The Catholic Spirit - January 14, 2021

JANUARY 14, 2021 • Newspaper of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis

A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH AS THE NATION MARKS THE 48TH ANNIVERSARY OF ROE V. WADE, TWO FRIENDS SHARE HOW ABORTION TORE THEM APART — AND HOW PRO-LIFE ADVOCACY BROUGHT THEM BACK TOGETHER

12-13

FAITH AND CULTURE SERIES 6 | LEGISLATIVE PREVIEW 7 | CAPITOL BREACH 9 CHILD PROTECTION LEADERSHIP CHANGES 17 | WHY DO CATHOLICS DO THAT? 19 | WHY I AM CATHOLIC 22

2 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

JANUARY 14, 2021

PAGETWO NEW for 2021 Dear Readers, As The Catholic Spirit marks the 110th anniversary of Archbishop John Ireland founding our predecessor newspaper, The Catholic Bulletin, our publication is making some changes we hope will bring new vibrancy to our mission to inform, educate, evangelize and foster a spirit of community within the Catholic Church. As we aim to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, we are freshening our design, adding new regular content and seeking to bring more reader voices into our pages. Look for: u“Why do Catholics do that?”, a catechetical Q&A written by Father John Paul Erickson (p. 19) u“Echoes of Catholic Minnesota,” a new column on our local history by historian Reba Luiken (p. 19) uRegular requests for reader responses u“Why I am Catholic,” which features short essays from Catholics around the archdiocese DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

ALL IS BRIGHT An image of Mary with Jesus is projected onto the façade of the nation’s fifth-largest cathedral, the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul, during a 12-minute light and sound show titled “Cathedral Illuminated: The Manger.” The image is The Black Madonna and Child from Our Lady of Assumption in Charlotte, N.C. Produced by British company Luxmuralis and presented Dec. 17-19 by the Cathedral Heritage Foundation, the show was made possible by numerous sponsors. It ran in a continuous loop each evening, drawing more than 8,000 people to the Cathedral and attracting more than 75,000 views on the Heritage Foundation’s Facebook page. A local Catholic, Elisabeth Holod of Assumption in St. Paul, helped bring the show to the Cathedral as Luxmuralis’ U.S. debut.

Of course, we’ll continue to provide the local, national and international news you expect, including coverage of the Archdiocesan pre-Synod process and the continued effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

And in this Year of St. Joseph, we’ll frequently explore Jesus’ foster father’s role in our archdiocese and world. We are grateful for your readership and appreciate your feedback. God bless you in 2021.

— The Catholic Spirit team

NEWS notes Grateful for the opportunity to bless all-comers in a safe way on Christmas Day in the midst of a pandemic, Archbishop Bernard Hebda and Bishop Andrew Cozzens greeted individuals and families for 90 minutes as people drove up to the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul. The bishops did the same thing last Easter, when COVID-19 first made its mark on Minnesota.

Annunciation in Minneapolis is hosting a free food giveaway for people in need noon-1:30 p.m. Jan. 24 in collaboration with the Society of St. Vincent de Paul Twin Cities. Annunciation is located at 509 W. 54th St. The event will be held in the parish’s back parking lot, accessible via Harriet Avenue.

Students at St. Alphonsus Catholic School in Brooklyn Center represented the state by decorating all the ornaments adorning “the Minnesota tree” on the Ellipse in President’s Park in Washington, D.C., during the Christmas season. “It’s just a wonderful thing for our school,” said Kari Staples, the school’s principal.

MARK BROWN | COURTESY THE UNIVERSITY OF ST. THOMAS

HONORED PATRON University of St. Thomas Art History Professor Victoria Young takes photos as a statue of St. Thomas Aquinas is installed on O’Neill Terrace over the newly constructed Iversen Center for Faith outside Aquinas Chapel Jan. 5 in St. Paul. The statue was created by Canadian artist Timothy P. Schmalz, whose Catholic and Christian-themed work has been commissioned around the world.

PRACTICING CATHOLIC On the Jan. 8 show (formerly called The Rediscover: Hour), host Patrick Conley interviews Dominican Father Bonaventure Chapman, who talks about how all people can become saints and live a saintly life by devoting themselves to God. Other guests on the show are Ryan O’Hara, who discusses the Ascend Conference, and Father Tom Margevicius, director of the archdiocesan Office of Worship, who talks about Christ’s baptism and its significance. Listen each week on Fridays at 9 p.m., Saturdays at 1 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. on Relevant Radio 1330 AM. Listen to interviews after they have been aired at PracticingCatholicShow.com, soundcloud.com/practicingcatholic, or https://tinyurl.com/PracticingCatholic.

ON THE COVER Several of the ultrasounds taken since mid-2019 at Lakes Life Care Center in Forest Lake.

Studies indicate that some women contemplating abortion will decide to choose life after seeing an ultrasound image of their baby. All of these ultrasounds are of children whose mothers chose life.

MARIA WIERING | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

The Catholic Spirit is published semi-monthly for The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis Vol. 26 — No. 1 MOST REVEREND BERNARD A. HEBDA, Publisher TOM HALDEN, Associate Publisher MARIA C. WIERING, Editor-in-Chief JOE RUFF, News Editor

During Lent, Catholics across the archdiocese are invited to participate in Synod at Home, a series of videos and activities with tips and tools for growing in faith. The five-week series will run Feb. 18-March 18 and is based on four pillars: Prayer and Sacraments, Lifelong Learning, Generosity and Service, and Traditions and Fun. The content is designed for use by individuals, couples and families. Weekly videos and materials will be available at archspm.org/synod or through the Synod app (available to download at the synod website). Participants can also sign up to receive the content by email.

CORRECTIONS In the Dec. 17, 2020, issue of The Catholic Spirit, the Archdiocesan Annual Report noted that the Center for Clergy Formation is comprised of the Institute for Ongoing Clergy Formation and the Institute for Diaconate Formation. In fact, these two institutes are part of The St. Paul Seminary and are part of the seminary’s annual budget and programming. However, the archdiocese, in its Clergy Services department, works jointly with these institutes on some particular efforts and programs.

Also in the Dec. 17 issue, two dates for the upcoming Archdiocesan Synod Faith and Culture series were incorrect. The series will be held as follows: Jan. 20: “Sources of Catholic Teaching (Scripture, Tradition and Magisterium),” presented by Bill Stevenson; Jan. 27 “The Church’s Teaching on Sexual Morality and the Family,” presented by Dave and Cathy Deavel; Feb. 4: “The Church’s Understanding on the Dignity of Women,” presented

by Helen Alvare; Feb. 9: “The Priesthood (Both Baptized and Ordained),” presented by Sister Esther Mary Nickel. For more information, see story on page 6 of this issue.

Materials credited to CNS copy­righted by Catholic News Service.

All other materials copyrighted by The Cath­olic Spirit Newspaper.

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JANUARY 14, 2021

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 3

FROMTHEMODERATOROFTHECURIA ONLY JESUS | FATHER CHARLES LACHOWITZER

A song with many ‘versus’

T

here plays today a song with many “versus.” If this song were titled, it would be “Us Versus Them.” So much has been written and said about how divided we are as Americans — or even as Catholics.

There is a good argument to say that people have always been divided. There has always been a “them.” Every chapter of history has feuding families, antagonistic neighbors, and warring clans, tribes and nations.

It is our human nature to want to belong. It is our human nature that I don’t really know who “I” am until I know who “we” are. It is a human insecurity that we don’t know who “we” really are until there is a “them.” Us and them. It’s not just an old rock-nroll song, it is our human condition. In the strangest equality of them all, everybody gets to be a “them.”

In any way that anybody is different from whomever “we” are, then they get to be a “them” because they are not “us.”

Some point to the Bible to justify division. After all, did not Jesus say: “Do you think that I have come to establish peace on this earth? No, I tell you, but rather division” (Lk 12:51). Jesus expressed divine foreknowledge of the consequences of his mission on earth. Yes, family members would be against family members. But Jesus did not tell us to go out there and do the same. He did not excuse us from reconciling and making peace with one another. He did command us to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves.

At the time of Jesus, division was a long-practiced phenomenon. Sadducees versus Pharisees; Jews versus gentiles; the included versus the excluded. Jesus reached out to the outcast and the rejected. Jesus reached out to “them” and because of their faith, they became part of “us.”

The experts in this world may tell us that we need

Una canción con muchos ‘versus’

H

oy toca una canción con muchos “versus”. Si esta canción se titulara, sería “Us Versus Them”.

Se ha escrito y dicho mucho sobre lo divididos que estamos como estadounidenses, o incluso como católicos.

Hay un buen argumento para decir que la gente siempre ha estado dividida.

Siempre ha habido un “ellos”. Cada capítulo de la historia tiene familias enfrentadas, vecinos antagónicos y clanes, tribus y naciones en guerra.

Es nuestra naturaleza humana querer pertenecer. Es nuestra naturaleza humana que realmente no sé quién soy “yo” hasta que sepa quiénes somos “nosotros”.

Es una inseguridad humana que no sepamos quiénes somos realmente hasta que haya un “ellos”. Nosotros y ellos.

No es solo una vieja canción de rockn-roll, es nuestra condición humana.

En la igualdad más extraña de todas, todo el mundo llega a ser un “ellos”.

De cualquier manera que alguien sea diferente de quienes somos “nosotros”, entonces llega a ser un “ellos” porque no son “nosotros”.

Algunos apuntan a la Biblia para justificar la división. Después de todo, ¿no dijo Jesús: “¿Crees que he venido a

a “them” to be “us.” But the Holy Spirit elevates us out of these all-too-human categories so that we may be one in the Spirit. This happens at each and every Mass. In that mystical moment of grace, we are one body indeed, and we go out in the world to bring this unity, light and peace to our world.

Since that first original sin, when Adam and Eve were separated from God, we have been a divided people. It is nothing new. Perhaps what is new is that we have so many avenues of communication that we are bombarded with so many stories of division. What divided people long ago, and what divides people today, is not that we have differing beliefs and lives.

What divides us is the deadly sin of wrath. Anger blinds us to a world of differences and justifies a world of hatred and violence.

There are serious issues over which we are divided.

We can and must stand up and speak out for the sanctity and the protection of the unborn. We do this out of the conviction of our belief that God breathes the soul at conception. It is with great love that we are champions for life. We can and must stand up and speak out for the goodness and value of all God’s children, without exception. We do this out of the conviction of our belief that what God has created, we must not harm or destroy. It is with great love that we serve those most in need. Let us stand up and speak out for what we believe, period.

For we believe that no adjective in front of the words “human being” can undo what God has done.

If God created us good and gifted, then what has a greater power than God to create us differently? If one answers, “sin!”, then one has not truly realized the power of the cross of Jesus Christ.

In this strange time of social distancing and covering our faces with masks, we are challenged to join the efforts for life, for justice, for unity in our Church, nation and world. Anyone can divide. But it takes a people of glad tidings and good news to work for the common good and thereby contribute

establecer la paz en esta tierra? No, les digo, sino división ”(Lc 12, 51). Jesús expresó el conocimiento previo divino de las consecuencias de su misión en la tierra. Sí, los miembros de la familia estarían en contra de los miembros de la familia. Pero Jesús no nos dijo que saliéramos y hiciéramos lo mismo. No nos excusó de reconciliarnos y hacer las paces unos con otros. Nos ordenó amar a Dios y amar a nuestro prójimo como a nosotros mismos.

En la época de Jesús, la división era un fenómeno que se practicaba desde hacía mucho tiempo. Saduceos versus Fariseos; Judíos contra gentiles; los incluidos versus los excluidos. Jesús se acercó a los marginados y rechazados. Jesús se acercó a “ellos” y debido a su fe, se convirtieron en parte de “nosotros”.

Los expertos de este mundo pueden decirnos que necesitamos un “ellos” para ser “nosotros”. Pero el Espíritu Santo nos saca de estas categorías demasiado humanas para que podamos ser uno en el Espíritu. Esto sucede en todas y cada una de las misas. En ese momento místico de gracia, somos un solo cuerpo y salimos al mundo para traer esta unidad, luz y paz a nuestro mundo.

Desde ese primer pecado original, cuando Adán y Eva fueron separados de Dios, hemos sido un pueblo dividido. No es nada nuevo. Quizás lo nuevo es que tenemos tantas vías de comunicación que nos bombardean con tantas historias

to a more peaceful world. I would like to close with a reflection that still gives me a chill: The Cold Within

By James Patrick Kinney Six humans trapped in happenstance In dark and bitter cold, Each one possessed a stick of wood, Or so the story's told.

Their dying fire in need of logs, The first woman held hers back, For of the faces around the fire, She noticed one was black.

The next man looking across the way Saw not one of his church, And couldn't bring himself to give The fire his stick of birch.

The third one sat in tattered clothes.

He gave his coat a hitch, Why should his log be put to use, To warm the idle rich?

The rich man just sat back and thought Of the wealth he had in store, And how to keep what he had earned, From the lazy, shiftless poor.

The black man's face bespoke revenge As the fire passed from sight, For all he saw in his stick of wood Was a chance to spite the white.

The last man of this forlorn group Did naught except for gain, Giving only to those who gave, Was how he played the game.

The logs held tight in death's still hands, Was proof of human sin, They didn't die from the cold without, They died from the cold within.

de división. Lo que dividió a la gente hace mucho tiempo, y lo que divide a la gente hoy, no es que tengamos creencias y vidas diferentes. Lo que nos divide es el pecado mortal de la ira. La ira nos ciega a un mundo de diferencias y justifica un mundo de odio y violencia.

Hay serios problemas sobre los que estamos divididos. Podemos y debemos defender y defender la santidad y la protección de los no nacidos. Hacemos esto con la convicción de nuestra creencia de que Dios respira el alma en la concepción. Es con gran amor que somos campeones de por vida. Podemos y debemos defendernos y defender la bondad y el valor de todos los hijos de Dios, sin excepción. Hacemos esto con la convicción de nuestra creencia de que lo que Dios ha creado, no debemos dañarlo ni destruirlo. Es con gran amor que servimos a los más necesitados.

Pongámonos de pie y hablemos por lo que creemos, punto.

Porque creemos que ningún adjetivo delante de las palabras “ser humano” puede deshacer lo que Dios ha hecho.

Si Dios nos creó buenos y dotados, ¿qué tiene mayor poder que Dios para crearnos de manera diferente? Si uno responde, “¡pecado!”, Entonces uno no se ha dado cuenta verdaderamente del poder de la cruz de Jesucristo.

En este extraño momento de distanciamiento social y de cubrirnos el rostro con máscaras, tenemos el desafío

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

Effective December 18, 2020 Reverend Gilbert Thesing, OP, granted faculties of the Archdiocese and assigned to the Saint Albert the Great Priory in Minneapolis. Father Thesing is a priest of the Dominican Province of Saint Albert the Great.

Effective January 1, 2021 Deacon Bob Bisciglia, assigned as Associate Director of the Institute for Diaconate Formation. Deacon Bisciglia continues to serve as deacon at the Church of Saint Peter in North St. Paul.

de unir los esfuerzos por la vida, por la justicia, por la unidad en nuestra Iglesia, nación y mundo. Cualquiera puede dividirse. Pero se necesita un pueblo de buenas nuevas y buenas noticias para trabajar por el bien común y contribuir así a un mundo más pacífico.

Lea una versión más larga de esta columna en español en TheCatholicSpirit.com.

SLICEof LIFE

4 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

LOCAL

JANUARY 14, 2021

Liturgical layering

SLICEof LIFE

Father Stan Mader dons coveralls and insulated boots as he prepares to say Mass outdoors Jan. 3 at St. Joseph in Waconia. Father Mader, the parish’s pastor, has been celebrating Masses outdoors since Easter Sunday, near the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. There is one outdoor Mass every Sunday at 10:30 a.m., plus indoor Masses for those who feel comfortable being inside.

To protect their priest from the elements, parishioners bought a small plastic-walled shelter similar to a greenhouse and set it up on a trailer. People attending the outdoor Mass park in their cars and tune in on their radios. Then, after Mass, they drive up to receive Communion.

“We should be able to keep it up through the winter,” Father Mader said. “I think we are providing a service that is useful, and people are grateful for it.” He said about 60 to 80 cars park in the lot for the outdoor Mass every Sunday, and the parish held a contest to name the greenhouse. The winner: Our Lady of Snows Globe.

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LOCAL

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 5

Parishes adjust to loosened COVID-19 restrictions

By Joe Ruff The Catholic Spirit The Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul, St. Ambrose in Woodbury and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Hastings are among parishes across the archdiocese adjusting to statewide, loosened COVID-19 restrictions for Mass and other religious gatherings that went into effect Jan. 11.

Noting a decline in the number of positive tests for COVID-19 and an easing of the strain on hospitals, Gov. Tim Walz announced changes Jan. 6 for places of worship, restaurants, movie theaters and other businesses. They include eliminating a maximum capacity of 250 people for Mass and other religious gatherings, which had been in effect since June 10, 2020.

Churches, however, are to remain at 50% of maximum seating, and people are asked to maintain a social distance of 6 feet. The change is most likely to affect the largest churches in the archdiocese.

In churches with maximum capacities of 500 or fewer, attendance caps are unchanged at this time.

Parishes are continuing to create innovative solutions to bringing people together for Mass and other events while working within COVID restrictions. Some are holding outdoor Masses throughout winter, and many are livestreaming Mass to other venues on the church campus, as well as into people’s homes.

Epiphany in Coon Rapids is drawing a total of about 1,600 people to its three weekend Masses. About 250 are in the church, while the Mass is livestreamed to about 100 in the cafeteria and 150 in the school gym, as well as people in their cars in the parking lot, said Father Thomas Dufner, pastor.

Mass is communal worship, and lifting

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Jim and Eileen Noble pray during the Mass of Consecration to St. Joseph Dec. 8 at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul. They are members of the Cathedral parish. the 250-person cap is welcome, Father Dufner said. “It’s a good thing, I’m very happy with it,” he said, even though the social distancing restrictions probably will keep the parish at under 50% capacity inside the church.

At the Cathedral, Rector Father John Ubel said increased capacity will eliminate the need to have an overflow area in that church’s basement, which accommodates about 50 people. The parish also at times had to turn people away from in-person Mass because it hit capacity in both venues. Increasing the numbers allowed will help eliminate that inconvenience, he said.

Father Ubel and others on staff will be studying the worship space as they consider larger events, such as priest ordination, to see just how many people

might be seated, he said. “We’re still digesting all the details in the governor’s executive order,” he said.

