan would have failed.

Their mission is successful; the plans are recovered.

Tragically, the team does not survive to celebrate their victory; the enemy, realizing its defense has been compromised, makes a last-ditch attempt to stop the rebels by using the Death Star to destroy the planet.

Here’s the point: Unless these unsung heroes were willing to do their part, even at the cost of their lives, Luke Skywalker may have remained an anonymous farm boy on Tatooine. His role was no more important than theirs.

Part of something greater Especially in the public square, it often feels like we as Catholics are fighting a losing battle. It is sometimes tempting to think when it comes to our political system that change will never come, so why bother?

We must not forget that the work of public policy and advocacy takes the contribution and commitment of many people. It is the work of many years, sometimes many generations. Each one of us is a link in the chain, necessary because we hold together something much bigger than ourselves: We are charged with passing the baton of faith, handing down God’s plan. In the words of the Archbishop Oscar Romero Prayer, “We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work. Nothing we do is complete, which is a way of saying that the kingdom always lies beyond us.”

Members of God’s great mission: It is true we may never see the end results. But if we allow this reality to discourage us, then the sacrifices of those who came before us will have been in vain, and the next generation will be left empty-handed. As the culture around us threatens to silence the truth about God and the human person, we must stand as an alliance of cultural rebels, each one playing a small but necessary part in God’s plan.

Spangenberg is a communications associate for the Minnesota Catholic Conference.

(Get all that?)

Certainly it would be for the best if we remembered that the Mass is that place of privileged encounter and communion between God and the people he has chosen to be his own. Such an attitude can make the demands of the Mass and the Church’s public prayer a delight and the cause of joy, rather than a mere duty to be endured.

But there is no getting around the fact that the sacred liturgy is real work, a work that is required if we are to celebrate well as Christians. Both the Fourth Sunday of Advent and Christmas are days that must be celebrated due to their connection to the mystery of salvation. And if they both must be celebrated, then both must be marked by the work of love that is the Mass.

All of this to say that there is no “two-for-one” this year! No one single Mass satisfies the obligation of both the Fourth Sunday of Advent and Christmas Day. Christians should plan to join their brothers and sisters in the offering of the eucharistic sacrifice twice the weekend of Dec. 23, 24 and 25, whether this means once in the evening of Dec. 23, and then again in the evening of Dec. 24; or if it means once in the morning of Dec. 24 and once in the morning of Dec. 25; or if it means Sunday morning and Mass at midnight. Pace yourself, however; the work of the liturgy, which is the work of salvation, will demand something of you.

But, real love always will.

Father Erickson is the director of the Office of Worship for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and pastor of Blessed Sacrament in St. Paul.

22 • The Catholic Spirit

THIS CATHOLIC LIFE • COMMENTARY

YOUR HEART, HIS HOME

You might be tempted to imagine that your life is too ordinary for the Father of all creation to break through with angels and glory and good news. ... But that is to forget our shepherd friends.

Liz Kelly

Breaking into the ordinary When I was a child, I loved most the wise men of our nativity set for their grandeur and color and elegance, and for the numinous gifts they brought to the Infant King. They were mysterious royalty from a far-off land who somehow possessed secret knowledge of the Savior’s birth, and I was sure their lives were full of intrigue and adventure.

As I age, I find myself much more drawn to the lowly shepherds — for their simplicity, their humility, their faithfulness to an ordinary life of labor among innocent beasts. And I wonder about their wonder, how in their daily, non-glamorous existence, they carried within them, as a people, that deep longing for the Messiah. It went with them everywhere — into their homes and pastures, into their barns and fields.

They nurtured that longing, they suffered with it, they held it in reverence and hope, “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.” Awaiting the Messiah was a way of life they’d honored for generations.

How frightening and wildly surprising it must have been — while they were simply doing what they always did, keeping at their daily labors — to have the sky erupt in glory and music and heavenly hosts.

