February 22, 2018 • Newspaper of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis
Hockey heroines Catholic schools cheer on alumnae sisters in Olympics. — Page 5
SUPER hospitality
Passion play Shakopee’s annual narrative of Jesus’ final hours a community effort. — Page 7
School shooting A parish impacted by the Feb. 14 tragedy at a nearby Parkland, Florida, high school is dedicating its Stations of the Cross observances to victims and their families. — Page 8
Torture victims Franciscan friars dedicated to caring for men who escaped persecution in home countries. — Pages 10-11
DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT
Msgr. Thomas Richter, center, who in June will assume the role of rector of the St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul, walks back to the seminary after lunch Feb. 15 with Father Scott Carl, back left, and a group of seminarians including Phil Conklin, left, and Paul Hedman.
Forming priestly hearts
A good death Ahead of his Feb. 15 death, Catholic Studies founder Don Briel reflected on his vocation and dying well. — Page 12
Impact investing Catholic Community Foundation educates investors about how “doing well” can also mean “doing good.” — Page 14
Msgr. Thomas Richter prepares for new role as rector of St. Paul Seminary By Jessica Trygstad The Catholic Spirit
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sgr. Thomas Richter was thrilled with his first assignment as vice rector of the St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul. Having just arrived in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, he traveled to the Holy Land in January with the third-year seminarians, who’ll be ordained transitional deacons this spring. “To be able to bond with them, get to know them [and] they get to know me was … a nice way to begin. So, I’m grateful to the rector for having me join them,” said Msgr. Richter, 50, a priest of the Diocese of Bismarck, North Dakota. Now settling into life at the 133-year-old seminary, he’s spending the months leading up to June — when he’ll officially take the reins as its 15th rector — shadowing Msgr. Aloysius Callaghan, the current seminary rector who’ll retire after serving in that role for 13 years. “I am inheriting a strong, healthy organization, and I am indebted to the leadership of Msgr. Aloysius Callaghan,” Msgr. Richter said. “I am grateful for the firm foundation.” Believing it’s essential for those responsible for formation to share a meal with seminarians on a daily basis, Msgr. Richter has already begun that practice at the St. Paul Seminary. “Some of the most important formation happens around a table,” he said. “If a seminary is going to be a community of formation, it needs to happen in an integrated manner, not in a clinical manner … [but in] the way formation happens in a family — by parents eating … with their children, the same in a seminary with priests eating and living with seminarians.”
Road of resistance Msgr. Richter’s own foundation began 20 miles outside of
Bismarck on a “diversified dairy farm” — the family also raised beef cattle — where he describes a happy childhood with nine brothers and four sisters, and loving parents. His younger brother, Father David Richter, is also a priest of the Bismarck diocese. He graduated from St. Mary’s Central High School in Bismarck and didn’t enter seminary until after he earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering at North Dakota State University in Fargo. Most of his vocational discernment occurred during his college years, which he described as a time of “resistance.” “Part of me operated out of a certain idea that I came to see is not true: … that when you don’t have any other options, consider the priesthood,” he said. “So, there was a certain misguided stereotype that fed this resistance.” He said the Eucharist and confession were mainstays in his life, and a few men whom he respected had entered the seminary. He also recalls an important insight his father gave him when he was home for a weekend during college. He and his father were driving home after Mass from their country church when his father told him that the qualities he’s respected in priests throughout his life were the qualities he saw in him, adding he’d be honored if God chose one of his sons to be a priest. Those encouraging words, along with reading “Let the Fire Fall” by Father Michael Scanlan, helped eliminate some of his fears. Then one day while sitting in bed reading his engineering manual, he was preoccupied with thoughts of the priesthood, so he began to pray. What followed was a consolation: You can’t lose. “If you give one year to the seminary, you can’t lose,” he recalled thinking. “If you’re supposed to be a priest, and that’s your road to happiness, well, that’s the first year on that road. You won’t lose. If marriage is your beautiful vocation and road to PLEASE TURN TO SEMINARY ON PAGE 6
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FEBRUARY 22, 2018
PAGETWO
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We listen, but we listen how Mary listened, with attentiveness and availability, every single day. Catholic author Sonja Corbitt, speaking about the importance of lectio divina, or prayerfully reading Scripture, at the WINE: Archdiocesan Women’s Conference Feb. 10 at Mary, Mother of the Church in Burnsville.
NEWS notes
10
The number of years Bishop Richard Pates has led the Diocese of Des Moines, Iowa, after serving as an auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. He turned 75 Feb. 12 and submitted his mandatory resignation to Pope Francis. In a column in The Catholic Mirror, newspaper of the Diocese of Des Moines, Bishop Pates said he plans to return to the archdiocese and assist in pastoral work.
SUPER POPE Msgr. Dario Vigano, director of the Vatican Secretariat for Communications, holds a T-shirt showing Pope Francis as a superhero during a news conference to present a charitable initiative at the Vatican Feb. 8. The superhero image was first created as street art by Mauro Pallotta in 2014. The Vatican will auction off a T-shirt signed by sports celebrities, with proceeds going to charity.
6
The number of relics of St. Pio of Pietrelcina, aka Padre Pio, that will be on display in nearby dioceses this year as they continue touring Canada, Mexico and the United States. The relics will be venerated at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit in Bismarck, North Dakota, March 12; the Cathedral of St. Mary in St. Cloud Sept. 25; the Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Rapid City, South Dakota, Sept. 28; the National Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Oct. 14; and the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in New Ulm Oct. 30. The relics are not scheduled to visit the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. For more information, visit saintpiofoundation.org. CNS
100,000
The number of Irish immigrant women who were helped by Catholic clergy at the Irish Mission at Watson House, a home for immigrant girls in Lower Manhattan, from 1883-1954. Their experiences of hardship and determination are featured in a historical exhibition at St. Catherine University’s library in St. Paul through April 29. For more information, visit stkate.edu/irishgirls.
2,500
The number of shoes Notre Dame Academy in Minnetonka hopes to collect during Lent for families in need around the world. The school is accepting shoes of all types and sizes in good shape (including laces). Donations are being accepted at the school, 13505 Excelsior Blvd. For more information, visit nda-mn.org.
47 DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT
RITE OF ELECTION Archbishop Bernard Hebda greets Khou Lor, a catechumen with St. Vincent de Paul in St. Paul during the Rite of Election at the Cathedral of St. Paul Feb. 18. Lor is one of nine catechumens going through the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults at the parish. A total of 228 catechumens (those not baptized) and 386 candidates (those already baptized) took part in the rite at both the Cathedral and the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis. All are preparing to join the Catholic Church on Easter weekend. In the background is Gao Vang, another catechumen at St. Vincent.
ONLINE exclusives Almost exactly five years after announcing his intention to be the first pope in nearly 600 years to resign, Pope Benedict XVI wrote a letter Feb. 5 to an Italian journalist, saying, “I am on a pilgrimage toward Home,” and that “it is a great grace in this last, sometimes tiring stage of my journey, to be surrounded by a love and kindness that I never could have imagined.” Read the story at TheCatholicSpirit.com. What do you know about St. Scholastica, St. Benedict’s twin sister and the namesake of the Benedictine Catholic college in Duluth? Father Michael Van Sloun marked her Feb. 10 feast day with a description of her life — including her remarkable final meeting with her brother — at CatholicHotdish.com. Father Patrick McCorkell, retreat director at the Demontreville Jesuit Retreat House in Lake Elmo, and Father Michael Becker, rector of St. John Vianney College Seminary in St. Paul, talked about the Holy Spirit’s role in Lenten observances during the Rediscover:Hour. Listen at rediscover.archspm.org. The Catholic Spirit is published semi-monthly for The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis Vol. 23 — No. 4 MOST REVEREND BERNARD A. HEBDA, Publisher TOM HALDEN, Associate Publisher MARIA C. WIERING, Editor
The number of people featured in portraits of Holocaust survivors living in Minnesota in the exhibition “Transfer of Memory” on display at the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis through March 11. Located in the John XXIII Gallery and Teresa of Calcutta Hall, the exhibition’s photos accompany the survivors’ written stories of life and hope. The exhibition was created by photographer David Sherman and writer Lili Chester in partnership with the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas. For more information, visit transferofmemory.org.
2010
The year Mark and Molly Druffner first brought their family to a town in rural Tanzania, where they’ve worked to provide medical and material care for its residents ever since. Parishioners of St. Michael in Stillwater, the couple will be honored Feb. 24 by the Mission Doctors Association with the Msgr. Anthony Brouwers Award for their ongoing mission work. Since 1959, the organization has made it possible for Catholic doctors and their families to serve in response to their faith. For more information, visit missiondoctors.org.
1912
The year St. Mary’s University of Minnesota was founded in Winona. The university announced Feb. 15 the creation of the Center for Culturally Responsive Engagement, which aims to work with community partners to close equity gaps in education. The Minneapolis-based center offers consulting, professional development, intercultural tools, conferences and events and youth-focused initiatives. For more information, visit smumn.edu.
Materials credited to CNS copyrighted by Catholic News Service. All other materials copyrighted by The Catholic Spirit Newspaper. Subscriptions: $29.95 per year: Senior 1-year: $24.95: To subscribe: (651) 291-4444: Display Advertising: (651) 291-4444; Classified Advertising: (651) 290-1631. Published semi-monthly by the Office of Communications, Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, 777 Forest St., St. Paul, MN 55106-3857 • (651) 291-4444, FAX (651) 291-4460. Periodicals postage paid at St. Paul, MN, and additional post offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to The Catholic Spirit, 777 Forest St., St. Paul, MN 55106-3857. TheCatholicSpirit.com • email: tcssubscriptions@archspm.org • USPS #093-580
FEBRUARY 22, 2018
THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 3
FROMTHEMODERATOROFTHECURIA ONLY JESUS | FATHER CHARLES LACHOWITZER
The purpose of fasting
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ur Gospel from Ash Wednesday (Mt 6:1–6;16–18) reminded us that our disciplines in the Lenten season are not public displays. For example, if I gave up chocolate-covered rutabagas, then it should not be a cause of suffering for those around me — all those who have to hear about how difficult my sacrifice is and how I am counting the days before Easter. More importantly, the Lenten disciplines of almsgiving (as an act of mercy), fasting and prayer are not to be separated. My fasting should be connected to my prayers and my almsgiving. To continue my ridiculous example, if it takes me three minutes to eat my bowl of chocolate-covered rutabagas, and I eat them every day, then three minutes times 40 days equals 120 minutes — two hours of time to add to my Lenten prayers. So too, I can add up the cost of those delicious bowls of rutabagas drowned in chocolate and contribute that money as almsgiving. The whole purpose of this tripod of Lenten disciplines is to open my mind and heart to ongoing conversion and the deepening of my spiritual life. When I fast, for example, it is also helpful to pray for all those who go without food, and connect my almsgiving to local, national and global efforts by the Church to feed the hungry and serve those most in need.
If the sum total of my Lenten experience is giving up some treat, where is the conversion? Where is the deepening of my relationship with Jesus Christ? I remember one parish that provided an opportunity for all three disciplines every Friday in Lent. There was a simple soup supper followed by an hour in prayer, including Stations of the Cross, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and closing Benediction. The soup supper was free, but people were encouraged to make a free-will offering for a designated local charity. Others contributed their hourly wage for the entire time they spent in church on Friday evenings. What the experience did was to connect fasting, almsgiving and prayer. As a child, I would receive 25 cents a week for my allowance. Five nickels. One always went in my regular Sunday envelope, and during the Sundays of Lent, another nickel went into the poor box at church. I didn’t know then that I was far exceeding a tithe. I didn’t know then to connect my extra nickel to whatever I gave up for Lent. As an adult, I discovered the Scripture readings at daily and Sunday Masses as well as the graces of the sacraments, particularly reconciliation. My Lenten season expanded through retreats, parish missions and prayers to support those adults who are coming into the Catholic Church at Easter through the sacraments of initiation.
El ayuno tiene un propósito
conversión continua y a la profundización de mi vida espiritual. Cuando ayuno, por ejemplo, es útil también orar por todos aquellos que no tienen comida y conectar mi limosna con los esfuerzos locales, nacionales y mundiales de la Iglesia para alimentar a los hambrientos y servir a los más necesitados.
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uestro Evangelio del Miércoles de Ceniza (Mateo 6: 1-6; 16-18) nos recordó que nuestra disciplina en la Temporada de Cuaresma no es una muestra pública. Por ejemplo, si renuncio a los colinabos cubiertos de chocolate, entonces no debería ser una causa de sufrimiento para los que me rodean, todos los que tienen que escuchar lo difícil que es mi sacrificio y cómo cuento los días previos a la Pascua. Más importante aún, las disciplinas cuaresmales de la limosna (como un acto de misericordia), el ayuno y la oración no deben separarse. Mi ayuno debe estar conectado a mis oraciones y mis limosnas. Para continuar con mi ridículo ejemplo, si me toma tres minutos comer mi tazón de colinabo cubierto de chocolate, y los como todos los días, tres minutos cuarenta días equivalen a ciento veinte minutos, dos horas para agregar a mi Oraciones cuaresmales. También puedo sumar el costo de esos deliciosos cuencos de colinabo sumergidos en chocolate y contribuir con ese dinero como limosna. El propósito de este trípode de las disciplinas cuaresmales es abrir mi mente y mi corazón a la
Si la suma total de mi experiencia Cuaresmal está renunciando a algún regalo, ¿dónde está la conversión? ¿Dónde está la profundización de mi relación con Jesucristo? Recuerdo una parroquia que brindó una oportunidad para las tres disciplinas todos los viernes en Cuaresma. Hubo una simple cena de sopa seguida de una hora de oración: estaciones de la cruz, adoración al Santísimo Sacramento y cierre de la bendición. La cena de sopa fue gratis, pero se alentó a las personas a hacer una ofrenda voluntaria para una organización benéfica local. Otros aportaron su salario por hora durante todo el tiempo que pasaron en la iglesia los viernes por la noche. Lo que la experiencia hizo fue conectar el ayuno, la limosna y la oración. Cuando era niño, recibía veinticinco centavos por semana por mi asignación. Cinco monedas de cinco centavos. Uno siempre iba en mi sobre regular del domingo y durante los domingos de Cuaresma, otro níquel entraba en la caja pobre en la iglesia. No sabía entonces que estaba excediendo un diezmo. No sabía
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If the sum total of my Lenten experience is giving up some treat, where is the conversion? Where is the deepening of my relationship with Jesus Christ? The season of Lent does not depend solely on my fasting, almsgiving and prayer. Everything during Lent that I do or fail to do brings me inevitably to the cross of Good Friday, where I humbly acknowledge that all human efforts seem helpless in the face of suffering and death. My only recourse is to turn to Jesus. It is the hand of the Risen Christ who lifts me up from the foot of the cross and leads me to the joy of Easter — a joy made all the more real because I have taken the time during the Lenten season to connect and give spiritual depth to fasting, almsgiving and prayer. From a sermon by St. Peter Chrysologus, a fifthcentury bishop of Ravenna, Italy: “Prayer knocks at the door, fasting obtains, mercy receives. Prayer, mercy and fasting: These three are one, and they give life to each other. ... Therefore, let prayer, mercy and fasting be one single plea to God on our behalf, one speech in our defense, a threefold united prayer in our favor.”