Father Peter Williams, pastor of St. Ambrose, said his parish has not had to turn anyone away from Mass because it has a strong livestream following and a large fellowship hall for overflow seating.

St. Ambrose has been averaging about 1,200 people total at its four weekend Masses, he said.

Father David Hennen, pastor of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, said social distancing requirements will continue to hold its congregation down to about 250, although “we might be able to squeeze in a few more people.”

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and other dioceses in Minnesota have cooperated with

Walz on pandemic precautions.

Minnesota Catholic Conference, which represents the bishops on public policy matters, together with several other denominations and churches petitioned the Walz administration to lift the 250-person attendance cap, arguing that faith communities have demonstrated their ability to provide safe gathering spaces for worship and other activities.

The conference did not seek removal of the 50% capacity limitation.

In response to the governor’s most recent order, Father Tom Margevicius, director of worship for the archdiocese, produced a guiding document for parishes. In addition to acknowledging removal of the 250-person cap and continued 50% occupancy, the document notes that in Advent, Archbishop Bernard Hebda asked parishes to postpone non-worship events such as Bible studies, youth meetings and adult faith formation.

“That pause is now lifted,” Father Margevicius said, “and the lifting of the 250 cap … applies to those events as well.”

But the executive order continues to impose limits on the number of people who can gather for social events in church settings, such as luncheons after weddings and funerals, Father Margevicius said.

Indoor social gatherings are limited to 10 people from no more than two households. Outdoor social gatherings are limited to 15 people and three households.

The obligation to attend Mass on Sundays and holy days remains suspended, and parishes are encouraged to continue offering the liturgy online and via livestream, Father Margevicius said. Outdoor Masses, weddings and other liturgies also are encouraged, he said.

St. Joseph’s Hospital closes ER, transitions to new mental health focus

By Barb Umberger The Catholic Spirit The Dec. 30 closure of St. Joseph’s Hospital’s emergency room was another step in the St. Paul hospital’s transition to a new focus: mental health and addiction.

Minnesota’s first hospital, “St. Joe’s” was founded in 1853 by four Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet during a cholera outbreak. Last year, it had been one of 14 Catholic acute care hospitals in the state, according to the Catholic Health Association. But amid systemwide financial pressures on M Health Fairview, its parent organization, and changing needs for its services, St. Joseph’s has cut many services on site, including a maternity ward it closed three years ago.

Most of its hospital services moved last year to other hospital locations within the M Health Fairview system.

Now called M Health Fairview St. Joseph’s Campus, the facility is still a Catholic hospital, said Kaylee Skaar, a spokeswoman for M Health Fairview.

The campus’ staff will care for COVID-19 patients, as the system’s COVID-19 inpatient care center recently moved from Bethesda Hospital to St. Joseph’s.

And inpatient mental health care is expected to remain on site at least

through 2021.

This year, M Health Fairview plans to begin a new model for mental health and addiction services at its St. Joseph’s campus. The health care system’s new Transition Care Services will double the existing Mental Health and Addiction Clinic’s capacity to care for patients. It will also create same-day access to mental health and addiction services, with therapeutic and supportive transition care for patients awaiting admission to an M Health Fairview mental health or addiction program or service.

In addition to physicians and registered nurses, crisis therapists and peer support staff will be on site, and services provided in dedicated facilities for mental health and addiction can be accessed virtually. In what M Health Fairview describes as the first of its kind, a mobile support program will also bring alcohol and drug addiction care to people in the community.

According to emergency medical physician and psychiatrist Dr. Rich Levine, the new services are an important innovation and a stepping stone to meeting immediate community needs.

Levine, who also serves as M Health Fairview medical director of adult outpatient mental health and addiction services, said the new service model is in

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

St. Joseph’s Hospital, now called M Health Fairview St. Joseph’s Campus, in St. Paul. direct response to a growing demand for mental health care and “the undeniable evidence that shows an emergency room is not a sustainable option for meeting the needs of most people suffering from mental illness and insufficient primary care.”

The Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet operated the hospital until 1986, when it became part of the HealthEast Care System, but they continued to be involved, with some working with the hospital’s pastoral team. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, they were bringing the Eucharist to patients.

M Health Fairview executives have asked representatives from the Sisters

of St. Joseph of Carondelet to join them in discussions about the future of St. Joseph’s. The sisters have been involved in conversations about the hospital’s changes over the years, said Sister Margaret Belanger, who worked in administration at St. Joseph’s from 19851989. She continues to be involved in discussions with M Health Fairview about the future of St. Joseph’s.

“I think they value the history and the legacy,” she said. “And … St. Joe’s has been a health care institution. I think it’s kind of a symbol to a lot of people: It’s a safe place where I can go, where I’ll be respected and I’ll be taken care of. And so that doesn’t go away because somebody else takes over the operations.”

Sister Margaret said that while the religious sisters are saddened to see it change, it’s another evolution in the history. “(St. Joseph’s) isn’t going away,” she said. “It’s going away as a full-service hospital. (But) it’s becoming something else.”

John Swanholm, M Health Fairview’s vice president of community advancement, said the partnership with the Sisters of St. Joseph “has significantly impacted community health and wellbeing since the sisters entrusted St. Joseph’s to our health system decades ago.”

LOCAL

6 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

JANUARY 14, 2021

Virtual Faith and Culture Series tackles widely misunderstood topics in Church teaching

By Maria Wiering The Catholic Spirit

JOIN THE LIVE EVENT

A four-part virtual speaker series beginning Jan. 20 aims to bring clarity to several topics of Catholic teaching that are sometimes misunderstood when viewed through the lens of mainstream culture. Over the course of four weeks, the Faith and Culture Series will be addressing the sources of Catholic teaching, sexual morality and the family, the dignity of women, and the priesthood.

The series is part of the archdiocese’s preparation for an archdiocesan Synod planned for 2022. The topics arose from an analysis of more than 35,000 comments gathered from local Catholics during the 19 open and 11 focus Pre-Synod Prayer and Listening Events held by Archbishop Bernard Hebda and Bishop Andrew Cozzens between September 2019 and March 2020.

“There were very clear areas of lack of understanding of the Church’s teaching, and also people feeling strongly about the Church’s teaching in these areas,” Bishop Cozzens said. “It wasn’t like people said ‘oh, the Church is wrong’ and some people said ‘the Church is right on this,’ (but rather) that we need to hear about it more.”

The series’ aim is to provide a helpful catechetical resource on topics that can be difficult to understand via contemporary culture, he said.

When archdiocesan leaders moved the Synod from 2021 to 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the extra year — Year Two — presented an opportunity to begin addressing some of the needs the Prayer and Listening Events identified, without waiting for the Synod itself, Bishop Cozzens said. That led to creating a Praying with Scripture video series and a Healing and Hope virtual retreat launched in September and October, respectively,

Inspired by the thousands of participants at the Pre-Synod Prayer and Listening Events, this series connects their stories to the story of the Church. Each virtual event includes a talk, testimonials and a live panel discussion including Archbishop Bernard Hebda.

Registration is required to participate live. Topics and updated dates are listed below. All events begin at 7 p.m. u Wednesday, Jan. 20: “Sources of Catholic Teaching (Scripture, Tradition and Magisterium)” presented by Bill Stevenson u Wednesday, Jan. 27: “The Church’s Teaching on Sexual Morality and the Family” presented by Dave and Cathy Deavel u Thursday, Feb. 4: “The Church’s Understanding on the Dignity of Women” presented by Helen Alvare u Tuesday, Feb. 9: “The Priesthood (Both Baptized and Ordained)” presented by Sister Esther Mary Nickel Register at archspm.org/synod to participate and submit questions.

Zoom links will be sent to registrants prior to each event.

Registration is limited to 500 participants per event. and an upcoming, five-part Synod at Home series during Lent (see page 2).

Registrants can choose to virtually attend some or all of the events, but the topics are designed to build on one another, said Bishop Cozzens, chairman of the Synod executive committee.

“To understand the Church’s teaching on Christian sexuality or on the priesthood or women in the Church, you have to first understand where the Church teaching comes from, what is the source of Church teaching,” Bishop Cozzens said. “Then we go to the

foundational question of Christian anthropology, which is really sexuality. And from there we go to understanding something that flows from that, which is complementarity. … And then the last area being the priesthood, which is, of course, related to the question of women, but also is at the heart of the sacramental life of the Church.”

Michael Naughton, director of the Center for Catholic Studies at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, worked in a group with Bishop Cozzens to create the series. “We Catholics need deeper formation,” Naughton said. “We need to recognize what the deep vision of our faith brings to the world — what’s the deep power of the Gospel. And we also need witnesses, people who can witness that faith in reality.”

Each event will include a presentation from an expert explaining the Church’s understanding of the topic, followed by two speakers sharing from their own lives. Organizers hope that the series reaches a range of Catholics, from those seeking to be better apologists on complex topics to those who struggle to reconcile Church teaching with their own experiences.

Registrants will have the opportunity to submit questions.

“Modern man doesn’t listen to teachers, he listens to witnesses. And if he does listen to teachers, it’s because they’re also witnesses,” Bishop Cozzens said, paraphrasing Pope Paul VI’s words in his 1975 apostolic exhortation “Evangelization in the Modern World.” “And so we really wanted to give witness to the Church’s beautiful teaching and tradition. We’re unapologetic in our presentation of faith in these (areas), because we are firmly convinced of the truth of the faith in these areas, and we want to present them in a way that will be attractive to people so they can become convinced.”

‘Salvation history in your pocket’: ‘The Bible in a Year’ podcast skyrockets to No. 1 in U.S.

By Maria Wiering The Catholic Spirit If great minds had brainstormed how to create a podcast that would jump to No. 1 in Apple’s podcast rankings, they never would have landed on “The Bible in a Year,” joked Jeff Cavins, a Bible scholar and creator of the Great Adventure Bible Timeline. Yet, two weeks into 2021, “The Bible in a Year” with Father Mike Schmitz tops the charts — and has since 48 hours after its Jan. 1 launch.

With the backing of Ascension, a multimedia Catholic publisher, Cavins and Father Schmitz, a priest of the Diocese of Duluth and popular Catholic speaker and author, created “The Bible in a Year,” a daily podcast that leads listeners through the Bible’s narrative.

The aim is for listeners to understand how God’s plan for mankind’s salvation undergirds biblical events and the lives of its central figures.

“Instead of just JEFF CAVINS knowing stories of the Bible, we’re trying to get people to know the story of salvation, of salvation history,” said Cavins, a parishioner of St. Vincent de Paul in Brooklyn Park.

Each episode is about 20 minutes and includes Father Schmitz reading several chapters from Scripture and then giving a short reflection on the readings. The reading chronology is based on the Great Adventure Bible Timeline reading plan, which organizes the 14 narrative

books of the Bible into 12 periods to help readers understand how they relate to one another and to God’s plan for salvation. That plan is designed for three months of daily reading, so Cavins expanded it for “The Bible in a Year.”

What makes the reading plan for “The Bible in a Year” — and the Great Adventure Bible Timeline — successful is that it helps readers follow the story without losing a sense of the narrative in a non-narrative book, Cavins said. And, because most listeners are likely accessing it from their smartphones, it’s “salvation history in your pocket,” he said.

Cavins and Father Schmitz expected to tap into people’s desire for Scripture, but Cavins said he was amazed that the program is so popular, with more than 3.5 million downloads in the first 12 days. He ultimately attributes its success

COURTESY ASCENSION

to the Holy Spirit, but also podcasting’s simplicity and mobility, and Father Schmitz’s popularity on YouTube.

Find out.

Webinar Theology Day events 2020-2021

Does THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT just show up in your mailbox?

It’s not divine intervention.

Did you know that most of The Catholic Spirit readers receive subscriptions through their parishes?

To keep up to date on The Synod and other exciting happenings and events within our local church in 2021, contact your parish office today!

We are excited to announce that the new webinar format allows participation from the comfort of home while keeping everyone healthy. Q&A sessions will occur after each presentation to allow for some interaction with presenters. More information will be provided to registrants. Register five days in advance of the webinar or it might be closed for processing.

Registration is FREE, but Registration is required.

Go online at CollegevilleMN.com/Theologyday or call 320-363-3560.

What Mass Means: How Sacrifice and Real Presence are Life-Changing

by Fr. Anthony Ruff, OSB

Fr. Anthony will discuss the liturgies of the various Christian traditions and how sharing in Christ’s dying and rising is meant to transform us individually and communally on:

Friday, January 22- 9:00 a.m - 11:00 a.m.

Thursday, January 28 - 6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.

LOCAL

JANUARY 14, 2021

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 7

SPECIAL REPORT: 2021 STATE LEGISLATIVE SESSION

MCC seeks to protect poor, vulnerable as COVID relief takes center stage

By Joe Towalski The Central Minnesota Catholic The 2021 state legislative session began Jan. 5 in St. Paul, and a main focus for lawmakers will be providing relief and assistance to help Minnesotans with the ongoing challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic, especially its impact on jobs and housing.

“There are people facing evictions if some of the eviction protections are lifted. Landlords are certainly facing the crunch. Small businesses are also facing the crunch,” said Jason Adkins, executive director of Minnesota Catholic Conference. “So, everyone is obviously struggling, and the challenge is how to meet those needs and provide the right forms of assistance with the reality that the resources to do so are extremely limited.”

Thankfully, the preliminary economic picture looks better than it did in May, he said. An early December budget forecast showed a surplus of $640 million for the last six months of the current budget biennium, which ends June 30. However, there will be a projected budget shortfall of about $1.3 billion for the 2022-2023 biennium. The state currently has about a $2.5 billion budget reserve it could draw upon.

“We hope that the right forms of assistance will be distributed and without a lot of cuts,” Adkins said. “That’s going to be the main topic that animates a lot of the legislative discussions during 2021” as legislators tackle the creation of the next two-year state budget.

As the official public policy voice of the Catholic Church in Minnesota, Adkins said MCC recognizes that budgets “are moral documents that demonstrate our priorities as a community, and we’re certainly monitoring those discussions and trying to offer a framework in which those challenges are met.”

There will likely be a push to find alternative sources of revenue to minimize any budget cuts, and this could include attempts to legalize recreational marijuana and expand gambling.

“Although there very well could be a need for additional revenue … this is the wrong way to go about it,” he said. “It would legalize and/or expand something that (promotes) a harmful social dynamic. It should not be used to plug holes in the budget because it’s going to create longer-term costs down the road.”

Education is an area that has faced a variety of challenges during the pandemic. Catholic schools have done “extraordinary work” to create safe environments for learning even as they have experienced financial challenges wrought by the pandemic, Adkins said. Therefore, any COVID-19-related assistance that state lawmakers earmark for education should include Catholic and other private schools, he said.

“We’ve all shared in the public health challenges, so we should all share in the relief that’s dedicated to education when governments create relief packages,” he said. “Whether that’s at the federal level with the CARES Act or for ongoing discussions related to COVID relief that has an education focus, we believe that those funds should be directed in a per-pupil way that treats non-public

school students equitably.”

The pandemic also has highlighted the need to reform how services, such as transportation and counseling services, are provided to private schools, Adkins said. State law provides for such services to be provided to private school students at the same level as public school students. But when public schools opt for distance learning, private school students may lose their transportation and only have access to counseling services remotely, if at all.

“There are some opportunities for fixes on a lot of the non-public pupil aid programs that could be really, really helpful,” Adkins said.

MCC strives to put a “circle of protection” around programs that help the poor and vulnerable, he said. “The vast majority of the state budget is consumed by education and human services. Those are the places that people often look to for cuts, but those areas speak to the deepest needs of Minnesotans. When we talk about investing in our people and investing in our future, those are our cornerstone expenditures. So MCC identifies key policies that impact the poor and vulnerable and works to strengthen those through reforms, especially in times of need.”

Among the other issues MCC will be monitoring during the 2021 legislative session: uPhysician-assisted suicide: MCC continues to oppose efforts to legalize physician-assisted suicide. Compassion & Choices, a national organization that is a proponent of assisted suicide, has identified Minnesota as one of its priority states, Adkins said. While MCC believes there is enough support in the Legislature to prevent an assisted suicide bill from passing, Minnesota Catholics must remain vigilant.

“It remains a preeminent pro-life priority in terms of MCC’s legislative agenda, and we’re excited to be part of the Minnesota Alliance for Ethical Healthcare, which is now at 60 members and continues to grow,” he said. “And there’s a lot of engagement and activism taking place to make sure that Minnesota is a state that improves its methods of care and doesn’t hasten death.” uDriver’s licenses for undocumented persons: In the absence of comprehensive immigration reform that protects human dignity and the common good, MCC continues to support provisional driver’s licenses for undocumented immigrants as a way to help immigrant families meet basic needs and keep Minnesota roads safe.

“We’re concerned about keeping families together, and immigrant driver’s licenses are an important step that we can take at the state level to ensure that families are, in fact, kept together and have some of the access to a basic privilege that allows them to function in the broader society,” Adkins said. uSchool choice: Helping children and their families to access schools that best serve their needs is an MCC priority in light of ongoing gaps in achievement and opportunity in the state, Adkins said.

MCC is part of the coalition Opportunity for All Kids, a statewide advocacy organization that works “to ensure that

iSTOCK PHOTO | RUBEY_KAY

CATHOLICS AT THE CAPITOL: ON MISSION FOR LIFE & DIGNITY Join Catholics from across Minnesota for a day of prayer, education and advocacy from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Thursday, April 15. The event, organized by Minnesota Catholic Conference, will form attendees in the faith, beginning with Mass at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul. Featured speakers are Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Obianuju Ekeocha, a pro-life advocate and founder of Culture of Life Africa. Attendees will be informed on issues impacting life and dignity in the state and learn how to speak effectively with their legislators as a missionary disciple. In the afternoon, participants will be sent on mission with a eucharistic procession from the Cathedral to the Capitol before meeting with local legislators. The rosary will be prayed in the Capitol rotunda on the half hour in the afternoon. MCC has plans in place if programming needs to be altered due to COVID-19.

Cost: $15 ($20 after Jan. 31). For more information or to register, visit catholicsatthecapitol.org.

Questions? Call: 651-227-8777 or email info@mncatholic.org.

STAY CONNECTED The Catholic Advocacy Network (CAN) is an initiative of the Minnesota Catholic Conference.

The non-partisan network alerts Catholics via email and/or text to important state and federal legislative activity about which they can contact lawmakers with a single click. MCC also sends e-newsletters with ways to learn about the Church’s social ministry as well as advocating for life, dignity and the common good. Join the network at mncatholic.org.

