The Catholic Spirit - June 8, 2016

Philippine medical mission 7A • Trump meets Pope Francis 9A • Franciscan Friars film 11A June 8, 2017 Newspaper of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis

TEN MEN

Archbishop Hebda ordained 10 men to the priesthood May 27. Read their vocation stories, hopes for the future and parish assignments.

B Section Newly ordained priests react to a remark by Archbishop Bernard Hebda at the conclusion of their ordination Mass May 27 at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul. Front row, from left: Fathers Timothy Sandquist, Timothy Wratkowski, Bryce Evans, Brandon Theisen and Ben Wittnebel. Back row: Fathers Nicholas Froehle, left, Paul Baker and Nicholas Hagen. Not visible: Fathers Matthew Quail and Chad VanHoose. For more photos from the ordination Mass, visit www.facebook.com/thecatholicspirit. Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit

Work-vocation balance

Choosing contemplation

Human, pastoral, intellectual and spiritual growth is essential for priests and deacons young and old. The fledgling Institute for Ongoing Clergy Formation aims to give them the tools they need.

Pages 6B-7B

For former St. Agnes parishioner Father Elijah Schwab, priesthood means a hermitage, not a parish.

Page 12B

ALSO inside

Legislative session ends

Adoration all around

A Swiss Guard’s life

Minnesota Catholic Conference’s No. 1 push — school choice tax credits — loses out in final bill negotiations.

— Page 6A

Ahead of the feast of Corpus Christi, eucharistic adorers reflect on the devotion and its local history.

— Page 10A

Traveling exhibit at Basilica of St. Mary gives glimpse into daily activities of the soldiers sworn to protect the pope.

— Page 11A

2A • The Catholic Spirit

PAGE TWO

June 8, 2017 OVERHEARD

in PICTURES

“Young people do not need an expert in the sacred or a hero who, from on high and the outside, answers their questions. Rather, they are attracted to those who know how to sincerely be interested in their life, being by their side with respect and listening to them with love.”

Pope Francis speaking June 1 to participants in the Congregation for Clergy’s plenary assembly, which discussed the importance of priests who are the living presence of Jesus.

NEWS notes • The Catholic Spirit

Theology on Tap summer series begins June 14 SHARING FAITHS Fifth-graders Noor Omar, right, of Al-Amal Islamic School in Fridley, and Andrea Perez of St. Mark’s Catholic School in St. Paul get to know each other during a gathering of fifth-graders from both schools May 24 at Merriam Park in St. Paul. Students from the two schools started writing letters to each other six weeks ago and decided to meet for games and conversation. The idea came from Kelley Stoneburner, a counselor at the Islamic school who has a nephew in the seventh grade at St. Mark. Also participating was St. Mark fifth-grader Ana Garcia-Creighton, second from left.

Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit

Cathedral Young Adults’ six-week summer Theology on Tap series will run 7:30-9:30 p.m. Wednesdays June 14-July 19 at O’Gara’s Bar and Grill, 164 Snelling Ave. N., St. Paul. It kicks off with “Grill the Priest, Father’s Day Special” with Father John Ubel, Cathedral of St. Paul rector. Other speakers include Dale Ahlquist, Nicki Wood Weinhagen, Jen Messing, Connor Flanagan and Jean Stolpestad. For dates, topics and other information, visit www.cathedralsaintpaul.org/cya.

WINE summer online book club begins June 19 Women in the New Evangelization will hold an online summer book club Read Between the WINEs, June 19-Aug. 7 featuring the book “Who Does He Say You Are?” by Colleen Mitchell, a Catholic missionary. Learn more at www.womeninthenewevangelization.com.

Rural Life Sunday Celebration near Lindstrom June 25 St. Bridget of Sweden in Lindstrom is hosting the archdiocese’s annual Rural Life Sunday Celebration 2 p.m. June 25 at the farm of parishioners Byron and Judy Dahlheimer, 33091 Oasis Road, Center City. Archbishop Bernard Hebda will celebrate Mass, which will be followed by a country meal, live music and dancing, and children’s activities and games. Attendees are encouraged to bring lawn chairs. In case of rain, the event will be inside the farm’s pole barn. For more information and driving directions, visit http://tinyurl.com/rls2017.

Grandparent-grandchild Cathedral pilgrimage June 27

POPE RELIC At right, Father Greg Schaffer, a priest of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and administrator of the Diocese of Ciudad Guyana, Venezuela, stands with Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz of Krakow in May holding a relic of St. John Paul II. The cardinal gave Father Schaffer the relic as a gift for the cathedral under construction in the Diocese of Ciudad Guyana, which includes the archdiocese’s mission parish, Jesucristo Resucitado in San Felix, where Father Schaffer serves as pastor.

Courtesy Shannon Conroy

WHAT’S NEW on social media Watch videos of Father Nels Gjengdahl, chaplain of St. Thomas Academy in Mendota Heights, playing a game of Kahoot with the students in his religion class June 1, and Father Paul Shovelain, a chaplain of Totino-Grace High School in Fridley, celebrating a 7 a.m. Mass at the school.

Newly ordained priest Father Nicholas Hagen interviews Father Paul Haverstock about the Church’s understanding of purgatory on the Catholic Bytes podcast.

The Catholic Spirit is published semi-monthly for The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis Vol. 22 — No. 11 MOST REVEREND BERNARD A. HEBDA, Publisher TOM HALDEN, Associate Publisher MARIA C. WIERING, Editor

Grandparents are invited to bring grandchildren for a pilgrimage to the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul 1-3 p.m. June 27. “Faith and Freedom: Grandparents and Grandchildren Pray at the Cathedral” will include up-close views of the sanctuary, altar and archbishop’s chair, a short Mass tutorial by Father John Paul Erickson, a self-guided tour of the Cathedral’s chapels, and an explanation and participation in eucharistic adoration and benediction. The event will conclude with refreshments in the lower hall.

The event is part of the U.S. bishops’ annual Fortnight for Freedom.

Suggested donation is $10. For more information and to register, visit www.catholicgrandparenting.org.

Champions for Life award nominations open The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is accepting nominations for its annual St. John Paul II Champions for Life award, which recognizes people who devote their time to helping the poor, elderly, disabled and pregnant. Awardees will be honored at an Oct. 27 luncheon at St. Peter in Mendota. For more information or to nominate someone, visit www.archspm.org/C4L.

CORRECTION The May 18 Scripture reflection by Deacon Timothy Smith was incorrectly edited and listed St. Philip Neri instead of St. Philip the Evangelist. We apologize for the error.

Materials credited to CNS copy­righted by Catholic News Service.

All other materials copyrighted by The Cath­olic Spirit Newspaper.

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FROM THE ARCHBISHOP

June 8, 2017

The Catholic Spirit • 3A

Vocations a reminder of God’s presence

M

y sister recently let me know that we here in the archdiocese get 90 more minutes of light each day at this time of year than she gets in Florida. I was grateful that she pointed out to me a subtle gift from God that I would otherwise have taken for granted. Unfortunately, it’s far too easy to take for granted the many reminders of God’s love that we encounter every day.

For example, as a diocese, we recently celebrated the ordination of the 10 new priests that you are reading about in this issue of The Catholic Spirit.

They are gifted young men who are dedicating their lives to the service of Christ and this local Church. With nine men ordained last year and seven the year before, it’s easy to lose sight of what an extraordinary blessing it is for the archdiocese to have 10 ordinations in one year.

I felt blessed to see in them the same generosity that I had sensed when I recently gathered for Mass with our priest jubilarians. I was humbled as we spoke about the joys and challenges that they had experienced in their many years of priesthood, and I realized the extraordinary role that these men and so many others have played in the life of this archdiocese.

Generation after generation, the Lord has blessed us with priests and deacons dedicated to spreading the Gospel, celebrating the sacraments and reminding us of what God can accomplish through us when we say “yes” to his call.

That God would call each of us to serve his Church in some capacity is a gift beyond imagining. Each vocation is an extravagant sign of God’s love, not only for those who are called, but also for the community of which they are a part. When lived authentically, a vocation is a startling reminder of God’s presence in this world.

I recently sat at a table with a lovely couple, Al and Mary, who have been married longer than I’ve been alive. Mary assured me that she would gladly say “I do” to Al today if they weren’t already married. The Lord’s presence was palpable as I witnessed the tenderness with which they continued to care for each other after all these years. As a local Church, we’re blessed by all the Als and Marys who live out their marriage as a vocation, as a call to holiness, reminding us on a daily basis of the intense and intimate love that Christ has for his Church.

Earlier that same day, I had the privilege of presiding at the funeral of Brother David Barth, the last of the Christian Brothers teaching (for now) at DeLaSalle High School in Minneapolis. I was intrigued by the attentiveness of the large number of students who participated in the funeral that day and who obviously had great fondness and respect for Brother David.

ONLY JESUS The provincial of the Christian Brothers read from a letter that Brother David had written some 55 years earlier to his Archbishop predecessor: “Dear Brother Visitor, I request to be admitted to

Bernard Hebda

Archbishop Bernard Hebda, right, prays with the 10 ordinands in the sacristy before the ordination Mass May 27 at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul.

Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit take vows. I know what they mean, perhaps not perfectly, but well enough to want them more than anything else and for always. I am now ever the more positive that God has called me to be a Christian Brother, and my one wish is to be allowed to consecrate myself to him by vows as a member of the Brothers of the Christian Schools.”

For more than five decades, Brother David had a profound impact on his students and colleagues precisely because of his response to the Lord’s call.

His quiet testimony, lived out in a classroom day in and day out, provided this local Church with a concrete experience of Christ’s love and of the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience that Jesus himself had embraced. How blessed we have been as an archdiocese through the many consecrated women and men who, like Brother David, have taught in our schools, served in our hospitals, animated our parishes and ministries or dedicated their lives to contemplative prayer.

Each year on Pentecost, we pray that God will pour out the gifts of the Holy Spirit across the face of the earth and, “with the divine grace that was at work when the Gospel was first proclaimed, fill now once more the hearts of believers.” This year, let us ask for the grace of being more aware of — and grateful for — the spiritual gifts that have been poured out in such abundance and variety on this archdiocese, rather than taking them for granted.

May we fervently pray, moreover, that our hearts, filled with the Holy Spirit, might be more responsive to whatever vocational path to holiness our God has lovingly chosen for us, trusting that our daily “yes” can bring renewed life to this local Church.

La vocación es el recordatorio de la presencia de Dios

M

i hermana recientemente me contó que aquí en la Arquidiócesis en esta época del año recibimos 90 minutos más de luz cada día que en la Florida. Yo estaba tan agradecido por lo que ella me dijo. Por este regalo sutil de Dios que de otra manera yo habría dado por sentado. Desafortunadamente es tan fácil dar por sentado muchos de los regalos del amor de Dios con los que nos encontramos cada día.

Por ejemplo, como Diócesis recientemente celebramos la ordenación de 10 sacerdotes nuevos, de quienes ustedes están leyendo en este ejemplar del Espíritu Católico (The Catholic Spirit). Estos son jóvenes talentosos que están dedicando sus vida al servicio de Cristo y de esta Iglesia local. Con nueve sacerdotes ordenados el año pasado y siete ordenados el año antepasado, es fácil perder la cuenta de la tan extraordinaria bendición que es para la arquidiócesis tener 10 ordenaciones.

Me sentí bendecido al ver en ellos la misma generosidad que sentí cuando recientemente nos juntamos para la Misa con nuestros sacerdotes que celebran su jubileo. Sentí una gran humildad a la vez que hablamos de la dicha y los retos que ellos han experimentado durante los muchos años de su sacerdocio, y me di cuenta del papel tan extraordinario que estos hombres juegan, así como el papel que muchos han tenido en esta arquidiócesis. Por generación tras generación, el Señor nos ha colmado de bendiciones con sacerdotes y diáconos dedicados a difundir el Evangelio, celebrando los sacramentos y haciendo recordar lo que Dios ha logrado por medio de nosotros cuando decimos “si” a su llamado.

Dios nos hace este llamado a cada uno de nosotros para servir a su iglesia, de alguna manera esto es un

regalo que va mas allá de la imaginación. Cada vocación es una señal extravagante del amor de Dios, no solo para aquellos que están llamados, sino que también para la comunidad de la que ellos forman parte. Cuando vivimos auténticamente, la vocación es un recordatorio deslumbrante de la presencia de Dios en este mundo.

Recientemente estuve sentado con una pareja encantadora, Al y Mary quienes han estado casados mucho más tiempo del que yo he vivido. Mary aseguró que ella hoy gustosamente le diría “que si” a Al si ellos no estuvieren ya casados. La presencia de Dios fue palpable al presenciar la ternura con la cual ellos continúan cuidando el uno del otro después de todos esos años de casados. Como Iglesia local, tenemos la bendición de todos aquellos Als y Marys que viven el matrimonio como una vocación, como un llamado a la santidad, recordándonos diariamente del intenso e intimo amor que Cristo tiene por su Iglesia.

Mas temprano el mismo día, tuve el privilegio de presidir el funeral del Hermano David Barth, el ultimo de los Hermanos Cristianos (por ahora) enseñando en la escuela DeLaSalle. Me intrigaba la atención que ponían un gran número de estudiantes que participaron en el funeral ese día y quienes obviamente tenían un gran cariño y respeto por el Hermano David.

El hermano superior de la orden de los Hermanos Cristianos leyó una carta que el Hermano David había escrito hace unos 55 años a su predecesor: “Estimado hermano visitante, solicito ser admitido para tomar los votos. Se lo que significan, tal vez no perfectamente, pero lo suficiente, para querer hacerlo más que cualquier otra cosa y para siempre. Hoy estoy más positivo que nunca, que Dios me ha llamado a ser un Hermano Cristiano y mi único deseo es que se me permita

consagrarme a él por mis votos como miembro de los Hermanos de las Escuelas Cristianas”.

Por más de cinco décadas el Hermano David ha causado un impacto profundo en sus estudiantes y colegas, precisamente por su respuesta al llamado del Señor. Su testimonio silencioso, vivido día tras día, le proporcionó a esta Iglesia local una experiencia concreta del amor de Cristo y de los consejos evangélicos de pobreza, castidad y obediencia que Jesús mismo acogió.

Hemos tenido la bendición en la arquidiócesis por medio de la consagración de mujeres y hombres que como el Hermano David, han enseñado en nuestras escuelas, servido en nuestros hospitales, animado nuestras parroquias y ministerios, o que han dedicado su vida a la oración contemplativa.

Cada año durante la celebración del Pentecostés, oramos por que Dios nos conceda los regalos del Espíritu Santo a través de toda la fe en la tierra y con “la divina gracia presente cuando el Evangelio fue proclamado por primera vez, para que llene una vez más los corazones de los creyentes.” Este año pidamos por que se nos conceda la gracia de estar — y ser más conscientes y agradecidos por — los regalos espirituales que han sido derramados sobre nosotros con tanta abundancia y variedad en esta arquidiócesis, en vez dar por sentados dichos regalos.

Para que podamos orar fervientemente, más que todo, por que nuestros corazones estén llenos del Espíritu Santo, y que respondan más atentamente a cualquiera de los caminos de la vocación a la santidad que nuestro Dios ha escogido para nosotros, con la confianza que nuestro diario “si” traiga vida renovada a esta Iglesia local.

4A • The Catholic Spirit

4 • The Catholic Spirit

LOCAL

June 8, 2017

LOCAL

March 9, 2017

‘Angel’ among us Backyard battle

SLICEof LIFE

St. Joseph of Carondelet Sister Avis Allmaras, center, talks with Rose Carter, left, and Irene Eiden at Peace House in south Minneapolis Feb. 27. Sister Avis Sam Skwarek of and the visits goes to the center weekly St. Catherine University frequent guests like Carter. Eiden, softball of slides isinto second base St. Williamteam in Fridley, a lay consociate as she tries to beat the House tag of is of the Carondelet Sisters.

Peace Melissa Barry thehomeless.

University a day shelter for the poorofand of St. Thomas during an NCAA “It’s a real privilege to know these people Division III softball tournament and hear their stories,” Sister Avis said. “I aton St.the Kate’s Maylike 19.they could not game survive streets Skwarek thrown do. ThereAlthough are so many gifted was people out on the play, her team here.” Said Carter of Sister Avis: “She’s the game, an angel. prevailed She hides1-0 herinwings underwith that pitcher Krista Flugstad sweatshirt.

She truly is an angel.” throwing aCatholic seven-inning, Dave Hrbacek/The Spirit complete game shutout.

The Wildcats beat the Tommies again the next day, 8-4, to advance to the College World National Catholic Sisters Week is Series in Oklahoma City, March 8-14. An official component of winning their first NCAA Women’s History Month and Super Regional. The Wildcats headquartered at St. Catherine University lost twice in the World Series in St. Paul, the week celebrates women and finished their season at religious and their contributions to the 38-13. Dave Hrbacek/ Church and society. View local events, The Catholic Spirit including two art exhibitions, at www.nationalcatholicsistersweek.org.

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LOCAL

June 8, 2017

The Catholic Spirit • 5A

in BRIEF MINNEAPOLIS

Crosier province, two communities file for reorganization The Crosier Fathers and Brothers Province Inc., Crosier Fathers of Onamia and the Crosier Community of Phoenix, Arizona, have filed for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. The filing was made June 1 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Minnesota. It is the latest Church entity to file for reorganization citing the number of claimants who came forward when the state of Minnesota opened the statute of limitations from 2013 to May 2016 for asserting claims of sexual abuse.

Crosier Father Thomas Enneking, prior provincial, said in a statement that the Crosiers are pleased that the claimants and the Crosiers have been able to work together on a structure that will include funding for a consensual plan of reorganization of $25.5 million to fairly compensate those who have been harmed. The Crosier province is based in Phoenix, Arizona. In the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, former Crosier Gerald Funcheon is listed among clergy with claims of substantiated abuse against them. Before leaving the archdiocese in 1986 and the order in 1987, he had served at St. Odilia in Shoreview (1971–1974) and St. Stephen in Anoka (1974-1975 and 1985). He was removed from ministry in 1993. The Crosiers left the archdiocese in 2007 after St. Odilia, which they founded in 1960, was transfered to archdiocesan priests. There are 46 Crosier priests in the United States.

SHOREVIEW

ST. PAUL

Eight at St. Odilia earn Eagle ranking

Delegation visiting Kitui, Kenya

For the second time in five years, Boy Scout Troop 9626 from St. Odilia celebrated eight Scouts in a joint Eagle Scout Court of Honor May 8 at the parish. The eight Scouts are Dillon Adams, John Franklin, Ken Franklin, Alex Halseth, Chris Johnson, Braden O’Connor, Louie Shearon and Nick Wallisch. In order to obtain the Eagle rank, a Boy Scout must lead and complete a project that benefits the community.

A delegation from the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is visiting the Diocese of Kitui in Kenya.

The delegation of 12 left May 30 and will return June 15. It is focusing on building relationships with the people of Kitui, learning about Kenyans’ faith lives and discerning how the partnering dioceses can share resources. Delegation members include Father Charles Lachowitzer, vicar general and moderator of the curia for the archdiocese, and Debbie Keller, president of the Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women. The archdiocese formed a partnership with Kitui in 2004 after the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops called for solidarity efforts with Africa in 2001. The archdiocese last sent a delegation to Kitui in 2014.

ST. ANTHONY

St. Charles Borromeo parishioner ordained a Jesuit priest Father Anthony Lusvardi, 37, a lifelong parishioner of St. Charles Borromeo, was ordained for the Society of Jesus June 3 at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He attended the parish school and St. Anthony Village High School, and graduated from the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana.

In 2006, he entered the Jesuit community and then received a master’s degree in philosophy at Loyola University Chicago, followed by completing his theological education at the Jesuit School of Theology at Boston College. After serving at a parish in the Diocese of Rapid City, South Dakota, this summer, he will return to Rome to finish a licentiate in sacramental theology at the Pontifical Atheneum of St. Anselm. He plans to celebrate a Mass at St. Charles Borromeo this fall.

Pro-life pregnancy centers to combine Two Twin Cities pregnancy resource centers will combine July 1: Abria Pregnancy Resources in St. Paul and North Side Pregnancy Options in Minneapolis.

Abria provides medical services, personal guidance and baby items for women with unexpected pregnancies. North Side provides prenatal care, counseling and baby supplies. Abria formed in 2012 with the merger of the University LifeCare Center and the Highland LifeCare Center. North Side has served in Minneapolis since 1978. Both Abria and North Side are affiliates of regional pro-life nonprofit TLC Options for Women.

