The Catholic Spirit - July 27, 2017

Belle Plaine monument 5 • Health care worries 8 • Ecumenism in Reformation commemoration 12 July 27, 2017 Newspaper of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis

TAPPING YOUNG MINDS

Ideas flow freely as Catholics gather at St. Paul bar to voice Church concerns, inform 2018 synod — Page 6 From left, Mark Elfstrom, Steven Eichler and Michael Johnson, all of St. Peter in North St. Paul, talk with Megan Meyer, Caroline Hutcheson, Brittany Majeski and Sarah Trenkamp, all of whom graduated in May from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, at a Theology on Tap event at O’Gara’s Bar and Grill in St. Paul July 19. Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit

Natural family planning myths — page 13 | A pastor’s take on NFP — page 18 ALSO inside

Hmong Catholics gather

Songs of healing

Organ facelifts

Bishop Andrew Cozzens talks about prayer at the Hmong American National Catholic Association convention.

— Page 7

St. Joseph, West St. Paul, parishioner uses music to recover from abuse and trauma suffered during her childhood.

— Pages 10-11

St. Paul craftsman Timothy Patterson plays out his passion for pipe building and restoration.

— Page 15

PAGE TWO

2 • The Catholic Spirit

July 27, 2017 OVERHEARD

in PICTURES

“We need to have legitimate, open debate about budgets in our democracy and about how to model our health care system for maximum cost effectiveness. But our faith, and in fact our American values, make it imperative that those models include the delivery of dignified health care even to those whose circumstances cause them to struggle to afford it.”

A letter to the Pioneer Press published July 14 signed by Archbishop Bernard Hebda, as well as Tim Marx, CEO of Catholic Charities of St. Paul and Minneapolis, and area Lutheran faith and social services leaders.

NEWS NOTES I SCREAM, YOU SCREAM From left, siblings Camden, Casey and Callie McDonald enjoy ice cream with Larry Cadruff July 16, National Ice Cream Day, at St. Nicholas in Elko New Market, which hosted an ice cream social. The McDonalds and Cadruff are St. Nicholas parishioners. View a slideshow of the event on FACEBOOK.COM/THECATHOLICSPIRIT. Father Eugene Brown/For The Catholic Spirit

Relevant Radio, Immaculate Heart Radio merge Nationwide Catholic radio network Relevant Radio of Green Bay, Wisconsin, announced its merger with Immaculate Heart Radio of Loomis, California, July 5. Relevant Radio, which has an affiliate station in Golden Valley on 1330 AM, will continue to broadcast under the same name. The network took the legal name Immaculate Heart Media, Inc. but, according to information provided by the network, local programming is not likely to be immediately affected. With the merger, Relevant Radio will reach 39 states and a projected 133 million listeners.

ACCW offers 2017 Fatima scouting patch for girls The Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women is making available the National Catholic Committee for Girl Scouts and Camp Fire’s 2017 religious recognition patch commemorating the 100th anniversary of Mary’s Fatima apparitions. To earn the patch, participants must complete a certain number of Fatima-related spiritual practices. For more information, visit HTTP://ACCWARCHSPM.ORG.

Special needs confirmation classes in August Confirmation preparation for people age 16 or older with special needs or mental or physical disabilities will be held 9:30-11:30 a.m. Aug. 12 and Aug. 26 at St. Richard in Richfield. Candidates will be confirmed at the Annual Mass for Persons with Disabilities Sept. 17. To register, email FLOMOS@ARCHSPM.ORG. WEDDING JOY Julia and Jonathan Vikesland celebrate their marriage moments after the conclusion of their wedding Mass at the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis July 22. The two were featured on the front page of the Nov. 24, 2016, edition of The Catholic Spirit. They were shown walking out of the Basilica through the Holy Doors Nov. 20 after getting engaged earlier that day. The couple took the name of Jonathan’s deceased maternal grandfather. Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit

ONLY ON THE WEB and social media Watch children sing a tribute to Father Dennis Evenson at Transfiguration in Oakdale July 14 commemorating his 50th anniversary of ordination to the priesthood.

Watch a video of Phoenix-based Catholic musician Amanda Vernon performing July 23 at St. Joseph in West St. Paul, where she invited parishioner and musician Autumn Irlbeck to join her. See story on Irlbeck on pages 10-11.

Read about former Minneapolis Lakers and University of Minnesota men’s basketball coach John Kundla, who also coached at Ascension School and DeLaSalle High School in Minneapolis and was a member of St. Austin in Minneapolis. He died July 23 at age 101.

Catholic higher education’s watershed Land O’ Lakes Statement turned 50 July 23. Read an analysis of its controversial legacy.

Want to better understand Iraq’s Christian history? Check out a video on Cardinal Fernando Filoni’s new book, “The Church in Iraq” (The Catholic University of America Press, 2017).

The Catholic Spirit is published semi-monthly for The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis Vol. 22 — No. 14 MOST REVEREND BERNARD A. HEBDA, Publisher TOM HALDEN, Associate Publisher MARIA C. WIERING, Editor

Grandparents conference returns Aug. 26 Sponsored by the archdiocese’s Office of Evangelization, the Catholic Grandparent Conference will be held 9:30 a.m.–4 p.m. Aug. 26 at St. Vincent de Paul in Brooklyn Park. Speakers include Father Donald Conroy, executive director and chairman of the National Institute for the Family in Washington; Kathleen Colligan of the Diocese of Syracuse; and Bishop Andrew Cozzens. For more information and to register, visit WWW.CATHOLICGRANDPARENTING.ORG.

MILESTONES Brother Joseph Katzmarek, a Franciscan Brother of Peace in St. Paul, is celebrating his 25th jubilee this year. The Catholic Spirit congratulates him and all religious men and women jubilarians who have served the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. For a listing of jubilarians, visit WWW.THECATHOLICSPIRIT.COM.

CORRECTION Msgr. William Baumgaertner’s obituary in the July 13 issue misidentified the homilist at his funeral. Father John Paul Erickson, director of the archdiocesan Office of Worship and pastor of Blessed Sacrament in St. Paul, was the homilist. We apologize for the error.

Materials credited to CNS copyrighted by Catholic News Service.

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July 27, 2017

FROM THE ARCHBISHOP

The Catholic Spirit • 3

Nothing less than Catholic

O

ne of my goals this summer has been to work on my Spanish. Given our growing Latino population in the archdiocese, I know that I need to do a better job of communicating in Spanish. Unable to find the time to go away for a few weeks, I’ve been looking online for tutoring programs in the Twin Cities. After doing some online research, I called one of the best-known language schools, and I was somewhat surprised to learn that there was a shortage of available teachers for the dates I needed. I asked, “With all the Spanish speakers in our area, are you telling me that you can’t find a tutor?”

The response caught my attention: “There are plenty of Spanish speakers in our area, and even plenty of very successful Spanish teachers, but to teach at our school, a teacher has to be trained in our educational philosophy, learn our method and be convicted that our system works. That’s what makes it possible for our high standards to be uniform whether you’re studying in Moscow, Bangkok or Lima.” My friends in business and marketing might speak of that in terms of “truth in advertising,” “quality control” and “brand protection.”

While it would be a gross over-simplification to speak of our Catholicity as a brand, it’s clearly part of my responsibilities to make sure that what we designate as “Catholic” is truly Catholic — whether that be a parish, a school, a university, a hospital or a social service agency. Before I could begin my service as archbishop, I was expected to make a profession of faith and take an oath of fidelity, requiring me to “make every effort to ensure that the deposit of faith handed down from the apostles is preserved pure and entire, and that the truths to be held and put into practice will be passed on and clearly explained to all, as they are proposed by the Church’s magisterium.”

That’s how Christ’s Church makes sure that what is taught and professed in Minnesota in 2017 is the same core faith proclaimed in Rome throughout the last 20 centuries, the same tenets and principles that Peter and the apostles learned from Christ himself when he walked the streets of Jerusalem.

The Church requires, moreover, that each pastor make a profession of faith and take a similar oath. I’ve had the privilege recently of installing a number of our pastors and have been moved each time as I heard them promise before their congregants that they would “hold fast to the deposit of faith in its entirety ... faithfully hand it on and explain it ... and ... avoid any teachings contrary to it.”

I always remind the new pastor that the faithful of their parish deserve nothing less than the faith presented in its entirety, in all its richness. It’s the pastor who becomes the ONLY JESUS guarantor that the parish that he leads is authentically Catholic, that what’s taught in his religious education Archbishop programs or Catholic school is consistent with the teachings of Bernard Hebda

Nada menos que Católico

S

i bien sería una simplificación exagerada hablar de nuestra catolicidad como una marca, es claramente parte de mis responsabilidades velar por que lo que designamos como “católico” sea realmente católico — ya sea una parroquia, una escuela, una universidad , Un hospital o una agencia de servicios sociales. Antes de que pudiera comenzar mi servicio como arzobispo, se esperaba que hiciera profesión de fe y prestara juramento de fidelidad, eso me obliga a “hiciera todo lo posible para que el depósito de la fe transmitida de los apóstoles se conservara puro y entero, Y que las verdades que se celebrarán y se pongan en práctica se transmitirán y se explicarán claramente a todos, como se proponen por el Magisterio de la Iglesia.”

Así es como la Iglesia de Cristo se asegura de que lo que se enseña y profesa en Minnesota en 2017 es la misma fe fundamental proclamada en Roma a lo largo de los últimos 20 siglos, los mismos principios y principios que Pedro y los apóstoles aprendieron de Cristo mismo cuando caminó por las calles de Jerusalén.

La Iglesia requiere, además, que cada pastor haga una profesión de fe y haga un juramento similar. He tenido el privilegio recientemente de instalar a varios de nuestros pastores y me han movido cada vez que los oí prometer ante sus congregantes que “se aferrarían al depósito de la fe en su totalidad ... fielmente lo entregarán y Explíquelo ... y ... evite enseñanzas contrarias a él.”

Siempre le recuerdo al nuevo pastor que los fieles de

the Church, that the witness given by the community in its charitable outreach and promotion of justice reflects who we are as Christ’s Church. He is to judge success not only by looking at the end result, but also on the basis of the fidelity and commitment to our distinctively Catholic philosophy and method.

It’s not enough that he and his staff are generically kind, compassionate and professionally competent; they need, whether Catholic or non-Catholic, to have integrated our philosophy and method and share our conviction that our Catholic “system” works. That doesn’t mean that we can only employ and collaborate with other Catholics, but it does mean that if we’re holding ourselves out as Catholic, we have to be Catholic.

On the first day of his pontificate, Pope Francis reminded us that the Church has to be more than a compassionate NGO — it has to be Christcentered and faithful to its mission. A successful “Catholic hospital” is not merely a blue-ribbon hospital that happens to have been founded by a community of Catholic sisters, but rather one that imbues and models what the Church teaches about the dignity of the human person, about the redemptive value of human suffering, about the sanctity of life and the relevance of the Church’s moral teaching.

Similarly, a great “Catholic school” is not merely a parish school whose students excel academically, but a place where students are able to breathe in Catholicism, where the pastor, principal, teachers and staff collaborate with parents in presenting a credible witness to Christ’s presence in the world, where students have a genuine encounter with Christ, where they come to see and know that God’s plan for the world, as taught by the Church, is a plan that brings blessings and long-term happiness.

Blessed Paul VI noted that we live in an age that “listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if [it] does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses.” I think that is particularly true of our school-aged children, who so quickly emulate those around them.

They need witnesses to the faith in our religious education programs and schools who can teach by example that what the Church professes is lifegiving, even when difficult.

The Official Catholic Directory, often called the Kenedy Directory, lists all of the institutions — parishes, schools, religious communities, hospitals, social service agencies — in the 12 counties of our archdiocese that are designated as “Catholic.” The breadth of the institutions is stunning and represents the legacy of a vibrant Church, a legacy that is now entrusted to us. Let’s pray for the success of their mission, let’s pray for those who have stepped up to serve in these institutions, and let’s pray for those who have been given the responsibility of leading these institutions and assuring their connection to the vine that is Christ and his Church. May the Holy Spirit who guides the Church help us to discern in the present age how we can together give a more consistent witness to the joy of the Gospel in a way that will strengthen our faith and lead others to Christ.

su parroquia merecen nada menos que la fe presentada en su totalidad, en toda su riqueza. Es el pastor quien se convierte en el garante de que la parroquia que dirige es auténticamente católica, que lo que se enseña en sus programas de educación religiosa o escuela católica es consistente con las enseñanzas de la Iglesia, que el testimonio de la comunidad en su promoción y promoción caritativa de justicia refleja quiénes somos como Iglesia de Cristo. Él debe juzgar el éxito no sólo mirando el resultado final, sino también sobre la base de la fidelidad y el compromiso con nuestra filosofía y método distintivamente católicos.

No es suficiente que él y su personal sean genéricamente amables, compasivos y profesionalmente competentes; Necesitan, ya sean católicos o no católicos, para integrar nuestra filosofía y método y compartir nuestra convicción de que nuestro “sistema” católico funciona. Eso no significa que sólo podamos emplear y colaborar con otros católicos, pero sí significa que si nos mantenemos como católicos, tenemos que ser católicos.

El primer día de su pontificado, el Papa Francisco nos recordó que la Iglesia tiene que ser más que una NGO compasiva — tiene que ser centrada en Cristo y fiel a su misión. El Beato Pablo VI señaló que vivimos en una época que “escucha con más facilidad a los testigos que a los maestros, y si escucha a los maestros, es porque son testigos.” Creo que esto es particularmente cierto en nuestra escuela Niños, que tan rápidamente emular a los que les rodean.

El Directorio Católico Oficial, a menudo llamado el Directorio Kenedy, enumera todas las instituciones -parroquias, escuelas, comunidades religiosas, hospitales, agencias de servicios sociales — en los doce condados de nuestra archidiócesis que son designados como “católicos.” La amplitud de las instituciones Es

impresionante y representa el legado de una Iglesia vibrante, un legado que ahora se nos confía. Oremos por el éxito de su misión, oremos por aquellos que se han unido para servir en estas instituciones, y oremos por aquellos a quienes se les ha dado la responsabilidad de dirigir estas instituciones y asegurar su conexión con la vid que es Cristo y su Iglesia. Que el Espíritu Santo que guía a la Iglesia nos ayude a discernir en la época actual cómo podemos dar un testimonio más coherente de la alegría del Evangelio de una manera que fortalezca nuestra fe y conduzca a otros a Cristo.

