The Catholic Spirit - July 29, 2022

July 28, 2022 • Newspaper of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis

SPECIAL REPORT

‘I ASK FORGIVENESS’ Pope Francis visits Canada to make in-person apology for Indigenous residential schools — Pages 9-11

Pope Francis prays at the Ermineskin Cree Nation Cemetery, near the site of the former Ermineskin Indian Residential School, before meeting with First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities at Maskwacis, Alberta, July 25. PAUL HARING | CNS

PARISH FALL FESTIVAL GUIDE —

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OJIBWE HYMNS 6 | HEALING WHOLE PERSON RETREAT 7 | WOMEN TO HELP CHOOSE BISHOPS 8 SISTER CELEBRATES 70TH JUBILEE 12 | TOO BUSY TO BECOME A SAINT? 13 | OUR LADY OF THE ROCKIES 14

2 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

JULY 28, 2022

PARISHFALLFESTIVALGUIDE Summer may be in full swing, but many parishes across the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis are preparing for fall festivals. The following information in this Parish Fall Festival Guide for August to December events was provided by parishes. (The Catholic Spirit listed parish spring and summer festivals in an edition earlier this year.) Check parish websites for updates. Find the entire parish festival list at TheCatholicSpirit.com/festivals.

— The Catholic Spirit

AUGUST St. Raphael, Crystal — Aug. 5-6: 5:30–10 p.m. Aug. 5; noon–10 p.m.

Aug. 6. 70th festival with annual softball and cornhole tournaments, roast beef dinner, variety of festival foods, beer tent, live entertainment, raffle, children’s games, silent auction, bingo and pull tabs. 7301 Bass Lake Road. straphaelcrystal.org Immaculate Conception, Columbia Heights — IC Summer Jam, Aug. 5-7: 4–10:30 p.m. Aug. 5-6; noon–4 p.m. Aug. 7. Food, raffle, pull tabs, beer and wine tent daily. Aug. 5: Mick Sterling’s “Born to Run: Music of Bruce Springsteen” and MSMA car show. Aug. 6: Mick Sterling’s “From Barry: Pop Songs of Barry Gibbs and the Bee Gees” Aug. 7: bingo, children’s games, bake shop, silent auction. See website for admission fee for Aug. 5 and Aug. 6. 4030 Jackson St. NE. parish.iccsonline.org/summer-jam

for kids. Fireworks 10 p.m. Aug. 14, bingo, children and family games, chicken picnic, food court, pull tabs, classic car show, silent auction, classic rock music by Java Soul and swing band Saints of Swing. Grand raffle drawing, restaurant raffle and more at 4 p.m. 171 Elm St. mystjoes.me Sts. Cyril and Methodius, Minneapolis — Summer Festival, Aug. 19-20: 5–9 p.m. Aug. 19; 8 a.m.–9 p.m. Aug. 20. Live music and dancing, raffle, games, food and beverages. 1315 Second St. NE. parishesonline.com/find/ss-cyril-methodius Sts. Joachim and Anne, Shakopee — JACS JAM Festival, Aug. 20-21: 4–11 p.m. Aug. 20; 9 a.m.–6 p.m. Aug. 21. Aug. 20: Outdoor Polka Mass (under a tent), 4 p.m.; three live bands, food, family games, bake sale, crafts and quilts booths. Aug. 21: Live entertainment, food, family games and all booths open. Aug. 21 only: bean bag tourney, “famous” Chicken Plop and Kids’ Prize Tree. Silent auction closes 3:30 p.m., then live quilt auction begins.

Cash, car and other raffle drawings at 4:30 p.m. 15850 Marystown Road. ssjacs.org St. Bernard, St. Paul — Aug. 21: noon–4 p.m.

Mass at 11 a.m. at Como Park Picnic Pavilion (not lakeside pavilion) followed by barbecue and music provided by the Bavarian Musikmeisters. 1199 Midway Parkway. stbernardstpaul.org St. Louis, King of France, St. Paul — Family Picnic, Aug. 21: noon–4 p.m. Burgers, chicken, ice cream, children’s games and bingo. Cherokee Regional Park, 700 Cherokee Heights Blvd., West St. Paul. stlouiskingoffrance.org

Transfiguration, Oakdale — Feast Day Festival, Aug. 6: 2–9 p.m. Food, beer garden, games for adults and kids, live music and more.

6133 15th St. transfigurationmn.org Nativity, Cleveland — Let’s Grill and Chill Together, Aug. 6: 5:30–7:30 p.m. following the Vigil Mass at 4:30 p.m. in the church.