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

Effective March 21, 2017 Reverend Mark Huberty, dispensed from the obligations of the clerical state, including that of celibacy (i.e., laicization).

Effective June 14, 2017 Reverend Paul Baker, appointed parochial vicar of the Church of Saint Vincent de Paul in Brooklyn Park. Father Baker was ordained to the priesthood on May 27, 2017.

Reverend Michael Barsness, appointed parochial vicar of the Church of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton in Hastings. This is a transfer from his assignment as parochial vicar of the Church of Saint Vincent de Paul in Brooklyn Park.

Reverend Bryce Evans, appointed parochial vicar of the Church of the Holy Name of Jesus in Wayzata. Father Evans was ordained to the priesthood on May 27, 2017.

Reverend Nicholas Froehle, appointed parochial vicar of the Church of Saint Ambrose in Woodbury.

Father Froehle was ordained to the priesthood on May 27, 2017.

Reverend Byron Hagan, appointed parochial vicar of the Church of Holy Cross in Minneapolis. This is a transfer from his assignment as parochial vicar of the Church of Divine Mercy in Faribault.

Reverend Kyle Kowalczyk, appointed parochial vicar of the Church of the Epiphany in Coon Rapids.

This is a transfer from his assignment as parochial vicar of the Church of Divine Mercy in Faribault.

Reverend Kevin Manthey, appointed chaplain to Hill-Murray School in Maplewood, and sacramental minister to the Church of the Guardian Angels in Chaska. This is a transfer from his assignment as parochial vicar of the Church of Saint Stephen in Anoka.

Reverend Michael McClellan, appointed parochial vicar of the Church of Saint Therese in Deephaven and appointed chaplain to Providence Academy in Plymouth. This is a transfer from his assignment as parochial vicar of the Church of Saint Ambrose in Woodbury.

Reverend Matthew Quail, appointed parochial vicar of the Church of Saint Stephen in Anoka.

Father Quail was ordained to the priesthood on May 27, 2017.

Reverend Timothy Sandquist, appointed parochial vicar of the Church of Saint John the Baptist in Savage. Father Sandquist was ordained to the priesthood on May 27, 2017.

Reverend Brandon Theisen, appointed parochial vicar of the Church of Divine Mercy in Faribault.

Father Theisen was ordained to the priesthood on May 27, 2017.

Reverend Chad VanHoose, appointed parochial vicar of the Church of All Saints in Lakeville. Father VanHoose was ordained to the priesthood on May 27, 2017.

Reverend Nicholas Hagen, appointed parochial vicar of the Church of Our Lady of Grace in Edina.

Father Hagen was ordained to the priesthood on May 27, 2017.

Reverend Benjamin Wittnebel, appointed parochial vicar of the Church of Saint Peter in Forest Lake. Father Wittnebel was ordained to the priesthood on May 27, 2017.

Reverend Andrew Jaspers, appointed parochial vicar of the Cathedral of Saint Paul in Saint Paul.

This is a transfer from his assignment as parochial vicar of the Church of Saint Agnes in Saint Paul.

Reverend Timothy Wratkowski, appointed parochial vicar of the Church of All Saints in Lakeville. Father Wratkowski was ordained to the priesthood on May 27, 2017.

July 1, 2017 Reverend Leonard Andrie, appointed pastor of the Church of Saint Therese in Deephaven. Father Andrie has been serving as parochial administrator of the same parish.

Reverend John J. Bauer, appointed parochial administrator of the Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Minnetonka. This is a transfer from his assignment as formation adviser and spiritual director at the Saint John Vianney College Seminary in Saint Paul.

Reverend Donald DeGrood, appointed pastor of the Church of Saint John the Baptist in Savage.

This is a transfer from his assignment as Vicar for Clergy for the Archdiocese.

Reverend John Drees, appointed parochial administrator of the Church of Saint Joseph in Taylors Falls and the Church of Saint Francis Xavier in Franconia. This is a transfer from his assignment as parochial vicar of the Church of Saint Peter in Forest Lake.

Reverend Joah Ellis, appointed pastor of the Church of Our Lady of Peace in Minneapolis. Father Ellis has been serving as parochial administrator of the same parish.

Reverend Spencer Howe, appointed parochial administrator of the Church of the Holy Cross in Minneapolis. This is a transfer from his assignment as parochial vicar of the Church of the Holy Name of Jesus in Wayzata.

Reverend Glen Jenson, appointed pastor of the Church of Saint Patrick in Edina. This is a transfer from his assignment as pastor of the Church of the Holy Cross in Minneapolis.

Reverend James Livingston, appointed pastor of the Church of Saint Paul in Ham Lake. Father Livingston has been serving as parochial administrator of the same parish.

Reverend Thomas McKenzie, appointed parochial administrator of the Church of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Saint Paul. This is a transfer from his assignment as parochial vicar of the Church of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton in Hastings.

Reverend Marcus Milless, appointed hospital chaplain at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis and as sacramental minister at the Church of the Holy Family in Saint Louis Park. This is a transfer from his assignment as parochial vicar of the Church of All Saints in Lakeville.

Reverend Stephen O’Gara, appointed parochial administrator of the Church of the Assumption in Saint Paul. Father O’Gara is a retired priest of the Archdiocese since 2014.

Reverend Timothy Rudolphi, appointed parochial vicar of Mary Mother of the Church in Burnsville.

This is a transfer from his assignment as pastor of the Church of Saint Patrick in Edina.

Reverend Thomas Santa, Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, appointed parochial administrator of the Church of Saint Gerard Majella in Brooklyn Park and the Church of Saint Bridget in Minneapolis. Father Santa has been in residence at the Church of Saint Alphonsus in Brooklyn Center.

Reverend Nicholas VanDenBroeke, appointed parochial administrator of the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Lonsdale. This is a transfer from his assignment as parochial vicar of the Church of the Epiphany in Coon Rapids.

Effective July 3, 2017 Reverend Paul Haverstock, appointed parochial vicar of the parish of Saints Joachim and Anne in Shakopee. Father Haverstock is returning to the Archdiocese after completing graduate studies in Rome.

Effective August 1, 2017 Reverend Dennis Thompson, appointed parochial vicar of the Church of Saint John Neumann in Eagan.

This is a transfer from his assignment as pastor of the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Lonsdale.

Incardination Reverend Allen Kuss, was granted incardination into the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis on April 21, 2017. Father Kuss was a priest of the Diocese of Bismarck from his ordination in 1984 until his incardination into the Archdiocese.

6A • The Catholic Spirit

LOCAL

June 8, 2017

Session a win for marriage-friendly welfare, but not school choice

By Maria Wiering The Catholic Spirit Real compromise — but not the right kind — characterized the 2017 state legislative session, said Jason Adkins, Minnesota Catholic Conference executive director.

The final omnibus bills demonstrated concessions from both major parties, but they were “geared to reach certain electoral constituencies or serving special interests,” he said, pointing the finger at both sides of the aisle.

The session began Jan. 3 and ended May 22, but legislators went into a special session to finalize omnibus spending bills, finishing the session’s work at 3 a.m. May 26. The final budget bills — which Gov. Mark Dayton signed May 30 — included some funds that support MCC-backed policies, but not the school choice tax credits that MCC made its No. 1 priority for the session.

The Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit bill aimed at helping families afford nonpublic school tuition made it to a budget bill Dayton vetoed mid-May, but it was omitted in the final bill.

The legislation “was certainly an important goal of Republican leaders, but in the end not a must-have,” Adkins said. “Senate Republican leadership preferred to get things done on time and not fight for it if it would break a compromise, and Republican leadership would have rather had tax credits for tobacco companies and the estates of multi-millionaires. Those special interests took precedence over the needs of low- and middleincome families. ... And that’s just frankly sad.”

Meanwhile, Dayton fought school choice on behalf of the teachers union, Adkins said.

This is the second year that school choice legislation has been removed in the compromise over a final omnibus bill. While Adkins is eager to see the legislation pass, the fact that it has twice made it into late-hour negotiations makes him optimistic that it will continue to gain support and momentum, especially with the help of Opportunity for All Kids, a MCC-supported nonprofit backing school choice initiatives.

“In states with robust school choice programs, those programs didn’t happen overnight. It takes work,” Adkins said. “The [local] school choice movement really didn’t have momentum until we founded OAK. … OAK has made incredible progress and has been catholic_spirit_ad_jan2017_v4.pdf 1 12/16/16 6:51 AM extraordinarily successful with very limited resources getting our legislation at the center of the mix.”

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“In states with robust school choice programs, those programs didn’t happen overnight. It takes work.”

Jason Adkins

Supporting school choice was among the three priorities MCC highlighted in March at its first Catholics at the Capitol, a daylong event that drew 1,000 Catholics from across the state to St. Paul to learn about policy areas and speak with their legislators.

Other focus issues were fighting physician-assisted suicide and expanding the Minnesota Family Investment Program’s cash grant for families in need.

While legislation aiming to legalize physician-assisted suicide was introduced this session, it never got a hearing. However, legislation passed to form a palliative care advisory council to advise the Legislature on improving access and training for palliative care, which eases the suffering of people who are dying or those living with chronic illnesses.

The council was backed by both MCC and its partner organization, the Minnesota Alliance for Ethical Healthcare. Adkins encourages Minnesota Catholics with palliative care experience to apply to participate in the council by contacting the Minnesota Secretary of State’s office.

MCC also lobbied for a $13 monthly credit per recipient and a cost-of-living adjustment to the MFIP’s cash grant, part of the state’s welfare program for families. The monthly amount has not increased in 31 years. Although it made it to the governor’s desk in the first Health and Human Services appropriations bill — which Dayton vetoed May 12 — the increase was not included in the final version, Adkins said.

“Democrats didn’t want Republicans to get credit for something they should have been doing,” he said, adding that the Dayton administration “didn’t want the provision in many ways, because, in the theme of special interests, some of that money used to fund that cash grant increase would be taken away from an innovation grant that funds Planned Parenthood.”

Also not passed was an expansion for MFIP’s working family credit’s eligibility age for married couples with

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children, although the age was expanded for single people, including single parents.

Another MCC-backed policy that did not pass was provisional driver’s licenses for unauthorized immigrant drivers. Instead, a ban on immigrant driver’s licenses passed, which Adkins said the MCC will work to reverse.

Small wins for the MCC included state funding to help complete the second phase of Catholic Charities’ new Dorothy Day Place in downtown St. Paul, eligibility of state funding for electronic textbooks and advanced placement course fees for nonpublic schools, tax credits to help beginning farmers rent land and participate in farm management programs, and a one-year suspension of an income cap for people on the state’s welfare program who marry.

That “income disregard” is important because it removes a disincentive to marriage, Adkins said, adding that Joint Religious Legislative Coalition leaders lobbied hard for the policy, and, to his knowledge, Minnesota is the first state in the nation to adopt it.

“Marriage is a key anti-poverty mechanism,” he said.

“It helps people build assets, create stability in their lives, and it’s necessary for the well-being of children. ...

Essentially, we’re making welfare more marriage friendly.”

With eight months to the Feb. 22 start of the 2018 legislative session, Adkins is looking ahead, but he said its impact will be determined by whether legislators focus on policy or campaigning for the governor’s office. The governor pick will determine how the MCC sets its course for 2019 and beyond.

In the meantime, Adkins is questioning the state’s session structure as a means to bring the right people into office.

“I think it’s a worthwhile discussion of whether or not Minnesota is best served by a two-session biennium, and whether or not it actually hinders quality people for running for office, people who see this work as service and a vocation, and not a career,” Adkins said.

He added: “The fact that our Legislature meets typically eight to 10 months in a two-year period, it doesn’t pay well, most of the work gets done in a very short period of time near the end, and very few people are actually involved in the final process is discouraging people from being involved in public office. We need to take a look at whether or not a short session, perhaps three months, in the odd years of a biennium, and special sessions, if necessary, might be the way to go.”

Based in St. Paul, MCC is the public policy voice for the Catholic Church in Minnesota.

June 8, 2017

LOCAL

The Catholic Spirit • 7A

Bishop: Eucharist, Scripture keys for ministry

By Matthew Davis The Catholic Spirit Parish leaders in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis took a day for spiritual and ministry spring cleaning May 18.

Bishop Frank Caggiano of Bridgeport, Connecticut, presented three keys to fostering an encounter with Jesus in order to build credible faith communities. The bishop, who also spoke at the archdiocese’s 2016 Spring Formation Day, addressed challenges leaders in the Church face as he presented to 700 parish and chancery staff members at St. Joseph the Worker in Maple Grove.

“The elements that we need to put together a credible witness in our contemporary world are literally before us,” Bishop Caggiano said.

Starting with sacred Scripture, he said God’s word brings people into personal contact with Jesus as the Lord did on the road to Emmaus. The bishop mentioned the rapid growth of a Scripture and teaching ministry for women in his diocese that grew from 135 people to 4,000 in 18 months. He said it happened because of their hunger for God’s word.

He also emphasized the central importance of the Eucharist. The bishop said that both reception of Communion and eucharistic adoration also help people encounter Jesus because he is physically present in the Eucharist.

“He’s here on the altar — body and blood, soul and divinity — here for consumption, for adoration,” Bishop Caggiano said.

He also mentioned the value of making a spiritual communion with Jesus by saying a prayer to invite him into one’s heart if not able to receive Communion. The bishop pointed to St. Francis of Assisi, who felt unworthy to receive Jesus in the Eucharist, but who made many spiritual communions.

Bishop Caggiano also noted that the Church had her most rapid growth in the early years before a published New Testament, catechisms, buildings and other tools existed. The early Church simply had the Eucharist and a “sacrificial community of love,” the third key the bishop emphasized for building a credible faith community.

Dr. Kordie Reinhold, a dentist from Linden Hills Dentistry in Minneapolis, helps a patient during a 2016 medical mission with the Foundation for Philippine Medical Missions. Courtesy Suzette Foroozan Bishop Frank Caggiano of Bridgeport, Connecticut, gives a keynote address at Spring Formation Day May 16 at St. Joseph the Worker in Maple Grove. Dave Hrbacek/ The Catholic Spirit He said the modern world needs to see Catholics’ “love in action.” He called it the “litmus test of the 21st century.” The bishop said that love means willing the good of each person.

“If we’re going to truly become credible, then we need to invite every human heart to encounter Christ as we have encountered him,” Bishop Caggiano said.

“No program can do that.”

He said the challenge of society’s indifference toward Jesus and the Church must be overcome one person at a time, noting that indifference comes about because people “do not believe they are lovable.”

Bishop Caggiano also addressed the challenge of having truth and mercy meet in ministry. He said Catholics must uphold the truth and treat others with mercy.

“I would like to suggest that a true, credible community of faith is a community where mercy and truth kiss every single day,” Bishop Caggiano said.

Both Bishop Caggiano and Archbishop Bernard Hebda took questions afterward. The archdiocese will have a video of Bishop Caggiano’s presentations and follow-up material at www.archspm.org/formationday.

Survey, discussions for young Catholics underway

By Matthew Davis The Catholic Spirit When Jean Stolpestad attended the 2016 World Youth Day in Poland, she met an aimless young man from the West Coast.

Stolpestad, who accompanied the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ pilgrims, had learned the man had dropped out of college because he didn’t like to study. After she asked about his interests and goals, he said he could see himself in gaming as a career.

The director of the archdiocesan Office of Marriage, Family and Life, Stolpestad described this man as the kind of person Pope Francis seeks to discuss in the upcoming youth and young adult focused synod.

“They’re not engaged in social structures; they’re not engaged in their future or in their life,” Stolpestad said of the young people drawing Pope Francis’ concern.

Pope Francis announced plans for the 2018 synod last October. The 15th general assembly of the Synod of Bishops will have the theme “Youth, Faith and Vocational Discernment” to address the main issues facing young adults ages 18 to 30.

Before the synod, the pope wishes to hear from youth around the world via a Vatican-produced survey sent to all dioceses. Survey results will be processed at the Vatican in time for the synod.

The archdiocese will have the survey on its website

by June 8. It takes up to 15 minutes to complete the 13-question survey, but it still counts if a participant completes only one question. The questions ask about challenges of young adulthood, social life, faith involvement, making life decisions and education

experiences. The survey concludes with “If you could tell Pope Francis one thing, what would it be?”

Stolpestad said Pope Francis is “desiring to aid those young people that he calls NEET: not employed in education or in trends.”

“He said, ‘Get off the couch, stop being couch potatoes,’” Stolpestad said. “We all laughed, but he was serious.”

In addition to the survey, Stolpestad has organized youth and young adult listening sessions around the archdiocese this summer. The forums provide the opportunity for young Jean people to also share their STOLPESTAD experiences, and the information gathered will also be sent to Rome for the synod.

Sts. Joachim and Anne in Shakopee had the first forum May 16, and St. Stephen in Minneapolis had one May 19.

“I just thought it was interesting to hear some of the challenges that they’re facing in terms of trying to live Catholic in a culture that isn’t,” said Cathy Wideman, director of adult catechesis and evangelization at Sts. Joachim and Anne.

St. Pius X in White Bear Lake will host a forum June 11 after the 7:30 p.m. Mass. Cathedral Young Adults will also have one during Theology on Tap 6:30 p.m.

July 19 at O’Gara’s Bar and Grill in St. Paul. Stolpestad said there might be more forums scheduled.

Young adults can take the survey at www.archspm.org/youngadultvoices.

Shieldsville Filipino priest raising funds for homeland medical mission

By Matthew Davis The Catholic Spirit Father Victor Valencia of St. Patrick in Shieldsville went back to his homeland of the Philippines on a medical mission in 2016 and looks forward to going back next year.

“I was so touched by what I saw,” Father Valencia said of his work with the Foundation for Philippine Medical Missions. “I was encouraged and inspired that so many of my brother and sister Americans share their talents [and] their gifts to the poor people in the Philippines.”

He will serve as chaplain on his home island of Negros in the Philippines Feb. 11-18, 2018, as nonprofit Negrenses del Oriental del Minnesota teams up with the Minnesota-based Foundation for Philippine Medical Missions. The mission will provide medical care to the people of Bais City in Negros at Bais Hospital.

Father Valencia will host a fundraiser at St. Patrick June 23 with a presentation about the mission, a meal and live music. Shieldsville is 9 miles northwest of Faribault.

The 2018 Bais Bay Philippine Medical Mission needs $55,000 for its medical expenses, according to the Foundation for Philippine Medical Missions.

Father Valencia said many Filipinos live in poverty and can’t afford private medical care. The government does not provide adequate medical care, he added.

“The thought of them [Filipinos] being consoled and liberated from sickness and giving them new hope, beginnings for them — it was so inspiring and encouraging that I thought of inviting them [the Foundation for Philippine Medical Missions] to my island,” Father Valencia said.

Growing up in the Philippines, Father Valencia said he had the fortune of good medical care since his father worked. He became familiar with the missions as a priest while serving in mission appeals before coming to Minnesota in the early 2000s to serve the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. In addition to his role at St. Patrick, he also serves as pastor of Most Holy Redeemer in Montgomery.

Father Valencia got involved in Negrenses del Oriental del Minnesota, which serves natives of the Negros islands who live in the Twin Cities, and he ministers to the Catholics involved with the organization.

The 2018 medical mission has 92 doctors and nurses signed up to serve along with 30 volunteers who will help with logistics such as food and transportation. In addition, the mission will send medical equipment to the island, which will enable medical practitioners to perform basic treatments, eye care, dental care and surgeries, such as correcting cleft palates. Father Valencia said the medical practitioners serve an average of 5,000 people.

People interested in the fundraiser may contact St. Patrick at 507-334-6002.

8A • The Catholic Spirit

U.S. & WORLD

June 8, 2017

Catholic organizations decry U.S. decision to abandon climate accord Catholic News Service Catholic leaders said President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate change agreement snubs the needs of impoverished people around the world and eschews responsibility to begin addressing the causes of global warming.

They joined a broad cross section of U.S. society and world leaders and organizations in decrying the June 1 announcement.

Trump’s decision sets in motion a long formal process for withdrawal from the agreement, which became effective Nov. 4, 2016. Under rules of the agreement, no nation can withdraw until November 2019, and it mandates a one-year notice period.

The leaders focused their concerns on the needs of communities around the world that they say contribute least to climate change but suffer the most from it. They pointed to impoverished people who have been forced to migrate to other lands to make a living because of drought, changing weather patterns or rising sea levels.

Many organizations pointed to Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical “Laudato Si’, on Care for Our Common Home,” in which he called all people to respect God’s creation and remember that the welfare of each person is integral to human life and the future of the planet.

A statement from the leaders of 11 Catholic organizations asked Trump to reconsider his action.