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

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

Effective September 14, 2017 Reverend Douglas Ebert, appointed parochial administrator of the Church of Gichitwaa Kateri in Minneapolis, replacing Reverend James Notebaart. This is in addition to his current assignment as pastor of the Church of Saint John Neumann in Eagan.

Effective September 30, 2017 Reverend Stanley Sledz, appointed sacramental minister to the Church of Gichitwaa Kateri in Minneapolis. Father Sledz is a retired priest of the archdiocese.

4 • The Catholic Spirit

LOCAL

July 27, 2017

A cross the finish line

SLICEof LIFE

Margaret Swanson of St. John the Baptist in New Brighton celebrates as she crosses the finish line of a walking and running event called Pass the Pope at St. Joseph in Waconia July 15. A total of 59 participants finished the 4.12-mile event, with the distance determined by Proverbs 4:1: “When you walk, your step will not be impeded, and should you run, you will not stumble.”

Pass the Pope was the last in a sevenevent series organized by Faster Than the Pastor, an initiative of Vigeo, a multifaceted Catholic company based in Maple Grove. Participants received unique Catholic “swag” and entry into a drawing to visit the Holy Land. The events, all of which took place at parishes in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, were designed to build community, evangelize and promote good health. “This is truly faith in action,” said Pam Baker, a parishioner of St. Vincent de Paul in Brooklyn Park who heads Vigeo and launched Faster Than the Pastor in 2016. “It’s been an incredible, God-breathed, beautiful, reverent, vibrant series.” A large event is planned for July 2018.

Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit Wondering who won the Holy Land trip? Watch a video of Bishop Andrew Cozzens drawing the winners July 19.

Celebrate Life!

Laps for Life 2017 and 5K Run Saturday, August 5 10 AM - 2 PM Eastview High School Stadium Apple Valley warm-ups @ 9:30 a.m.

pledge/donate online @ knightsforlifemn.org

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LOCAL

July 27, 2017

Belle Plaine council nixes religious memorials Priest says decision caves to Satanic Temple

By Matthew Davis The Catholic Spirit Two days after hundreds of people — many of them Catholic — from around the country descended on Belle Plaine to protest the installation of a Satanic memorial in the city’s Veterans Memorial Park, the city council voted unanimously July 17 to rescind a designation that made a portion of the park available for monument commissions from any religious group.

The decision blocked the arrival of the monument commissioned by The Satanic Temple, but it also sealed the departure of the “Joe” monument, a small iron-cast silhouette of a soldier kneeling on one knee in front of a cross gravemarker. Joseph Gregory, a local veteran who died in October 2016, made the memorial.

“It’s an outcome I can live with,” said Father Brian Lynch, pastor of Our Lady of the Prairie in Belle Plaine, “but it’s far from a perfect outcome” because the “Joe” statue also had to go. The statue and proposed Satanic memorial became the center of a controversy that made national headlines.

It began in August 2016, when the Belle Plaine Vets Club placed the “Joe” statue in the park. A Belle Plaine resident and Freedom From Religion Foundation member complained about “Joe” looking too religious for public property. The city council had the monument’s cross removed at the request of the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation.

Vets Club members filled a Feb. 6 city council meeting to request the cross’ return. A 3-2 council vote created a limited public forum area in the park, which allowed “Joe” to have the cross back. The designation provided a place where any religion could erect a memorial in the park.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation then invited the Massachusetts-based Satanic Temple to commission a memorial for the Belle Plaine park. The city approved

the application. The memorial commissioned by The Satanic Temple — which claims no belief in Satan as a being — was recently completed, but it had yet to be sent to Belle Plaine. Its design included occult symbolism.

Concerns over the Satanic memorial most recently drew hundreds of people to a rosary rally and an adjacent counter-rally at Veterans Memorial Park July 15.

America Needs Fatima, an independent Pennsylvania-based Catholic organization, held the rosary rally, while Minnesota’s Left Hand Path community, which includes Satanists, held a counter rally in support of The Satanic Temple’s monument.

America Needs Fatima rally organizer William Siebenmorgen, a Pennsylvania resident, said the rally drew 250 people from around the country — including Arkansas, Illinois, Kansas and Kentucky — for the rosary, hymns and prayers.

“The issue is really not about a free speech zone, it’s about trying to prevent Satanism from gaining acceptance,” said Robert Ritchie, America Needs Fatima executive director. Ritchie did not attend the event.

The two rallies coincided with Belle Plaine’s town festival parade on nearby Main Street, a decision Father Lynch questioned.

“They were basically asking [local] people to choose between going to the parade or going to [the rally],” said Father Lynch, who assisted with a June 3 prayer service at the park, as well as Mass and adoration at the parish June 5 to oppose the Satanic memorial. “I think many of us [in Belle Plaine] tire from having people from the outside telling us how to do things.”

He said he’s received many calls from out of town regarding the Satanic memorial and noted that America Needs Fatima never called the parish about hosting a rally. He couldn’t participate in the rally but supported parishioners who wanted to. Ritchie said the organization normally does not contact local parishes about hosting rallies in communities.

Outside input also wore on city officials, and top officials put the

resolution to remove the park’s limited public forum on the July 17 agenda four days before the meeting. According to Ritchie, America Needs Fatima sent a petition with about 23,000 signatures to the city opposing the Satanic memorial. Interim city administrator Dawn Meyer told the Belle Plaine Herald that “city hall received about 300 calls” July 12 alone about the Satanic memorial.

She also told the Herald that the “controversy has limited the city staff’s ability to complete tasks.” The Herald mentioned that she and Belle Plaine Mayor Christopher Meyer — no relation to Dawn — spoke with Belle Plaine veterans about the decision to remove the limited public forum.

Dawn Meyer declined to comment for The Catholic Spirit. A council press release on the July 17 decision stated that limited public space had been designated to honor veterans, but it had been “overshadowed by freedom of speech concerns expressed by both religious and non-religious communities.”

The city’s statement added that it “promoted divisiveness among our own residents” and “portrayed our city in a negative light.” The release also mentions that the council had the support of veterans’ organizations in removing the designation.

Gregory’s family had the “Joe” memorial removed before the July 15 rally and counter-rally. Family members were unavailable for comment.

Father Lynch believes the city’s decision doesn’t end a fundamental battle that took place — taking Christian symbolism out of the public square. He said The Satanic Temple and Freedom From Religion Foundation “got what they wanted” with the removal of “Joe.” “They are childish,” Father Lynch said. “There’s no real desire for Satanists to honor vets. It’s intended to cause disruption in the community so that people cave in and remove any Christian imagery from public places.”

He added: “There’s a desire to reframe the country as a country without religion.”

New Quo Vadis camps explore vocations in depth A new vocations camp in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis drew 30 boys and 20 girls to St. John Vianney College Seminary at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul for an introduction to vocational discernment.

“This is just to raise vocation awareness and to ask the question, ‘Quo Vadis, [Latin for] where are you going?’” said Father David Blume, the archdiocese’s vocations director.

The Office of Vocations started the camps to help youths ages 12-17 learn how to intentionally discern God’s plan for their lives. The Quo Vadis camp model is used in other U.S. dioceses. A boys camp was held July 9-12, and a girls camp was held July 16-19.

— Matthew Davis

Sister Mary Joseph Evans of the Handmaids of the Heart of Jesus talks with, from left, Grace Welter of St. Charles Borromeo, St. Anthony; Elizabeth Trksak, St. Paul, Ham Lake; Jasmine Quinlan, Maternity of Mary, St. Paul; and Caitlin Oglesbee, St. Agnes, St. Paul. Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit

The Catholic Spirit • 5 in BRIEF MINNEAPOLIS

Texas priest wins prestigious homebrewing award The pastor of a Fort Worth, Texas, parish won a Ninkasi Award June 17 at the annual National Homebrew Competition during Homebrew Con, held this year at the Minneapolis Convention Center. Father Jeff Poirot and his brewing partner, Nicholas McCoy, accumulated the most wins in the competition’s final round for their beers, garnering first place awards in the categories for specialty IPA and strong Belgian and Trappist ale. In an interview with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Father Poirot said he has a special affection for the Trappist brewing tradition, and he and McCoy have traveled to Trappist breweries in Europe. “After we were done screaming from excitement when we won, it was hard to put it into words what winning the Ninkasi means to us,” he told the paper. According to organizers, this year’s homebrew competition included more than 8,600 entries from brewers in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and 13 other countries. This is the duo’s third year entering the competition.

ROSEVILLE

Opposed by MCC, ‘transgender toolkit’ approved by state edu. dept.

A Minnesota Department of Education advisory council approved a “toolkit” for “Safe and Supportive Schools for Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Students” July 19. Jason Adkins, Minnesota Catholic Conference executive director, testified against its approval prior to the council’s vote. “The toolkit is another example of the ongoing evisceration of the purpose of education, which is to form students to pursue the truth, not merely to instruct or indoctrinate them,” Adkins said. He said he agreed that schools should be welcoming spaces for all students, but the toolkit asks school faculty, students and parents to deny reality, and is “less about protecting all students than ruthlessly imposing a plastic view of human beings on everyone, and punishing those who don’t conform.” The toolkit provides guidelines for supporting students transitioning from their biological to perceived gender, using students’ preferred names and pronouns, and restroom use and overnight sleeping arrangements. According to the toolkit, transgender students can use restrooms that coincide with their gender identity, and students uncomfortable with sharing a restroom with transgender students may use a private space, such as a single-stall restroom. On school-sponsored trips, transgender students are also allowed to “room with peers who match the student’s gender identity.”

ST. PAUL

Annual abortion data shows growth in Planned Parenthood’s share The annual report on abortions in Minnesota released June 30 by the Minnesota Department of Health shows 9,953 abortions were performed in 2016, the third lowest number since the state began recording the data in 1974. Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood, the largest of the six abortion providers in the state, increased its number of abortions performed by 44 percent from 2012 to 2016, more than doubling its abortions since 2001, according to Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life. “This data confirms once again that Planned Parenthood means abortion,” said MCCL Executive Director Scott Fischbach in a June 30 statement. “As an organization that takes credit for the overall decline in abortions, Planned Parenthood has lost all credibility. Its clear goal is to perform as many abortions as possible, and it does so year after year.”

6 • The Catholic Spirit

LOCAL

July 27, 2017

Catholic young adults share ideas for Church of the future

By Susan Klemond For The Catholic Spirit Pope Francis recently asked young adults like Ellie Jensen to share with him what’s on their minds, so the 27-year-old is telling him that she thinks the Church should recast — though not change — its vision of marriage for young people.

Many young adults don’t understand it or are afraid of it, she said, because of divorce, cohabitation and a culture that generally devalues marriage.

“I think there’s a lot of fear that young people face regardless of which vocation they may be discerning or considering, but — particularly when we look at marriage — there aren’t a lot of great examples,” said Jensen, who attends Holy Family in St. Louis Park. She shared her ideas with about 100 other Catholic young adults July 19 at Theology on Tap at O’Gara’s Bar and Grill in St. Paul, which hosted a listening session ahead of next year’s Synod of Bishops on youth and young adults.

“There’s a lot of brokenness within family life,” Jensen later told The Catholic Spirit. “One thing that would be helpful from the Church is really encouraging married couples to engage with young people.”

Other young adults who spoke at the event echoed Jensen’s concerns, saying they’d like to see new ways of making Church teaching more relevant and understandable, especially to the majority of their peers who neither practice the faith nor understand why the Church doesn’t change to fit the times.

The public forum-style listening session broke format with typical Theology on Tap events, which are organized by Cathedral Young Adults and normally feature a speaker followed by a Q&A. Because Theology on Tap events are aimed at the demographic from which Pope Francis is seeking feedback, Jean Stolpestad, director of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ Office for

“For myself and for my friends, we want to be ‘all in’ and want to live entirely for Christ. We’re all for the challenge of discovering what that means in society today, and we need help in that.”

Sara Heselton Marriage, Family and Life, turned the tables, asking the attendees to speak to her. Other themes that emerged that evening included young adults’ desire for authenticity, their wish that the Church would do more to make young people feel part of its community, and a yearning for Catholic orthodoxy that is not prudish.

The listening session was one of several Stolpestad has been holding around the archdiocese to gather feedback from youth and young adults ages 16-29 in advance of the 15th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on young people, the faith and vocational discernment, which will be held at the Vatican in October 2018.

The purpose of the Synod, which follows the 2014 and 2015 synods on the family, is to look at ways the Church can lead young people, and help them recognize and accept the call to fullness of life and love, according to a Synod preparatory document. It also asks youth and young adults to help the Church identify the most effective ways to announce the Gospel in the modern world. On Palm Sunday, Pope Francis said he wanted young people to share their needs with their bishops and himself, ahead of the Synod and World Youth Day 2019 in Panama.

Theology on Tap attendees answered questions taken from a survey developed

by Synod organizers for youth and young adults. The survey is also available online to individuals or groups. It takes about 15 minutes to complete and includes questions such as, “What are the main challenges and most significant opportunities for young adults in the USA

today?” and “How do young adults take part in the life of the Church community?

What are the possibilities you see?” It ends with, “If you could tell Pope Francis one thing, what would it be?”

After Aug. 15, responses will be sent to the Vatican through the office of U.S. Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Christophe Pierre.

Recasting Church teaching on marriage for younger generations takes on more importance given a 2015 Pew Research Center poll revealing that 67 percent of Catholics ages 18-29 say cohabitation is “acceptable and as good as any other way of life,” despite Church teaching on premarital sex. The poll showed similar support for changing Church teaching on controversial issues including contraception, women’s ordination and Church recognition of same-sex marriages.

