The Catholic Spirit - July 14, 2022

July 14, 2022 • Newspaper of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis

Rooted in service From left, Kai Sather, JP Yocum, Matthew Waldoch and Anthony Madigan plant hostas at St. Peter Claver Catholic School in St. Paul July 7.

Yocum, a 2022 graduate of Hill-Murray School in Maplewood, owns Pioneer Landscaping. His 2022 classmates Waldoch and Madigan are employees, as is Sather, Yocum’s friend. Yocum was contacted for the project by Hill-Murray President Melissa Dan, to help her friend and former school classmate, St. Peter Claver Principal Terese Shimshock, find an affordable way to improve the urban school’s landscaping.

Hill-Murray is funding some of the project, and Yocum has reduced his regular fees. Yocum said his crew of seven planted 40 hostas, 120 daylilies and other plants over three days.

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

CHEMICAL ABORTIONS CLIMB 5 | PHOTOGRAPHER’S LENS 7 | BIDEN’S ABORTION ORDER 8 ‘DALLAS CHARTER’ TURNS 20 9-11 | CONSECRATED LIFE JUBILEES 14-15 | SECRET TO SUMMER 17

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JULY 14, 2022

PAGETWO What is important to remember especially now is that we are the Church. We are the living stones. We are the body of Christ. And as long as our faith is strong and we are faithful, then we are fine, we are absolutely fine.

Father Samuel Giese, pastor of St. Jane Frances de Chantal Church in Bethesda, Maryland, at the noon Mass July 10 in the school gymnasium after statues in the church were thrown down, books shredded, the Stations of the Cross pulled off the walls, the tabernacle desecrated and several pews set on fire. It was among three houses of worship vandalized along the same road. Investigators have not announced motives or suspects.

KAREN CALLAWAY, CHICAGO CATHOLIC | CNS

ILLINOIS PEACE-HEALING MASS People pray and grieve during Mass at Immaculate Conception in Highland Park, Ill., July 5, one day after a gunman on a rooftop killed seven people and injured at least 30 more during the community’s Independence Day parade. Cardinal Blasé Cupich of Chicago celebrated the Mass, saying, “We have no words to make sense of this senseless tragedy. We are here just to help each other cry, to lift up each other by the hand, to let others touch us with their suffering and pain.” The cardinal called on government leaders to restrict access to high-powered firearms like the rifle used in the July 4 massacre. Hours after the shooting, law enforcement authorities apprehended Robert E. Crimo III., 21. He was charged with seven counts of murder July 5.

NEWS notes A settlement reached June 21 between the city of Brooklyn Center and the family of Daunte Wright, an African-American shot and killed by a police officer last year during a traffic stop, includes the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul providing pro bono intercultural and bias training for Brooklyn Center’s police officers. Kimberly Potter, a 26year police veteran, said she had intended to stun Wright with her Taser but accidentally drew and fired her handgun instead. She resigned two days after the killing, and was found guilty of first- and second-degree manslaughter. At UST, Kha Yang, who leads the school’s Office for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, said the development plan will be aimed at transformation, growth and community building.

Graffiti including the words “Abort America” and “Jesus loves Abortion,” along with two broken windows in the backdoor, greeted volunteers at a Birthright crisis pregnancy center in St. Paul July 5. They called the police and cleaned up the glass. Vandalism at the nonprofit center followed similar defacement and broken windows June 14 at Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life offices in Minneapolis. MCCL spokesman Paul Stark said the police were notified, and an abortion rights group called “Jane’s Revenge” claimed responsibility in a posting online. At Birthright, the graffiti also included the words, “Jane’s Revenge,” which has claimed responsibility for several acts of vandalism at pro-life centers across the country, driven by the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade and ending a U.S. constitutional protection for abortion.

Generous parishioners and other donors allowed the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis to send $405,373 to the National Religious Retirement Office in Washington to support the retirement needs of religious sisters, brothers and religious order priests.

The money was collected Dec. 11-12 last year. It is used for medications, nursing care and other day-to-day needs. It also underwrites programming and education that promote long-term retirement planning. Since the collection was launched in 1988, the archdiocese has contributed $16.6 million to the effort.

OLEKSANDR SAVRANSKYI, UKRAINIAN CATHOLIC CHURCH | CNS

UKRAINIAN SYNOD Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kyiv-Halych, left, head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, greets Archbishop Salvatore Pennacchio, papal nuncio to Poland, as members of the Synod of Bishops of the Ukrainian Catholic Church — meeting less than 10 miles from the border of their war-torn homeland — celebrate a Divine Liturgy July 7 at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Przemysl, Poland. The meeting was delayed two years because of the pandemic, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine made the July 7-15 synod even more essential, the bishops said, in a heightened need for ministry in Ukraine and to Ukrainians forced from their homes.

CORRECTIONS A special section in the June 30 edition recognizing significant anniversaries of priestly ministry stated an incorrect first name, Edward, for 60-year jubilarian Father John Forliti.

Edward is Father Forliti’s middle name. In addition, 50-year jubilarian Father Terrence Hayes ministered at now-closed St. Elizabeth Ann Seton School in Minneapolis, not the school by the same name in Hastings.

A story about Father Theodore Campbell’s 50 years of priestly ministry in the June 30 edition stated that his brother, Bishop Frederick Campbell, entered the seminary after high school. He entered 14 years later. He is bishop emeritus of Columbus, Ohio.

The Catholic Spirit is published semi-monthly for The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis Vol. 27 — No. 13 MOST REVEREND BERNARD A. HEBDA, Publisher TOM HALDEN, Associate Publisher MARIA C. WIERING, Editor-in-Chief JOE RUFF, News Editor

The St. Joseph Business Guild in North St. Paul is looking for nominations for its Leading with Faith Award at sjbusinessguild.com/lwf. The award recognizes men and women who model faith and leadership in the secular workplace. Nominations are due by July 29.

Recipients of the award will be honored at a public banquet Nov. 22 with Archbishop Bernard Heba and keynote speaker Msgr. Patrick Shea, president of the University of Mary in Bismarck, North Dakota.

PRACTICING Catholic On the July 8 “Practicing Catholic” radio program, host Patrick Conley interviews JoAnn Marshall, president of the nonprofit “Choose Life Minnesota,” who describes her mission to give Minnesotans the opportunity to share a pro-life message through “Choose Life” license plates. The latest show also includes interviews with Nancy Bandzuch from Catholic Sprouts, who offers ideas for virtue-forming activities for children, and Father Tom Margevicius, director of worship for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, who describes the Liturgy of the Word for his third episode of “Mass Class.” Find interviews after they have aired at PracticingCatholicShow.com or anchor.fm/practicingcatholic-show with links to podcasting platforms.

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THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 3

FROMTHEARCHBISHOP ONLY JESUS | ARCHBISHOP BERNARD HEBDA

Richly blessed by ministry of consecrated women and men

I

was privileged this past weekend to celebrate the Anniversary Mass for the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill, the community that had staffed the elementary school that I had attended when I was a boy. I was invited because two of the 60-year jubilarians had taught me: Sister Jane Ann Cherubin (my second-grade teacher) and Sister Maureen O’Brien (who taught me throughout my middle school years). Along with the two of them were a number of Sisters of Charity celebrating 60 years, 65 years, 70 years and even 80!

I was humbled when I thought about their combined years of service, and the variety of ways that they had served the Church by giving witness to Christ, imitating in particular his poverty, chastity and obedience. It was a blessing to be able to catch up with the jubilarians, as well as the other sisters who had been so instrumental in my education and faith journey. They prepared me to encounter Jesus in the Eucharist and in the celebration of the sacrament of reconciliation, and they would later open my heart to the gifts of the Holy Spirit. I have no doubt that they prayed me into the seminary as well, and that they have supported me in my 33 years of ministry.

My family had moved from one section of Pittsburgh to another right before I started school.

The only non-negotiable for my mother was that we

Ricamente bendecido por el ministerio de mujeres y hombres consagrados Tuve el privilegio el fin de semana pasado de celebrar la Misa de Aniversario de las Hermanas de la Caridad de Seton Hill, la comunidad que había atendido la escuela primaria a la que asistí cuando era niño. Me invitaron porque dos de las 60 jubilares me habían enseñado: la hermana Jane Ann Cherubin (mi maestra de segundo grado) y la hermana Maureen O'Brien (quien me enseñó durante mis años de escuela secundaria). ¡Junto con ellos dos había varias Hermanas de la Caridad celebrando 60 años, 65 años, 70 años e incluso 80! Me sentí humilde cuando pensé en sus años combinados de servicio y en la variedad de formas en que habían servido a la Iglesia dando testimonio de Cristo, imitando en particular su pobreza, castidad y obediencia.

Fue una bendición poder ponerme al día con las jubilares, así como con las otras hermanas que habían sido tan fundamentales en mi educación y en mi viaje de fe. Me prepararon

would have to move into a parish where the Sisters of Charity taught. She had been blessed to have the sisters when she was a young girl and wanted the same opportunity for her children. As I now reflect on the many ways in which the sisters placed in my heart a great desire both to learn and to serve, it is easy to understand my mom’s reasoning. These were incredible faith-filled women who loved the Church and excelled as both learners and educators.

We are richly blessed in this archdiocese by the presence of so many consecrated women and men. It’s not an exaggeration to state that they have been the backbone of this local Church, providing educational opportunities, health care, social services and phenomenal parish ministry.

As we are reminded by the jubilarians featured in this issue of The Catholic Spirit, our consecrated women and men have truly been the loving hands of Christ in our local Church. Their selflessness and perseverance, moreover, inspire the rest of us to greater generosity and faithfulness in our vocations as well. We are always enriched by women and men who can remind us that we can overcome all kinds of challenges in life when we keep our eyes fixed on Christ, and strive to live out the evangelical counsels as appropriate to our state of life.

It shouldn’t be surprising that Pope Francis, with decades of experience of religious life as a Jesuit, would have a special appreciation for the gifts that come to the local Church through the wisdom of

para encontrarme con Jesús en la Eucaristía y en la celebración del sacramento de la reconciliación y luego abrirían mi corazón a los dones del Espíritu Santo.

No tengo ninguna duda de que también me oraron para entrar al seminario y que me han apoyado en mis 33 años de ministerio.

Mi familia se había mudado de una sección de Pittsburgh a otra justo antes de que yo comenzara la escuela. Lo único no negociable para mi madre era que tendríamos que mudarnos a una parroquia donde enseñaran las Hermanas de la Caridad.

Había tenido la suerte de tener a las hermanas cuando era una niña y quería la misma oportunidad para sus hijos. Ahora que reflexiono sobre las muchas formas en que las hermanas pusieron en mi corazón un gran deseo tanto de aprender como de servir, es fácil entender el razonamiento de mi madre.

Eran mujeres increíbles llenas de fe que amaban a la Iglesia y sobresalían como aprendices y educadoras.

Estamos ricamente bendecidos en esta arquidiócesis por la presencia de tantos hombres y mujeres consagrados. No es una exageración afirmar que han sido la columna vertebral de esta Iglesia local, brindando oportunidades educativas, atención médica, servicios sociales y un ministerio

parroquial fenomenal.

Como nos recuerdan los jubilares presentados en esta edición de El Espíritu Católico, nuestras mujeres y hombres consagrados han sido verdaderamente las manos amorosas de Cristo en nuestra Iglesia local. Su desinterés y perseverancia, además, nos inspiran a los demás a una mayor generosidad y fidelidad también en nuestras vocaciones. Siempre nos enriquecemos con mujeres y hombres que pueden recordarnos que podemos superar todo tipo de desafíos en la vida cuando mantenemos los ojos fijos en Cristo y nos esforzamos por vivir los consejos evangélicos de acuerdo con nuestro estado de vida.

No debería sorprender que el Papa Francisco, con décadas de experiencia de vida religiosa como jesuita, tenga un aprecio especial por los dones que llegan a la Iglesia local a través de la sabiduría de nuestros hermanos y hermanas en la vida consagrada. Al solicitar aportes para el próximo Sínodo sobre la Sinodalidad, pidió en particular el compromiso en el camino sinodal de aquellos en la vida consagrada. Me siento particularmente bendecida de que mi delegada de Vida Consagrada, la Hermana Carolyn Puccio, CSJ, nos haya ayudado a responder al

our brothers and sisters in consecrated life. In calling for input for the upcoming Synod on Synodality, he asked in particular for the engagement in the synodal journey of those in consecrated life. I feel particularly blessed that my delegate for Consecrated Life, Sister Carolyn Puccio, CSJ, helped us to respond to the pope’s desire by arranging for a listening session on Zoom open to any consecrated women and men in this archdiocese. The depth of their insights, and their example as careful listeners and discerners, inspired me greatly. I couldn’t help but recall the contribution that had been made to our Archdiocesan Synod by our consecrated sisters and brothers just a few weeks earlier.

As we pray for this year’s jubilarians and are mindful of their phenomenal contributions to the strength of this local Church, let us be sure to pray as well that more women and men will hear the call to consecrated life and respond with the same selflessness that has characterized the lives of those being honored this year.

In his 1996 post-synodal exhortation, “Vita Consecrata,” St. John Paul described consecrated life as a “gift of God the Father through the Holy Spirit” to the whole Church. May we in this archdiocese grow in our appreciation of that gift, do all that we can to nurture and sustain it, and never forget to pray for those who are called to give this extraordinary witness to Christ, the chaste, poor and obedient one.

deseo del Papa al organizar una sesión de escucha en Zoom abierta a cualquier mujer y hombre consagrado en esta arquidiócesis.

La profundidad de sus percepciones y su ejemplo como oyentes atentos y discernidores me inspiraron mucho. No pude evitar recordar la contribución que nuestras hermanas y hermanos consagrados habían hecho a nuestro Sínodo Arquidiocesano solo unas semanas antes.

Mientras oramos por las jubilares de este año y somos conscientes de sus fenomenales contribuciones a la fortaleza de esta Iglesia local, asegurémonos de orar también para que más mujeres y hombres escuchen el llamado a la vida consagrada y respondan con el mismo desinterés que ha tenido caracterizó la vida de los homenajeados este año. En su exhortación postsinodal de 1996, “Vita Consecrata”, San Juan Pablo describió la vida consagrada como un “don de Dios Padre a través del Espíritu Santo” a toda la Iglesia. Que nosotros en esta arquidiócesis crezcamos en nuestro aprecio por ese don, hagamos todo lo que podamos para nutrirlo y sostenerlo, y nunca olvidemos orar por aquellos que están llamados a dar este extraordinario testimonio de Cristo, el casto, pobre y obediente.

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

Effective July 1, 2022 Reverend Michael Daly, granted a six-month leave to discern a vocation to consecrated life. Father Daly has been serving as parochial administrator of the Church of Saint Helena in Minneapolis.

Reverend Peter Etzel, SJ, assigned as parochial vicar of the Church of Saint Thomas More in Saint Paul. Father Etzel is a priest of the Midwest Province of the Society of Jesus.

Reverend RJ Fichtinger, SJ, assigned as pastor of the Church of Saint Thomas More in Saint Paul. Father Fichtinger previously served as parochial vicar of the same parish and is a priest of the Midwest Province of the Society of Jesus.

Deacon Joel Neisen, on a leave of absence.

Deacon Neisen was previously assigned to the Church of Saint John the Baptist in Savage.

Deacon Rip Riordan, retired from active diaconal ministry. Deacon Riordan has served the Archdiocese as a permanent deacon since his ordination in 1998, most recently as deacon of the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes in Minneapolis, and as Director of Clergy Personnel for the Archdiocese.

