PAGETWO

BLESSED STANLEY ROTHER SHRINE Oklahoma City Archbishop Paul Coakley poses after celebrating the Mass and dedication of the Blessed Stanley Rother Shrine in Oklahoma City Feb. 17. Blessed Stanley is the first U.S.-born martyr formally recognized by the Church. His ancestors settled near New Trier from Germany and relatives continue to live in that part of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. He was among three “blesseds” with local ties invoked at the June Synod Assembly of about 500 people in St. Paul.

Honoring and celebrating St. Patrick can include enjoying a dispensation from the obligation to abstain from meat on the third Friday of Lent, March 17, which marks the “feast of the saintly first bishop of Armagh,” Archbishop Bernard Hebda said in a decree Feb. 16. Life in the archdiocese has been shaped by Irish immigrants, and the first archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Archbishop John Ireland, was a native of the “Emerald Isle” who honored the saint with a chapel among the Shrines of the Nations in the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul, Archbishop Hebda wrote. People living or physically present in the archdiocese can “enjoy the favor of the dispensation” but also are encouraged to undertake a work of charity, an exercise of piety or an act of comparable penance on some other occasion during the third week of Lent, the archbishop said. Hill-Murray School in Maplewood invited California-based college professor and singercomposer-recording artist ValLimar Jansen to the school Feb. 13 to address students during Black History Month. Her presentation focused on “Six Black Catholics on the Road to Sainthood,” influential men and women in the Catholic Church, including Mother Mary Lange, who opened the first Catholic school for Black students in Baltimore, Father John Augustus Tolton, considered the first Black man ordained a priest in the United States; and Sister Thea Bowman, the first Black member of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, who advocated for racial harmony and cultural awareness.

For Catholic Schools Week, Jan. 29-Feb. 4, Keegan McSherry, third grade teacher at Immaculate Conception School in Columbia Heights, suggested that her 19 third grade students pray rosaries for the other 90 Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, with each child assigned several schools. Each school received a letter explaining the rosary prayers, and a personal note from the third grader assigned to that school. Immaculate Conception principal Jane Bona said it may seem like a small gesture, “but that’s the power of prayer — to know that we’re being held up in prayer by each other. I think it really speaks volumes.”

Registration opened Feb. 15 for the July 17-21, 2024, National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis, and slots are expected to fill fast. The Year of the National Eucharistic Congress and Missionary Sending 2024-2025 is the third and final year of the U.S. bishops’ National Eucharistic Revival. The congress is expected to draw more than 80,000 people, and organizers have compared the event to World Youth Day, with prayer and liturgies, catechesis for individuals and families, and a festival-like atmosphere. People can register at euchariSticcongreSS org

The football team at Benilde-St. Margaret’s in St. Louis Park won a National Football Foundation National High School Academic Excellence Award in the State of Minnesota in Class 4A. It was the second year in a row BSM won the award, which is presented to the top academic football team from each level of play in 12 states. BSM is one of seven schools in the state receiving the award. The school met the NFF’s criteria of having a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale, having superior academic application and performance, and having a successful football season. Of the 60 state winners around the country, one will be chosen as the best in the nation and claim the Hatchell Cup.

PRACTICING Catholic

OSV NEWS | GLEB GARANICH, REUTERS

WALKING WITH UKRAINE U.S. President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy walk next to St. Michael’s Orthodox Cathedral in Kyiv Feb. 20. Biden made an unannounced visit to Ukraine to meet with Zelenskyy, a gesture of solidarity hailed by Ukrainian Catholics that came days before the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of the country Feb. 24, 2022. “We wouldn’t expect that President Biden would come to the capital. Maybe Lviv, as it’s safer, but Kyiv? It’s really an amazing boost of hope and strength for us,” Auxiliary Bishop Jan Sobilo of Kharkiv-Zaporizhzhia told OSV News. Biden, who is the U.S.’s second Catholic president, and Zelenskyy laid wreaths at Kyiv’s Wall of Remembrance.

LENTEN regulations

Church regulations for fasting and abstinence during Lent: uEveryone 14 or older is bound to abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday (Feb. 22 this year), all the Fridays of Lent and Good Friday. uEveryone 18 or older, and under 59, is bound to fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. On Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, only one full meatless meal is allowed. Two other meatless meals, sufficient to maintain strength, may be taken, but together they should not equal another full meal. Eating between meals is not permitted. When health or ability to work would be seriously affected, the regulation does not apply. uCatholics should not lightly excuse themselves from these prescribed minimal penitential practices.

On the Feb. 17 “Practicing Catholic” radio show, host Patrick Conley interviews Kendra Tierney, a mom of 10 and owner of the Catholic All Year blog, who shares some practical ideas to use at home during the Lenten season. Also featured are two key Native leaders discussing the July 19-23 Tekakwitha Conference in the Twin Cities: Margie Creel, conference board member, and Charlene Patton, board president and interim director. Plus two employees of St. Timothy in Blaine, Rhonda Miska and Cindy Novak, describe their experience serving near the U.S.-Mexico border at the Humanitarian Respite Center operated by Catholic Charities. Listen to interviews after they have aired at PracticingcatholicShow com or anchor fm/Practicing-catholic-Show with linkS to Streaming PlatformS

in REMEMBRANCE

Deacon Medley served at school, 3 parishes

The Catholic Spirit Deacon Michael Medley — who was ordained in 2000 and ministered for 22 years, including 14 years at St. Ignatius in Annandale and five years at St. Henry in Monticello — died Feb. 9. He was 75. A teacher, he also served as principal of St. Timothy School in Maple Lake from 2008 to 2013. After retiring from active ministry in 2019, he continued to minister as a deacon at St. Timothy. Deacon Medley is survived by his wife, Ann; son, Father Samuel Medley of the Clerical Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity; daughter, Sara; and nine grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. His funeral Mass was Feb. 17 at St. Timothy.