Pew research has also revealed a rise in “nones,” men and women who claim no religion, and who were the focus of much discussion at the National Catholic Convocation in Orlando last month.

A 2016 interview-based survey by the Georgetown-based Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate focused on people ages 15-25 who had been raised Catholic but had left the Church. Of the sample, most had made the decision to leave by age 13. One in five said they no longer believed in God or religion, many citing a perceived incompatibility between faith and reason, according to an OSV Newsweekly analysis.

Still, an informal poll taken from December 2016 shows that some young Catholics are earnestly practicing the faith

and accepting Church teaching and tradition. Buzzfeed.com, a website popular with millennials, asked Catholic readers to respond to questions mostly related to Mass attendance, preferences and habits.

Of the roughly 65,000 respondents, 24 percent said they attend Mass weekly.

About the same number said they listen intently during the liturgy.

Rather than change its teaching, the Church should “double down and stick to her convictions,” said Douglas Hildebrandt, 28, at Theology on Tap. Meanwhile, the Church should become invigorated and work harder at “mainstreaming” her message of truth, he added.

“You’re not changing the message, but rather you’re improving the manner in which you’re delivering it to people,” he said, adding that many of his Protestant friends ask him why the Church doesn’t change with the culture. While some change is inevitable, he said he thinks the Church is facing more pressure now, and he wonders if the Church will be able to successfully maintain its teaching authority over the next 10 to 20 years.

The Church doesn’t need new teaching, but it should reveal its beauty by giving the world more beautiful art, said Sara Heselton, 24, a parishioner at Divine Mercy in Faribault, who explained that aesthetics matter more to younger generations who are used to higher quality digital media, film and artwork.

Catholics and others would benefit from meaningful and vibrant music, art and architecture that convey the richness of tradition and cultivates a true sense of objective beauty, she said.

“For myself and for my friends, we want to be ‘all in’ and want to live entirely for Christ,” she said. “We’re all for the challenge of discovering what that means in society today, and we need help in that.”

The Synod survey is available at www.surveymonkey.com/r/YA_synod.­­­

The Catholic Spirit wants to hear your take.

­­

Letters to the Editor should be limited to 150 words and sent to CatholicSpirit@archspm.org with “Letter to the Editor” in the subject line.

Please include your name, parish and daytime phone number in case we need to contact you.

LOCAL

July 27, 2017

The Catholic Spirit • 7

Bishop speaks to Hmong Catholics on importance of prayer

By Joe Towalski For The Catholic Spirit About a month after he was ordained as an auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Bishop Andrew Cozzens had the opportunity to greet Pope Francis following a public audience in Rome. He wanted to thank the pope for naming him a bishop.

As Bishop Cozzens approached the Holy Father on that day in early 2014, the pope looked at the then 45-year-old bishop and quipped, “Oh my, you’re young. You’re going to have to work a lot.

“You have to pray a lot, too,” the Holy Father added. Then the pope tapped his finger on Bishop Cozzens’ chest three times, repeating the same phrase each time: “Pray a lot. … Pray a lot. … Pray a lot.”

It was Pope Francis’ way of emphasizing the importance of prayer in the life of a bishop, but it’s an important message for all Christians to take to heart, Bishop Cozzens said during his keynote address July 15 at the Hmong American National Catholic Association convention.

Approximately 160 people representing eight dioceses — including 60 people from the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis — attended the gathering July 14-16 at St. John’s University in Collegeville. The convention featured Masses with Archbishop Bernard Hebda and Bishop Cozzens, additional prayer opportunities, and workshops for youths and adults.

Bishop Cozzens, who served as a chaplain for the Hmong Catholic community in the archdiocese from 2006 to 2010 when he taught at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity, spoke about “growing in faith through prayer.”

“In prayer, we learn to see the way God

sees,” he said.

In order to see in this way, however, prayer must be rooted in a personal relationship with the living Jesus who speaks to the heart, Bishop Cozzens said.

“When you put Jesus in the center of your life, something beautiful happens: you discover your unique gift in life … and how God wants you to give yourself away,” he said.

Death is not the greatest tragedy in life, he told conference-goers. Rather, “it’s to get to heaven and meet God and have God say, ‘Look at all the beautiful things I wanted to do through your life if you only had put me at the center and not yourself.’ … The greatest tragedy in life would be not to fulfill the mission God has given you.”

In a letter to convention attendees, HANCA President Khamsy Yang wrote that, in the spirit of the new evangelization and Pope Francis’ call to live as missionary disciples, “one of the most important goals of this convention is to create opportunities to empower our youth, young adults and adults to strengthen the bonds and outreach to the peripheries of our Hmong Catholic communities.”

Lidy Vu, 17, who worships at the St. Vincent de Paul campus of the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul, was one of approximately 80 youth and young adults who attended the convention.

“We’re all trying to get back into our faith,” she said. “I feel a lot of times during the school year we kind of drift away, so coming to a retreat in the summer and seeing all the people from different dioceses and churches from all over the country, it’s nice to regroup with them and get their perspective on faith.”

Vu said she enjoys gathering with other Hmong American Catholics and to hear the Hmong language used during Mass.

“I really appreciate that because as we get older, the [younger] generation slowly loses a little bit of the culture and we slowly get more into the American culture,” she said. “I think it’s super important that we, as Hmong Catholics, hold on to our culture and we keep that really close with our faith as well. I like that we incorporate both of those together — that it is OK to be Hmong and Catholic at the same time.”

Scalabrinian Sister Myrna Tordillo, assistant director of Asian and Pacific Island Affairs in the Secretariat for Cultural Diversity in the Church of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, attended the convention to support the work of St. Paul-based HANCA and the people it serves.

“I wanted to be able to say [to them] that the bishops are really encouraging you to continue living your faith life and not losing your identity as Hmong, but to continue to enrich the Church here in the United States,” she said.

Congratulations

TOP A group of women gather outside during the Hmong American National Catholic Association convention July 14-16 in Collegeville.

BOTTOM Lidy Vu, who worships at St. Vincent de Paul in St. Paul, holds a banner representing the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis July 15. Dianne Towalski/ For The Catholic Spirit

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8 • The Catholic Spirit

U.S. & WORLD

U.S. bishop urges Senate to remedy health care

By Carol Zimmermann Catholic News Service After the Senate voted July 25 in Washington to proceed with the health care debate, Bishop Frank Dewane of Venice, Florida, urged senators of both parties to “work together to advance changes that serve the common good.”

The statement from Bishop Dewane, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, said the health care reform proposals currently under consideration would “harm millions of struggling Americans by leaving too many at risk of losing adequate health coverage and continue to exclude too many people, including immigrants.”

“We are grateful for the efforts to include protections for the unborn, however, any final bill must include full Hyde Amendment provisions and add much-needed conscience protections. The current proposals are simply unacceptable as written, and any attempts to repeal the ACA (Affordable Care Act) without a concurrent replacement is also unacceptable,” he said in a July 25 statement.

During the procedural vote on the Senate floor, 50 Republicans voted yes and two GOP senators — Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — voted no, along with the Senate’s 48 Democrats. The tiebreaking vote was necessary from Vice President Mike Pence, as president of the Senate.

The vote to debate health care legislation took place after months of ongoing discussion and leaves Senate Republicans with a few options, including completely replacing the health care law, or voting for what has been described

Demonstrators illustrate the importance of affordable health care in New York City July 13. CNS as a “skinny” repeal that would remove parts of the Affordable Care Act. They also could pass a measure that would repeal the current law without implementing a replacement.

As votes were being cast, all eyes were on Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, who returned to the Senate floor just days after being diagnosed with brain cancer, and Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin, who had not assured the Senate of his vote prior to the tally.

Just prior to the procedural vote, Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, majority leader, urged fellow senators not to let this moment slip by.

“All we have to do today is to have the courage to begin the debate,” he added as protesters yelled in the background: “Kill the bill, don’t kill us.” “Shame.”

“Will we begin the debate on one of the most important issues confronting America today?” he asked before answering: “It is my hope that the answer will be yes.”

Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, minority leader, stressed that Democrats had been “locked out” of the recent health care debate and he warned that the Republican plan will “certainly mean drastic cuts” in Medicaid and would cause many to lose health care insurance.

McCain urged his colleagues to “trust each other” and “return to order” after casting his vote to move the debate forward.

In his July 25 statement, Bishop Dewane said, “There is much work to be done to remedy the ACA’s shortcomings” and he called on the Senate to make the necessary changes.

He also stressed that “current and impending barriers to access and affordability under the ACA must be removed, particularly for those most in need. Such changes can be made with narrower reforms that do not jeopardize the access to health care that millions currently receive.”

Sister Simone Campbell, a Sister of Social Service and executive director of Network, a Catholic social justice lobbying organization, personally delivered a letter to U.S. senators July 24 urging them to reject the Better Care Reconciliation Act and any proposals that would repeal the Affordable Care Act or cut Medicaid.

The letter, signed by 7,150 U.S. women religious, said Catholic sisters stand by their “belief that health is a universal right.”

“As Catholic women religious, we have witnessed firsthand the moral crisis of lack of quality, affordable health care in this country. We have seen early and avoidable deaths because of lack of insurance, prohibitive costs and lack of access to quality care,” said the letter.

Charlie Gard’s parents end legal struggle

By Simon Caldwell Catholic News Service Pope Francis is praying for the parents of Charlie Gard after a U.S. doctor told them nothing could be done to help their son.

Chris Gard and Connie Yates announced in London’s High Court July 24 that they had ended their legal struggle to take their baby overseas for treatment after a U.S. neurologist, Dr. Michio Hirano, said he was no longer willing to offer Charlie experimental nucleoside therapy after he examined the results of a new MRI scan.

Their decision means that the child, who suffers from encephalomyopathic mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome, will receive only palliative care and most likely will die before his first birthday Aug. 4.

Greg Burke, director of the Vatican press office, said in a July 24 statement that Pope Francis, who

had taken a personal interest in the case, “is praying for Charlie and his parents and feels especially close to them at this time of immense suffering.”

He said: “The Holy Father asks that we join in prayer that they may find God’s consolation and love.”

Charlie’s parents, who live in London, had fought for eight months for medical help that might have saved the life of their son.

They raised $1.7 million to take him abroad for treatment, but the Great Ormond Street Hospital in London had argued that Charlie was beyond help and that it was not in his best interests to be kept alive, triggering a protracted legal battle with the parents that led to interventions from U.S. President Donald Trump and from the pope.

“We are about to do the hardest thing that we’ll ever have to do, which is to let our beautiful little Charlie go,” the parents said in their statement to the court. “Put simply,

this is about a sweet, gorgeous, innocent little boy who was born with a rare disease, who had a real, genuine chance at life and a family who love him so very dearly, and that’s why we fought so hard for him.”

“Had Charlie been given the treatment sooner, he would have had the potential to be a normal, healthy little boy,” they said. “We have always believed that Charlie deserved a chance at life.”

“One thing that does give us the slightest bit of comfort is that we truly believe that Charlie may have been too special for this cruel world,” they continued.

Concluding the statement, the couple said: “Mummy and Daddy love you so much Charlie, we always have and we always will, and we are so sorry that we couldn’t save you. We had the chance but we weren’t allowed to give you that chance. Sweet dreams baby. Sleep tight our beautiful little boy.”

July 27, 2017 in BRIEF BOSTON

Boston bishop, former UST theology professor, retires Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Auxiliary Bishop Arthur Kennedy of Boston, a former theology professor at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. Bishop Kennedy, the Boston Archdiocese’s episcopal vicar for the new evangelization, turned 75 in January. Canon law requires bishops to turn in their resignation at age 75. His resignation was announced June 30. Pope Benedict XVI named then-Father Kennedy an auxiliary bishop for Boston in 2010. Ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Boston in 1966, Bishop Kennedy served in various faculty positions at St. Thomas from 1974-2007. He was named the university’s Distinguished Teacher of the Year in 1994. He directed the master of arts in theology program at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity from 1993-1998, as well as the ecumenical and interreligious office in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis from 1985–2000.

REGENSBURG, Germany

Investigation into choir finds more than 500 boys were abused An investigation commissioned by the Diocese of Regensburg found that at least 547 former members of the prestigious Domspatzen boys choir of the Regensburg Cathedral in Germany were subjected to some form of abuse. Of them, 67 students were victims of sexual violence, an investigator said during a news conference July 18. The 440-page investigation report, which spanned the years between 1945 and the early 1990s, found highly plausible accusations against 49 members of the Church of inflicting the abuse, with nine of them accused of being sexually abusive.

WASHINGTON

House passes anti-trafficking bill; measure goes to Senate The House passed a bill July 12 that puts more than $500 million over the next four years into efforts to fight labor and sex trafficking both in the United States and abroad. The bill — named after Frederick Douglass, who escaped slavery and became an abolitionist — awaits a vote in the Senate. The largest share of the funding would go to the State Department to support the training of U.S. and foreign law enforcement officials to better combat human trafficking; engage diplomatically with countries to help them improve their trafficking laws and implementation; help countries develop better referral and assistance programs for rescued sex and labor trafficking victims; and create a special complaint mechanism in embassies whereby the U.S. is warned of traffickers exploiting the U.S. entry system.

Bishop: House budget resolution puts poor in ‘real jeopardy’ The budget resolution passed by the U.S. House July 19 “will place millions of poor and vulnerable people in real jeopardy” because it reduces deficits “through cuts for human needs” and by trying to slash taxes at the same time, said Bishop Frank Dewane of Venice, Florida, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, July 20. The nonbinding Republican measure is a 10year budget blueprint that calls for $621.5 billion in national defense spending, provides for $511 billion in nondefense spending and ties cuts to a major overhaul of the U.S. tax code. It makes at least $203 billion in cuts over a decade in Medicaid, food stamps, tax credits for the working poor and other programs that help low-income Americans.

— Catholic News Service

July 27, 2017

U.S. & WORLD

Catholic outreach helps opioid addicts

By Gina Christian Catholic News Service Philadelphia’s ongoing struggle with opioid addiction has found an epicenter in the Kensington section of the city, where open-air heroin sales, drug usage and overdoses have become commonplace.