And I mostly love the shepherds because, despite their ordinariness, despite their terror, they made the decision to go to Bethlehem. Into the night, they ran in haste. They ran empty-handed. They didn’t make a stop at Macy’s to pick up some myrrh. They ran, knowing they had virtually nothing to offer but themselves and their witness, to testify to what they had been told.

In this way, I wonder if they do not honor the Infant King in an even more powerful way. Jesus

CATHOLIC WATCHMEN

Brad Parent

Our marriages support our priests I’ll never forget where I was when I got that call.

I was sitting on my bed in my college apartment, halfway through my sophomore year. I had just gotten off the phone with my younger brother, who at the time was a senior in high school. He had just told me he felt God was calling him to be a priest, and he would be entering college seminary that fall.

As soon as I hung up the phone, questions began swirling in my head. When the dust settled a bit, I realized that in addition to all the questions I had about my brother, I also couldn’t help but ask myself, “What does this mean for me?”

It took some time and a lot of prayer, but eventually I discerned that it didn’t mean I was called to the priesthood like my brother. I was grateful for this clarity, but I was still wrestling with the question of how I could best support my brother in his vocation.

Prayer was an obvious answer. You don’t have to have a brother who is a priest to know how demanding priests’ lives are and how much they need our prayers. Yet, it seemed like it was my duty to somehow support my brother in a more specific and tangible way.

December 21, 2017

iStock/ZvonimirAtleti comes as infant, completely dependent, possessing nothing. What he gives is himself in complete vulnerability and trust. Is there a way that I might do the same this Christmas, that is, make the decision to go to Bethlehem, to go there with haste and energy and fervor and without reservation, and to give Jesus myself, more of myself — in vulnerability and trust.

To give not out of abundance but out of holy dependence; to give not out of my wealth but out of my poverty, not out of grandeur but out of humility and littleness and boring old ordinariness.

You might be tempted to imagine that your life is too ordinary for the Father of all creation to break through with angels and glory and good news. You might think, “I’m not holy enough or important enough, or there is simply too much darkness around me” — too much corruption, too much betrayal and failure, too much terror and illness and pain, or that it’s too late for you, your chances have all been spoiled.

St. John Paul II wrote in “Familiaris Consortio” that “when marriage is not esteemed, neither can consecrated virginity or celibacy exist; when human sexuality is not regarded as a great value given by the Creator, the renunciation of it for the sake of the kingdom of heaven loses its meaning.”

One such way was to simply be his brother. He didn’t need me to treat him like “a seminarian” or now “a deacon.” That might mean sitting around a campfire and sharing a few beers, or working ourselves into a sweat anytime we come across a pingpong table. But the important thing is that he can simply relax, be himself and decompress.

Recently I was blessed to marry the woman of my dreams. My brother was even able to be the deacon at the Mass and witness our vows! In preparing for that sacrament, I realized that there is something even more powerful and meaningful I can do for my brother, and the good news is you don’t have to have a brother who is going to be a priest to do it.

It is to have a great marriage.

On the surface, marriage and the priesthood may seem like opposites. After all, one embraces the union of a man and woman, while the other embraces

But that is to forget our shepherd friends. That is to forget that in their lowly routine, their daily little faithfulness, God broke through, came crashing in with that long-awaited, spectacular rescue. That is to forget what the shepherds found when they raced to Bethlehem, an innocent babe who would touch them in the flesh, would look on them with human and divine eyes of innocence and perfect, redeeming power to reclaim all that had been lost to sin and death.

Jesus, break through to this ordinary heart — I know it is not nameless or boring to you — and I will run to meet you in the manger where I long to entrust more of myself to your sacred heart of rescue.

Kelly is the author of six books including “Jesus Approaches: What Contemporary Women Can Learn about Healing, Freedom and Joy from the Women of the New Testament” (Loyola Press, 2017). She is a parishioner of St. Michael in Stillwater.

celibacy. It might seem that letting a priest see the joy in your marriage could be a sort of “taunting” or “showing off” of the good which he cannot have.

However, this couldn’t be further from the truth.