MCC’s podcast “Bridge Builder: Catholic Faith and Politics” features interviews with guests to help Catholics stay informed on timely issues and learn to live out faithful citizenship. Listeners can also submit questions about faith and politics for the mailbag segment — send them to show@mncatholic.org. Episodes also feature a “bricklayer” action item that gives listeners practical tips to build the bridge between faith and politics. Listen to current and past episodes at mncatholic.org/podcasts. children in Minnesota have access to an education that will help them thrive.”

Getting involved this session MCC will hold its third Catholics at the Capitol event April 15 at the Cathedral of St. Paul and State Capitol.

The day will include prayer, speakers, education, advocacy training and opportunities to meet with local legislators (see sidebar above).

The event, previously held in 2017 and 2019, “has been extraordinarily successful in terms of bringing people to the Capitol and giving them a tangible experience of what it means to be a

faithful citizen by building relationships with legislators and advocating for issues that protect human dignity and promote the common good,” Adkins said.

“Many people who’ve attended Catholics at the Capitol had never before entered the Capitol or talked to their legislator,” he added. “To give them that opportunity is just extraordinary. The legislators love to hear from constituents.

They need the input of citizens about what is important and what should be a priority in the legislative process.”

The Central Minnesota Catholic is the publication of the Diocese of St. Cloud.

LOCAL

8 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

JANUARY 14, 2021

Archdiocese to host March for Life youth, family conference Jan. 22

By Barb Umberger The Catholic Spirit

JOIN US TO SAVE LIVES.

MINNESOTA CITIZENS CONCERNED FOR LIFE Minnesota's oldest and largest pro-life organization—dedicated to securing protection for innocent human life from conception until natural death

LEARN MORE AT MCCL.ORG mccl@mccl.org | 612-825-6831

NOTICE

Look for The Catholic Spirit advertising insert from

PROLIFE ACROSS AMERICA in all copies of this issue.

High school and college students from across the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis are invited to attend a Jan. 22 March for Life Youth and Family Conference at St. Agnes in St. Paul.

The day of prayer, inspiration, pro-life education and advocacy for the pre-born will begin at 9 a.m. and continue into the afternoon.

Organizers announced Jan. 12 that an additional location may be sought to accommodate a high number of registrants. Visit archspm.org for updates.

The archdiocese’s Office of Marriage, Family and Life is sponsoring the event, which was organized, in part, because the COVID-19 pandemic prompted the office to cancel its annual March for Life trip for high school students to Washington, D.C., which in the past has included a national pro-life conference.

The national March, which marks the 48th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide, is Jan. 29.

About a dozen speakers are scheduled

to address the gathering for about 10 minutes each, including Bishop Andrew Cozzens; Jason Adkins, executive director of Minnesota Catholic Conference; and Matt Birk, former Minnesota Viking and Super Bowl champion. In addition, high school students will describe their experiences of prayer and sidewalk counseling outside abortion clinics.

The event also includes Mass and a mock trial to help students understand legal arguments against abortion.

Registration is by group only, and families are also welcome to attend.

Cost is $10 and participants should bring a bag lunch. Social distancing will be observed, and face coverings are required to help prevent spread of the novel coronavirus. Students under 18 must be accompanied by an adult.

For more information or to register, contact Katie Walker at walkerk@archspm. org. The registration deadline was Jan. 14, but Walker said she may be able to accommodate late registrants.

Meanwhile, the annual Prayer Service for Life will take place at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul at 10:30 a.m. Jan. 22,

in REMEMBRANCE Deacon Langlois among first local permanent deacons Deacon Thomas Langlois, who was in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ first class of permanent deacons, died Jan. 10 in St. Paul. He was 90. Ordained in 1976 with 11 other men, Deacon Langlois ministered for 30 years in three parishes and in the chancery DEACON with then-Catholic Youth Center THOMAS LANGLOIS before retiring from active ministry in 2006. He served at St. Matthew in St. Paul, at the Catholic Youth Center and at St. Joseph in West St. Paul before retiring at St. Gregory the Great in North Branch.

He and his wife, Elizabeth, had seven children.

A memorial Mass will be held at 11 a.m. Jan. 21 at St. Joseph in West St. Paul and livestreamed on the parish website, churchofstjoseph.org. Deacon Langlois donated his body to the University of Minnesota for research with eventual cremation. Burial will be at Fort Snelling National Cemetery in Minneapolis.

Priest’s struggle with addictions, misconduct marked five decades of ministry Father Stanley Maslowski, a priest of the archdiocese who served for 50 years before being prohibited from priestly ministry in 2013 for admitted sexual misconduct with adults and instances of financial misconduct, died Jan. 7. He FATHER STANLEY was 83. Ordained in 1963, the MASLOWSKI Minneapolis native served in 16 parishes including Guardian Angels in Oakdale, All Saints, St. Joan of Arc and St. Bridget in Minneapolis, St. Peter Claver in St. Paul, St. Wenceslaus in New Prague, Nativity of Mary in Bloomington, St. John the Baptist in Dayton and St. Thomas the Apostle in Corcoran.

Funeral arrangements for Father Maslowski are pending.

— The Catholic Spirit

with doors opening at 9:30 a.m. Social distancing protocols will be observed, face coverings are required and seating is on a first-come, first-served basis.

In addition to prayer and reflection, Archbishop Bernard Hebda will deliver a homily. The service will be livestreamed from the Cathedral’s Facebook page, facebook.com/cathedralstpaul.

During the prayer service, four people will be honored with the Office of Marriage, Family and Life’s 13th annual St. John Paul II Champions for Life Awards, which recognize individuals who strive to protect life at all stages: Kate Fischer, a parishioner of Nativity of Our Lord in St. Paul; Art and Mary Lou Junker, parishioners of St. Mary in Stillwater; and Ruby Kubista, a parishioner of St. Agnes in St. Paul.

The Prayer Service for Life has historically been held immediately before Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life’s March for Life and rally at the State Capitol. MCCL is holding the march virtually this year at noon Jan. 22 on its Facebook page, facebook.com/mnprolife, and website, mccl.org.

Archbishop: Former Demontreville director will not return to ministry for now

By Maria Wiering The Catholic Spirit A longtime retreat house director’s faculties to minister in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis have been removed, according to Archbishop Bernard Hebda.

In a statement shared recently with the retreat community affiliated with the Demontreville Jesuit Retreat House near Lake Elmo, Archbishop Hebda said that he had accepted the recommendation of the archdiocesan Ministerial Review Board that Jesuit Father Patrick McCorkell not return to ministry at this time in the archdiocese.

The recommendation followed an investigation into a sexual misconduct allegation raised last May against Father McCorkell involving an adult woman.

At that time, in accordance with archdiocesan policy, Father McCorkell’s faculties to engage in ministry in the archdiocese were temporarily removed, pending the results of an archdiocesan investigation and review process.

According to the archbishop’s statement, the archdiocese’s Office of Ministerial Standards and Safe Environment

conducted an investigation and presented its findings to the Ministerial Review Board, which advises the archbishop on matters of clergy misconduct.

Father McCorkell participated in the investigation and provided his account to the MRB. “The MRB found that Father McCorkell’s conduct violated the Code of Conduct for Clergy and recommended that he not be permitted to engage in public ministry in the Archdiocese at this time,” Archbishop Hebda said in the statement. “I have accepted their recommendations and determined that Father McCorkell shall not be permitted at this time to return to any public ministry in the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. In the event that a request would be made in the future for Father McCorkell to reengage in public ministry in the Archdiocese, his suitability would be reconsidered at that time and in accordance with Archdiocesan policies and procedures.”

Ordained in 1974, Father McCorkell had served as the director of the Demontreville Jesuit Retreat House since 2003. The retreat center holds nearly 50 silent retreats for men annually.

NEW feature The Catholic Spirit seeks readers’ perspectives New this year, “Readers Respond” will feature short reader submissions to questions from The Catholic Spirit. Our first is this: How did the major events of 2020 help you grow in your faith?

Please send your response in 250 words or less by Jan. 28 to CatholicSpirit@ archspm.org.

JANUARY 14, 2021

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 9

NATION+WORLD

Washington pastors reflect on Capitol attack that hit close to home

By Mark Zimmermann Catholic News Service Like many across the country, Father William Gurnee and Father Gary Studniewski watched in horror as a rioting mob stormed and ransacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, attempting to disrupt Congress as it certified the Electoral College vote of President-elect Joe Biden.

But for those two priests, the attack hit particularly close to home, because they serve as pastors of Capitol Hill parishes in Washington. Father Gurnee leads St. Joseph’s Parish on the northeast side of Capitol Hill and Father Studniewski leads St. Peter’s Parish on the southeast side. Members of Congress and Capitol Hill staff members — who had to be rushed to safety during the attack — attend Mass at those two churches, as do Capitol Hill police officers and those who live and work in the neighborhood.

For Father Gurnee, seeing TV coverage of what was happening at the Capitol was especially painful, because before entering the seminary, he worked on Capitol Hill as a legislative assistant to the late Rep. Robert Smith, R-Oregon, and attended Mass at St. Joseph.

Ordained to the priesthood in 2000, he celebrated his first Mass at St. Joseph and since 2017 he has been its pastor.

“I never thought I’d have the privilege to be pastor here,” said the priest. “I revere this Hill.”

In a Jan. 10 interview just before Mass, he said that during the attack, he was receiving texts from parishioners who worked at the Capitol and were being sheltered in safety as the mob rampaged through the building.

“When I saw people walking brazenly on the floor of the Senate, I was sickened,” he said, adding that rioters posing for photos in Statuary Hall and with their feet up on a staffer’s desk in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office “was so insulting to our country.”

On Jan. 11, House Democrats introduced a single article of impeachment, charging Trump with “incitement of insurrection.” The introduction sets the stage for a vote from the House of Representatives in the coming days. If passed, Trump would be the first president to be impeached twice.

Pelosi, D-California, said a vote would be taken if Vice President Mike Pence does not seek to remove Trump under the 25th Amendment by Jan. 13.

Father Gurnee told the Catholic Standard, archdiocesan newspaper of Washington, Jan. 7 that he was still processing what he had seen and what he should say about it in his upcoming Sunday homily, adding that parishioners had encouraged him to offer a theological, not a political message, which he said he planned to try to do.

Four days after the Capitol breach, his homily emphasized staying focused on what really matters — eternal salvation.

The priest said when people take an earthly view over a spiritual outlook, “the results are always ruinous,” and he quoted the words of Russian dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who in reflecting on the aftermath of the Russian Revolution which led to the deaths of millions over the following decades, said, “Men have forgotten God; that’s why all

this has happened.”

“This week, I think we saw the tragic consequences of what happens when individuals and a nation loses its spiritual outlook,” he told the congregation.

The priest said he believed that leaders inside and outside the government “cynically manipulated people for their own selfish reasons,” and as a result, many people who came to Washington “thought they were engaging in an historic event to secure freedom and fairness for this country.”

He said some carried signs proclaiming their Christian faith, and some in the crowd probably were “veterans of the Right to Life March who had in years past peacefully proclaimed the need to protect the unborn.” For many years, both St. Joseph’s and St. Peter’s parishes have offered hospitality to marchers from across the country participating in the annual national March for Life.

Father Gurnee said participants at the Jan. 6 rally “were told that they should fight, that they should enter into combat and prevent the theft of something given to them by God.” Trump and other speakers at the rally charged that the presidential election was stolen. The participants, he said, were “incited into a mob, and they were fueled with a rage that told them they were being denied their rights. Instead, they stole the rights of others. Five people died and countless others were trampled or injured.”

“Democracy was assaulted from within, and our elected leaders were temporarily prevented from discharging their duty. Thankfully, the People’s House was restored, and their work finished.”

Father Gurnee thanked those serving honorably in government and those who protect our freedoms and also offered condolences “for those who grieve deaths that did not need to happen.”

He encouraged people to recommit themselves to a spiritual outlook, “one which calls us to love our enemies, to forgive those who harm us and to work respectfully and firmly to proclaim the truth, in season and out.”

After Mass, a Senate aide who was in lockdown for several hours during the Capitol siege said he and his family attend Mass at St. Joseph, their home parish, and he appreciated the pastor’s homily. Asked about his hopes for the future, he said: “I hope there’s progress toward unity, but I think we’ve learned it has to be unity based on truth.”

St. Joseph’s Church is located a few blocks from the Capitol, near Senate office buildings now surrounded by fencing with National Guard members standing sentry there and along the fencing surrounding the Capitol.

On Jan. 7, one day after the Capitol breach, Father Studniewski, pastor of St. Peter’s Parish on the other side of Capitol Hill, noted that the previous day he had celebrated morning Mass as usual.

Knowing that Congress was scheduled to ratify the Electoral College vote that day, the priest said: “We were able to pray for them, to pray for wisdom, to pray for courage, strength and understanding.”

He noted that St. Peter’s Church is located near House of Representatives’ office buildings, and that day, like typical weekday mornings, several House members from both parties attended

CNS

Protesters climb on walls at the U.S. Capitol in Washington Jan. 6 after a rally supporting President Donald Trump as Congress certified the 2020 presidential election.

POPE IS ‘ASTONISHED’ AT CAPITOL VIOLENCE Pope Francis offered prayers for the people of the United States “shaken by the recent siege on Congress” and prayed for the five people who lost their lives “in those dramatic moments” when protesters stormed the Capitol Jan. 6.

Remarking on the events after reciting the Angelus prayer Jan. 10, the pope insisted that “violence is always self-destructive. Nothing is gained by violence and so much is lost.”

The pope urged government leaders “and the entire population to maintain a high sense of responsibility in order to soothe tempers, promote national reconciliation and protect the democratic values rooted in American society.”

And he prayed that “Mary Immaculate, patroness of the United States of America,” would “help keep alive the culture of encounter, the culture of caring, as the way to build together the common good; and may she do so with all who live in that land.”

Pope Francis’ remarks came one day after the release of clips of an interview with Italy’s Canale 5 in which he said he was “astonished” by the violent breach of the U.S. Capitol, the Mass. “That’s how they begin their day,” he said, adding that throughout the day, he had seen a constant stream of protesters walking past the church.

“They were very peaceful. This is what Americans do. They go to demonstrate, to have their voices heard,” the priest said. “It was a normal day, until all that sickening unrest in the afternoon.”

The priest had gone out that afternoon to get groceries, and returned to find roads closed around the neighborhood, a sign that something had gone wrong.

Then, a nearby apartment complex had to be evacuated after a suspicious package was found in a building on that block.

“We had a lot of residents come into (St. Peter’s) church as a safe haven,” he said, adding that they kept the church open and brought water to their neighbors who had come there. “I was pleased the church was open and could be a sanctuary to them.”

As he watched television and saw the mayhem unfolding at the Capitol, Father

especially because the people of the United States are “so disciplined in democracy.”

Violence, he told the interviewer, must always be condemned, but it also is true that in even the most “mature” societies, there are violent minorities, “people taking a path against the community, against democracy, against the common good.”

“But thank God this erupted and people could see it well. That way it can be remedied,” he said.

“No nation can brag about never having a case of violence — it happens,” he said. “We must understand it, so it is not repeated — learn from history, right?”

Catholic leaders in the U.S. likewise denounced the violence at the Capitol. Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, issued a statement the evening of Jan. 6 saying he joined “people of goodwill in condemning the violence today at the United States Capitol.”

— Catholic News Service Studniewski said it was “very disturbing, very disheartening.”

Before entering the seminary, Father Studniewski was a captain in the U.S. Army. After his ordination in 1995, he served as an Army chaplain for many years and achieved the rank of colonel.

The priest, assigned to St. Peter in 2017, said he hoped the Jan. 6 events lead to “a turning point where people, Red (states), Blue (states), with faith or no faith, people of all stripes and backgrounds, could say, ‘Let’s make sure this doesn’t happen again. The spirit we saw yesterday can never take us forward.’”

He also said he hoped the nation’s people and its leaders could be guided by a spirit like that which Jesus witnessed to, a spirit of “truth, justice, harmony, charity and peace,” to pursue change nonviolently like Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. did.

“Any change that’s going to be lasting and meaningful is going to be grounded in that spirit of God,” he said.

NATION+WORLD

10 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

JANUARY 14, 2021

In new year, share the blessing of your time, pope writes

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service At the beginning of a year people hope will mark the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, Pope Francis urged them to create a “culture of care,” including sharing the gift of their time with others.

Despite suffering from a bout of sciatica, nerve pain, that left him unable to preside over Mass Jan. 1 in St. Peter’s Basilica, the pope sent a homily focused on God’s blessings and on sharing those blessings with others.

Consecrating the new year to Mary, the pope prayed that she would “care for us, bless our time and teach us to find time for God and for others.”

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, read the pope’s homily as he celebrated the Mass for the feast of Mary, Mother of God, and for the Catholic Church’s celebration of World Peace Day. Only about 100 people, all wearing masks, were in the socially distanced congregation for the Mass at the Altar of the Chair in St. Peter’s Basilica. Two dozen cardinals, also wearing masks, concelebrated.

In the homily he wrote, Pope Francis returned to themes from his World Peace Day message — “A

HEADLINES u Jesuit priest will deliver invocation at Biden’s presidential inauguration. Jesuit Father Leo O’Donovan, former president of Georgetown University, will deliver the invocation at the inauguration of Presidentelect Joe Biden Jan. 20. The priest, a friend of the Biden family, was the main celebrant at the funeral Mass for Biden’s son Beau in 2015 at St. Anthony of Padua Parish in Wilmington, Delaware. In leading the prayer of blessing, Father O’Donovan, who is currently director of mission for Jesuit Refugee Service, will follow the footsteps of his predecessor at Georgetown, Jesuit Father Timothy Healy, who offered a prayer during the inauguration of President Ronald Reagan in 1985. u Bishops call for an end to the federal death penalty. A joint statement from two U.S. bishops who head different committees of the U.S. bishops called for an end to the federal use of the death penalty as “long past time.” “We renew our constant call to President (Donald) Trump and Acting Attorney General (Jeffrey) Rosen: Stop these executions,” said the

Culture of Care as a Path to Peace” — and a recent general audience talk about prayers of blessing.

“This year, while we hope for new beginnings and new cures, let us not neglect care,” the pope wrote.

“Together with a vaccine for our bodies, we need a vaccine for our hearts. That vaccine is care. This will be a good year if we take care of others, as Our Lady does with us.”

“The Lord knows how much we POPE FRANCIS need to be blessed,” the pope wrote.