The leaders said Catholic teaching maintains that

climate change is a “grave moral issue” that threatens commitments to protect human life, health, dignity and security; promote the common good; exercise a preferential option for the poor; live in solidarity with future generations; realize peace and care for creation.

“The international agreement of 2015 demonstrates that all nations will be impacted by a warming world and that all nations have a corresponding responsibility to limit greenhouse gas pollution causing climate change,” said the statement released through the Bishop Washington-based Catholic OSCAR Climate Covenant soon after Trump’s announcement.

CANTU “The Catholic Church recognizes that climate change is a global problem that requires global solutions,” the statement said.

The signers included leaders of Catholic Climate Covenant, Conference of Major Superiors of Men, Franciscan Action Network, Columban Center for Advocacy and Outreach, Global Catholic Climate Movement, Leadership Conference of Women Religious, National Council of Catholic Women, Catholic Health Association of the United States, Catholic Charities USA, Carmelite NGO and Sisters of Mercy of the Americas.

Bishop Oscar Cantu of Las Cruces, New Mexico,

chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace, called Trump’s decision “deeply troubling.”

“The Scriptures affirm the value of caring for creation and caring for each other in solidarity. The Paris agreement is an international accord that promotes these values,” Bishop Cantu said in a statement released shortly after the president made his announcement in the White House Rose Garden.

“President Trump’s decision will harm the people of the United States and the world, especially the poorest, most vulnerable communities,” the bishop said.

“The impacts of climate change are already being experienced in sea level rise, glacial melts, intensified storms and more frequent droughts,” Bishop Cantu said. “I can only hope that the president will propose concrete ways to address global climate change and promote environmental stewardship.”

Several other organizations issued statements in the hours after the withdrawal announcement and early into June 2.

Bill O’Keefe, vice president for advocacy and government relations at Catholic Relief Services, called the withdraw “terrible,” but said that the staff of the bishops’ overseas relief and development agency hope it could be reversed.

“American leadership is absolutely necessary on this critical global issue,” he said. “We believe we can both grow our economy and respond to the Holy Father’s call to care for creation.”

U.S. Catholics join pope in praying for victims of London attacks Catholic News Service U.S. Catholics joined Pope Francis and the rest of the world in expressing sorrow for those killed and severely injured in the latest terrorist attacks in London the night of June 3.

“The vigil of Pentecost had barely begun when the world was burdened yet again, this time by the sinister attacks on innocent men and women in the heart of London,” Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in an early June 4 statement.

“In such tragic hours, we implore the Holy Spirit to pour out his gift of comfort on those who grieve the loss of loved ones and on the dozens who were so tragically injured in this horrible attack,” he said. “At the same time, we see in the courage of the first responders the true and courageous spirit of our brothers and sisters, the people of Great Britain.”

After celebrating Mass on Pentecost June 4 with an estimated 60,000 people in St. Peter’s Square, Pope

Francis offered public prayers for the victims of the attacks in London that left seven people dead and 48 others injured.

“May the Holy Spirit grant peace to the whole world,” he said. “May he heal the wounds of war and of terrorism, which even last night in London struck innocent civilians. Let us pray for the victims and their families.”

In his statement, Cardinal DiNardo said U.S. Catholics joined in the pope’s prayers for the victims and survivors, and he added: “May God grant strength, wisdom and protection to the men and women who safeguard our families, and may he convert the hearts of all who follow the path of evil extremism. Our solidarity in Christian hope and commitment to peace is a bond that cannot be broken.”

In New York, WABC-TV’s “Eyewitness News” reported that a college student from Brooklyn who attends Jesuit-run Boston College was at a pub with some of his classmates in London’s Borough Market

when terrorists came in with long knives and started attacking people.

The attackers first mowed people down on the London Bridge in a white van, then left the van to go on a killing spree in Borough Market, according to news reports.

As others fled the pub scene or huddled in fear, Mark Kindschuh, 19, stayed to help a man he saw fighting for his life, the TV station reported.

“All I could see was one man at the front on the ground with a pool of blood forming,” Kindschuh told WABC-TV. “You couldn’t really see it, because there was so much blood around his head, but I searched around with my hands, and it was on the back of his head.”

Kindschuh said he took his belt and wrapped it around the victim’s head to slow the bleeding, then shouted to the crowd asking if anyone was a doctor.

He stayed with the victim and a short while later police entered the bar.

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U.S. & WORLD

June 8, 2017 in BRIEF WASHINGTON

Pence addresses religious freedom at National Catholic Prayer Breakfast Vice President Mike Pence and other speakers addressed securing religious liberty and protecting the sanctity of human life both in the United States and worldwide, particularly in the Middle East, at the 13th annual National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in Washington June 6. Pence spoke about President Donald Trump’s commitment to securing all religious freedoms to more than 1,200 attendees, following keynote speaker Archbishop Timothy Broglio, head of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services. Pence expressed his sorrow over the recent terrorist attacks in Europe, reassuring those in attendance that the president is committed to ending attacks on religious liberty around the world, as well as in America. The vice president, an evangelical, shared fond memories of growing up in a Catholic family, saying he was honored to speak at the breakfast and that his mother would be proud.

Church leaders welcome leaked HHS draft lifting contraceptive mandate A leaked draft rule from the Department of Health and Human Services exempting religious groups from the contraceptive mandate of the Affordable Care Act was welcomed by Church officials and attorneys representing the Little Sisters of the Poor, one of the groups that challenged the mandate at the U.S. Supreme Court.

Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore, chairman of the U.S. Bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty, said in a June 1 statement that the leaked draft has “yet to be formally issued and will require close study upon publication,” but it provides encouraging news. “Relief like this is years overdue and would be most welcomed,” he said. The archbishop noted that if the ruling is issued it would “lift the governmentimposed burden on our ministries to violate their own teachings within their very own institutions.” He also said the draft of the HHS regulations reflects common sense and a long-held practice of the federal government to provide strong conscience protection in the area of health care.

PORTLAND, Ore.

Hundreds mourn Catholic father of four killed during heroic act The morning after police in Portland arrested 14 demonstrators at dueling political protests, about 800 worshippers turned out in a unified show of support for a man whose heroic act transcended division. Ricky Best was laid to rest in Willamette National Cemetery in Portland June 5 after a funeral Mass at a packed Christ the King Church in the suburb of Milwaukie. On hand were Christians, Muslims, Jews, peace activists and members of a motorcycle club that backs President Donald Trump. “Many

of us consider him a hero. Many of us in the Church consider him a martyr,” said Msgr. Richard Paperini, pastor of Christ the King. Best, a 53-year-old City of Portland employee, was one of three men who stepped forward May 26 to defend two teens on a Portland commuter train. The girls, one in a Muslim headscarf and the other black, were the targets of an anti-Muslim and racist verbal attack from 35-year-old Jeremy Christian. When Best — along with 23-year-old Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche and 21-year-old Micah Fletcher — spoke up, Christian pulled a knife and slashed at the men. Best and Namkai-Meche died, and Fletcher was hospitalized. Police apprehended Christian, who has been arraigned on charges of aggravated murder. One of the girls, 16-year-old Destinee Mangum, attended the funeral with her family.

Portland Archbishop Alexander Sample, who attended the funeral, said Best fulfilled the call of those who follow Jesus, an act that will live on in memory and change the world for the better. He said Best’s act of heroism has already borne fruit, drawing together Christians and Muslims in a mutual stand against hate and violence.

INDIANAPOLIS

Cristo Rey community says DeVos intrigued by school’s educational model U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos arrived in Indiana’s capital May 22 to address the national policy summit of the American Federation for Children, a national advocacy organization for school choice that she once served as chairwoman. During the summit, DeVos noted that President Donald Trump is “proposing the most ambitious expansion of education choice in our nation’s history.” Intrigued by its model of combining a work-study program and a college preparatory education for students from low-income families, DeVos visited Providence Cristo Rey High School, where she met with students, staff and stakeholders of the private school. According to people who were there for her meeting, DeVos said she admired the approach of the school and wanted to learn more about the national network of 32 Cristo Rey Catholic schools that has about 11,000 students across the country, including Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Minneapolis.

VATICAN CITY

Papal celebration of Corpus Christi moves to Sunday Pope Francis will celebrate the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ and the Corpus Christi procession on a Sunday — June 18 — and not on the traditional Thursday feast day, which is June 15 this year. Throughout Italy and in most other countries, the feast was transferred to the following Sunday years ago. The pope celebrating on the Sunday “can strengthen the participation of the faithful in this solemn, public act of adoration of the Blessed Sacrament,” said Cardinal Agostino Vallini, the papal vicar of Rome.

— Catholic News Service

The Catholic Spirit • 9A

Pope Francis, President Trump speak of hopes for peace

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service Pope Francis and U.S. President Donald Trump spent 30 minutes speaking privately in the library of the Apostolic Palace May 24, and as the president left, he told the pope, “I won’t forget what you said.”

The atmosphere at the beginning was formal and a bit stiff. However, the mood lightened when Pope Francis met the first lady, Melania Trump, and asked if she fed her husband “potica,” a traditional cake in Slovenia, her homeland. There were smiles all around.

Pope Francis gave Trump a split medallion held together by an olive tree, which his interpreter told Trump is “a symbol of peace.” Speaking in Spanish, the pope told Trump, “I am giving you this because I hope you may be this olive tree to make peace.” The president responded, “We can use peace.”

Pope Francis also gave the president a copy of his message for World Peace Day 2017 and copies of three of his documents.

Knowing that Pope Francis frequently has quoted the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Trump presented Pope Francis with a large gift box containing five of the slain civil rights leader’s books, including a signed copy of “The Strength to Love.”

The Vatican described the president’s meetings with both the pope and with top Vatican diplomats as consisting of

Pope Francis greets U.S. President Donald Trump during a private audience at the Vatican May 24. CNS/Paul Haring “cordial discussions,” with both sides appreciating “the good existing bilateral relations between the Holy See and the United States of America, as well as the joint commitment in favor of life, and freedom of religion and of conscience.”

The discussions also included “an exchange of views” on international affairs and on “the promotion of peace in the world through political negotiation and interreligious dialogue, with particular reference to the situation in the Middle East and the protection of Christian communities.”

The first lady went to the Vaticanowned Bambino Gesu children’s hospital. Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, went to the Community of Sant’Egidio, a Catholic lay movement, for a meeting on combating human trafficking.

10A • The Catholic Spirit

FAITH & CULTURE

June 8, 2017

Lord, hear our prayer

Larry Meilleur of Sts. Joachim and Anne in Shakopee reads during his holy hour June 2 in the eucharistic adoration chapel at St. Mary in Shakopee, the oldest perpetual adoration chapel in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Dave Hrbacek/ The Catholic Spirit

Archdiocese’s earliest perpetual adoration chapels quietly mark three decades since founding

By Matthew Davis The Catholic Spirit

O

n a warm and clear June 3 night at 8:57 p.m., a young couple pulled up to an empty St. Vincent de Paul church in Brooklyn Park and walked through the main doors.

Kristine and Dennis Hatmaker, parishioners of St. Vincent de Paul, didn’t have a particular urgency to stop and pray that Saturday night. The husband and wife were simply making their weekly holy hour at the parish’s eucharistic adoration chapel.

Adoration “just keeps me accountable in my prayer life, because it’s easy to get lazy,” said Kristine, 25, who grew up going to adoration with her father at the parish.

“For our marriage, it’s good for both of us to go and pray together, too,” added Dennis, 26.

At any given hour of the day and night across the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, people of all ages are spending a quiet hour with the Eucharist — weekends and holidays included.

The Church’s teaching on the Eucharist as truly being the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ is commemorated by the Church worldwide on the feast of Corpus Christi, celebrated June 18 this year.

The practice of adoring Christ in the Eucharist traces its history to the Middle Ages, but St. Mary in Shakopee, now part of Sts. Joachim and Anne, opened the archdiocese’s first perpetual eucharistic adoration chapel in 1985. Since then, the devotion has spread locally; 41 parishes now offer perpetual adoration.

“A lot of people know where that chapel [in Shakopee] is, and if they know they need prayer, they come up there,” said Mary Hart, 88, a parishioner of Sts. Joachim and Anne.

Perpetual adoration means the availability of the Eucharist exposed in a monstrance on an altar for prayer 24/7. Catholics report adoration has led to answered prayers, miracles, conversions and more vocations to the priesthood and religious life, as well as the enriched faith of regular adorers.

168 hours a week Records of exposition of the Eucharist for the sick go back to the Middle Ages. It developed into a parish practice, including perpetual adoration, in parts of Europe during the late 1600s. While interest in the practice has waned at times, St. John Paul II emphasized the importance of perpetual adoration, and the U.S. saw a renewal in its popularity beginning in the 1980s.

In Shakopee, Deacon James Thornton learned of perpetual adoration and decided to promote it to the parish council in the early 1980s. With pastor Father James Schoenberger’s support, Deacon Thornton invited a speaker to encourage people to sign up for an adoration hour.

“He thought we’d give it a shot,” Deacon Thornton said of Father Schoenberger. “The rest of them were kind of skeptical.”

People signed up for regular holy hours, quickly filling the week. People from Cologne, New Prague and surrounding communities bolstered participation.

“It just snowballed,” Deacon Thornton said.

Interest spread around the archdiocese, and other parishes began to open their own perpetual adoration chapels. Epiphany in Coon Rapids opened its chapel in 1988, followed by St. Rose of Lima in Roseville in 1989 and St. Joseph in West St. Paul in 1991.

Peggy Powell, Epiphany’s adoration coordinator, said six parishes had perpetual adoration by 1993, and more added it throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. She

‘Million-dollar question’ How does the Church reinvigorate belief in the Eucharist?

That’s “the million-dollar question” facing lay ministers and clergy, Bishop Frank Caggiano of Bridgeport, Connecticut, said at the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ Spring Formation Day May 18.

“Growing numbers of Catholics no longer believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist,” he said. According to a 2007 survey by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, 43 percent of U.S. Catholics incorrectly believe the Eucharist is a symbol of Christ, not his actual presence.

Meanwhile, the Eucharist is also a central draw for many people to the faith, Bishop Caggiano said.

“A Church without the Eucharist is not a Church at all,” Bishop Caggiano said, adding that it must be “at the heart of all we do, or it will not bear eternal fruit.”

Speaking to chancery and parish staff at St. Joseph the Worker in Maple Grove, Bishop Caggiano asked the audience to reflect on how much preparation and resources go into Mass at their parishes. He also strongly encouraged eucharistic adoration, especially for young people, and emphasized the importance of encountering Jesus through a “transformative experience of falling in love and rearranging one’s life.”

“Too many Catholics know about Jesus, but do not know Jesus,” he said.

— Matthew Davis credited Archbishop Emeritus Harry Flynn as a big supporter and noted that perpetual adoration grew in his previous diocese of Lafayette, Louisiana.

“He said to let the Holy Spirit do it, and that is exactly what happened,” Powell said.

Epiphany, the largest parish in the archdiocese, has 620 adorers; parishes have made perpetual adoration work with half that number or fewer. With pastor approval, a parish can set up adoration if it has a chapel, a team of coordinators and enough people willing to commit an hour per week in order to fill the week’s 168 time slots.

“It’s really a lay movement,” Powell said.

At St. Rose of Lima, a couple of parishioners organized it with the pastor’s approval, recalled regular adorer Bob Houck.

“They got their heads together, and it took about three, maybe four or five months to get enough people to sign up and get the whole thing going,” Houck said.

People are free to pray as they choose during their holy hours. Some meditate on Scripture, kneel in adoration, pray a rosary or sit in silence. At St. Mary, Hart said she likes to pray the Liturgy of the Hours in particular.

“Everybody has a different way to pray, I think,” she said.

Many people say they have seen their petitions answered. Chapels generally keep books to record prayer requests, which often include notes of answered prayers.

St. Vincent de Paul’s book has entries such as “My son is

sober and working” from May 27, and “My sister and her husband healing from serious marital problems and not getting a divorce” from May 5.

Houck also sees answered prayers mentioned in the prayer request books at St. Rose of Lima. “Those books are constantly in use,” he said. “A lot of people are signing up with petitions and with thanksgivings.”

Reports of physical miracles have also been part of perpetual adoration’s legacy in the archdiocese. Hart recalls the effect of many prayers for a father of five children at St. Mark in Shakopee who had been diagnosed with spinal meningitis. The doctors, she said, told him he wouldn’t live beyond the weekend.

“Well, we [adorers] started praying 24 hours a day on Friday night, and would you believe, by Monday the doctor said they didn’t know what happened,” Hart said of the man’s healing. “There’s no medical answer to what happened to that man.”

A quiet place to discern Adorers believe perpetual adoration also affects priestly and religious vocations, and new priests often cite time before the Eucharist as key to their discernment. Father David Blume, the archdiocese’s vocations director, noted that the percentage of seminarians becoming priests has increased. Only 58 percent made it to ordination in 1988 through 1992, but in the past 15 years, 74 percent of seminarians have been ordained.

“Other than prayer, I don’t think it is possible to point to any one thing as the reason for this increase,” Father Blume said. “I would say there is a growing ‘culture of vocations’ where our young people are more supported and encouraged to consider an intentional time of discerning what God desires for them in terms of their vocation. There are plenty of parishes where vocations are being promoted and many good activities are going on throughout the archdiocese, but it all comes back to prayer.”

Powell recalled a woman who started coming to the chapel at 10 o’clock each night. She said the woman had been searching and eventually joined the Church.

Many adorers have found that adoration enriches their faith. Powell said Epiphany has seen stronger participation in the sacraments and works of mercy.

“Some people even bring their kids, which is wonderful to see,” Hart said of Sts. Joachim and Anne.

“They can teach the children how it’s important to be there with the Lord, and I’ve seen many of them do that.”

Despite perpetual adoration’s benefits for a community, challenges remain to keep it going strong.

Houck and Powell noted the need to keep recruiting adorers. Houck has heard recommendations to stop adoration at night at St. Rose of Lima due to hours with no committed adorer, but he said he won’t.

Hart and other longtime adorers would like to see Catholics who haven’t tried regular adoration embrace the devotion.

“I think every parish should have this,” she said.

June 8, 2017

FAITH & CULTURE

The Catholic Spirit • 11A

Local director showing film on Franciscans

By Matthew Davis The Catholic Spirit

Jonah is spit out of the whale in this fresco seen during the unveiling of two newly restored burial chambers in the Christian catacombs of St. Domitilla in Rome May 30. The Catacombs of St. Domitilla are believed to be the world’s oldest Christian cemetery. CNS

Restorers unveil frescoed chambers in Rome catacombs

By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service Under a mown hayfield, whose dried-out stalks crunch underfoot, lies the four-level labyrinth of the early Christian Catacombs of St. Domitilla in Rome.

Ten miles of tunnels, carved out of soft volcanic tuff rock, snake and fork out in a dizzying number of different directions. Luckily, capsule bulbs of lights strung sparsely overhead work like Hansel and Gretel’s trail of breadcrumbs leading to the soughtafter destination: two newly restored burial chambers not yet open to the public.

The sprawling catacomb complex has about 70 burial chambers, or cubicula, but only 10 have been restored, said Barbara Mazzei, who oversaw the restoration of the chambers’ frescoes.

She led a group of reporters to see the finished results May 30. They were unveiled by the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology, which oversees the upkeep and preservation of more than 100 early Christian catacombs scattered all over Italy.

The Catacombs of St. Domitilla are believed to be the world’s oldest existing Christian cemetery and are among the largest in Italy with a total of some 150,000 burial spots.

The majority are small niches carved into the tunnel walls for poorer Christians; the niches were sealed with a slab of marble or walled up with brick.

The round and sumptuously decorated cubicula rooms were built by wealthier families and trade cooperatives, whose members pooled their money for a more dignified resting place.

The newest restoration work was done on the chambers for the city’s bakers, who ran a lucrative state-supported industry of ferrying grain into Rome and making and distributing bread, which was considered something every Roman had a right to with a daily ration.

The unifying motif is salvation and the deliverance from death as is underlined by the varied depictions of Noah in his ark welcoming back the dove, Abraham’s aborted sacrifice of Isaac, Jonah and the whale, and the multiplication of the fishes and loaves, Mazzei said. Restorers used lasers to send pulses of precise frequencies to selectively remove specific substances — soot, algae and calcium carbonate — without damaging the color pigments and underlying surfaces.

Despite the seven years of meticulous work to reveal the frescoes’ original splendor, restorers intentionally left the graffiti and autographs penned by visitors from the 1600s and 1700s.