In response to public outcry, city officials and law enforcement have intensified patrols of “heroin hotspots” in the area. As a result, many of those who are addicted and homeless have sought shelter in other parts of the neighborhood.

According to Father Liam Murphy of Mother of Mercy House in Kensington, several people recently took refuge in the former Ascension of Our Lord Church building.

After the parish closed in 2012 due to low membership, the church was relegated to nonreligious use by canonical decree and put up for sale.

The property was sold to a real estate investor in 2014 for $800,000 even though it had a market value of $3.5 million — yet it needed at least $3 million in repairs, according to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

The sale was one indicator of how far the church, which at one time was one of the largest in the city, had declined. The same could be said of its working-class neighborhood that today is one of the city’s most troubled.

It also is the mission field for Mother of Mercy House, a Catholic neighborhood outreach launched in 2015.

Father Murphy, who staffs Mother of Mercy along with Sister Ann Raymond Welte, a Sister of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and Father Joseph Devlin, said that he learned of the addicts’ new shelter from a tip.

So many addicts were in the church that “it looked like they were waiting for Mass to start,” he said.

Father Murphy and Sister Ann decided to visit them as part of Mother of Mercy’s regular “neighborhood walks,” an evangelization effort that “lets people know that Mother of Mercy House is here, the Catholic Church is here, and we’re present in case anyone would want to stop by,” Sister Ann told CatholicPhilly.com, the news website of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

During the walks, the Mother of Mercy team gives out snacks, information cards and words of encouragement.

But the visit to those sheltering in

The Catholic Spirit • 9

Nigerian calls West’s imposition of abortion ‘cultural supremacy’

By Simon Caldwell Catholic News Service

Squatters who have an opioid addiction are seen in the lower church of the former Ascension of Our Lord Church in Philadelphia.

CNS the former Ascension Church left both Father Murphy and Sister Ann almost speechless.

“There was something haunting about it,” Father Murphy said. “The people were in a daze. You could see the drug paraphernalia; it smelled of urine and whatnot.”

Those inside the former church were surprised to see the priest and the sister in full religious garb, but they were receptive to the unexpected pastoral visit.

“One guy actually said, ‘Oh no, you’re not taking the place back, are you? You’re not gonna make it a church again?’” said Father Murphy.

“They were actually glad to show us around.”

The priest and religious sister attempted to learn more about those souls finding shelter in the former “cathedral of Kensington,” where city workers in recent days sealed up entrances to the crumbling structure.

While some addicts were so high that they “couldn’t have had a coherent conversation,” Father Murphy recalled, “there was one gentleman who really talked to us.

He did admit that he was addicted.

He had had some clean time but was back in the addiction.”

The man asked his visitors for prayers to conquer his devastating habit.

The team at Mother of Mercy — which was created as a “storefront” church to enhance the archdiocese’s pastoral presence after Ascension’s closure — understands that pain.

“It’s just so difficult to believe that what used to be the ‘cathedral of Kensington’ is in the condition that it is, and that the people that are

within it, more importantly, are in the condition that they’re in,” Sister Ann said.

Father Devlin noted that the migration of area addicts to abandoned structures will continue without a more comprehensive approach to opioid addiction.

“This is such a complex problem, and it’s really going to take a lot of people putting their heads together to help solve it,” he said. “The root causes aren’t being addressed.”

Among those causes, which include physical, psychological and emotional factors, is the spiritual aspect that is often overlooked, Father Devlin believes.

“There’s a spiritual vacuum, a hopelessness that sets in very quickly,” he said. “The addiction cuts someone off from God. They give up hope, they become entrapped.

“Part of this is the face of evil, particularly in the young who have had opportunities and where they were on a path to thrive, and the addiction just devastates them and leads them down a dark road.”

Opioid addiction entails a mixture of sin and sickness, the pastoral team of Mother of Mercy House believes, requiring both a spiritual and a physical response.

The Mother of Mercy team provides spiritual assistance through Masses and prayer gatherings, sometimes held in neighborhood parks favored by addicts.

“You will find an openness among the addicted for prayer and blessing,” Father Devlin said. “If we can bring people to God, that power of Jesus — once they admit their powerlessness, they can be freed from this addiction.”

Western governments are “spitting in the face” of African democracy by trying to impose legal abortion against the wishes of most of the people in such countries, said a Nigerian-born pro-life campaigner.

Uju Ekeocha, the founder of Culture of Life Africa, a U.K.-based pro-life group, said wealthy nations pumping money into the promotion and funding of abortions in Africa were behaving like “old colonial masters.”

“None of these countries has asked for this ‘aid’ money,” she said.

“In all my work with African countries, I don’t know of any which is screaming, ‘Come and help us, we have this abortion crisis,’” said Ekeocha, a Catholic who has dual citizenship in Britain and Nigeria. “But a lot of Western countries, in this spirit of cultural supremacy, are still trying to impose abortion in this way.”

Her views were echoed by Dr. Anthony Cole, chairman of the Medical Ethics Alliance, an umbrella group for British medical organizations that uphold Hippocratic medicine.

“The real need of women and their babies is for safer obstetrics, especially in developing countries,” said Cole, a Catholic. “The constant call for more contraception and, where that fails, abortion ... makes no significant contribution to providing safe care during pregnancy and delivery.

“The real need worldwide is for trained birth attendants supported by midwives and obstetricians,” he said.

Ekeocha, a biomedical scientist who has lived in Worcester, England, since 2006, said abortion “is against the will of the people. The polls show overwhelmingly that Africans hate abortion.”

“By ignoring the will of the people, this is spitting in the face of the very type of democracy we are supposed to have in African countries,” she added.

Ekeocha spoke as the British government cohosted an international Family Planning Summit in London with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the U.N. Population Fund.

The U.K. Department for International Development said the July 11 summit aimed to boost global commitment to “ensuring women and girls have access to family planning services.”

Ekeocha told CNS that since President Donald Trump withdrew U.S. funding for family planning overseas, Canada was now at the forefront of exporting abortions overseas.

“Canada has taken that position as the No. 1 cultural colonial master in the world,” she said.“They need to go back to the integral care of the person, where they were thinking of the Africans not as people who they can colonize culturally and impose their new views and values on them, but as a people who have their own views and values.”

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10 • The Catholic Spirit

‘Brokenness St. Paul musician composes notes of healing

By Dave Hrbacek The Catholic Spirit

A

utumn Irlbeck was 9 years old, enjoying a carefree Sunday afternoon on the tire swing in the backyard of her Florida ho e.

In moments like this, she was able briefly to push aside a tumultuous past, bouncing from one foster home to another.

At age 5, she and her two siblings had finally landed in the home of a stable, Catholic family.

Nearby, her gentle, loving father, David, who had helped her experience God’s love for the first time, was hard at work on scaffolding, putting up new siding on an addition to their ho me.

By his side was Autumn’s older brother, Danny. Because their biological parents struggled with drugs, she had been in 11 or 12 foster homes, and she had been physically and sexually abused.

But, her life was about to get worse — much worse. In a matter of seconds, she would lose the person who had shown her the greatest love in her young life.

“What I understand was Danny was slipping [off the scaffolding], so my dad pushed him back up, but lost his footing and fell,” Irlbeck recalled of that day in January 1995. “The scaffolding was only 12 feet high, but he landed wrong and fell on the concrete. We didn’t see him fall; we saw him after he fell. I remember my mom running and screaming [with] blood on her. So, I immediately ran over.”

She now wishes she hadn’t.

The vision of her father laying lifeless on the concrete with blood running from his nose is the last memory of him she has. But, their relationship eventually inspired the first song she wrote, launching both a passion for songwriting and path toward healing.

Now 31 and married with three children, Irlbeck, who belongs to St. Mark in St. Paul with her family, has written about 80 songs and has started performing them in local concerts, the most recent of which was at St. Joseph in West St. Paul, July 23.

In “Goodbye for Now,” the words of a troubled teenager pay tribute to a man who loved her unconditionally and embraced her entirely, raging tantrums and all.

“My dad was very, very special to me,” she said. “When I met him, he

Autumn Irlbeck plays a song with her daughter, Camilla, in the living room of their St. Paul home. The two sing together regularly at home and sometimes at concerts Autumn performs locally.

Dave Hrbacek/ The Catholic Spirit just had a gentle, quiet way of loving and affirming your existence, your good. He didn’t have to say anything.

It was the way he responded to us, very level, even keeled. So, when I was 5, I attached to him right away. He was the first person I trusted, the only person I trusted.”

The tribute came to her in a burst of inspiration one day when she was 16.

Her mother had declared her intention to buy a guitar, and Irlbeck proclaimed that she wanted one, too. She got her wish, along with two months of lessons. After that, she struck out on her own, quickly adding to her repertoire of chords.

Then it just happened.

“I sat down one day and a song came out, literally,” Irlbeck said. “‘Goodbye for Now’ was the name of the song. It was a song about getting older someday and recognizing that I was going to be OK. This grief doesn’t go away, but I was going to be OK. It was my way of saying goodbye. The song gave me a sense of comfort. I struggled with hope, and it gave me a sense of hope.”

Songs kept coming after that. Lyrics seemed to emerge randomly, but they all connected to how God was working to bring healing out of her troubled childhood.

There was a lot to process — and a

lot of healing needed.

Following love Even though she is more than 20 years removed from the worst phase of her life, Irlbeck still has trouble talking about the abuse she suffered. Memories still terrify. And, some gaping wounds remain, in the form of self-harming behaviors she still battles.

Her journey toward healing is in its early stages. Only within the last year has she started putting words and names to her sufferings. Mostly, she labels them “really, really awful things.” And, she has become keenly aware of what those things did to the innocence of a child.

“It’s a cancer, it’s a poison that gets in and gets right to your heart, the heart of who you are, and attacks your goodness,” she said. “I had a fear of nighttime because bad things happened at night. So, I would throw tantrums, unbelievable tantrums, for hours — throw stuff off my bed, screaming, destroying stuff.”

Mostly, music is her form of expression for the hurts she has endured. The first song at 16 opened a “flood of music” that continues to this day. Singing the lyrics helps her express what spoken words cannot.

She sings with a slow, soft and

throaty sound, reminiscent of th and country ballads of the 1960 70s. She closes her eyes and nod the words are meant for her. Th Long pauses and a voice that sometimes drops close to a whis convey the intimacy of a soul p out its pain and longing for God heal it.

And the healing has begun. A powerful moment came on Goo Friday 2016 when she experienc God’s love during the liturgy.

“In a very quiet way, I venera cross,” she said, during a 2017 v interview with Ascension Press t was posted online. “I came to kn that moment] the love of Jesus, personal love of Jesus. ... I came [after that]. I hadn’t written mu six years, and then it just poure my soul ever since.”

The songs keep coming, and s understands that performing th mission in her life, running alon her role as wife and mother. Tho callings are intertwined, with he oldest child, daughter Camilla, singing with her, both in the liv room of their St. Paul home and occasionally at concerts. Camill tries to strum the guitar Irlbeck when she was 16, which she stil The children get to hear every

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July 27, 2017 • 11

beautiful ’ Irlbeck uses her music to help heal the wounds of trauma and abuse she suffered as a child.

Dave Hrbacek/ The Catholic Spirit

Watch a video of Irlbeck performing one of her songs with her daughter at Facebook.com/ TheCatholicSpirit

the messages Irlbeck now is trying to deliver to larger audiences. A lifetime of suffering and a deepened faith have inspired in her music an overall theme of God’s love and mercy.

“I followed the Gospel for a long time,” she said. “[Now] I’m following love for the first time. That’s what I sing about, that’s what I write about, that’s what I want to share, because he [Jesus] is real, he’s tangibly real. And, I fiercely, fiercely want others to know they’re not alone. I want them to know that brokenness is beautiful, and that it’s actually what the Lord uses.”

That simple, three-word phrase — “brokenness is beautiful” — has become her personal mantra. It emerged when a friend shared with her a poem she had written called “Broken.”

“There was a line in it to the effect that broken pieces of glass can be shaped together and form a stained glass window that is incredibly beautiful,” Irlbeck said. “I may be in pieces, but the Lord is using these pieces to fashion something new and beautiful. He is fashioning a song from the broken pieces of my heart and revealing his love and truth. All I have to do is be willing.”

Observing that willingness and cheering her on is her husband,

“... broken pieces of glass can be shaped together and form a stained glass window that is incredibly beautiful.

I may be in pieces, but the Lord is using these pieces to fashion something new and beautiful. He is fashioning a song from the broken pieces of my heart and revealing his love and truth.

All I have to do is be willing.”

Autumn Irlbeck Jeremy, who has watched her transformation since they were married in 2009. He fell in love with her while serving in St. Paul’s Outreach with her while he was attending the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul in 2006.

While studying in Greece and Turkey, Jeremy felt compelled by his affection for her to collect wildflowers, which he pressed and framed when he got home.

More than a year later, he took Autumn on their first date, and six months after that, Jeremy gave her those flowers.

Those flowers are a tangible reminder of the goodness her husband sees in her, which can appear clouded by the pain of her past.

“It’s kind of overwhelming sometimes,” Jeremy said, of hearing her pour out the painful memories of her childhood. “I’m a prairie German who is simple. I had a fairly stable family life. So, some of it [her trauma] is foreign and just hard. I want to understand, I want to enter in, and it’s hard to know where she’s coming from. ... Sometimes, it’s felt very lonely.”

But, that feeling never lasts. It melts away as he watches a woman face her past with courage and conquer it with music.

“In the midst of everything that Autumn has been through, I see her resilience and the ways that her trials

and challenges have shaped her in a beautiful way,” Jeremy said, “especially now as she’s been sharing her music and finding people that are hurting that can identify with her story, identify with her songs, and just the realness of that and the beauty that comes from that.”

And, Autumn knows the fullest beauty comes from revealing everything inside of her — the pain as well as the joy. That, to her, is the story of Easter, the road to which begins on Good Friday.