“The first thing he did after creating the world was to say that everything was good and to say of us that we were very good.”

But with the birth of Jesus, he said, “we receive not only words of blessing, but the blessing itself: Jesus is himself the blessing of the Father.”

“Every time we open our hearts to Jesus, God’s blessing enters our lives,” he said.

The example of Mary, blessed in a special way, he wrote, “teaches us that blessings are received in order to be given.”

Referring to the Latin roots of the word “benediction” — to speak well — Pope Francis wrote

Jan. 11 statement from Archbishops Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City, chairman of the bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, and Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, chairman of the bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities. The bishops also called on President-elect Joe Biden and Congress to “make this a priority.” Federal executions resumed last year after a 17-year reprieve. Ten times in the past two years, bishops, groups of bishops, or the full U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops had either spoken out against capital punishment, asked the faithful to add their voice on the issue, or sought to end its use in the courts. u Exiled archbishop returns to Belarus for Christmas, resigns in January. After almost four months in exile, Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz of Minsk returned to his people and his cathedral Dec. 24 in time to celebrate Christmas. The archbishop, who had gone to Poland in August, was blocked from reentering Belarus Aug. 31; two weeks later, the Belarusian Interior Ministry confirmed the archbishop’s passport had been canceled to prevent its “unjustified use,” but said his Belarusian citizenship remained valid.

that “we, too, are called to bless, to ‘speak well’ in God’s name.”

“Our world is gravely polluted by the way we speak and think badly of others, of society, of ourselves,” he said. But complaining and denigrating others “corrupts and decays, whereas blessing restores life and gives the strength needed to begin anew.”

The blessing of Jesus’ birth, he wrote, is all the more amazing because God sent the savior into the world as a baby, who was formed in the flesh within the womb of Mary.

“The heart of the Lord began to beat within Mary; the God of life drew oxygen from her,” the pope wrote. “Through Mary, we encounter God the way he wants us to: in tender love, in intimacy, in the flesh.”

As 2021 begins, he said, people should make a commitment to finding time for others.

“Time is a treasure that all of us possess, yet we guard it jealously, since we want to use it only for ourselves,” he wrote. “Let us ask for the grace to find time for God and for our neighbor — for those who are alone or suffering, for those who need someone to listen and show concern for them.”

The archbishop’s treatment was widely read as part of wider efforts by President Alexander Lukashenko and his supporters to halt criticism or stop those who might support people criticizing Lukashenko’s government. Pope Francis sent Lukashenko a personal letter Dec. 17, and five days later, a Church official announced that the government informed him that there were no obstacles to the archbishop’s return.

Then, on Jan. 3, the Vatican announced Archbishop Kondrusiewicz’s retirement on the day the archbishop turned 75 — the age at which canon law requires bishops to turn in their resignation to the pope. It is unusual for the pope to accept the resignation of a bishop the day he turns 75 and for the Vatican to make such announcements on a Sunday. The unusual nature of his immediate retirement led some to believe it was part of the agreement to allow his return to Belarus. u Nigerian bishop, driver released by kidnappers. Auxiliary Bishop Moses Chikwe of Owerri, Nigeria, and his driver were released by their abductors Jan. 1 after being kidnapped five days earlier in Owerri. The 53-year-old bishop lived and worked in Southern California from 2005

to 2017. He completed a master’s degree in educational administration at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles and a Ph.D. in education at the University of California at Los Angeles. He was appointed auxiliary bishop of his home archdiocese in 2019. u Archbishop Coakley commends passage of COVID relief package. Congress got a big thank you from Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, for its work on passing the $900 billion COVID aid package that was signed into law Dec. 27. “There are significant bipartisan achievements within this relief bill, and politicians and staff who have worked around the clock to bring this to completion should be commended,” Archbishop Coakley said in a Dec. 28 statement. The bill includes stimulus checks of $600 per person for those making $75,000 or less, including spouses and minor children. u Over 40 pro-life leaders call on Senate to reject Biden’s nominee to head HHS. Over 40 prominent pro-life leaders called on the U.S. Senate Dec. 21 to reject Presidentelect Joe Biden’s nomination of California Attorney General Xavier Becerra to head the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. “Mr. Becerra carries a national reputation for his vehement, unwavering support for abortion, including in the ninth month, his staunch convictions in opposition to conscience rights for medical professionals, and his hostile opinions regarding the freedoms of religious organizations, among other issues that are of major concern to us,” the leaders said in a letter to senators. Becerra, who was nominated by Biden Dec. 7, must be confirmed by the Senate. He would be the first Latino to be HHS secretary and would be Biden’s chief health care officer. Pro-life leaders who signed the letter included the heads of March for Life, Students for Life Action, Family Research Council, Susan B. Anthony List, National Right to Life, Live Action, Dr. James Dobson Family Institute, Center for Medical Progress, And Then There were None, and National Institute of Family and Life Advocates.

— Catholic News Service

NATION+WORLD

JANUARY 14, 2021

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 11

Genocide in Nigeria ‘happening before our eyes,’ congressman says at hearing

By Kurt Jensen Catholic News Service The Catholic bishop of Gboko, Nigeria, and the Knights of Columbus added their voices to a Dec. 17 congressional hearing spotlighting sectarian violence in Nigeria in which thousands of Christians have been killed simply for their faith identity.

The hearing of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission was spurred by recent developments: the fatal shooting of 51 peaceful protesters in Lagos Oct. 20; the kidnapping of over 300 schoolboys in Kankara, which government officials there said was instigated by bandits masquerading as the Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram; and the Dec. 7 State Department designation of Nigeria as “a country of particular concern” under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998.

The boys were rescued Dec. 18, and while the hearing included discussion of a congressional resolution of condemnation plus the imposition of sanctions, it didn’t get into the specifics of either response. Sanctions would become a decision of the incoming Biden administration.

“This is a genocide that’s happening right before our eyes,” said Republican Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey, the commission’s co-chair.

“It is depressing that our Middle Belt region has truly become a vale of tears, a region where mass burials are very common,” said Bishop William Avenya of Gboko. “Since the consistent attacks began some five years ago, there has hardly been a single day without killing in one part of the region or the other.

“In fact, one cannot give the accurate figures of those who have been killed since the beginning of these atrocities,” he said.

“Interestingly,” Bishop Avenya continued, “no one has ever been arrested or questioned or prosecuted or convicted of any charge related to this spree of killings. Yet, these killers are not invisible, neither

government to pressure the Nigerian state to provide protection.

Earlier this year, the International Committee on Nigeria calculated, based on what they said were primary sources on the ground, that since 2015, Fulani militant attacks are “exponentially increasing,” killing more than 9,700 in the past five years.

Adding to the urgency, the latest statistical risk assessment of the Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide calculated that Nigeria faces a 7.3% risk of experiencing a new mass killing by the end of 2021, the 6th highest in the world. In 2019, Nigeria was ranked 17th with a 5% risk.

Genocide has become virtually a daily threat, said Annigje Buwalda, executive director of CNS Jubilee Campaign USA. “We would additionally ask that more consideration be proffered to ... the Nigerian schoolboys walk after they were rescued by security rising frequency of deadly midnight attacks on forces in Katsina, Nigeria, Dec. 18. predominantly Christian farming communities in Nigeria, which are carried out by groups of heavilyare they unknown. Instead, these atrocities are made armed radical Islamist Fulani militants,” she said. to look as though they were ethnic or communal In November, Democratic Reps. Al Green and clashes.”

Joaquin Castro, both from Texas, introduced a House “Nigeria’s Christians have suffered grievously at resolution supporting the peaceful protest movement the hands of Boko Haram and other groups,” said in Nigeria.

Carl Anderson, Supreme Knight of the Knights of “The resolution is not enough, but it is something Columbus, in a statement. “The Christians of Nigeria, we can do,” Green told the hearing. He said it meant both Catholic and Protestant, deserve attention, “that Black lives matter, no matter where they may recognition and relief now.” be.”

The death toll from the conflict in Nigeria’s Middle Robert Destro, an assistant secretary of state, said Belt region caused by the pastoralists, or cattle he hoped for an “early warning network” to detect herders, who are mainly Muslim and ethnic Fulani, atrocities before they occur. against farmers, who are predominantly Christian, But he said one principal difficulty is Nigerian relies on analyses from humanitarian groups, since it officials have told him it’s “impossible” that religion is never verified by the government. is a factor in the killings. “They need active groundAn estimated 2,000 are believed to have been level intelligence to be able to protect themselves.” killed annually between 2011 and 2016 as conflicts continue over land and a dwindling water supply, Destro said of President Muhammadu Buhari’s exacerbated by climate change. government, “They’re going to have to want to Religious organizations have urged the American change.”

New law brings needed transparency to finances, Vatican official says

By Junno Arocho Esteves Catholic News Service A new law that removes financial assets from the control of the Vatican Secretariat of State is a step forward on the path of financial reform, said Bishop Nunzio Galantino, president of Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See. “There was a need to turn around the management of finances, economy and administration, to increase transparency and efficiency,” Bishop Galantino said in an interview with Vatican News.

Issued “motu proprio,” on Pope Francis’ own accord, and published Dec. 28, the decree ordered the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See, also known as APSA, to manage all bank accounts and financial investments belonging to the Vatican

Secretariat of State.

APSA handles the Vatican’s investment portfolio and real estate holdings.

The Secretariat for the Economy will monitor APSA’s administration of the funds, the pope ordered.

Bishop Galantino told Vatican News the measures were the result of “studies and research” that began during the papacy of Pope Benedict XVI and were called for during the general congregations prior to the election of Pope Francis in 2013.

Among the questionable investments made by the Secretariat of State was a majority stake purchase on a property in London’s Chelsea district that incurred significant debt and prompted concerns that funds from the annual Peter’s Pence collection were used in the purchase.

In an interview published by the

Vatican press office Oct. 1, Jesuit Father Juan Antonio Guerrero Alves, prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, said the financial losses incurred by the property deal “were not covered by Peter’s Pence, but with other reserve funds of the Secretariat of State.”

Although the pope’s new rules are part of a larger, ongoing effort to reform Vatican finances, Bishop Galantino told Vatican News “it would be hypocritical to say” that the scandal surrounding the London property deal did not influence the new measures.

The property deal “helped us to understand what control mechanisms needed to be strengthened. It made us understand many things: not only how much we lost — an aspect that we are still evaluating — but also how and why we lost it,” he said.

The head of APSA highlighted the

need for clear and rational measures “to ensure a more transparent administration.”

“If there is a dicastery designated for the administration and management of funds and property, it isn’t necessary for others to carry out the same task,” he said. “If there is a dicastery designated to control investments and expenditures, there is no need for others to perform the same task.”

The new measures, Bishop Galantino added, are also meant to restore people’s trust in the annual Peter’s Pence collection, which “was created as a contribution of the faithful, of the local churches, to the mission of the pope who is a universal pastor, and is therefore destined for charity, evangelization, the ordinary life of the Church and of the structures that help the bishop of Rome to carry out his service.”

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12 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Life after death Healing, then friendship restored after fateful trip to abortion clinic 30 years ago

By Joe Ruff The Catholic Spirit

J

ill King remembers her roommate 30 years ago calling her into the bathroom of their apartment.

Carla Stream was sitting on a chair, wrapped in a towel.

“She looked up at me and said, ‘I’m pregnant.’”

Stream thought she would have to move out. King wanted to help.

“It was my first experience living away from home,” King, 52, told The Catholic Spirit. “I thought, ‘I’m a big adult girl, I can take care of my friend.’”

King said she was raised in a faith-filled, Christian home, but unexpected pregnancy and abortion were not topics of discussion. Absorbing the news, trying to find a solution, the women turned to the phone book. King recalls many entries under “pregnancy” offering abortion services and clinics — but not much else. “‘I can help you,’” she told her friend of the abortion option. “‘I can take off of work.’ I told her I’d taken other people before, maybe to help her feel better about it. It was a lie.”

King had never taken anyone to have When I tell an abortion. Nonetheless, she did take a my story, many day off that September in 1990, so she could drive Stream from their apartment women come to me in White Bear Lake to an abortion clinic and say, ‘That was me. in Minneapolis. She remembers what it felt like in the reception area, seeing a I did that, too.’ visibly pregnant girl, crying with her mother, and thinking, “We’re the smart It’s amazing how ones; we’re (obtaining an abortion) many are silent before (the baby) shows.”

In that moment, 17 years after the about it.

U.S. Supreme Court’s Jan. 22, 1973, Roe v. Wade decision legalized abortion Jill King across the country, King was led with Stream into a room where they watched a video showing a cartoonish figure of a cluster of what looked like red grapes. This is your baby, people at the abortion clinic told those gathered.

“They show you that to demonstrate it’s OK; it’s not human yet,” King said. Another lie.

Stream, 55, said she felt lonely, desperate, fearful and anxious about being pregnant. She had not grown up in a loving home. As a young adult, she filled that void with partying and dating. Her mother had once paid for her sister to have an abortion. She had friends in college who had had abortions. And in Stream’s mind, the baby’s father was out of the picture, a casual acquaintance from time she spent as a nanny out East, before returning to Minnesota and finding an apartment with King.

“I felt I needed to make a decision,” Stream said.

“Jill said she would drive.”

Fatal decision That fatal decision ended the life of Stream’s child and split their friendship, and it has affected other relationships over the course of their lives, Stream and King said. The abortion began a trail of pain that only through God’s grace and forgiveness led both to strong marriages, children who know their stories

and long-standing, pro-life advocacy roles neither would have imagined. King is executive director of a pregnancy resource center, Lakes Life Care Center in Forest Lake. Stream is a former teacher of middleschool children with learning disabilities who works data entry at home, takes speaking engagements to tell her story and helps the pregnancy resource center near her home in Hudson, Wisconsin. She served five years on the board of directors of King’s pregnancy center and organizes a group of volunteers who once a month pray in front of Planned Parenthood in St. Paul.

Neither is Catholic, but both respect and rely on the strong pro-life advocacy work and support of the Catholic Church. They bring the same determination to their Christian communities, in hopes of shaping lives and changing minds about abortion.

A Catholic led The Catholic Spirit to their experiences. Mary Stolz, 59, a nurse and member of St. Peter in Forest Lake who has volunteered at Lakes Life Care Center and served on its board for more than 30 years, said she wants people to know the harm abortion does to people’s lives. She sees it all too often.

“What I’ve discovered is there is so much brokenness and so much hurt,” Stolz said. “By the time they come here, this is just one of many things in their lives that are so difficult.”

She recalled talking for 90 minutes in the center with one young woman whose baby was nine weeks along. The center’s director of client services followed up with a couple of telephone calls; the first time the woman hurried to get off the phone, saying, “I can’t talk right now,” and the second time she hung up without speaking, Stolz said. People at the center don’t know what happened to the woman or her child, she said.

“I’ve never met someone who really wants an abortion,” Stolz said. “They just feel painted in a corner.”

Back to the future Stream vividly remembers the video at the abortion clinic that day 30 years ago; and she recalls other women there, some with boyfriends, some with their mothers. “We watched the same video; it’s all just a lump of cells,” Stream said. “We were never given the opportunity for an ultrasound” (at that time, a two-dimensional, not three-dimensional, image). Now she knows that viewing an ultrasound of their child can make a difference for women dealing with the thought of having an abortion.

“I had what was considered counseling,” Stream said. Physical and emotional risks of the procedure were not disclosed. A woman asked her if there was a husband involved, a boyfriend or any additional income earner. “She asked me, ‘What kind of mother would you make?’ She closed the sale by saying, ‘Will that be Visa or MasterCard today?’ That’s what they do. They sell abortion.”

“The abortion was the most horrifying experience of my life,” Stream said. “And the pain … I’ve had four kids without drugs, and I’ve never felt anything like that. I was brought to the recovery room and given a warm blanket and peanut butter and jelly toast. I felt relief but only because it was done. I looked at all the other girls, all crying. One was

Carla Stream, right, had an abortion 30 years ago are strong pro-life advocates, with King serving a

holding her stomach, rocking back and for ‘My baby, my baby.’”

Things were not the same between Strea King. They parted ways.

“I really struggled with everything,” Stre “I didn’t know how to be a friend to her. W lease was up, I wanted to be away from an that reminded me of what happened.”

King, too, was lost. “We didn’t really talk she said. “All of a sudden, this really good didn’t want to be around her anymore, an didn’t want to be around me anymore. We knew what we did was wrong. We didn’t ta other for a long time.”

But King never stopped thinking about w happened, and what might have happened Stream. “I did all the self-loathing, the gui said. “In that 20 years, I thought about her time. It is not an exaggeration to say at lea week.”

A fuller understanding

They traveled different paths, but King a believe God’s grace brought them to the sa of healing and help to others. It took a lon and a lot of work, they said, but each foun and in 2010 they re-found each other.

King recalls the days after the abortion, undefinable dread. “Why am I heavy?” she herself. “Why am I sad? Why isn’t everyth normal? You’re supposed to go back to nor do I look at my friend differently?”

“It impacted my mom, too,” King said. “ was always pro-life, but I didn’t know that (since) spoken at length with her many tim

JANUARY 14, 2021 • 13

LAKES LIFE CARE CENTER Founded in 1982 by a group of seven Catholic women from St. Peter in Forest Lake, Lakes Life Care Center offers pregnancy testing, ultrasounds, parenting preparation and other services.

It grew from one room in Forest Lake to three rooms a few years later, then to its current, full-floor space in 2008. It is affiliated with the Eagan-based, nonprofit support organization Elevate Life.

Jill King, executive director since 2010, said her mother was a volunteer teacher at the center when the leadership job came open. King and her mother talked about it, and King felt called to the position. King said its Catholic founders recognized the need to help women in crisis pregnancies and worked tirelessly to fundraise and increase awareness. Catholics continue to be the clinic’s biggest supporters, she said.

“I look to their strength with this, their resiliency in pro-life efforts,” King said. “If you don’t protect life at its most vulnerable, nothing is important. I’m hoping that we’ll be able to convince other churches. That’s the foundation of everything. I definitely appreciate how strong they (Catholics) are in that belief.”

Carla Stream, who attends an evangelical church and was on Lakes Life Care Center’s board of directors from 2014 to 2019, said she sends letters to various denominations offering to talk about her experience with abortion. “It depends on the pastor,” Stream said of receptivity to her offer.

There are at least 22 pregnancy resource centers supported

by Catholics in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

— Joe Ruff

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

with help from her friend, Jill King, left. Shortly thereafter, they parted ways, but reunited in 2010 after both found healing. Today, the two women as executive director of Lakes Life Care Center in Forest Lake.

rth, saying,

am and

eam said.