The most prolific selfie-signature seen throughout the complex was “Bosio,” left by Antonio Bosio, a Maltese-born lawyer and scholar who discovered this and many more abandoned catacombs in Rome.

Franciscan Friars of the Renewal don’t flinch in the face of the destitute. Daily, the friars serve the ill, homeless, prisoners and prostitutes in poor and dangerous areas.

An intimate view of this life is given in the not-yetreleased documentary “Outcasts.” All Saints in Lakeville will host a pre-screening of the film 7 p.m. June 13 that shows the friars serving the marginalized in New York as well as Ireland, England and Honduras.

The film, which is aimed at mature audiences ages 14 and older, provides a raw look at mercy in action.

“We want to just show exactly how strong the faith is in real situations,” said Clifford Azize, an All Saints parishioner and the film’s director.

Azize, a New York native, knew the friars’ work firsthand after living at their house for troubled men in Brooklyn. As a 15-year-old in Queens, he met the friars through a retreat he attended for his confirmation; months later, he was living at the St. Francis House.

Franciscan Father Benedict Groeschel, who founded the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal in 1987, started the St. Francis House in 1967 and ran it until turning its leadership over to Joseph Campo, a Third Order Franciscan.

Azize, 37, said the home helped him and its seven other residents get an education, become responsible in basic daily tasks and live together peacefully.

Campo’s fundraising responsibilities for the home led him to consider writing a book about it. Instead, the young men said he should make a film. That idea led them to form Grassroots Films in 2006, which produced “Outcasts.”

“It was a big thank you; it was from all the guys from the St. Francis House who started Grassroots Films,” Azize said of the film. The self-taught group has produced multiple documentaries, including “The Human Experience” in 2008.

In “Outcasts,” Azize said he “wanted to show the

A scene from “Outcasts,” a documentary directed by Clifford Azize, a parishioner of All Saints in Lakeville.

Courtesy Grassroots Films Church how I see her,” which includes the friars’ courage in reaching the marginalized.

“We captured life on the go,” Azize said. “There is nothing set up. Everything that they’re [the audience] going to watch is real, even though the situations that they’re seeing aren’t cases that happen every day, but they do happen.”

Beyond the friars helping society’s outcasts, Azize hopes the film conveys the “message of family.” He said the struggles of all the people in the film are rooted in a lack of religious guidance and healthy parenting, something Azize and his former housemates recognized in their own lives. He calls that the “silent story” in the film.

In 2013, Azize moved to Lakeville, the hometown of his wife, Chelsey, to raise their family. With the help of All Saints associate pastor Father Marcus Milless, Azize organized a pre-screening of “Outcasts” at All Saints in order to raise awareness of chemical addiction and human trafficking.

A question-and-answer session with Azize and a Franciscan friar will follow the event.

Swiss Guard exhibit at Basilica through July

By Maria Wiering The Catholic Spirit For visitors to the Vatican, Swiss Guards are almost as iconic as the pope they protect. Often clad in gold and royal blue striped uniforms and a beret, they stand stoically in front of apostolic palace entries or accompany the pope in public.

Photos by Italian photographer Fabio Mantegna capture another view: soldiers laughing, studying, eating and exercising. In one photo, they take a selfie with their metal armor. In another, they’re praying. In one photo, they’re 20-somethings in suits, and in the next, they’re men in uniform.

The 86 photos are the central feature of the exhibit “The Life of a Swiss Guard: A Private View,” on display at the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis through July 30. They capture the men both as individuals and collective inheritors of a centuries-old institution.

“An exhibit like this is the perfect occasion to bring the Vatican to our local cities and dioceses,” said Johan van Parys, director of liturgy and sacred arts at the Basilica and a board member of the Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums, the organization sponsoring the exhibit’s tour. “Everybody knows the Swiss Guard.

They may not know anything about them, but they recognize the uniform, and there is a certain mystique around the Swiss Guard — What are they? What do they do? — and that in and of itself draws people in.”

The Swiss Guard is the only peaceful military in the world, said Romina Cometti, who works with the Patrons and the Vatican Museums and serves as the exhibit’s curator. They were established in 1506 to protect the pope. They are required to be Swiss, under 30 years old, Catholic, 5 feet 10 inches tall, and to have

A photo by Fabio Mantegna from “The Life of a Swiss Guard: A Private View,” on display at the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis through July 30. Courtesy the Basilica of St. Mary completed a background check and the 17-week Swiss military training. They serve for two years and may renew annually thereafter. There are 110 men in the guard.

The exhibit includes uniforms and other objects “in order to show more about the tradition and commitment, their faith, their vocation — because for them it’s a real vocation in life,” Cometti said.

“The Life of a Swiss Guard” is the world’s first traveling exhibit about the Swiss Guard. Minneapolis is its fifth stop and the last time it will be on display in 2017. It’s also the first stop where all of the exhibit’s photos will be shown. It is open to the public 10 a.m.6:30 p.m. Saturdays, 7:30 a.m.-8 p.m. Sundays or by appointment.

12A • The Catholic Spirit

THIS CATHOLIC LIFE • COMMENTARY

TWENTY SOMETHING

Christina Capecchi

‘Let your yes mean yes’ Rachel Gardner has a bad habit: She says yes when she ought to say no.

A friend will ask to do lunch on Wednesday.

“I say, ‘Of course,’” Rachel recounts, “and in my head, I can see my totally squashed schedule.”

The friend asks if noon works.

“I say, ‘Sounds great,’ knowing I have something at 1:30 p.m.,” Rachel confesses.

Then comes the moment she knows she should leave their lunch, but she hesitates to cut the time short — “time I didn’t have in the first place.”

So she stays 10 minutes longer, which means, fast as she may drive, she cannot make up that time, she cannot pull off an impossible magic trick, and now she is 10 minutes late to her next commitment. All the while her chest is constricting, stuck in that torture chamber between the odometer and the clock — left, right, left, right, tick, tock, tick, tock.

“I’ve been in that place a million times,” said Rachel, a Catholic young adult from Austin, Texas.

That feeling of mounting pressure is so familiar that it

THE LOCAL CHURCH Father John Paul Erickson

Recommitting: the Church’s new marriage rite I’ve been very fortunate in my young priestly life to witness many Catholic weddings. They are celebrations of great beauty, hope and joy, liturgies that remind all attendees of the power of Christian love and the great dignity of the sacrament of marriage.

Earlier this year, a few changes were made to the Catholic wedding liturgy, changes that may not be noticed by those who don’t attend weddings more than once every couple of years, but which are nevertheless important.

But before describing some of the actual changes themselves, some context is in order. As readers will remember, a new edition of the Roman Missal was released in the United States in 2011. The reason for the new missal was largely due to some new principles of liturgical translation that the Church had implemented in 2001.

Latin remains the official language of the Latin Rite Church, and all official liturgical texts are still released in Latin before any of the vernacular editions are released in the pertinent countries throughout the Catholic world. But whereas the official principle of translating Latin liturgical texts prior to 2001 was “dynamic equivalence” — that is, the conveyance of the basic idea of the original while still allowing for significant changes for the sake of clarity and meaning — the most current method of translation emphasizes the need for greater fidelity to the original Latin text and advocates for what might be called a more “literal” translation.

Because of these fundamental changes in principles, all outlined in a 2001 Vatican document “Liturgiam

Rachel was on a retreat in college when she first heard this truism: “When you say yes to one thing, you say no to another.” She says her mind was “blown.” compelled her to blog about it earlier this month.

The truth emerged: “I’m not staying with my friend because I’m being really loving. I’m staying because I’m anxious about saying, ‘Hey, I have to go.’”

The behavior, she determined, stems from a faulty belief that her friend can’t handle a no, that Rachel is that important. “It’s taken me a while to learn that no one benefits when you overbook yourself,” she said.

The crux of her blog post was Matthew 5:37, a Scripture verse she turned into an Instagram doodle with Sharpies and pretty cursive, punctuated with arrows and underlines: “Let your ‘yes’ mean ‘yes,’ and your ‘no’ mean ‘no.’ Anything more is from the evil one.”

“We’re up against a lot right now as young adults,” Rachel said. It’s not just the number of invitations and expectations; it’s the pace at which they arrive. “In our now-generation, everyone expects an answer immediately.”

Giving herself time to respond helps. Sometimes that means ignoring the ever-urgent ping of a text.

June 8, 2017

For important decisions, she waits it out “one day and one Mass.”

Rachel was on a retreat in college when she first heard this truism: “When you say yes to one thing, you say no to another.” She says her mind was “blown.”

Now she tries to pause and consider what necessary noes will result from a yes she is planning to extend.

“My mission is not to say yes all the time. It’s to say, ‘What is God’s will for today?’”

One semester in college, that meant dropping out of a comparative literature class called “The Mirror & The Self” that covered all the great autobiographies, starting with those by St. Augustine and Jean-Jacques Rosseau. The class was fascinating, but Rachel simply didn’t have the free hours that semester to keep up with the reading.

“It was a great decision. Not only did I then have a realistic work load, but that semester became a huge turning point in my faith life. Who knows how much time I would have lost reading really worthy autobiographies while my own living autobiography laid idle?”

Today that mature faith informs her work as a therapist, helping others own up to the consequences of their yeses and noes. Rachel is able to address the challenge because she’s worked “tenaciously” to be honest with herself about her grievances, and to be honest before God. The outcome is powerful: avoiding all those uncomfortable yeses, accepting the difficult noes and respecting others. “This path not only leads to a more generous love, but also to true freedom,” Rachel said.

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

Earlier this year, a few changes were made to the Catholic wedding liturgy, changes that may not be noticed by those who don’t attend weddings more than once every couple of years, but which are nevertheless important.

Authenicam,” all of the vernacular translations of official liturgical texts, such as the Roman Missal, the Rite of Baptism, the Book of Blessings, the Order of Christian Funerals, etc., had (or still have) to be retranslated. What is more, the actual Latin texts themselves are occasionally revised and re-released.

Up until this year, the English texts that U.S. Catholics had been using when celebrating marriages were all taken from an official translation that was produced only shortly after the first Latin edition of the post-conciliar Rite of Marriage was released — 1969.

Since that time, a new Latin edition of the marriage liturgy was released in 1991, but no new official translation in English was ever released — until now.

In the new edition, an expanded introduction to the ritual describes the graces of marriage and encourages all those preparing couples for marriage to be actively involved in building up an entire parish culture that supports the vocation of marriage. It is a beautiful and helpful essay, and well worth the minister’s time as he prepares to witness the sacrament.

Another feature of the new ritual is the addition of a Glory to God at the start of the wedding Mass. This is a celebration! And the prescribed jubilant hymn of the Mass shows it.

Another new feature is the addition of a prayer by the minister immediately after the reception of the marriage vows, a blessing that concludes with an acclamation by the congregation. Similar to the memorial acclamation

after the consecration at Mass (“The Mystery of Faith”), this new dialogue involves the community in the prayer of praise that is the celebration of any sacrament.

Similarly, a congregational hymn or “canticle of praise” is now permitted immediately after the exchange of rings.

The new ritual also allows some very specific cultural adaptations, including the Latino tradition of blessing and giving of the arras (coins) and the use of the lasso.

Both of these inclusions are specific to the U.S., and highlight the ever increasing and important presence of the Latino population within our Catholic community.

Finally, the new edition of the marriage ritual includes an appendix with various useful prayers, including the blessing of both a newly engaged couple and of a couple celebrating a significant wedding anniversary.

The words of the Catholic marriage liturgy are changing. But any time the words of the liturgy are altered, it provides us as worshiping believers with an opportunity to recommit ourselves to a better understanding of what it is that we do when we celebrate the sacraments: We give glory to God and participate in the salvation of the world — in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health.

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

THIS CATHOLIC LIFE • COMMENTARY

June 8, 2017

FAITH IN THE PUBLIC ARENA

Jason Adkins

Breaking the state’s monopoly on hearts, minds The well-being of Minnesota students took a hit during this year’s legislative session, as the Opportunity Scholarship Program was left by the wayside during final negotiations. Despite the fact that similar programs have been successful in several others states and could have played an important role in closing Minnesota’s unacceptable achievement gap, it was scrapped after an all-out revolt from the public school establishment.

The public school establishment’s condemnation of Opportunity Scholarships had little to do with concerns over student success, or even the impact on public schools (after all, 31 studies show that public school student performance improves when choice programs are introduced).

The real fear is the loss of a monopoly — a monopoly over the hearts and minds of students and thus the shape of America’s future.

An irreligious education Public education and public schooling are different.

Everyone should support the former, but public schools can either be a help or a hindrance to the education of the public.

And it’s no secret that public schools are being used to promote harmful ideas to our young people. From dangerous and unscientific gender ideology to an implicitly relativistic, skeptical and utilitarian

WORD ON FIRE

Bishop Robert Barron

Pride, humility and social media On a recent trip to Sacramento, from my home base in the LA area, I flew Southwest Airlines. In an idle moment, I reached for the magazine in the seatback pocket and commenced to leaf through it. I came across an article by a woman named Sarah Menkedick entitled “Unfiltered: How Motherhood Interrupted My Relationship with Social Media.” The piece was not only wittily and engagingly written, it also spoke to some pretty profound truths about our cultural situation today and the generation that has come of age under the influence of the Internet.

She argues that to have swum in the sea of Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and YouTube from the time that one was a child was to live one’s life perpetually in front of an audience. Most millennials never simply had experiences; they were conditioned to record, preserve and present those experiences to a following who were invited to like what they saw, to comment on it, to respond to it.

To be sure, she acknowledges, the social media, at their best, are powerful means of communication and connection, but at their worst, they produce this odd distantiation from life and a preoccupation with the self. Here is how Menkendick puts it: “I’ve come of age as a writer at a time when it is no longer enough just to write. A writer must also promote her work and in the

A one-size-fits-all model of education that subsumes the role of parents by inculcating its own values does not work, and it must not be tolerated. worldview, state-sponsored education is not merely “not Catholic”— increasingly, it is in direct opposition to reason and the truths of our faith.

We may hope that public schools are a value-neutral environment that focus on reading, writing and arithmetic, but this is a fantasy. As Pope Pius XI declared: “The so-called ‘neutral’ or ‘lay’ school, from which religion is excluded, is contrary to the fundamental principles of education. Such a school, moreover, cannot exist in practice; it is bound to become irreligious.”

Clearly, not everyone involved in our public schools is an active and onboard participant in the irreligious indoctrination of the public education establishment.

There are Catholics and others of goodwill who are public school teachers and administrators, and many faithful parents who don’t have access to Catholic schools are able to supplement the public school education their children receive with religious instruction.

But one must wonder how long this can continue to be the case, especially with proponents of the new “orthodoxy” leveraging the state’s monopoly on education to enforce conformity, and doing everything in their power to maintain the public school establishment’s grip on our children.

Restoring the role of parents One of the defining dynamics of the Catholic Church’s relationship to the modern state is its work to prevent a state monopoly on education. According to the Church, when the state lays claim to an educational

process promote herself as a person of interest… . I learned the snarky, casually intellectual voice of feminist and pop culture bloggers, the easy outrage, the clubby camaraderie.”

But then something extraordinary happened to the author: She became a mother. On the front porch of her home, nursing her baby, she discovered that she had a visceral aversion to snark and absolutely no desire to share her experience with an audience or curry favor from it. She didn’t want to cultivate any ironic distance from motherhood; rather, she wanted to believe in it with all her heart, to let it wash over her.

“Before I had a child, I took it for granted that no intellectual writer-type could ever be taken seriously were she to cave into conventional sentiment. As a mother, I was swept away by these huge, ancient, universal emotions I’d previously dismissed as uncomplicated.” Her baby, in a word, broke through the carapace of her self-regard and let in some real light.

Again, granting all that is truly good about social media (which I use massively in my own ministry), they can easily produce the conviction that we are the stars of our own little dramas, always playing for an eager audience. Authentic spirituality always gives rise to the opposite conviction: Your life is not about you.

Reality check To grasp this distinction more completely, let me propose two scenarios to you. In the first, you are engaged in conversation with someone that you desperately want (or need) to impress, say, a prospective employer or a popular figure whose friendship you crave. In this context, you are indeed speaking, listening, laughing, looking pensive, etc., but more importantly, you are watching yourself perform these moves, and you are exquisitely attentive to the reaction of your interlocutor. Is she laughing at your jokes? Does she look bored? Did your witticism land effectively in her consciousness? The point is that you are not really

The Catholic Spirit • 13A

monopoly, it oversteps its rights and offends justice.

As the domestic Church, the education of children is the prerogative of the family, not the state. Parents are the first educators of their children. Though the state can subsidize parents in this role, it cannot subsume that responsibility entirely.

As Pope Leo XIII stated over a century ago in words that are just as relevant today: “It is the duty of parents to make every effort to prevent any invasion of their rights in this matter, and to make absolutely sure that the education of their children remain under their own control in keeping with their Christian duty, and above all to refuse to send them to those schools in which there is danger of imbibing the deadly poison of impiety.”

And according to the Second Vatican Council, “the public power, which has the obligation to protect and defend the rights of citizens, must see to it, in its concern for distributive justice, that public subsidies are paid out in such a way that parents are truly free to choose according to their conscience the schools they want for their children.”

A one-size-fits-all model of education that subsumes the role of parents by inculcating its own values does not work, and it must not be tolerated.

New opportunity The push goes on to expose more young people to so-called “progressive values” espoused by the modern state: free college at the federal level, the expansion of pre-K programs that pull children out of the home unnecessarily, and the Minnesota Department of Education’s aggressive new transgender/gender non-conforming toolkit and directives.

Therefore, in the same way that the Church called for the creation of a parallel Catholic school system in the late 19th century, today we need to consider renewing this Church-wide sense of purpose: fighting for school choice and creating access to affordable, rigorous and faith-filled Catholic schools for all kids — not to close ourselves off from the world, but so that we can be leaven. Souls and the soul of the nation are at stake.

Adkins is executive director of the Minnesota Catholic Conference.

experiencing reality directly, but rather through a sort of veil. It is as though you are looking at a beautiful landscape, but through a foggy window.

Now a second scenario: You are in lively conversation with a friend, and there is no ulterior motive, no egotistic preoccupation. You become quickly lost in the discussion, following the argument where it leads, laughing when you are truly amused, watching your partner, but not in order to see how she’s reacting to you, but just because she’s interesting. In this case, you are immersed in reality; you are looking at the landscape through a clear pane of glass, taking in its colors and textures in all of their vividness.

Now, to use the language of the classical moral and spiritual tradition, the first situation I described is marked, through and through, by pride, and the second by humility. Don’t think of pride, first and foremost, as self-exaltation, which is, in fact, but a face or consequence of pride. In its most proper nature, pride is seeing the world through the distorting lens of the ego and its needs.

On the other hand, humility, from the Latin humus (earth), is getting in touch with reality directly, being close to the ground, seeing things as they are. This is why St. Thomas Aquinas famously says “humilitas est veritas” (humility is truth). What makes the first scenario so painful and cringe-worthy is that it is out of step with the truth of things. What makes the second scenario so exhilarating, so fun, is that it is full of reality.

What Sarah Menkedick intuited was the manner in which the social media environment can be a breeding ground for the unique type of spiritual distortion and dislocation that we traditionally call pride. What made all the difference for her was the arrival of her baby, in all of his densely-textured reality — a reality that she could appropriate only through humility.

Bishop Barron is an auxiliary bishop of Los Angeles and the founder of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries.

14A • The Catholic Spirit

SUNDAY SCRIPTURES

John Martens

Grace, love and fellowship We think of the Bible as revelation without always reflecting on the profound content of what God is revealing. As Pope Paul VI’s 1965 “Dei Verbum” says, “Through divine revelation, God chose to show forth and communicate himself and the eternal decisions of his will regarding the salvation of men. That is to say, he chose to share with them those divine treasures which totally transcend the understanding of the human mind.”

We need to reflect on this: Revelation offers us “divine treasures which totally transcend the understanding of the human mind.” Without revelation, we would not have access to the true nature of God, our salvation.

Now we need to reflect on this: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the

FOCUS ON FAITH communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.”

That is how the Apostle Paul ends his second letter to the Corinthians. It is a beautiful and powerful benediction, which expresses the inexpressible mystery of the one, true God. This was revealed to the Apostle Paul so that humanity could truly know God. In this benediction, Paul reveals the reality of the Trinity as grace, love (agapé) and fellowship (koinonia or “communion”). Paul did not define the Trinity philosophically, yet his experience of God’s love, grace and fellowship guided him to describe the manner in which each person of the Trinity relates to humanity.