“I feel messed up. I can’t hide that I have wounds,” she said. “That’s where the glory of the resurrection comes from. It’s a full acceptance and receiving both the good and the bad.

Good Friday had to happen for Easter to happen. So, in me, the brokenness — not that we want it — if I can accept it, if I can embrace it, this is part of my story. The best stories are the ones that people own, the ones where you look at life as it is — and it’s ugly sometimes. But, when you do that, something so beautiful can come from it.”

She hopes her audience hears that in her songs.

“The way that I write music now as opposed to the way I wrote music when I began writing is so different, in the best way possible. I’m finally able to craft a gift, make something beautiful from it because I’m accepting that some really, really terrible things have happened. This is what happened, this is what it’s done to me.

And, this is who I’ve become. And, who I’ve become is actually pretty good.”

12 • The Catholic Spirit

I

n January 1988, Elizabeth Moldenhauer prayed while on retreat at a Houston, Minnesota, Carmelite hermitage that God would heal her own brokenness, as well as the division between the Lutheran and Catholic churches. Moldenhauer, then a Lutheran living in Minneapolis, had made retreats before during the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, but this time she felt the Lord calling her to become Catholic.

“It just hurt so, because we are so broken,” she said, “and as a former Lutheran who loves the roots of my Lutheran faith, that caused me to chew on Scriptures to the point that I couldn’t turn away from truth anymore.”

Moldenhauer, 66, entered the Catholic Church at St. Charles Borromeo in St. Anthony that Easter, following years of faith-related search and study. Now living in Syracuse, New York, she continues to pray for unity as Catholics and Lutherans commemorate the 500th anniversary of the start of the Protestant Reformation.

Moldenhauer also prays that Catholic leaders will not diminish the truth of Catholic teaching in their efforts to bring the churches together.

The Protestant Reformation began in Wittenberg, Germany, in October 1517 as then-Augustinian priest Martin Luther detailed questions and propositions related to Catholic Church reform, known as his “95 Theses.”

Luther’s ideas attracted followers who eventually broke from the Catholic Church.

The Reformation was a breaking of the body of Christ that should be commemorated with prayer, fasting and seeking forgiveness, said Moldenhauer, noting that major differences separate the churches, including the nature of the Eucharist, papal authority, understanding Scripture and the role of sacred tradition.

FAITH & CULTURE

Unity but truth During Reformation anniversary, Catholics with Lutheran roots join prayer for unity but oppose compromising Catholic truths

By Susan Klemond • For The Catholic Spirit

reached by Catholic and Lutheran theologians over the past 50 years. The most appropriate way to mark the anniversary, they said, was with common prayer and renewed commitments to working together to help the poor and promote justice.

Leaders of the Lutheran World Federation agree, but many also saw the joint commemoration in October as a moment to recognize that the joint agreements on issues of faith over the past 50 years mean it is appropriate to expand occasions when eucharistic sharing is possible. The Catholic Church has insisted that regular sharing of the Eucharist will be possible only when divided Christians have attained full unity.

A joint statement signed in Lund by Pope Francis and the president of the Lutheran World Federation said, “Many members of our communities yearn to receive the Eucharist at one table as the concrete expression of full unity.” They did not, however, authorize further opportunities for shared Communion, but expressed longing “for this wound in the body of Christ to be healed. This is the goal of our ecumenical endeavors, which we wish to advance, also by renewing our commitment to theological dialogue.”

Ecumenism ‘unity together’

A year for reflection, prayer Pope Francis joined Protestant leaders in Lund, Sweden, Oct. 31, 2016, for an ecumenical prayer service marking the beginning of the 500th anniversary year. He began the service praying that the Holy Spirit would “help us to rejoice in the gifts that have come to the Church through the Reformation.”

In an interview, he said those gifts were greater appreciation of the Bible as God’s word and an acknowledgment that members of the Church are called to a process of ongoing reform.

At an ecumenical prayer service in January attended by Catholics and Lutherans at Central Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, Archbishop Bernard Hebda quoted from Pope Francis’ talk before a Finland Lutheran delegation that month: “True ecumenism is based on a shared conversion to Jesus Christ as our lord and redeemer.”

The archbishop said he shared the pope’s conviction that a “communion of harmony” permits the Holy Spirit to act, aiding further conversions on points of doctrine and the Church’s moral teaching. The Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul will hold another ecumenical prayer service in January 2018.

This Reformation anniversary is the first that both churches agreed to commemorate together, said Father Erich Rutten, parochial administrator of

July 27, 2017

This statue of Martin Luther sits on the campus of Concordia University in St. Paul.

Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit St. Peter Claver in St. Paul and chairman of the archdiocesan Commission on Ecumenism and Interreligious Affairs. It’s important for Catholics and Lutherans to remember the Reformation’s enormous consequences, reflect on its meaning and pray together for unity, he said.

Carl Ostling, 51, a Benedictine Oblate at St. Paul’s Monastery and parishioner of St. Peter in Forest Lake who came into the Catholic Church from the Lutheran faith four years ago, agreed that it’s good that the different traditions pray together for unity, but not at the expense of Catholic teaching.

He worries that some ecumenical efforts “lessen the faith and differences we have.”

Recalling his altar server experience at his family’s Lutheran church in Ohio, Ostling said he recognizes the differences between the understanding of Communion in the Lutheran Church and the Eucharist in the Catholic Church. He added that he is grateful he can now receive the Eucharist as a Catholic after years of searching for a faith tradition that offered true community.

Work to resolve theological differences has been underway since the

Second Vatican Council. Ecumenical dialogue between Catholics and Lutherans resulted in a joint declaration issued in 1999 that acknowledged Luther’s position on justification.

However, Lutheran bodies with about 18 percent of world Lutheran membership rejected the declaration, among them the Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod, which accounts for about one-third of all U.S. Lutherans.

The World Methodist Council adopted the doctrine in 2006.

Earlier this month, the World Communion of Reformed Churches also adopted the statement. The Reformed Churches represent an estimated 80 million Christians in Congregational, Presbyterian, Reformed, United, Uniting and Waldensian churches around the world. In a statement published July 4, the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity referred to the event “as another important milestone on the journey toward the full visible unity of Christians; not yet the end of the road, but a significant stage on the way.”

For Pope Francis and the Vatican, Catholics are called to commemorate the 500th anniversary by focusing on concrete ways to express and strengthen the doctrinal agreements

Ecumenism is not about finding the least common denominator between the churches, but rather unity together, said Deacon Steve Moses, 55, who ministers at St. Dominic in Northfield.

“The central realities of what make us Catholic are not changeable,” said Deacon Moses, who grew up Lutheran and entered the Catholic Church in 1990. “You can’t change them at a whim. I think there are a lot of people that would like unity. I think it is possible. I think dialogue and prayer need to continue, as well as being open to the Holy Spirit.”

Formerly a Lutheran deacon, Deacon Moses become Catholic after marrying a Catholic and coming to love the Church.

Now in the Catholic diaconate, he serves as a Northfield police chaplain.

Catholics and Lutherans share one baptism and faith in Christ, and while Catholics have the fullness of what it means to be Church, the Lutheran church has some of the same elements, Father Rutten said.

The Catholic Church already sees a real, though imperfect, unity, though some strong differences remain, he said.

The churches share a primary identity in Christ, he added, and there is room to work together for unity without compromising on the truth. The archdiocesan commission focuses on prayer, social justice and other ecumenical projects with Lutheran leaders.

According to 2014 data from the Pew Research Center’s Religious Landscape Survey, 20 percent of Minnesotans are Lutheran and 22 percent are Catholic.

Deacon Moses has hope that full unity is possible, if only in heaven.

“A lot of issues over the centuries have been resolved, that’s something to celebrate,” he said. “I believe one day [unity] will happen, if not on earth, but one day it will happen.”

— Catholic News Service contributed to this story.

FAITH & CULTURE

July 27, 2017

The Catholic Spirit • 13

Advocates urge more awareness about natural family planning options

By Anna Capizzi Catholic News Service

T

here are plenty of myths that surround natural family planning, but advocates say the Catholic Church can help dispel those myths and raise an awareness of which fertilityawareness options exist for married couples that embrace Church teaching.

“It amazes me how many people are not aware of the multitude of fertility awareness-based methods out there,” said Dr. Marguerite Duane, adjunct professor at Georgetown University and executive director of Fertility Appreciation Collaborative to Teach the Science.

Despite the variety of natural family planning methods — the Billings Ovulation Method, Creighton Model, Two Day Method, Marquette Model, Sympto-Thermal, Standard Days Method, among others — and the science involved in their medical application, certain myths continue to circulate regarding the effectiveness and benefits of natural family planning.

The first myth, said Duane, “is that there is ‘only one NFP method,’” i.e., the “rhythm method.”

The “rhythm method,” popularized in Dr. Leo J. Latz’s 1932 book “The Rhythm of Sterility and Fertility in Women,” uses none of the biological indicators and symptoms, such as cervical mucus observations and basal body temperature, that modern natural family planning methods — also called fertility awareness-based methods — use today.

“Today, we’ve got the ability to monitor hormone metabolites in urine at-home test strips,” said Mike Manhart, former executive director of the Couple to Couple League. These test strips detect the release of the luteinizing hormone, which is released prior to ovulation.

Manhart, who has taught natural family planning alongside his wife for 32 years, said the development of tools like these in the past 20 years especially helps couples with atypical situations.

Another myth is the effectiveness rate.

“People still don’t believe it works,” Manhart told Catholic News Service.

Outdated and unreliable statistics on efficacy contribute to the problem.

Even the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has it wrong, noted Duane. Its website reports a 24 percent “failure rate” for all “natural methods.”

Fertility Appreciation Collaborative to

Teach the Science, teamed with Natural Womanhood, a woman’s health literacy program, to organize a petition requesting that the CDC update its website with current, more accurate data and cite the effectiveness rate of each fertility awareness based method individually.

This failure rate comes from “retrospective surveys based on patient recall, a flawed methodology,” reads the petition. And, “86 percent of the respondents reported using variations of the calendar rhythm method — an outdated and less effective” method.

Yet, the petition states that when looked at individually, the effectiveness rates of natural family planning methods are between 95.2 and 99.6 percent with correct use. With typical use, the rate of unintended pregnancy ranges from 2 percent to 14 percent.

Along with the ineffective myth, another common misconception of natural family planning is that it is too difficult or time-consuming.

“There is some legwork in the beginning,” said Lucynda Choi, but “like anything, you start a new job and you’ve got a lot to learn, but once you’re in it, you’re in it. You know how to do it and it’s second nature.”

“You’re just making an observation,” she said, “30 seconds of mental work a few times a day.”

Lucynda and Michael Choi are firm advocates of natural family planning.

When doctors in Portland, Oregon, were unable to help the couple conceive, they found the Pope Paul VI Institute in Omaha, Nebraska, and began charting Lucynda’s cycle with the Creighton Model. After a few surgeries in 2007, the couple conceived in 2008 and now have three children.

At the same time, warns Duane, it’s important not to oversell natural family planning as too easy. “The reality is these methods can be hard. Most of them call for couples abstaining, and that’s really hard for a lot of couples.” And if women have irregular signs or symptoms, they can become frustrated, said Duane.

While certain myths continue to linger, advocates of natural family planning say there is plenty that the Catholic Church can do to inform and support those who wish to learn.

For starters, teaching fertility education earlier — and not just to engaged or married couples.

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“We should be teaching fertility education during confirmation prep,” said Duane. “Begin offering education about fertility appreciation — not just awareness but really understanding and appreciating and respecting your body — throughout every diocese in the U.S.” If the Church seeks to prepare youth to be adults in the faith, then “fertility appreciation” will likewise prepare them to be adults in their bodies, said Duane.

Dr. Hanna Klaus, founder of TeenSTAR, a sex-ed curriculum for grade school to college-age youth, recommends “the long range approach of teaching fertility literacy when the body begins to have hormonal changes,” i.e., puberty. The Church should embrace experiential learning — meaning allowing young women to learn and chart their own cycles, she said.

Once “they own their fertility,” added Klaus, “they begin to move away from peer pressure and begin to make their own decisions.”

Then “obviously it’s going to come that the full use of the sexual faculty can only be realized in a permanent, committed relationship called marriage and one that is open to life,” she added.

In the apostolic exhortation “Amoris Laetitia” (“The Joy of Love”), Pope Francis speaks to the “need for sex education.”

“Who speaks of these things today?

Who is capable of taking young people seriously? Who helps them to prepare seriously for a great and generous love?

Where sex education is concerned, much is at stake,” writes the pope. TeenSTAR is trying to respond, said Klaus.

Along with educating youth, the entire parish needs to be more informed on natural family planning.

For Michael Choi, consistency with education and resources from parish to parish is one way the Church can help to provide accurate information.

“People are super resistant to doing anything that isn’t easy. Making it as accessible and as easy as possible with resources is going to be a big component,” he said.

In the Archdiocese of Portland, Oregon, the Marriage and Family Life Office is focused on creating resources for the parish. “They’re trying to help the parishes become more helpful,” said Michael Choi, whether it’s through websites, videos or access to instructors.

The Chois also suggest that the Church emphasize natural family planning as a holistic, natural approach to women’s health.

“In an age where people are glomming onto what’s natural, not invasive, not using chemicals, there’s a real play there that NFP can have in terms of being a very natural solution,” Michael Choi added. “It becomes a marker of health. It can be predictive of certain health issues.”

Lucynda Choi added: “I still chart to this day, even though I’m starting these premenopausal symptoms. I still chart because the doctor can diagnosis from it and watch my health.”

Finally, priests shouldn’t be embarrassed to preach about natural family planning. Acknowledging it from the pulpit, Manhart said, recognizes “that it’s a normative and appropriate way to live the vocation to marriage.”

“Seminarians and priests also need to be taught about fertility awareness-based methods,” said Duane. Otherwise, “how can they preach about it? They’re not going to feel comfortable. What if someone asks them a question about it?”

The Church should not be afraid to proclaim this gift we have, said Manhart.

“It’s a highly kept secret that doesn’t need to be secret.”