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k about it,” friend, I nd she e both talk to each

what d to ilt,” King er all the ast once a

and Stream ame place ng time nd help,

feeling an e asked hing rmal. Why

“My mom t. I have mes. She

said, ‘I never thought to talk with you about it.’ She felt badly I had not come to her.”

King’s husband, Bill, and their two children, ages 18 and 21, know her story and are pro-life. King, who also is a volunteer firefighter and a former teacher and preschool center director, leads the pregnancy resource center. Lakes Life Care Center offers services including ultrasounds, sexually transmitted disease testing, and classes to help mothers facing unexpected pregnancies understand what is happening in their bodies and how to prepare to raise a child. The center is affiliated with the Eagan-based, nonprofit support organization Elevate Life.

She shares her personal story with pro-life and other groups.

“When I tell my story, many women come to me and say, ‘That was me. I did that, too.’ It’s amazing how many are silent about it.”

Working at the center, she often hears men involved with a pregnancy turn to the woman and say it’s her choice. “Don’t say that,” King said, because that leaves the woman feeling she has no choice at all. “They are telling that young woman she is alone. It’s really sad.”

“I hope to tell young people that being pregnant is not fatal. There is help out there. We all know the path (we hope for); we want to dream,” King said.

“You can still do all those things. You just need to take different steps to get there.”

King said she didn’t understand the full meaning of her friend’s abortion until she was pregnant herself. “I was married, I wanted to get pregnant,” she said. “But no one cared about my friend’s baby. I didn’t care about my friend’s baby. I needed to figure out what to do with this.”

The answer came with more deliberately inviting

Christ into her life, said King, who grew up Lutheran and attends a nondenominational church. “I had to repent. I had to admit what I had done and ask forgiveness. That forgiveness is not just once and done. I have to believe that every day. I have to know it is true.”

Stream said that after her abortion, she returned to drinking and partying. “Anger and grief and sorrow and years of guilt and shame and depression led to suicidal thoughts and one suicide attempt,” she said.

She married at age 28; she and her husband, Patrick, wanted to have a child. Becoming pregnant in 1995, Stream carried the baby 10 weeks — the same age as the girl she aborted, whom she later named Aubrey — but she miscarried.

“I delivered our baby into my hands at 10 weeks.

Every lie I believed came crashing down around me.

I saw tiny toes, feet and legs, hands and arms, a tiny little rump and a precious little face. I did cry, ‘My baby, my baby.’”

In that experience, God reached her with the truth, Stream said. She and her husband found an evangelical church in Hudson. Stream sought the guidance of its pastor.

“I believed God never forgave me and my miscarriage was punishment for my abortion,” Stream said. “(The pastor) set me straight on that.

My pastor prayed with me, and I felt hope and healing was possible. But there was a lot of work to do.”

‘Lightning in a bottle’ Stream attended abortion and post-abortion Bible studies, became active in the Silent No More

awareness campaign and began speaking publicly in 2008. Most important, however, were the Rachel’s Vineyard weekends, Catholic-based retreats for men and women seeking to recover from the trauma of abortion. She began attending in 2009.

“It was for me a hugely important part of my healing from abortion,” Stream said. “I have never felt a safer place to share. You sit with people and their pain, sorrow and grief, and work through Scripture and apply God’s word to what you’ve been through.”

Stream’s experiences have been included in friend of the court legal briefs and testimony for pro-life legislative efforts around the country. “It is the No. 1 human rights abuse in terms of numbers,” Stream said of abortion. “We have thousands of babies made in the image of God who are not here.”

In 2010, Stream heard from King through Facebook.

“She shared her story,” Stream said. “She said, ‘I don’t know where you’re at. I just want you to know I am so sorry.”

King said she reached out to Stream two or three months after she began working at Lakes Life Care Center, in part to let Stream know she was doing better.

“We got together,” King said. “I had the opportunity to seek forgiveness for what I had done.

She is a sidewalk counselor, a prayer warrior. We just laughed. … It meant everything. I think it really solidified in me the forgiveness part of it. She’s OK, and (I know) she doesn’t hate me. Because she could, but she doesn’t.”

Now, the two women sometimes tell their stories together, including at a 2016 fundraising banquet for King’s pregnancy resource center that was attended by about 100 people. Stream described her experiences, relating that a friend had driven her to the abortion clinic. At one point, Stream told those gathered that she would like to introduce that friend — “she’s your executive director.”

“It was like lightning in a bottle,” King said. “It was eye opening for our donor base, to know people running the show” had experienced the same challenges as the many women and men seeking help at the center.

“I cannot say enough what it means to work with her,” Stream said of King, “to see what God has done in our lives.”

14 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

JANUARY 14, 2021

FAITH+CULTURE ANALYSIS

With or without Roe, pro-life efforts in Minnesota face serious challenges

By Jonathan Liedl For The Catholic Spirit

W

hen pro-life advocates take part in this year’s March for Life in St. Paul Jan. 22, some may wonder if it’ll be their last. With the confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court and a new 6-3 conservative majority on the bench, both abortion rights activists and pro-life advocates agree the 1973 Roe v. Wade precedent that established a federally protected right to abortion has never been more vulnerable.

But in Minnesota, even the most optimistic of pro-life advocates aren’t expecting potential challenges to Roe to alter local abortion law, at least not any time soon. Not only are most experts doubtful the Supreme Court will overturn Roe in one fell swoop — a gradual chipping away, if anything, seems more likely — but Minnesota law already includes protections for abortion access beyond federal precedent. A 1995 ruling by the Minnesota Supreme Court, Doe v. Gomez, established not only a right to procure an abortion at the state level, but also obligates the state to pay for the procedure if a woman who elects to have an abortion cannot afford it.

The precedent makes abortion access uniquely entrenched in Minnesota law, and its demise anything but inevitable.

“Roe could be overturned tomorrow, and it would have virtually no impact in Minnesota,” Teresa Collett, a professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law, told The Catholic Spirit.

In fact, if anything, pro-life successes at the federal level appear to have contributed to pushes for expanded access to abortion in places like Minnesota. Recognizing that Roe could soon fall, national abortion rights groups have increasingly turned their attention — including their funding, legal team and public relations resources — to state capitols and court systems across the country.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, the research arm of abortion provider Planned Parenthood, 36 new abortion protections were enacted in the states in 2019.

The figure is a dramatic increase from an annual average of only three such enactments over the preceding nine years. States such as Illinois and New York have passed new laws that established abortion as a “fundamental right” in their jurisdiction, removing several regulations of the practice and guaranteeing access even if Roe were taken off the books.

In Minnesota, activists supporting legal abortion haven’t hidden their intention to change state laws, eliminate regulations and expand access. UnRestrict Minnesota, a public awareness campaign aimed at removing any and all state laws regulating abortion, was launched in 2019, replete with billboards on major roadways and a slick website providing heavily biased interpretations of Minnesota abortion law. The website also invites visitors to take a pledge committing “to repealing Minnesota’s abortion restrictions.” Branded as a “community-supported” collective campaign with 25 listed partners, UnRestrict Minnesota appears to be an initiative of advocacy group Gender Justice, which backs what it calls reproductive freedom, LGBTQ liberation and other issues, as the two share a University Avenue address in St. Paul.

And the campaign’s efforts aren’t only educational.

On May 29, 2019, Gender Justice and UnRestrict Minnesota partner organization The Lawyering Project, a New York-based advocacy group for legal abortion, filed a lawsuit in Ramsey County District Court challenging 13 abortion regulations passed by the Minnesota Legislature, both before and since the Doe v. Gomez ruling. Parental notification requirements for minors, medical licensure standards for abortionperforming physicians, 24-hour waiting periods and demographic reporting requirements — essentially every statute on the books passed by elected officials to promote the health of the mother and provide informed consent — are all targeted by the lawsuit.

The litigation, which is currently under consideration

by Judge Thomas Gilligan Jr., contends that these

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

In this file photo from 2014, Mariana Foxhoven of Divine Mercy in Faribault holds up a pro-life sign inside the State Capitol during the Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life rally Jan. 22. types of regulations amount to government influence in a woman’s decision to abort inconsistent with Minnesota’s state constitution.

A complicating aspect of the case is that responsibility for defending these laws ultimately falls to Attorney General Keith Ellison. Although Ellison has publicly committed to “defend the laws of the state of Minnesota” regardless of his own opinions, his long history of support for abortion rights — including the submission of briefs in favor of striking down similar laws in other states — concerns pro-life advocates.

“He hasn’t raised the defenses that he should’ve,” contends Erick Kaardal, a local attorney who filed an intervention in the case on behalf of Pro-Life Action Ministries. Kaardal’s work on the case is sponsored by the Thomas More Society, a national public interest law firm that focuses on life, family and religious freedom issues.

On Oct. 30, 2019, attorneys representing the state moved to dismiss the Ramsey County case, on the grounds that the plaintiffs — two unnamed abortion providers, a nonprofit operating an abortion assistance fund and a local religious group in favor of abortion rights — failed to establish that the regulations in question clearly harmed them, and that the size and scope of the lawsuit denied them legitimate standing.

Kaardal’s request for dismissal emphasized that, unless sovereign immunity has been waived, the state cannot be sued for allegedly violating its own constitution.

However, Gilligan, the judge, denied Pro-Life Action Ministries’ intervention on Jan. 26, 2020. Then, on June 25, he denied the state’s request to dismiss the case, moving it forward in the process. Shortly after, the Minnesota State Senate attempted to hire outside counsel, including Collett, to intervene in the case, on the basis that Ellison’s office was ill-suited to provide an adequate defense for the state’s abortion regulations.

That measure, too, has proved fruitless.

Now, Kardaal expects a ruling on the case sometime in 2021. He describes the possible outcome of the court striking all 13 regulations from the books as a “disaster” that would compromise women’s health and harm the unborn, and notes that given current leadership in the state’s executive branch, an appeal would be unlikely.

The Ramsey County case represents the most obvious

threat to abortion restrictions in Minnesota, but activists are pursuing other avenues of attack, as well. Last year, legislation proposing that abortion rights be codified into state law came up in the Minnesota State House, and could be revisited this session, which began Jan. 5. Placing abortion rights in state law would provide another layer of protection should Doe v.

Gomez be overturned. There also have been recent efforts to defund or at least alter the makeup of the Positive Alternative Grants Program, an initiative established by the Legislature in 2005 that issues $3.5 million in grants to Minnesota nonprofits that provide services to help women choose alternatives to abortion, such as housing assistance and childcare.

Collett says Minnesota might not have to worry about coordinated efforts to place abortion rights supporters in the state court system — such as what happened in Kansas, where the newly composed state supreme court recently wiped all abortion regulations off the books on the grounds that they violated a previously undisclosed right to privacy in Kansas’ constitution — but not for good reasons.

“It strikes me that at this point in time, it would be hard (for the Minnesota Supreme Court) to become more abortion friendly,” she said.

Pro-life advocates can point to opportunities to advance the cause in the state’s legal system, though they’re less numerous and clear-cut than the challenges faced.

Though local courts might be more hostile to pro-life laws, Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life Executive Director Scott Fishbach describes the confirmation of Barrett to the Supreme Court as a “huge accomplishment,” which could pave the way for local gains in the future, such as a legal challenge to Doe v.

Gomez. Collett notes that a U.S. Supreme Court more receptive of laws regulating abortion could open the door for new abortion regulations not currently on Minnesota’s books, such as bans on discriminatory abortions or requirements that abortions-by-pill be preceded by a medical examination — though she doubts the political climate in Minnesota is currently conducive to such measures. Another possibility, she says, is that municipalities could attempt to issue bans on practices such as local medical practices participating in abortion services.

Jason Adkins, executive director of the Minnesota Catholic Conference, is less optimistic, and says a constitutional amendment may ultimately be the only reliable way to ensure restrictions protecting unborn human life are maintained.

“In other words, the political outlook for limiting abortion access is bleak,” he said.

While not suggesting that the pro-life movement abandon its legal efforts, Adkins and others underscored the importance of continuing to support pregnancy resource centers and other pro-life ministries. He also emphasized the need for continued focus on winning hearts and minds by reframing the abortion conversation, avoiding language that pits the rights of unborn children against the rights of women, and instead emphasizing “prenatal justice.”

Beyond attempts to limit access to abortion, he also says pro-lifers must focus on efforts to reduce the demand for abortion in their legislative advocacy. One example was a package of “First 1000 Days of Life” bills partially passed in 2020, which underscored “the humanity of the unborn and serve(d) as a bridge builder between pro-lifers and moderate pro-choice people” by promoting child development and maternal well-being from conception to age 2.

“In general, the pro-life community needs fresh leadership and creative thinking to get it out of the partisan framework in which it operates, and which focuses on federal elections that never seem to deliver the promised rewards,” Adkins said.

And, at least for the foreseeable future, the movement also will need to continue marching for life, this year and beyond.

FAITH+CULTURE

JANUARY 14, 2021

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 15

Coaching women through unplanned pregnancies

By Christina Capecchi For The Catholic Spirit

When I let go, things are much better.

When I’m talking to a client and she says something and I simply respond, “I’m sorry! That’s terrible!”, she responds so freely. “Yes, it is terrible!” And then she’s so open.

Marissa Meagher, 27, has worked as a client advocate at Abria Pregnancy Resources in St. Paul for nearly two years, guiding young women through unplanned pregnancies. A member of Maternity of Mary in St. Paul, she grew up in rural New London, Wisconsin.

Q What’s the best part of your job?

A When a client sets a goal and she

Q What’s it like to be with clients when they get the results of their pregnancy tests?

A Some really want a baby and are

joyful. Others get a negative result and want to talk about how to change their lives so they’re not in that situation again. We talk about boundaries and healthy relationships. Other women see that second line and cry. Some clients have cried for five or 10 minutes. Before those appointments, I always make sure there’s a Kleenex box. But I don’t hand them the Kleenex, because I don’t want to imply they should stop crying. I just leave it within arm’s reach.

Q What have you learned about how to respond in that moment?

A A lot of people try to fix it, to stop

them from crying. But I just sit with them. I make sure I don’t shift my body language or anything. Sometimes you just have to cry and have someone sit with you who’s OK with your crying.

Sometimes they say, “I’m so sorry I’m crying.” I say, “You don’t have to apologize for what you’re feeling. What you’re feeling is very real. You’re not the first person to cry in this room.” That hints at a sense of community, that other women have been in this situation.

After the crying subsides, we talk about their options: to keep the baby, to get an abortion or to pursue adoption.

Q What do you bring up in that initial conversation that seems to help the most?

A It helps to bring up options so they

can feel they are still making a choice.

To (keep the baby and choose to) parent is a choice, not a default. I educate them on what an open adoption could look like. They’re not quitting. They get to choose the family. “Oh yeah, this family has two older kids, because I want my baby to have older siblings, and they have a dog!” And they can decide to have an open adoption, and they have the right to close it at any point and can re-open it later. To know they can have some control when everything feels so

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

unplanned calms them down.

When women are very undecided, looking at five years from now helps.

Younger clients will say, “Well, I could still graduate. Maybe I’ll take a semester longer, and oh my gosh, I’d have a kindergartener!”

And with clients who feel alone, I tell them we have a program that goes until the baby is 2 years old. They’re struck by that: “Oh, you actually care about me, not just the fact that I kept my baby.”

Q Tell me about your role as a life coach.

A There’s a misconception: It’s not

telling someone what to do with their life. If we’re in a canoe, I tell them, I’m not steering the boat. I’m paddling right alongside you. I’m not telling you what to do. I do not use the word “should.”

You have enough people in your life giving you unwanted advice.

Life coaching is based on the belief that the client is the expert in her life.

I’m sourcing the answers from her, so she’ll say, “Oh I did know the answer! I just needed those questions to help draw it out!” To have that ownership of the idea — you run with it more and you run faster than running with someone else’s idea.

One exercise we do in coaching through our Empowers Program (for clients who decide to carry the baby) is to ask the client to draw a floor plan of a house she lives in or hopes to live in, and identify the values she’d like to be exemplified in each room. For instance, one client who has two children and was pregnant with her third reflected on her happy memories as a child playing with siblings in the living room. She identified

fun and play as a value, and realized that wasn’t happening in her current living room. Her first step was to rearrange the furniture. It was set up for just sitting and watching TV. Her second step was to figure out a family play night.

Q What are the most common fears of a woman facing an unplanned pregnancy?

A For younger clients, there’s a huge fear of telling their parents. Many feel like they’d rather get an abortion than tell their parents. With slightly older clients, there’s a fear of the father of the baby leaving them (if they keep the baby).

That fear of being alone is powerful.

Q How do you address that?

A I’ll ask, “How do you think an

abortion would affect your relationship?”

And they’ll often say, “Oh! I might resent him. I don’t think that would be good for our relationship.”

Q How much influence does the father of the baby tend to have?

A If she knows who the father is, it’s

huge. If he’s involved and wants to parent, our clients are like: “Alright, let’s do this!”

If the father wants to have the baby, it’s rare for the young woman to get an abortion. I’ve been here almost two years, and it’s only happened once.

Q Are there times when you’re coaching and you feel stuck?

A I feel stuck a lot. I only get stuck when I try to take over, thinking I need to say the right thing to help this woman.

absolutely crushes it. They call me up and say, “I got an apartment!” or “I got the job!”

In one coaching session, the client set the goal of getting the father of the baby involved. We’d been meeting in the first trimester and then the second trimester, and he wanted nothing to do with it.

We talked about how she’d go about discussing the pregnancy with him.

Two weeks later, she came in to the appointment, and he was with her. From then on, he was at every appointment, super involved. They came back recently to say hi and show me how big their baby boy is. They’re engaged.

Q How do you celebrate those victories?

A My co-worker who shares my office

is a huge support. We celebrate the good days. We love musicals. We sing “Dear Evan Hansen” and the parts to “Hamilton.” We make sure to liven the mood up even on the bad days.

Q I love how Abria makes its clients feel special with opportunities like the Abria Boutique shopping spree through your Empowers Program.

A We have amazing donors. There’s

dignity in being able to shop and pick out a new outfit with a tag on it. And they earned it. They use their points from attending appointments. They get so excited when they find the perfect thing. “Oh my gosh! I have to go to this party, and I didn’t have anything for my baby to wear and now I do, so I don’t have to hear my mom say, ‘You’re not taking care of that baby!’” It’s a material aspect: I’m visibly holding support, my baby is going to be clothed. I have the formula and diapers. I’ll be OK.