Still, the Trinity remains one of “those divine treasures which totally transcend the understanding of the human mind,” requiring God’s revelation. We tend to think of the “threeness” of God as a number, but “it refers to the incomparable fullness of the life of the one God,” who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as Ben Myers, who uses the Twitter handle @FaithTheology, recently tweeted.

The three persons of the Trinity are inseparable in action: When the Son acts, the Father and Holy Spirit are present, just as when the Holy Spirit acts, the Father and the Son are present, and when the Father acts, the Son and the Holy Spirit are present.

Defining God as one and three is not an attempt to complicate the simple divine reality, but rather to bear witness to the revealed nature of God. And the purpose of revelation is simply to draw us into the life

June 8, 2017

Sunday, June 11 Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity Readings • Ex 34:4b-6, 8-9 • 2 Cor 13:11-13 • Jn 3:16-18

of the Triune God, as the Gospel of John reveals: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”

God as Trinity transcends the understanding of the human mind, yet reveals to us our divine destiny.

God revealed himself so that we might live in the grace, love and communion of God forever.

Martens is a theology professor at the University of St. Thomas and director of the master of arts in theology program at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity, both in St. Paul. He attends St. Thomas More in St. Paul.

DAILY Scriptures Sunday, June 11 Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity Ex 34:4b-6, 8-9 2 Cor 13:11-13 Jn 3:16-18 Monday, June 12 2 Cor1:1-7 Mt 5:1-12

Tuesday, June 13 St. Anthony of Padua, priest and doctor of the Church 2 Cor 1:18-22 Mt 5:13-16 Wednesday, June 14 2 Cor 3:4-11 Mt 5:17-19 Thursday, June 15 2 Cor 3:15–4:1, 3-6 Mt 5:20-26

SEEKING ANSWERS

Father Michael Schmitz

Availability an essential key to discipleship Q. I really want God to be able to use me, but I don’t know how to go about it. I mean, I want to be a disciple of Jesus and not simply a “nice person who goes to church.” But I don’t know how to make a difference.

A. First, praise God for the fact that he placed that desire in your heart! Too many of us are content with the idea of “show up on Sunday, put something in the basket, and you’re good.” I think that might have been the vision of Catholicism that certain people have had in the past, but this was never an authentic perspective of what it means to be a Christian.

A Christian is one who is brought into a very particular relationship with God in Jesus Christ. A Christian is one who has been made into a child of God the Father by the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit. A Christian is a friend of God. Christians are people who have surrendered their wills, their minds, their hearts and their entire lives to Jesus Christ.

Friday, June 16 2 Cor 4:7-15 Mt 5:27-32

Monday, June 19 2 Cor 6:1-10 Mt 5:38-42

Thursday, June 22 2 Cor 11:1-11 Mt 6:7-15

Saturday, June 17 2 Cor 5:14-21 Mt 5:33-37

Tuesday, June 20 2 Cor 8:1-9 Mt 5:43-48

Sunday, June 18 Body and Blood of Christ Dt 8:2-3, 14b-16a 1 Cor 10:16-17 Jn 6:51-58

Wednesday, June 21 St. Aloysius Gonzaga, religious 2 Cor 9:6-11 Mt 6:1-6, 16-18

Friday, June 23 Most Sacred Heart of Jesus Dt 7:6-11 1 Jn 4:7-16 Mt 11:25-30

Now, of course being a Christian is also essentially about being made into a member of his body, the Church. The Church is absolutely necessary. But it has been my experience that, when we talk about the Church, too many of us default into imagining being part of a “club,” rather than recognizing that we are brought into the Church not only for our own sake, but also for the sake of being Christ in the world.

OK, all of that being said, there is one more necessary thing in order for the Lord to make a difference through you. This “thing” is not great skills or great giftedness.

You will not need to be perfect or flawless. You will not need an advanced degree in theology or to be employed by the Church. You will not need anyone’s permission for this.

The only thing required? Being available.

I know that this might sound a little anticlimactic, but there is virtually nothing more valuable than being available. Think of it — it is likely that there is someone who has made a profound difference in your life. What was it that qualified them to make that difference? I imagine they had something to offer (coaching, teaching, parenting, being a friend, etc.). But the most likely scenario is that they were simply available to you.

This is the secret of being a great parent, coach, friend, pastor — or Christian. And by “great,” I simply mean someone who has made a positive difference in the life of someone else.

Our culture tends to measure something like “greatness” in terms of fame. But this has never been a reliable criterion for true greatness or excellence. There are many famous people who are not excellent — people who might be recognized on the street — but excellence can go unnoticed.

The kind of excellence that you want is not always recognized, even when it is there.

People who are available are generous — generous

Saturday, June 24 Nativity of St. John the Baptist Is 49:1-6 Acts 13:22-26 Lk 1:57-66, 80 Sunday, June 25 Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time Jer 20:10-13 Rom 5:12-15 Mt 10:26-33

with their time, with their attention and with their heart. In fact, the technical term for this might be “magnanimity.” “Magnanimity” means “greatness of soul.” Great people have greatness of soul (or heart).

They have the perspective of abundance; there is always more, not less. Some people operate with an attitude of scarcity; there is never enough. Those people who walk around with this attitude of scarcity never have enough time, attention or love to share.

But the Christian is called to live like Christ. And Jesus was certainly great. Jesus was most definitely magnanimous. This isn’t to say that he never got tired or burned out. But it is to say that he approached people with the attitude of “How can I give?”

Please keep in mind that Jesus didn’t invest deeply in every person he met. He loved and gave to all those who would receive, but he was radically available to only a few. The same might be true for you. When you follow Christ and live with an attitude of abundance and magnanimity, you might only be able to be available to a few. That is OK. You are not greater than Jesus.

But this is the key: availability. Begin each day (or each week) asking God to guide you toward those for whom he is calling you to be available. Give God permission to interrupt your day with these people.

Begin to see these interruptions as “divine appointments.” That is, see them not as distractions that take you away from what you should be doing at any given moment, but as they truly are: opportunities to be available to God at any and every moment of the day for the purpose of his will.

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

Reach him at fathermikeschmitz@gmail.com.

CALENDAR

June 8, 2017 Ongoing groups

CALENDAR submissions

Faithful Spouses support group — Third Tuesday of each month: 7–8:30 p.m. at the archdiocesan chancery, 777 Forest St., St. Paul.

For those who are living apart from their spouses because of separation or divorce. 651-291-4438 or faithfulspouses@archspm.org.

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

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

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.

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

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

Parish events

ONLINE: www.thecatholicspirit.com/

St. George rummage sale — June 8-9: 9 a.m.–8 p.m. June 8 and 9 a.m.–1 p.m. June 9 at 133 N. Brown Road, Long Lake. www.stgeorgelonglake.org

FAX: 651-291-4460

Holy Name of Jesus Rummage sale for Life — June 22-24: 9 a.m.–8 p.m. June 22, 9 a.m.–6 p.m.

June 23 and 8 a.m.– noon June 24 at 155 County Road 24, Medina. www.hnoj.org.

More online:

www.thecatholicspirit.com/calendar

Eucharistic procession — June 11: 3 p.m. at Holy Cross, 1621 University Ave. NE, Minneapolis. www.ourholycross.org.

“ADHD in Youth” — June 13: 7–8:30 p.m. at St. Richard, 7540 Penn Ave. S., Richfield. RSVP one week prior for child care. www.epressionsupportcoalition.org.

Young adults Theology on Tap summer 2017 — Wednesdays June 14, 21, 28 and July 5, 12, 19: 6:30–9:30 p.m. at O’Gara’s, 164 Snelling Ave. N., St. Paul. Young adults ages 18-39. www.facebook.com/groups/joincya.

Women’s Source “Life is Beautiful” 5K Walk and Fun Run — June 10: 9:30 a.m.–noon at Bassett Creek Park, 5715 32nd Ave. N., Crystal. www.womensource.org/news-events/life-is-beautiful-5k.

Saint Therese Golf Classic — June 12: Noon at 1710 Montrose Blvd., Buffalo. www.sttheresemn.org/give/fundraising-events/golf-classic.

Conferences/seminars/ workshops End of Life from a Catholic Perspective — June 15: 9:30–11 a.m. and 6:30–8 p.m. at 1900 111th Ave. NW, Coon Rapids. Kendra Turner at 763-442-8711. www.catholicunitedfinancial.org.

Prayer/worship

“Charismata: Encounter God in Praise, Adoration and Prayer Ministry” with Father Michael Becker — June 9: 8–10 p.m. at St. John the Baptist, 835 Second Ave. NW, New Brighton. www.ccro-msp.org.

“A Little Princess” theater production — June 8-10: 7 p.m. June 8, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. June 9 and 2 p.m. June 10 at Sts. Peter and Paul, 145 Railroad St. E., Loretto. Based on a story by Francis Hodgson Burnett. www.facebook.com/homeschoolss.

MAIL: “Calendar,” The Catholic Spirit 777 Forest St., St. Paul, MN 55106

Corpus Christi solemn procession — June 18: 11 a.m.–noon at St. Bonaventure, 901 E. 90th St., Bloomington. www.saintbonaventure.org.

Speakers

Other events

calendarsubmissions

Thrift sale at Immaculate Conception — June 15-17: 8 a.m.–7 p.m. June 15-16 and 8 a.m.–noon June 17 at 4030 Jackson St. NE, Columbia Heights.

763-788-9062 or www.parish.iccsonline.org.

The Catholic Spirit • 15A

Singles

Prenatal Partners for Life benefit dinner — June 13: 6 p.m. at University of St. Thomas, Schulze Grand Atrium-School of Law, 1101 Harmon Place, Minneapolis. www.prenatalpartnersforlife.org.

Vacation Bible School — June 19-23: 9 a.m.– noon at St. Richard, 7540 Penn Ave. S., Richfield.

Age 4 to fourth grade. www.strichards.com.

Condensed School of Lectio Divina — July 14-16 at The Benedictine Center at St. Paul’s Monastery, 2675 Benet Road, Maplewood.

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

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

Saint Therese of New Hope open house — June 22: 1–3 p.m. at 8008 Bass Lake Road. www.sttheresemn.org/newhope.

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

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

Singles group at St. Vincent de Paul, Brooklyn Park — ongoing second Saturday each month: 6:15 p.m. at 9100 93rd Ave. N. Gather for a potluck supper, conversation and games. 763-425-0412.

CAA Women’s Slow Pitch Softball League — Fridays through July 21: 6 p.m. at Edgecumbe Fields, 320 Griggs St., St. Paul. caa.director@hotmail.com.

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

Baltimore archdiocese reaffirms Church fully cooperated with 1969 murder probe

By Christopher Gunty Catholic News Service Ahead of Netflix’s May 19 release “The Keepers,” a seven-part documentary about the unsolved 1969 murder of a Baltimore nun, officials of the Archdiocese of Baltimore reaffirmed that the Church did not attempt to interfere in the investigation of the death of Sister Catherine Cesnik.

Sister Cathy, as she was known, had been a popular teacher at Archbishop Keough High School in the 1960s. She was on a year’s leave of absence from her order, the School Sisters of Notre Dame, to teach in the Baltimore public school system when she was reported missing after she left her apartment Nov. 7, 1969, and never returned. Her body was discovered in early January.

Related to the investigation into her murder are allegations that she was aware of alleged sexual abuse by a priest at Archbishop Keough. That priest, Father A. Joseph Maskell, was not a suspect during the original investigation of the murder. Maskell, who died in 2001, was permanently removed from ministry in 1994 by Cardinal William Keeler, then archbishop of Baltimore.

The first allegation received by the archdiocese regarding sexual abuse by Maskell was in 1992, according to Sean Caine, executive director of communications for the archdiocese.

Maskell was returned to ministry in 1993 after the archdiocese was unable to corroborate the allegation. The archdiocese continued to seek information about Maskell and he was permanently prohibited from public ministry.

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16A • The Catholic Spirit

THE LAST WORD

June 8, 2017

Finding grace in Lourdes

a

Order of Malta hosts annual pilgrimage for the sick who hope to heal

By Susan Klemond For The Catholic Spirit

nnamarie Adkins hoped that two of her children who suffer from serious illnesses would experience healing in Lourdes, the Marian apparition site in southern France renowned for healings. But traveling to France seemed impossible for a mother who also suffers from a debilitating disease.

In May, members of the 900-year-old Order of Malta made the Lourdes trip a reality for Adkins, 40, and her children by providing for their travel expenses and complete care throughout.

“I lived in perfect love, and my children lived in perfect love for a week, and I as a caregiver was served,” Adkins said. “To know that God can and does provide — that is another huge faith thing for me because of it.”

Adkins, her husband, Jason, and their four children are parishioners of St. Agnes in St. Paul. Mary Frances, 7, has chronic kidney disease; Xavier, 10, suffers from allergies and other health conditions; and Annamarie has Lyme disease.

While neither Adkins’ daughter nor son have yet received significant physical healing after participating as “malades” (French for “ill”) in the lay religious order’s annual Lourdes pilgrimage, they each have experienced spiritual blessings, she said.

Annamarie Adkins Traveling with the Adkinses on the May 3-9 pilgrimage was another malade, Deacon Jim Meyer of Holy Family in St. Louis Park, who has Parkinson’s disease, as well as eight other Order of Malta members, including its chaplain and volunteers. The Minnesota Area contingent, which first participated in the pilgrimage in 2008, joined about 8,000 members and malades of all ages from 38 countries. Both malades and Order members who cared for them returned from the pilgrimage renewed and inspired.

Father Joseph Johnson, pastor of Holy Family and Minnesota Area chaplain, said the Order of Malta lifts up the sick “and brings them to Our Lady’s shrine and then serves them the whole time.” As international travel can be difficult for the sick, he said, “The knights and dames of Malta and volunteers are all there to lift that burden.”

The Order of Malta’s charism is defense of the faith and care of the sick and poor. Originally both a hospital and military order, the service aspect

“I lived in perfect love, and my children lived in perfect love for a week, and I as a caregiver was served.”

Annamarie Adkins (back row, middle) and her children, Xavier and Mary Frances, gather outside St. Bernadette church in Lourdes, France, with their combined “pod” of Order of Malta caregivers. Michelle Babyak/ Courtesy Annamarie Adkins modeled on the beatitudes is now more prominent, said Minnesota Area chairwoman Anne Marie Hansen.

The Minnesota Area, which includes parts of Wisconsin, Iowa and the Dakotas, has 40 regular and 35 auxiliary members, mostly professionals aged 35 to 70. Worldwide membership is 13,500.

Malades are selected through sponsorship and application, and Order members pay for their pilgrimage expenses. Each malade is cared for by a “pod” of Order members and volunteers who wear distinctive uniforms and transport them in individual carriages around Lourdes to the famous sanctuary baths, religious sites and events. A medical team assists the malades.

Hansen, 44, helped care for a malade this year.

“What you give you get back a hundred-fold in this intimate relationship of six days with this individual that you get to care for,” said Hansen, a parishioner of the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul and president of Gianna Homes, Minnetonka-based residential care homes for people with memory loss.

She joined the Order in 2011 after sensing a call to serve the sick using her hospice experience. The Lourdes pilgrimage gave her that opportunity, she said.

Since Mary’s 18 apparitions to St. Bernadette Soubirous in Lourdes in 1858, 69 cures at the site have been recognized as miraculous by a bishop, and many more have not been formally recognized.

Dr. Paul Diekmann, 58, and his son, Delaney, were

malades on the trip last year. Diekmann’s advanced stage 3 melanoma cancer was already in remission then, and this year he was well enough to serve on a pilgrimage medical team. Delaney’s condition also has improved.

Cathedral parishioners, Diekmann and his wife, Becky, who served as her husband and Delaney’s caregiver in Lourdes, are now considering joining the Order.

“In reality, we’re all malades, and there is this same grace and healing available to everyone when you’re there — whether on a team or as a malade — if you’re open to it,” he said.

That healing includes spiritual maladies, Father Johnson said.

“A lot of people experience rebirth in hope, if not the physical cure,” he said, “but the sense that life is a journey and our true home is not here, but to look forward to the hope of heaven.”

In the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Order members’ charism of service, lived both corporately and individually, is drawing new members, Hansen said. The Lourdes pilgrimage is another facet of that service.

“We believe that the malades — the sick, the poor — we are their servers,” she said. “We call them our ‘lords’ ... so we treat them with the utmost respect, dignity, care and love. We give them the best that we can give them. To serve in that way and for people to receive it in the world we live in today, it’s not bare bones, but it’s lavish.”

Order of Malta: healers and protectors Since the 11th century, members of the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta — the “Order of Malta” for short — have lived their charism of defending the faith and serving the sick and poor, first by running a hospital in Jerusalem and protecting Christians in the Middle East, and then by operating a major naval fleet to defend against Eastern invaders. In modern times, the Order has returned to its original focus of helping people in need.

It was founded as the Order of St. John of Jerusalem around 1048, under the patronage of St. John the Baptist. Blessed Gerard, an Italian monk, served as the first grand master of the order, also known as the Knights Hospitaller. The founders’ hospital in Jerusalem served Christian pilgrims and people of other faiths. In 1113, Pope Paschal II approved the hospital’s foundation, giving the order the status of a lay religious order.

The order also had a military character and its monk-knights took monastic vows of poverty,

chastity and obedience. The knights fought in crusades in the Middle East until the fall of Jerusalem in 1291 when they transferred their seat and hospital to Cyprus. The order later moved to the island of Rhodes in 1307, and in 1530, it took possession of Malta. In 1571, the Order’s fleet helped Western forces defeat the Ottoman empire in the famed Battle of Lepanto.

A 16th-century papal decree prohibited the knights from fighting against other Christian forces, so when Napoleon occupied Malta in 1798, the knights were forced to leave the island.

Since then, the Order has been based in Rome.

From the latter half of the 19th century, the Order has again focused on the hospitaller character of its mission of serving the sick and poor. In addition to its 13,500 lay members, 60 religious brothers have made vows to the Order. According to Catholic News Service, it is the world’s largest chivalric order.

— Susan Klemond

June 8, 2017 • 1B

Ordination Newly ordained priest Father Bryce Evans, left, blesses Archbishop Bernard Hebda at the conclusion of the ordination Mass May 27 at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul.

Behind him is Father Timothy Wratkowski blessing Bishop Andrew Cozzens and Father Timothy Sandquist blessing Archbishop Emeritus Harry Flynn. Awaiting their turn to bless the bishops are Fathers Nicholas Hagen, Paul Baker, Nicholas Froehle, Chad VanHoose and Matthew Quail. Traditionally in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the blessings were done after the recessional in the Marian chapel. This year, Archbishop Hebda moved them into the sanctuary right before the final blessing.

Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit

Ten new priests bless archbishops, bishop during ordination Mass

By Matthew Davis The Catholic Spirit

A

rchbishop Bernard Hebda offered a unique opportunity to the 10 newly ordained priests of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis May 27.

“Now, bishops don’t get too many prerogatives, but I’m calling in one of them today, and that’s that we bishops might receive the first blessings of these newly ordained priests,” said Archbishop Hebda during the concluding rites of the ordination Mass at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul.

Archbishop Hebda, Auxiliary Bishop Andrew Cozzens and Archbishop Emeritus Harry Flynn knelt in front of the altar as each new priest came and blessed them individually. The archbishops and bishop in turn kissed the hands of the newly ordained. Those rituals normally happen following the ordination in one of the Cathedral’s side chapels.

Immediately afterward, the new priests and Archbishop Hebda offered a final blessing to the more than 3,000 people in a standing-room only crowd at the Cathedral.

The blessings concluded one of the largest ordination Masses in the U.S. this year. Only the Diocese of Paterson, New Jersey, with 13 ordinands, will ordain more priests than the archdiocese in 2017, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate. This was the archdiocese’s largest class of new priests since 2013.

Ordained were Fathers Paul Baker, 30; Bryce Evans, 33; Nicholas Froehle, 25; Nicholas Hagen, 26; Matthew Quail, 30; Timothy Sandquist, 27; Brandon Theisen, 28; Chad VanHoose, 34; Benjamin Wittnebel, 32; and Timothy

Wratkowski, 26. Fathers Hagen and Wratkowski studied at the Pontifical North American College in Rome; the other eight studied at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity in St. Paul.

In a May 30 interview, Archbishop Hebda said the bishops’ blessing was included in the Mass so that the new priests could then bless the congregation, since a blessing from a first-year priest may include an indulgence. He said the bishops kneeled during the first blessing as a “visual reminder of how important” a new priest’s blessing is.

Father Theisen said the experience “was just very humbling, and I think edifying, just to see the leaders of our local Church there present and willing to receive our blessing.”

“I had so much joy,” Father Wittnebel said about the ordination liturgy as a whole.