National NFP Awareness Week is July 23-29. For NFP resources, including classes, in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, visit www.archspm.org/ NFPAwarenessWeek.

14 • The Catholic Spirit

FAITH & CULTURE

July 27, 2017

Pope approves new path to sainthood: heroic act of loving service

By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service Pope Francis has approved a fourth pathway to possible sainthood — giving one’s life in a heroic act of loving service to others.

In a July 11 apostolic letter, the pope approved new norms allowing for candidates to be considered for sainthood because of the heroic way they freely risked their lives and died prematurely because of “an extreme act of charity.”

Archbishop Marcello Bartolucci, secretary of the Vatican Congregation for Saints’ Causes, said the addition is meant “to promote heroic Christian testimony, [that has been] up to now without a specific process, precisely because it did not completely fit within the case of martyrdom or heroic virtues.”

For centuries, consideration for the sainthood process required that a Servant of God heroically lived a life of Christian virtues or had been martyred for the faith. The third, less common way, is called an equivalent or equipollent canonization: When there is evidence of strong devotion among the faithful to a holy man or woman, the pope can waive a lengthy formal canonical investigation and can authorize their veneration as saints.

While these three roads to sainthood remain unchanged, they were not adequate “for interpreting all possible cases” of holiness, the archbishop wrote in the Vatican newspaper July 11.

He added that the new norms arise from the sainthood congregation wanting to look into the question of whether men and women who, “inspired by Christ’s example, freely and willingly offered and sacrificed their life” for others “in a supreme act of charity, which was the direct cause of death,” were worthy of beatification, such as those who died of infection or disease because of aiding and serving others.

From left, Benilde-St. Margaret’s School 2017 graduates Lucas Latterell, Kameron Herndon, John Boase, Maria Satre, Sean McCullough and Carston Swenson have received offers of appointment to a U.S. military academy or plan to enlist in a branch of the military. Not pictured is graduate Lauren McDonnell, who is attending the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. Courtesy Benilde-St. Margaret’s School

For love of country

BSM graduates bound for military academies, service

By Tim Budig For The Catholic Spirit

A

mong Benilde-St. Margaret’s School’s graduating class of 219 students this year, four are bound for the U.S. Naval Academy, with others heading to West Point, winning national Naval ROTC scholarships or otherwise preparing to don uniforms in service of their country.

The latest BSM graduate to gain admittance to the prestigious U.S. Naval Academy is Lauren McDonnell, who had been on a waiting list. The last-minute nod had her scrambling to pack, say goodbye to family and move to Annapolis, Maryland, for Plebe Summer, training to become a midshipman.

“My [Catholic] faith played a big role,” McDonnell said of her choice of careers, adding that both faith and family have instilled in her a sense of duty. She believes a military career is ideal for serving others.

Also attending the academy are 2017 BSM graduates Sean McCullough, Maria Satre and Carston Swenson.

“I fell in love with it,” said Swenson, who has a grandparent who served in the Navy. “I love the history, the prestige.”

That so many graduates from one school received offers of appointment to the competitive Naval Academy is a salute to their parents and the St. Louis Park Catholic school, said Lt. Col. Alex Plechash, a retired Marine Corps fighter pilot and 1975 U.S. Naval Academy graduate, who assists young people, including BSM students, considering military careers. He called

the number of appointments “amazing.”

Devin Harrington, BSM director of marketing and communications, indicated the number is likely a school record. According to the Naval Academy, nine BSM graduates have become midshipmen since 1984, when they began tracking such data.

Appointees to the Naval Academy must be nominated by “an official source,” usually one of the applicant’s representatives in Congress. While in the academy, students are midshipmen on active duty in the U.S. Navy. After graduation, they serve at least five years in the Navy or Marine Corps.

The academy’s class of 2021 includes 18 Minnesotans, including graduates of Cretin-Derham Hall in St. Paul and St. Thomas Academy in Mendota Heights.

‘I’ve always wanted to serve’ Three other Red Knights followed a call to service by entering other branches of the military. For John Boase, this means reporting for duty to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, this month.

“I’ve always wanted to serve — that’s been in the back of my mind,” Boase said.

The new cadet and Army officer hopeful said he and his father researched a military career. Awaiting Boase at the academy is six weeks of basic training to instill a “military mindset,” he said.

Boase was not the only Red Knight to receive a West Point appointment.

Lucas Latterell also gained admittance,

but turned it down for a full Naval ROTC scholarship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The scholarship provides Latterell a path to becoming a U.S. Marine Corps officer, one of his goals.

“It was a really tough decision,” he said.

But Latterell views the Marine Corps as a cut above. He said he admires the branch’s tradition, pride and members’ reputation as “fearsome warriors.”

If he were to go in harm’s way, this is the kind of people he would want to be around him, he explained. One of them could be classmate Kameron Herndon, who enlisted in the Marine Corps.

Although the graduates cite different factors in their decisions to pursue military careers, as with McDonnell, Swenson, Boase and Latterell indicated that faith played a role. BSM Principal Susan Skinner said the students are prepared to lead with a moral compass.

Latterell sees elements of Catholic social teaching — especially protecting the weak and downtrodden — in his decision to serve.

That could mean braving dangerous situations, but Latterell looks to his faith for comfort and strength.

“God has a plan for me,” he said, “[and] I wanted to give back to the country that has given me so much.”

Boase said that while his Catholic faith could be stronger, he believes he’s following a basic principle. “God wants me to use my full potential,” he said.

Plechash sees selflessness as a recurring theme in the BSM graduates.

“They are candidates motivated by things larger than themselves,” he said.

FROM AGE TO AGE

July 27, 2017

The Catholic Spirit • 15

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I’ve got some great friends here.” ~ Carol Leininger, 90 years old, New Perspective Resident

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10 Convenient Twin Cities Locations npseniorliving.com Organ restorer Timothy Patterson builds parts for organs he restores in his St. Paul shop.

Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit

New life in old pipes Restorer hails the organ’s ability to affect human emotion

By Catherine Deeds For The Catholic Spirit

T

imothy Patterson still recalls his first Communion, more than 50 years ago, guided by grand pipe organ music at Ascension in Minneapolis.

The resonant sound was an important part of his spiritual experience at the time.

Combined with his natural curiosity about how things work, it eventually led him into the unique world of historic pipe organ building and restoration.

Patterson, 62, developed an interest in playing the organ while in sixth grade at St. Anthony of Padua school in Minneapolis. After attending DeLaSalle High School in Minneapolis, he discovered and fell in love with the Wicks Company organ in Our Lady of Lourdes in Minneapolis. Later, he became the volunteer organist at the parish from 1972 to 1982.

His passion and appreciation for organ music continued, and he devoted his life to learning about the fragile instrument.

He became a master pipe builder and restoration expert on historic pipe organs in several local Catholic churches, including Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in St. Paul, as well as other churches in the Midwest. He spent 13 years in France in the mid-1990s and worked on some organs that were 400 years old.

In Europe, Patterson said, he learned the “true beauty of sound.”

“Music has been known to affect humans and animals; to soothe, calm the nerves and excite,” he said. “Whether you have no idea what is affecting you, or even if you understand it, we are all moved by music. The organ enhances this experience.”

Patterson turned his passion into his business, Associated Organbuilders in St. Paul, which he opened in 1975. He earned a degree in computer science and industrial education in 1992, because most projects he does now include adding full computer software systems and electronics to enhance and update a pipe organ’s capabilities.

Though he prefers the original organ sound, Patterson said that merging electronic instruments with the organ helps expand the “valuable asset” parishes have. Organ pipes may also be added, but it is expensive.

Patterson is working on a large project at St. Paul’s United Church of Christ in St. Paul to add 132 individual speakers behind the pipes he built. It will create a huge variety of beautiful ancient and modern sounds more effectively, he said.

Associated Organbuilders client Chris Ganza is the organist and director of sacred music ministry at Our Lady of Lourdes. He has known Patterson for years and calls him a “genius” and “fantastic” to work with because of his in-depth knowledge of the parish’s organ, which Patterson still helps maintain.

Like Patterson, Ganza also loves “everything” about playing the pipe organ and recognizes the powerful way sacred music inspires the faithful at Mass and other ceremonies. The beautiful music shows us the “foretaste of the heavenly banquet,” he said.

Like human beings, the organ is a wind instrument “so it’s particularly adept at leading the congregation in singing and inspiring the mind, heart and soul,” he added.

Ganza noted that the Second Vatican Council document “Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy” specifically praises the pipe organ: “In the Latin Church, pipe organ is to be held in high esteem, for it is the traditional musical instrument which adds a wonderful splendor to the Church’s ceremonies and powerfully lifts up man’s mind to God and to higher things.”

Patterson appreciates this, too.

“Drums and trumpets send men to war.

Strings, violins and flutes relax people.

The organ is all those things and has a multitude of sounds,” he said. “The organist has a way to express their emotions or the emotions they want people to feel, and helps guide the people to realize that.”

FOCUS ON FAITH

16 • The Catholic Spirit

SUNDAY SCRIPTURES Deacon Jim Bauhs

Listening heart When was the last time that you had a conversation with God? Who initiated the conversation? God or you?

In our first reading from the first book of Kings, God initiates a conversation with King Solomon, who lived 970–931 B.C. The Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream at night.

He said, “Ask something of me and I will give it to you.”

How does King Solomon respond? By humbling himself before God and recognizing that God has not only selected Solomon as king, but he has also chosen the Israelite people. In John’s Gospel, we are reminded

by Jesus that “it was not you who chose me, but I who chose you” (Jn 15:16). So remember that God has chosen you, too.

July 27, 2017

King Solomon does ask for something — “an understanding heart.” The Hebrew modifier is “shome’a,” which can also be translated to “listening.” Thus, Solomon is asking for an “understanding” or “listening” heart.

Approximately 1,500 years later, we have St. Benedict — who lived 480–547 A.D. — instructing his monks to listen with “the ear of their heart”: “Listen, my son, to the master’s instructions, and attend to them with the ear of your heart. This is advice from a father who loves you; welcome it, and faithfully put it into practice.”

These same rules are still being followed today — nearly 1,500 years after St. Benedict first instructed his monks. These rules can help us in our daily lives.

We should be like King Solomon and ask God to help us to listen better. Think of how much better the world would be today if we listened more and reacted or responded less. To further reinforce this listening or understanding heart, we have a prayer from one of the greatest deacons, St. Francis of Assisi: O Divine Master, Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console; to be understood, as to understand; to be loved, as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive.

Sunday, July 30 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time Readings

• 1 Kgs 3:5, 7-12 • Rom 8:28-30 • Mt 13:44-52

iStock/Walt41 It is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Amen.

Pray this week that you may be able to recognize when God initiates his conversation with you. Let each of us also remember that we have been chosen

by God to listen with “the ear of the heart,” seek to understand and be granted a small share of the wisdom of Solomon.

Deacon Bauhs was ordained in 2010. Before being assigned to St. Joseph in Waconia in February, he served at Guardian Angels in Chaska for more than six years. He is also the director of mission and outreach at St. Hubert in Chanhassen.

DAILY Scriptures Sunday, July 30 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time 1 Kgs 3:5, 7-12 Rom 8:28-30 Mt 13:44-52

Tuesday, Aug. 1 St. Alphonsus Liguori, bishop and doctor of the Church Ex 33:7-11; 34:5b-9, 28 Mt 13:36-43

Monday, July 31 St. Ignatius of Loyola, priest Ex 32:15-24, 30-34 Mt 13:31-35

Wednesday, Aug. 2 Ex 34:29-35 Mt 13:44-46 Thursday, Aug. 3 Ex 40:16-21, 34-38 Mt 13:47-53

Friday, Aug. 4 St. John Vianney, priest Lv 23:1, 4-11, 15-16, 27, 34b-37 Mt 13:54-58 Saturday, Aug. 5 Lv 25:1, 8-17 Mt 14:1-12 Sunday, Aug. 6 Transfiguration of the Lord Dn 7:9-10, 13-14 2 Pt 1:16-19 Mt 17:1-9

Monday, Aug. 7 Nm 11:4b-15 Mt 14:13-21 Tuesday, Aug. 8 St. Dominic, priest Nm 12:1-13 Mt 14:22-36 Wednesday, Aug. 9 Nm 13:1-2, 25–14:1, 26a-29a, 34-35 Mt 15: 21-28 Thursday, Aug. 10 St. Lawrence, deacon and martyr 2 Cor 9:6-10 Jn 12:24-26

FAITH FUNDAMENTALS Father Michael Van Sloun

Parental duties to their baptized children During the rite of baptism, after the parents request the sacrament of baptism for their child, the priest or deacon states, “You are accepting the responsibility of training your child in the practice of the faith.” Then, before the pouring of water, the instruction to the parents is repeated: “Make it your constant care to bring your child up in the practice of the faith.”

To raise one’s child in the Catholic faith may be a responsibility, duty or obligation, but it really is a privilege, joy and honor. Our faith is our single greatest treasure, and to pass on the gift of faith is the greatest gift parents could ever give their child.

This responsibility flows from the understanding of who is the ultimate owner of the child. Most parents realize that their newborn child is a miracle. God is the creator who gives life and forms the child in the mother’s womb (Ps 139:13). God is the original parent and owner of the child, while the mother and father are biological stepparents and have the child on loan from God. In the Jewish tradition, children are

iStock/B-C-Designs consecrated to God (Lk 2:23), and in the Christian tradition, they are baptized. The offering (Lk 2:24) recognizes God as the author and giver of life, and it serves as the parents’ request to keep the child. God accepts the offering, but God has terms and conditions for the parents: “You are to raise your child on my behalf; to teach your child to know, love and serve me; and to prepare your child to accept my plan for his or her life.”

God is love, and one of the parents’ most important duties is to teach their child about the love of God. This is not done with a lesson in a book or a video, but by example in the genuine love that the parents have for each other, and by experience of the love the parents have for their child.