entonces conectar mi níquel extra a lo que renunciara a la Cuaresma. Como adulto, descubrí las lecturas de las Escrituras en misas diarias y dominicales, así como las gracias de los sacramentos, en particular la Reconciliación. Mi Temporada de Cuaresma se amplió a través de retiros, misiones parroquiales y oraciones para apoyar a los adultos que ingresan a la Iglesia Católica a través de los Sacramentos de Iniciación. La temporada de Cuaresma no depende únicamente de mi ayuno, limosna y oración. Todo durante la Cuaresma que hago o dejo de hacer me lleva inevitablemente a la cruz del Viernes Santo, donde reconozco humildemente que todos los esfuerzos humanos parecen indefensos ante el sufrimiento y la muerte. Mi único recurso es volverme a Jesús. Es la mano de Cristo resucitado quien me levanta del pie de la cruz y me lleva a la alegría de la Pascua. Una alegría hecha más real porque me he tomado el tiempo durante la Cuaresma para conectarme y dar profundidad espiritual. ayunar, dar limosna y orar. De un sermón de San Pedro Crisólogo, obispo de Rávena, siglo quinto: “... La oración toca a la puerta, el ayuno obtiene, la misericordia recibe. Oración, misericordia y ayuno: estos tres son uno, y se dan vida el uno al otro ... Por lo tanto, que la oración, la misericordia y el ayuno sean una sola súplica a Dios en nuestro nombre, un discurso en nuestra defensa, una oración triple a nuestro favor.”
in REMEMBRANCE Father McGlothlin oversaw Hastings parish merger
Father Schwalm served patients, seafarers
Father Eugene McGlothlin, a Benedictine priest who oversaw the merger of two Hastings parishes into St. Elizabeth Ann Seton from 1995 to 2003, died Feb. 3. He was 85. Father McGlothlin grew up in Marshall before attending St. John’s University in Collegeville, where he entered the Benedictines in 1953. He was ordained in 1960 and ministered in a variety of roles in Minnesota and Michigan, including hospital ministry at St. Mary’s Medical Center in Duluth, where he developed a clinical pastoral education center. He left hospital ministry to be part of a transitional team assigned to St. Elizabeth Ann Seton. According to the obituary published by St. John’s Abbey, “The combining of two parishes and making them into one parish with 3,000 parishioners had its special challenges. After seven successful years, his doctor told him to find an easier job in deference to his struggle with diabetes.” He served as pastor of two more parishes in the Collegeville area before retiring in 2010. A funeral Mass was Feb. 8 at the St. John’s Abby Church followed by burial in the abbey cemetery.
Father Donald Schwalm, a priest of the Archdiocese of Kansas City who ministered in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, died Feb. 14, four days before his 91st birthday. He was ordained in 1952 and moved to the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis in 1974, where he served as an assistant priest at St. William in Fridley until 1976. He pursued graduate work in clinical pastoral education at Abbott Northwestern Hospital from 1976 to 1977 and then worked as a chaplain at Golden Valley Health Center in Golden Valley until 1982. He continued to serve in hospital ministry before becoming the administrator of St. Hedwig in Minneapolis from 2002 to 2004, when he retired. He was chaplain to the Apostleship to the Sea, a ministry serving seafarers, from 2005 to 2008, and continued to assist at St. Hedwig, now part of Holy Cross parish in Minneapolis. Visitation will be 3-8 p.m. Feb. 27 at St. Hedwig, 129 29th Ave. NE, Minneapolis. A funeral Mass will be 11 a.m. Feb. 28 at Holy Cross, 1621 University Ave. NE, Minneapolis. A private interment will take place in Holy Family Catholic Cemetery in Alma, Kansas.
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FEBRUARY 22, 2018
LOCAL
SLICEof LIFE En garde Emily Sokolis, a junior at Holy Family Catholic High School in Victoria, engages an opponent during team practice in a school hallway Feb. 12 ahead of the state fencing tournament, Feb. 24-25 in St. Paul. Sokolis, who has been participating in the sport for six years, won the state tournament her freshman year and placed second last year. She has also competed nationally, placing 15th out of 200 girls in a tournament in Richmond, Va., last year. She has Olympic aspirations. “It’s what I’m working towards every single day, and it’s what I think of every single time I get on strip,” Sokolis said, the “strip” being the fencing court. Her favorite part of fencing is the strategy. “I like how you have to think about not only what you’re going to do, but how you think your opponent’s going to respond,” she said. Holy Family has both a boys and a girls fencing team. DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT
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FEBRUARY 22, 2018
THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 5
Hill-Murray, St. Odilia celebrating Olympian sisters By Matthew Davis The Catholic Spirit Few schools can claim an Olympic athlete among its alumni base. Even fewer schools have more than one, especially from the same family. Catholic schools Hill-Murray High School in Maplewood and St. Odilia School in Shoreview can boast the latter. Hannah and Marissa Brandt, alumnae of both schools, are competing in women’s hockey in the Winter Olympic Games in PyeongChang, South Korea. Hannah, a recent standout with the University of Minnesota women’s hockey team, made the U.S. team for the first time. Marissa, who was adopted as a baby from South Korea, is playing for the unified Korean team. Hill-Murray and St. Odilia recognized the Brandts’ achievements in the weeks leading up to the games. That includes a display of the Brandts’ successes in the St. Odilia School office. “To have somebody that they [the students] can resonate with [and] that’s sat in the same desk as them, really inspires them a little bit more to go out and reach their goal because it seems a little bit more attainable,” said Brian Ragatz, St. Odilia principal. Students at Hill-Murray held a red, white and blue dress-up day during National Catholic Schools Week to raise funds for parents of Minnesota Olympians to attend the games. Hill-Murray also commissioned T-shirts and sweatshirts to celebrate the Brandts. The school has been televising their games in the commons area. Principal Erin Herman said the Brandt sisters excelled on and off the ice in high school. “Not only are they great athletes, both Hannah and Marissa were [also] outstanding students and all-around wonderful young women,” Herman said. “They are both
Sowers of Justice explores roots, state of housing discrimination By Matthew Davis The Catholic Spirit
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ABOVE Hannah Brandt, left, and Dani Cameranesi of the U.S. women’s hockey team celebrate Feb. 13 after a goal against Olympic Athletes from Russia during the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. RIGHT Marissa Brandt, left, and Hannah Brandt pose on Christmas Day 2017 at their family home in St. Paul. The Catholic school alumnae are participating in the 2018 Winter Olympics on separate ice hockey teams. Hannah is playing for the U.S. and Marissa for the unified Korean team. humble and kind; you would not have known they were Olympic athletes when you met them in the hall.” At St. Odilia, music teacher Carrie Northrop told her K-8 students about the schools’ two Olympians, whom she once taught. “This had been a goal of Hannah’s since she was a little girl. This was something she talked about when she was going through elementary school,” Northrop said of Brandt’s
CNS
Olympic aspirations. Northrop noted that Marissa originally figure-skated but chose hockey because of her closeness to Hannah. Marissa had a standout career at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter before making the Korean team.
St. Andrew Kim members enthusiastic about homeland Olympics Won Yong Kim took pride in short track speed skater Lim Hyo-jun winning the first gold medal for South Korea at the Winter Olympics Feb. 10. A parishioner of St. Andrew Kim in St. Paul, Kim is one of many parishioners enjoying the Olympics from afar as South Korea hosts the 2018 Winter Games. St. Andrew Kim serves Korean Catholics in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. “Everybody’s pretty interested in having the Olympics in [our] home country,” said Kim, 43, who moved to the U.S. from South Korea for work in 2003. “We still want more medals. I think the [St. Andrew Kim] members are interested in the U.S. team, too.” Kim enjoys hockey, and he has watched the first few unified Korean women’s hockey games. He also enjoys short track speed skating and figure skating. While the parish isn’t hosting any formal events to celebrate the Olympics, Kim
expects that there are plenty of informal gettogethers among Korean Americans. The parish draws members from across the Twin Cities. Kim said the Feb. 9 opening ceremony was a proud moment for him as his home country performed for the world. “The opening ceremony actually showed very thoroughly about the history of South Korea — and not just South Korea, but the Korean peninsula — from the ancient time to the modern time,” Kim said. He hopes relations between North Korea and South Korea improve because of their cooperation in the Olympic games. “This is also a very good opportunity to start to talk,” said Kim, who grew up in the Seoul area. “It’s a good start, I think, that we can resolve some really serious issues from the simple [ones] like [the] Olympic Games. Everybody agrees we want peace.” — Matthew Davis
Segregating African-Americans by neighborhood in the Twin Cities goes back at least to the early 1900s. That’s a fact Mapping Prejudice project team member Kevin Ehrman-Solberg outlined at the 2018 Sowers of Justice Assembly at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul Feb. 12. And communities, he said, are still affected by its repercussions today. Co-sponsored by St. Thomas and Catholic Charities of St. and Minneapolis, the event invited its more than 200 attendees to explore the issue. It opened with a presentation from Mapping Prejudice, a project team in Minneapolis that has explored roots of racial inequality in housing. Using Minneapolis maps, Ehrman-Solberg demonstrated that between 1910 and 1940, housing ACOOA ELLIS options for people of color evaporated in certain parts of the city, while segregated portions grew. Racial covenants on home deeds made it possible for homeowners and realtors to prevent people of color from owning homes in certain neighborhoods. And while these maps examine history, they’re helpful now. “Contemporary city planners want this data so they can make better policies,” Ehrman-Solberg said. A program of Catholic Charities, Sowers for Justice explores and addresses racial injustice in Minnesota. Catholic Charities has long worked to address housing issues. “Our board in January adopted its legislative advocacy agenda, and housing is again at the top of the list because we just need more resources for housing,” said Tim Marx, Catholic Charities president and CEO. Catholic Charities also took another step to advance the cause with Acooa Ellis, its director of social justice advocacy, becoming a co-chair for the Governor’s Task Force on Housing. Initiated by Gov. Mark Dayton in December 2017, the task force works to improve housing opportunities for all Minnesotans. At the Sowers for Justice Assembly, Ellis guided the panelist discussion that followed Mapping Prejudice’s presentation. She noted that 2018 is the 50th anniversary of the Federal Bureau Housing Act, which offered “protection against overt housing discrimination” though the “disparities in who experiences homelessness in our community” continue. “Those challenges are exacerbated by today’s tight housing market and make tougher the work to move our clients toward housing stability and connect them to pathways out of poverty,” she said. Panelists explained that people of color often fall into one of two situations with housing: Either they remain stuck in a neighborhood that doesn’t have the advantages of a predominantly Caucasian neighborhood, or people of color end up finding a place in the metro suburbs and find themselves displaced from their culture. “The context for all of this … is slavery,” said Adam Belz, a panelist and StarTribune reporter. “Slavery existed longer on American soil as a matter of law.” Belz had been chosen for the four-person panel at the assembly because of a series of articles he wrote on the connection between housing and race. Panelists also included Marx, Ehrman-Solberg and Shannon Jones, executive director of Hope Community, a Minneapolis-based nonprofit that advocates for affordable housing. “I really appreciate the [Mapping Prejudice] presentation because it talks about its history of people not having a choice, of being limited of where they could live,” Jones said. Attendees also broke into small groups to discuss the challenges surrounding racism and housing.
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FEBRUARY 22, 2018
SEMINARY CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 happiness, one year in the seminary isn’t going to make you a worse husband, potential husband; you’re going to hopefully grow in prayer. You’re going to hopefully grow in relationship with Jesus, [and] you’re going to hopefully grow your faith.” Along with the Pontifical North American College, he attended the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, also in Rome. He later discovered that his sister and her husband prayed for his priestly vocation on their wedding day at his home church, where he was an altar server. It was while on a retreat in the mountains in his first year of theology at the Pontifical North American College when he encountered Jesus in a “very beautiful, loving way” that affirmed his own vocation. “And since that day, there hasn’t been a day I didn’t want to be a priest,” Msgr. Richter said. During the first four years of his priesthood, he taught senior religion in two Catholic high schools while being an associate pastor for two years at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit in Bismarck and a pastor in western North Dakota. He has also served on the executive board of the National Conference of Diocesan Vocation Directors, and as a faculty member and spiritual director of the Institute for Priestly Formation in Omaha, Nebraska. Since 2010, he has served as the chaplain of the Bismarck Catholic Physicians Guild. Pope Benedict XVI honored him with the title of monsignor in 2012.