Effective July 14, 2022 Reverend Ignatius Trieu Hoang, CRM, assigned as parochial vicar of the Church of Saint Anne-Saint Joseph Hien in Minneapolis.

Father Hoang is a priest of the Congregation of the Mother of the Redeemer, US Assumption Province.

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SLICEof LIFE

SLICEof LIFE

Food truckin’ Geancarlos Pujols receives his food from Casey O’Brien of Gray Duck Concessions June 29 at St. Odilia in Shoreview during a weekly summer event called Food Truck Wednesdays. O’Brien was organizing a food truck event at Maternity of Mary-St. Andrew Catholic School in St. Paul on Thursdays, then expanded to include St. Odilia. Kelli Schmitz, chair of the Parent Action Association at St. Odilia, has been coordinating the event at St. Odilia since its June 1 launch. “It’s been a big hit. A lot of people are really excited about it,” said Schmitz, who has two children at the school. The goal was to bring together students and their families with St. Odilia parishioners who don’t have children at the school, as a way to “bridge some of the divide in our community between the parish and the school,” she said. Pujols moved to Shoreview a month ago and lives across the street from the school. He is considering enrolling his 5-year-old daughter. “This is our first time over here,” Pujols said. “We’ve seen the signs (for Food Truck Wednesdays) and we see the kids after school all the time, so we just came over to check it out.” Three food trucks begin serving food at 5 p.m. every Wednesday at St. Odilia. An estimated 250 people were there June 29. The trucks that day were Gray Duck Concessions, Steven D’s (owned and operated by an alumnus of St. Odilia Catholic School) and Tii Cup.

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THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 5

Chemical abortions reach all-time high in Minnesota in 2021

By Joe Ruff The Catholic Spirit While the number of abortions performed in Minnesota dropped about 2% last year from 2020, the number and percentage of chemical abortions continued to climb, according to the Minnesota Department of Health’s annual report to the Legislature released July 1.

There were 10,136 abortions performed in the state in 2021, down from an updated figure of 10,339 in 2020, the department said. Of those, 6,154, or 61% of the total, were chemically induced last year, the department said. In 2020, just more than half of abortions were chemically induced.

“Chemical abortion drugs pose real risks to women’s health, and those risks are increased when they are sent to women without any in-person medical evaluation,” said Scott Fischbach, executive director of Minnesota

Citizens Concerned for Life, in a news release about his organization’s analysis of the data, which noted that chemical abortions hit an all-time high. “This is an area where Minnesotans can come together to protect women.”

In their reaction to the June 24 U.S. Supreme Court overturn of Roe v. Wade (which in 1973 had legalized abortion across the country), the bishops of Minnesota, including Archbishop Bernard Hebda and Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Williams of St. Paul and Minneapolis, decried the state high court’s 1995 ruling in Doe v. Gomez that found a state right to abortion. But they cited chemical abortion regulation as one area the state immediately could provide more protection for women.

Abortions in Minnesota have dropped from their peak of 19,028 in 1980, but they have leveled off in recent years, MCCL said. Planned Parenthood last year performed 70 percent of all abortions in the state.

MINNESOTA’S 2021 ABORTION FACTS u A total of 221 abortions took place at 20 weeks (five months) of gestation or later (there were 262 such abortions in 2020). The latest abortion took place at 25 weeks. u The suction abortion procedure accounted for 33% of all abortions (down from 38% in 2020). Chemical abortions accounted for 61% (up from 55%). Dilation and evacuation (D & E) dismemberment abortions numbered 611 and accounted for 6% of abortions (687 in 2020). u Rape, incest and risk of impairment of a major bodily function were reasons given for less than 1% percent of abortions combined (consistent with past years). 54% of women cited “does not want children at this time” (compared with 53% in 2020). 13% cited “economic reasons” (17% in 2020). In 35% of cases, the reasons are unknown or the woman declined to give a reason. u 41% of women had undergone one or more previous abortions (42% in 2020). u Complications: 118 complications were reported occurring at the time of the procedure, including cervical laceration and hemorrhage (there were 109 in 2020); 87 complications were reported occurring following the procedure, including 27 cases of “incomplete termination of pregnancy” (there were 89 post-operative complications reported in 2020). u Five abortions resulting in a born-alive infant were reported (zero in 2020 and three in 2019); none survived.

The state reports can be found at health.state.mn.us/data/mchs/pubs/abrpt/abrpt.html — Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life, Minnesota Department of Health

Court strikes abortion-seeker safeguards

Pilgrimage to honor Blessed Casey

By Joe Ruff The Catholic Spirit

By Joe Ruff The Catholic Spirit

A district court judge struck down five laws July 11 limiting immediate access to abortion in Minnesota, a decision criticized by the Minnesota Catholic Conference as putting the health and safety of abortion seeking pregnant women at greater risk.

“The recent ruling in the Doe v.

Minnesota case is disappointing,” said Maggee Becker, policy associate for MCC, which represents the public policy priorities of Minnesota’s Catholic bishops, in a written statement.

“This decision by a solitary judge to strike down vital safeguards such as the parental notification and the 24-hour waiting period, puts the health and safety of pregnant mothers who are seeking an abortion at greater risk. Women deserve better and to be equipped with knowledge about their growing baby and the procedure, she said.

“We expect Minnesota’s attorney

general to do his duty to defend these and other safeguards that have been passed with bipartisan support through the legislative process,” Becker said.

Scott Fischbach, executive director of Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life, said the decision was extreme, without a foundation in the Minnesota Constitution and must be appealed.

Ramsey County District Judge Thomas Gilligan Jr. ruled in the case, Doe v. Minnesota, that the laws violate a right to privacy because they infringe on access to abortion found to be a state right in a 1995 state Supreme Court ruling. Gilligan blocked enforcement of a 24-hour waiting period for an abortion after consulting a doctor, informed consent, and a requirement that only physicians perform abortions. Gilligan also found unconstitutional a two-parent notification mandate for patients under 18 seeking an abortion and a law requiring that abortions after the first trimester be performed in a hospital.

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Pilgrims on an 18-mile walk July 30 from North St. Paul to the penitentiary in Stillwater, where Blessed Solanus Casey served as a prison guard, and to the church of St. Michael where he was confirmed, will seek the intercession of the Wisconsin-born Capuchin Franciscan friar on his feast day.

People who can’t participate in the entire walk are encouraged to meet at the lift bridge in Stillwater and make BLESSED the 5-mile trek to the SOLANUS CASEY penitentiary and back to Stillwater, said Will Peterson of San Diego-based Modern Catholic Pilgrim, which is organizing the walk.

In addition, anyone can attend the 8 a.m. Mass and pilgrimage blessing at St. Peter in North St. Paul, where the trek will start on the nearby Gateway Trail, and the 4:30 p.m. vigil Mass at St. Michael, which will end the pilgrimage, Peterson said. People who are unable to participate in person can join their prayers from home with those making the journey, he said. After the vigil Mass at St. Michael, a shuttle will bring people back to St. Peter in North St. Paul, he said.

Peterson and Katie Anderson, communications coordinator at St. Michael and St. Mary in Stillwater, spoke with “Practicing Catholic” radio program host Patrick Conley about the

N O T I C E

prayerful walk for a show that first aired July 1 on Relevant Radio 1330 AM. A pilgrimage is one of the oldest prayer traditions in the Church, said Peterson, noting early reports of people visiting the sites associated with the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

“We have an opportunity to dive into that tradition and to take part and to walk with Christ,” he said.

Anderson said she and her sister went on a pilgrimage in France a few summers ago, and she walked away determined to learn more about local saints and holy places.

“I’m very excited about this in Stillwater,” she said.

She has learned a great deal about Blessed Casey in her work at St. Michael and St. Mary, Anderson said. The friar, now on the road to sainthood, was born in 1870 in Oak Grove, Wisconsin, and worked in Stillwater as a young man.

Ordained to the priesthood and serving in New York City and Detroit, he was revered for his great faith, humility, compassion and spiritual counsel.

Two of his brothers were priests who ministered in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Anderson urges people who plan to participate in the Blessed Casey pilgrimage to ask family and friends to share intentions they can carry with them in prayer. Holding such prayers in the heart is a great way to prepare to seek his intercession, she said.

People are encouraged to sign up for the pilgrimage at moderncatholicpilgrim. com, or join at whatever point works best for them, Peterson said.

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Archdiocesan Catholic Center staff identify, adopt five core values

By Maria Wiering The Catholic Spirit Christ-centered. Respect. Integrity. Stewardship.

Service. These are the five core values recently adopted by Archdiocesan Catholic Center staff as part of ongoing efforts to improve service to the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

The staff has worked over several months, both in large group discussions and in committees, to identify and refine these values, which are intended to guide every aspect of the ACC’s work, its leaders emphasized in a June 30 staff meeting. Among their functions are to “inform, instruct and inspire the day-to-day behaviors of all employees” and to aid decision-making, according to leaders.

The ACC includes the offices that assist the archbishop with his work, such as the Office of Parish and Clergy Services, Office for the Mission of Catholic Education, and the Office of Communications, of which The Catholic Spirit is part.

Archbishop Bernard Hebda shared the

values with parishes, schools, partnerships and foundations serving the archdiocese in a July 5 letter. He explained that the values were rooted in efforts that began in 2020 to assess internal operations and effectiveness.

“We are committed to becoming a healthier and more efficient organization by improving decisionmaking, communication, and focus, with the ultimate goal of serving you better,” he said.

Leaders said the values’ implementation must be “owned by every employee,” “authentic and clearly evident” and “never be compromised for convenience or short-term gain.” The values are intended to be posted throughout the ACC and in each employee’s workspace, and staff members and collaborators are encouraged to recognize ACC staff members who exemplify them.

“These core values are intended to align staff around the way we treat one another and those we serve,” said Bill Lentsch, the archdiocese’s chief operating officer. “Deeply rooted in Catholic beliefs, they provide a wonderful guide for how we will prioritize and execute our work to grow God’s kingdom here on earth.”

WHAT THEY MEAN The Archdiocesan Catholic Center defines its core values as the following: Christ-centered: Model Christ-like humility, forgiveness, joy and love.

Learn from the Gospel and prayerfully act accordingly. Support the Church’s mission to spread the Good News.

Respect: Honor the God-given dignity of every person. Acknowledge the talents and good work of others. Listen attentively to the voices of others.

Integrity: Responsibly perform our work and follow through on commitments. Communicate honestly, courageously, and charitably.

Humbly admit mistakes and learn from them.

Stewardship: Maintain accountability for all God has entrusted to us. Be modest and creative in the consumption of our resources. Use our gifts for the glory of God and the greatest common good.

Service: Put the concerns of others ahead of our own. Show special care for the neglected and marginalized. Anticipate and promptly respond to the needs of those we serve.

Archbishop praises New Ulm’s next bishop

Congratulations

CSJ St. Paul Sister & Consociate Jubilarians

These Sisters’ and Consociates’ anniversaries add up to over 2,500 years of dedication to love of God and neighbor without distinction!

80 ANNIVERSARY Mary Ann Hanley Maria June Wilson th

75th ANNIVERSARY Mary Madonna Ashton Helen Thomas Bronk Michele Murphy Annabelle Raiche Miriam Shea Ann Clare Smith Serena Zilka

Sister Anniversaries 70th ANNIVERSARY Margaret Belanger Nancy Davis Katherine Egan Karen Kennelly Elizabeth Kerwin Sylvia Krawfcyk Kate McDonald Justina Overhultz Mary Sarto Revier Anne Elise Tschida Donna Vosika

50th ANNIVERSARY Kathleen Niska 30 ANNIVERSARY Sandy Dodson Cheryl Maloney Mary Kaye Medinger th

65th ANNIVERSARY Kevin Bopp Mary Fran Carter Maureen Lamey Katherine McLaughlin Joyce Peck Polly Preston Mary Schabert 60th ANNIVERSARY Linda Napier Mary Ellen Ward

40th ANNIVERSARY Mary Vincent

Consociate Anniversaries 20th ANNIVERSARY Corinne Cavanagh Mari Ann Graham Beryl Theresa McHale Theresa Ruttger Karen Woehler Dot Wolking Marilyn Woolley

from the

10th ANNIVERSARY Maureen Rose Doran Berit Nelson Higuera Mary Hunt Jill Lundgren Theresa Mahowald Lois Mineau Marla Tranel Mary Zimmer

Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet & Consociates Join our movement - csjstpaul.org

— Archdiocesan Catholic Center

By Maria Wiering The Catholic Spirit Archbishop Bernard Hebda welcomed news of Pope Francis’ July 12 appointment of Bishop Chad Zielinski to the Diocese of New Ulm, calling it “wonderful news for the Catholic Church in Minnesota.”

Bishop Zielinski, 57, is to be installed in New Ulm Sept. 27.

The archbishop noted that he got to BISHOP know Bishop Zielinski CHAD ZIELINSKI from 2009 to 2013 while leading the Diocese of Gaylord, Michigan, where Bishop Zielinski was a priest. Bishop Zielinski was ordained bishop of Fairbanks, Alaska, in 2014.

“He was beloved in Northern Michigan for his preaching, his devout celebration of Holy Mass, his fidelity to the Church and his generous and pastoral heart,” Archbishop Hebda said in the statement. “In his time as Bishop of Fairbanks, moreover, he has exhibited a missionary zeal that never ceased to impress the priests and faithful of our Archdiocese when he would come here to garner support for his apostolic ministry in Alaska.”

In New Ulm, Bishop Zielinski will succeed Bishop John LeVoir, who led the diocese for 14 years before retiring in 2020.

“Our Native Alaskan brothers and sisters have opened my mind and heart to the cultural beauty and richness of their traditional way of life,” Bishop Zielinski said in a statement. “I come to the Diocese of New Ulm with the same open heart and mind, eager to learn and encounter new blessings as I visit parishes and families in this beautiful prairie land of south and west-central Minnesota. Guided by the Holy Spirit, together we continue our journey of faith into a new era of peace filled with hope in Jesus Christ.”

LOCAL

JULY 14, 2022

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 7

Wedding photographer seeks beauty in small moments

By Christina Capecchi For The Catholic Spirit

Being able to see them in light of being God’s creation, being a daughter or son of God and being so loved by him and wanting to live up to portraying them the way that God made them.

When Kelsey Green picks up her Canon 5D Mark IV, the 24-year-old from St. Paul sees the world as God does: bursting with beauty. Being a photographer has enriched her Catholic faith — and being Catholic has informed her photography.

You can find Green in the morning grabbing a vanilla latte from J.S. Bean Factory, working by day as digital content creator for Mendota Heights-based St. Paul’s Outreach, shooting weddings on Saturday and attending Mass at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul the next morning.

Q How does photography influence your own self-image?

A I think it’s helped me embrace myself

Q You’re in the thick of wedding season!

A The summer is really busy! It’s usually

a 10-hour day and then you get home and you have a month’s worth of editing.

Q How has being a wedding

photographer shifted your thinking on your wedding, whenever that day comes?

A Before doing this, I would think about

the look of my wedding — the dresses, the colors. I wanted to present my wedding in a certain way. I don’t think about that anymore. The main thing I’ve taken away from shooting weddings is that I want to just enjoy the day. So many brides have said to me, “I’ve been more stressed about the darn centerpieces than anything.” Why? That’s the least important part! Yes, I want my wedding to be beautiful, but not so much the aesthetics. My focus is shifting to the beauty of the sacrament and entering into that.

Q Do you prefer big weddings or intimate ones?

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

It’s taking these moments you want to remember and having them in a still frame.

Q I bet a lot of us think we have a bad memory.

A There’s so much information coming

at us, especially with the digital world.

We’re constantly seeing images and videos. It’s nice to have your own: “This is me! This is what I’ve done.”