In his homily, Archbishop Hebda called the final days of the Easter season a fitting time to ordain men to the priesthood. The Church turns its attention to praying “fervently for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit” after the feast of the Ascension, celebrated May 28 this year.

“For the ordained, priesthood and the Eucharist, with which it is so closely connected, are part and parcel of Christ’s plan to sustain his work beyond the Ascension through the Church,” Archbishop Hebda said.

He said that mission includes sustaining Catholics with the sacraments and the preaching of the Gospel. It also means leading people “in going forth into the world, offering an encounter with God’s love and mercy,” he added.

“Our heavenly Father appoints ministers through Christ, his son, by the power of the Holy Spirit, arranging them in different orders — deacon, priest and bishop. The [opening] prayer makes it clear that ordained priests aren’t the end, but the means — the means to forming a priestly people.”

New priests’ parish assignments Father Paul Baker — parochial vicar, St. Vincent de Paul in Brooklyn Park Father Bryce Evans — parochial vicar, Holy Name of Jesus in Medina Father Nicholas Froehle — parochial vicar, St. Ambrose in Woodbury Father Nicholas Hagen — parochial vicar, Our Lady of Grace in Edina Father Matthew Quail — parochial vicar, St. Stephen in Anoka Father Timothy Sandquist — parochial vicar, St. John the Baptist in Savage Father Brandon Theisen — parochial vicar, Divine Mercy in Faribault Father Chad VanHoose — parochial vicar, All Saints in Lakeville Father Benjamin Wittnebel — parochial vicar, St. Peter in Forest Lake Father Timothy Wratkowski — parochial vicar, All Saints in Lakeville

2B • Ordination

The Catholic Spirit • June 8, 2017

Taking ‘wrong class’ prompted Father Baker to enter seminary

By Dave Hrbacek The Catholic Spirit

F

ather Paul Baker remembers a time when sleep was hard to come by. He had graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2009 with majors in history and geography, and thought he might go on to graduate school in library science.

He even visited the University of Wisconsin’s library science school.

“Upon visiting the school, I just felt that this really wasn’t for me, and this wasn’t what I wanted to do,” said Father Baker, 30, who grew up attending St. Peter in Mendota with his parents, Stephen and Claire Baker, and two sisters, and who graduated from CretinDerham Hall High School in 2005 after attending St. Joseph’s Catholic School in West St. Paul.

A deepening of faith during his college years eventually led him to ponder the priesthood.

That’s when his insomnia began.

Thoughts of the priesthood “just wouldn’t go away,” he said. “It was actually keeping me up at night. I just couldn’t stop thinking about it. So, I figured I had to talk to someone about it.”

He discussed it with his pastor before visiting the Vocations Office of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. He was handed an application for the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity in October 2010 and completed it a few months later. In the fall of 2011, he entered seminary.

As he reflects on the seeds of his vocation, he points to a curve ball thrown at him his senior year of college that he now believes was God directing his future.

Students were required to take a seminar-style class that included many discussions and a final paper. He

Father Paul Baker • Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit had his eye on a U.S. foreign policy class, and the procedure for enrolling required students to contact the professor directly.

“I tried and tried and tried to contact him, but was never able to reach him,” Father Baker recalled. “Finally, I emailed him one more time [saying] ‘I want to take your class.’ And he just sent me back this very terse email: ‘I’m sorry, the class is full.’ And I was devastated, I was just crushed.”

“Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit” –Matthew 28:19

Congratulations

Congratulations Father Paul

Father Bryce Evans From your teaching parish St. John the Baptist, New Brighton

Congratulations Father Nicholas Froehle

He looked for other options and settled on a class called Christianity in Europe. The course sparked many questions for him about faith, most notably, “What is it really to be a Christian?”

Those questions, and the resulting reflections, showed him that the class was far more meaningful and relevant to where he was on his faith journey.

“What initially looked like a failure to join that one class I really wanted to take ended up being a blessing,” he said. “In the long run, this [Christianity] class helped me to grow in my faith.”

By the time he enrolled in seminary, he was confident in his calling to the priesthood. What took place during his formation there affirmed his calling. He also took solace in the fact that seminary leaders, all the way up to Msgr. Aloysius Callaghan, gave their approval.

“I always felt comfortable in putting tremendous trust in the seminary system,” he said. “It’s really the seminary that’s discerning the man at that point.”

That’s not to say he never had doubts.

“There were periods, sometimes even long periods, of desolation or difficulty,” he said. “You wake up some mornings and you think to yourself, ‘What am I doing here?’ Or, ‘This is really hard right now.’ Or, ‘Gosh, did I really make the right decision?’ For me, this happened later in the process. For some guys, it’s earlier. For me, it was tougher later on in my time here.”

Those doubts now are behind him, and he is focusing on his priestly ministry. He is excited to begin meeting the people he will serve.

“What I most look forward to is the opportunity to share the faith with people, to help them grow in their faith, to help them deepen their faith, to do whatever I can to be God’s instrument to deepen their spiritual life, to have a better understanding of who they are as a Catholic and help them to know their vocation in life, what God wants them to do,” he said.

“One area I have really enjoyed working in is RCIA [Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults],” he added. “It’s great to be able to answer people’s questions and help them grow in the faith and help them come into life in the Church.”

Our Sincere Love and Prayers. Church of St. Peter

As you begin your priestly ministry Tu es sacerdos in aeternum From the parishioners of the Cathedral of Saint Paul

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Look for The Catholic Spirit advertising insert from ST. PAUL SEMINARY SCHOOL OF DIVINITY in all copies of this issue.

The Catholic Spirit • June 8, 2017

Father Evans expects varied experiences to benefit priesthood

By Susan Klemond For The Catholic Spirit

D

uring his eventful journey to the priesthood, Father Bryce Evans spent two years as a Jesuit novice in St. Paul, walked 350-miles across Wisconsin on a pilgrimage, led teens at a Door County, Wisconsin, wilderness camp and began priestly studies at an Illinois seminary before returning to the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, where he started.

“Each of those stops on the way gave me a different way of looking at the world and at the Church and faith,” said Father Evans, 33, of Corcoran. “I think they’re all mutually enriching me. I see the hand of providence in all of it, and it’s given me a lot of gifts for what I’m going to do in the future in my priestly ministry.”

As he begins a new journey as a priest, Father Evans brings the benefits of his experience, especially his relationship with Christ, whom he believes will enlighten and inform his priesthood.

With his parents, Basel and Debbie, and his younger sister, Melissa, Father Evans attended St. Thomas the Apostle. He had always been interested in his Catholic faith, but an experience on a mission trip after confirmation deepened his relationship with God. After graduating from Buffalo High School, Father Evans attended Jesuit-run Marquette University in Milwaukee, where he learned more about his faith; eventually left his engineering major to study theology; and started to have a desire to explore priesthood or religious life.

“As I continued to pray more, deepen my faith, read

Father Bryce Evans • Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit more of the saints and talk about it with friends and priests, I realized that this is what the Lord meant me to do,” he said.

After finishing his undergraduate degree, Father Evans decided to pursue priesthood as a Jesuit and entered the Jesuit Novitiate of the Midwest USA in St. Paul.

As a first-year novice in 2008, he experienced God’s providence while on a 30-day pilgrimage experiment, a practice begun by St. Ignatius. With only $35, he walked from St. Paul to Holy Hill National Shrine of Mary, Help of Christians in the Milwaukee archdiocese, stopping at parishes along the way.

“I think the great genius of St. Ignatius is his sense of mission and the way that mission is set in one’s personal relationship with the Lord and his very personal call. That’s something that will always be a part of me as I approach my priesthood,” he said.

Ordination • 3B

By the end of the two-year novitiate, Father Evans sensed God wanted him to step away from Jesuit formation. As he discerned what was next, Father Evans volunteered with Catholic Youth Expeditions of Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin, helping lead teens and young adults on Door County retreats combining faith and nature.

There he heard a call to diocesan priesthood.

“It was a time of questioning for me, and things were reclarified during that time,” Father Evans said.

He decided to study as a seminarian for the Diocese of Green Bay and completed two years of pre-theology studies at Mundelein Seminary in Mundelein, Illinois.

However, he realized God was calling him home to become a priest in the archdiocese.

At St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity, Father Evans has appreciated his classmates’ diverse gifts and approaches to life, prayer and ministry.

He prefers prayer that is simply resting in God’s presence while listening for his voice.

“I found if I had too much of an agenda bringing to my time with the Lord in adoration, it ends up just exhausting and distracting me,” Father Evans said. “I just like to come before the Lord, rest in his presence and look at him and let him do what he wants to.”

In his free time, Father Evans enjoys reading theology, writing, classical music, conversations with friends, watching sports, hiking, camping and rock climbing.

Father Evans said he believes he’ll encounter challenges as a new priest, but the seminary has given him tools to face them. One of his first priestly experiences was celebrating his sister’s wedding Mass the week after his ordination.

On his journey to priesthood and the one ahead, Father Evans said he knows the Lord travels with him.

“The bedrock that has kept me grounded, against which all waves broke, was my personal relationship with Christ,” he said. “I’m confident he’s going to carry me through whatever comes in the future. I hope that my priestly ministry will be one that helps people find that same bedrock, Christ.”

Congratulations

Front: Fr. Paul Baker, Fr. Brandon Theisen, Fr. Bryce Evans Back: Fr. Chad VanHoose, Fr. Timothy Sandquist, Fr. Benjamin Wittnebel, Fr. Matthew Quail, Fr. Nicholas Froehle Not pictured: Fr. Elijah Schwab From the priests, faculty and staff of The Saint Paul Seminary School of Divinity

www.saintpaulseminary.org

4B • Ordination

The Catholic Spirit • June 8, 2017

Father Froehle promised God he’d ‘keep moving’ if doors opened

By Jessica Weinberger For The Catholic Spirit

F

or the first half of his undergraduate college career, Father Nicholas Froehle lived the life of a typical student in Ireland Hall, a historic all-brick residence hall that sits just yards away from St. John Vianney College Seminary on the University of St. Thomas campus in St. Paul.

The Littleton, Colorado, native enjoyed his philosophy classes, access to the city biking trails and lakes, and the close proximity to extended family. Both of his parents, Tom and Maryjo Froehle, have strong roots in the Twin Cities and St. Cloud areas.

High school conversations with his parish priest about the priesthood, as well as a supportive letter from his grandparents prior to confirmation, had planted seeds about his vocation. But it was in Ireland Hall where he formed strong friendships with students in the Catholic Studies program, along with the nearby seminarians, that led him to further discern his call.

“Through that mixture of strong relationships centered in faith, that’s where a lot of discernment started to happen and helped me take the leap in the final year,” said Father Froehle, who attended the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul.

He entered SJV as a senior, replacing his established college routine with early morning prayer, mandatory study hours and a new focus that often challenged him to put his obligations to the seminary ahead of other commitments to family and friends.

“By the time I was ready to enter seminary, I was praying and said, ‘Lord, I’m going to say yes, and I’m going to keep saying yes. If you keep opening doors,

Father Nicholas Froehle • Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit we’re going to keep moving,’” he recalled.

Those opened doors soon led him to the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity and later, a teaching assignment at Our Lady of the Lake in Mound and ministry as a deacon at St. Vincent de Paul in Brooklyn Park. He also served in the seminary’s Evangelization in Action program at Immaculate Conception in Columbia Heights and as a chaplaincy intern at Boutwells Landing retirement facility in Oak Park Heights.

At 25, Father Froehle is one of the youngest priests ordained this year in the U.S. His time spent in parishes gave him a taste of what the future will look like as a priest, an experience he calls life giving.

“I’m just so excited to be in the parish full-time and be with the people of God,” he said. “It was incredible to meet so many different people with so many different stories and just love them. I can’t wait to get there.”

One of his most memorable moments was assisting

with the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) at Our Lady of the Lake. Journeying alongside individuals who were coming to know Christ and preparing to enter the Church was a powerful experience for the soon-to-be priest.

“To be present at the Easter Vigil and be by them as they made their profession of faith and received holy Communion for the first time was really beautiful,” Father Froehle said.

Father Michael Pavlakovich, pastor of Light of the World Roman Catholic Church in Littleton, Colorado, first met Father Froehle as a high school student in the church’s youth group. Seeing his love for the Eucharist, Father Pavlakovich hoped that he would accept his invitation to pray about the vocation to the priesthood — a hope that has now come to fruition.

“Nick has a joyful spirit and a pastoral heart,” said Father Pavlakovich, who vested Father Froehle at his ordination. “In addition to his intelligence and sense of humor, I have been privileged to celebrate with him on the altar and am so impressed by his presence and giftedness on the altar.”

Father Froehle plans to bring his deep appreciation of sacred music to his parish assignment. Throughout his time at St. Thomas and in seminary, he participated in a musical ensemble and believes that spending time with the Psalms has enriched his prayer life.

“St. Augustine had it right with, ‘He who sings well prays twice,’” Father Froehle said. “There’s something about how that seems to elevate all of us in a unified way to glorify God with our voices that I find particularly moving.”

While Father Froehle is going to miss the strong sense of brotherhood from the seminary, he hopes to continue his regular get-togethers with fellow priests and seminarians to play trivia or cards.

As he begins his priestly ministry, Father Froehle also plans to keep one simple piece of advice close to his heart.

“Love the people of God and pray,” he said. “Then, it’s going to be a happy priesthood.”

The Church of the Blessed Sacrament of St. Paul, MN

Warmly Congratulates Our Lady of Guadalupe Church would like to

CONGRATULATE Father Brandon Theisen!!

Words cannot express how proud we are of you!

Fr. Chad VanHoose on your Ordination to the Holy Priesthood

“Be Christ for others!”

Congratulations,

Father Ben WittneBel, on your ordination to the Priesthood oF Jesus Christ!

From your teaChing Parish, ChurCh oF the holy sPirit

Ordination • 5B

The Catholic Spirit • June 8, 2017

For Father Hagen, vocation deepens sense of ‘romance between God and his people’

By Maria Wiering The Catholic Spirit

F

ather Nicholas Hagen can point to a single meal that changed the course of his life. He was around 8 years old when his parents invited a visiting missionary priest to dinner — something they hadn’t done before — and they talked late into the night. The priest’s presence and that conversation, however, had a profound and lasting effect.

“I saw a real shift in my family,” said Father Hagen, 26. “I saw that what the priest said and witnessed to made a concrete difference in my family life.”

Father Hagen’s parents, Bret and Mary Hagen, deepened their understanding of their vocation and their family’s commitment to their faith. Their increased involvement in Church activities — and the flexibility that required — led his parents to homeschool him and his four younger siblings.

In high school, Father Hagen remembers sitting in front of the Eucharist in adoration and feeling as if he had to make a decision about his discipleship — and his vocation. If Jesus was who he said he was, “then there can be nothing more important in my life,” he recalled thinking.

As Father Hagen was deciding where to go to college, he went to confession on Divine Mercy Sunday at his parish, Holy Family in St. Louis Park. Afterward, he felt he heard God telling him clearly: “I offer an amazing plan. I’m not going to tell you everything it is right now, but if you trust me completely and totally ... I will make your life something great, and you will not make it yourself,” he recalled. With this affirmation, Father Hagen enrolled at St. John Vianney College Seminary at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul in 2009.

He describes his discernment process as “a slow,

Father Nicholas Hagen • Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit gradual one” in which he has gone from “part-time disciple to full-time disciple, and realizing that God’s dreams and plans were far greater than what I could have dreamed up myself.”

“In seminary, it’s been realizing more and more deeply the romance of God and his people — that romance story is one that involves all of my life,” he said.

After four years at SJV, he moved to Rome in 2013 to complete his studies first at the Gregorian University and then the Lateran University while living at the Pontifical North American College. He expects to return to Rome in the fall to complete a licentiate in Christology.

Father FatherTimothy Timothy Wratkowski Wratkowski Your parish family rejoices and thanks God for your vocation to holy priesthood.

CHURCH OF ST. CHARLES BORROMEO 2739 STINSON BOULEVARD, ST. ANTHONY, MN 55418

Congratulations and God Bless You Fr. Benjamin Wittnebel On Your Ordination to the Priesthood From the parish community of Church of St. Michael in Farmington.

Congratulations to Father Chad VanHoose and Father Tim Sandquist on your ordination to the Holy Priesthood from your friends at

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Life in the Eternal City has given him the opportunity to encounter a variety of religious orders and lay movements, and understand their different roles in the Church and God’s “custom-fit” plan for each person and how God “seeks to grab our hearts,” he said. He has a special affection for the mendicant Community of the Lamb; the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist; and the Community of Sant’Egidio, he said.

He’s also been able to experience Pope Francis as a person, and not just a news figure, he said, adding that “hearing his words not so much like text in a newspaper, but coming from a human being who really wants to witness to the Lord and tell us the truth and be a link directly back to Jesus ... makes my ears perk up more.”

His chaplaincies have included working with people living in low-income housing in the Roman neighborhood Trastevere and students from the University of Mary in Bismarck, North Dakota, studying in Rome. He’s spent the past two summers assisting at Our Lady of Grace in Edina.

“I’m very convinced that the parochial Church is meant to serve the domestic Church, and I can’t wait to work with couples preparing for marriage and families, to try to work together on what’s the Holy Spirit doing in your family,” he said.

While Father Hagen is especially passionate about the liturgy, one of his hobbies is helping others articulate their own passions and expertise as a host of the Catholic Bytes podcast, short audio segments on Church apologetics, history and teaching. In a recent episode, he interviewed Father Paul Haverstock, a priest of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis studying in Rome, about the Church’s doctrine on praying for the dead and purgatory.

He enjoys strategizing about how to nail the interview by helping the guest shine and explain something in a pithy and entertaining way.

He said the best advice he’s received about priesthood is to keep learning and never forget that he’s on a journey, too.

“I’m never going to be able to say, ‘I’ve figured out God, and now I can tell everybody exactly who God is,’ because he’s always beyond me, too. That’s part of the humility of the priesthood,” he said.

Father Chad VanHoose NET Missionary 2005-2006 NET Staff 2006-2011

www.netusa.org

Father Tim Sandquist NET Missionary 2012-2013

Ordin

6B • The Catholic Spirit

H

How does a priest learn work-life balance, time management and how to delegate to parish employees?

Just as medical doctors don’t stop honing their practice once they exit the hospital doors of their residency, priests don’t stop their formation upon ordination. Building on the four dimensions of seminary formation — human, spiritual, pastoral and intellectual — is essential for priests throughout their ministry, says Deacon Dan Gannon, director of the Institute for Ongoing Clergy Formation at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity in St. Paul.

While it’s key for clergy, it’s also good for Catholics in the pews.

“It’s really an ongoing development,” he said of clergy formation. “It’s conversion with, really, the goal of all of these dimensions being holiness. Because if our priests and deacons are holy and happy and healthy … they’re going to be effective in their being an instrument of grace to those they serve. The people of God are the ultimate beneficiaries of ongoing formation.”

Clergy support Since the institute formed in 2015, Deacon Gannon has been listening to priests and deacons to learn about their needs; creating cohorts of clergy, laity and seminary representatives to explore how to best respond to those needs; and hosting events including retreats and workshops.

He described the institute’s work as “new ground” in that it attempts to provide comprehensive ongoing clergy formation across the four dimensions, which are standard in most seminaries because they derive from St. John Paul II’s “I Shall Give You Shepherds” (1992).

The IOCF encompasses both priest and deacon formation, although some programs are specifically for one or the other. Initial programming has focused on priests. Already, there were several priestfocused formation events in place in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, such as a clergy study day and a convocation with the archbishop held every few years.

But, before the institute launched, priests — who are required by canon law to make an annual retreat — were tasked with finding and coordinating those opportunities on their own. Now the IOCF makes regular retreats and other events available to them.

Father James Adams called IOCF’s offerings well coordinated, informative and encouraging. He’s the parochial vicar for the parish cluster of Nativity in Cleveland, Immaculate Conception in Marysburg, and St. Mary and St. Henry in Le Center.

“It’s been great to have things offered here locally [and] especially to be with guys in the diocese,” said Father Adams, who was ordained in 2004. “I think it gives confidence among the priests, and the morale is stronger, and more guys are more excited about what’s happening and can be inspired and encouraged more than before.

There’s a shared desire to keep growing.”

The IOCF seeks to serve priests wherever they are in their ministry. Recently, Father Michael Skluzacek, pastor of St. John the Baptist in New Brighton, attended an IOCF retreat in Buffalo. With a theme of the

priesthood and the Gospel of Luke, he called it “the best retreat of my life” in his 37-year priesthood — and critical for the growth of the Church.