Christ-centered vision Msgr. Richter knows the discernment process well. After serving in parishes for six years, he spent 11 years as the vocation director for the Diocese of Bismarck. Having met in Rome through mutual friends, Archbishop Bernard Hebda became familiar with Msgr. Richter’s experiences and expertise and recalled them when he appointed Msgr. Richter rector in October 2017 after Msgr. Callaghan announced his retirement. “He knows what goes on in a young man’s heart; he has a lot of experience helping men to discern, [and] he has a great track record with the Institute for Priestly Formation, which helped him to recognize the priority of development of the spiritual life and discernment,” Archbishop Hebda said. He added that he considered it important to choose a new rector from within the province, because the St. Paul Seminary serves men from other dioceses. The archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis is metropolitan archbishop of a province that includes the dioceses in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota. Bishop David Kagan of Bismarck said Msgr. Richter brings a dual gift to the archdiocese along with his “good sense of humor.” “He’s a very good pastor of souls, and he listens very well and understands people’s circumstances and brings them along to greater engagement in their own Catholic faith,” Bishop Kagan said. “He has the ability
Msgr. Thomas Richter will take over as rector of the St. Paul Seminary in June, replacing Msgr. Aloysius Callaghan, who has served as rector for the last 13 years. DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT
to help other men cut through the haze and get to the heart of the matter in their prayer life in terms of discernment.” As pastor of the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit for five years, Msgr. Richter oversaw the parish’s parochial vicars, recently ordained priests. In them, he observed and experienced the “fruits of a seminary” — where a seminary did well or where it could have done better. “And so, experiencing and being able to accompany a brand new priest was a tremendous privilege,” he said, “and I think a valuable experience for me as I enter [the work of] seminary formation.” Father Jared Johnson, 31, interim rector at the Cathedral, was an 18-year-old seminarian when he first met Msgr. Richter as vocation director. Father Johnson, who attended St. John Vianney College Seminary in St. Paul, most recently served as associate pastor with Msgr. Richter for four-and-a-half years at the Cathedral. He said Msgr. Richter modeled a daily prayer life in the Cathedral rectory. “Every day, the first thing he did, whether it was his day off or just a normal weekday, was a Holy Hour in front of the Blessed Sacrament,” Father Johnson said. “And that was something that I, of course, learned in the seminary, but it was something that I saw lived out by him, and it made it easier for me to keep that as a priority as well.” Msgr. Richter was also generous with his time and taught people how to bring their joys and struggles to Christ. “He knew that he didn’t have all the answers,” Father Johnson said. “And so, it was always about trying to instill in them the importance of relating things to Christ and that [Christ] has the answers. … And I think
now in his role as a rector, teaching our seminarians how to assist people in that is crucial.” Father Johnson added that Msgr. Richter has a “great ability” to lead and inspire. “And his vision is always rooted in the overall good of the Church,” he said. Archbishop Hebda noted how the St. Paul Seminary is “thriving,” and its leaders would like to continue that momentum. “We want to make sure our seminarians are well prepared for the challenges that are contemporary,” he said. “We want our seminarians to be theologically engaged and pastorally sensitive.” Describing the seminary as a place to form the next generation of priests to be shepherds for the people of God, Msgr. Richter said an asset for any priest involved in seminary formation is to have had pastoral experiences. “It could be somewhat simplistic, but we need to remember the men sitting in these pews studying to be priests aren’t different than the people sitting in the pews [of a church],” he explained. “Men who have been chosen to be priests are real, normal men who need to grow in faith and need to learn how to pray like everybody else. In fact, it’s not too crazy of an idea to think of a seminary as a parish — with parishioners who never leave.” Msgr. Richter likens his role as rector of a seminary to that of a pastor of a parish — its spiritual father. “Ultimately, a rector needs to be very good at forming the heart, forming a priestly heart,” he said. “This isn’t just about a guy getting a theological degree or a theological education. This is about forming priestly hearts in the image of Christ.”
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LOCAL
FEBRUARY 22, 2018
THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 7
CRS president: Rice Bowl highlighting migration this year Interview by Matthew Davis The Catholic Spirit Sean Callahan, president and CEO of Catholic Relief Services in Baltimore, visited Archbishop Bernard Hebda Feb. 9 to discuss the archbishop’s new role on CRS’s board, which he joined last fall. Callahan spoke with The Catholic Spirit about the archbishop’s role and the work of CRS, including CRS Rice Bowl. CRS is the international humanitarian aid arm of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Q. What relationship does CRS have with
Catholics in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis?
A. One [part of the relationship] has been through COURTESY STS. JOACHIM AND ANNE
Jesus falls under the weight of the cross in the 2017 Passion play at Sts. Joachim and Anne in Shakopee. Father Erik Lundgren, the pastor of the parish, will play Jesus in the annual play again this year.
Dramatic Shakopee Passion play continues strong run By Matthew Davis The Catholic Spirit Father Erik Lundgren has grown accustomed to parishioners and community members asking about his growing beard and long hair. “I certainly get a lot of confused looks from people when they see a priest who just looks like a hippie or Chewbacca or whatnot,” Father Lundgren said. The pastor of Sts. Joachim and Anne in Shakopee grows out both during the winter in preparation for playing the role of Jesus in the parish’s annual Passion play, “The Passion of Jesus in Music, Word and Light.” “It adds to the realism at the same time, and … it also serves as a good marketing advertisement for the Passion play as time goes on,” Father Lundgren said about the hair and beard. “Because pretty much everyone I talk to … usually say, ‘You’ve got a pretty full head of hair for a priest.’” The extra attention last year helped draw about 2,000 attendees, including Archbishop Bernard Hebda. This year’s promotional materials quote the archbishop calling it “a meaningful reflection that helped me enter into the prayer and peace of the Lenten season.” Since the play was first staged 37 years ago, parishioners have come together annually to tell the story of the passion through narration, realistic costumes, lighting and music. The Knights of Columbus have sponsored the play since its inception. This year’s Passion play will take place March 8 and 10 in English and March 9 in Spanish at the parish’s St. Mark campus, 350 Atwood St., Shakopee. Performances start at 8 p.m. with prelude music at 7:45 p.m. They are free and open to the public. While cast members don’t have lines, they physically act out the scenes of Christ’s Passion from his
Sts. Joachim and Anne will host its annual Passion play at the St. Mark campus in Shakopee. The plays have been an annual Lenten tradition since 1981. COURTESY STS. JOACHIM AND ANNE
entry into Jerusalem to his resurrection. The narration of the Gospel passages guides people through the scenes. “There’s a lot of lighting that is used ... and so you feel that joy at both the entry and then at the end after the resurrection,” Father Lundgren said. “People are crying.” A choir sings a variety of music related to the Passion throughout. The repertoire contains familiar hymns and religious classics. With a high retention rate for the cast overall, they only need a couple rehearsals each year to get ready. Involvement has increased along the way. “We’re well over 100 people committed for this production,” said Mike Bemis, the director. “There’s no acting ability required.” Workers get the church ready for the play the Sunday before. The lights are hung Monday and rehearsals take place during the week before the weekend show. “All of this happens in a week,” said David Schmeig, the lighting and assistant director. Knights of Columbus member Dave Czaja and the late Father Robert Cassidy, who wrote the script, started the production in 1981 at St. Mark in Shakopee. Czaja, now a Wisconsin resident, still participates in the play each year. “St. Mark’s historically is the German church [in Shakopee],” Father Lundgren said. “Passion plays are kind of a long medieval tradition
in Germany.” He pointed to the famed Passion play in Oberammergau, Bavaria, Germany, which has been performed regularly since 1634. St. Mark’s Passion play grew with the parish as it merged with St. Mary in Shakopee and St. Mary of the Purification in Marystown to form Sts. Joachim and Anne in 2012. Father Cassidy’s founding of the play adds to the significance the Passion play has for Father Lundgren, who had him as a pastor in Edina growing up. Father Lundgren had also reconnected with Father Cassidy while he was in seminary, and now he feels another link to him while playing the role of Jesus his former pastor created. Father Lundgren, who has been serving Sts. Joachim and Anne the past four years, agreed to play the role of Jesus in 2016. Bemis and Schmeig said they like to find someone who can commit to playing the role for several years. “They were looking for a new Jesus, and someone had the idea to ask me,” Father Lundgren said. “I put off saying yes thinking maybe they’ll find someone else … but they were very persistent, and I ended up thinking it was a great spiritual opportunity as well.” For more information, visit shakopeepassionplay.org.
the CRS Rice Bowl. People pledge and give to Rice Bowl [during Lent], and the campaign has two different [goals]. One is awareness raising and understanding the issues and the needs of people, and then secondly, it also generates some resources to go both overseas and back to the diocese, because 25 percent stays with the diocese. We also work with the seminarians at [the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity in St. Paul] to help raise awareness of what the Church is doing. Another area is with the Share the Journey campaign, [which] the Holy Father kicked off for migrants and refugees. CRS is one of the leaders in moving out along with the USCCB Office of Migration and Refugee Services and Catholic Charities USA.
Q. What’s new with CRS Rice Bowl this year? A. The Rice Bowl is directly linked this year with
the Share the Journey campaign, so we’re telling stories of migrants and people who have been forcibly displaced from their homes. The other one is that we’re doing more and more online. There’s an app for the Rice Bowl, another way that we can contribute to the Church, and [people] can carry it right in their pocket and connect with it.
Q. Of the current initiatives you have going, what excites you the most right now?
A. One is Changing the Way We Care. It’s a
program focusing on deinstitutionalization of children around the world [and] in the United States. We’re also strongly responding to malaria, and we’re starting to get to the point where there’s a possibility of eliminating it in some countries and eradicating malaria overall.
Q. What do you think Catholics really need to know about CRS?
A. I don’t think American Catholics realize that
they, this past year with CRS, reached people [in] over 112 different countries, and they reached over 130 million people.
Q. How can Catholics better engage with CRS? A. The [Share] the Journey campaign and the CRS
Rice Bowl are key areas. Also, it’s very, very helpful that they assist in advocacy with the local and federal government.
Q. What has kept CRS going for 75 years? A. You know, I think more than anything else, CRS is focused on being a relationship agency. We try not to do activities that the local Church can do, but we try to build their capacities, so they are sustainable into the future. We are actually in more countries now than we ever have been.
8 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT
FEBRUARY 22, 2018
NATION+WORLD
Church’s Lenten observance dedicated to shooting victims, their families By Tom Tracy Catholic News Service A parish community less than 2 miles away and directly impacted by the Feb. 14 school shooting at a Parkland, Florida, high school is finding new purpose in Lent this year, according to the parish administrator. “We decided to hold Stations of the Cross on Fridays during Lent as is our tradition, but this [past] Friday we decided to celebrate those Stations in memory [of] and in solidarity with those who died and all their families, and those at school who experienced this violence on Wednesday,” said Polish-born Father Ireneusz Ekiert, who became administrator of Mary Help of Christians in December. At least one member of the suburban parish northwest of Fort Lauderdale — 14-year-old freshman Gina Montalto, who had attended Mary Help of Christians Elementary School — was among the deceased. Her funeral was set for Feb. 20. “We have a couple of families with kids who were wounded and one that has died,” the priest said. “This was a perfect opportunity to bring all those who died and their families, those who suffered, all those who experienced that violence ... into prayer in the Stations today.” Nineteen-year-old Nikolas Cruz has been charged with 17 counts of first-degree premeditated murder after stalking the halls of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School with an AR-15 rifle on Valentine’s Day, also Ash Wednesday this year. Fourteen more faculty and students were injured. Cruz had reportedly been expelled from the school for disciplinary reasons. Father Ekiert said several students from the parish who attend the high school “were also traumatized by the whole
experience. We talked with them on Wednesday and again yesterday, and they are scared. They don’t know what to do with it.” Some 75 parishioners were on hand for the Stations of the Cross, including members of the parish youth group, local public high school students and students from the parish school. The parish had held another prayer vigil the night before and invited parishioners and others to pray the rosary at noon, 2, 4 and 6 p.m. the day after the shooting. Father Ekiert said he never imagined being plunged into a horrific tragedy of this scope, especially in an otherwise quiet residential area that has become home to many South American transplants. “Unfortunately, this event is very painful, very heartbreaking,” he said, “but people are coming together to pray. They were here on Ash Wednesday services in good numbers, and yesterday we prayed the rosary all day every two hours for the victims and students.” Local Catholic Charities counselors and others also were on hand to speak to students. “By participating in the suffering and pain of Christ, we are able to better understand our suffering and the sense that we are not alone in our suffering, that God understands our suffering and that God is there with us in our suffering,” Father Ekiert said. On the afternoon of Feb. 14, Cruz allegedly went on the shooting rampage shortly before school was to dismiss for the day. He was apprehended about an hour after shots were reported at the school. Although he has confessed to the shooting, details about his motive are still being pieced together. Among the dead was the high school’s athletic director, Chris
Pope Francis has named nine new members to the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, including abuse survivors or the parents of survivors, the Vatican said Feb. 17. Pope Francis re-appointed Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston to be president of the commission, which the pope originally established in 2014. The terms of the original members had expired in December. The first group of members had included two survivors who were public about their experience of abuse as children. Peter Saunders, a British survivor and advocate, was asked by the commission to take a
leave of absence in 2016; Marie Collins, an Irish survivor and advocate, announced in March 2017 that she had resigned. Both were outspoken about what they saw as resistance to implementing change and ensuring accountability for bishops guilty of covering up abuse. The new members, whose appointments were announced by the Vatican Feb. 17 include: Benyam Dawit Mezmur, an Ethiopian who was chair of the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child from 2015-2017; Indian Sister Arina Gonsalves, a certified counselor and consultant on abuse cases; Neville Owen, a judge and former chair of the Australian Catholic Church’s Truth, Justice and Healing Council; Sinalelea
Nun’s recovery recognized as 70th official miraculous healing at Lourdes ROME — As the Catholic Church celebrated the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, a French bishop announced the 70th officially recognized miraculous cure of a pilgrim to the Lourdes grotto where Mary appeared 160 years ago. Bishop Jacques Benoit-Gonnin of Beauvais formally declared Feb. 11 “the prodigious, miraculous character” of the healing of Sister Bernadette Moriau, a French member of the Franciscan Oblates of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, who had been partially paralyzed for more than 20 years despite repeated surgeries on her lower back. Lourdes, close to the Pyrenees in southern France, attracts millions of visitors each year and has been a place of pilgrimage since St. Bernadette Soubirous reported the first of 18 visions of the Virgin Mary while gathering firewood in February 1858.
‘Monumental’ FEMA shift opens door to disaster funds for religious groups CNS | TOM TRACY
Parishioners of Mary Help of Christians in Parkland, Fla., pray during an outdoor Stations of the Cross service Feb. 16 dedicated to the victims and survivors of the deadly mass shooting at nearby Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Hixon, a parishioner of Nativity Church in Hollywood; and another 14-year-old, Cara Loughran, who took part in the youth group at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in nearby Coral Springs. After the shooting rampage, Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski urged community members to come together “to support one another in this time of grief.” “With God’s help, we can remain strong and resolute to resist evil in all its manifestations,” the archbishop said in a statement. “May God heal the brokenhearted and comfort the sorrowing as we once again face as a nation another act of senseless violence and horrifying evil.” In a late-night telegram to Archbishop Wenski, Pope Francis assured “all those affected by this devastating attack of his spiritual closeness.”
New members join child protection commission By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service
in BRIEF
Fe’ao, chief education officer for the Diocese of Tonga and Niue; and Myriam Wijlens, a canon law professor from the Netherlands. In April, the renewed commission will meet “with several people who have experienced abuse” before discussing ways to promote an ongoing dialogue with survivors, said the commission’s statement. “Discussions have been underway for some months with a view to creating an ‘International Survivor Advisory Panel,’ a new structure shaped by the voices of victimssurvivors,” the statement said. Baroness Sheila Hollins, a mental health specialist and commission member who was not reappointed, will make a presentation about the advisory panel at the April meeting.