Q What’s next for you? You’re

pursuing a master’s in public health and you’re training to be a certified postpartum doula?

A Yes! I want to work on food

accessibility and sustainability, and I also want to work on prenatal care, helping to reduce stress to lower the risk of pre-term labor. So, my future work will closely relate to what I’m doing at Abria.

National Prayer Vigil for Life in Washington will be virtual this year Catholic News Service Each year on the night before the annual March for Life, at least 10,000 people have filled the great upper church of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington for the National Prayer Vigil for Life.

This year, due to local restrictions on attendance sizes because of the pandemic, the prayer vigil will be virtual.

Catholics across the country are instead being encouraged to take part in a nationwide prayer vigil Jan. 28-29, marking the 48th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion.

The vigil will begin with a live broadcast at 8 p.m. EST (7 p.m. CST) Jan. 28 from the basilica, starting with the praying of the rosary followed by Mass. Bishops from across the country will lead Holy Hours throughout the night in the livestreamed vigil.

The service can be viewed on EWTN or livestreams from the basilica or from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The principal celebrant and homilist for the opening Mass will be Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, USCCB’s chairman of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities. The vigil will end at 8 a.m. EST (7 a.m. CST) Jan. 29 in a closing Mass celebrated by Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore.

“Now, more than ever, our nation is in need of prayer

for the protection of the unborn and the dignity of all human life,” Archbishop Naumann said in a statement.

“I am happy to be joined by bishops in dioceses across the country who are hosting pro-life prayer events including during the overnight hours of eucharistic adoration. I invite all Catholics to spend time with our Lord and join in this nationwide vigil for life.”

The National Prayer Vigil for Life is hosted by the USCCB’s Pro-Life Secretariat, the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, and The Catholic University of America’s Office of Campus Ministry.

The closing Mass for the vigil Jan. 29 will be open to the public, but because of attendance restrictions, only 100 people are allowed inside.

FAITH+CULTURE

16 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

JANUARY 14, 2021

White House honors St. Thomas Becket’s martyrdom Catholic News Service The White House issued a proclamation honoring the 850th anniversary of the martyrdom of St. Thomas Becket Dec. 29 and inviting “the people of the United States to observe the day in schools and churches and customary places of meeting with appropriate ceremonies.”

The proclamation, signed by President Donald Trump Dec. 28, described Becket as “a statesman, a scholar, a chancellor, a priest, an archbishop and a lion of religious liberty.”

A London-born clerk to Archbishop Theobald of Canterbury, St. Thomas studied canon law abroad and was ordained a deacon. His support of Henry II’s claim to England’s throne led to his appointment as royal chancellor.

But he and the king clashed over many issues, notably the jurisdiction of ecclesiastical courts.

Becket fled to France for six years; soon after his return, Henry’s wish to be rid of this troublesome prelate led to Thomas’ murder by four knights.

The White House proclamation

CNS

A stained-glass window of St. Thomas Becket is seen at St. Alban’s Cathedral in St. Albans, England. described this martyrdom as “an event that changed the course of history” and which “eventually brought about numerous constitutional limitations on the power of the state over the church

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across the West.”

It also said Becket’s death “serves as a powerful and timeless reminder to every American that our freedom from religious persecution is not a mere luxury or accident of history, but rather an essential element of our liberty.”

It urged Americans to “celebrate and revere” the saint’s courageous stand for religious liberty and to reaffirm efforts to end religious persecution worldwide.

The White House acknowledged religious believers everywhere who suffer persecution for their faith, particularly Cardinal Joseph Zen of Hong Kong and Pastor Wang Yi of Chengdu, China, describing them as “tireless witnesses to hope.”

“To honor Thomas Becket’s memory, the crimes against people of faith must stop, prisoners of conscience must be released, laws restricting freedom of religion and belief must be repealed and the vulnerable, the defenseless and the oppressed must be protected,” the proclamation said, adding that the “tyranny and murder that shocked the conscience of the Middle Ages must never be allowed to happen again.”

TS

T& S

Pope announces yearlong reflection on family, ‘Amoris Laetitia’ As the fifth anniversary of his apostolic exhortation “Amoris Laetitia” approaches, Pope Francis announced that the Catholic Church will dedicate more than a year to focusing on the family and conjugal love.

During his Sunday Angelus address Dec. 27, the pope commemorated the feast of the Holy Family and said that it served as a reminder “of the example of evangelizing with the family” as highlighted in his exhortation. Beginning March 19, he said, the year of reflection on “Amoris Laetitia” will be an opportunity “to focus more closely on the contents of the document.”

“I invite everyone to take part in the initiatives that will be promoted during the year and that will be coordinated by the Dicastery for Laity, the Family and Life,” he said. “Let us entrust this journey, with families all over the world, to the Holy Family of Nazareth, in particular to St. Joseph, the devoted spouse and father.”

The “Amoris Laetitia Family” year will include forums, symposiums, video projects and catechesis, as well as providing resources for family spirituality, pastoral formation and marriage preparation. The commemoration will conclude June 26, 2022, with the World Meeting of Families in Rome. Pope Francis already had declared a year of St. Joseph, which began Dec. 8 and ends Dec. 8, 2021.

— Catholic News Service

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JANUARY 14, 2021

FAITH+CULTURE

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 17

‘The right step’ As archdiocese’s safe environment deputy takes national AMBER Alert role, former St. Paul Police community affairs chief steps in

By Dave Hrbacek The Catholic Spirit

J

anell Rasmussen remembers a press conference held by Ramsey County Attorney John Choi several years ago. As the deputy director of the Office of Ministerial Standards and Safe Environment, she stood on one side of Choi’s podium with other representatives of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis to address clergy sexual abuse.

On the opposite side stood law enforcement officers.

Among them was Paul Iovino of the St. Paul Police Department. Little did Rasmussen and Iovino know then that they would someday work on the same team.

Thanks to some big moves in December, they will now serve together in the archdiocese’s Office of Ministerial Standards and Safe Environment. Rasmussen is leaving her full-time position but staying on part time, while Iovino comes in as her replacement.

Rasmussen, who joined the archdiocese in 2016, was hired last month as the national AMBER Alert administrator, replacing Jim Walters, who is retiring. She starts in March.

After Rasmussen, Iovino’s longtime friend, told him about the job opening, he decided to apply. Both have had long careers in law enforcement. Most of Rasmussen’s 20 years have been with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. Iovino has spent 25 years with the St. Paul Police Department.

The two illustrate how the Office of Ministerial Standards and Safe Environment has functioned since its creation in 2014 with the hiring of Director Tim O’Malley, former head of the BCA and state administrative law judge. He has built a staff filled with law enforcement specialists, some of whom are former colleagues and others known experts in the field.

They work together to investigate claims of clergy sexual abuse, and they have forged relationships with victim-survivors, other law enforcement professionals and even Choi, who now praises the work the archdiocese has done since 2015. Six years ago, he filed charges against it in the case of former priest Curtis Wehmeyer, alleging that the archdiocese had failed to protect children from his abuse. Its settlement led to Ramsey County overseeing institutional changes in the archdiocese. That process ended in January 2020.

“I continue to have confidence in the work that the archdiocese is doing,” Choi said. “There’s been dramatic improvement.”

Part of that comes from Rasmussen, a mother of two who has a passion for protecting children. In addition to helping develop safe environment protocols for parishes and schools, she has met with victim-survivors and their families to hear their stories firsthand. These

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Janell Rasmussen, left, and Paul Iovino both are now part of the Office of Ministerial Standards and Safe Environment in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. encounters continue to fuel her drive to keep kids safe.

Rasmussen first got involved in the AMBER Alert program almost 20 years ago while working for the BCA, helping launch a program in Minnesota in 2002 and serving as state coordinator. AMBER Alert (America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response) was created after the 1996 abduction and murder of Amber Hagerman in Arlington, Texas. The child abduction alert system asks the public for help in finding abducted children, using radio and TV stations, social media and text messages.

Although she sees her new position as a way to move the program forward, including to other countries, she has mixed feelings about the change.

“I really do enjoy my work here at the archdiocese,” said Rasmussen, 45, who lives near Ellsworth, Wisconsin. “The people here are just absolutely phenomenal. But, the work (of AMBER Alert) is also very important. And so, I thought it through, talked a little bit with Jim (Walters) … and some of the folks in the program, and just decided that this would probably be a really good move.”

Walters told her that there’s no one else in the country that they would want running the AMBER Alert program nationally, she said, which meant a great deal to her because of how long she’s been advocating for the program.

“To be able to serve in this role, to work for kids like this, to have this broad impact throughout the United States, means a lot to me,” she said.

It means something to others, too, including Patty Wetterling, whose son Jacob was abducted and murdered near St. Joseph, Minnesota, in 1989.

Wetterling, a longtime child advocate, has worked alongside Rasmussen throughout the years, and said Rasmussen has what it takes to keep the AMBER Alert program going strong.

“I’ve seen her in a lot of different venues, and she’s just so competent and calm and compassionate,” said Wetterling, who recently worked with Rasmussen as a member of the archdiocesan Ministerial Review Board.

She joined the board, in part, because of Rasmussen.

“I can’t think of enough good adjectives (to describe her). She’s just an amazing human being. So, I’m excited

for her and I’m excited for the AMBER plan. They’re getting a golden person.”

Rasmussen had similar words of praise for Iovino, whom she’s known since they both worked in campus security at the University of St. Thomas in the 1990s.

When she decided to take the AMBER Alert position, she immediately recruited Iovino for her job at the archdiocese.

“There is no better fit than Paul for this position,” she said. “He is going to be absolutely wonderful in this role. He is an excellent leader. He has done work with victims in the past. And, he knows exactly the importance of that work.”

Iovino is retiring from the St. Paul Police Department and his current role as community affairs chief. He started working for the department in 1995, first as a patrol officer for four years, then in numerous leadership roles. One of his jobs was commander of the Juvenile Unit/Missing Persons Unit from 2006 to 2008, which brought him into contact with abuse victims and their families.

“I’ve had a blessed career with the City of St. Paul and serving the community there,” said Iovino, 50, who is married with three children and belongs to St. Ambrose in Woodbury. “And, I’ve loved every moment of it. Truthfully, it’s been just a wonderful career for me. And, I believe it was a calling for me to serve in that capacity.”

And, the chance to work for the archdiocese was “like a second calling,” he said.

“The thought of working at the archdiocese, working for this archbishop (Bernard Hebda) in … Ministerial Standards and Safe Environment was absolutely just a wonderful opportunity I wanted to make sure that I did not pass up,” he said.

Iovino and Rasmussen both said they are glad to be part of an organization that puts so much effort into protecting children, and one that has made great strides in recent years.

“The people … are doing it right,” Choi said. “With Tim staying there, and Janell having some continued role, and also now bringing in Paul Iovino, I think that’s really great. It’s just the right step, for sure.”

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18 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

JANUARY 14, 2021

FOCUSONFAITH SUNDAY SCRIPTURES | FATHER SCOTT CARL

Come and see

In the Gospel of John there are certain questions that jump off the page, significant beyond their immediate context. In the Gospel for the second Sunday of Ordinary Time (Jn 1:35-42) we have one such question. It is, in fact, Jesus’ first words in that Gospel account: “What are you looking for?”

The immediate context is important enough.

Seeing Jesus, the Baptist had just cried out within ear shot of his own disciples, “Behold the Lamb of God!” While these words do not strike us as profoundly as his original hearers because of their familiarity to our ears hearing them in each Mass, they resound with rich meaning about who Jesus is. In the Baptist’s humble acceptance of his role in salvation history, he readily admits he is not the Messiah, but with great eagerness points him out. Indeed, as the Baptist says later in this Gospel, he must decrease and Christ must increase (cf. 3:30).

Two of John’s disciples hear this proclamation and begin to follow after Jesus. Our Lord says to them, “What are you looking for?” It is a question that probes the depth of their being. The fact that they had already been for some time disciples of John the Baptist indicates something of their humble search for renewal through repentance, not afraid of the austerities that such a life involves. They must have experienced the purification of intention and, indeed, the joy of putting God first.

Now this Lamb, whose way the Baptist has prepared, examines what their hearts long for. They respond, “Where are you staying?” Another way of translating this question is, “Where do you remain/abide?” The evangelist fills in the significance of this term later in his Gospel through eucharistic overtones: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him” (6:56; cf. 15:1-11; 1 Jn 4:10-16). Jesus’ response provides an invitation, “Come, and you will see.” Jesus longs to share with us his abode; he longs to stay with us. He yearns for hearts prepared to welcome him.

With this first issue of The Catholic Spirit in the new year, let us

FAITH FUNDAMENTALS | FATHER MICHAEL VAN SLOUN

Confirmation is social

“Confirmation is the great social sacrament,” explains Bishop Fulton Sheen, in his presentation on the sacrament of confirmation in his book “Life is Worth Living.” As the Holy Spirit propelled Jesus into the world after he was baptized, the Holy Spirit propels every confirmed person into the world. The Holy Spirit armed Jesus to go to battle with Satan and resist temptation, and it equipped him to venture out and be with people to preach the Gospel, heal the sick, forgive sinners and suffer tremendous hardship.

The Catholic faith is not a private or individual matter.

Catholics pray with other Catholics in church and live with other Catholics at home, but belief and practice must not be limited to the safety and comfort of church and home.

The confirmed take their faith into the world: to school, the workplace, the neighborhood, parks, the grocery store, the gas station, clinics and hospitals, sporting events, government offices, streets — everywhere. The Holy Spirit energizes a person to bring Jesus to a world that desperately needs him and to do battle with evil that is so rampant.

Actions may speak louder than words, but for a confirmed Catholic, the faith is not either/or, actions or words, but rather both/and, actions accompanied by words. An adult Christian not only does good deeds and gives good example, but also speaks about Jesus and shares the faith with others. Jesus conducted himself in an exemplary manner, but he also spoke up and delivered his message to those who had no knowledge of him.

Likewise, there are many who know little or nothing about Jesus today, and for those energized and emboldened by the gift of the Holy Spirit, they look for openings and opportunities to speak about Jesus. Jesus offered gentle invitations and was not preachy or pushy, and his disciples would be wise to follow his example.

It may be outside of a person’s comfort zone to be gently assertive

DAILY Scriptures

So much hope and desired relief has been expressed for 2021, but much more is to be gained if we can see Jesus inviting us to deeper communion through the context in which we find ourselves.

Sunday, Jan. 17 Second Sunday in Ordinary Time 1 Sm 3:3b-10, 19 1 Cor 6:13c-15a, 17-20 Jn 1:35-42 Monday, Jan. 18 Heb 5:1-10 Mk 2:18-22 Tuesday, Jan. 19 Heb 6:10-20 Mk 2:23-28 iSTOCK PHOTO | FREEDOM007

ponder again where we are and let Jesus examine our hearts with his potent question, which meets us in our particular context: “What are you looking for?”

How can the austerities (material, relational, spiritual, etc.) experienced in the last year prepare us to welcome him to abide in our hearts in this new year? What sort of response is indicated by our lived priorities (i.e., what we in fact do each day or how we spend our time, not how we should do so or would like to do so)? Do these lived priorities manifest a desire to abide with Jesus?

What is one concrete way we can improve our prayer life? How might Jesus be inviting us to reach out to a neighbor (cf. Lk 10:2937) in creative ways?

So much hope and desired relief has been expressed for 2021, but much more is to be gained if we can see Jesus inviting us to deeper communion through the context in which we find ourselves. With an open heart and a will purified through austerity, we too will be ready to abide with the Lamb.

Father Carl is vice rector of The St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity in St. Paul and assistant sacramental minister to the Latino community at St. Odilia in Shoreview. He can be reached at smcarl@stthomas.edu.

The Holy Spirit energizes a person to bring Jesus to a world that desperately needs him and to do battle with evil which is so rampant. and bring up spiritual matters, but it is of utmost importance.

It requires courage, conviction and prudence, all of which are supplied by the Holy Spirit.

The news about Jesus is so good that a confirmed Catholic must not hold back or delay in sharing it. Bishop Sheen recounts in “Life is Worth Living” a dramatic event that demonstrates why: “A lawyer died in Berlin as an unbeliever. He had a Catholic partner. When his friend became ill, the Catholic lawyer visited him and said, ‘You are about to die; you ought to make your peace with God.’ And the dying partner said to him, ‘If Christ in your Church has meant so little to you during your life that you never once spoke to me, how can it mean anything to me at my death?’”

When Jesus went into the world he was confronted with a social dilemma, the evil in the world, both the devil prowling about as well as individuals and groups seduced by the devil. The world was a nasty place, but it did not keep Jesus from entering it, and with the power provided by the Holy Spirit, he did not succumb to it.

He confronted and resisted sin with all his might beginning with his 40 days in the desert and continuing for the next three years. He resisted bodily urges with self-control, pride with humility, meanness with kindness, corruption with integrity, deception with truth, and selfishness with generosity and service.

The world is still a nasty place in many ways. Sin and wrongdoing are everywhere. A confirmed person goes out into the world, sinful as it may be, and with the strength provided by the Holy Spirit, confronts sin and does everything possible to eliminate evildoing.

Father Van Sloun is pastor of St. Bartholomew in Wayzata.

This column is part of an ongoing series on confirmation.

Wednesday, Jan. 20 Heb 7:1-3, 15-17 Mk 3:1-6 Thursday, Jan. 21 St. Agnes, virgin and martyr Heb 7:25–8:6 Mk 3:7-12 Friday, Jan. 22 Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children Heb 8:6-13 Mk 3:13-19 Saturday, Jan. 23 Heb 9:2-3, 11-14 Mk 3:20-21 Sunday, Jan. 24 Third Sunday in Ordinary Time Jon 3:1-5, 10 1 Cor 7:29-31 Mk 1:14-20 Monday, Jan. 25 Conversion of St. Paul, apostle Acts 22:3-16 Mk 16:15-18 Tuesday, Jan. 26 Sts. Timothy and Titus, bishops 2 Tim 1:1-8 Mk 3:31-35 Wednesday, Jan. 27 Heb 10:11-18 Mk 4:1-20 Thursday, Jan. 28 St. Thomas Aquinas, priest and doctor of the Church Heb 10:19-25 Mk 4:21-25 Friday, Jan. 29 Heb 10:32-39 Mk 4:26-34 Saturday, Jan. 30 Heb 11:1-2, 8-19 Mk 4:35-41 Sunday, Jan. 31 Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time Dt 18:15-20 1 Cor 7:32-35 Mk 1:21-28

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JANUARY 14, 2021

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 19

ECHOES OF CATHOLIC MINNESOTA | REBA LUIKEN

1941 Eucharistic Congress led to founding of Falcon Heights church

LEFT The exterior of the building constructed for Corpus Christi in Falcon Heights. The parish has since relocated to nearby Roseville. The former church building is now home to the Emily Project, which helps people with eating disorders.