Father Donald DeGrood, who’s served as the archdiocese’s vicar for clergy since 2013, said the initiative has been a longtime desire of archdiocesan leaders and the laity. In his role, he’s been a liaison between the archdiocese and IOCF, communicating clergy’s needs to Deacon Gannon to help him develop and implement resources.

One of the greatest needs is in transitions that clergy make — newly ordained to parish life, associate pastor to pastor, and active ministry to retirement.

When all of IOCF’s pieces have been fully developed, Deacon Gannon said clergy will benefit from learning ways to achieve life balance, as well as time management, through human formation.

Intellectual formation could include classes and book clubs. Spiritual formation includes retreats, training and education.

Pastorally, IOCF could help clergy learn how to invigorate their parishes and recognize parishioners’ gifts.

Building up the

local Churc

Institute for Ongoing Clergy Formati fosters fraternity and support

By Jessica Trygstad • The Catholic Spirit

Meeting essential needs When priests are ordained, most are focused on the opportunity to celebrate the sacraments and not the litany of meetings, budgets and parish logistics for which they’ll be responsible. Like other organizational leaders, however, priests need help keeping up with legal, human resources and managerial requirements, along with parishes’ other needs, which might include multiple campuses and schools.

Deacon Gannon described the need as a “pain point,” but is working to ease the pressure. Enter the IOCF’s flagship, the Pastor Workshop, to address these issues.

“The priest is called to see the connection between his leadership and management, and the nuts and bolts of what it means to be a pastor, and his role as a priest — that this is part of his priestly vocation and duties,” Deacon Gannon said. “And to not see it as, ‘I didn’t sign up for this. I just want to administer the sacraments.’ That’s most important, certainly, but at the same time, [so is] helping them see the connection between their priestly vocation and the work they’re called to do with regard to leading a parish in these challenging ways that have arisen.”

As part of that responsibility, priests — like good managers — need to delegate responsibilities to parish staff and make informed decisions without getting mired in details, and no one should expect them to be experts in professional fields, Deacon Gannon said.

Addressing good management issues, however, encompasses only a small part of the institute’s work. Leaders also want to address human growth, specifically through priest mentoring.

Father Skluzacek said the seminary does an excellent job preparing priests, but then once out of seminary, a priest can “get off track” in terms of personal holiness and spiritual growth. The institute is one more way to help keep them on the right road, he noted.

“The sanctification of priests, I think, is one of the most important efforts in the Church nowadays, probably since day one,” Father Skluzacek said. “But I think

Illustration by iStock a

nation

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ion

and Caron Olhoft

June 8, 2017 • many of the problems we’ve had with priests over the years is because priests are not holy. And so, it’s so important to have that ongoing formation for priests.”

Father DeGrood noted the institute’s preventative approach.

“The goal and the desire would be that there’s an even greater focus on providing tools and resources to help priests [and deacons] be successful, so they don’t have as many challenges,” he said.

Some of those challenges could be as basic as developing poor nutrition and exercise habits. Deacon Gannon noted the importance of a physical wellness program for clergy and cited the Archdiocese of St. Louis’ efforts in that area. To that aim, he has been working with that program’s director, registered nurse Sue Wilker, as well as a local doctor to explore what it would take to implement a physical wellness program in the archdiocese. The IOCF also provides resources for psychological and emotional issues for which clergy can obtain confidential help.

“The same kinds of issues that we see prevalent in our culture — they’re not absent from the clergy, either, so these are issues that human formation wants to offer opportunities for growth,” he said.

That human formation also includes having a healthy personal identity as well as accountability. Deacon Gannon said that while the clergy sex abuse scandal didn’t precipitate the IOCF, it points to an essential need: “building areas of human growth that are a positive illustration of the Church’s response to her fallibility and the woundedness that has happened as a result of that.”

That can happen through priestly fraternity and mentorship, he said.

“Having a culture of the clergy rich with mentorship is one of the ways in which we can encourage fraternity and mutual support within the clergy to build one another up and to act as a preventative and a counter to unhealthy isolation and lifestyles,” he said.

But Deacon Gannon noted that formation isn’t just about addressing clergy members’ personal needs; it’s about them having the tools to effectively help Catholics with their own personal struggles, including sexual immorality and addiction.

Priests note that these are the issues most commonly revealed in the confessional, and the IOCF has taken note. Its clergy study day this spring addressed how priests can approach prevalent cultural issues and sins compassionately in the confessional.

The objective was to give priests tools, deeper insight and ongoing support for better ministry to those they’re shepherding.

Father Skluzacek described clergy study days as “eye opening” and said they’ve expanded his notion of priesthood.

“It trickles down to the laity,” Father Skluzacek explained about clergy formation. “When the priest understands more, the laity understand more who they are as disciples through his ministry, the sacraments, prayer, etc. They’re better formed disciples of Jesus.”

Larger scope When clergy take advantage of the retreats, workshops and other IOCF events, they also experience another dynamic not found elsewhere — a community of priests gathering for mutual support.

“The clergy of the archdiocese that come to these [events] experience a great sense of fraternity and communion and solidarity, especially because the archbishop and bishop themselves are there, and they care,” Deacon Gannon said. “It’s a dynamic of the IOCF that is sometimes lost, but most important: Many of the opportunities are important because they simply bring together the clergy. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have gotten together.”

Father Adams has worked in urban and rural parishes and explained how the added opportunities for fraternity are essential, especially for priests who serve outside of the metro and can’t easily share the regular company of other priests due to geography.

“Now being in a rural area, there’s certainly a need here for how to keep applying this for the circumstances of priests who are pretty far out and have to drive far for fraternity, for example, or diocesan events,” he said.

Although the institute has been providing formation opportunities since 2016, Deacon Gannon considers it to still be in start-up mode.

When leaders began looking into ongoing formation for clergy, Deacon Gannon said there were a lot of “starts and stops” because it was “everybody’s problem and nobody’s problem to solve,” he said.

However, the Church calls for dioceses — and seminaries especially — to develop resources, although formation is ultimately the clergy member’s personal responsibility.

With Father Peter Williams, vice rector of formation at the St. Paul Seminary, as a driving force, “there was a sense in the leadership at the seminary that we need to be paying attention to this,” Deacon Gannon said. He noted that Msgr. Aloysius Callaghan, the seminary’s rector, has also been an advocate for the IOCF, and that Archbishop Bernard Hebda and Bishop Andrew Cozzens are also instrumental.

Despite the initiative’s infancy, he’s pleased with the opportunities it has been able to offer thus far, and the collaboration between local Catholic institutions, such as the University of St. Thomas. He also appreciates the diversity among members of six cohorts that help direct the institute’s work.

“I’m excited to see it come to fruition through the collaboration … . We have an extraordinarily strong alliance of resources here in the local Church … to do something big, something that has a lasting impact. But it’s gotta be one soul at a time,” he said.

Deacon Gannon hopes laity recognize the importance of the institute and bolster it with prayers and financial support.

“In the end, it’s serving our clergy so that the people of God can be worthily ministered to,” he said. “It’s to build the kingdom of God [and] reinvest more deeply in the well-being of our clergy. It’s not something that just takes care of itself.

We have to take care of each other.”

Already, Father DeGrood has seen an uptick in clergy morale, especially around clergy study days and retreats. The programs have brought back a “strengthening enthusiasm” and motivation for clergy to want to keep learning.

“The plane’s ready to leave,” he said, “but we need the fuel behind it to get it off the ground and really make it flourish to the potential that it has.”

7B

Jubilarians to new priests: Listen, learn and help people share their gifts The Catholic Spirit

The Catholic Spirit reached out to priests of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis who are celebrating their 50th jubilees this year. Below, they offer words of wisdom gleaned from their ministry.

“Archbishop William Brady in the mid-1950s while preaching at Nazareth Hall Preparatory Seminary in St. Paul said, ‘Do not judge anyone until you have walked 10 miles in his moccasins.’ Most of us had never heard the line, but over the many years since, the wisdom of these words has proven true again and again. Listen well to those you serve before you pass judgment or even give advice. This is also a wise practice in talking with and about our fellow priests.”

— Father John Malone, pastor of Assumption in St. Paul, who will retire July 1 “I hope that they will be convinced about the importance of being a pastor in their future of working with the people of a congregation and building up the body of Christ as a pastor. That’s my biggest piece of advice. I think that’s what we diocesan priests are ordained to be — to do — to serve the local community and to serve the larger Church community as pastors in the Church. That’s a challenge today as it always has been. That’s the reason I mention it.

It’s what I’ve been lucky to be in my 50 years as a priest — a pastor.”

— Father Patrick Griffin, retired and living at Catholic Eldercare in Minneapolis “We received the sacrament called holy orders. What that means is not that we are supposed to do everything, but we’re to bring holy order into all the lay people’s gifts. Too many priests are doing all the work themselves and killing themselves and wearing out. They’ve got to learn how to raise up people and help the people discover their gifts and then bring some order into them, so they’re working together in unity and harmony. It’s helping people discover their gifts, not just doing everything ourselves. People are happiest when they’re doing what their passion is.

“They’re trying to do God’s work and they’re killing themselves because they’re trying to do it on their own. If you’re going to do God’s work, you’ve got to have God’s power. So, what we want to try to figure out is how can you tap into more of God’s power and the spiritual resources he makes available for us to help us do the work that he’s called us to do. It’s an impossible job, and you can’t do it without God and God won’t do it without you.”

— Father Timothy Nolan, retired and living and serving at Pacem in Terris in Isanti “Spend time each day in quiet fellowship with Jesus, inviting him into your heart to transform you into his image as the good shepherd. Drink deeply of the wisdom of the Church by reflecting on the life and teaching of the saints and the magisterium. Stay close to the people of God. Love them. Serve them and learn from them. Welcome and enjoy the support and wisdom of brother priests and of the laity. ” — Father Bob Schwartz, retired and living at McKenna Crossing Senior Residence in Prior Lake

Other priests celebrating 50 years: • Father Dennis Evenson, retired • Father Gregory Welch, retired

Priests celebrating 25 years: • Father Stanley Mader, pastor of St. Ambrose in Woodbury • Father Thomas McCabe, parochial vicar of St. Albert in Albertville and St. Michael in St. Michael • Father Michael Tix, pastor of St. John the Baptist in Savage • Father J. Anthony Andrade, pastor of St. Thomas in St. Paul Park

8B • Ordination Trust, not certainty, guided Father Sandquist’s discernment

By Maria Wiering The Catholic Spirit

F

ather Timothy Sandquist enrolled as a freshman at South Dakota State University in 2008 expecting to graduate a mechanical engineer and eventually get married.

A year later, he left to join the seminary.

Father Sandquist didn’t give priesthood serious thought while growing up in Minnetrista. The second of Dave and Mary Sandquist’s three children, he wasn’t particularly involved at his parish, St. Boniface in St. Bonifacius. So, he was caught off-guard when the possibility of priesthood entered his mind just a month into his classes at SDSU in Brookings, South Dakota.

He was attending an engineering job fair when he started to feel “not quite at peace about my future,” he said. He went back to his dorm room to reflect, and priesthood popped into his mind, filling him with “excitement and joy.”

“It was a pretty big surprise,” said Father Sandquist, 27. “I was practicing my faith, however, I didn’t know a whole lot about the faith. I just had the basic knowledge from my CCD classes.”

As he reflected on the idea, the more it seemed to be a path to a rich and full life and an opportunity to be “with people at the most important moments of their life, whether good or bad,” he said.

Father Sandquist talked to a priest at the campus’ Newman Center and soon visited St. John Vianney College Seminary at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul with a group of men. He then connected with the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ vocations director, then Father Peter Williams, and made a second visit later that winter. He decided to apply, not because he was certain he should become a

CONGRATULATIONS Father Matthew Quail on your ordination to the priesthood.

Thank you for answering God’s call. Wishing you an abundance of Grace and Blessings.

From Your Teaching Parish St. Bartholomew Catholic Faith Community Wayzata

The Catholic Spirit • June 8, 2017

When he entered St. Paul Seminary in 2013, he wasn’t certain that he was called to priesthood, but he had confidence that he was on the right road, he said.

He noted his “steady desire of the heart for priesthood” and relied on the guidance of his formators and spiritual directors.

“I’ve never had that certainty, and I’m OK with that, I have peace with that,” he said.

Shortly before his diaconate ordination, he was struck by words written by a priest who knew St. Teresa of Kolkata, aka Mother Teresa, and had asked her to pray for his clarity in his vocation. She told him no. The priest asked her why, since she seemed to have clarity about her own work. She said, “I’ve never had clarity, only trust.”

“That’s the way I see my vocation,” Father Sandquist said.

Father Sandquist said his experiences in his teaching parish, St. Jude of the Lake in Mahtomedi, and deacon assignment, St. John the Baptist in New Brighton, also affirmed his direction. He especially enjoyed visiting parishioners’ homes for dinner.

“There’s a lot of joy,” he said. “People usually tend to open up in those circumstances. They kind of let MAY 20, 2010 you into their lives, which is really cool.”

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT As a priest, he is most looking forward to administering the sacrament of reconciliation. He also Father Timothy Sandquist • Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit Deacon Alex Carlson likes youth ministry and teaching, which he Age: 26 attributes, in part, to his time with NET.

By Maria Wiering Paul priest, but because he wanted toHometown: find out ifWest thatSt.was A musician who The Catholic Spiritplays bass and acoustic guitar, Home parish: St. Joseph, West St. his call.

Paul Father Sandquist wasthat involved in three of the I promise to God I will become a priest.

Seminary was a “huge period of growth in faith and Parents: Bernie (deceased) and seminary’s recent theater productions, first as a That’s what Deacon Alex Carlson wrote as a human being,” he said. AfterPauline graduating in 2012, an actor.

He also likes to rock climb in his then second-grade notebook while a stuEducation: in he still felt a desire for the priesthood, butBachelor’s took a degree stagehand, — when he the chance — and read dent athas St. Michael’s in West St. Paul.

Histheology. His philosophy and Catholic studies break from seminary formation to serve with West teacher, Sisterare Mary Jean,Emeritus told her students favorite authors Pope Benedict XVI and from the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul-based NET Ministries. For a year, he traveled they could write whatever they wanted in 2006.

G.K. Chesterton.

The best way he prays, he said, is by van across the United States with other “Netters” their notebooks, and if they didn’t want Teaching parish: St. Hubert, through or contemplation herlectio to see divina, it, they could fold the page in of Scripture. to lead youth retreats. A quiet introvert, Father Chanhassen half and staple it.

“I still do not consider myself good at it,” he said of internshippublic experiences: Sandquist seized the opportunityPastoral to overcome Clinical pastoral experience at The 7-year-old folded his page in half lectio divina.

“It takes a lot of practice, I think. speaking anxiety and embrace the ministry’s outgoing Altru Hospital, Grand Forks, N.D.; and stapled it. will speak to me and stick out to Sometimes things evangelization and relationship-building methods.

He Spanish-language ministry at later,nothing.” he ripped it out and me, andThree otherdays times, regularly gave the “send off” presentation, Divine Mercy,advising Faribault; threw it in the trash. He’d rather be a teenagers to pray, find Catholic fellowship, serve at NativityThatgarbage perseverance ties in with the best advice he’s diaconate placement man, he thought. of Our Lord, St. Paul. others and regularly receive the sacraments. receivedHowever, for priesthood: Never praying. he was never able stop fully to toss

2B

Second-grade promise prove

Hobbies: Fishing, golfing, running, reading and watching any Minnesota sport.

Favorite seminary class: Homiletics.

Favorite book: “The Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck Favorite band: OAR. Favorite restaurant: Lucky’s 13 in Mendota.

Favorite movie: “The Shawshank Redemption.”

Person you most admire: St. John Vianney

aside the feeling that priesthood might be his grandmothers to att his vocation. His family often invited the ordination. His father, h parish priests to his home, and he had reli- be. He died from cancer o gious sisters as teachers, so he regularly saw when Deacon Carlson wa St. John Vianney Colleg examples of religious life.

Yet, he dated in high school at Cretin- father’s sickness and dea Derham Hall and started college at Bemidji but Deacon Carlson was g family and to have the se State University. nity.

“I was majoring in criminal justice, but “I grew in holiness at th really I was majoring in ice fishing and my faith in God, that he h throwing the shot put,” he quipped.

During the fall of his freshman year, an helped me deal with my English professor assigned the class to write said.

He took the experienc about a time they to make a CHURCH OFwere ST. forced CHARLES BORROMEO death difficult decision.

Deacon Carlson wrote 2739 STINSON BOULEVARD, ST. ANTHONY, MN 55418 into his pastoral cl about deciding whether or not to join the work. His first chaplain couldn’t bring himself to seminary.

The paper was supposed to be five pages. ogy floor at United Hos The second summer, at A He wrote 22.

Grand Forks, N.D., he re “About two in the morning, with tears in with oncology and hospic my eyes, I came to the conclusion that God first 20 minutes of his was calling me towards at least checking called to the bedside of a out going to the seminary,” he said. he sat with him and mini ily as he passed away.

Faith growing through loss

Father Anthony Timothy Lusvardi, Wratkowski S.J. Your parish family rejoices and thanks God for your vocation to holy priesthood.

Thanksgiving Masses: Sunday, May 30, 9 a.m., St. Joseph, West St. Paul Sunday, June 6, 10:30 a.m., St. Hubert, Chanhassen Sunday, June 13, 11 a.m., Nativity of Our Lord, St. Paul

CatholicHotdish.com

What’s your favorite Scripture quote?

“Let the favor of the Lord be upon us: Give success to the work of our hands. Give success to the work of our hands” (Psalm 90:17). The reason that it is my favorite is because it asks God to give success to all that we do in our life, and what we should do in life is to give success to God.

At Christmas break, he told his parents he was entering the seminary in the fall.

They weren’t surprised, and they were very encouraging. He received the same reaction from his five older siblings. Both of his grandmothers said they hoped they would be there for his ordination.

Eight years later, Deacon Carlson expects

Congratulations

Father Congratulations Tim Sandquist

“It touched them, and hadn’t been back to see a dad. I could feel their pain see . . . the knowledge th them,” he said.

“Throughout the whol ing with patients, I kind o own experience, what sho

Father Erik Lundgren

From your teaching parish From your teaching parish of St. Jude of the Lake of St. Jude of the Lake

Congratulations

The Catholic Spirit • June 8, 2017

Ordination • 9B

Former Lutheran finds answer to life’s ‘so what?’ in Catholicism

By Jessica Trygstad The Catholic Spirit

I

t took a lot of nagging questions about life to steer Father Matthew Quail, 30, to the Catholic Church.

He grew up Lutheran in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, not involved in church life, but watching its televised service on Sundays. Then, a car accident left his mother, Janette, in a coma for two weeks followed by extensive rehabilitation, so she could relearn how to walk and talk. It was an adjustment for the family, Father Quail said. His father, Donald, took the caretaker role.

Meanwhile, his older brother graduated from high school as Father Quail was entering middle school.

“I started praying every day in fifth grade, because usually the only one who was around was God,” Father Quail said.

He started reading the Bible, but his faith life turned stagnant after he was confirmed as a ninth-grader. However, as a college freshman at South Dakota State University in Brookings, he felt he needed Christian morality in his new environment.

“It came to the point where I needed a foundation, I needed some answer,” he said.

He was a sophomore when he asked a “giddy freshman girl” why she was so happy; she told him she loved Jesus.

“I said, ‘Well, so do I, but I’m not all showy about it,’” Father Quail recalled.

“And she asked me, ‘Why not?’”

His classmate invited him to Navigators, a Christian campus ministry group. He went to its events and attended different Lutheran parishes hoping to find the right fit, but he discovered they didn’t share a common practice. He remembered attending Catholic weddings and funerals, and asked a Catholic friend to take him to Mass. After receiving a blessing during Communion, he said he felt a “huge wave of peace.”

“So, it was like the one thing that gave me joy,” he said. “It’s like the secret that everyone’s looking for — the ‘so what?’ in life.”

He wanted to learn more about the Catholic faith, but his friends couldn’t answer his questions, so he called SDSU’s Newman Center. By the end of his sophomore year, he decided to begin the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults.

He joined the Church the following year in 2007.

But even with a newfound faith life, his future remained unclear. Although he’d be graduating with a business degree, he didn’t know what to do with it; what he did know was that he wanted to talk about Jesus and his Church. The Newman Center’s priest told him there’s a job where he could do just that — the priesthood. However, Father Quail thought it was too much, too soon. But in 2008, he visited the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity in St. Paul. He didn’t want to admit it at first, but he loved the experience.