TRENTON, N.J. — Superstorm Sandy-weary diocesan and parish officials lauded a Federal Emergency Management Agency policy change announced earlier this year that reverses a prior exclusion for religious organizations and houses of worship from applying for federal aid to recover from natural disasters. “This change in eligibility for FEMA public assistance to religious organizations is monumental,” said Joe Cahill, director of the Diocese of Trenton’s Department of Risk Management. Cahill’s comments came before the Feb. 9 passage of the Federal Disaster Assistance Nonprofit Fairness Act by Congress as part of the Bipartisan Budget Act. The bill, signed into law by President Donald Trump, codifies this change in FEMA policy. The fairness provision directs FEMA to make disaster relief assistance available to houses of worship “on the same terms as other nonprofit entities,” said a statement released the same day by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which had advocated for its passage.
Muslims who desecrated statue ordered to memorize Mary verses TRIPOLI, LEBANON — Three young Muslim men who were found guilty of desecrating a statue of Mary were ordered by a Lebanese judge to memorize passages from the Quran that praise the mother of Jesus. The defendants, who live in a mostly Christian village, were apprehended after circulating online a video of themselves desecrating the statue, news media reported. At their sentencing Feb. 8, Judge Jocelyne Matta ordered the young men to memorize verses from the Al Imran chapter of the Quran, which describes the birth of Mary, her virginity and the annunciation of Jesus’ conception by the angel Gabriel. Matta, reading her verdict at the court in Tripoli, said her decision was meant to teach the young men about Islam’s respect and love for Mary, reported the website Al Arabiya English.
U.S. bishops declare national call-in day to urge Congress to save DACA WASHINGTON — After the Senate failed Feb. 15 to garner the 60 votes needed to move a bill forward to protect the “Dreamers,” officials of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops announced the National Catholic Call-In Day to Protect Dreamers Feb. 26. “With the March 5 deadline looming, we ask once again that members of Congress show the leadership necessary to find a just and humane solution for these young people, who daily face mounting anxiety and uncertainty,” the USCCB officials said in a joint statement Feb. 19. “We are also announcing a National Catholic Call-In Day to Protect Dreamers,” the bishops said. They asked U.S. Catholics to call their members of Congress Feb. 26 “to protect Dreamers from deportation, to provide them a path to citizenship, and to avoid any damage to existing protections for families and unaccompanied minors in the process.” — Catholic News Service
NATION+WORLD
FEBRUARY 22, 2018
THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 9
Notre Dame’s change on contraceptive coverage raises objections Catholic News Service An Indiana bishop said he supports the University of Notre Dame’s Feb. 7 decision to stop coverage of abortioninducing drugs and add natural family planning services to the school’s health plan, but he said coverage of artificial birth control by a Catholic institution is unacceptable. “The Catholic Church clearly teaches that contraception is an immoral action that contradicts the truth of marital love,” said Bishop Kevin Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, whose diocese includes Notre Dame. “I strongly support the decision of the University of Notre Dame to stop the government-funded provision, through its third-party administrator, of abortioninducing drugs and sterilization procedures,” Bishop Rhoades said in a statement provided to Catholic News Service Feb. 8. “I am also happy that the university will provide natural family planning services in its insurance plans. “At the same time, I strongly disagree with Notre Dame’s decision to provide funding for contraception in its health insurance plans, which involves it even more directly in contributing to immoral activity,” he added. Bishop Rhoades made the comments in reaction to the announcement by Holy Cross Father John Jenkins, Notre Dame’s president, that the university had once again made changes on coverage of contraceptives in its health plans. In October, Father Jenkins joined other
Catholic leaders in praising a decision by the Trump administration to expand the religious exemption in an Obama-era mandate that all employers cover sterilizations, contraceptives and abortifacients even if an employer was morally opposed to such coverage. In a university email to employees, Father Jenkins stated that the previously mandated coverage would end Dec. 31. In reaction to that decision, a small campus protest took place, organized by the Notre Dame Graduate Workers Collective, an independent group of graduate students. The group also had gathered about 500 signatures on a petition calling on university officials to “respect our freedom to make reproductive, family and religious choices without economic coercion.” The university reversed course Nov. 7, informing employees that third-party health plan administrator Meritain Health and prescription benefit manager OptumRx would continue to provide all those items free of charge. Students also were informed that their coverage would continue. A statement from Paul Browne, Notre Dame vice president for public affairs and communications, said the reversal came after the university learned the insurers would continue the coverage at no cost, so the university opted not to “interfere.” In late January, some University of Notre Dame students, faculty and alumni voiced strong public criticism over the university administration’s decision to continue employee insurance coverage
HEADLINES
CNS | PAUL HARING
Pope Benedict XVI waves as he leaves his final general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican in this Feb. 27, 2013, file photo.
uVatican denies report Pope Benedict has degenerative disease. The Vatican denied that
retired Pope Benedict XVI has a degenerative neurological disease or paralyzing condition after his brother, 94-year-old Msgr. Georg Ratzinger, told a magazine that Pope Benedict had a debilitating disease. Feb. 28 will mark the fifth anniversary of Pope Benedict’s resignation.
uHead of Catholic physicians’ group warns of threats to conscientious objection. No
physician should be forced to choose between violating his or her conscience and facing professional sanctions when defending human life, said the president of the World Federation of Catholic Medical Associations.
uPope says he prays for those who call him a heretic. Pope Francis said he tries to dialogue
with those who disagree with him in the hope that he will learn something, but he just prays for those who call him a heretic.
uPope told Jesuits he regularly meets abuse survivors, journal reports. Pope Francis told a group of Jesuits in Peru that he often meets on Fridays with survivors of sex abuse. Read the stories at TheCatholicSpirit.com.
for sterilizations, contraceptives and abortifacients after a federal mandate to do so was amended late last year. Many also questioned how Notre Dame — alongside other Catholic universities, dioceses and other entities — could have fought in the courts for a lifting of the Obama-era contraceptive mandate and then gone ahead and allowed the third-party coverage of morally objectionable services. In a Feb. 7 letter to the university community, Father Jenkins announced his latest decision on the coverage. He acknowledged he had received emails and letters about the university’s policy “on access to contraceptive coverage” and had spoken to faculty staff and students, and after further thought announced “steps based on Catholic principles that nevertheless provide access to some of the coverage that members of our community seek.” He said Notre Dame would stop the government-funded provision of the range of drugs and services through the third-party administrator because that range of drugs and services include abortion-inducing drugs and sterilization, which is against Church teaching. “Stopping any access to contraceptives through our health care plan would allow the university to be free of involvement with drugs that are morally objectionable in Catholic teaching,” Father Jenkins said. However, that decision “would burden those who have made conscientious decisions about the use of such drugs and rely on the university for health care
benefits,” he added. Therefore, he said the university “will provide coverage under the university insurance plans for simple contraceptives (i.e., drugs designed to prevent conception). The university will also provide in its plans funding for natural family planning options — options that do not use artificial contraceptives but employ natural methods for preventing conception.” “The situation is one that demands discernment — something to which Pope Francis has called the Church in his various writings and addresses,” Father Jenkins said. “Discernment, which has a long history in the Catholic spiritual tradition, is, of course, a process of weighing thoughtfully considerations for and against various courses of action. Yet it also demands prayerful attention to God’s guidance through the prompting of the Holy Spirit.” “I understand Notre Dame’s desire to respect other religious traditions and the conscientious decisions of members of the Notre Dame community on this issue,” Bishop Rhoades said in his statement. “Members of the community who decide to use contraceptives, however, should not expect the university to act contrary to its Catholic beliefs by funding these contraceptives. “Notre Dame bears prophetic witness to the truths of the Catholic faith in its words and actions on many issues of importance for the good of our society,” he added.
10 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT
Welcoming the stranger
Franciscan Brothers of Peace, other Catholics walk alongside victims o By Jessica Trygstad The Catholic Spirit
T
hroughout any given week, the Franciscan Brothers of Peace hear the rhythmic plucking of the krar — a lyre-like instrument from east Africa — in their St. Paul friary. “Isaiah” performs concerts when he calls into a San Diego radio station and plays his krar for an hour several times a week. To help him feel more at home, the brothers converted a downstairs storage area into a music studio. Playing the krar is just one aspect of Isaiah’s life at the friary that connects him to Eritrea, the east African country he fled to escape government persecution after a forced stint in the military. He asked that The Catholic Spirit omit his real name — a form of Isaiah — to protect his identity. When Isaiah, who is Coptic Orthodox, arrived at the friary as a temporary resident almost two years ago, coordinated through the Twin Cities-based Center for Victims of Torture, his teeth were missing — evidence of the brutality he endured for 13 months in a prison in neighboring Sudan. He has since acquired dentures that fill his bright smile when he speaks of his wife and three young children in Eritrea. He doesn’t disclose their names and ages because he fears for their lives. With no official judiciary or free press, Isaiah likens the political climate of Eritrea to that of North Korea, but without a constitution. Each day, the brothers share in Isaiah’s prayers for asylum and reunification with his family. In the meantime, he works full time at a big-box store and attends a weekly Bible study at his church. He’s in the process of finding a place of his own, and he said he has found solace living with the brothers, who’ve given him advice. “God bless the brothers,” he said, “and the Catholic Church.”
Road to recovery The Center for Victims of Torture, a St. Paul nonprofit, is recognized internationally as a leader in helping victims of torture through an interdisciplinary approach of medical care, psychotherapy and social services with hopes they’ll become productive members of society, said Curt Goering, its executive director. “When they come to us here, they have deep, physical and emotional wounds, having endured the worst that any human being can possibly endure,” he said, listing the types of torture CVT clients have undergone: being burned with cigarettes, hung upside down, electrically shocked, having their teeth and fingernails ripped out, sleep deprivation, subjection to hot and cold extremes, mock executions, forced to hear their loved ones being tortured and forced to torture their own family members. Goering relates the story of a 24-year-old woman who was forced to be a child soldier. As a healing activity at the center, victims place stones — representing bad experiences — and flowers — representing good experiences — along a string. The woman decided to place stones on the string for every person she killed. CVT’s work began in the 1980s when Rudy Perpich Jr., a volunteer with Amnesty International, asked his father, Rudy Perpich, then governor of Minnesota and a Catholic, how he was advocating for human rights. What followed was a rehabilitation center for survivors of torture in St. Paul. The center also does training, research and advocacy. CVT’s outpatient clinic is a large Victorian home in a residential neighborhood. It was specially designed to help promote survivors’ healing: no bright lights that might trigger memories of interrogation rooms; only large windows with natural light. No square rooms or exits that aren’t immediately available; only rounded hallways. With about 60,000 survivors of torture in Minnesota — about 44 percent of all refugees in the U.S. are survivors of torture — Goering said the center has a perpetual waiting list. Only a “tiny percentage” of torture victims are eligible for resettlement; most live in refugee camps. But the center’s high rehabilitation improvement rates among
survivors give him hope. Last year, the center helped around 400 individuals of 40 different nationalities. “They’re fleeing torture and terror and the atrocities of war,” Goering said, adding that people are most often persecuted because of their faith. “With the right kind of support, people can and do heal from their wounds, and they do become productive citizens and contribute to society again. At CVT, we see this happen all the time.”
‘Received as Christ’ The Franciscan Brothers of Peace have housed male international victims of torture since the 1990s — about 70 to date, said Brother Conrad Richardson, who serves as the brothers’ community leader. Describing their apostolate as “doing whatever needs to be done,” Brother Richardson said the 12 brothers provide room and board and fulfill other tangible needs — climate-appropriate clothing, food, monthly mass transit passes and phone cards. Multicultural artwork hangs on the walls of their friary, and their kitchen is stocked with ethnic foods to help give their guests a sense of home. “All are received as Christ,” Brother Richardson said. “Residents who live here, they know that they’re welcome to join us for any meals we have and even to join us in prayer as they like.” The men come to the U.S. through various means. A former resident, Brother Richardson said, was a stowaway on a ship and found enough food and water to survive the journey. Another man from Iraq had served in a highranking military position under Saddam Hussein. He escaped through bribery. The information the brothers garner about their guests is confidential; through the men’s social workers and lawyers, the brothers only know pertinent information and what the men are willing to share, per the Center for Victims of Torture’s policies. Knowing at least some English, most of the men were well educated and held good jobs in their home countries, giving them the wherewithal to help mobilize people, thus making them targets of their oppressive governments. “They might be emptying bed pans at Regions Hospital, and they’ve performed brain surgery before,” Brother Richardson said. “But they’re doing it because they know that there is opportunity here, and you do have to start somewhere, and they’re just grateful for the opportunity.” In addition to Isaiah, the brothers are currently housing an Ethiopian and a Cameroonian, who help around the friary a few hours each week. Residents typically stay for about two years, but because obtaining a work permit takes more time now than when the brothers began their ministry, the men often stay longer. The brothers average about three men at a time; the most they’ve housed was seven at once. “One of the most urgent needs is shelter, and the Franciscans have just been phenomenal in helping out and translating their beliefs into action in ways that make an incredible difference in the lives of survivors,” Goering said. While searching for employment, the men are encouraged to volunteer, which gives them skills and experience working with people in another culture, Brother Richardson explained, adding that the men are eager to do so. Once they find employment, they begin saving money to send to their families back home, he added, noting that the men’s families are often targeted. They also start saving money for housing, with the brothers helping them find affordable rent. Benefactors provide furniture and household items that the brothers give to the men to furnish their new residences. The brothers also operate an emergency food shelf that the residents may use after they leave the friary. “The bonds that have been made with these men that have been with us have just been beautiful, and longlasting friendships … that even after they move on and are established and are reunited with their families, that the connection keeps going,” Brother Richardson said, adding that many of their former residents return for holiday celebrations. He said a “beautiful aspect” of sharing their home with
Franciscan Brothers of Peace Antonio Pagba, left, and Conrad Rich helping victims of torture. people of different faiths has been the unity they’ve found through common respect, pointing to their Muslim guests’ admiration of Mary and Jesus. The brothers try to reciprocate that respect. Brother Richardson recalled the time a Muslim guest asked one of the brothers about getting a prayer rug to use for his required prayer times throughout the day. When the brother supplied one, the man held it to his chest and tried to keep his composure. “He said to us, ‘I have experienced peace here that I have hardly experienced even among my people,’” Brother Richardson recalled, “and that he would be buried with this rug, the gift that was given.” Complementing the brothers’ ministry, Sarah’s Oasis, a ministry of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet in St. Paul, serves female victims of torture.