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INSERT The seal of the 1941 Ninth National Eucharistic Congress, held in St. Paul. The Latin words “O Salutaris Hostia” translate to “O Saving Victim” or “O Saving Sacrifice” and are from a hymn St. Thomas Aquinas wrote for the feast of Corpus Christi, which celebrates the real presence of Christ in his consecrated Body and Blood. “Mea omnia tua” means “all I have is yours.”

Editor’s note: “Echoes of Catholic Minnesota” is a new regular column from local historian and Catholic Reba Luiken.

At the corner of Buford and Cleveland in Falcon Heights stands a stone and copper building.

The copper is new, but the stone structure that faces the St. Paul Campus of the University of Minnesota was built in 1940 in anticipation of one of the crowning events in the history of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. The modest building was home to Corpus Christi parish, which was formed to serve a growing suburban neighborhood and to play host to the Ninth National Eucharistic Congress in 1941.

The Congress itself was centered a few blocks away at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds, where 475,000 Catholics gathered over the course of four days in June to honor Christ the King in the Eucharist. In a word, the celebration was grand. The papal colors of white and gold adorned thousands of banners across the Twin Cities and clothes of hundreds of ushers, schoolchildren and altar servers who participated in the festivities. The grandstand was prepared with seats for over 100,000 worshipers at Masses, and the baldachin canopy over the altar was an impressive five-story structure that was topped with a nine-foottall monstrance replica. National newspaper coverage highlighted the Congress’ opening and closing processions.

On the final day, over 80,000 Catholics processed

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through Como Park in the rain, adoring the Eucharist on an altar of flowers after hearing directly from the pope in Vatican City via radio. The governor even declared a state holiday, and all milkmen in St. Paul finished their routes by noon in preparation.

The National Eucharistic Congress was part of an international Liturgical Movement in the first half of the 20th century that highlighted the importance of lay involvement in the liturgy. Laypeople sought to participate in the Mass and worship collectively as part of the mystical body of Christ. This theology was present during all Congress events, but 100,000 men passing a flame at midnight Mass to symbolize the spread of the faith was an especially moving display.

Lectures and homilies at the Congress also reflected the Liturgical Movement’s focus on social action.

Multiple bishops spoke in favor of organized labor and in support of African Americans. The official theme of the Congress was the emulation of the sacrifice of Christ, and this was also an integral part of the broader Liturgical Movement. Adoration of the Eucharist was

central to both, and this devotion was intended to inspire social transformation through the work of devoted Catholics.

Of course, the Congress was just four days in the history of Corpus Christi parish. Later, as the parish grew, it purchased land in Roseville and opened a school there in 1959, becoming a parish in two places. In 1992, a new church was built at the Roseville location and the building in Falcon Heights was sold to the Korean parishioners of St. Andrew Kim. Since 2010, the building at Buford and Cleveland Avenues has been part of the Emily Program, a residential eating disorder treatment center, making the old Corpus Christi Church one of many pieces of Catholic history hiding across the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, just waiting to be uncovered.

Luiken is a historian with a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota and a lifelong Catholic in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

A scene from the Ninth National Eucharistic Congress, held in 1941 at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds. The Congress was the catalyst for the founding of Corpus Christi parish nearby.

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WHY DO CATHOLICS DO THAT? | FATHER JOHN PAUL ERICKSON

Holy water reflects baptism, saint medals signal devotion Editor’s note: “Why Do Catholics Do That?” is a question people who know the Church get a lot — and things that might be obvious to some Catholics are perplexing to others, both “cradle Catholics” and recent converts. As part of our mission to inform and inspire, The Catholic Spirit is launching this new regular column written by Father John Paul Erickson, pastor of Transfiguration in Oakdale. Do you have a question about something Catholics do? Email us at CatholicSpirit@archspm.org with “Why Do Catholics Do That?” in the subject line.

Q Why do Catholics bless themselves

with holy water when they enter and leave a Church?

A Holy water reminds us of the waters

of the baptismal font, the place where our existence changed forever. Indeed, it is not too much to say that the day of our baptism is one of the most important days of our earthly lives, if not the single MOST important. We are right to remember this moment! And when we were baptized, we entered the household of faith that is the Church, and we became members of a family.

That family is what a church building

represents — the community of faith, comprised of living stones. The whole act of entering a church building is meant to remind us of our obligations and our great dignity, which began in the waters of baptism.

Q Why do Catholic churches have a red lamp by the tabernacle?

A The red light that continuously

burns within the sanctuary of our Catholic churches reminds all who enter that Jesus is present within the tabernacle in the little form of the consecrated Host. While technically not required to be red, the use of this color is quite fitting as it reminds us of the burning love of Christ, who waits in the tabernacle for our own love and acknowledgment of faith.

When a Catholic enters a church and notices a red lamp burning next to the tabernacle, a sign of reverence

should be shown, which is generally a genuflection or a profound bow.

Q Why do some Catholics wear medals with images of saints?

A My father to this day keeps a picture

of my mother, God rest her soul, in his wallet. It is a reminder to him of her and of her love for him. So too with sacramentals like medals of the saints.

They serve as a reminder to the one who wears them of the reality of the saints and of their presence in our lives as Christians. What is more, a medal is an outward sign of our own devotion to these heavenly partners — think of it as sporting our favorite team colors.

A huge part of our Catholic faith is the belief in the communion of saints, those men and women who were just like us but choose God above all things.

It is right to celebrate them!

Father Erickson is pastor of Transfiguration in Oakdale.

20 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

JANUARY 14, 2021

COMMENTARY TWENTY SOMETHING | CHRISTINA CAPECCHI

How to be a survivor: the faith of Violet Jessop

When Violet Jessop set out to be a maritime stewardess, she wasn’t driven by some starry-eyed desire to see the world. She was moved by necessity.

Her Irish father, a sheep farmer, had died of complications from surgery, and then her mother’s health deteriorated. Violet, 17, the firstborn of nine, resolved to become the breadwinner. She was a devout Catholic, formed by convent school and committed to prayer. She was also a striking beauty: With her auburn hair swept back, her grey-blue eyes sparkled, set off by a petite nose and regal cheekbones.

Violet logged 17-hour days as a cabin stewardess for the White Star Line — making beds, sweeping, picking up clothes and tending to sick passengers.

She kept a rosary in her apron, guided daily by her Catholic faith.

In 1911 she was on board the Olympic, the largest civilian luxury liner, when it collided with a British warship. Despite holes in its hull, the Olympic managed to return to port.

Violet was undeterred.

She was reassigned to the White Star’s newest ship, the Titanic, and set sail less than a year later. The 24-year-old befriended crew members and passengers.

On the fourth night, she noticed a chill in the air and retired early, hunkering down with a batch of British fashion magazines.

SIMPLE HOLINESS | KATE SOUCHERAY

A new beginning

Behold, I make all things new!

These words from the Book of Revelation, written by John of Patmos, resulted from the revelation he received from an angel. They were written at the end of the first century A.D. to the followers of Jesus, who came to know and love Christ through the letters of St. Paul, the Evangelists and the inspired stories of those who knew him. Most, if not all, who heard these words never met Jesus during the time of his earthly ministry. They lived in a Roman-dominated world, and whether they were Greek, Hebrew or Gentile, they were subjugated to Roman authority and controlled by this outside force, which restricted their freedom, created fear and discouragement and generated mistrust.

As we face COVID-19, we cannot help but see similarities. We may feel controlled and fearful. We are unable to move about our normal lives as we had so easily and confidently done only one year ago, a time that now seems far away and foreign to us. And yet, Jesus is saying that he makes all things new for us today, just as he did for his followers at the end of the first century. He wants us to trust him with our lives, just as he encouraged those who sought out his Holy Spirit two millennia ago.

We must face the continued unfolding of this unwelcome pandemic, in which we have all been touched in some way. We do see hope on the horizon, and we sometimes find ourselves breathing a sigh of relief as we dare to allow a moment of optimism.

I knew that if I meant to continue my sea life, I would have to return at once. Otherwise, I would lose my nerve.

Violet Jessop

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Just then she recalled a Hebrew prayer given to her by an old Irishwoman who had urged her to pray it.

It was a prayer for protection against fire and water.

Why had she taken so long to pray it?

“My conscience smote me,” Violet later wrote.

She pulled out the prayer card and earnestly prayed it. Then she began drifting off to sleep, jolted by a loud crash.

Many people feel the trauma that can be created by fear and isolation during this difficult time, which makes it difficult to engage in intimate relationships because it can create a loss of a sense of self. Trauma responses are superimposed over everything, so people experiencing this often are continually reminded of unresolved traumatic experiences.

The late Dr. Francine Shapiro, senior research fellow emeritus at the Mental Research Institute, contends that memories of unresolved trauma “continue to generate negative thoughts and feelings whenever they are triggered.” These activated triggers send continual, anxious messages of “should” to our brain, which prevent us from engaging in a sense of peace.

As we hopefully emerge from this past year of trauma, created by the novel coronavirus, a contentious election, and the shutdowns and isolation, many people — adults and children — might find themselves in a heightened state of arousal, which activates areas of the brain that alert them of danger. The immediate, pressing danger may have passed, but we will likely see post-traumatic stress responses following the pandemic.

If you feel you, or someone you love, has been activated by fear and uncertainty during the pandemic, and you believe they are continuing to be triggered by trauma memories, please reach out for help.

Some common signs that our children, or we ourselves, should seek help are nightmares, seemingly irrational outbursts when something unexpected happens or a dread we cannot seem to shake. Some might call this depression or anxiety; others refer to it as trauma responses.

Please do not allow the pandemic to do any more harm than it already has done to our world, and hold onto the words of Jesus: “Behold, I make all things new.”

Violet knew it was ominous.

Her job was to appear calm, reassuring passengers they would be fine.

An officer ordered her into lifeboat 16 to show others it was safe. As the boat was lowered, he shouted, “Look after this, will you?” A bundle was dropped on her lap. A baby!

Violet comforted the crying baby and prayed, icy air blasting her face “like a knife.”

Eight hours later, when they were rescued by the Carpathia, a woman grabbed the baby and ran off.

Violet never heard from her again.

Safe on land, Violet didn’t debate her next step.

“I knew that if I meant to continue my sea life, I would have to return at once,” she wrote in her memoir. “Otherwise, I would lose my nerve.”

And so she did, but life looked different. “I saw people and their aims with extraordinary clarity,” Violet wrote. “Famous names and possessions no longer moved me.”

She trained as a nurse for the Red Cross, and four years after the Titanic crash, she found herself on its sister ship, the Britannic. An explosion sank the ship within an hour. Violet made it into a lifeboat but came close to dying when it was nearly sucked underwater by the Britannic’s propeller blades. She jumped into the water to escape the vortex, and her head was struck by the ship’s keel. A doctor later diagnosed it as a skull fracture.

Violet continued to work on the sea until her 1950 retirement, when she could finally enjoy a quiet life in a thatched cottage in the English countryside.

She died of natural causes in 1971 at age 83.

Her story speaks to us now as we look back at 2020, a year that delivered more than one crisis in succession. As we process the fear and the loss, may we follow Violet’s lead: We pray, we trust, we sail again. We try to make our corner of the ship a little better by being faithful and kind. And we hope that God is directing us to calmer waters.

Capecchi is a freelance writer from Inver Grove Heights.

ACTION STRATEGIES u If you think you or someone you love is being activated by trauma memories created by the pandemic, please reach out for help. u Please remember to take care of yourself during this difficult time.

Soucheray is a licensed marriage and family therapist and a member of St. Ambrose in Woodbury. She holds a master’s degree in theology from The St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity in St. Paul and a doctorate in educational leadership from St. Mary’s University of Minnesota.

LETTERS Premature call The Spirit wrote about the pope calling Joe Biden on Nov. 12 to congratulate him on “winning the presidential election” (“Papal call,” Nov. 19). Not only was the call premature, but I find it somewhat insulting to my Catholic faith. Biden is pro-abortion, totally divisive and dishonest. The Church recommends ex-communication for advocates and supporters of abortion. The pope does not speak for me, or millions of other Catholics in the U.S. Jim Fregeau St. Bridget of Sweden, Lindstrom CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

COMMENTARY

JANUARY 14, 2021

ALREADY/NOT YET | JONATHAN LIEDL

The problem of good A particularly thorny dilemma for Christian apologists over the centuries has been the challenge of “theodicy” — or providing a justification for how an allpowerful, all-loving God can coexist with the very real and palpable evil we see in the world.

If anything, 2020, and at least the first few weeks of 2021, hasn’t made “the problem of evil” any less daunting. From widespread political violence to a global pandemic, racial strife to heightened levels of depression and addiction, the evidence for evil in our world certainly seems to be mounting.

And it’d be utterly foolish, as someone trying to help point another toward belief in God, to suggest otherwise. The evil that we see and personally experience ourselves is a serious problem, a grave injustice, a scandal demanding an answer. Despite

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Wait and see?

In response to Lee McGee’s comments about President Trump and Joe Biden (“Concern misdirected,” Letters, Dec. 17), I’m not aware of any President Trump lies and am aware of plenty of Joe Biden lies. Joe Biden and his son Hunter could possibly go to prison for what they have been involved in financially. But the biggest reason for him not to be president is his involvement with China. The COVID-19 mess started in China, and what a mess it has been. And Joe Biden is involved with China.

President Trump’s handling of this crisis has saved many lives. Prior to this crisis President Trump has done a fantastic job getting our economy to work much better than any other president. The Dow is over 30,000. It was 19,732 when he took office. And with all the negative media he received in the years since he took office. My brother has suggested that now that Joe Biden is becoming president, those that voted for him will find out why they shouldn’t have voted for him when they see how he handles the job.

Ray Brandt St. John the Baptist, Savage

Vaccine questions Let’s see if I’ve got this right. It’s okay to be immunized against COVID with vaccines that were produced using fetal cell lines from abortions, and/or that were tested using tissues from aborted babies, as long as the abortions occurred long ago and the person receiving the shot(s) had no involvement with them (Commentaries

by Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk “Is mandating a vaccine ethical?” Oct. 22 and “Should I get vaccinated?” Dec. 3).

Actually, previous statements from the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith dating back as far as the 2008 instruction “Dignitas Personae” allow for grave reasons to justify acceptance of such vaccines as long as recipients register their objections and lobby public officials to offer ethical replacements. Wow! Using this amazing rationalization, one could buy a lampshade made from a Holocaust

the proliferation of moral relativism in our society, the reality of evil — its ugliness, its deviation from what is good for us and what we desire — seems to be something that we can’t escape, and even agree upon, at least in certain cases.

But this raises a question, a dilemma, even more fundamental than the problem of evil. I call it “the problem of good.”

Because to acknowledge the existence of evil, to acknowledge that something has “gone wrong,” as so many people have when it comes to contemporary America, we must first acknowledge that there is something good that can go wrong. And it’s this goodness that is more foundational, even more mysterious and harder to account for, than evil, which St. Augustine described as only ever a “privation” — or lack — of the good.

A beautiful encapsulation of the problem of good is found in Annie Dillard’s Pulitzer Prizewinning “Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.” The author’s reflection upon the seemingly senseless cruelty of the natural world — prompted by observing a frog eaten inside-out by a giant water bug — leads her to “bump against another mystery: the inrush of power and light, the canary that sings on the skull.”

victim’s skin, since it happened in the distant past and the buyer wasn’t involved in the slaughter. Or one could use medicines produced from human experimentation victims (China excels in this approach) as long as the treatments save lives and recipients are innocent of their production. Oh, but be sure to let the vendor know (and maybe some government officials, too) that this really isn’t very nice and there ought to be a law to prevent such manufacturing practices in the future.

If St. Paul could emphatically instruct new Christians not even to eat meat sacrificed to idols (cf. Acts 15: 21-25, 29; Rom 14: 20-21; 1 Cor 10: 19-22, 28; Rev 2:20), please would some bishop, or maybe Father Pacholczyk, tell me how I could morally let a doctor give me ANY treatment produced in the murder of an innocent child?

Anne Collopy All Saints, Lakeville

Clarity needed There seems to be some confusion about abortion vs. racism vs. immigration policies, etc. among your readers. Let’s be very clear. All Christians hold that all humans are created by God, and that Jesus Christ the only Son of God came in the flesh taking on a human body to die for our sins. If God made you, he also made everyone else. If Jesus died for you, he also died for everyone else. No one has the right to destroy another person created by God that Christ died for.

If you do not believe this you are not Christian. It is impossible for a person to be a follower of Jesus Christ and support abortion-promoting politicians.

You cannot love and serve Jesus, and love and serve abortion-promoting politicians. This is an indisputable fact. I suggest that the supporters of abortion-promoting politicians that want to become followers of Jesus repent as soon as possible.

Liz Kirkeide St. Paul, Ham Lake

Consult Catechism I’m writing in response to Joan Homstad’s letter on “Pro-life policies” (Dec. 3). I wish she and all Catholics

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Evil, Dillard suggests, cannot be understood except against the wider backdrop of beauty, “a grace wholly gratuitous.”

Evil is real, seems more forceful in our day and demands a response. But when we try to account for it without first acknowledging the primacy of goodness and its transcendent source, we risk errant responses, such as nihilism — which accounts for evil by denying any meaning — or totalitarianism — which provides political solutions to what is ultimately a spiritual challenge.

Instead, when we encounter evil in our lives, we can practice a kind of “spiritual jujutsu,” using its own forcefulness against it. Since evil is the lack of something good, each experience of hurt, loss and injustice includes within it the opportunity to acknowledge the good; to remember and express gratitude for the “wholly gratuitous” graces of our lives that we so often take for granted — family, health, pleasure, joy, life itself — and the God who so freely gives them. This doesn’t undo the pain and wrongness of evil, but it can help us enter the only posture that makes sense in the face of it: childlike trust in the Lord.

Liedl lives and writes in the Twin Cities.

would get their facts and opinions from the true teaching of the Catholic Church rather than from the Star Tribune. It is a false statement to compare abortion to closing the door to those seeking asylum, separating parents from children and making a false statement about President Trump putting to death more people than during the past half-century.