Q Sometimes I pick up my phone and just look at my own photos on it.

A I do that all the time — more than I go on social media now. Even if it was just pictures from yesterday. It makes me feel so grateful for the people in my life and the memories we make — rather than looking at other people’s pictures and thinking, “Oh, I wish I had that.”

A Intimate for sure.

Q Do you encourage clients to print Q How do you seek out beauty in daily their photos? life?

A Yes! I’m a huge proponent of printing A It’s a matter of slowing down. Daily photos. In my mind, it’s like a photo life is busy. It’s easy to go through the motions and be oblivious to everything around you. Just the other night, on a drive home from my parents’ place, my boyfriend was playing me music and we were driving past the Minneapolis skyline and the sun was setting and it was this great moment where I stopped and soaked it up.

Q It sounds like you took a picture with your heart.

A That’s a good way to describe it.

Sometimes I feel like I have a bad memory. That’s why I like photography.

doesn’t really exist unless you have a hard copy of it. Everything is digital now, and we have all this online storage, but one little thing could happen and you could lose it all.

There’s something so special about holding a picture in your hand. I have this app, Timeshel, where I can upload pictures and then they send me a pack of the photos I took for the month.

They’re little squares. They come in thin cardboard slips. I keep them in my bookshelf.

I’m such a sentimental person. One of my favorite things in the world to do is

sit down and look at the photo books my mom made when we were kids. It’s like looking back at your childhood. They’re going to be there for my kids and their kids. They’re going to be there forever.

Q Was it hard to establish your rate

when you first launched your business, Kelsey Green Photography?

A I felt bad asking for much money. I

didn’t feel deserving of it yet. Then as I got more experienced and honed my craft, I was more confident to ask for a better rate. But it was still difficult to go from, “Oh, I charged $50 for a photo shoot and now it’s $300.” I find myself second guessing a lot: “Am I really worth this?” I don’t want to rip people off.

Then I realize how much work I put into it, and I know what I’m worth.

Q Does being a photographer make you a better Catholic?

A It’s cool because I can see a pretty stark contrast from before I was doing this and now. Photography has helped train my eye to see beauty more — more often, in unexpected places. It’s changed my perception of the world. Different light and shadows, shapes, colors — I notice all the intricacies. It’s filled me with a greater sense of awe and wonder. I feel like I’m closer to who God created me to be, and I’m able to see through his eyes a little better.

Q On the flip side, does being a Catholic make you a better photographer?

A It gives me a disposition toward seeing people as beautiful in their uniqueness.

more naturally. I’m not overly concerned about my appearance, as I was at one point. A lot of that has to do with my relationship with the Lord and coming into who God created me to be.

Everyone’s beautiful! I’m not the exception. When I’m taking someone’s picture, I love getting to focus on their beauty and getting to hype them up, saying, “Wow, your hair!” I like it when they come and they’re not completely done up. It’s more fun because it’s playing on their natural look. “Oh, wow — this is a cool part about how you look.”

Q Your career path has unfolded from real estate to weddings and now the music scene. What have you learned from that unfolding?

A I used to be stressed about figuring out

my career and how to provide for myself.

Then I tried to detach from that idea of having a crazy good career. It was a lot easier to place it in the Lord’s hands. I looked at broadening my options — I even considered doing mission work full time. I just wanted to give the Lord room to work. And it worked! The Lord took all the desires I had for my career and my life and my faith and handed me this job at St. Paul’s Outreach. It’s a way I can do mission work and use photography and creativity to showcase the beauty of the Lord.

Now, I have a lot more peace about discerning things for my life. Obviously, you have to do the work and take the action, but so much of it is opening your heart and mind to what the Lord wants to give you and being willing to accept what that might be. Even if it’s terrifying at first, it always winds up being the best.

Q Do you love going to the Cathedral?

A There’s something about it. Every time I walk in, it centers me. I find myself looking up. It’s so vast and beautiful. It doesn’t get old.

Q What do you know for sure?

A The surest thing I know is the fact that the Lord loves me and will provide for me. That’s been so apparent in my life lately. If that’s what I know, that’s what I know and that’s all I need to know.

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT WINS 19 CATHOLIC MEDIA AWARDS The Catholic Spirit took home 19 awards from the 2022 Catholic Media Conference’s July 7 awards banquet, which celebrates the work done among members of the Catholic Media Association.

Among the awards for last year’s work were seven first place awards, with three of them related to Dave Hrbacek’s photography, including first place for a “photo and story package” on Bethlehem Academy in Faribault’s agriculture program (September 2021). Other first-place awards recognized

Joe Ruff’s reporting on a woman who found healing after abortion (January 2021), Barb Umberger’s reporting on the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ Drexel Mission Schools initiative (February 2021) and Maria Wiering’s reporting related to Pope Francis’ “moto proprio” limiting the use of the pre-conciliar Latin Mass (July 2021).

Also awarded first-place honors was a photo

by Michael Pytleski for the social media of a double rainbow at Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul, and a front-page design by Caron

Olhoft for the July 15, 2021, issue, featuring an actor imitating a historical religious sister while giving tours of downtown St. Paul with the headline “Creature of habit?”

outreach. The Minnesota Catholic Conference staff also won four awards, including first place for its podcast “Bridge Builder: Connecting Faith and Politics.”

The Catholic Spirit also received two secondplace awards, four third-place awards and five honorable mentions, including for Hrbacek in the Photographer of the Year category.

Read the full awards list with links to winning entries at TheCatholicSpirit.com.

The staff of the archdiocese’s communications office won an additional four awards, including first place for its COVID communications

The Catholic Media Association serves professional Catholic communicators in the U.S. and Canada. Its annual conference was held July 4-7 in Portland, Oregon.

— The Catholic Spirit

8 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

JULY 14, 2022

NATION+WORLD Archbishop Lori calls Biden’s abortion order ‘deeply disturbing, tragic’

By Julie Asher Catholic News Service The U.S. bishops’ pro-life chairman said it is “deeply disturbing and tragic” that President Joe Biden has chosen to use his power as the nation’s chief executive “to promote and facilitate abortion in our country” rather than support resources for pregnant women in need.

Biden is “seeking every possible avenue to deny unborn children their most basic human and civil right, the right to life,” said Baltimore Archbishop William Lori, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities.

“Rather than using the power of the executive branch to increase support and care to mothers and babies, the president’s executive order seeks only to facilitate the destruction of defenseless, voiceless human beings,” he said in a July 9 statement.

A day earlier, Biden signed an executive order to safeguard access to medication abortion and emergency contraception; protect patient privacy; launch public education efforts; and strengthen “the security of and the legal options available to those seeking and providing abortion services.”

Before signing his executive order, Biden condemned what he called the “extreme” Supreme Court majority for overturning Roe v. Wade.

The court’s June 24 ruling came in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a challenge to a Mississippi law banning abortion after 15 weeks.

In affirming the law 6-3, the high court also voted 5-4 to overturn 1973’s Roe v. Wade ruling, which legalized abortion nationwide, and 1992’s Casey v. Planned Parenthood ruling, which affirmed Roe. The June ruling sends the issue of abortion back to the states.

“In response to the Dobbs decision,” Archbishop Lori said in his statement, “I called for the healing of wounds and repairing of social divisions, for reasoned reflection and civil dialogue, and for coming together to build a society and economy that supports marriages and families, and where every woman has the support and resources she needs to bring her child into this world in love.”

“And as religious leaders, we pledged ourselves to continue our service to God’s great plan of love for the human person, and to work with our fellow citizens to fulfill America’s promise to guarantee the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all people,” he added.

“I implore the president to abandon this path that leads to death and destruction and to choose life,” Archbishop Lori said. “As always, the Catholic Church stands ready to work with this administration and all elected officials to protect the right to life of every human being and to ensure that pregnant and parenting mothers are fully supported in the care of their children before and after birth.”

Biden called the Dobbs decision an “exercise in raw political power,” but in writing for the majority,

KEVIN LAMARQUE, REUTERS | CNS

President Joe Biden speaks at the White House in Washington July 8 before signing an executive order he said would help safeguard women’s access to abortion and contraceptives. Pictured with Biden are Vice President Kamala Harris, left, and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra.

Justice Samuel Alito said: “The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision.”

“It’s outrageous. I don’t care what your position is (on abortion), it’s outrageous and it’s dangerous,” said Biden, a Catholic who supports legal abortion. He said his executive order was a necessary response to the ruling.

Biden urged Americans upset by the decision to “vote, vote, vote, vote” in November to elect lawmakers who will back a law codifying Roe. Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life, said Biden’s executive order “confirmed the White House is working to appease the abortion lobby to the detriment of women and their unborn children.”

“On no other issue, from inflation to high gas prices, have President Biden and pro-abortion Democrats put forward so much effort as they have on abortion,” she said in a July 8 statement.

Biden “seems to think that Americans’ problems can only be solved by killing (the nation’s) children by abortion,” she said.

She also took issue with a scenario Biden laid out in remarks he made before signing the executive order. He said a woman facing “a life-threatening miscarriage” who goes to the emergency room will be denied care because doctors and hospital lawyers will fear they will be penalized for helping her now that Roe has been overturned.

“Misinformation and deceptive statements permeated the president’s speech today,” said Tobias, noting that pro-life legislation “explicitly makes clear that treatment for miscarriages does not fall under the legal meaning of abortion.”

In addition, she said, no law exists that outlaws the treatment of ectopic pregnancies.

She added that “the pro-life movement is vehemently opposed to women being prosecuted for having or seeking an abortion. An open letter to state legislators stating the opposition of the movement to the

prosecution of women was signed by over 70 pro-life groups.”

To underscore what he said was the need for his order, before signing it Biden repeated a news story first reported July 1 by The Indianapolis Star daily newspaper and carried by a number of news outlets, that a 10-yearold girl in Ohio who became pregnant as the result of a rape allegedly had to travel across state lines to Indiana to get an abortion. Ohio has banned abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy.

“Imagine being that little girl,” he said. “I’m serious, just imagine being that little girl. Ten years old!”

But hours after his remarks, The Washington Post reported what others were already saying, that the story “is highly dubious.”

During his years in the U.S. Senate, Biden was considered a moderate on abortion. In 2006, ahead of his 2008 run for the presidency, he described being an “odd man out” with Democrats on abortion.

HEADLINES u Pope calls for peace in Sri Lanka, Libya, Ukraine.

Pope Francis called on authorities in Sri Lanka July 10 to listen to the cries of their people after months of civil unrest culminated with protesters storming the residences of the country’s president and prime minister. Sri Lanka has been in a state of emergency since April after nationwide protests erupted against Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. He also prayed for the people in Libya, where demonstrators stormed the country’s parliament July 3, and Ukraine. u Biden offers condolences after killing of former Japanese prime minister. U.S. President Joe Biden said he was stunned, outraged and saddened over the killing of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was fatally shot July 8 during a campaign event in the city of Nara, near Kyoto. Authorities in Japan detained a 41-year-old man alleged to have fired the two fatal shots. The event stunned the world not only because of the victim, the longest serving Japanese prime minister, but also because killing someone with a gun in the country of an estimated 125 million people is almost unheard of. u Mundelein seminary education initiative to include The St. Paul Seminary. The University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary has received a $5 million grant from the Lilly Endowment to help fund development of a project to integrate new pedagogical methods into formation programs for seminarians, priests and lay leaders within the Catholic Church. The initiative will involve collaboration among major Catholic seminaries in the United States, including The St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul, and the dioceses they serve.

— Catholic News Service

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JULY 14, 2022

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 9

SPECIALREPORT

The Dallas charter turns 20 Even with successes, charter seen as a document that must adapt over time

By Dennis Sadowski Catholic News Service

W

hen Mike Hoffman decided to contact Archdiocese of Chicago officials in 2006 about how he was sexually abused by a priest for four years while a teenage altar server, he wasn’t sure how his story would be received.

“I wrote one letter and got an immediate letter back and we set a date (to talk),” Hoffman, now 57, told Catholic News Service. “In telling my story, I was not met with confrontation or difficulty. Although I felt anxious, my anxiety was that they would question me and question my character.”

“I was met with compassion, decency and professionalism,” he said.

For that response, Hoffman credits the procedures set up by the archdiocese under the “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.”

The landmark document, adopted 20 years ago during a widely watched U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops assembly in Dallas, established minimum standards for dioceses and eparchies to follow in response to the clergy sexual abuse scandal that exploded in 2002.

“My experience was modeled after and by and through and within the charter,” Hoffman said.

Hoffman’s encounter with the archdiocese continues nearly 16 years after he revealed his story. He said that while he no longer undergoes therapy paid for by the archdiocese, he continues to receive support from its victim assistance ministry. He chairs the archdiocese’s Hope and Healing Committee, participates in special Masses for survivors, and works with parish-based “peace circles,” discussion groups open to anyone wanting to respond to abuse.

“I still need connection with our local Church,” he said, “and they’re doing that, I can faithfully say.”

The Chicago archdiocese’s efforts to respond and educate about clerical sexual abuse have touched Hoffman’s family as well. As active members of their Chicago-area parish, he and his wife have undergone safe environment training. His now adult children received age-appropriate training throughout their time in Catholic schools.

The charter — and the accompanying norms approved by the Vatican that govern its provisions under canon law — has been mandated for use by dioceses and eparchies throughout the U.S. It encompasses 17 articles that prescribe specific actions in response to abuse allegations.

The document promotes healing and reconciliation with survivors abused as a minor; identifies procedures for responding to an abuse allegation; sets standards for ministerial behavior and appropriate boundaries;

mandates transparency in communicating with the public; requires the permanent removal from ministry of any priest or deacon when an abuse allegation has been substantiated; and establishes safe environment programs. The charter also launched the bishops’ Committee on the Protection of Children and Young People to coordinate the response to clerical sexual abuse.

In addition, the bishops established the Secretariat for Child and Youth Protection and arranged for an annual audit to be conducted to measure diocesan and eparchial compliance with the charter.

Margaret O’Brien Steinfels, who was editor of Commonweal magazine in 2002, was one of two laypeople invited to address the bishops about their response to the crisis. She recalled telling the bishops how laypeople felt powerless to influence changes in the Church and urged the prelates to take substantive action to confront abuse to help rebuild their credibility.

It was a presentation that she hoped the bishops “would take to heart.”

“In a lot of ways I think the Dallas charter did help the bishops come to grips with some of the issues that kind of had not been properly attended to,” she said.

Journalist Jason Berry, whose investigative work into clerical abuse in Louisiana began in 1985 and continued for more than two decades, described the charter as an important step for the Church.

He credited those bishops who have “been sensitized to the plight of survivors” and after the scandal widened took extraordinary action to meet “with people they would have not met with before.”

Despite such positive outcomes, Berry noted that the charter failed to cover bishops, who under canon law come under the purview of the pope when it comes to disciplinary measures for wrongdoing.

It took Pope Francis’ 2019 “motu proprio” “Vos Estis Lux Mundi” — which established procedures for reporting allegations of sexual abuse and for holding accountable bishops, eparchs and religious superiors who protect abusers — to prompt steps toward broader accountability on sexual abuse.

In March 2020, the Catholic Bishops Abuse Reporting Service began. It allows for confidential sexual misconduct allegations against U.S. bishops and eparchs to be made through an online portal or via a toll-free telephone number.

The experience gained under the charter over the

past two decades has allowed Church leaders to better respond to abuse and the needs of survivors, said Deacon Bernie Nojadera, executive director of the USCCB secretariat.

The Church has moved forward in collaborating more closely with survivors and their families and has integrated the expertise of “competent laypeople” in its response to sexual abuse, he said.