Care and concern Last year, more than two dozen Karenni refugees joined the Church at St. Bernard in St. Paul. The first Karenni refugees came to the parish around 2010, said Hsawreh Sharpoehtay, 31, the parish’s refugee liaison. And all the adult refugees are victims of torture. “We all came to this country as a refugee because we were all victims from Burma where we lived in our own village … all of our houses were burned down and we had to flee from our homeland in 1996,” said Sharpoehtay, who immigrated to the U.S. in 2009 after living in a refugee camp. In the southeast Asian country of Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, he remembers hiding in the jungle. He was too young to be a victim, but his dad and his brother were tortured. His father was forced to be a porter for the military. All adult villagers were tortured in some way, even women, he said. However, Sharpoehtay said, “In this country, we don’t have to worry about our safety. Back there, we had to run. Anytime when we hear a dog bark, we had to be prepared to run, because the military would come to our village looking for something.” Sharpoehtay, who helps Karenni parishioners navigate social service agencies and understand American culture in
FEBRUARY 22, 2018 • 11
of torture
Pope’s Share the Journey campaign encourages solidarity with refugees Last July, Aid to the Church in Need, an international pastoral aid organization, issued a report identifying nations with pervasive hostility against Christians in Asia, Africa and the Middle East, Catholic News Service reported. “Persecuted and Forgotten?” — covering August 2015 to July 2017 — lists “a contiguous line of nations … starting in Sudan, going to Eritrea and north to Egypt, then working its way through Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, India and China before winding up in North Korea.” Nigeria in West Africa also was included. As a result of violence and oppression, “the situation for Christians has declined,” the report said. The U.S. bishops heard the report’s findings last November during their annual fall general meeting in Baltimore.
PHOTOS BY DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT
hardson, talk with “Isaiah” at the friary. The brothers have been
“Isaiah,” a victim of torture who came to the U.S. from Eritrea, plays the krar at the Franciscan Brothers of Peace friary in St. Paul. He plays several times a week in a music studio the brothers made in a downstairs storage area. his role at St. Bernard, said the adults see hope in their children, who can go to school and get an education. “The hope is in the new generation,” he said. The Franciscan Brothers of Peace also provide pastoral care to the Karenni at St. Bernard and to the Karen people at St. Casimir in St. Paul, and have tutored adults and children. The brothers have also partnered with the Missionaries of Charity in Minneapolis to teach catechism classes and host vacation Bible school and summer camps at St. Casimir. The brothers visit different homes to pray the rosary with refugee families. “On the weekends, the families might gather at one apartment home, and there may be up to 30 or 40 individuals in a two-bedroom apartment with all the living
To heighten Catholics’ awareness of migrants’ and refugees’ plight, Pope Francis launched “Share the Journey” in September 2017. The two-year initiative encourages Catholics to encounter migrants and refugees through prayer, reflection and action. Share the Journey is an initiative of Caritas Internationalis, the global network of Catholic charitable agencies. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and its Migration and Refugee Services, Catholic Relief Services and Catholic Charities USA are American partners. — Jessica Trygstad room furniture all cleared out except for a couple chairs for the brothers to sit in while everyone else is on the floor,” Brother Richardson explained. “Some of the young adults in the community … have really grown in roles of leadership in their community, bridging the cultures of our western American culture with theirs, and with their beautiful traditions of devotion and catholicity.” In their ministry, Brother Richardson cites the Gospel of Matthew in which Jesus calls his followers to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked and welcome the stranger. He wants to dispel misperceptions and labels affixed to migrants who find their way to the U.S. “Any human being who wishes to, first of all, be free from tyranny and oppression … how can one be illegal? How can that be illegal?” he said. Pointing to the persecution in Myanmar, he said when refugees come to the U.S., many citizens are equipped to share their resources, but instead, people often turn their backs on them. “Our true homeland is heaven,” he said, “and we’re on this earth. And what we do according to the Gospel of Matthew that Jesus told us is what helps us reach that true home. So, we really need to have hearts open to receiving Christ in our brothers and sisters who are treated unjustly.” Brother Richardson encourages Catholics to become aware of why refugees are leaving their countries, which should give Americans a sense of pride and gratitude, he said. “Try to put yourself in their shoes as an American with what we have,” he said. “Could we imagine wanting to go to another country? But what if we lived in one where we couldn’t go to Mass? “We are so blessed,” he continued. “And if we are to be a people that close ourselves off from others who are treated inhumanely, then what a travesty.”
“To change the world, we must be good to those who cannot repay us.” Do Pope Francis’ words describe someone you know? Someone who has the courage, humility and spirit of service to Lead with Faith at their workplace? The Catholic Spirit is celebrating the 17th year of our Leading with Faith Awards, which recognize women and men in the archdiocese whose Catholic values shape their work ethic and service to others. Nominate a deserving candidate today.
NOMINATIONS DUE: May 4, 2018 TheCatholicSpirit.com/ LeadingWithFaith or call 651-251-7709 for more information.
12 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT
FAITH+CULTURE Don Briel, founder and longtime director of Catholic Studies at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, was diagnosed in midJanuary with two forms of acute leukemia. He was told the cancers were untreatable and he had a month to live. Briel said he welcomed the news: That a month was not too short, but not too long to know that oneself is dying. The news also brought him an influx of visitors, including former students. He died in his home surrounded by family and friends Feb. 15. Maria Wiering, editor of The Catholic Spirit and Catholic Studies alumna, interviewed Briel in his home Feb. 8 about his life’s work, the future of Catholic higher education and preparing for death. Briel, 71, retired from St. Thomas in 2014 and held the Blessed John Henry Newman Chair of Liberal Arts at the University of Mary in Bismarck, North Dakota. The following interview excerpt has been edited for length and clarity. Read the entire interview at TheCatholicSpirit.com.
MW. What have these last few weeks been like since
FEBRUARY 22, 2018
Last
lesson
A week before his death, Catholic Studies founder Don Briel reflected on his life’s work and dying well
your diagnosis?
DB. The fear of death is such a phenomenon in our
culture. I remember some years ago reading Ernest Becker’s “The Denial of Death,” and I think this is such a pervasive feature of our time, that people were astonished that this didn’t trouble me, that I wasn’t anxious to get a second opinion or find some new trial that might confront this. And since then, I suppose my anticipation had been that dying would be more of a passion than an action, that it’s something where I would be withdrawing from the activities of life that had shaped my experience as a teacher, all these years, and as a father. Instead, I found that it’s become more active, perhaps [more] than I’ve ever been in my life, that people want to come and to touch their experience of Catholic Studies and the life that it opened to them, and it’s been a great blessing in fact. People ask what I do during this time, and some of them had expected that I would say I’m reading important spiritual texts, and certainly, I do read, but it’s more [a] time of this combination of prayer — an intensification of prayer — and seeing so many former students and colleagues. And I have the great consolation of the care of the Handmaids [of the Heart of Jesus] and the extraordinary grace of having daily Mass in my house.
MW. What do you see as the essence of Catholic Studies?
DB. Former students who come to me now say that
Catholic Studies opened their lives to the possibility of a joyful freedom. They sensed a new possibility, their life wasn’t simply about some sort of technical routine. There was the joy — “gaudium in veritate” — that Augustine described at the heart of the university which gave them this great freedom. And so I think it has this conversion [aspect]. From time to time, when there were openings, we would have students from other universities in the [Rome semester] program from Yale, Williams, Dartmouth, Notre Dame. Almost all these students would say that the deepest friendships of their undergraduate experience were to be found in that one semester, and it was because students shared not just common interests, but they shared the deepest foundations of their lives. They were seeking to grow in wisdom and to order their lives to the truth. And this is what I think is one of the more remarkable things about Catholic Studies: the felt bonds of communion that link
DB. She had a bad experience of a theology course as
an undergraduate, and she moved from one institution to the next, and she just wanted to know what the point of theology was and whether it explained anything about what she saw to be the serenity of my response to this diagnosis. But this [inquiry] was true not simply from one nurse, but from a physician who was treating my infection as well. I’m struck by the fact that so many people are fearful. John Paul II said the 20th century will be remembered not so much for its bloodiness, which was catastrophic, but for fear. And I think so many people are fearful of death largely because they don’t have any sense that there is anything other than the immediacy of the material world. And for me, as for any Christian, of course, our confidence is not in this world but the world into which we are invited in Christ and the great hope that gives us in the face of the prospect of death.
good death.” Do you see yourself as experiencing a good death right now, or preparing for one?
DB. I was always struck by the fact that when people
speak of a good death today they tend to mean one they’ve chosen. There’s this great emphasis on physician-assisted suicide, for example. When I was studying in Strasbourg, there was a very famous altarpiece in Colmar which was painted as a consolation to the patients who were dying in a hospital. It’s a very stark image of the suffering of Christ. And so when a Christian speaks about a good death, it tends to mean something quite different from what our own culture tends to mean. This has been everything I’d hoped for, as I had hoped that I would have roughly a month to prepare for death, and that I could be conscious of it and order my life to that truth.
MW. Have you thought of this time of dying as your final lesson in some respect — the final thing you are learning, and also the final thing you are able to teach others?
you’ve you connected through Catholic Studies caused you to reflect on your life’s work?
and the quality of the students who have come through this program. But it’s one thing to know that in the abstract, and it’s another to have them come, sometimes after many years, to speak about their lives, to talk about their families, to speak about their priesthood or their religious life, and to share their gratitude for all that had formed them — the transformation of life that Catholic Studies has made possible for them.
encountered a nurse who knew you were a theologian, and she was surprised at how you handled your diagnosis. She asked how you as a theologian approached death. What did you tell her?
MW. As Catholics, we talk about this idea of “a
MW. How has seeing so many people with whom DB. One knows, generally speaking, both the number
MW. You mentioned that in the hospital you
COURTESY UST PHOTO SERVICES
Catholic Studies’ founding director Don Briel teaches his final class at the University of St. Thomas before retiring in 2014. one another and the friendships that it has produced — friendships which are enduring across time and across space.
MW. How does that make you feel, knowing that? DB. This is not my work, it’s not our work, it’s God’s
work, and to have been given this possibility to assist in realizing this great educational vision has been the great privilege of my life.
MW. What has given you the greatest joy in your university roles?
DB. At the heart of my vision of my own work is that of
an educator or a teacher. The administrative work became essential. It wouldn’t have been my choice or my sense of myself. But I’m deeply impressed by Newman’s sense that each of us has a vocation in life: We may not know it in this life, but we’ll know within the next. And this means not simply that we set out to accomplish something or to do something, but that we have to be attentive to the graces which come to us, which invite us to take on a work which we would never have anticipated or understood. And so for me, Catholic Studies, from the very beginning, was this sense of a vocation given to me, not something I set out to do or to accomplish. I had always thought of myself essentially as a classroom teacher. And yet the demands of this grew, and I began to see that I had a vocation to it.
DB. I think so. That has struck me regularly in the
course of this. You mentioned the nurse who had come to me and the physician [who had] come to me, and I think we’re all witnesses of the truth to which our lives are ordered. And certainly, the deepest truth is the mystery of life and death. I had assumed that I would be moving into a more passive withdrawal from the immediacy of life’s activities. And now I find in fact that I’m taking on the role of a witness, an active witness, within that final stage of life. So it’s an extension of the teaching I’ve tried to do all my life.
MW. Are there things about death that help to put aspects of life in perspective?
DB. I think so, because, on the one hand, you could
say that we’re always, at every stage of life, in the process of dying as well as in the process of living. But the more one comes close to the physical reality of death, the more eternity then looms with a kind of immediacy — [it’s] not just an abstraction. And so from that point of view, yes, it has that kind of intensity. David Burrell said that in the end, one’s life will be defined by one of two habits: gratitude or resentment. The work of Catholic Studies — not just for those students who have experienced it, or the faculty who have helped shape it, but in my life in particular — has been a source of great, great gratitude to have been given this gift of helping to form the lives of our students in a way which I think has had, and will continue to have, a tremendous impact in the life of the Church and the life of culture.
FEBRUARY 22, 2018
THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 13
FROMAGETOAGE
If at first you don’t succeed
After J.F. Powers’ scathing criticism forces manuscript into box, aspiring author finds reason to resurrect it By Dave Hrbacek The Catholic Spirit
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om Murray’s novel about fathers, sons and baseball in rural Iowa is a product of failure. Its seed was planted after he made a big mistake during the football season his junior year at Burlington Notre Dame High School in southeast Iowa. Murray, 61, recalled the time when he was summoned off the bench to play defense during a game against West Burlington High School. It was only the second time he had played in a game. “I was a terrible football player,” Murray recalled. “A coach asked me to get into a game. I weighed about 170 pounds, looked like a broom handle with a football helmet on it.” The coach asked him to do one simple thing: run three steps forward from the line of scrimmage into the opponent’s backfield after the ball was hiked, and stand there. Murray did so, but chased the quarterback when he ran away from him. That put him out of position when the quarterback handed off to a wide
receiver running the opposite way on a reverse. Murray was caught off guard and was not ready to make the tackle. “He came running right by me and went through the hole that I was supposed to be guarding, 89 yards for a West Burlington touchdown,” said Murray, who belongs to St. Joan of Arc in Minneapolis. “And, I never got to play again.” He sat on the bench for the rest of the season. He was 17 at the time, and he spent the rest of the year’s games watching what was happening around TOM MURRAY him. He noticed the team’s three coaches who had retired from a different school and decided to help out at Burlington Notre Dame. He also caught teammates looking over their shoulders at their fathers in the stands. The shouts from the dads during games told Murray they were “living vicariously through their sons on the football field.” By the time the season ended, he knew he wanted to write a novel based on his observations from the field, and he started it after graduating from the College of St. Thomas in St. Paul in 1978 and starting a teaching career in the Minneapolis school district. Rather than football, however, he chose to write about baseball, a sport he also played, and he wrote about a town in northwest Iowa, Bancroft — which he calls Cottage Park in the book — rather than his hometown Burlington. “Fathers, Sons and the Holy Ghosts of Baseball”
was published by Beaver’s Pond Press in Edina last year. He finished his original manuscript in the late 1980s, and it quickly seemed to become another failure. He and his brother went to a book signing by J.F. Powers, a Catholic Minnesota writer he idolized, in 1989. When his turn came to meet Powers, he mentioned his book and boldly asked Powers if he could send it to him. Powers agreed. Two weeks later, Murray received a letter from Powers. Powers wrote that he hated Murray’s book and that he was too disgusted with it to even finish reading the full manuscript. “He basically read the first 50 pages and said, ‘This is very bad. It’s not good at all. Life is too short. I can’t continue reading. Why do you punish the reader and, more importantly, why do you punish yourself?’” Murray recalled. Murray was devastated. “I would have to say it was one of the low points of my life,” he said. He put the manuscript in a box on a shelf and didn’t touch it for 25 years. In 2014, his father’s health began to decline, so he decided to make some revisions and print a copy for his father before dementia completely settled in. But, he couldn’t finish it before his father’s death in 2016. So, Murray decided to print four copies, one for each of his children. An unexpected inheritance that could cover printing expenses inspired him to boost that printing to 250. Then, a Catholic friend, Minneapolis City Council member Blong Yang, read it and
asked for 200 copies to hand out to volunteers and supporters. “Then I had to do a second edition of 750 books, and I was off to the races,” he said. “The people in this tiny little town of Bancroft, Iowa, started buying it for their sons and daughters who lived all around the United States.” He just received his third edition of 1,000 copies and does readings at booksellers, including Barnes and Noble. Further publicity is coming from radio and TV appearances in Iowa. The story centers on the intersection of baseball and Catholicism in rural Iowa, where towns have two bars and a Catholic church. “This, in a nutshell, is about a place where the lines between religion and sport — that being baseball — converge in all sorts of different places,” Murray said. “The seven sacraments are practiced on the baseball field or in the context of that baseball environment. So, baseball and Catholicism are one.” Central characters are three grumpy old men who are always on the field chiding the boys in uniform. He named one of these characters, a catcher, “Powers” — out of gratitude, he said. He now has a different view of the criticism the author leveled against his book. “It wasn’t until many, many years later that I recognized that his criticism was right on,” Murray said. “He helped me tremendously with my craft. ... I learned something about old men. This is almost exclusively a story about old men. You’ll see the flavor of J.F. Powers come out in these three old guys who are bristling with anger all the time at these kids.”