“I just saw really cool men who were excited about their faith [and] intelligent, and I thought, ‘This is an amazing community.’”

After graduating from SDSU in the

spring of 2009, he entered the seminary that fall.

“God kept at me in prayer,” he said.

He quickly acclimated to the Twin Cities and struggled with the idea of serving as a priest in the Diocese of Sioux Falls, so he left the seminary, returning to work in Sioux Falls and then moving back to the Twin Cities to work for Wells Fargo mortgage. He attended Mass and taught catechism classes at Nativity of Our Lord in St. Paul.

“My Tuesday night was the highlight of my week because I got to plan for my Wednesday class,” he said.

But something was still missing.

In December 2012, when Father Quail told his father he was miserable, his father said he needed to return to the seminary.

“I said, ‘What do you know? You’re not even Catholic.’ And he said, ‘Well, Matt, that’s the only time in your life you were really happy,’” Father Quail recalled, adding that his father converted to Catholicism in 2015.

“So, of course, being a good stubborn mule that I am, I didn’t do anything.”

Admittedly hemming and hawing over the priesthood, Father Quail reached a tipping point in 2013.

“I remember I was at my desk at work, doing all this stuff with mortgage, and I thought, ‘There’s gotta be more.’” Then he pondered: If he had only one week to live, he’d evangelize door-to-door. He decided to solidify his calling by meeting with Father Troy Przybilla, who served as the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ vocations director, to reenter the seminary.

“There were a lot of twists and turns, but ultimately, it came down to a lot of trust, and trust in God’s plan,” Father Quail said.

Through his journey, learning to “be himself” has been the most important lesson from classmates and clergy. It’s also been a challenge. His fellow seminarians have shown him that a priestly vocation really is a calling because each man is different and brings a variety of gifts to his ministry.

“There are so many amazing priests out there, and I think, ‘I want to be like Father so-and-so,’” he said. “But the Lord continually says, ‘No, you’re not him. I gave you gifts. Be you.’”

He added, “People have a misperception of what holiness is. They think the only emotions you can have are happiness and some anger when people speak poorly of the Church. But holiness is a real integration of the Spirit in your life, because holiness is a daily saying ‘yes’ to Jesus. It’s continually being faithful to using the gifts God’s given you, where God has placed you [and] with whom he has placed you. It’s allowing him to transform your hobbies, your language, who you hang out with — allowing him to transform you as you, and not who you think you should be.”

In the priesthood, Father Quail most looks forward to fulfilling the call he felt all along: “Being who God called me to be,” he said, “[and] to bring the joy of the Gospel to a really hungry world.”

Father Matthew Quail • Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit

10B • Ordination

The Catholic Spirit • June 8, 2017

Looking for a ‘job that can impact lives,’ Father Theisen drawn to priesthood

By Dave Hrbacek The Catholic Spirit

W

hile working at a bank in St. Paul after graduating from the University of St. Thomas in 2011, Father Brandon Theisen thought he “had it all.”

Just two months after graduation, he chose to live in a St. Paul’s Outreach men’s household, and sharing a house with seven other men proved rich. Some of them were finishing school while others were launching careers and dating.

He thought that might be his future, too, but God intervened.

“I didn’t want to do this for the rest of my life, and I was a little unsettled, a little not happy in that profession,” said Father Theisen, who majored in philosophy and Catholic Studies at St. Thomas. “After [spending] hours at the office, I realized I wanted a job that can impact lives. I wanted to be able to change lives. As I thought and prayed about that, seminary and the notion of priesthood kept popping back in my mind.”

It wasn’t a foreign concept. Father Theisen, the second oldest of Michael and Giovanna Theisen’s six children who grew up attending Epiphany in Coon Rapids, had spent three years at St. John Vianney College Seminary and contemplated priesthood during that time.

However, he decided to step away from SJV his senior year to explore other possibilities. One of them was dating, and he got into a serious relationship for six

Father Brandon Theisen • Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit months, but he and the woman reached a mutual decision to break up.

“In the midst of our relationship, I realized I wasn’t 100 percent happy,” said Father Theisen, 28. “It was no fault of the girl’s, but there was just a little bit of that unsettlement.”

The influence of priests who had served at Epiphany while he was growing up came back into his thoughts.

The good memories helped steer him onto the path toward his priestly vocation.

“I think seeing these young men as priests, and happy, was just a great witness to me,” he said. “All of those priests who came through Epiphany when I was younger helped [foster a vocation].”

One in particular was Father Bernard Reiser, longtime pastor of Epiphany who died in 2011. He led the parish from 1964 to 2001, and Father Theisen was impressed by the example he set.

“I loved Father Reiser — [a] great, holy man who worked himself to the bone,” Father Theisen said.

“So, obviously, [he was] a great example of what a

Father VanHoose the latest vocation ‘netted’ through national ministry

By Matthew Davis The Catholic Spirit

F

ather Chad VanHoose, 34, had every intention of serving only one year with NET Ministries after graduating from Eastern Kentucky University in 2005 with a nursing degree.

“I was going to just do that for a year and then see what happened, whether that was go back to nursing or to enter seminary or to do something else,” Father VanHoose said.

That lone year turned into seven with the West St. Paul-based ministry.

Seminary didn’t have the strong draw at the time he packed his single bag for NET. Father VanHoose said he had “inklings” about priesthood growing up, but a seminary visit during high school had convinced him it wasn’t the right fit.

Father VanHoose grew up in South Shore, Kentucky, with his parents, Paul and Julie VanHoose, and his two older sisters. Faith played a significant role in the family’s life, and Father VanHoose attended 13 years of Catholic school in neighboring Portsmouth, Ohio, across the river from South Shore.

He first thought about priesthood as early as age 5 or 6, Father VanHoose said, and the idea “came and went” over the years.

He had positive experiences in church and stayed involved during college. His involvement with campus ministry helped him develop habits of prayer, but his “good experiences of Christian witness and Catholic faith” from others in his life especially moved him.

“That’s what prompted me at the end of college” to do NET, Father VanHoose said. “I wasn’t sure if nursing was the thing.”

Father VanHoose joined NET in 2005, but he didn’t

Father Chad VanHoose • Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit travel the country as most “Netters” do, holding retreats for middle school and high school students. Instead, he became part of the ministry’s first parish team at Divine Mercy in Faribault.

The nationwide ministry focuses on evangelizing teens, helping them form a relationship with Jesus and building leadership teams to continue NET’s work after the team leaves the parish.

He stayed with NET after the 2005-2006 school year and continued as a staff member for six years. “I feel that I have kind of a head start in being a lay minister in a parish,” Father VanHoose said.

Father VanHoose said that through NET he “really started forming good habits — daily holy hour, daily Mass, Christian community, rosary, spiritual reading [and] spiritual direction.”

Getting involved in his adopted home parish of St. Joseph in West St. Paul became instrumental in that journey, particularly daily Mass. He still made it there

pastor should be.”

He hopes to set a similar example of service as he begins his ministry as a priest. Youth and energy are attributes he plans to bring to every parish he is assigned to serve. He wants to spend his time with the people in the parishes, and he hopes that time will include fun activities with young people.

And yet, in the midst of building relationships with parishioners, he also wants to find time alone with God. “I’m an extrovert. I enjoy being around [people],” he said. “But, when I pray, I actually really appreciate the silence. It’s easy for me to get distracted, so I appreciate the silence to pray.”

He has enjoyed the prayerful atmosphere at the St. Paul Seminary, and has spent many an hour praying in the chapel. Another takeaway has been the fraternity with his nine classmates. As one of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ larger ordination classes in recent years, it has produced a range of personalities and gifts, he noted.

“My classmates have taught me — they’re all talented and gifted men — that we all bring different gifts to the table, and no gift is better than another,” he said.

“So, one may be more athletic than another, one may be more intellectual than another, and one may be more pastoral than another, and one may be holier than another.”

He continued: “[It’s important] to realize that God has given all of us these different individual gifts to build up his kingdom, so I shouldn’t be jealous of my brother who’s more intellectual than myself, or a brother who’s holier than myself — to rejoice in their gifts and their talents to build up the kingdom of God.” Father Theisen believes it is important to learn from his fellow priests, which is why he carries advice they have given him over the years. One piece sounds simple, but has been especially meaningful to him: “Pray as you can, not as you can’t. In your mission, always realize that you’re rooted in Jesus Christ. If you’re not, if you’re missing your prayer ... you start losing your identity.” before work each day when he commuted from the Macalester-Groveland area of St. Paul.

The question of priesthood kept coming up as he dedicated time to prayer. He described the intensity of the call growing as “stirrings in my heart and just a firm draw to the priesthood” during several holy hours he made in 2010.

It helped that he could talk with two good seminarian friends at the time, both who came to the archdiocese from other parts of the U.S. through NET. Father Brian Park from Texas and Father Kyle Kowalczyk from Michigan became priests in 2013 and 2016, respectively.

“It was easier for me to say ‘yes’ with friends in the seminary,” Father VanHoose said.

However, entering seminary meant leaving life as he knew it. He had planned to stay with NET long term and start graduate school with an Ave Maria University distance learning program.

But when speaking with Father Kowalczyk, then a seminarian, he realized he was serious about the priesthood.

Father VanHoose took then-vocations director Father Peter Williams’ advice of “at least giving it a shot [and] that there was nothing to be lost in seeking it,” he recalled.

Eventually, “My heart was conquered,” Father VanHoose said.

His teaching parish was Blessed Sacrament in St. Paul.

He also served at St. Hubert in Chanhassen during January term at the seminary, and he ministered as a transitional deacon at Nativity of Our Lord in St. Paul last summer.

As a priest, Father VanHoose looks forward to “just being a [spiritual] father, to have a people that would call me their father and that I would have a people to love,” he said.

He has considerable interest and experience in both youth and young adult ministry, and he also wants to grow men’s ministry.

“I really only had to crack the door of my heart open just a little bit,” he said, “and then came out just a lot of peace and confirmation.”

The Catholic Spirit • June 8, 2017

Formation in Rome a rich experience for Father Wratkowski

By Jessica Trygstad The Catholic Spirit

W

hile walking to and from classes at the Pontifical North American College in Rome, Father Timothy Wratkowski would pass by St. Catherine of Siena, a large bone from St. Padre Pio and the house where St. Paul was imprisoned. The path never became ordinary, but rather part of his “concrete experience of Catholicism” — solidifying his own faith and the “great witness that the saints provide to live the faith in a holy way with great charity,” said Father Wratkowski, 26, who grew up attending St. Charles Borromeo church and school in St. Anthony.

His first great witnesses to the faith were within his own home. His parents, Thomas and Renee Wratkowski, raised him and his three siblings to be fervent in prayer, a lesson he says he’ll bring to his ministry. And because the family would often host priests for dinner, Father Wratkowski was able to see their personalities, humanity and joy. From that, he said, he was open to the priesthood from a young age, although the option seemed less desirable during high school at Totino-Grace in Fridley. But one service trip to a Catholic Worker house in Kansas City, Missouri, was especially influential. It wasn’t so much serving the homeless people there, he said, but hearing their stories about coming into the faith and getting to know them.

“One man said his life made no sense before he became Catholic. He said, ‘There’s meaning to my suffering now,’ even though he was still homeless and poor,” Father Wratkowski recalled. “I realized that I’d been given so much, not only materially, not only with my family ... and my education, but [also] just the gift of my faith. It really made me think about reopening myself to the Lord to see what he wanted me to do in a more docile manner, because the call to priesthood was always there.”

He took his vocational question to prayer, and in the adoration chapel at St. Charles Borromeo, realized he would find fulfillment in the priesthood.

“I thought, ‘I guess I should give seminary a shot; I guess I should give God a shot,’” he recalled with a laugh.

Studying at the PNAC since 2013 after attending St. John Vianney College Seminary in St. Paul, his formation experience differs from that of his fellow ordinands who studied at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity. But he said Rome has been “a time blessed by the Lord,” noting the various opportunities to form him as a priest.

Father Wratkowski didn’t have a teaching parish in

Ordination • 11B

“I thought, ‘I guess I should give seminary a shot; I guess I should give God a shot.’”

Father Timothy Wratkowski • Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit Rome, but he was assigned two apostolates — street evangelization in St. Peter’s Square through the Legion of Mary and leading an English program at the American Mission Society in China. Both provided him chances to preach and reach many young people.

He was also part of the chaplaincy team for the study abroad program with Loyola University Chicago. The team hosted “theology uncorked,” holy hours and pilgrimages to Assisi. In China, he answered students’ questions about Catholicism and the priesthood. They would ask about his personal dream, and he would tell them it was to be a priest and live that vocation.

“It was like they had heard that for the first time,” he said.

Father Wratkowski said his experiences abroad have enriched his own understanding of what it means to be Catholic.

He described it as a blessing “to meet so many different people in different states of life here in Rome — from different religious orders [to] priests from around Europe, and hearing their experience and to draw on their lived experience of Catholicism, which is different from Catholicism lived in America,” he said.

Being in Rome also had its challenges. Contrary to what some might think, it’s not “a four-year vacation” he said. Aside from acclimating to a different culture,

www.TheCatholicSpirit.com

Father Wratkowski had to navigate the Italian health care system because he has Type 1 diabetes.

“It was a very long and difficult process, one which was very trying, but it taught me so much, just to feel my poverty and [to know] this is what people feel like when they can’t get what they need,” he said.

Father Wratkowski appreciates what his classmates have taught him — to rejoice in the variety of gifts in the Church. He saw that among his fellow seminarians in Rome — one man used to be a tap dancer on Broadway and another a rocket scientist in the Air Force.

“I’m edified in that,” he said. “I realize I don’t have to do or be everything; I don’t have to be the alpha male. It’s a joy to see and experience.”

His hobbies reflect that authenticity: He considers himself an outdoorsman and “sports guy” — even playing on a soccer team in the Cleric Cup in Rome — and enjoys reading classic novels. As a priest, he looks forward to evangelizing and telling people why he’s a priest, providing the sacraments and meeting people where they are.

Father Wratkowski will continue to study in Rome to complete a degree in moral theology at the University of Santa Croce before returning to serve in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

12B • Ordination ‘I knocked and I found,’ says Catholic convert Father Wittnebel

By Matthew Davis The Catholic Spirit

W

hat could throw many college students into spiritual confusion, Father Benjamin Wittnebel seized as an opportunity that led him to the Catholic faith and the priesthood.

As a freshman at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, Father Wittnebel, 32, took a Scripture class where the professor wanted to explore the Bible as if the Holy Spirit didn’t inspire the sacred text. The professor asked the students to defend the Bible’s historical accuracy without the divine inspiration.

Father Wittnebel said it “seemed contradictory” to him and realized it challenged God’s promises in the Bible. With a search for answers under way, Father Wittnebel said he “took Jesus at his word” in the journey.

“I knocked and I found,” he said.

He discovered a faith and life he had never encountered while growing up in Burnsville with his two older sisters, a younger brother and his parents, Gary and Kathy Wittnebel. As a Lutheran, Father Wittnebel said he was “insulated from Catholicism.” He took his faith seriously enough to consider becoming a pastor when he chose to major in religion at Luther College.

In searching for truth, Father Wittnebel came upon Catholic TV station Eternal Word Television Network.

Father Benjamin Wittnebel • Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit He found the speakers inspiring, and the daily Mass broadcast was a regular source of spiritual nourishment.

Those experiences enriched his understanding of Scripture and the Catholic faith. He particularly saw how the books of the Bible fit together as one story of salvation.

An 18-month search for truth soon led to a destination — joining the Church. He began the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults during his sophomore year of college and became Catholic. His final two years at Luther were filled with zeal for the Gospel and the Church.

“I had bright ideas for the whole campus,” Father Wittnebel said, adding, “it was hard in some ways” because the college had few Catholic students.

Joining the Church also meant challenges with some family members, but he said they respected his decision.

The Catholic Spirit • June 8, 2017 After graduating from Luther College, he spent time working in the Twin Cities with Olan Mills and then the Knights of Columbus as an insurance agent. Meanwhile, he went back and forth about priesthood, he said, until he answered “yes.”

Involvement in Cathedral Young Adults at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul and adopting St. Joseph in West St. Paul as his home parish helped him become receptive to that call, he said. He found inspiration and direction from Father Michael Creagan, St. Joseph’s pastor, whom Father Wittnebel described as a “rocksolid witness.”

Several men through CYA and St. Paul’s Outreach also supported and encouraged him as he considered seminary. One friend who had been in seminary helped Father Wittnebel see it as a possibility, he said.

Meanwhile, he made a habit of walking to the adoration chapel at St. Joseph from home for daily prayer.

If one thing tipped the scale for Father Wittnebel’s discernment, it came about in a conversation with a seminarian friend who stressed the importance of giving one’s all in seminary life. The friend said “if you cut corners” and leave, “you won’t have peace,” Father Wittnebel recalled.

While at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity in St. Paul, Father Wittnebel served at St. Michael in Farmington for his teaching parish and worked with St. Michael in West St. Paul during a January term.

He also did summer evangelization work with St. Matthew in St. Paul and spent the summer of his transitional diaconate at Holy Spirit in St. Paul.

Father Wittnebel said he looks forward to “being with the people” as a priest.

“Christ is my passion,” Father Wittnebel said. “I want people to meet Christ.”

Father Schwab chooses contemplative Carmelite life as a way to live call

By Dave Hrbacek The Catholic Spirit

M

ost folks try hard to find time to pray. For some, 15 minutes a day is an accomplishment.

For Carmelite Father Elijah Schwab, prayer is a lifestyle. He spends almost as many hours in prayer every day as most people spend at their full-time jobs.

“I figured it out once,” said Father Schwab, 30, who moved to the Twin Cities in 1998 with his parents, Kenneth and Elizabeth, and sister, and who attended St. Agnes in St. Paul. “It’s probably like seven and a half hours of scheduled prayer time, between Divine Office and holy hours and rosary and Mass.”

In other words, he is living the life of a Carmelite hermit. He joined the order in 2009, living at the monastery in Lake Elmo and becoming a brother nine months after joining. His journey culminated in being ordained a priest May 25 at the adjacent Carmelite sisters’ monastery by Bishop Andrew Cozzens. He studied at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity with the other members of this year’s ordination class.

“We do have a focus on solitude, so we spend a good amount of our day in solitude,” said Father Schwab, who was homeschooled from kindergarten through high school. “We each have our own separate hermitage where we spend all of our time, and we each have our own little yard. So, we have our own little space that we can go to for our silence and for our prayer.”

Father Schwab met the Carmelites during his teenage years when a family friend, Father John Bauer, left his summer job at the monastery to enter the seminary. Father Schwab applied for and got the job.

He worked there every summer and Fridays throughout the year until joining the order.

He continues doing the same chores.

“I love to be outside, I love to do real physical

Father Elijah Schwab looks forward to a life of solitude and prayer as a member of the Carmelite order in Lake Elmo.

Dave Hrbacek/ The Catholic Spirit activity like cut down trees,” he said. “Some of our hermitages have wood stoves, so I split the firewood for those so we have that for heat in the winter. I cut the grass every week and any outdoor stuff that needs to be done.”

He also likes taking walks around the monastery’s 30 acres of land. Much of it is wooded, and seeing wildlife like deer and turkeys is a regular part of his experience.

Though most of Father Schwab’s time is spent in his hermitage, members of the order do some ministry, mainly to the 13 Carmelite sisters who also live on the grounds. Of the seven Carmelite men, three are priests, and they say Mass for the sisters and hear their confessions. Occasionally, they also go off campus to preach at retreats at religious convents across the country.

Father Schwab said his journey to the priesthood began in Richardson, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. During the 10 years his family lived there, his parents encountered a priest who helped them return to the faith. Their conversion and the priest who sparked it made a big impression on their young son, who was 7 at the time.

“It was through that experience, mostly through the priest that was helping my parents return to the faith — just seeing his example — [that] really woke that seed in me, like that’s what I want to do,” he recalled. “Pretty much from then on, I always knew I was supposed to be a priest, felt that vocation to be a priest.”

He said his favorite part of being a priest will be celebrating Mass, which he will do regularly in the monastery’s chapel. He also looks forward to living out the Carmelite spirituality, which he has been drawn to since his first summer working at the monastery.

“It’s just a total focus on giving your entire life to God in a very interior way through prayer,” he said. “I knew I wasn’t called to active ministry. I couldn’t find anything peaceful in that for me. Even though that’s a genuine way of serving God, I found the most attraction in just being in the hidden life, being quiet and in prayer. So, the Carmelites fit that perfectly, and especially this community, because it’s one of the few communities that tries to retain the traditional [contemplative] methods of the Carmelites.”