Deacon Nojadera described how under the charter, Church ministers and employees have been empowered with skills and resources. “If there is an allegation that comes forward,” he said, “it is the ongoing, consistent and competent training that will allow us as a Church to respond in a manner that is courageous, compassionate and trauma-informed.”

In the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the charter’s provisions are seen as “minimal requirements” for any Church entity to follow, said Susan Mulheron, chancellor of canonical affairs.

“We’ve really gone beyond the charter,” Mulheron said, explaining that the archdiocesan review board also hears allegations of clergy misconduct beyond sexual abuse. “There’s a lot of benefits that we’ve found to that practice.”

She added, “Our review board, they’re fantastic.

They’re an essential tool for us in the archdiocese. They bring that diverse expertise. And it also helps us keep honest and accountable.”

Following the Dallas meeting, the bishops also introduced the lay-led National Review Board, which collaborates with them in their response to abuse. It continues to provide updates to the bishops on progress in addressing abuse and recommendations for charter improvements.

Francesco Cesareo, who is retiring June 30 as president of Assumption University in Worcester, Massachusetts, chaired the National Review Board from 2013 to 2020. His tenure was the longest of the eight laypeople who have held the post throughout its 20year history.

He helped craft the most recent update of the charter in 2018, a process that took five years to complete because of a lengthy legal and canonical review.

The changes tightened requirements for all individuals working with children while clarifying language in several articles.

Cesareo credited the charter for setting standards for dioceses in their response to abuse allegations. NRB members, he said, wanted to partner with the bishops to ensure that the response to allegations was effective and consistent.

For all the good accomplished under the charter, the NRB continued to urge that language be made more prescriptive and less ambiguous in some areas, Cesareo said. The concern focused on how bishops could interpret some sections of the charter differently and have their dioceses still be found in compliance with it.

Cesareo pointed to the need for diocesan review boards to investigate all allegations rather than just those referred by a bishop, and that such boards be PLEASE TURN TO DALLAS CHARTER ON PAGE 11

ARCHDIOCESAN STAFF ATTEND INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON HELPING CLERGY ABUSE VICTIMS Networking, sharing best practices and finding inspiration were among takeaways for two members of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis who attended an international conference in Rome on clergy sexual abuse titled “Reporting Abuse: Obligations, Dilemmas and Reality.”

dioceses in other parts of the world.

“I left with a very firm belief that there is a worldwide movement within the Catholic Church that is unstoppable,” said Tim O’Malley, archdiocesan director of ministerial standards and safe environment. Describing the conference as “very powerful,” O’Malley said he believes dioceses worldwide are moving toward greater accountability for all.

One area where some participants struggled, she said, is lack of access to a canon lawyer. So, Mulheron is considering what resources she and other canon lawyers could provide.

Networking proved valuable for her, Mulheron said. For example, a priest SUSAN MULHERON from Australia sent her training modules he provides to priests related to hearing confessions where abuse might be disclosed.

Susan Mulheron, chancellor for canonical affairs, said she learned things of value for the archdiocese and for helping

About 80 people from 20 countries participated in the annual International Safeguarding Conference, held at the Pontifical

Gregorian University. Speakers and small groups focused on: Pope Francis’ 2019 “motu proprio,” “Vos Estis Lux Mundi” (“You are the Light of the World”), which set procedural norms to combat sexual abuse and create structures for bishops’ accountability; victim and diocese reporting of abuse to civil authorities; victim survivors’ TIM O’MALLEY reporting process to Church authorities; and understanding victim survivors and their journey, meeting them where they’re at, and being supportive, O’Malley said. ­— Barb Umberger

SPECIAL

10 • JULY 14, 2022

Diocesan victim advocates are on healing quest for abuse survivors SUPPORT VIA ZOOM A victim survivor of clergy sexual abuse as a child and an adult described support groups offered via Zoom by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis as “amazing” and in many ways, “lifesavers, literally.”

The woman, 57, who asked to be identified as “Catherine Ann from Arizona” to protect her privacy, has lived out of her car since November 2020. Awake Milwaukee, a nonprofit organization of Catholics responding to the Church’s abuse crisis, referred her to Paula Kaempffer, outreach coordinator for restorative justice and abuse prevention for the archdiocese.

“Within hours I was on the phone with Paula,” Catherine Ann said. “She has been an amazing support to me as I’ve been going through all of the hell from the past several years, but especially the past year.”

KA EM PFF ER

A

s a victim assistance coordinator for the Diocese of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Donna Eurich said she believes one of the best results of her position — which springs from the U.S. bishops’ “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People” — is to help victims both find healing and not lose their faith.

Eurich, who was in Grand Rapids, Michigan, June 5-8 for the 16th Annual Child and Youth Protection Catholic Leadership Conference, where the 20 years since the so-called “Dallas charter” was a looming topic of conversation, said in her diocese she is mostly engaging with “historic” claims of clergy abuse — meaning the perpetrator is deceased.

Sitting with victim survivors has required her to have a good listening disposition and to be able to handle hearing traumatic stories without being reactionary and not becoming traumatized by what she is hearing, and to be strong for the benefit of survivors.

“The most important thing is to apologize and acknowledge that something has happened and to believe them; in some cases this might be the first time they are speaking publicly about their experience and the Church wants to help them through that,” Eurich told Catholic News Service by phone. “It is a ministry of the Church, a topic of respect life; those of us in this ministry take this very, very seriously. We love people and we want them to become healthy and whole again.”

The Tulsa diocese provides psychological treatment for victims and spiritual direction relative to the trauma someone experienced, she added.

The goal of the victim assistance coordinator is to be “trauma informed,” affirming that a survivor’s trauma is real and that there are specific do’s and don’ts that must be observed in helping someone on the road to healing.

“Another big hope is to extend help to people who may have been abused by nonclerics: other adults, incest or other situations not (necessarily) related to the Church directly,” Eurich said.

One of the speakers at the conference in Grand Rapids, she said, noted “how far we have come and what great work has been done but unfortunately much of the world doesn’t know about” in the 20 years since the “Dallas charter.”

The bishops approved the charter during a historic general assembly in Dallas June 13-15, 2002, months after news of a devastating clergy abuse scandal emerged in the Archdiocese of Boston and led to investigations of clergy behavior nationwide. The charter was revised in 2005, 2011 and 2018.

In addition to creating the position of victim assistance coordinator, among other provisions, the document requires dioceses to have a safe environment officer overseeing the process and child safety training of Church staff and volunteers.

But it’s a commitment to translate those policies and procedures into a project that continuously strives to prevent future abuse and to tweak the elements that go into the Church’s response to those who have been harmed by abuse, said Heather Banis, coordinator of the Office of Victims Assistance Ministry for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

“I am constantly learning from victim survivors, and it troubles me a bit to know how much I do learn from them: As informed as we are, there is always more we can learn,” Banis said.

Twenty or more years ago, the Church didn’t have a sense “for what this big picture really looked like, and how many people had been harmed, understanding the inner workings that failed, (were) covered up,” Banis noted. “Nor did we have a full understanding of the impact of child sexual abuse and the layers added to that when it is by the hands of a clergy person.”

Today, the Church is well on its way to being a

place of healing “although we are not fully there yet,” she said. “For people in my position our default is compassion. And we are a little bit more confident because we know that we have experience in what we can, should and are offering.”

In the spirit of taking healing to the next level, the Los Angeles Archdiocese is following the lead of a local abuse survivor with an expertise in horticulture to create an outdoor healing garden for survivors.

“The survivor has been consulting on the garden and he is a faith-filled Catholic even as he reconciles what has happened to him,” Banis said, noting that later this summer the archdiocese hopes to dedicate the garden for those not yet ready to set foot in a Church but who wish to sit in a place of healing.

Like other public memorials that mark tragic events, “it is a very tangible, physical symbol of the Church’s commitment and one that a loved one or survivor can access on their own, which offers a place of solace and kindling and connection with God,” Banis said.

“It can feel overwhelming but I believe healing is possible. It is a real labor of love for all of us involved.

It is not the only way but it is a perfect offering in its own way,” she added.

Whitney True-Francis, who is in her second year as a victim assistance coordinator at the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Missouri, said the tone that emerged from the conference in Grand Rapids was that of identifying the Church’s evolution these past 20 years to a more restorative approach to survivor healing and trauma as a lifelong endeavor.

The Missouri diocese, she said, offers survivors a generous program of counseling not only for themselves but for their friends and family members who suffered secondary effects.

Now the diocese has rolled out a new program called “Journey to Bethany,” which for the first time recently brought together a small group of survivors at a community center who wished to gather in a safe place for sharing their stories with each other and with professional counselors.

“My primary job is to accompany survivors who come to me in various ways and however they wish to proceed: investigate, speak to our general council or take advantage of counseling services,” TrueFrancis said. “It is my honor to walk with victim survivors where they are; and healing is not linear; it lasts a lifetime and we really have to hold space wherever they are and provide counseling.”

Rod Herrera, director of the Office of Child and Youth Protection at the Diocese of Camden, New Jersey, who also was in Michigan for the child protection conference, said many in his position struggled with what to do on the 20th anniversary of the “Dallas charter.”

“It is not a celebration, but we need to recognize it has been 20 years since an extraordinary document that the bishops ratified in such a short time in response to what was coming out of Boston that year,” Herrera said, in reference to the Boston clergy scandals that became a media focal point.

“It still needs to be looked at and improved in order to protect children in all our parishes and schools — one case of abuse is too many,” he said.

“But we have really decreased the number of incidents and a lot of it is because of the training we do” for children and adults, he said.

At the Michigan conference, a clergy abuse survivor from the Midwest area spoke to the conference about coming forward some five years ago and about her initial three-hour interview with Church representatives during which she felt affirmed.

“She felt listened to and cared about, and this is not something that would have happened that way (decades ago),” Herrera said.

Kaempffer offers three monthly support groups and a L fourth monthly session. One invites people who were sexually U PA abused by clergy as adults to share their stories and learn from each other along their healing journey. Family members of victim survivors make up a second, similar group, and a third offers peer-led discussion for those who were abused as children or adults. Guest speakers lead a fourth monthly session on topics pertinent to victim survivors. Some have covered shame, grooming and “when faith hurts” and “Why couldn’t I just walk away … and ‘get over it’?”

A

By Tom Tracy Catholic News Service

Another recent effort to connect victim survivors of clergy sexual abuse in the Church was a 90-minute listening session June 22 with Archbishop Bernard Hebda as part of the 2023 Vatican Synod, an effort that began in October to address “synodality” itself as a journey of encounter, listening and discernment. About 45 people from across the United States participated in the listening session, which Kaempffer moderated. The archbishop plans to present a written summary of participants’ comments, concerns and experiences concerning the Church to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and Pope Francis as part of the international synod, which will culminate with a meeting at the Vatican of representatives from around the world in 2023.

Participation in the four monthly Zoom sessions, which began in March 2020 as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic’s shutdown of in-person activities, has grown to include people far beyond the archdiocese, including about eight “regulars” from Alaska and Hawaii, Kaempffer said. Each session has reached farther geographically as word of them spreads, and people have joined from Puerto Rico, the United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland and other countries, she said.

In addition to the support groups, half of Kaempffer’s work involves individual telephone conversations with victim survivors. “They know I’m a victim survivor and I understand. I’ll get it, because many of them are not receiving support from their diocese.”

“I am not a victim assistance coordinator,” Kaempffer said. “I work totally with victim survivors all the time. All day long.”

She has also participated in panel discussions via Zoom — including two recently at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., one of which addressed the importance of survivors telling their stories. Last May she spoke to a group of spiritual directors about spiritual care of victim survivors.

Last August, Kaempffer said, she spoke to law students at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul in “a restorative justice intensive course.” For 90 minutes, Kaempffer told her story and “what it’s like for victim survivors, and how they’ve been treated by hierarchy and also by parishioners, sometimes,” she said.

Kaempffer considers the archdiocesan support groups a restorative practice. “I think it’s things that make people heal,” she said. “We’re cognizant of the harm that’s been caused and we realize it’s very real, and we try and help them heal. What’s happening is they’re healing each other in these groups.”

Support groups offer anonymity via Zoom and, over time, participants “offer such love and affirmation to each other in the group,” Kaempffer said. “We don’t try and fix one another in the group, but we really affirm and support one another.”

For more information, including recordings of monthly presentations, visit safe-environment.archspm.org/healing. To learn more about the support groups, contact Kaempffer at kaempfferp@archspm.org. ­— ­­Barb Umberger

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THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 11

DALLAS CHARTER CONTINUED FROM PAGE 9

KEY EVENTS

a brief timeline of events surrounding the clergy sexual crisis and the establishment of the “Charter for the ion of Children and Young People.”

3

e of Lafayette, Louisiana, suspends Father Gilbert Gauthe admits to having sexually abused at least three dozen boys and girls. Lawsuits and trials over the next three years ational attention to the issue of sexual abuse of children by

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e meeting, U.S. bishops have extensive discussion of clerical abuse. A confidential report warns the crisis could cost the billions of dollars. Individual dioceses and state Catholic ences begin developing policies to respond to sexual abuse ons.

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ons against James Porter, former priest in Fall River, chusetts, lead to 68 lawsuits. At June meeting, president of hops’ conference issues a five-point statement rizing guidelines sent to dioceses four years earlier. The nes call for removal and treatment for the offender, reporting ents in accord with civil law, reaching out to victims and “as openly as possible” with the community.

2

ary, Boston Globe publishes an investigative series on s of clergy sexual abuse in the Boston Archdiocese and the dling of those cases.

U.S. cardinals are summoned to Rome for a Vatican on clergy sexual abuse. After 10 years of bishops rily addressing clerical sexual abuse, Vatican allows U.S. s to draft legislation binding on all U.S. dioceses as legal on abuse, subject to Vatican approval. , the bishops approve a “Charter for the Protection of n and Young People” at their national assembly in Dallas. nal Review Board is formed to oversee compliance of es with the charter, and two major national studies are ssioned regarding the scope and scale of the problem and es. ember, after consultation with the Vatican, bishops adopt a version of the “Essential Norms,” which establishes legal ures under Church law for applying charter policies. n McChesney, a senior FBI official, is appointed first ve director of the Office (now Secretariat) of Child and rotection required by the charter. ember, Cardinal Bernard Law resigns as Boston archbishop es up residence in Rome.

3

nvironment” guidelines sent to bishops. Charter requires es to have safe environment programs.

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t report on the implementation of the charter is released; it at 90% of the dioceses were fully compliant. This report be issued annually. hn Jay College of Criminal Justice releases its study, “The and Scope of the Problem of Sexual Abuse of Minors by c Priests and Deacons in the United States.” Study found m 1950 through 2002, 4,392 priests were accused of abuse re than 10,600 individuals made allegations.

8

enedict XVI addresses the matter of clergy sexual abuse of n in several talks. He meets with three victims privately to o them and pray with them.

2015 Pope Francis creates a Vatican tribunal section to hear cases of bishops who fail to protect children from abusive priests.

In June, Archbishop John Nienstedt and Auxiliary Bishop Lee Piche of St. Paul and Minneapolis resign following the filing of civil and criminal charges against the archdiocese related to a clergy abuse case.

The film “Spotlight” is released, dramatizing the Boston Globe’s investigation of clergy sexual abuse in the Boston Archdiocese.

The film goes on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.

2016 Pope Francis issues “motu proprio” “As a Loving Mother,” which specifies that “grave causes” for removal of a bishop are to include a bishop’s negligence in exercising his role, especially in relation to cases of “sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable adults.” (Canon law already provides the possibility of removal “for grave causes.”)