“Listen to your elder’s advice. Not because I’m always right, but because I have more experiences of being wrong.”
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14 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT
FAITH+FINANCE Foundation’s new impact investments yield both financial and social returns By Susan Klemond For The Catholic Spirit
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s the Catholic Community Foundation of Minnesota enters the new field of impact investing this year, its leaders expect not only a financial return on two new investments, but also measurable evidence of these investments’ impact on people and the environment. The St. Paul-based foundation has long screened investments by their alignment with Catholic values while seeking the best financial return for hundreds of Catholic individuals, families, parishes and institutions whose financial resources it stewards. With $3.5 million in impact investments — another form of socially responsible investing — CCF believes it can do even more to further the Church’s social teaching locally — in CommonBond’s Housing Opportunity Fund for affordable housing; and globally, in a long-term private equity impact fund. CCF leaders introduced the new investments to donors at its Feb. 15 annual conference. “What we’re doing in the impact space is leveraging our ability as an investor to advance the common good,” said CCF President Anne Cullen Miller, adding that the foundation is still meeting donor expectations for strong financial returns.
The impact investments make up 1 percent of the $350 million CCF manages for donors and institutional partners. Unlike grants, which are onetime gifts, the investments will help CommonBond and other enterprises grow by helping them attract more capital. The assets will be returned with interest or a dividend and could be reinvested. The Catholic Community Foundation of Minnesota was founded in 1992 to financially support the spiritual, educational and social needs of the Minnesota Catholic ANNE community. As the CULLEN MILLER largest Catholic foundation of its kind in the United States, it manages assets in 1,100 funds for its donors and institutional partners. Private family foundations first used impact investing more than 10 years ago to further extend their grant-making, said Mike Ricci, director of professional outreach and investments. While impact investments represent a small percentage of total investments, which are mostly focused on financial returns, institutional and individual investors continue to show interest in them. In 2016, $114
FEBRUARY 22, 2018
“
If we can identify those companies that actually do good, then why wouldn’t we consider looking at that as a possible way to generate results for our partners? Mike Ricci
billion was managed in impact investments worldwide, according to the Global Impact Investing Network, which promotes impact investing. Impact investing has been less accessible to individual investors because it often requires investing large amounts for longer periods of time, and enterprises need the time to develop. But opportunities for smaller investors are growing. Many millennials — those born between 1980 and 2000 — are interested in using their assets for social and environmental good, said Ricci, a parishioner of St. Jude of the Lake in Mahtomedi. While impact investments often yield market-rate returns, investors sometimes accept lower financial returns for a stronger “social return.” Impact funds pool many investors’ assets and provide capital, often for enterprises in developing countries. Impact investors also invest directly in organizations and enterprises. CCF invested in CommonBond after research showed an urgent need for affordable housing, said Miller, a parishioner of St. Joseph in West St. Paul. “If you can’t provide stable housing, you can’t really educate kids, you can’t
really provide mental health services, [and] you can’t get job stability, unless people have a place to sleep at night,” she said. CommonBond was founded in 1971 in partnership with the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, and it currently manages more than 6,000 affordable rental apartments and townhomes across Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa. The $1 million investment from CCF’s cash reserve helps enable CommonBond to generate $20 million of real estate purchasing power through financing. The nonprofit will pay back the principal with interest in five years, Ricci said. As a social return, “They’ll be able to say, for example, that this type of investment allowed us to keep a specific number of families in an apartment that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to stay in,” he added. CCF’s other $2.5 million impact investment is in a private equity impact fund offered by St. Louis-based Ascension Investment Management Group, which includes investments in emerging markets in Africa, China and India. With the long-term investment (typically more PLEASE TURN TO IMPACT INVESTING ON PAGE 15
FEBRUARY 22, 2018
FAITH+FINANCE
THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 15
Financial adviser manages wealth for greater good By Susan Klemond For The Catholic Spirit
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wo years ago, Mike Ricci, 54, began noticing a change in himself. It started when the then-partner and principal of the half-billion dollar Minneapolis firm Vector Wealth Management watched his mother suffer from Alzheimer’s disease. Then, a client instructed him to do something he hadn’t done before — give money to unsuspecting single mothers. Several clients’ deaths also affected Ricci at the time. “I started to think, should I be doing more with my time on earth?” recalled Ricci, a parishioner of St. Jude of the Lake in Mahtomedi. Feeling he was being called to something unknown, Ricci sought training to advise clients on charitable giving. Then, while he served on his parish finance council, representatives of the Catholic Community Foundation, which financially supports the needs of the Minnesota Catholic community and manages assets of donors and institutional partners, offered him a position. Ricci realized he’d been hearing God asking him to make a change. Confirmation of his call came a few months later in February 2016 when
an ex-convict contacted Ricci about helping him donate a multi-million dollar inheritance. After sharing his story of military service in Vietnam, alcoholism, crime and giving his life to God in prison, the client put his hand on Ricci’s arm and asked, “Can you help me with this [inheritance]?” “He was the one who through his story made me realize God was shepherding us all MIKE RICCI on a journey,” Ricci said. “It may not be the journey we think we’re supposed to be on, but the one he wants you on. It became apparent to me that God was talking to me through him.” A few months later, Ricci accepted the CCF position directing professional outreach and investments. In his dual role, he draws on his extensive contacts with other advisers and investment professionals, as well as his investment expertise. Leaving more than 180 clients was difficult, but Ricci said he now finds a deeper meaning in his service. His wife, Connie, supported him through his discernment. The couple has four adult children.
IMPACT INVESTING CONTINUED FROM PAGE 14
“It’s sort of like I went from having a job to having a vocation,” Ricci said. Ricci’s experience with asset management, markets and managing individuals’ investment portfolios has enhanced the foundation’s work with parishes and other Catholic institutions that invest with it, said Anne Cullen Miller, CCF president and a parishioner of St. Joseph in West St. Paul. “He’s got the skill set, but he shows up in a very authentic way, and that makes a difference,” she said. “I refer to it a little bit as a gift of the Holy Spirit coming our way. We’ve got a bunch of them, but he’s been the latest.” Ricci has been part of CCF’s effort to make impact investments that offer both financial and social returns. “A couple years ago, I wouldn’t have considered the idea that you could do good while doing well, the concept of impact investments,” he said. Since God called him to another side of finance, Ricci said he hears the Lord saying there’s more to be done. “He showed me what was possible — that happiness is found in the joy of others,” he said. “What I try to believe in my story is pay attention, because God’s talking to us always.”
than seven years) from CCF’s special allocation reserve, leaders are seeking marketlike returns. Donors have been positive about the new investments, although most are still learning about them, Ricci said. Donors who are traditional investors often focus on financial returns to maximize their grant-making capabilities, but they’re recognizing that they can get results both ways, he said. “If we can identify those companies that actually do good, then why wouldn’t we consider looking at that as a possible way to generate results for our partners?” Ricci said. A CCF donor for 12 years, George Lang, 76, supports both of its impact investments. As a member of CommonBond’s housing board, he especially favors enabling the organization to provide affordable housing. Lang, a parishioner of St. Odilia in Shoreview, said the CommonBond investment is “just an acorn now, but it soon will be growing much larger, and we’ll be part of it.” Lang is also on CCF’s board of directors. Depending on results, CCF might make more impact investments or reinvest in the current ones while keeping enough of its assets liquid for grants, Ricci said. With a little more research, donors can align their money with their mission, he said. “It’s not perfectly clear what the investments will be, but it will get more obvious as more arrive,” Ricci said. “You have to take time to find more partnerships. We’re just dipping our toe in the water.”
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16 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT
FEBRUARY 22, 2018
FOCUSONFAITH SUNDAY SCRIPTURES | FATHER TOM WALKER
A new focus
Jesus’ boyhood home of Nazareth sits on a ridge overlooking a broad valley. Mount Tabor (the site in the Gospel passage for Feb. 25) towers above the valley just a short distance away. Surveying the scene, I have wondered if today’s Gospel story was the only time Jesus had made a pilgrimage up that holy mountain. As a boy growing up in Nazareth, how often had he gone to the edge of town to view the mountain? As a young man, had Mount Tabor often been a place to spend time in communion with his Father and with the holy ones who had come before him? In today’s story, was he taking his inner circle of Peter, James and John to share in that sacred experience as a means of consoling them after the difficult news he had just delivered? Matthew, Mark and Luke all tell this story as a part of a series of events that mark a turning point in their Gospels. Jesus asks his disciples: Who do you say that I am? Peter correctly names him as the Messiah, but Jesus tells them that he has come to suffer, be rejected and killed, and rise after three days. Then he adds that whoever wishes to come after him must deny himself, take up his cross and follow him. Throughout Mark’s Gospel, we see a strong focus on the failure of Jesus’ disciples to understand who he is and why he
has come, despite the miracles he performed in their presence. How much was added to that confusion when he tried to explain that he had come to be a suffering Messiah? In the Transfiguration story, Jesus invites his key disciples into the hope that lies beyond the cross. As the glory that has always been and will always be his shone forth for them to see, there was yet another chance for them to acknowledge him as the Son of God and the one who came to bring fulfillment to the law and the prophets (Moses and Elijah). Yet, it would only be after his saving death that they would begin to understand his way and their way to glory would come through fully surrendering their lives out of love. All they needed was found in the simple command given by the Father: Listen to him. Every year on the Second Sunday of Lent, the Mother Church invites us to join Jesus in his pilgrimage up the holy mountain. As we come face-to-face with our selfishness and pride that has led us so often to sin, he invites us to reflect on his glory found through suffering. Can we put our lives more fully into his hands and admit that we need his help in conquering our sins? Can we understand that our glory, too, will be found in laying down our lives and putting on his ways of surrender, service, humility and gentleness? Can we linger just a moment on the holy mountain, tune out the voices that lead us astray and focus anew on only listening to God’s beloved Son? Let Lent be a time to do just that.
Sunday, Feb. 25 Second Sunday of Lent Gn 22:1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18 Rom 8:31b-34 Mk 9:2-10 Monday, Feb. 26 Dn 9:4b-10 Lk 6:36-38 Tuesday, Feb. 27 Is 1:10, 16-20 Mt 23:1-12 Wednesday, Feb. 28 Jer 18:18-20 Mt 20:17-28 Thursday, March 1 Jer 17:5-10 Lk 16:19-31 Friday, March 2 Gn 37:3-4, 12-13a, 17b-28a Mt 21:33-43, 45-46 Saturday, March 3 Mi 7:14-15, 18-20 Lk 15:1-3, 11-32
Father Walker is pastor of St. Michael in Prior Lake.
FAITH FUNDAMENTALS | FATHER MICHAEL VAN SLOUN
Sunday, March 4 Third Sunday of Lent Ex 20:1-17 1 Cor 1:22-25 Jn 2:13-25
The most important sacrament
This column, Faith Fundamentals, is intended to help Catholics gain a better understanding of the core beliefs of our faith. The goal is to fill in the gaps. There was a time in the past when religious education classes were soft, when the students drew pictures, made collages and spoke about their feelings. But when it came to instruction, solid content was lacking. As a result, it is not only the children who need to learn what we believe and why, but also the adults, and the good news is that older Catholics are eager and hungry to learn. What fundamentals need attention? The sacraments. They are a rich source of grace. They are central to our prayer and liturgical worship. Yet, when we celebrate them, we have a partial understanding of what we are doing, and it would be a great spiritual benefit to learn more of the fundamentals to acquire a stronger and firmer foundation. Faith Fundamentals debuted last year with the initial series on baptism, the gateway sacrament. The first sacrament is a good place to start. This next series is on the Eucharist. How important is the Eucharist? I was humbled by how I lacked the fundamentals on this question. I am a lifelong Catholic. I had been a religious brother for 23 years. I had just enrolled in the major seminary, and, filled with zeal, was in my first class on the sacraments. The professor asked, “What is the most important sacrament?” My hand shot up. The professor pointed straight at me. Full of naive confidence I blurted out, “Baptism.” “It has to be baptism,” I thought, “It is first.” It was like Family Feud, a buzzer blaring at a wrong answer, a red X flashing on the screen. The professor glared. The students gawked. Looking me square in the eye and with a harsh and scolding tone, as if to say, “How could you be so stupid?” the professor reprovingly stated, “The Eucharist is the most important sacrament!” Blushing, mortified, I slid down in my chair. Emotionally I have recovered, but I have not forgotten. The Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life. Baptism is received once; Eucharist is received over and over again. Baptism initiates us into the body of Christ; Eucharist is communion with the body of Christ. Baptism is the first flow of grace; Eucharist is a fountain of ongoing grace. Baptism sets the table; Eucharist is a banquet that provides spiritual sustenance for a lifetime. Baptism is the beginning of the journey of faith on earth; Eucharist is Viaticum — given when death is imminent — and ideally is the last sacrament, and brings us home to heaven. I never thought that one sacrament
DAILY Scriptures
Monday, March 5 2 Kgs 5:1-15ab Lk 4:24-30 Tuesday, March 6 Dn 3:25, 34-43 Mt 18:21-35 Wednesday, March 7 Dt 4:1, 5-9 Mt 5:17-19 Thursday, March 8 Jer 7:23-28 Lk 11:14-23 Friday, March 9 Hos 14:2-10 Mk 12:28-34 Saturday, March 10 Hos 6:1-6 Lk 18:9-14
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could outrank another, but the Eucharist stands above the rest. My father showed me the path to a great love for the Eucharist. When I was a little boy, some mornings I would get up early, and I was inspired to observe how my dad would attend daily Mass before going to work. He had a deep devotion to the Eucharist. It was the high point of his day. Eventually I joined him, and his love for Jesus in the Eucharist became my love for Jesus in the Eucharist. I might have answered the question wrong in class, but my dad had it right. He gave me the correct fundamentals when it comes to the importance of the Eucharist. Over the coming months, Faith Fundamentals will delve into a number of core beliefs on the Eucharist: the real presence, transubstantiation, the biblical foundations, how it provides spiritual nourishment, its transforming effect and the Eucharist as sacrifice. Father Van Sloun is pastor of St. Bartholomew in Wayzata. This is the first column in a series on the Eucharist. Follow the series at TheCatholicSpirit.com. Read more of his writing at CatholicHotdish.com.