The parents are the leaders of the house church, the basic unit and foundation of the Church, and their full, active and conscious practice of their faith is an

Friday, Aug. 11 St. Clare, virgin Dt 4:32-40 Mt 16:24-28 Saturday, Aug. 12 Dt 6:4-13 Mt 17:14-20 Sunday, Aug. 13 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time 1 Kgs 19:9a, 11-13a Rom 9:1-5 Mt 14:22-33

ongoing lesson on how to be a dynamic Catholic. The child learns the faith through assimilation. Because the parents love God, the child learns to love God. Because the parents pray each day, the child learns to pray. Because the parents go to Mass each Sunday, the child learns the importance of going to Mass, the value of communal liturgical prayer and how to behave in church. And because the parents practice the virtues in their daily living, the child learns how to live a Christian lifestyle.

Parents teach their children to pray. This should not begin in second grade as part of their preparation for the sacraments, but as the child learns how to talk.

When a child learns to say mommy and daddy, colors and numbers, it is time to learn the Sign of the Cross and meal prayers. When a child is old enough to converse with mom and dad, the child is old enough to say morning and night prayers, and when a child is old enough to memorize a home address or telephone number, the child is old enough to memorize the Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be. Parents should have a children’s Bible and other spiritual books and videos to teach their child about Jesus and the Gospel, the great people in Scripture and Bible stories. Parents can enroll their children in religious education programs beginning with Sunday school and vacation bible school, as well as a Catholic elementary school or the parish faith formation program. The parents’ pledge at baptism also includes ensuring that their child completes his or her sacraments through the reception of reconciliation, first Eucharist and confirmation.

Father Van Sloun is pastor of St. Bartholomew in Wayzata. This is the fourth column in a series on baptism. Read more of his writing at WWW.CATHOLICHOTDISH.COM.

THIS CATHOLIC LIFE • COMMENTARY

July 27, 2017

FAITH IN THE PUBLIC ARENA

Jonathan Liedl

The crisis of men without work There is a growing deficit of men in the workforce.

According to government data, more than 7 million American men between the ages of 25 and 54, the traditional prime of working life, are not even looking for a job. The U.S. now ranks second-to-last among developed nations in the rate of adult men in the workforce, thanks to a steady 13 percent decline over the past 50 years.

The potential impact of this trend has economists sounding the alarm, but Pope Francis has also drawn attention to its spiritual and social consequences. It robs people of hope, he says, and squanders “their great resources of energy, creativity and vision.”

Overcoming the crisis of young men without work is a cultural challenge, and it is part of a broader crisis of manhood. But public policy also has a role to play.

By fostering opportunities for wider economic participation, we can help more men get back to work and live lives consistent with their God-given human dignity.

A ‘fundamental dimension’ Pope St. John Paul II puts it plainly in “Laborem Exercens”: “Work is a fundamental dimension of human existence on earth.” While work can take on any number of forms (including work done in the home and nursery), we are all called to it. Work is an act of co-creation with God that involves and develops our creativity, rationality and personality — those distinctively human gifts. Therefore, in the words of St. John Paul II, when man works he “achieves fulfillment as a human being and indeed, in a sense, becomes ‘more a human being.’”

We also work as an act of solidarity with the wider community. As St. John Paul II says, “Man must work out of regard for others, especially his own family, but also for the society he belongs to, the country of which he is a child, and the whole human family of which he is a member, since he is the heir to the work

YOUR HEART, HIS HOME

Liz Kelly

The blessed poor Jeremiah is homeless. He is a slight man and slanted to the right. Some days he has a pronounced limp — arthritis in the knee. He’s lost most of his teeth. I first met Jeremiah some time ago on my way into work at my highway exit where he stands and holds a cardboard sign at the stoplight: “Homeless, hungry.” One day I rolled down my window, asked his name and offered him a few dollars that he accepted with a two-tooth grin. He asked my name and we shook hands. He thanked me and blessed me and the light turned green.

I keep a small wad of bills on me because of Jeremiah. I want to be prepared.

As the weeks and months went on, we would greet each other and make our little exchange and I found myself saying ridiculous, meaningless things like “Take care of yourself.” One day I said, “I’ll say a prayer for you” and even though I meant it, even though I do pray for Jeremiah, I hated how

Ask senators for changes to health care bill Bill must protect the poor, unborn and conscience rights The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has identified several problems with the Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017, the health care bill currently being considered by the U.S. Senate.

• Proposed changes to Medicaid could potentially result in the loss of affordable access to health insurance for millions of people.

• The legislation does not adequately protect the unborn, and Hyde Amendment protections need to be fully applied.

• The bill also fails to include conscience protections for patients, insurers, purchasers, sponsors and providers.

Call your Minnesota senators and ask them to address these problems.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar: 651-727-5220 Sen. Al Franken: 651-221-1016 To find contact information for your state senator and state representative, call 651-296-8338 or visit www.gis.leg.mn/imaps/districts. of generations and at the same time a sharer in building the future of those who will come after him in the succession of history.” Through work, we make a gift of self to others.

Men without work In recent times, most men have worked outside the home. Therefore, opting out of the workforce has closed many men off to a primary opportunity for work, seriously crippling their capacity for both human development and self-gift.

One startling statistic illustrates clearly these debilitating effects. Nicholas Eberstadt, the author of “Men Without Work” (Templeton Press, 2016),

Lord, show me how to create “home,” even for a moment, for those who have none. condescending that sounded, how holy-roller and hypocritical as I drove away in my car that is paid for, on my way to a job with a salary and benefits, into a world a million miles from Jeremiah’s. I wanted to do better.

One day, I asked, “How are you doing?” He shook his head a bit and gestured toward what looked like an old, dirty sleeping bag among his few possessions leaning up against a utility pole. “You wanna know?” he said sharply, “That’s how I am. That’s my reality.”

He turned his back, the light turned green, and I pulled away, opening up the painful gap between us. I was dissatisfied and disheartened, and utterly dumbfounded by the stupid ease of my escape.

Theirs is the kingdom of heaven I prayed for wisdom. Father John Wickham suggests that wisdom is the graced ability to hold the risen Christ in your heart moment by moment, to measure everything against the horizon of the truth of eternity. He says wisdom is found in recollecting oneself continually with the Word, allowing Jesus to reveal himself to you in his teaching, and in

The Catholic Spirit • 17

estimates that non-working men have an extra 2,150 hours of free time per year. But instead of using this time to serve others in their family or community, the data shows that non-working men spend much of it sleeping, engaging in self-care or relaxing, which includes five-and-a-half hours of media consumption per day. Darker self-indulgent habits, such as pornography and drug use, also occur with greater frequency.

Deprived of the human formation that work provides, many men give in to their worst impulses instead of cultivating their most noble gifts. Cut off from the opportunity to serve others through work, many men turn inward instead of making a gift of self. Men need work to be thriving, selfless citizens.

Expanding economic participation So how can public policy help address the “men without work” crisis?

For one, we can do a better job of connecting men with the work that is available. One puzzling aspect of the “men without work” crisis is that it is largely voluntary; many non-working men choose not to work, despite the availability of jobs, some that even pay quite well. In fact, the Star Tribune reported July 5 that Twin Cities builders are struggling to find skilled workers to fill any number of decent-paying positions.

One problem is that our education system has imposed a one-size-fits-all approach to workforce preparation. Four-year university degrees are overprioritized and, as a result, many men are ill-equipped — or uninterested — in blue collar jobs that, until recently, appealed to their demographic. A greater emphasis on vocational training at an earlier age could help connect men with these enriching work opportunities.

We can also incentivize businesses to more directly reach out to non-working men with jobs and training opportunities, especially those reintegrating into society after serving a prison sentence. Special attention must also be given to stagnant wages; men raising a family must be able to access work that pays a living wage.

The “men without work” problem has deep cultural and spiritual roots. But through public policy that expands and encourages economic participation, we can help more men get back to work — and back to answering God’s call to co-creation.

Liedl is the communications manager of the Minnesota Catholic Conference, the public policy voice of the Catholic Church in Minnesota. particular, with the reality of his resurrection.

How could Jeremiah and I ever share a world with a resurrected Jesus?

One day I found that my cache of bills had been spent. I started digging in the cup holder for a few quarters, any change. Jeremiah accepted the coins gratefully as I apologized, saying, “I’m sorry, that’s all I have today,” but then I added, “I’ll see you again.” I pointed at him and nodded my reassurance, my little pledge. He nodded back and smiled. “All right!” he said, taking me at my word.

I drove away hoping I would see Jeremiah again. I wondered if he felt the same way about seeing me. “I will see you again.” Such a little gesture and yet, he seemed to receive it with all the weight I had intended.

Suddenly, we had a plan, a hope, the promise of a future together.

It is, of course, woefully inadequate. Not nearly enough. But it’s a start. I wonder if just maybe that little hope is where Jeremiah and I can begin to share a home, a sliver of the promise of the kingdom of heaven. Maybe that’s where we can meet in blessedness and catch a glimpse of Jesus walking by.

Lord, show me how to create “home,” even for a moment, for those who have none.

Kelly is the author of six books including “Jesus Approaches: What Contemporary Women Can Learn about Healing, Freedom and Joy from the Women of the New Testament” (Loyola Press, 2017).

18 • The Catholic Spirit

THIS CATHOLIC LIFE • COMMENTARY

CATHOLIC WATCHMEN

Vincenzo Randazzo

Living the Act of Contrition

with the position he put himself in, I’m sure he’d attest to a new meaning behind the words “with the help of God’s grace,” because while he was resolved to make things right, he had no idea how he was going to do it.

In that conversation, I saw Angelo as a living image of the Act of Contrition prayer. He explained everything to me, and I listened silently. After he talked he was pensive. It was clear that on his mind was the frequent thought of every man: How do I fix this?

Amending one’s life

A while back, I was hanging out with a friend and having a beer. I’ll call him Angelo for this story. I could tell something was troubling Angelo as I cracked open a pint and handed it to him as he sat down. He took a deep breath, and with sad conviction he said, “I screwed up. I royally screwed up.”

He then proceeded to tell me the story about how he did, indeed, screw up, and how his sin directly hurt a family member.

What struck me was Angelo’s authentic and powerful contrition.

He was heartily sorry for having offended. In choosing to do wrong and failing to do good, Angelo understood well that he had sinned against the one whom he should love above all things. But, perhaps most importantly, I could tell that flowing from his sorrow for his sin came his determination: Angelo was firmly resolved, with the help of God’s grace, to make things right again. He desired to amend his life. And

THE LOCAL CHURCH Father James Adams

NFP keeps life and love together The greatest gift of God’s love is always open to life.

Thus, natural family planning is always open to life and keeps life and love together. This is the good news of our faith in Jesus that the Church proclaims at every marriage — and especially in preparing and caring for couples as they start and grow their family.

Each couple is called to love as God loves. This divine love is a total gift, not just partial. Thus, in promoting natural family planning, we are promoting a total, full, complete self-gift between the spouses to each other. We

Don’t take me to be naive, but my immediate thought was that God is really blessing my friend, and in fact his problem was mostly resolved already because Angelo had the right disposition.

Make no mistake; he was in an uncomfortable and unenviable position. However, while Angelo’s best course of action was unknown, there were three clear things in which he could take comfort: He was sorry, he wanted forgiveness, and he was set on making things right, or amending his life.

He also didn’t make excuses for his actions, and he didn’t think of himself as entitled to anyone’s forgiveness.

I couldn’t help but compare what I saw as awesome penitence in Angelo to the many men of my generation who make excuses or belittle their evil. After sinning against another, men might make a kind of worldly or false act of contrition. We say things like, “I may have screwed up — but I was also harmed.” Or, “I shouldn’t have to care too much about what I have done wrong, because I do so much good around here.” Or my personal know that NFP is not the old rhythm method — not just a calendar process — but rather a beautiful way of both husband and wife working together to discern God’s plan for their family.

NFP is always in communication with our intimate friend and savior, Jesus. In talking to him each day, the couple discerns whether or not God is calling them to possibly have a child. If not, the couple with God’s grace then seeks to abstain from relations during the fertile period, all the while looking to love the other in creative and sacrificial ways.

The key is doing what God wants, with total trust that this is the very best thing for us all. If we do not have this trust, then our will is all that matters — and anything standing in the way is a “problem.”

For example, if a couple should become pregnant while not “wanting” a baby, if they are not open to God’s will, then the baby is a “problem” for them.

However, life is always a gift, always a miracle, and always to be welcomed and loved. None of us reading this is a “problem” in God’s eyes, but rather each person has infinite value.

We have been given our minds and wills to conform

July 27, 2017

favorite: “So I screwed up! Big deal, no one’s perfect.”

Can you imagine saying that sort of thing after confession? “I am heartily sorry for having offended thee — but she started it. And I’m not perfect. And what I did isn’t really that bad if you think about it.”

There is a Catholic legend that St. Peter, for the rest of his life after denying Christ, cried so much and so often that his wrinkles were worn deeply to act as channels for his tears. Was he despairing, or weak or unmanly?

No. Precisely the opposite. He was truly sorry for having messed up, but he contemplated his sin in light of God’s great mercy. From this disposition, he was able to act and to exercise his will, and so he evangelized until his martyrdom.

In this way, St. Peter was also a living Act of Contrition. He was a man of contemplation and a man of action.

It is our duty as Catholic men — if we are to be leaders in our families and communities — to have a disposition of contrition for our sins and resolve to make things right again. And while I find that men are often skeptical of emotions in general, it is important to know that our emotions are properly ordered if we feel sorry for our sins. Every one of them, not the least of which are the ones that harm others.

A Catholic man knows that he must firmly resolve, with the help of God’s grace, to confess his sins, to do penance and to amend his life.

Randazzo is an evangelization manager in the Office of Evangelization and Catechesis of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, and director of development at St. Stephen in Minneapolis. and cooperate with God. NFP helps form us to get a hold of ourselves so that we can make a total gift of our self. It doesn’t kill spontaneity, which can mean often that one is not thinking totally of the other’s needs and desires and just acting on impulse. NFP appeals to the great dignity of the other person, whom is always to be respected and communicated with.

We are called to chastity before and during marriage.