2018 Pope Francis makes remarks dismissing allegations against a Chilean bishop who was accused of covering up alleged abuses by a priest. Pope Francis acknowledges his mishandling of the crisis after protests and sends an investigative team to examine the matter.

All Chilean bishops offer to resign, and the resignations of three are accepted.

Archdiocese of New York publicly confirms that it substantiated allegations of abuse of a minor by Cardinal Theodore McCarrick.

Subsequent reports confirm that the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey, and the Diocese of Metuchen, New Jersey, have settled claims of adult misconduct by the prelate. Pope Francis accepts Cardinal McCarrick’s resignation from the College of Cardinals.

In August, a Pennsylvania grand jury issues a report chronicling abuse allegations against more than 300 priests and other Church workers over a 70-year period, starting in 1947, in six of the state’s eight dioceses.

Pope Francis issues a “letter to the people of God” regarding the abuse crisis.

Plans by the U.S. bishops to vote on action items regarding accusations made against bishops are put on hold at the Vatican’s request. The bishops agree to meet for a weeklong retreat in January 2019 at Mundelein Seminary in Illinois.

2019 In February, Pope Francis holds an international summit of all episcopal conferences in Rome to address the clergy sexual abuse crisis internationally.

McCarrick is removed from the clerical state because of allegations of sexual abuse of minors and seminarians.

Bishop Michael Bransfield is removed as head of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, West Virginia, because of sexual harassment of adults and financial improprieties.

Guam Archbishop Anthony Apuron is removed in the midst of accusations of sexual abuse and financial mismanagement.

Pope Francis issues the “motu proprio” “Vos Estis Lux Mundi” (“You are the light of the world”), which revises and clarifies norms and procedures for holding bishops and religious superiors accountable for protecting abusers worldwide.

At June meeting, U.S. bishops pass three new bishop accountability reforms, and they establish a third-party reporting system for allegations of violations by bishops.

Pope Francis accepts the resignation of Bishop Richard Malone of Buffalo, New York, amid allegations that he knowingly kept a priest in ministry despite abuse allegations against him.

2021 In April, Bishop Michael Hoeppner of Crookston resigns following an investigation pursuant to “Vos Estis.” Archbishop Bernard Hebda of St. Paul and Minneapolis oversaw the investigation.

1

2022

auses and Context of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic in the United States, 1950-2010” is released. It concluded re was no single cause or predictor of sexual abuse by c clergy. s vote on changes to the charter, adding policy on child raphy.

Twenty years after the establishment of the “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People,” Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, says the anniversary is “not a time of celebration, but a time of continued vigilance and determination.” He also says in the June 9 statement, “In these 20 years, we have greatly benefited from listening to and working with survivors of abuse. We are grateful for their courage in sharing their stories and for helping the Church strive to create a culture of protection and healing.”

4

ancis establishes the Pontifical Commission for the ion of Minors.

— Catholic News Service

required to meet regularly rather than only when a bishop forwarded an allegation. The NRB also wanted to introduce specific language pertaining to boundary violations and clarity on safe environment training, he said.

“The NRB was pushing the idea that the charter was a living document, and just like a living document it needs to evolve based on the experience of the Church and based on what the bishops were confronting because otherwise the charter was not going to address new realities,” Cesareo told CNS. Another update of the charter has begun. The bishops voted during their fall general assembly in November to begin the process this year rather than wait until 2025.

Bishop James Johnston Jr. of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Missouri, chairman of the Committee on the Protection of Children and Young People, told the assembly that several factors necessitated the new timeline.

They include changes in the Code of Canon Law regarding penal sanctions in the Church that took effect in December; Pope Francis’ “motu proprio”; and the case of former cardinal Theodore McCarrick.

Discussions began in May, Deacon Nojadera said.

For Sara Larson, executive director of Awake Milwaukee, a threeyear-old organization focusing on sexual abuse in the Church and support of survivors of clergy sex abuse, the work ahead will be crucial.

She suggested that Church leaders broaden their support for survivors, whether specified in the charter or through diocesan victim assistance ministries.

“We’re walking really closely with a diverse group of survivors who are teaching us a lot about this issue and what we still need to do as a Church,” Larson said of her organization’s efforts.

Among the concerns Larson identified as coming from survivors is the long-standing lack of trust in Church leaders. She also said many survivors with whom she has worked feel the Church fails to uphold the commitment to their well-being as expressed in Article 1 of the charter.

“Many people have therapy costs covered and that is valuable. But in very few places is there anything offered to them beyond funding for therapy,” Larson said.

“Even among those who have good intentions, if they are not trained in trauma-informed care and are not empowered to offer anything beyond funding (for therapy), that often feels very lacking to those who are really looking for more support and more healing beyond that,” she explained.

Larson encouraged the Church to move beyond a “check-the-box mentality” during the annual audits under the charter.

“The Dallas charter has really a lot of important provisions, but we really need to start thinking about going beyond the bare minimum,” she said. “Instead of asking are we meeting the requirements of the Dallas charter, we need to be asking what is God telling us to do in the Church to create safer environments for all of God’s people and create safer environments for all of those who have been harmed.

“In my mind, what we really missed as a Church is this deeper call to a change of culture and change of heart. That can’t be met or measured by policies and procedures. That’s a much deeper call to conversion,” Larson said.

Mulheron, the St. Paul and Minneapolis archdiocesan official, said that in talking with other diocesan chancellors and bishops, she has found they are taking the charter’s provisions seriously, are committed to compliance during annual audits and want to do what’s best for abuse survivors.

She said the check-the-box mentality seems to arise from frustrations in the audit process because of imprecise language in the charter, a point to which Cesareo, the past NRB chairman, agreed.

“It’s not fair to say dioceses are simply checking the box in terms of a commitment to a safe environment for children. I can’t conceive of a diocese that doesn’t believe in that and doesn’t take it seriously,” Mulheron said.

She called for the charter to “raise the bar” on how dioceses commit to supporting and engaging their review boards, based on her experience in St. Paul and Minneapolis.

“We know there are so many qualified laypeople who are eager to give their talent and their time to help in this area. Your review board is only going to be as good as your diocese supports it and encourages it and empowers it. That’s an area where the charter could raise the bar and let those review boards shine and lead the way,” Mulheron said.

Hoffman, the abuse survivor from Chicago, invited Catholics — leaders and people in the pews alike — to review the charter and examine what it means to the life of the Church.

“Major anniversaries are an important time to retell a story and to revisit and renew the commitment,” Hoffman said.

“We literally do evolve as people and we do evolve as Church. So I’d like our priests and all other staff and all of us to evolve together. ...

Twenty years later, we’re not the same people we were when this thing (the charter) was published,” he continued.

“To keep evolving is where we should focus.”

LEFT PAGE

12 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

JUNE 30, 2022

PAID ADVERTISEMENT

Catholic Ministry Insists Poverty Relief Must Include An Encounter with Christ If you are like most people, you’ve probably never heard of Suchitepéquez, Guatemala. It isn’t home to the country’s capital city. It’s not a tourist hot spot, and it doesn’t have an abundance of the natural resources the world craves.

Almost nothing about this remote part of Guatemala stands out as noteworthy or would draw your attention — except for its people and the miraculous material and spiritual work God has begun to accomplish there.

“Suchitepéquez, Guatemala, has become an area of great interest to Cross Catholic Outreach, and we expect many in the Catholic Church will eventually celebrate its significance in the years ahead. We believe that people and communities are being transformed there, and the way that change is being achieved will soon be a model for ministries working to end poverty elsewhere in the world,” said Jim Cavnar, president of Cross Catholic Outreach. “Great changes have already taken place there, and I’m confident even greater advancements will be made in the year ahead.”

Cavnar is also encouraged by how so many American Catholics have stepped forward to help with the mission work underway in Guatemala. His ministry — well known for its relief and development work around the globe — needs this support in order to undertake new initiatives and expand the diocese’s current outreaches to help the poor. (See related story on opposite page.)

Contributions from U.S. donors have already helped Cross Catholic Outreach and the bishop of the Diocese of Suchitepéquez-Retalhuleu begin several community transformation programs that provide both material and spiritual blessings to families living in the area.

“We believe there are two key factors

that produce real, lasting change in poor communities. Part of the process involves addressing the serious material needs of the people by ending extreme hunger, providing safer water sources, seeing that families have basic medical care, improving housing, educating children and doing other outreaches of that kind. Because poverty touches on many areas, you can only produce long-term prosperity in an area by having a relief plan that considers all of a community’s needs,” Cavnar said.

“The other part of the process focuses on the spiritual condition of the people, and we consider it a critical reason

“...it takes an encounter with Christ to change lives and communities profoundly and forever.”

Jim Cavnar, President Cross Catholic Outreach for our success. Some try to attack poverty with only material solutions.

While that may help for a time, it rarely creates a healthy community or makes improvements that will last.

Real transformation and progress are only possible when Christ is part of the solution. As people, we can offer temporary fixes to a momentary need, but it takes an encounter with Christ to change lives and communities profoundly and forever.”

The work Cross Catholic Outreach has underway in Guatemala clearly reflects the development strategies Cavnar outlined, and many American Catholics have already shown their enthusiasm for the mission by supporting it financially. These contributions will continue to be important, especially in

new communities that are still waiting to be helped.

“Suchitepéquez is a rural area and most of the families living there are very poor, typically relying on subsistence farming to survive,” Cavnar explained. “The diocese is a reflection of the community and works with a very meager budget. It will continue to need our help to accomplish the social and spiritual outreaches local families desperately need. With our support, the diocese can feed the hungry, dig wells to supply fresh water, build houses for the homeless, set up medical clinics, provide educational scholarships, support spiritual outreaches and do the other things community transformation requires.”

As these improvements take place and prove successful, donors to the cause often want to become even more involved, Cavnar added.

“In my experience, most American Catholics want to support meaningful

outreaches to help the poor. But they are looking for something specific and they want to know their gifts will have a significant impact,” he said. “When they see what they can accomplish through Cross Catholic Outreach by empowering a diocese like this one, they often ask us, ‘What can I do next?’

They feel such fulfillment from the experience that they want to do more.”

Readers interested in supporting Cross Catholic Outreach’s outreaches to the poor can contribute through the ministry brochure inserted in this issue or send tax-deductible gifts to: Cross Catholic Outreach, Dept. AC02150, PO Box 97168, Washington DC 200907168. The ministry has a special need for partners willing to make gifts on a monthly basis. Use the inserted brochure to become a Mission Partner or write “Monthly Mission Partner” on mailed checks to be contacted about setting up those arrangements.

Cross Catholic Outreach’s “Day of Prayer” Blesses Catholics Spiritually Each year, one of the nation’s leading international relief and development ministries sets aside a special day to offer prayer as a gift to those in need — particularly to Catholics in America who have been supporting its work overseas. It is yet another sign of the organization’s deeply spiritual approach to charity.

“Since our inception, we have always set aside a day of the week to pray for those who have shared their intentions, and those requests have typically come to us through the many priests who

visit U.S. parishes to share about our mission during the homily of the Mass,” explained Jim Cavnar, president of Cross Catholic Outreach. “The Day of Prayer we celebrate in August is a full day dedicated to prayer for others, and it also includes a wonderful additional blessing. The prayer petitions we gather during that time are sent to His Eminence Cardinal Konrad Krajewski at the Vatican, who intercedes for the many prayer intentions during a special Mass celebrated on the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.”

Individuals interested in participating in the Day of Prayer are encouraged to use the ministry’s special internet page to submit their prayer intentions.

It is found at CrossCatholic.org/ dayofprayer.

“While Cross Catholic Outreach is best known for the many things it does to support Church missions serving the poor — delivering shipments of food and medicines, funding educational and house-building initiatives, and developing self-help projects that allow people to escape poverty — we are

very intentional about serving the poor spiritually as well,” Cavnar said. “That is not always the case with charities, even religious ones, but we believe communicating the Gospel of Christ and promoting the means of grace — including prayer — must be part of our relief and development mission.”

“This approach is also in keeping with the points made in the Papal Encyclical, Deus Caritas Est,” he added. “It very clearly states that those of us who become involved in works of mercy must also be people of prayer.”

JULY 14, 2022 RIGHT PAGE

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 13

PAID ADVERTISEMENT

U.S. Catholics Help Poor Guatemalan Families Break the Bonds of Poverty There is a terrible and destructive myth about the poverty in Central America. It suggests that the poor families living there are unwilling to work hard to succeed and are eager to leave their communities to find an easier life elsewhere.

“Nothing could be further from the truth, in my experience,” said Jim Cavnar, president of Cross Catholic Outreach, one of the leading Catholic ministries working to alleviate poverty in the developing world. “Yes, many rural families are mired in extreme poverty and desperately want to provide their children with a better way of life, but most men and women I’ve encountered want to find solutions at home, because they love their country, their communities and their families.”

Cavnar has worked and traveled through South and Central America for nearly two decades, and his work with Catholic dioceses in countries such as Guatemala have proven out his sentiments. The poor are not looking for a handout but rather for “a hand up,” as he explained.

Working under this premise, Cross Catholic Outreach typically supports diocesan efforts to provide both urgent relief with supplies of food and longterm development with self-help initiatives that allow families to improve their lot in life through agricultural and animal husbandry programs and other small business ventures. When families are offered access to opportunities like these, he says, they put an incredible level of energy into the work it involves.

“When you improve a farmer’s crop yield so he can earn a higher income or you set up a pig-raising project so he can pay his bills and send his kids to school, you are triggering a major transformation in a family’s life. The economic chains that have bound the family in poverty for generations are broken, and a life of greater prosperity begins,” Cavnar said.

“It’s an incredible experience to be part of that transformation — to see God restoring hope and opening a path to a brighter future for these precious people and their children.”

According to Cavnar, this idea of addressing both a family’s material and spiritual needs is what has been fueling his ministry’s current efforts in Guatemala. (See related story on the opposite page.)

“We believe this life-changing mission of mercy could sweep the globe and change millions of lives if we continue to be supported by American Catholics,” he added.

For twenty years, donors to Cross Catholic Outreach have generously supported the ministry’s efforts to provide

Many of the poor families in the Diocese of Suchitepéquez-Retalhuleu live in fragile homes constructed from scrap wood, plastic or canvas sheets, and discarded metal. Few can afford even the most basic furnishings and most rely on wood-burning stoves that fill their tiny houses with smoke. They long to provide their children with a better life, so the Church is working to transform their communities and help them escape the bondage of this extreme poverty.

the poor with food and other urgent needs, and those objectives will remain an important part of the organization’s mission, but Cavnar hopes those same compassionate people will also want to support the long-term sustainable solutions the charity is undertaking.

“Together, we can partner with Caritas Suchitepéquez-Retalhuleu to help families grow their own food and increase their crop yields through improved tools and training,” Cavnar said. “These families are willing to work hard, and they want to become self-sufficient and prosper in their home communities. The Church should be helping them achieve those noble goals.”

With the help of American Catholic donors, Caritas Suchitepéquez-Retalhuleu could double its agriculture program in the year ahead, he said.

“In the past, Caritas successfully trained 200 families on proven techniques to grow healthy, sustainable home gardens, and the impact of that outreach was an incredible blessing.

More recently, Caritas trained 400 farming families to grow native herbs, vegetables and local citrus fruits. This will help parents provide nutritious meals for their children, and those

families would also be able to sell their surplus crops to increase their income,” Cavnar said. “Catholic donors in the U.S. will play an important role in continuing this outreach. Their gifts will fund the technical assistance, cover the cost of seeds and organic fertilizer, and purchase the fruit trees we will provide the next group of participating families.