Sunday, March 11 Fourth Sunday of Lent 2 Chr 36:14-16, 19-23 Eph 2:4-10 Jn 3:14-21
FEBRUARY 22, 2018
THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 17
COMMENTARY YOUR HEART, HIS HOME | LIZ KELLY
Getting to forgiveness
Some years ago, a woman told a lie about me that caused some serious harm and was tremendously painful to bear. After many months had passed, out of the blue, she sent me an email, something along the lines of, “If I hurt you, I’m sorry.” We’ve all gotten these: the non-apology apology. It was, I thought, cowardly, and did very little to repair the damage that had been done. On the other hand, I’ve received some very sincere and blessed apologies, too. One from a dear friend who, years earlier, had done something that needed forgiving. By the time he got around to asking for forgiveness, I had long since forgiven him, but I will never forget the sense of freedom that was unleashed in him in naming the offense, claiming it before me, and asking for forgiveness. Such joy it brought to us to see God’s grace at work flowing freely between us and further cementing our friendship with one another and with the Lord we both loved so dearly. This Lent has me thinking about the tricky and nuanced work of forgiveness; that is, where I need to ask for forgiveness. Where do I need to make real amends? Where is it not enough to name it in the
confessional, but instead to shrug off all cowardice and pride, name my offense in plain language without excuses to the one I have harmed, and ask for their forgiveness? Have I done all that I am able and obligated to do in order to help facilitate forgiveness in the one I have wounded?
Before the altar I love — and occasionally dread — the passage in Matthew where Jesus tells us most plainly, “If you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift” (5:23–24). I find these verses to be an excellent and effective examen before Mass. And I confess that on more than one occasion, this passage has turned me around before receiving Communion in a most unworthy condition. Of course, getting to forgiveness is not always a perfectly tidy, linear operation, and I am not advocating for scrupulosity. Sometimes our hurts flare up long after we’ve sincerely forgiven someone, revealing another little corner of resentment that still needs to be swept out. It does not mean that our apology was somehow flawed if someone we’ve harmed has not yet forgiven us, or not forgiven us fully, or needs to forgive us again. We forgive in layers, working out our “70 times seven” along an often bumpy and unpredictable road. Sometimes our apologies are not received in the moment we offer them. That’s all right. True and
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Let’s resolve to trust in the power of God’s grace and beg his clarifying love to flow freely, mending all our soul-fissures where it will.
worthy apologies don’t have an expiration date. A heart can “catch up,” so to speak, at a later time, and I want to hope for that in another. If you tend toward an exaggerated scrupulosity, maybe you don’t need to pray about this. For my part, I am more tempted to diminish my sins and their damage. For those like me, let’s not waste any opportunity to be reconciled with those we have hurt. Let’s resolve to trust in the power of God’s grace and beg his clarifying love to flow freely, mending all our soul-fissures where it will. Merciful Jesus, your grace can never be exhausted. Help me to look at my sins honestly, and with courage, to ask simply and without excuses for forgiveness where it is most needed. Kelly is the author of “Jesus Approaches” and the “Jesus Approaches Study Supplement.” She is leading an eight-week study based on the book this spring. For more information or to register, visit the Women’s Scripture Study event page at rediscover-faith.org.
CATHOLIC WATCHMEN | BRYANT ORTEGA
A father’s love
I remember sitting around as a teenager hearing stories of my dad coming to this country to pursue the American dream. The more he told me, the more I wanted to know about the intense experience he endured and why he would leave his parents and loved ones. He always said he wanted a better life and to one day give that to his family. It sounded a bit cliché, like your typical immigrant story told in movies, but I accepted it. My dad described my grandfather working day and night to provide for his family of nine. He would barely see his dad while growing up, and when he did, it was for disciplinary reasons. My dad desired more of a relationship with his dad, but he never knew how to express it or even if it was a reasonable request. He vowed that one day when he had children he would teach them the value of a solid work ethic, to keep God first, and always, always tell his children that he loved them. My dad stuck to his word, and every day he would make sure to express his love for my siblings and me. The typical exchange: “I love you, son.” “I love you too, dad,” was always followed by his silly addition of, “But I love you more!” There was no winning on the amount of love I could give him because he would be sure to remind me that he loved me more. Now, my father wasn’t one to give verbal affirmations other than this. He showed his love for me through his daily actions. He did a solid day’s work and came home every day to greet my mother and each of us individually. My dad always led us in prayer before meals. He proudly taught the basic “man skills” from automobile maintenance to yard work, to building random stuff and being a neighborhood steward. He continued to give to his family even when it was visible that he had a lot on his plate. My father’s ideals made practical sense to me: provide financially, be the spiritual head, sacrifice for your family no matter what and express your love daily. I knew I would one day instill these same ideals in my own family. I never imagined, though, how these practical ideals would eventually evolve from a checklist to a
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In these beginning days of my own fatherhood, I’m realizing I’m not my grandfather, nor am I my father. I’m a product of their experiences and ideals, but it’s ultimately up to me to build my own for my family.
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way of life. On Feb. 3 at 12:45 a.m., my wife gave birth to our first child, Ignatius Daniel. I’ve heard men describe this as an intense yet beautiful experience. Sitting helpless next to my wife while she endured such terrible pain, listening to doctors raise concern for our child without the ability to aid the situation, and finally hearing the cries of a healthy baby boy, I embraced my wife, and a strong praise of thanksgiving came from my lips. As these early days of fatherhood pass, my dad’s stories come to mind. All his values start to make a little more sense. Before, they were duties of a dad and basic responsibilities. Now they’re so much more. I have a son. I want to provide for him financially, and I want to teach him the joys and responsibilities we have as Catholics in this modern day. I don’t need to sacrifice because it’s my duty; I’m sacrificing because my love for him is unique, just like my dad’s unique expression of his love for us in, “But I love you more.”
In these beginning days of my own fatherhood, I’m realizing I’m not my grandfather, nor am I my father. I’m a product of their experiences and ideals, but it’s ultimately up to me to build my own for my family. Being a father isn’t built on a set of black-and-white rules or a history that dictates how my children will turn out. I am my own man of God, my own husband, my own father. My children will see this in how I love them in my own unique way as their father. Just like our Father loves us. Born in California, Ortega is a Minnesota transplant with business and Catholic Studies degrees from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. He works in consulting services for the global software company Infor and is a member of St. Mark in St. Paul. Learn about the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ Catholic Watchmen initiative at facebook.com/ thecatholicwatchmen.
18 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT
FAITH IN THE PUBLIC ARENA | JASON ADKINS
Fighting fake news with the truth of Christ
Fake news that distorts public discourse and manipulates the public will not be countered effectively by a renewed interest in journalistic ethics or more laws aimed at improving disclosure of the sources of online content. It is a cultural problem. In an increasingly secular society that no longer recognizes objective truth, politics loses a standard to which policies should conform, and the media loses its influence as an instrument of accountability and judgment. The public discourse becomes merely a battleground for those driven by greed, ideology and the naked lust for power. In such a culture, leaders work not to defend the truth, but rather to gain control of the process and impose their own ends — their own “truth.” The news business, especially, and the proliferation of media across social networks play a key role in the battle to manipulate hearts and minds for ideological, political and economic goals. It is the truth, however, that sets us free from the slavery of the 24-hour media cycle and those who would seek to control it for their own interest. But to convert our hearts to the truth and make them open to it, we need the truth of a person — the truth of Jesus Christ to transform a people who deceive and are willing to be deceived.
The fake news phenomenon We should not be surprised by the presence of “fake news,” recently described by Pope Francis in his World
WORD ON FIRE | BISHOP ROBERT BARRON
America magazine’s survey of women in the Church Last month, America magazine published a fascinating survey regarding the attitudes of women in the Church. They were kind enough to publish a few of my reactions to the study, but I would like to offer a fuller response to their findings. One of the most disturbing conclusions from the survey is that women are increasingly disengaging from the life of the Church. The America editors themselves observed that this does not bode well for evangelization, for women have traditionally played a crucial role in the passing on of the faith. I couldn’t agree more. Hans Urs von Balthasar famously opined that Jesus’ own faith and sense of identity (at the level of his human nature) was awakened by the smile of his mother and by her relaying of the story of Israel. I have always taken this as emblematic of the indispensable contribution of mothers to the religious formation of their children. That said, I am equally concerned about the massive attrition of men from the practice of the faith, for study after study have indicated that the fidelity of fathers and grandfathers has a disproportionately significant impact on the faith-development of children, both male and female. A second finding of the study is that women feel the Church should do more to welcome unmarried parents, the divorced, the widowed and singles. Once
COMMENTARY Communications Day 2018 message as “the spreading of disinformation online or in the traditional media.” “It has to do with false information based on nonexistent or distorted data meant to deceive and manipulate the reader,” he said. “Spreading fake news can serve to advance specific goals, influence political decisions and serve economic interests.” Fake news has instant allure for the consumer, wounded by original sin. As Pope Francis says, “The effectiveness of fake news is primarily due to its ability to mimic real news, to seem plausible. Secondly, this false but believable news is ‘captious,’ inasmuch as it grasps people’s attention by appealing to stereotypes and common social prejudices, and exploiting instantaneous emotions like anxiety, contempt, anger and frustration.” Pope Francis equates the tactics of the producers of fake news to those of Satan, the father of lies, whose use of mimicry is a “sly and dangerous form of seduction that worms its way into the heart with false and alluring arguments.”
Hearts open to truth Undoubtedly, all of us have trafficked in fake news (gossip included), either as producers or as willfully ignorant consumers, spreading lies and disinformation to others, often to assassinate the character of other persons or achieve partisan or ideological goals. For example, clicking on and sharing media content with sensational headlines about a person without actually reading and evaluating its content is one way to fall into the functional equivalent of the sin of gossip. As Pope Francis clarifies, “The economic and manipulative aims that feed disinformation are rooted in a thirst for power, a desire to possess and enjoy, which ultimately makes us victims of something much more tragic: the deceptive power of evil that moves from one lie to another in order to rob us of our interior freedom. That is why education for truth means teaching people how to discern, evaluate and understand our deepest desires and inclinations, lest we lose sight of what is good and yield to every temptation.” We combat the temptation to traffic in fake news by again, I strongly concur. I’m a great devotee of the Catholic Action model that was so prevalent prior to Vatican II but which has largely fallen into desuetude in the last 40 or 50 years. In line with Catholic Action instincts, we ought to gather people of similar backgrounds, experiences and formation, and teach them the method of “see, judge and act.” So yes, parishes could bring together single mothers, widows, etc., and invite them to look at their lives in light of the Gospel and to determine, on that basis, what ought to be done. It is indeed true that, too often, parish life revolves almost exclusively around the concerns and interests of married people and their families. This can and should change. A third conclusion of the survey I will admit I find a bit puzzling. Only 18 percent of the women questioned feel that they are “very much involved in decisionmaking.” Now, I fully understand that, given the hierarchical structure of the Church, the final call in most matters belongs to the pastor or the bishop; nevertheless, in my experience in two major archdioceses, Chicago and Los Angeles, women are rather massively involved in the process of decisionmaking. Parish staffs and leadership teams are predominantly female, and increasingly, chancery offices and pastoral centers have ample female representation. And this is not simply my subjective impression. I distinctly recall a study by the theologian Catharine LaCugna, which appeared 25 years ago in the pages of America. She reported that 80 percent of religious education instructors and sponsors for the catechumenate are women; that 75 percent of Bible study leaders and participants are female; that 80 percent of those who join prayer groups are women; and that 70 percent of those who are active in parish renewal programs are female. I can’t help but speculate that those numbers have only increased in the last quarter century. And mind you, I enthusiastically applaud this development, which has only enriched the life of the Church. An intriguing finding of the survey is that most
FEBRUARY 22, 2018
In his message for World Communications Day, Pope Francis highlights that to avoid being manipulated by fake news and to counter falsehoods with truth, we must read widely, go beyond our social networks and not be tempted to rely on information sources from only one cultural, ideological or political reference point. In other words, we must invite an encounter with ideas and people who might not share our own views, but from whom we might be able to learn. This Lent, embrace the challenge of either stepping away from certain forms of media or expanding your reading list to include other perspectives. Encountering other perspectives does not mean embracing them. It can often lead to a deepening of one’s own perspective or convictions. But it will certainly assist one in not embracing every idea or purported fact that comes our way through the media.
recognizing first that God does not need our lie to build his kingdom. What is needed to bring true peace and order into the world is an encounter with Christ the Lord, and the transformation that springs from that encounter. According to Pope Francis, “We discover and rediscover the truth when we experience it within ourselves in the loyalty and trustworthiness of the One who loves us.” When we open our hearts to the truth of Jesus Christ, Jesus opens our hearts to reality; that is, the truth of all that he has made and that he continues to sustain in existence by his love. This truth brings both the interior freedom and peace of soul that is the effective remedy to the cultural problem of fake news. Adkins is executive director of the Minnesota Catholic Conference. Catholic women consider the care for the poor and the Eucharist as the two most essential elements of Catholic life. Well, Pope Benedict XVI said that the Church has three essential tasks: it worships God, it evangelizes and it cares for the poor. So, my first response to this statistical finding is, “Two out of three ain’t bad.” The Eucharist is indeed the central act of worship, the “source and summit of the Christian life,” and serving the poor is the moral commitment that flows most directly from rightly ordered worship. However, I must say that I do worry that the women surveyed didn’t seem to put evangelization on an equal footing, especially now when so many are drifting into the ranks of the “nones.” I also remark a certain cognitive dissonance. On the one hand, large numbers of women say that the Eucharist is central to one’s identity as a Catholic, and yet 75 percent of women stay away from the Mass on a regular basis. The fathers of the Second Vatican Council wanted “full, conscious and active” participation in the liturgy. This survey confirms what a thousand other surveys over the past five decades have indicated — namely, that we are a long, long way from realizing that conciliar aspiration. What both surprised and heartened me the most was the discovery that fully 90 percent of the women surveyed say that they have not experienced sexism in the Catholic Church. Obviously, any type of sexism at any time is bad, but I wonder whether any other organization could put up numbers as good as these. Would 90 percent of women in the corporate world, in Hollywood, in government or in education say that they never experienced sexism? I sincerely doubt it. I think that these numbers indicate that, though we still have a lot to do to address the problems of sexism and misogyny in the Church, we have indeed made a good deal of progress. Bishop Barron is an auxiliary bishop of Los Angeles and the founder of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries. His column appears occasionally in The Catholic Spirit print edition and regularly at TheCatholicSpirit.com.