Marriage is intended to be an earthly symbol of Christ’s love for us and of the hope we have of one day being united with our Creator in heaven. Our priests remain celibate in order to witness to this very same reality. By foregoing something that is so good, their lives point to something that is even better. In this way, the priesthood is inextricably tied to marriage. The better witness our marriages are to the world of Christ’s love for us and for his Church, the more they proclaim the greatness of the priesthood.

St. John Paul II wrote in “Familiaris Consortio” that “when marriage is not esteemed, neither can consecrated virginity or celibacy exist; when human sexuality is not regarded as a great value given by the Creator, the renunciation of it for the sake of the kingdom of heaven loses its meaning.”

Our priests have renounced marriage for us and for the Church. Now it is our responsibility as laity to live out marriages that witness to the goodness of the sacrament. This in turn extols the dignity and greatness of the priesthood, and it ultimately witnesses to the reality to which both marriage and the priesthood point: the incomprehensible love of Christ for the world.

Our priests have given their lives for this message; we owe it to them to do our part to share it.

Parent is a consulting actuary and parishioner of St. Mark in St. Paul. Learn about the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ Catholic Watchmen initiative at www.rediscover.archspm.org or www.facebook.com/thecatholicwatchmen.

CALENDAR

December 21, 2017 Ongoing groups

CALENDAR submissions

Dementia support group — Second Tuesday of each 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.

Faithful spouses support group — Third Tuesday of each month: 7–8:30 p.m. at the Chancery, 777 Forest St., St. Paul. For those who are living apart from their spouses because of separation or divorce. 651-291-4438 or faithfulspouses@archspm.org.

DEADLINE: Noon Thursday, 14 days before the anticipated Thursday date of publication. We cannot guarantee a submitted event will appear in the calendar. Priority is given to events occurring before the

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

next issue date.

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 submission.

ITEMS MUST INCLUDE the following to be considered for publication: • Time and date of event • Full street address of event • Description of event • C ontact information in case of questions ONLINE: www.thecatholicspirit.com/

Friday Night at the Friary — Third Friday of each month: 7–9 p.m. at Franciscan Brothers of Peace, 1289 Lafond Ave., St. Paul. Men ages 18-35 are invited for prayer and fellowship. www.facebook.com/queenofpeacefriary.

FAX: 651-291-4460 777 Forest St., St. Paul, MN 55106

More events online

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

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

Retreats On the Crest of a New Year — Dec 31: 10 a.m.–7 p.m. at St. Paul’s Monastery, 2675 Benet Road, Maplewood. www.benedictinecenter.org.

2018 Young Adult Winter Weekend with Father Patrick Barnes and Jen Messing — Jan. 5-7 at Lutsen Mountains Ski Area & Cascade Lodge, 3719 W. Highway 61, Lutsen. www.idretreats.org/2018-young-adult-winter-weekend.

Women’s mid-week retreat — Jan. 16-18 at Franciscan Retreats and Spirituality Center, 16385 St. Francis Lane, Prior Lake. www.franciscanretreats.net.

Men’s weekend retreat — Feb. 2-4 at Franciscan Retreats and Spirituality Center, 16385 St. Francis Lane, Prior Lake. www.franciscanretreats.net.

Parish events

Conferences/seminars/ workshops

Twin Cities prison ministry activity overview — Jan. 4: 7–8:30 p.m. at Lumen Christi, 2055 Bohland Ave., St. Paul. www.lumenchristicc.org.

MAIL: “Calendar,” The Catholic Spirit

Taize prayer — First Friday of each month: 7:30 p.m. at St. Richard, 7540 Penn Ave. S., Richfield. www.strichards.com/first-fridays.

CARITAS cancer support group — Wednesdays: 10:30 a.m.–noon at St. Joseph’s Hospital, second floor, maternity classroom 2500, 45 W. 10th St., St. Paul.

Christmas tree sale — Through Dec. 24 at St. Pascal Baylon, 1757 Conway St., St. Paul.