With these benefits and the spiritual support the diocese provides, these families can have hope again. Their dignity will be restored and their faith will be strengthened.”

How to Help To fund Cross Catholic Outreach’s effort to help the poor worldwide, use the postage-paid brochure inserted in this newspaper, or mail your gift to Cross Catholic Outreach, Dept. AC02150, PO Box 97168, Washington, DC 20090-7168. The brochure also includes instructions on becoming a Mission Partner and making a regular monthly donation to this cause.

If you identify an aid project, 100% of the donation will be restricted to be used for that specific project. However, if more is raised for the project than needed, funds will be redirected to other urgent needs in the ministry.

14 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

JULY 14, 2022

FAITH+CULTURE Sister calls 25 years of religious life ‘so worth it’

Oblate finds richness in retreats, parish ministry

Story and photo by Dave Hrbacek The Catholic Spirit

Story and photo by Dave Hrbacek The Catholic Spirit

S

ister Jill Laszewski was clipping along in a successful telecommunications career in the early 1990s when a mission trip to Nicaragua caused a major redirect — toward a religious vocation with the School Sisters of Notre Dame. This year marks the 25th anniversary of her first profession of vows to the order.

After studying business and economics at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, she moved to the Twin Cities in 1987 from her hometown of Rothschild, Wisconsin, to take a position with St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company (part of St. Paul Companies). That year, she joined Guardian Angels in Oakdale. A small group of parishioners signed up for a mission trip to Nicaragua with the parish pastor, Father Mike Arms, in 1991. They spent 10 days visiting their sister parish during a time of immense political upheaval in the country.

“It was amazing,” Sister Jill, 63, said of the experience. “I’d never been to a developing country. I get off the plane in Managua and there’s soldiers with rifles, and you’re like, ‘Ha, I guess I’m not in Kansas anymore.’”

The group visited poor neighborhoods with three Franciscan Sisters of Little Falls.

Spending time with the sisters allowed her to see their communal life more closely, and that stirred an attraction to religious life that started on the flight home and continued back at the parish, where she talked with Father Arms and he directed her to the Vocations Office of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Eventually, she started doing what she called “convent shopping” and chose three communities to visit and explore. One of them was the SSNDs. At first, she felt attracted to a different community, but eventually realized that she felt called to the School Sisters. She entered in 1994 and made first vows in 1997 in Mankato.

Her first assignment was at a ministry in St. Paul called MORE, started by SSND Sister Kathleen Spencer and supported by the religious community. MORE provides refugees and immigrants with education and support. Sister Jill served there until 1999, when she was hired to do IT work for the archdiocese. After leaving the archdiocese in 2007, she went to the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul (now St. Catherine University) and earned a master’s degree in theology in 2009.

Her ministries continued to vary. She worked briefly at Catholic Charities as trafficking victim services manager, and spent six years at an SSND outreach called East Side Learning Center, located in Johnson Elementary School on St. Paul’s East Side. The center’s director at the time, Sister Audrey Lindenfelser, is a local SSND community member and lives with Sister Jill in St. Paul.

In 2019, Sister Jill became part of the community’s North American Vocation Team. One of the team’s five members had moved to another leadership position in the order, and several sisters encouraged Sister Jill to consider the position.

“What attracted me was accompanying young people, encouraging them in their faith journey with God, and thinking, ‘How is God calling you?’” she said.

As she reflects on 25 years of life as an SSND, Sister Jill cherishes what she calls “the gift of religious life” shared with other members of her community.

“I know that I have been loved into being in so many ways by the sisters around me,” she said. “And, I know I’ve done more than I thought I could because of both the affirmation and the challenge of living in community. And I think if you’re called to it, community can be very freeing. It can be a wonderful way of life. Every life has its gifts, and every life has its struggles, but it’s so worth it.”

S

erving at a parish in a dangerous part of Miami that included being held up at gunpoint is among the memorable moments of Father Richard Sudlik’s 50 years of priesthood in the Oblates of Mary Immaculate.

Father Sudlik, 77, now serving as director of Christ the King Retreat Center in Buffalo, was taught by Oblates while at Bishop Fallon High School in Buffalo, New York. Those years helped draw him to the order, which he joined in 1963. He made final vows in 1969 and was ordained a priest in 1972.

After 21 years of ministry that included three parishes, he arrived at Holy Redeemer in Miami in 1993. It didn’t take long to realize this assignment would be vastly different from anything else on his resumé.

“It was in a section of the city called Liberty City, which started out as a segregated part of Miami,” he said. “I was the only white face in the church. To walk into a gathering and be the only white person is an interesting experience.”

“I really got to love the community,” he added. “I often tell people that everybody should be a minority once in their life.”

Among his vivid memories of Liberty City is the night he was robbed.

“I came home one night and it was dark,” he said. “We had bars on the doors (for extra security), that type of thing. And, I was fumbling with my keys. I heard a noise and I turned around and there’s this gun pointing at my nose. And, it was these two young kids, and I just kept saying, ‘Just calm down, for God’s sake’ because they were really nervous.”

They took his wallet and his car, which was recovered. “It was right around the corner,” he said. “They (also) stole my golf clubs. Funny thing was, when the police came, I told them that they stole my golf clubs. And, they said, ‘They’ll show up in a pawn shop.’ And, sure enough, a day later they found them.”

Rather than becoming angry or fearful, Father Sudlik forged a bond with the parish that exists to this day. Since leaving the parish in 2001, he has continued making regular visits to Sacred Heart. The relationships are deep, and the life lessons powerful.

There was a unique type of intimacy he felt serving this parish of 200 families. He felt it in the way they introduced him to others.

“It wouldn’t be like, ‘This is Father Sudlik.’ It would be ‘This is my priest, Father Sudlik,’” he said. “And, that phrase, ‘my priest,’ I always thought was rather endearing.”

Following administrative and parish assignments after Sacred Heart, he came to Minnesota in 2018 to become director of Christ the King Retreat Center in Buffalo.

Because of his childhood in Buffalo, New York, he jokes that he has “come back” to Buffalo. After the death of Father Tony Dummer, an Oblate who previously had served as director of Christ the King, Father Sudlik was invited to take the role.

“I’ve done a lot of preaching, and did a lot of preaching at retreat houses and all, but I’ve never been stationed at one” prior to Christ the King, Father Sudlik said.

He also leads the center’s preaching team, which provides silent retreats for laypeople and clergy, with most of them being three-day group events for 20 to 30 people. This year marks the 70th anniversary of Christ the King Retreat Center, also known as King’s House, with a celebration planned for 2 p.m. Aug. 21. The center hosts about 45 retreats a year, and had 2,638 guests in 2021.

“Doing retreats is part of my life,” he said, “It’s what I enjoy doing.”

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JULY 14, 2022

CONGRATULATIONS JUBILARIANS! The Catholic Spirit is honored to highlight and celebrate milestone jubilees among women’s and men’s religious communities who are serving or have served in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. In addition to the jubilarians featured on page 14, the following are observing significant anniversaries. The information was provided by the religious communities.

BENEDICTINE MONKS, ST. JOHN’S ABBEY Collegeville

60 years Sister Rose Marie Brouillard Sister Geraldine Riendeau Sister Ruthann Scherer

FRANCISCAN SISTERS OF LITTLE FALLS Little Falls

75 years Sister Adella Gross Sister Audrey Jean Loher Sister Olga Neft 60 years Sister Gertrude Brixius

JESUITS

Midwest Province

50 years Father Cyprian Weaver

50 years Father James Radde

25 years Father Gregory Miller

MISSIONARY SISTERS OF ST. PETER CLAVER

CHRISTIAN BROTHERS OF THE MIDWEST Burr Ridge, Illinois

70 years Brother Paul Grass Brother James Roszak

St. Paul

Carthage, Missouri

10 years Father David Hottinger Father Joe Barron

SCHOOL SISTERS OF NOTRE DAME

10 years Father Alphonse Vu Father Thomas Vu

CONGREGATION OF ST. JOSEPH 70 years Sister Janice Miller

60 years Sister Susan Wal

PRO ECCLESIA SANCTA

CONGREGATION OF THE MOTHER OF THE REDEEMER

Cleveland

St. Paul

Sister Beverly Ann Fries Sister Germaine Mulcahey Sister Cathryn O’Donnell Sister Mary Myles Schwahn Sister M. Maris Simon Sister Rita von Holtum 60 years Sister Judith Bakula Sister M. Rosae Brown Sister Gloria Degele Sister Deanna Donahue Sister Carolyn Fasnacht Sister Jovann Irrgang Sister Kathleen Mary Kiemen Sister Darlene Lenzmeier Sister Margaret Roozen Sister Loretta Marie Strobel Sister Janet Wermerskirchen 50 years Sister Carol Marie Hemish Sister Helen Jane Jaeb Sister Joyce Kolbet Sister Lavonne Krebs Sister Mary Ann Kuhn Sister Ann Marie Merth Sister Faith Wanner

SERVANTS OF MARY (SERVITE SISTERS) Ladysmith, Wisconsin

70 Years Sister Noreen McGinley Sister Mary De Lourdes Plourde

St. Louis

60 years Sister Lois Reichert Sister Mary Alice Willems

75 years Sister Mary Lauren Spence 70 years Sister Cerella Baumgartner Sister Marguerite Churilla Sister Joan Fink

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 15 70 years Sister Mariann Franzgrote Sister Constance Lennartz 60 years Sister Erica Jordan Sister Judith Seiberlich Sister Anita Smisek 50 years Sister Priscilla Wood

SISTERS OF THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY, MOTHER OF CHRIST Nigeria

25 Years Sister Maria Chinweze Enujiofor

SISTERS OF THE ORDER OF ST. BENEDICT, ST. BENEDICT’S MONASTERY St. Joseph

60 years Sister Lucy Revering

SISTERS OF THE ORDER OF ST. BENEDICT, ST. PAUL’S MONASTERY Maplewood

70 years Sister Catherine Schoenecker

SISTERS OF ST. JOSEPH OF CARONDELET

Sister Michele Murphy Sister Annabelle Raiche Sister Miriam Shea Sister Ann Clare Smith Sister Serena Zilka 70 years Sister Margaret Belanger Sister Nancy Davis Sister Katherine Egan Sister Karen Kennelly Sister Elizabeth Kerwin Sister Sylvia Krawfcyk Sister Kate McDonald Sister Justina Overhultz Sister Mary Sarto Revier Sister Donna Vosika +Sister Anne Elise Tschida (deceased in 2021) 65 years Sister Kevin Bopp Sister Mary Fran Carter Sister Maureen Lamey Sister Katherine McLaughlin Sister Joyce Peck Sister Polly Preston Sister Mary Schabert 60 years Sister Linda Napier Sister Mary Ellen Ward 50 years Sister Kathleen Niska

St. Paul Province, St. Paul

40 years Sister Mary Vincent

SINSINAWA DOMINICANS Sinsinawa, Wisconsin

80 years Sister Mary Ann Hanley Sister Maria June Wilson

SYLVANIA SISTERS OF ST. FRANCIS

75 years Sister Vivian Gorman Sister Alban Hermes

75 years Sister Mary Madonna Ashton Sister Helen Thomas Bronk

60 years Sister Kathleen Casey

Sylvania, Ohio

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JULY 14, 2022

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 16

FOCUSONFAITH SUNDAY SCRIPTURES | FATHER MICHAEL JOHNSON

Jesus as an honored guest

“Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing.” Martha and Mary are two of Jesus’ closest friends and, because of this, we can assume that he spent a lot of time at their home; conversely, they spent a lot of time in his presence. However, in this week’s Gospel, we see Martha failing to be present to her guest as she struggles to be a good host.

Like a good host, Martha wants to make sure that everything is prepared for the meal that they are going to share. Anyone who has prepared and hosted a Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner can probably relate to what was on Martha’s mind. Being hospitable is a great virtue, as is serving a great meal. The cost for doing this is often high. It requires a lot of attention, and so we invariably do not get to spend as much time with our guests as we would like. We rationalize our priorities by believing that the primary reason they came over was to share a meal at our table. We fail to remember that they actually are coming over to spend time with us.

This is the trap that Martha fell into, in trying to attend to the details of the moment — hosting their guest — she is ignoring the greater good of spending time with her friend when he is present in her home. Her actions are meant to be contrasted with the actions of her sister Mary, and Abraham from this week’s first reading, both of whom realized that the Lord was in their midst and chose to

spend time in his presence.

Like Martha, Mary and Abraham, the Lord appears at the door of our own homes and desires to enter into our lives. The Lord says in the Book of Revelation, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, (then) I will enter his house and dine with him, and he with me.”

In response to our Lord’s desire to enter into our lives through the Eucharist, at Mass each day we echo the words of the centurion, “Lord I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.” Though we may feel unworthy of his presence in our lives, he still desires to be with us; not in an abstract way or as a pious thought, but rather he stands and knocks at the doorposts of our hearts and truly desires to be part of our lives. He wants to be a guest in our homes.

Instead of being a burden, like unexpected guests who show up to have dinner at an already full home, the Lord’s desire to be part of our lives does not have to be a burden. Inviting him to be part of our lives can be as simple as turning to him for a few moments before you begin to eat and thanking him for our food. It can be as convenient as taking a couple minutes at the end of your lunch break where you can read the readings of the day and pray for a few moments afterward. It can be as simple as turning off the radio when you are waiting in the drive-thru lane. Welcome him into that time of restlessness as you try to fall asleep at night. Make a quick trip to the perpetual adoration chapel at your local parish as you are out running errands.

Regardless of how we do this, it is important that we set aside the busyness of our lives to welcome the guest who desires to spend time with us. In turn, when the busyness of our lives finally comes to an end, it is he who will invite us into his home. Where we become the honored guest. Where he desires to spend eternity with us.

Father Johnson is judicial vicar in the archdiocese’s Office of the Metropolitan Tribunal.

FAITH FUNDAMENTALS FATHER MICHAEL VAN SLOUN

The Marriage Cross The Marriage Cross is a meaningful symbol of the sacrament of marriage. It has three essential parts: a large cross in the middle, with the lower portion of the vertical beam positioned between two interlocking wedding rings. Many artists include two candles, one on either side of the cross, with each candle between or behind one of the rings.

The Marriage Cross is used to adorn special vestments used for marriages, and it is sometimes used on the front or back of the priest chasuble, the deacon dalmatic or a stole. It frequently is depicted in stained glass windows. Some couples use it with their wedding invitations, thank-you notes or table decorations.

The cross is the most prominent feature.

The cross represents Jesus himself, and Jesus is the center of every Christian marriage. Jesus confirmed the goodness of marriage when he attended the Cana wedding feast (Jn 2:1-11). He taught about marriage, and he explained that in the beginning God made them male and female, that the bride and the groom leave their parents, are joined to each other, become one flesh, and are not to

COURTESY FATHER MICHAEL VAN SLOUN

The Marriage Cross is depicted on one of Father Van Sloun’s stoles, a gift from a parishioner. be separated (Mt 19:4-6 and Mk 10:6-9).

The Church teaches that the faithful and generous covenantal love of a Christian marriage is “an efficacious sign of Christ’s presence” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 1613).

The cross is a sign of Jesus’ love. Jesus explained, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (Jn 15:13; see Rom 5:8). Jesus went to the cross out of love, Jesus has a great love for the wife and husband, and the wife and husband have a great love for Jesus and for each other. Love unites the couple, and since God is love (1 Jn 4:8,16) and Jesus is the personification of the love of God, Jesus

is the bond that unites them. Jesus seals their union, and his cross provides the grace needed to be faithful.