FEBRUARY 22, 2018
THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 19
CALENDAR FEATURED EVENTS 24 Hours for the Lord — March 9-10: 5 p.m. Mass March 9 kicks off the 24 hours of the sacrament of reconciliation at St. John the Baptist, 680 Mill St. in Excelsior. With Father Alex Carlson, pastor, the event includes Stations of the Cross, confession from 5:30 p.m. March 9 to 4:30 p.m. March 10, eucharistic adoration, praise and worship, a divine mercy hour, a rosary hour and benediction. For more information, contact the parish at 952-474-8868 or visit stjohns-excelsior.org. Archdiocesan Men’s Conference — March 10: 9:30 a.m.–4 p.m. at St. Thomas Academy, 949 Mendota Heights Road, Mendota Heights. Doors open at 8:30 a.m. for the event, which includes keynote speaker Msgr. Thomas Richter, the new rector of the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity, Mass, break-out sessions, and opportunity for confession. Food trucks will be available for attendees to purchase lunch, or attendees may bring their own bag lunch. Cost is $25 per adult, and parking is free. For more information and to register, visit rediscover.archspm.org, or contact Enzo Randazzo at 651-291-4483 or randazzov@archspm.org.
FISH FRY CORRECTIONS The following entries are corrected from the Feb. 8 issue. The Catholic Spirit’s full Fish Fry and Lenten Meal Guide is at TheCatholicSpirit.com/nomeat. St. John the Evangelist, Little Canada — Fish fry, 4:30–7 p.m. March 23 at 380 Little Canada Road. $10 adults, $9 seniors, $8 ages 12 and under, $30 family. Includes fried or baked pollock, coleslaw, grilled cheese sandwiches, mashed potatoes, vegetables, rolls, dessert and beverages. Pop, beer and wine extra. Stations of the Cross at 7 p.m. stjohnsoflc.org. St. George, Long Lake — Fish fry, 6:30–7:30 p.m. March 9 at 133 N. Brown Road. Free-will offering. Includes fries, coleslaw, dessert and beverage. Stations of the Cross at 6 p.m. 6:30–8 p.m. open mic night. stgeorgelonglake.org. St. Matthew, St. Paul — The correct time of the Stations of the Cross is 4 p.m.
Dining out
Music
Knights of Columbus spaghetti bingo — Feb. 24: 5:45–9 p.m. at St. Michael, 22120 Denmark Ave., Farmington. stmichael-farmington.org. Italian dinner — Feb. 24: 5:30–7:30 p.m. at St. Vincent de Paul, 9100 93rd Ave. N., Brooklyn Park. saintvdp.org. Knights of Columbus Dad’s Belgian Waffles breakfast — Feb. 25: 8:30 a.m.– 12:30 p.m. at St. John the Baptist, 835 Second Ave. NW, New Brighton. stjohnnb.com. West End Faith Communities’ soup suppers — March 7 and March 21: 6 p.m. at St. Mark Lutheran (with Free At Last Congregation), 550 Seventh St. W., St. Paul. A 6:40 p.m. prayer service will follow. St. Patrick’s ham dinner hosted by St. Paul parish — March 11: 10:30 a.m.– 1 p.m. at the Zumbrota VFW, 25 E. First St., Zumbrota.
Song of Mark composed by Marty Haugen — March 2: 7 p.m. at Guardian Angels, 8260 Fourth St. N., Oakdale. guardian-angels.org.
Parish events St. Agnes 2018 Lenten Lectures — Fridays during Lent: 7–9 p.m. at 535 Thomas Ave. W., St. Paul. churchofsaintagnes.org. Bible study: Finding Christ in the Old Testament led by William Stevenson — Tuesdays during Lent: 7–8:30 p.m. at St. Mark, Carolyn Hall (across Moore Street from the church), 2001 Dayton Ave., St. Paul. saintmark-mn.org. Widow/Widowers Agape Dinner with Archbishop Bernard Hebda — Feb. 24: 10 a.m.–1 p.m. at St. Peter, 1250 S. Shore Drive, Forest Lake. www.stpeterfl.org.
St. Michael Lenten Mission-Saints and Evangelization, with Father Francis Hoffman “Father Rocky,” Jeff Cavins and Father Michael Becker — Feb. 25-28: 7:30–9 p.m. at 11300 Frankfort Parkway NE, St. Michael. stmcatholicchurch.org.
Deepening Our Capacity for Love and Compassion led by Mary Noble Garcia and Carolyn Kolovitz — Feb. 24: 9 a.m.–noon at St. Olaf, 215 S. Eighth St., Minneapolis. loyolaspiritualitycenter.org/ lenten-retreat.
Reflections at the Foot of the Cross based on visions and writing of Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich — March 2: 7 p.m. at Nativity of Mary, 9900 Lyndale Ave. S., Bloomington. saintbonaventure.org.
Henri Nouwen Lenten day of prayer presented by Kathy Berken — March 1: 9:30 a.m. at Franciscan Retreats and Spirituality Center, 16385 St. Francis Lane, Prior Lake. franciscanretreats.net.
The Passion of Jesus in Music, Word and Light — March 8-10: 8 p.m. at St. Mark, 350 Atwood St., Shakopee. shakopeepassionplay.org.
Married couples retreat — March 2-4: at Christ the King Retreat Center, 621 First Ave. S., Buffalo. kingshouse.com.
St. John the Baptist Fasching Gala — March 10: 6–11 p.m. at 680 Mill St. Excelsior. stjohns-excelsior.org/parish.
Prayer/worship 50th anniversary Mass of Thanksgiving for Father Frank Fried — Feb. 25: 10:30 a.m. at Little Sisters of the Poor Holy Family Residence, 330 Exchange St. S., St. Paul. 651-698-8333. Healing Mass with Father Michael Becker — March 1: 7 p.m. at Holy Name of Jesus, 155 County Road 24, Medina. hnoj.org. Prayer Service for Healing — March 10: 10 a.m. at Guardian Angels, 8260 Fourth St. N., Oakdale. guardian-angels.org. Taize Prayer — First Friday of each month: 7:30 p.m. at St. Richard, 7540 Penn Ave. S., Richfield. strichards.com/first-fridays. 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 stpaulsmonastery.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. paxchristi.com.
Retreats Friends of the Little Sisters of the Poor Lenten Day of Reflection with Father Stephen Adrian — Feb. 24: 9 a.m.–2 p.m. at Assumption, 51 W. Seventh St., St. Paul. Anna at 651-484-0599 or grandma.mae@comcast.net.
Women’s Lenten retreat — March 3: 8:30 a.m.–1 p.m. at Immaculate Conception, 4030 Jackson St. NE, Columbia Heights. iccsonline.org. Lenten day of reflection with Father Robert Altier — March 3: 7:30 a.m.–2 p.m. at St. Raphael, 7301 Bass Lake Road, Crystal. straphaelcrystal.org. Mini-retreat for singles — March 6: 4–9 p.m. at St. Paul’s Monastery, 2675 Benet Road, Maplewood. benedictinecenter.org.
CALENDAR submissions 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 next issue date. LISTINGS: Accepted are brief notices of upcoming events hosted by Catholic parishes and organizations. If the Catholic connection is not clear, please emphasize it in your submission. Included in our listings are local events submitted by public sources that could be of interest to the larger Catholic community. 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: thecatholicspirit.com/ calendarsubmissions
MAIL: “Calendar,” The Catholic Spirit 777 Forest St., St. Paul, MN 55106
Meister Eckhart Lenten day of prayer presented by Jayne Krim — March 8: 9:30 a.m. at Franciscan Retreats and Spirituality Center, 16385 St. Francis Lane, Prior Lake. franciscanretreats.net.
7–9 p.m. at St. Paul’s Monastery, 2675 Benet Road, Maplewood. Writers at all levels are welcome. benedictinecenter.org.
Conferences/workshops
Schools
Order Franciscans Secular (OFS) — Third Sunday of each month: 1 p.m. at Catholic Charities, 1200 Second Ave. S., Minneapolis. 952-922-5523.
St. Helena’s ham bingo — March 3: 5:30–9 p.m. at 3200 E. 44th St., Minneapolis. sainthelenaschool.us.
Lenten morning of reflection: Hope in the Cross led by author Erin O’Leary — March 3: 9 a.m.–noon at St. Richard, 7540 Penn Ave. S., Richfield. strichards.com/lent.
Can you be an economic liberal and a Catholic at the same time? Presented by Father Martin Schlag — Feb. 27: 11:45 a.m.–1:15 p.m. at the University of St. Thomas, 2115 Summit Ave., Sitzmann Hall, St. Paul. stthomas.edu/catholicstudies.
Conversation: Virtue and Living a Public Life — March 15: 9 a.m.–1 p.m. at St. Paul’s Monastery, 2675 Benet Road, Maplewood. benedictinecenter.org.
Speakers
Other events
Youth Gathering – Made for Happiness: Dare to Want More — March 17: 9 a.m.–noon at Immaculate Conception’s sschool auditorium, 4030 Jackson St. NE, Columbia Heights. stpaulse.com/columbiaheights.
Bags ’n Bling Fundraiser for Basic Institute for Zonal African Advancement — March 2: 5–9 p.m. at St. Mary of the Lake, 105 Forestview Lane N., Plymouth. bit.ly/BAGSnBLING4BIZAA.
Finding Words to Describe Spiritual Insights led by Vic Klimoski, poet and teacher — March 19, 26, and April 2:
Seeing God art exhibit — Through March 2: 7–8:30 p.m. at St. Paul’s Monastery, 2675 Benet Road, Maplewood. benedictinecenter.org.
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20 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT
FEBRUARY 22, 2018
THELASTWORD
Classroom on ice
LEFT Organizer Matt Wilkie, right, holds a northern pike caught on a tip-up during an ice fishing event Feb. 12 on Rogers Lake in Mendota Heights, as Visitation School fifth-graders Maren Kinsella, left, Nadia Goldman, Aarushi Bahadur and McCall Vickers reach for a hands-on experience. BELOW Fifth-grader Eleanor DuBois leads Montessori student Gigi Qarmout onto Rogers Lake.
RIGHT Fifth-grader Avery Bowser and Montessori student Margot Nubberd wait for a bite. In the background is Montessori student Arthur Ness. FAR RIGHT Fifth-grader Nadia Goldman reels up a sunfish with help from fishing assistant Logan Dop.
Visitation students find fun, fellowship and fish on frozen lake Story and photos by Dave Hrbacek The Catholic Spirit
A
shout rang out from Rogers Lake just across the road from Visitation School in Mendota Heights. “I got one!” With a smile from ear to ear, fifthgrade student Nadia Goldman reeled in a small sunfish from the shallow depths. She was joined by 19 other students who got the chance to leave the classroom for a lesson on the ice Feb. 12. Two groups of fifth-graders and their “Montessori buddies” — students from the preschool — got the chance to walk out onto 20 inches of frozen water and try their hand at a sport that has boomed in Minnesota and has gone high tech. The students stared down at holes
watching bobbers, and also took glances at an underwater camera that revealed the presence of hungry finned creatures swimming below the surface. “It was really exciting,” said Goldman, who was making her first foray on ice. “And, I was like, ‘Wow, I actually caught a fish.’ I did not think I would catch one.” Turns out, there were fish aplenty for both their group and the group that followed. The guide for this expedition was Matt Wilkie, whose aunt, Helen Wilkie, works for the school. He runs his own lake weed removal business in the summer and operates a nonprofit called Big Fish and Fry during the winter to help both children and disabled war veterans experience ice fishing. “I grew up in St. Paul, and none of my friends or family ice fished at all,” said Wilkie, 32, who belongs to Lumen Christi in St. Paul. “I never got into ice fishing until my mid-20s, and I just always thought that was a shame that I never got to experience it as a kid.” Wilkie said most of the children who
take part in his events have never ice fished before, though some have gone fishing in the summer. Fifth-grader Finn Benz lives on White Bear Lake with his family. He has years of summer fishing experience and jumped at the chance to reel in a bass that hit on a tip-up, a fishing rig that pops up a flag when a fish takes the bait. Benz was part of the second group of students and, like the first group, had tip-up action in the first few minutes. “I was really excited when my teacher told us that we were going to go ice fishing,” he said. “I think it was canceled last year, so I was really nervous. I was hoping it wasn’t canceled. I always hoped I’d go ice fishing, and this is really fun for me. It’s my first time. I would love to go again.” The idea came from fifth-grade teacher Steve Wright, who enjoys the outdoors and was looking for a way to connect his students with nature. A lake across the street from the school presented a natural opportunity. This was the fourth time he has taken
students ice fishing. Last year’s event was canceled when employees of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, who had planned the event, experienced equipment failure right before the event. Wilkie stepped in to run the event this year. Wright enjoys seeing the reactions of students when there’s action. “When someone catches a fish, there’s just an excitement that runs across [the group],” he said. “Everyone runs to that person’s hole. Everyone’s cheering for each other.” He added, “I don’t think there’s anything better — I don’t care if you’re a fifth-grader, or 53 like me, or 93 — than the tug of a fish on the line with the promise of a fish. I just think that’s pure magic.” There’s also a connection to faith. “At Vis, we talk a lot about the Salesian virtues from St. Francis de Sales and St. Jane [Frances] de Chantal,” Wright said. “Each year, we have a different virtue, but this year it’s patience, which is really a perfect one for fishing.”