3–9 p.m. weekdays and 9 a.m.–9 p.m. weekends.

calendarsubmissions

The Catholic Spirit • 23

Prayer/worship Healing Mass with Father Jim Livingston — Jan. 9: 7 p.m. at St. Gabriel the Archangel, St. Joseph campus, 1310 Mainstreet, Hopkins. www.stgabrielhopkins.org.

Singles group — ongoing second Saturday of each month: 6:15 p.m. at St. Vincent de Paul, 9100 93rd Ave. N., Brooklyn Park. Gather for a potluck supper, conversation and games.

763-425-0412.

Schools St. Thomas Academy admissions open house — Jan. 7: 1 p.m. at St. Thomas Academy, 949 Mendota Heights Road, Mendota Heights. www.cadets.com.

Other events 2018 Legislative Breakfast — Jan. 10: 7:30–9 a.m. at St. John Neumann, 4030 Pilot Knob Road, Eagan. www.micah.org.

Women with Spirit Bible Study — Tuesdays through April 10: 9:30–11:30 a.m. at Pax Christi, 12100 Pioneer Trail, Eden Prairie. University-based teachers. Tuition $100. www.paxchristi.com.

Knights of Columbus bingo — Wednesdays: 6–9 p.m. at Solanus Casey Council Hall, 1920 S. Greeley St., Stillwater.

Divine Spark: Kindling the Fires of Ministry — Jan. 11 and 12 at St. Paul’s Monastery, 2675 Benet Road, Maplewood. www.benedictinecenter.org.

Singles Sunday Spirits walking group for 50-plus Catholic singles — ongoing Sundays: For Catholic singles to meet and make friends.

The group usually meets in St. Paul on Sunday afternoons. Kay at 651-426-3103 or Al at 651-482-0406.

The Catholic Spirit wants to hear your take.

Letters to the Editor should be limited to 150 words and sent to CatholicSpirit@archspm.org with “Letter to the Editor” in the subject line.

Please include your name, parish and daytime phone number in case we need to contact you.

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EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES Immediate Opening for a Director of Religious Education: Full time with benefits. The Church of St Andrew, Elk River, is looking for an energetic person to oversee our dynamic faith formation program. The applicant will need to have a love for our Catholic faith and an ability to share it. Management skills, education and teaching skills along with competency in knowledge of our faith is a must.

Applicants are asked to send their resume to Melissa Anderson at melissaa@ saint-andrew.net.

Part-time Law Office Receptionist in West St. Paul, Minnesota: Administrative support to attorney, paralegals, and office manager. Description, required qualifications, and skills listed at www.TrojackLaw.com. Contact Signe Betsinger (651) 451-9696.

St. Joseph Catholic Church, Marion, IA, a parish of two thousand families, seeks a full-time Director of Liturgy and Music. The preferred candidate is a practicing Catholic in good standing with the Church, has a bachelor’s degree or higher in either Liturgy, Liturgical Music, Music Education, Music Performance or a related field. Skills for voice and piano are preferred as well as parish experience. The application for employment can be found at www. stjoesmarion.org/employment. Please send a cover letter, resume and completed employment application to jobs@ stjoesmarion.org

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24 • The Catholic Spirit

THE LAST WORD

December 21, 2017

Praying with

song

Children in Cathedral Choir School learn theology behind sacred music

By Susan Klemond For The Catholic Spirit

A

s Veronica Jacobs, 15, assembles with fellow youth choristers in the Cathedral of St. Paul’s rear gallery each Wednesday evening for Mass, she’s not only preparing to sing, but she’s also preparing to pray.

“When you sing it, you just feel that you’re making something really great, that you’re giving a gift to Jesus and helping other people to pray better,” said Jacobs, a parishioner at St. Mary of Czestochowa in Delano who has been a member of the Cathedral Choir School in St. Paul for three-and-a-half years.

Catholic music and liturgy are living, said Jayne Windnagel, 53, who teaches the 44 9- to 18-year-olds in the Cathedral Choir School.