People should, instead of reading the Star Tribune, read the Catholic Catechism on abortion (paragraphs 2270 through 2275): Anyone that performs an abortion commits an intrinsic evil, a mortal sin and incurs excommunication. That includes a person who assists in an abortion and a person who promotes an abortion. Has Biden condemned abortion? He said he would support funding Planned Parenthood, which promotes abortion and funds abortion.

Is his platform abolishing abortion or promoting it? Over one million babies are aborted each year, or putting it more bluntly: killing unborn babies.

Anyone that votes for a person or party that promotes abortion is committing a serious sin because they are supporting legislation to kill more babies. This is why I’ve voted pro-life for over 50 years, no matter if they are Democrat or Republican.

Donald Dolan St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Hastings

Preeminent issue I was shocked and dismayed to see, in response to the article “Pro-lifers fear ‘hard-core, pro-abortion forces’ in Biden administration” (Nov. 19), not one but two letters to the editor which seemed to say, implicitly and explicitly, that Biden is more pro-life than Trump (Dec. 3). It is true that being pro-life encompasses concerns other than abortion, but abortion nevertheless remains the preeminent issue for the pro-life movement. In 2017, there were 862,000 abortions in the United States. That is significantly more deaths than capital punishment!

Furthermore, although in developed countries like the U.S. there really isn’t much need for capital punishment anymore, capital punishment is not intrinsically immoral. Abortion is.

When one candidate supports abortion and the other does not, there can be

no question regarding who is the more pro-life candidate.

Serena Hedman St. Raphael, Crystal

Masking the truth In a previous letter “Church sadly silent” (Dec. 3), the writer in his well-written letter mentioned that “there was no hard stand on abortion.” Why is that? Have we become complacent about abortion — seeing it as just an everyday thing? Or are we lying to ourselves? As we wear masks to protect us from a virus, are we also wearing “masks” of words to protect us from the truth? We use vague smoke-screen words like “reproductive health, “women’s health,” “reproductive rights.” Even the word “abortion” doesn’t tell the whole story. We cringe at the word that does. We need to name it for what it really is. The real word for what we’re doing and that we’re hiding from is “butchering.” It’s what we do to animals, and it’s also what we’re doing to living, pre-born, human beings. But we’re afraid to bring this out in the open. The word is too harsh — even though true — so we put on our masking words: “reproductive health.” Words to help us forget — or not care — that a baby has died. Words can obscure meaning — words like decency that our new president claims and often uses, while he is a strongly pro-choice Catholic. We hesitate to use the word butchering — but it’s true. It’s true as we watch the movie “Unplanned,” and we see on the ultrasound the baby trying to get away from its attacker/abortionist.

The baby’s struggle is in vain. It’s killed.

Is pulling off our masks and seeing and naming the truth too much for us? But if we see what’s true, we must wonder, can a species that is killing off its own survive?

The worst would be if we know what we’re doing, but we do it anyway because we’re too selfish to care. If so, God help us.

Catherine Carlson St. Peter, Forest Lake Share your perspective by emailing TheCatholicSpirit@archspm.org. Please limit your letter to the editor to 150 words and include your parish and phone number. The Commentary pages do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Catholic Spirit.

22 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

JANUARY 14, 2021

Why I am Catholic

By Ashlee Rickert

M

any times in life, the most difficult situations we face come without warning, without a chance to ask questions or understand the magnitude of what’s before us. It leaves us asking, “Where is God in this? How can he let this happen? Where is he when I suffer?”

We want to pull back. We want to guard ourselves and our hearts. The reality is that God is not punishing us, but rather inviting us into a life that makes us see him more clearly and embrace him more fully. God will take the most dismal of circumstances and create the most beautiful life we could have ever imagined.

I was born and raised Catholic. I knew my faith. I loved my faith. In 2009 it was tested. I was in my early 20s, newly married, pregnant and ecstatic at the thought of beginning this beautiful life. Excitement turned to sadness as the pregnancy progressed. Our baby boy was given a diagnosis of holoprosencephaly, a brain malformation, with life-threatening statistics and a 3% survival rate. Life as I imagined started to quickly fade.

Fear shook my soul. Fear made me vulnerable. The Church was the stronghold in my life that weathered the storm before me. She was a friend that had been there my whole life. I was scared and I clung to her. She gave me a compass and hugged my heart as I navigated a world trying to instill doubt into my soul. Every time it threatened fear, God gave me hope. When it told me I would never be happy, God gave me the deepest joy I could have ever imagined. When the world offered to give me an “out” through abortion, God clung to my heart and promised purpose beyond my understanding.

The trust you give God in the moment when you have nothing left to give is a moment that will define you. You will never be the same.

In the face of sadness and adversity, the Church remained my anchor and wrapped me in her truth: the

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truth that the child I carried was not a body that was broken, but a carefully created soul given to me to tell a story. What a mighty story it was! I journeyed with a boy who never said a word, but touched people’s hearts. A boy who never took a step, but left footprints everywhere he went. In the eyes of the world, this little child would be quickly dismissed, but with each passing day, I embraced the journey before me and watched my whole life and those of others transform into who we should all be. His sweet soul taught us to open our hearts a little wider, love a little deeper and give more of ourselves to others so that through our lives, we may radiate God’s love and light.

Fear could have stolen every moment, but courage changed the world. My sweet Levi lived for five years. In his eulogy, I prayed a prayer that I often did throughout his life: “God, grant me a miracle. If a miracle is not your will, give me the strength to get through this.” It echoed in my heart that day with a different sound. For Levi’s entire life, I was praying that God might change my circumstance, when really God was using the circumstance to change me. God knows what we need, loves us infinitely, and he longs for our trust. When we open our hearts to him, he fills us with a deep unshakable joy that fills our lives, our souls and our whole world.

Rickert, 34, is a home builder and real estate developer, motivational speaker and parishioner of Immaculate Conception in Lonsdale. She and husband, Josh, live south of Lakeville, with their children Gianna and Bennett, and with Levi in their hearts. She can be reached at ashlee@homesbymoderno.com.

“Why I am Catholic” is a new ongoing series in The Catholic Spirit. Want to share why you are Catholic?

Submit your story in 300-500 words to CatholicSpirit@ archspm.org with “Why I am Catholic” in the subject line.

23 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

JANUARY 14, 2021

CALENDAR PRAYER+RETREATS “How to Pray” six-week series — Wednesdays through Feb. 10: 7–8 p.m. via Zoom, hosted by St. Thomas More, St. Paul. A different form of prayer each week. Join as many sessions as desired. morecommunity.org/howtopray “Navigating Higher Education: How to Think About the College Decision” — Jan. 14: 7–8 a.m. at Nativity of Our Lord, 1938 Stanford Ave., St. Paul. Monthly adult formation series kicks off with a session on choosing a college, with University of St. Thomas professors Michael Naughton and John Boyle. Also available via livestream. nativitystpaul.org/speakerseries Men’s silent weekend retreat: “A Listening Heart” — Jan. 15-17 at Christ the King Retreat Center, 621 First Ave. S., Buffalo. Suggested offering $160 per person, includes $30 deposit to hold a room.

Call 763-682-1394 or register online. kingshouse.com Archdiocesan Synod: Faith and Culture Series — Jan. 20-Feb. 9: 7–8:30 p.m. online; link sent to registrants. Inspired by Pre-Synod Prayer and Listening Events, the events aim to connect people’s stories to the story of the Church. Includes a talk, testimonials and panel discussion. Registration required to participate live. Topics, dates and registration at archspm.org/synod.

Prayer Service for Life — Jan. 22: 10:30 a.m. at the Cathedral of St. Paul, 239 Selby Ave., St. Paul, and via livestream. Commemorates lives lost to abortion, and women and men wounded by abortion.

Limited seating, COVID-19 protocols will be followed.

Also livestreamed on the Cathedral’s Facebook page. facebook.com/cathedralsaintpaul Men’s silent weekend retreat: “A Listening Heart” — Jan. 22-24 at Christ the King Retreat Center, 621 First Ave. S., Buffalo. Suggested offering $160 per person, includes $30 deposit to hold a room. Call 763-682-1394 or register online. kingshouse.com Pro-Life Memorial Mass — Jan. 29: 6–7 p.m. at St. Charles Borromeo, 2739 Stinson Blvd., Minneapolis. Join Pro-Life Across America for a Memorial Mass with celebrant Father Doug Ebert, commemorating the U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion. prolifeacrossamerica.org Archbishop’s Discernment Retreat — Jan. 29-30: Virtual event from parishes in small groups of men discerning a call to priesthood.

Annual weekend retreat for juniors in high school to age 24 who have not completed a college degree. Presentations from Archbishop Bernard Hebda and vocations director Father David Blume.

10000vocations.org Women’s silent weekend retreat: “A Listening Heart” — Jan. 29-31 at Christ the King Retreat Center, 621 First Ave. S., Buffalo. Suggested offering $160 per person, including $30 deposit with registration to reserve a room. Call 763-682-1394 or register online. kingshouse.com

SPEAKERS+CONFERENCES

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.

Virtual Ascend Conference — Jan. 21-23 online.

For young adults, dive into what it means to be “created for worship.” Three nights of speakers, exhortation and worship. Register at ascendspo.org.

ITEMS MUST INCLUDE the following to be considered for publication:

March for Life Youth and Family Conference — Jan. 22: 9 a.m. at St. Agnes, 548 Lafond Ave., St. Paul.

An additional location to be determined if needed.

In the absence of a trip to Washington D.C., a youth and family conference will be held for high school and college students, using COVID-19 precautions. The day of prayer, inspiration, pro-life education and advocacy for the pre-born is sponsored by the archdiocesan Office of Marriage, Family and Life. Cost is $10 per person. For more information, contact Katie Walker at walkerk@archspm.org. archspm.org/march-for-life-youthfamily-conference

uFull street address of event

Chesterton Academy Virtual Gala — Jan. 29: 6:30–7:45 p.m. online. Benefits students of Chesterton Academy of the Twin Cities. Silent auction, music, student speeches and art competition. Live raffle drawing with cash prizes: $5,000 and $2,500 and tuition prize. Learn more at chestertonacademy.org/the-chesterton-gala. Join the gala at ca2021gala.givesmart.com.

ONGOING GROUPS Calix Society — First and third Sundays: 9–10:30 a.m. via Zoom, hosted by the Cathedral of St. Paul. Family and friends support spiritual needs of recovering Catholic alcoholics. For meeting link, contact Jim at 651-330-3387. calixsociety.org Job transitions and networking group — Tuesdays: 7–8:30 a.m. at St. Joseph the Worker, 7180 Hemlock Lane, Maple Grove. Questions email Bob at bob.sjtw@gmail.com. sjtw.net/job-transitionnetworking-group

uTime and date of event

uDescription of event uContact information in case of questions ONLINE: T HECATHOLICSPIRIT.COM/ CALENDARSUBMISSIONS

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

Career transition group — Third Thursdays: 7:30–8:30 a.m. at Holy Name of Jesus, 155 County Road 24, Wayzata. Speakers on job-search topics, networking. hnoj.org/career-transition-group Caregivers support group — Third Thursdays: 6:30 p.m. at Guardian Angels, 8260 Fourth St. N., Oakdale. guardian-angels.org Natural Family Planning (NFP) — Learn Churchapproved methods to achieve or postpone pregnancy.

Find classes at archspm.org/family or call 651-291-4489.

Restorative Justice Groups — Monthly: 6:30–8 p.m. via Zoom. Open to all victim-survivors.

First Mondays for those sexually abused by clergy as adults. Second Tuesdays for relatives and friends of clergy abuse victims. Third Mondays, victim-survivor support group. Third Wednesdays, survivor peace circle. Fourth Wednesdays, support group for men sexually abused by clergy or religious. Learn more at archspm.org/healing or call Paula Kaempffer at 651-291-4429.

Pope amends canon law: Women can be installed as lectors, acolytes Catholic News Service Recognizing “the gifts of each baptized person,” Pope Francis ordered a change to canon law and liturgical norms so that women could be formally installed as lectors and acolytes.

“A consolidated practice in the Latin church has confirmed, in fact, that such lay ministries, being based on the sacrament of baptism, can be entrusted to all the faithful who are suitable, whether male or female,” the pope wrote in his order. The document, issued “motu proprio” (on his own accord), was published by the Vatican Jan. 11.

In most dioceses around the world — and at the Vatican as well — women and girls have been lectors at Mass and have served at the altar for decades.

That service was possible, not as a formally instituted ministry, but under the terms of Canon 230, paragraph 2, which allowed for women or men to carry out the functions “by temporary designation.”

In a letter published with the document, Pope Francis repeated St. John Paul II’s teaching that the Catholic Church “in no way has the faculty to confer priestly ordination on women” since Jesus chose only men as his apostles. But with “nonordained ministries it is possible, and today it seems opportune, to overcome this reservation” of allowing only men to be formally and permanently instituted as lectors and acolytes.

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24 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

JANUARY 14, 2021

THELASTWORD

Come to the water CNS

LEFT Daniele Belladonna works on the restoration of mosaics from the 5th century in the historic vestibule of the baptistery at the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome Dec. 9, 2020. Vatican restorers are tackling one of the oldest mosaics in Christianity, dated to around 450 AD. ABOVE LEFT Flowers and animals are pictured on a 5th-century mosaic during its restoration in the historic vestibule of the baptistery at the Basilica of St. John Lateran.

ABOVE RIGHT A statue of an angel is pictured as Belladonna works on the restoration of mosaics from the 5th century.

Mosaicists bring renewal to Rome’s first baptistery

By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service

E

ven though the baptisms the pope celebrates most years in the Sistine Chapel are better known, the most important place to be baptized in Rome for the past nearly 1,600 years has been the baptistery of St. John Lateran.

The ancient baptistery was built in 440 A.D. just behind the Basilica of St. John Lateran, which was the first Christian basilica founded in Rome by Emperor Constantine in 324 A.D. For generations, it had been the only baptistery in Rome, and, according to the baptistery website, there has never been a year since it was built that a baptism has not been celebrated within its walls.

Almost as old as the fifth-century structure itself, there is a half-dome of mosaics from about 450 A.D. decorating a side chapel, and experts believe they are among the oldest mosaics in Christianity.

“But there’s a problem here. A restoration problem. So the Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums have stepped forward once again” to dedicate the funds needed to restore the badly damaged and important piece of Christian art and history, Mary Angela Schroth, the project’s coordinator, told Catholic News Service.

Most often, water, time and grime are an artwork’s worst enemy, but sometimes the damage is caused by past restorers. That is what mosaicist Roberto Cassio and his small team from

the Vatican Museums found when they set up scaffolding and got a close look at mosaics in the chapel’s small apse and on a side wall, Schroth said.

For example, a huge metal clamp juts out from the side wall, jerryrigging into place a large panel of stone mosaics embedded in cement — one of the worst mediums to use for supporting mosaics, Cassio said.

Cement is too heavy, too rigid and “irreversible” when future repair or removal is needed, he said. Also, soluble salts in the cement eventually form “crystals” that damage the mosaic surface.

He said they will remove the cement supports and use a lighter mortar, more in line with current conservation methods.

One restorer in early December was cleaning the marble fragments on the side wall after the cracks and grout work were repaired. Some pieces of dark green serpentine from Greece, red porphyry from Egypt and white palombino from Italy are different shades, Cassio said, since early artisans often culled their materials from assorted Roman ruins and monuments.

Schroth said the mosaics are one of the few examples of “opus sectile” — the technique of cutting and inlaying stone to form pictures or patterns — to still be in the same place where they were created, rather than having been moved to a museum.

“It is a miracle it has survived to our day,” Cassio said.

While the cleaning and repairing of the stone mosaic on the side wall will be fairly routine, the work on the glass mosaics in the apse will be more innovative, Schroth said.

The mosaics in this chapel, dedicated to Sts. Cyprian and Justina, are opaque tiles of glass, which offer mosaicists many more colors to choose from than the limited palette of stones.

“It isn’t colored glass,” however, Cassio said.

There is a different “recipe” for each color using different minerals and colorants so that when the glass is forged in a furnace, the additives react to the heat, making a unique color, he said.

What made early Rome stand apart from other cities with its mosaic work was the desire that images look more like paintings, he said, so early artisans kept coming up with “new recipes” for new colors, which numbered some 20,000 hues in the 1700s, resulting in “spectacular creations.”

Today there are more than 26,000 colors available, said Cassio, a thirdgeneration mosaicist, who started in his family’s business when he was 10.

Cassio said using glass and gold mosaics in chapels could create magnificent effects if they were set inclined in a certain way so they could reflect interior and exterior light onto the congregation below.

“The mosaic emerges as a reflection of divine light,” an expression of the divine, he said.

The mosaics — which depict a brilliant blue background covered in leaf spirals and either white angel’s trumpet flowers or calla lilies — are pock-marked with gaps where original tiles have been lost.

These lacunae had been “filled in” using paint during the last restoration in the 1940s, but Cassio said they are working with a 130-year-old mosaic tile shop in Venice to reproduce the missing glass tiles — about 660 pounds worth or some 300,000 tiles in 40 colors.

However, “It is important you can tell the difference” between the original work and the new 21st-century touchups, he said.

According to modern day standards of restoration, a piece of artwork is like

a document that must not be altered, but interpreted, and any reconstruction should be recognizable as such.

To do that, Cassio and his team will use tiles with the same colors as the originals, but with “a slightly different tonality” or shade, and they will be set in mortar a few millimeters below the current surface, so even though future restorers will see which parts are new, admirers below will see one smooth, unbroken image.

The restorers are using old photographs and drawings to see what the mosaic looked like before the 1940s restoration, which had “violated the integrity” of the artwork when workers detached the mosaics “in blocks” and embedded them in cement, he said.

This altered what had been there since a previous restoration in the 1600s.

The symbols of new life from death, sacrifice and purification are replete in the mosaic’s images of a lamb, doves, white flowers and what may be a silver sword or spear, perhaps evoking the lance that pierced the side of the crucified Christ, from which came out blood and water — signs of his humanity, divinity and baptismal waters.

The baptistery itself, founded on top of a Roman thermal bath, “is linked to the spiritual growth of Christianity and, of course, of our Catholic Church,” Schroth said.

Each element comes together to reinforce “the idea of baptism as renewal, purity, being such a major sacrament and of course being linked to the importance of this building,” she said.

With the help of the Vatican Museums and its patrons, Schroth said, “we want to make the site of the Lateran baptistery a destination for faith, a destination to understand what is baptism” and how “the story of our faith is linked to its artistic and historical monuments.”