The cross also represents discipleship and the hardships of life. Jesus said, “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily” (Lk 9:23). Every couple has its share of struggles. The marriage promises are blunt and straightforward, “in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health.” As Simon of Cyrene helped Jesus carry his cross, the wife and husband are to help each other carry their burdens. And if they will look to Jesus, the one who carried his own cross will help them carry theirs. When a couple carries their crosses together, they walk in Jesus’ footsteps as partners on the road to heaven.

The rings are a symbol of marriage. One ring represents the wife, and the other ring represents the husband. When the rings are interlocked, it signifies how the spouses are inseparably and permanently bound to each other, and when associated with the cross, how they are inseparably and permanently bound to Jesus.

When the two candles are included, they are white to resemble baptismal candles, symbolizing the fact that the husband and wife plan to live out their baptismal faith in the sacrament of marriage. The candles are aflame as a reminder that Jesus is the light of the world (Jn 8:12). And light from the candles indicates that the couple intend to place the light of their love on a stand for all to see (Mt 5:15-16).

DAILY Scriptures Sunday, July 17 Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Gn 18:1-10a Col 1:24-28 Lk 10:38-42 Monday, July 18 Mi 6:1-4, 6-8 Mt 12:38-42 Tuesday, July 19 Mi 7:14-15, 18-20 Mt 12:46-50 Wednesday, July 20 Jer 1:1, 4-10 Mt 13:1-9 Thursday, July 21 Jer 2:1-3, 7-8, 12-13 Mt 13:10-17 Friday, July 22 St. Mary Magdalene Sgs 3:1-4b or 2 Cor 5:14-17 Jn 20:1-2, 11-18 Saturday, July 23 Jer 7:1-11 Mt 13:24-30 Sunday, July 24 Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Gn 18:20-32 Col 2:12-14 Lk 11:1-13 Monday, July 25 St. James, Apostle 2 Cor 4:7-15 Mt 20:20-28 Tuesday, July 26 Sts. Joachim and Anne, parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary Jer 14:17-22 Mt 13:36-43 Wednesday, July 27 Jer 15:10, 16-21 Mt 13:44-46 Thursday, July 28 Jer 18:1-6 Mt 13:47-53 Friday, July 29 Sts. Martha, Mary and Lazarus Jer 26:1-9 Jn 11:19-27 Saturday, July 30 Jer 26:11-16, 24 Mt 14:1-12 Sunday, July 31 Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Ecc 1:2; 2:21-23 Col 3:1-5, 9-11 Lk 12:13-21

Father Van Sloun is the interim clergy services director for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. This column is part of a series on the sacrament of marriage.

KNOW the SAINTS ST. MARY MAGDALENE Mary, from Magdala in Galilee, was a disciple of Jesus who used her resources, or wealth, to help support him and his followers. The Gospel of Luke also says Mary was the woman from whom Jesus cast out seven demons and that she was present at his crucifixion and burial. In all four Gospels, Mary was the first witness to the Resurrection and carried that news to the others; because of this, St. Augustine called her “apostola apostolorum,” the apostle to the Apostles.

Traditions that identified Mary as a prostitute are now discounted. Her feast day is July 22.

— Catholic News Service

JULY 14, 2022

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 17

COMMENTARY TWENTY SOMETHING | CHRISTINA CAPECCHI

The duty of delight Here we are, in the thick of summer, this deep and gentle place.

The world is still broken, but we are given a season of delight. Sweet corn and watermelon, birdsong and bare feet and the nostalgic sensation of endless summer stretching out before us like a million tufts of cloud roaming the big blue sky.

What are we to do with it?

It feels like we need summer more this year — for all the kids who worked so hard at school, for all the teacher-heroes who kept at it, for all the parents who juggled work and home, for all of us who are weary. The divisions of politics and the pandemic, and the politics of the pandemic, still cut sharp, leaving empty chairs at kitchen tables and open wounds in mothers’ hearts.

It calls to mind the shortest verse in the Bible: “Jesus wept” (Jn 11:35). But Scripture also promises beauty from the ashes. “Behold,” God says, “I make all things new (Rv 21:5).” That’s how this summer feels after a late, timid spring — a whiplash from snowpants to

SIMPLE HOLINESS | KATE SOUCHERAY

Open to dialogue At times of disagreement and incongruity involving the opinions of others, it often seems easier to gravitate toward anger that leads to arguments, rather than discussions that may lead to some level of understanding.

No matter how we feel about the decision of the Supreme Court in June to overturn Roe v. Wade, we have witnessed the reactions of both sides.

We see either the delight over a decision some never thought would happen in their lifetime, or extreme dismay regarding the judgment of the high court to return the fundamental freedom over a woman’s choice to the state where she resides. There is no middle ground on this one.

While learning to dialogue with those on the opposing side of a controversial moral argument is often uncomfortable, developing the skills to discuss difficult issues is a mark of maturity.

Avoiding a conflict is not what our Catholic faith calls us to do. Rather than passively avoiding someone with whom we disagree, our faith calls us to engage in meaningful conversations, in order to share our perspective and respectfully listen to theirs.

The challenge is to enter the dialogue with the commitment to remain courteous and considerate throughout the exchange. Even though there may be a desire to express anger or irritation toward the other person, we know logically that is unwise, for it will not lead to a peaceable resolution.

The first steps we must take to enter respectful dialogue with others, according to Catholic scholar Anthony Cirelli, an associate director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, are prudence and charity. When we listen openly to the experiences the other shares with us about why they hold the beliefs that are opposed to our own, we listen respectfully and then calmly share our viewpoint on the subject. Ultimately, we want to extend understanding, empathy and friendship to the other person, demonstrating our love for them.

Cirelli contends that ignorance and intolerance have plagued our world for centuries,

swimsuits, the great surprise of heat.

Ahh, yes, I remember this.

Asking about summer plans is go-to small talk, a simple question that always trips me up. Are we to make up for COVID’s lost time, shuttling between camps, doing all the things with all the people?

“Not much,” is my meager answer.

The truth is, nary a recital or tournament marks our calendar. We’re swimming as much as possible. Our goal is to eat any meal outside that we can. We’re pouring over Shel Silverstein poetry and a book of illustrated maps that has us imagining distant lands from the comfort of our pajamas. Our most formal endeavor is The Popsicle Project, an attempt to sample as many popsicles as we can and rank our favorites.

Summer, at its best, brings us back to childhood. It invites us not to do more but to go deeper, not to race ahead but to slow down. It takes courage to do this: to resist cultural norms, to risk falling behind — a notion that haunts me even though I know it is more perceived than real.

In the end, the delights of slow living are too sweet to pass up. This morning I’ve been writing thank-you notes in our screened-in porch. Pen, stamps, hand to heart. A meditation in gratitude.

The shortest rain just fell — a tiny sip, not a dousing, for the thirsty earth. It fell with precision, contentment:

ACTION CHALLENGE u If you are tempted to shy away from entering a constructive dialogue with someone regarding the issue of abortion, take time to clarify your own thoughts and reasoning for your opinion. Educate yourself with facts about your stance. Practice a discussion with someone who holds your similar views, but take opposing sides. Give yourself an opportunity to hear your thoughts and opinions out loud. u Begin cautiously and slowly. The point of a discussion is not to win, but to express your views logically and compassionately.

largely because human beings have been unable and unwilling to enter into constructive dialogue with people who have opposing opinions. The point of constructive dialogue, he argues, is to “create a foundation of trust and mutual collaboration between people” so that we can help facilitate an intercultural and interpersonal exchange, in which we find common ground with those with whom we differ.

Our primary goal is to advance values that serve to build our human community and to foster understanding and empathy with and toward others. Imagine a world in which we make room for the opposing opinions of others, as we manage disagreements in an adult manner, rather than believing the only way to solve our differences is to act violently or to dismiss the other and their ideology.

Our goal, Cirelli states, is to learn from the other’s opinion and create mutual esteem and respect, which can then lead to authentic trust and friendship. The goal of dialogue is to promote the welfare of all human beings as we strive to create a world of peace.

Does this sound utopian, especially regarding the issue of the legalization of abortion? You may think that entering into a civil conversation with someone who believes strongly in an opposing viewpoint to your own is impossible, but we know as Catholic Christians that Jesus calls us to live our faith boldly and with conviction. This may be the very opportunity you have been waiting for to profess your faith.

Soucheray is a licensed marriage and family therapist emeritus and a member of St. Ambrose in Woodbury.

That is enough. Now the woodpecker is tapping away, and a breeze rustles the neon-green leaves.

I’ll stick with our simple summer and trust that is enough. I’m putting stock in the quiet wisdom of women religious, whose simplicity allows for a vibrant spiritual life. St. Paul writer Patricia Hampl once asked a cloistered nun for “the core of contemplative life.” The nun’s answer surprised her: “Leisure.”

I’m also taking cues from Dorothy Day, a woman of action and leisure. She didn’t see them as adversaries but companions. She felt an urgency to serve the poor and an imperative to savor each day. Dorothy described “the duty of delight” — the idea that leisure isn’t wasted time, that there is a duty to relish God’s creation, slowing down long enough to soak up the beauty and blessings in our midst.

“Mass at 8. Most beautiful surroundings. Low tide and I collected shells, very large mussels,” Dorothy wrote in a 1962 diary entry.

“Up at six,” she wrote the next day. “A still foggy day, very close. Great clamor for crows, great murmurings among starlings, laughing gulls.”

Listening to the birds powered her, making her a more faith-filled Catholic and a more effective activist.

Duty and delight. That’s the secret to summer.

Capecchi is a freelance writer from Inver Grove Heights.

INSIDE THE CAPITOL | MCC

Making abortion unthinkable The overturning of Roe v. Wade is not an end; it is just the beginning. This has been the refrain from the pro-life movement since the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v.

Jackson Women’s Health Organization. So, if this is just the beginning, how do we get to the end, where abortion is not simply illegal but truly unthinkable?

The Dobbs decision calls Catholics to double down on existing efforts to walk with moms in need. This work has already been underway for decades through the tireless and selfless efforts of countless individuals, and especially of pregnancy resource centers. Together, we must cultivate a civilization of love that cares for both the mother and child before and after birth. And we must assist our elected officials in implementing policies that will truly make abortion unthinkable. Unfortunately, in Minnesota, where abortion remains legal, the battle on Capitol Hill for hearts and minds will continue to be uphill.

In the week following the Dobbs ruling, 46% of Gov. Tim Walz’s official Twitter posts were not about being One Minnesota, but instead expressed his staunch support for abortion and maintaining its availability in Minnesota.

Walz went beyond social media rhetoric to the pronouncement of an executive order commanding state agencies “not to assist other states’ attempts to seek civil, criminal or professional sanctions against anyone seeking, providing or obtaining legal abortion services in Minnesota.”

The desire to further enshrine the taking of innocent life into our state’s laws was also seen among legislators, with Speaker of the House Rep. Melissa Hortman issuing a statement calling for the election of more pro-choice lawmakers. That passion was met with a tepid two-sentence response issued by Senate Majority Leader Jeremy Miller, in which he committed his caucus “to working together to find consensus on protections for babies and support for moms and families who choose life.”

What is most concerning about these statements is what our elected officials have failed to say — precisely that we must make abortion unthinkable. We accomplish this by passing life-affirming policies such as increased funding for the Positive Alternatives Grants program, family leave policies and economic support, such as a child tax credit, just to name a few.

Now is the time for Catholics reinvigorated by the overturning of Roe to passionately continue up the hill to advocate for policies that make sure no woman ever feels the need to think about abortion.

“Inside the Capitol” is an update on public policy concerns from Minnesota Catholic Conference.

18 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

COMMENTARY

JULY 14, 2022

ECHOES OF CATHOLIC MINNESOTA | REBA LUIKEN

Frogtown Farm was once House of the Good Shepherd

At 3:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 10, 1903, more than 4,000 fans gathered at the Lexington Park baseball stadium (at Fuller and Dunlap) to see the St. Paul Saints take on the Minneapolis Millers. Some said it was the largest crowd that had ever gathered for a baseball game in the Midwest, and they were particularly festive with St. Paul fans in white ribbons and Minneapolis fans in red. The game did not disappoint.

The Millers were up by four runs in the seventh inning, fell behind, and tied it up in the bottom of the ninth before going on to win it in the 10th. The real winners, however, were the Sisters of our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd. They were the beneficiaries of all ticket sales, including the tickets that hundreds had purchased without ever intending to attend the game.

At that time, the sisters ran a House of the Good Shepherd at Minnehaha and Victoria in St. Paul and another at Bloomington and South 27th Street in Minneapolis. The mission of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd was to provide rehabilitation and education of girls and young women who had demonstrated delinquent behavior. Some of the youngest girls were orphans or were sent to live with the sisters by desperate families, while the women who joined the sisters for reformation often chose to come on their own or were committed by the local court. Despite being run by a Catholic religious order, the local community considered it a nondenominational institution because of their good works.

The sisters and their charges supported themselves with laundry, sewing and fine embroidery. Fashionable

ALREADY/NOT YET | JONATHAN LIEDL

A declaration of interdependence

The Fourth of July is our national holiday to celebrate the most American of virtues — independence.

The day is obviously about commemorating the historical anniversary of our country’s separation from Great Britain. But more deeply, I’d argue it’s about reaffirming the paramount importance of our own individual independence, the basis for our country’s founding and the existential blood that still flows through our culture and institutions, even while other values like patriotism and civic responsibility have seemingly run thin.

However, this year’s Independence Day celebration coincided with two separate trends that should prompt us to soberly reflect upon the limitations of independence — or at least how it is understood and practiced today — and its proper place in a just society.

The first was the horrific shooting at a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Illinois, which ultimately left seven people dead. This shooting fit an all-too-familiar pattern in American life, one we’ve seen recently in places like Uvalde, Texas, and Parkland, Florida: A young man, estranged from the wider community and bereft of a deeper sense of meaning in his life (he had previously produced songs that contained lyrics like “Living the dream/ Nothing’s real/ I just want to

LEFT A historical marker commemorates the House of the Good Shepherd in St. Paul at what is now Frogtown Farm, an urban demonstration farm building community.

DAVE HRBACEK THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

INSET The House of the Good Shepherd in St. Paul, purchased by the sisters in 1881, on the site described as “Mount Eudes.” The building, which no longer exists, was completed around 1888.

COURTESY ARCHIVES OF THE ARCHDIOCESE OF ST. PAUL AND MINNEAPOLIS

St. Paul brides would have all the clothing and linens they brought to their new homes made and embroidered by the women at the House of the Good Shepherd. They would return to purchase dainty layettes for their babies.

In addition to learning a trade, young girls under the sisters’ charge attended school lessons each day, and the sisters mixed prayer with their work. The schedule was rigid. Some residents appreciated the structure so much they stayed for years or even the rest of their lives; others plotted escapes.

Although the city and some children’s parents contributed fees when they sent new residents to the House, the sisters did not beg for alms, and by 1903 they faced a terrible financial situation. Proceeds from the baseball game and the closure of the Minneapolis House were expected to pay the interest on the institution’s debt to prevent bankruptcy. Unfortunately, in 1904, a

tornado tore through their St. Paul institution, killing one resident and destroying the laundry — their primary source of income. Another baseball game fundraiser, a series of local donors, and ultimately, James J. Hill came to their rescue and righted their account books.

Between 1887 and 1969 the House in St. Paul on the site they named Mount Eudes was home to more than 8,000 troubled girls and women. In the late 1960s, the sisters chose to sell their building and land to the Wilder Foundation because changing understanding of morals and reform led the sisters to different work. Later, the Wilder Foundation sold the land to the city of St. Paul in 2013, and in 2014 it opened as Frogtown Farm.