To be chaste is a way of loving with a pure heart. Jesus encourages us through his Church to not be afraid to open wide the doors of our hearts and to always keep life and love together, and to receive all God has for us.

Living out this good news will save the world, as we see countries that are dying out in Europe because there are fewer and fewer kids. As they say, “The Church that ain’t crying is dying.”

And thank you God, and Mom and Dad, for your loving yes to my life.

Ordained in 2004, Father Adams is the parochial vicar of the parish cluster of Nativity in Cleveland, Immaculate Conception in Marysburg, and St. Mary and St. Henry in Le Center. An initiative of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, National NFP Awareness Week is July 23-29.

LETTERS

Don’t withhold sacraments I am crying for my Catholic brothers and sisters in the Springfield, Illinois, diocese (“Bishop prohibits Catholics in same-sex unions from receiving Communion,” July 13). Where is Christ when you need him?

Are the rest of us so perfect that we take for granted these outward signs of God’s grace, while condemning other people created in God’s same image, and bar them from those gifts?

Find Jesus’ words condemning people who love each other; find the passages where Jesus doesn’t embrace “the other.” Are we to believe that every person before same-sex unions who experienced the holy Eucharist,

or an anointing with holy oils or a Catholic funeral, had been free of all sin? It is no wonder that our Church is in such turmoil. God has given the greatest of all gifts to us: love.

And he has shown us what unconditional love is.

When God’s children are living those words, and yet barred from his gifts, how do we even deserve them at all? Still, in spite of all our shortcomings, God continues to love us unconditionally. The least we can do is love God and each other unconditionally as well.

Elizabeth Rosenwinkel St. Albert the Great, Minneapolis

Health care silence I am very saddened by the

silence of the Spirit on the pending legislation that would remove healthcare from 20-27 million people. With that large number, it is very easy to assume that well over 30,000 people would have an early death due to the lack of health care in a very short period of time.

With the Church’s stand on pro-life from conception till natural death, that support for affordable access to health care is a reasonable expectation.

The lack of moral direction on this subject from this paper and the pulpit needs to change. I am having a tough time understanding the morals that would allow silence on this subject, when the nation is considering giving death

sentences to the poor who cannot afford life-sustaining medication.

Steve White St. Patrick, Shieldsville

Disgusted by topics I am totally upset and disgusted with two articles in the July 13 issue. This is not the Catholic Church of Pope Francis that I know and love. I am wondering how worthwhile it is to receive a paper like this or to spend even a moment reading it. The articles are “Bishop prohibits Catholics in same-sex unions from receiving Communion” and “Mom should know her place in son’s marital challenges.”

Father Michael Schmitz obviously knows nothing about

marriage and certainly nothing about NFP. He should interview at least 100 couples who have tried this. For all kinds of reasons, it does not work. I don’t ordinarily spend time writing a letter like this, but I could not let these articles go by without comment.

Agnes Wolf St. William, Fridley Share your perspective by emailing CatholicSpirit@archspm. org. Please limit your letter to the editor to 150 words and include your parish and phone number in case we need to contact you. The Commentary page does not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Catholic Spirit. Letters may be edited for length or clarity.

CALENDAR

July 27, 2017 Music

18-35 are invited for prayer and fellowship. www.facebook.com/queenofpeacefriary.

Holy Spirit 80th anniversary celebration noontime organ series — Aug. 2, 9: Noon–12:30 p.m. at 515 Albert St. S., St. Paul. www.holy-spirit.org/organ-series.

Parish events

Organ Historical Society National Convention Concert — Aug. 7: 7:30 p.m. at 1600 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis. Organ concert featuring Nathan Laube. www.mary.org/news-events/events.

Music and Masqueray: The Basilica Muse — Aug. 13: 2 p.m. at 1600 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis. Christopher Stroh will present a recital honoring the 100th anniversary of Basilica architect Emmanuel Louis Masqueray’s death.

Ongoing groups Career Transition group meeting — Third Thursday of each month: 7:30 a.m. at Holy Name of Jesus, 155 County Road 24, Medina. www.hnoj.org/career-transition-group.

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

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

Friday Night at the Friary — Third Friday of each month: 7–9 p.m. at Franciscan Brothers of Peace, 1289 Lafond Ave., St. Paul. Men ages

Rachel’s Vineyard Retreat for recovery after abortion — Aug. 4-6: This retreat will take place in Prior Lake. For more information, contact Nancy at rachels@rvineyardmn.org or 763-250-9313. www.rvineyardmn.org.

Theology Latté — Aug. 2: 6:30–8:30 p.m. at Holy Childhood, 1435 Midway Parkway, Buchanan Hall, St. Paul. Father Timothy Cloutier will speak on “Is There Only One Church?” www.holychildhoodparish.org/newsevents.html.

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

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

Sunday Spirits walking group for 50-plus Catholic singles — ongoing Sundays: For Catholic singles to meet and make friends.

The group usually meets in St. Paul on Sunday afternoons. Kay at 651-426-3103 or Al at 651-482-0406.

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

ONLINE: www.thecatholicspirit.com/ calendarsubmissions

Other events

FAX: 651-291-4460

Taize Prayer — First Friday of each month: 7:30 p.m. at St. Richard, 7540 Penn Ave. S., Richfield. www.strichards.com/first-fridays.

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

Retreats

Mass of Thanksgiving, Father Daniel Rolczynski, LC — Aug. 6: 11 a.m. at St. Peter, 6730 Nicollet Ave. S., Richfield. He was ordained Dec. 10, 2016, at the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran in Rome and has been assigned to serve in Mexico City. www.stpetersrichfield.org/father-danrolczynskis-first-mass.

The Monastic Kitchen: Making Food for Body and Soul — Aug. 4-6: 7 p.m. Aug. 4 to 1 p.m.

Aug. 6 at The Benedictine Center at St. Paul’s Monastery, 2675 Benet Road, Maplewood.

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

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

Singles

St. Gerard Majella, Brooklyn Park — Corn Fest: Aug. 11-12: 6-11 p.m. Aug. 11; 6-11 p.m. Aug. 12.

Inflatables, carnival games, sports alley, kiddie train, bingo, basket auction, grand raffle, pull tabs, live entertainment, food booths, beer. Outdoor Mass 5 p.m. Aug. 12. 9600 Regent Ave. N.

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

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

CALENDAR submissions

Centering prayer and lectio divina — Aug. 11-16: 7 p.m. Aug. 11 to 1 p.m. Aug. 16 at The Benedictine Center at St. Paul’s Monastery, 2675 Benet Road, Maplewood. 651-777-7251 or www.stpaulsmonastery.org.

All Saints garage sale — Aug. 9-12: 1-8 p.m.

Aug. 9; 10 a.m.–7 p.m. Aug. 10; 1–6 p.m. Aug. 11; 8 a.m.–noon Aug. 12 at 19795 Holyoke Ave., Lakeville. www.allsaintschurch.com/garagesale.

Prayer/worship

The Catholic Spirit • 19

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

More online:

www.thecatholicspirit.com/calendar

Marketplace • Message Center Classified Ads Reach nearly 70,000 homes with Minnesota’s largest paid semi-monthly newspaper Email: classifiedads@archspm.org • Phone: 651-290-1631 • Fax: 651-291-4460 Next issue: 8-10-17 • Deadline: 3 p.m., 8-4-17 • Rates: $8 per line (35-40 characters per line) • Add a photo/logo for $25 ACCESSIBILITY SOLUTIONS

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Part-Time Cook. Location: Communal, religious community (currently 11) in S. Mpls.; PT hours, M-F, 3-7 PM. Salary range starting at $15/hour, additional benefits. Job Duties: Standards include preparation of quality, wholesome food, efficient, courteous service, proper sanitation procedures (ServSafe certification, or equivalent preferred), and proper use and care of equipment.

Expectations include, but are not limited to: self-directed personal chef to prepare meals for a 6 PM meal service; set table for service, properly label and rotate all leftover food; leave pots/pans/kitchen in clean condition after each shift, prep ahead for next day’s meal; collaborate with supervisor to plan menus. To apply: Send resume and cover letter to FrHerbH@AOL.com.

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Parish Administrator, full-time, Holy Family Church, Woodruff, WI. Supervises operations of parish; coordinates ministries of programs & depts.; provides spiritual, pastoral care to parishioners. Reports directly to pastor. Balance of experience & skills in managerial, interpersonal, administrative, fiscal areas. Duties may include weekends and evenings. Master’s degree or equivalent preferred, in pastoral ministry or related field. Salary negotiable.

Cover letter & resume to: Pastor, Holy Family Church; 8950 Cty Hwy J; Woodruff, WI 54568 OR fraaron@holyfamilywoodruff.org.

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ANTIQUES TOP CASH PAID For Older Furniture Rugs • Pictures • Bookcases • Pottery Beer Items • Toys & Misc.

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ATTORNEYS Edward F. Gross • Wills, Trusts, Probate, Es­tate Planning, Real Estate. Office at 35E & Roselawn Ave., St. Paul (651) 631-0616 C1127O

CEILING TEXTURE Michaels Painting. Popcorn Removal & Knock Down Texture: TextureCeilings.com (763) 757-3187.

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St. Katharine Drexel Parish in Sioux Falls, SD is seeking a full-time Youth Minister for junior high and senior high students. Job duties include organizing our youth group, coordinating retreats, service opportunities, mission trips, and conferences, as well as assisting with Confirmation preparation, and coordinating our Y-Disciple program. We offer a competitive salary and benefits package. If interested, please contact Fr. Gregory Tschakert at (605) 275-6870 or gtschakert@sfcatholic.org.

Two Positions: Please see Minnesota Catholic Conference ad on page 13 of this edition. Thank you.

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Part-time Law Office Receptionist in West St. Paul, Minnesota: Administrative support to attorney, paralegals, and office manager. Description, required qualifications, and skills listed at www.TrojackLaw. com. Contact Signe Betsinger (651) 451-9696.

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THE LAST WORD

20 • The Catholic Spirit

July 27, 2017

Religious goods

Mary Henseler works on religious medals in the basement studio of her St. Paul home.

Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit

Local artist uses sacred jewelry to spread Gospel

By Kateri Schmidt For The Catholic Spirit or Mary Henseler, transforming antique religious medals and vintage jewelry into stunning new pieces is a labor of love.

The stay-at-home mother of four lives in St. Paul near the University of St. Thomas.

A parishioner of nearby Nativity of Our Lord, Henseler started her repurposing business, She Sells Sanctuary, in 2012. Five years later, she is a seasoned sacred jewelry artist who has sold hundreds of one-of-a-kind necklaces, earrings, bracelets and rings to Catholics across the region. Each piece centers around an antique religious medal or Christian memento.

She describes her art as “taking something old and giving it new life.”

A 1991 graduate of the University of WisconsinMilwaukee with a bachelor of fine arts degree, Henseler, 48, takes her art seriously. Her at-home studio is a treasure trove of finds from countless hours of antiquing. Hundreds of religious medals from the past two centuries are pinned to a bulletin board behind her workspace. A rustic tabletop is crowded with a menagerie of things, from glittering earrings to delicate gold chains to engraved belt buckles. The sheer volume is staggering. Displayed on shelves across the room, finished creations dazzle.

“Sometimes I’ll sit on something for years before I find the right medal,” Henseler said. “I don’t just throw them on a necklace.”

The Wisconsin native is drawn to vintage medals because the detailed artwork surpasses that of most contemporary, mass-produced medals.

“The people who owned these medals loved their faith,” she said. “It’s the past reaching out to the present ... and not just the immediate past, but 2,000 years of saints and martyrs.”

Per Catholic tradition, these repurposed medals are not “charms,” but rather physical reminders of

F

Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit God’s love. She encourages her buyers to have the new pieces blessed by a priest or bishop.

From the joyful enthusiasm in Henseler’s voice, one thing is clear: This is a ministry for her. It began in 2011, when, during a thrifting expedition with her niece, Henseler discovered a nail cross pendent with an open space in the center. She brought the cross home and fitted a glass-encased mustard seed into the open space.

Intrigued by the process, she began creating more pieces and selling them to friends. Within five months, she had launched an online store and was selling at local events and Catholic conferences.

The feedback was overwhelmingly positive.

Customers reported that the jewelry provided opportunities to talk about their faith.

“That’s been my biggest motivator,” Henseler said.

“People started using this as the launching point to evangelize, and I became aware that this was really my ministry.”

With this realization came a devotion to St. John Paul II, the pope who launched the new evangelization and urged artists to use their gifts to bring Christ to the world.

“I’m taking the faith and giving it a breath of fresh

air,” Henseler said.

Her jewelry has touched hundreds of lives, including a person who died of cancer and chose to be buried in one of her necklaces. But the real story, Henseler says, is her road to conversion. “It’s not that I make Catholic jewelry that’s special; it’s that I’m Catholic at all,” she said.

Raised in a broken home, Henseler demanded to be taken out of Catholic school when she was 11, and she remained agnostic for 17 years. At age 28, however, she experienced a terrifying dream of hell that changed her life.

“I was floating in darkness, and it was very, very cold, and it was very dark,” she recalled, “and I know I’m absolutely alone.”

Her waking experience was one of absolute terror at having separated herself from God. Determined to reexamine her faith, she enrolled in the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults and was confirmed in 1998. Shortly thereafter, she married Kevin Henseler, had four children in five years and moved to the Twin Cities. In the midst of these major changes, the fire of that initial conversion began to dwindle. As a stay-at-home mom in a new city, she had few friends and no sense of mission.

All of that changed with the call to open She Sells Sanctuary, the name of which is inspired by a favorite song from high school by the band The Cult. “When I had that moment, that realization that this was a gift to me and this was my charge to do this, it just reignited everything,” she said.

Her business connects her with hundreds of women across the Midwest. It is a part of her ongoing conversion and — she hopes — the conversion of each person she encounters.

“God saved me,” she said. Now, through her art, she aims to proclaim that salvation to the world.

Henseler’s jewelry can be found at SQUAREUP.COM/ and at WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/ VINTAGEWITHAPURPOSE. STORE/SHE-SELLS-SANCTUARY