Like the many children who have sung in Cathedral choirs since the 19th century, the current choristers are being formed in the faith as they discover sacred music and the discipline of choral singing in the beauty of the Cathedral. As the choristers sing, the younger aspiring choristers in the Cathedral’s preparatory choir watch, listen and learn.

Along with liturgical music, the St. Cecilia (girls) and St. Gregory “The carols at the (boys) choristers of the upper choir are rehearsing Christmas season traditional Christmas music they will sing at are a very special the Cathedral’s 4 p.m.

Christmas Eve Mass. part of the choir, The children’s choir tradition at the Cathedral simply because it is began as early as 1851 with children who a vestige of the past attended the grade school operated at the time. where our culture itRecords show children’s choirs were organized at comes together.” various points during the 20th century. In 1963, Jayne Windnagel Gerhard Lang, a former director of the Vienna Boys Choir, developed the Cathedral Boys Choir, which reportedly sang at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

Children can sing with the Choir School, regardless of ability, and the Cathedral currently has a waiting list.

Choristers and their families aren’t required to be parishioners.

“My firm belief is if a child is willing and dedicated — no matter what their skill is coming in — they will learn to sing,” said Windnagel, who has directed the Cathedral Choir School for five years.

“They may not all be soloists, but they will learn to sing.”

The Cathedral has few programs for children because of its small staff and many visitors, said Cathedral Rector Father John Ubel. The choir is “one opportunity where they can learn something about their faith and sacred music, and [by] participating every Wednesday during the year, they give back.”

The choir’s curriculum of sacred music — from ancient to modern — fosters in the children a love for the Trinity and deepens their understanding of the

TOP Miriam Weinand sings during practice for the Cathedral Choir School Dec. 6 at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul. Photos by Dave Hrbacek/ The Catholic Spirit LEFT Director Jayne Windnagel gives instructions to John Paul DeReuill, left, Dominic Russell and Sam Spanier.

BELOW Hannah Burg, left, and Veronica Jacobs practice processing up the center aisle.

Catholic faith, said Windnagel, who also has been music director at St. Michael and St. Mary in Stillwater for 19 years and has a theology background.

She looks for melodies that suit children’s voices.

“The child’s voice evokes a sort of tenderness that only a child can evoke,” she said.

Windnagel teaches the theology behind sacred music and connects music with good, sacred theology, Father Ubel said.

Music is a tool to teach children first the faith, and then life disciplines, said Kathleen Jacobs, 51, who directs the 15 younger children in the Cathedral’s St. Thomas preparatory choir.

Once a month, the St. Thomas choristers join the upper choir at the Wednesday Mass. After watching the older children and becoming familiar with the Cathedral, the 6- to 8-year-olds learn to sing the Mass.

Rather than formally practicing musical pieces or performing with the older choristers, the younger children learn about sacred music and about how to sing in a group, so they can join Windnagel’s choir, said Jacobs, who is Veronica Jacobs’ mother.

As the older children rehearse, they’re learning to memorize music and pay attention to details that are magnified by the Cathedral’s acoustics, Windnagel said.

“Just turning the page of a hymnal can be noisy,” she said. “It requires the children to give a lot of themselves in that [rehearsal] hour.”

The Cathedral’s architecture cries out for sound that matches its beauty, Windnagel said. The children’s voices, together with the Cathedral space, form a single musical instrument.

“The Cathedral takes the music, and you’re part of the instrument, and it’s so much more than just what

we can do, being in there,” Veronica Jacobs said. “It’s so beautiful that you feel that your singing has to be beautiful, so [that] you can be there.”

On Christmas Eve, the choristers will fill the Cathedral space with carols “Jesu Bambino,” “Pat a Pan” and “’Twas in the Moon of Winter Time.”

“The carols at the Christmas season are a very special part of the choir, simply because it is a vestige of the past where our culture comes together,” Windnagel said.

Whether or not they sing in choirs as adults, the choristers will benefit all their lives from what they learn at the Cathedral Choir School, she said.

“It’s forming a way of looking at God, life, Christ, Mary and all mysteries of the faith through a beautiful lens,” she said.