Today, Frogtown Farm remains an urban demonstration farm building community in the Frogtown neighborhood with partners including students and faculty from St. Catherine University in St. Paul.

scream/ ‘---this world’” and had threatened to kill his family), legally acquired a semi-automatic, high-capacity killing machine and inflicted mass casualties and suffering upon those around him.

individual independence. In fact, a significant strand of pro-abortion argumentation doesn’t even deny the life or personhood of the unborn child — it simply asserts that even this fact cannot constrain the bodily and existential independence of the mother. As the Catholic scholar Erika Bachiochi recently noted in the pages of The New York Times, these kinds of arguments have more in common with Enlightenment philosopher John Locke’s views on private property than they do with any ethic consistent with the common good and mutual dependence.

But, as Bachiochi also notes, this same kind of individualistic logic can sneak into the approach of pro-lifers, when they root their arguments and activism solely on the grounds of the unborn child’s autonomous independence. The danger of this approach is that it fails to escape the narrow framework of individual rights. It fails to advance a social vision in which not only does the mother have a positive responsibility toward her unborn child, but the wider community has a responsibility to said mother. We can see this unhealthy attachment to independence playing out before our eyes, as some who oppose abortion are unwilling to even have a conversation in the post-Roe context about how public policies — which, yes, might involve taxation — should be a part of making abortion unthinkable.

The juxtaposition of our national celebration of independence with such wide and varied instances of autonomous freedom run amok hammers the point home: The kind of individual independence celebrated in all sectors of our society today is inadequate, if not downright corrupting, without a more fundamental “declaration of interdependence.”

Perhaps the Founders were aware of this, perhaps they

Two factors were present in the Highland Park shooting and others like it that few people seem willing or able to connect: both deep-seated existential emptiness produced by a broken, “live and let live” culture and lax gun laws that prioritize individual autonomy over the common good. In two directions, unrestrained independence has flown to create the conditions in which young men succumb to nihilism, effectively rejecting the gift of life, and yet have the means to take others with them via mass shootings that happen in America at a rate exponentially higher than any other wealthy nation.

“The darkness first takes our children who then kill our children, using the guns that are easier to obtain than aspirin,” Bishop Daniel Flores, the U.S. bishops conference doctrinal head, noted hyperbolically after the Uvalde shooting.

The partisan reactions to these kinds of shootings, with one political faction saying the problem isn’t guns, and the other saying it’s not the culture, neither willing to address both, are manifestations of this same “independence-above-all” mentality that generates the crisis in the first place. Neither side is willing to sacrifice their version of the same sacred cow.

The second instance of this kind of “independence unhinged” is the ongoing reaction to the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade. For some, such as the Antifa protesters who passed by me on the streets of Portland, Oregon, where I was for the Fourth, chanting “Riot with us!” and carrying anti-pro-life signs, any limitation on abortion access is fundamentally an affront to that most sacred of American values,

Luken is a Catholic and a historian with a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. She loves exploring and sharing the hidden histories that touch our lives every day.

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

JULY 14, 2022

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 19

CALENDAR PARISH FESTIVALS

Help for Struggling Married Couples — Aug. 5-7 at Best Western/Dakota Ridge Hotel, 3450 Washington Drive, Eagan. Retrouvaille is a lifeline for troubled marriages. Rediscover each other and heal.

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Check out July parish festivals at TheCatholicSpirit.com/festivals. Watch for The Catholic Spirit’s July 28 edition for a guide to parish festivals August through December.

Details will also be listed on the newspaper’s website.

Silent Weekend Retreat for Men and Women — Aug. 5-7 at Christ the King Retreat Center, 621 First Ave. S., Buffalo. “The Practice of Sabbath in our Lives — Some Tips for Sanity in an Over-Stimulated Time” presented by Father Ron Rolheiser, OMI. Suggested donation: $250. kingshouse.com

PARISHES Grandparents Feast Day Celebration — July 26: 8:45 a.m. at Nativity of Our Lord, 1938 Stanford Ave., St. Paul. All grandparents are invited for enrichment, encouragement, prayer and fellowship as the Nativity Grandparents Apostolate celebrates the feast of Sts. Joachim and Anne and World Day for Grandparents and Elders. Contact Lilee Perera at 651-414-9367 or lilee_perera@hotmail.com. nativitystpaul.org/grandparents-apostolate All Saints (Lakeville) Garage Sale — Aug. 3-6: 19795 Holyoke Ave., Lakeville. Thousands of antiques, collectibles, clothing for all ages, household goods, furniture, sports equipment and more. Daily sale hours, early-bird day, half-price day at allsaintschurch.com/garagesale.

WORSHIP+RETREATS The Blessed Solanus Casey Pilgrimage — July 30: 8 a.m.–5:30 p.m. A walking pilgrimage, for the feast of Blessed Solanus Casey, to St. Michael, 611 Third St. S., Stillwater, where he was confirmed.

Full-day option beginning at St. Peter, 2600 N. Margaret St., North St. Paul, or an afternoon option beginning in Stillwater. moderncatholicpilgrim.com/bl-solanus

CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE were not. But the Catholic Church has always highlighted this fundamental danger in the American experiment, and has emphasized the need to understand individual rights as existing for the sake of fulfilling our wider communal responsibilities. But centuries downstream from 1776, independence-over-all has dissolved the bonds of religion, community and even family. The moderating constraints that come with understanding oneself not

Silent Retreat — Aug. 11-14 at Franciscan Retreats and Spirituality Center, 16385 St. Francis Lane, Prior Lake. Step aside from challenges and uncertainties for spiritual renewal. Scheduled and open time, confession, anointing, Mass and silent prayer. franciscanretreats.net Ignatian men’s silent retreat — Thursday-Sunday most weeks at Demontreville Jesuit Retreat House, 8243 Demontreville Trail N., Lake Elmo. Free-will donation. demontrevilleretreat.com Taize prayer — Third Fridays: 7–9 p.m. at St. Paul’s Monastery, 2675 Benet Road, Maplewood.

Simple chants and silence based on Scripture.

Refreshments. benedictinecenter.org Order Franciscans Secular (OFS) Third Sundays: 2–4 p.m. at St. Leonard of Port Maurice, 3949 Clinton Ave. S., Minneapolis. Lay Catholic men and women striving to observe the Gospel following the example of St. Francis. 651-724-1348

OTHER EVENTS “His Name is Michael” (Catholic play) — July 15-17: Open Window Theatre, 5300 S. Robert Trail, No. 400, Inver Grove Heights. The only priest in Nevada

merely as an independent individual, but as a person essentially defined by interdependent relationships, are effectively nonexistent.

If I’ve written this column correctly, I’ll get angry responses from both the political left and the political right.

I’d invite readers to consider why that might be. Perhaps, it’s the case that the American left and the right are simply different sides of the same coin of “libertarian independence.” And, perhaps, it’s the case that the Catholic Church’s vision of interdependence

battles demons and outlaws for the soul of a boy with no name in this original Sci-Fi/Western-themed musical

by Jeromy Darling. Original music by Jeromy Darling and Kurt Larson. Child actor Wyatt Darling in his stage debut.

Information, tickets at hisnameismichael.live. This is not an Open Window Theatre production.

CALENDAR submissions DEADLINE: Noon Thursday, 14 days before the anticipated Thursday date of publication.

We cannot guarantee a submitted event will appear in the calendar. Priority is given to events occurring before the next issue date.

Father Daniel Friberg: 60th Anniversary of Priesthood — July 17: 1 p.m. Mass at Guardian Angels, 8260 Fourth St. N., Oakdale. A buffet reception 2–5 p.m. in Peter O’Neill Hall. guardian-angels.org

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

Included in our listings are local events submitted by public sources that could be of interest to the larger Catholic community.

Sunset Benefit Cruise — July 28: 5:30–9 p.m. at 525 S. Main St., Stillwater. Dunrovin Retreat Center’s annual cruise aboard Stillwater River Boat’s Avalon cruise ship. Proceeds go to scholarships for underserved students to access retreats. Deadline for tickets July 18. dunrovin.org/get-involved/cruise

ITEMS MUST INCLUDE the following to be considered for publication: uTime and date of event

ONGOING GROUPS

uFull street address of event

Calix Society — First and third Sundays: 9–10:30 a.m. First Sunday via Zoom; third Sunday a potluck breakfast hosted by Cathedral of St. Paul, 239 Selby Ave., St. Paul. Assembly Hall, lower level. Men, women, family or friends supporting the spiritual needs of recovering Catholics with alcohol or other addictions. For additional information, call Jim at 612-383-8232 or Steve at 612-327-4370.

uDescription of event u Contact information in case of questions TheCatholicSpirit.com/calendarsubmissions

CathSpFL-C-2022.qxp_Layout 1 1/25/22 12:31 PM Pa

Sunday Spirits walking group for 50-plus Catholic singles — Sundays. Afternoon walks, usually in St. Paul. Contact Kay at 651-426-3103 or Al at 651-439-1203.

NOW PLAYING!

Singles group — Second Saturdays: 6:15 p.m. at St. Vincent de Paul, 9100 93rd Ave. N., Brooklyn Park.

Potluck supper, conversation and games.

763-425-0412.

as the organizing principle of society, grounded, as Pope Francis points out in “Fratelli Tutti,” in Christ’s teaching in the parable of the Good Samaritan that we are each other’s neighbors, offers something fundamentally different.

We’d do well to read the Declaration of Independence in light of the Gospel, not the other way around.

Liedl, a Twin Cities resident, is the senior editor of the National Catholic Register and a graduate student in theology at The St. Paul Seminary and School of Divinity.

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Proof of vaccination or negative test required.

Mask use required.

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20 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

JULY 14, 2022

THELASTWORD

Baltimore priest prepares to enter Carmelite hermitage in Lake Elmo

By George P. Matysek Jr. Catholic Review

A

s rector of the Baltimore Basilica for the last five years, Father James Boric has been a whirlwind of ministry.

He launched the Source of All Hope outreach that allows young “urban missionaries” to live in community while they devote themselves to befriending and praying with homeless men and women.

He established perpetual adoration inside a renovated undercroft chapel and expanded opportunities for the sacrament of reconciliation. The young priest also hosted new large-scale events such as archdiocesan Rosary Congresses and helped grow the young adult ministry at America’s first cathedral.

With his encouragement, four parishioners entered the seminary and three women entered religious life.

Yet, even as he felt he was following God’s call through active parish ministry, an attraction to a monastic life kept tugging on his heart. The yearning began when he was first exploring a religious vocation and didn’t go away after he was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Baltimore in 2014.

After much discernment and with the blessing of Archbishop William Lori, Father Boric will leave the archdiocese this summer to become a postulant with the Hermits of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel at their Carmelite hermitage in Lake Elmo, Minnesota. His final Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary was June 26.

Father Brendan Fitzgerald, associate pastor of Sacred Heart in Glyndon, succeeded Father Boric as Basilica rector July 1.

we

COURTESY KEVIN J. PARKS, CATHOLIC REVIEW

From left, Colin Miller; Father James Boric, then-rector of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary; and Nathan Belk walk along Charles Street Aug. 19, 2019, as part of their urban ministry outreach in Baltimore.

“I feel God just calling me to a hidden life of interceding for the world and the Church,” Father Boric explained, “but ultimately a vocation of love — receiving the love of the Father and then loving him in return. That’s what the contemplative vocation is.”

As a Carmelite, Father Boric said he expects to devote much time praying for the Archdiocese of Baltimore, clergy and laity and for the Catholic Church at large.

The Carmelites of the Minnesota monastery practice periods of silence and solitude and do not minister outside their monastery except to provide retreats, conferences and spiritual direction to Carmelite nuns.

Father Boric, who has also served as associate pastor of St. Margaret in Bel Air and St. John the Evangelist in Severna Park, both in Maryland, said he is very familiar

respond in

LOVE

80 Years

Gabriel Rooding Read Jubilee profiles at www.ssndcp.org/jubilee-22

75 Years

Lawrence Marie Brauer Mary Clared Coyne † Alice Jeannette Giere Regina Marie Grohman Marie LeClerc Laux MarieClare Powell Mary Lauren Spence † Maris Stella Waselak

70 Years

Cerella Baumgartner Marguerite Churilla Joan Fink Beverly Ann Fries Jeannette Glinske Muriel Glodosky Rosemary Hufker Elizabeth Marie Ishida † Edith Juergensmeyer Kenneth Marie Kozal Gerold Mobley Elizabeth Morgan Germaine Mulcahey Cathryn O’Donnell † Mary Myles Schwahn † Deceased in 2022

M. Maris Simon Mary Blaise Sorenson Sharon Rose Terbrock Mary Joseph Tsuzuki Rita von Holtum Bernita Wasinger

60 Years Marianne Almon Judith Bakula Mary Helen Bender Marie Vianney Bilgrien Ann Jerome Bisek M. Rosae Brown Mary Ann Carey Genevieve Cassani Ruth Chausse Lucille Coughlin Juliette Daigle Gloria Degele Deanna Donahue Kathleen Donovan M. Lucy Egashira Carolyn Fasnacht Jeanette Feldott Terez Gonsoulin Gail Guelker Susan Hetebrueg

with the Carmelite charism. For the last 13 years, he has spent one or two weeks a year living with the Carmelites at the Minnesota hermitage. Father Patrick Peach, a former priest of the Archdiocese of Baltimore who now serves as a Carmelite hermit at Lake Elmo as Father Peter of Jesus, is Father Boric’s best friend.

Father Peter of Jesus’ priestly example has been a “great inspiration,” Father Boric said, but not the reason he is entering the monastery.

“I felt that God had something he wanted me to do in Baltimore specifically,” Father Boric said, “and once perpetual adoration was filled at the Basilica (the only parish in the city that offers around-the-clock eucharistic adoration), I really felt God was calling me to perpetually adore him in the monastery and to pray.”

He added that monastic life is not something he sought.

“It’s something that I feel God is asking me and won’t stop asking me,” he said. “So that’s why I’m doing it.”

Father Boric plans to enter the Carmelite community Aug. 15, the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. He will serve as a postulant for six to 12 months before receiving a Carmelite habit and a new religious name. After several years with the community, he will make temporary vows and, after several more years, final vows.

In a letter to the priests of the archdiocese, Archbishop Lori encouraged prayer for Father Boric and for his successor at the Basilica, Father Fitzgerald.

“May these two servants of the Lord continue to be agents of drawing others closer to Christ and his Church and know the support of our prayers and of all the faithful,” the archbishop said.

The Catholic Review is the magazine of the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

jubilee 2022 Jovann Irrgang Barbara Janda Leonette Juengst M. Petra Kato Kathleen Mary Kiemen Marian Kodama Vincella Lake Darlene Lenzmeier Nadine Meyer Martha Meyer Joy Marie Parolari Mary Francine Perez Mary Ann Christine Pendleton Margaret Roozen Janet Siebenman Loretta Marie Strobel Carolyn Sur M. Germaine Tanahashi Karen Marie Thein Mary Carol Weber Janet Wermerskirchen Floretta Williams Karl Mary Winkelmann Mary Ann Wutkowski

50 Years Joan Andert Colleen Bauer

Julie Brady Kathleen Brice Gilda Bruce Gladys Marie Courtade Mary Dietz Carol Jean Dust Ruth Marie Emke Dianne Marie Engelhart Eileen Ennis Carol Jean Hecht Carol Marie Hemish Helen Jane Jaeb Lavonne Krebs M. Patricia Kuno Lourdes Pangelinan Maureen Riley Margaret Mary Schmidt Ann Scholz Guadalupe Valdez Jean Mary Vrana Faith Wanner

25 Years

Anne Francioni Jill Laszewski Barbara Soete