Community event with family yard games, children’s games, silent auction, cash raffle, cash bar and Bloody Mary Bar. Live music by 100 Years of Picking (featuring Cleveland’s very own Greg Muellerleile, formally of the Shaw Band). 200 Main St. maryschurches.com Immaculate Conception, Lonsdale — AugustFest, Aug. 7: 11 a.m.–5 p.m. Mass at 10 a.m. Chicken dinner, KC Grill, fresh cookie stand, family fun, children’s games, bingo, raffle drawings and more. 202 Alabama St. SE. icchurch.cc icchurch.cc St. John the Baptist, Dayton — Aug. 7: 10 a.m.–4 p.m. Broasted chicken dinner served from 10:30 a.m.–2:30 p.m. Raffles, theme basket silent auction, flea market. 18380 Columbus St. sjbdayton.org St. Joseph, Waconia — KC Fun Fest, Aug. 7: noon–3 p.m. Activities for all ages, food and fellowship. Klein Drive Park (also known as KC Park). 9055 Klein Drive. stjosephwaconia.org St. George, Long Lake — Corn Days Festival, Aug. 13: noon– 10 p.m. Roasted corn, live music, classic car show, beer tent, reptile and amphibian zoo, children’s games and activities, inflatables, super raffle, food, bingo, craft and merchandise vendors and more. Pancake breakfast, 8:30 a.m.; 5K, 4K Shortcut and Fun Run, 9 a.m.; parade, noon; fiesta dinner (sponsored by Knights of Columbus), 5 p.m. 133 N. Brown Road. corndays.com; stgeorgelonglake.org

St. Genevieve, Centerville — Aug. 21: 11 a.m.–3 p.m. Fun, food and friends. Games on the grounds: bingo, cake walk, inflatable obstacle course and more.

Hamburgers outside, broasted chicken dinner inside includes dressings, mashed potatoes, vegetables and dessert. Takeout available. 6995 Centerville Road. stgens.org Most Holy Trinity, Veseli — 55th Annual Ho-Down, Aug. 21: 11 a.m.–6 p.m. Polka Mass 11 a.m. Grilled pork and dumpling dinner, music by local musicians, games for all ages, country store, home-baked goods including Czech favorites, food, refreshments and raffle. 4939 N. Washington St. mhtveseli.com

SEPTEMBER St. Bridget of Sweden, Lindstrom — 13th Annual Block Party, Sept. 3: 6–11 p.m. Turkey dinner, concessions, beer tent, children’s games, silent auction, home goods sale, live music and dance.

13060 Lake Blvd. stbridgetofsweden.org St. Mary, Stillwater — Germanfest, Sept. 9: 5–10 p.m. Fun, fellowship and dancing. German food, beer and wine, games and a live polka band. This is a 21+ event. Cost is $5. Lederhosen optional, but encouraged. 423 Fifth St. S. stmarystillwater.org St. Bonaventure, Bloomington — St. Boni’s Fall Festival, Sept. 9-10: 4:30–7 p.m. Sept. 9; 10 a.m.–6 p.m. Sept.10. Broasted chicken dinner Sept. 9. Festival fun for everyone, from children’s activities and crafts to live entertainment, a cash raffle, games of chance and more than 200 classic cars. Fabulous food options reflect the diverse parish, from Vietnamese egg rolls made in the parish kitchen to a custom seasoning for the premier pork chops.

7 p.m. Mass Sept. 10. 901 E. 90th St. saintbonaventure.org/fall-festival St. Timothy, Blaine — St. Tim’s Carnival, Sept. 9-10: 5–10 p.m.

Sept. 9; noon–10 p.m. Sept. 10. Games, prizes, face painting and a cakewalk for kids. Adults: bingo, pull tabs and a beer tent. Food, beverages and live music for all ages. No entrance fee.

707 89th Ave. NE. churchofsttimothy.com Holy Cross, Minneapolis — SeptemberFest, Sept. 9-11: 5–10 p.m.

Sept. 9-10; 10 a.m.–3 p.m. Sept.11. Food, live music, beer garden, pull tabs, Polish food, theme baskets and best rummage sale in NE. Details online at ourholycross.org/septemberfest. 1630 Fourth St. NE. ourholycross.org St. Odilia, Shoreview — Sept. 9-11: 7–10 p.m. Sept. 9, live music and food trucks. 3–10 p.m. Sept. 10, farmers market, book sales, games, silent auction and live auction at 6 p.m. Noon–4 p.m. Sept. 11, bingo, silent auction, games and petting zoo. Mass with festival choir 5 p.m.

Sept. 10; 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. Sept. 11. Additional Masses Sept. 11: 7:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. (Spanish). 3495 Victoria St. N. stodilia.org St. Patrick, Oak Grove — CountryFest, Sept. 9-11: 8–11 p.m.

Sept. 9; 2–11 p.m. Sept. 10; 10 a.m.–3 p.m. Sept. 11. Sept. 9: youth block party. Sept. 10: games, bingo, country store, food and drinks, silent auction, pull tabs, scarecrow contest, barbecue RibFest contest, craft beer, wine pull, live band and fireworks. Sept. 11: games, bingo, country store, classic car show, food and drinks, quilt auction, silent auction and raffle drawing. 19921 Nightingale St. NW. st-patricks.org/events/countryfest Holy Family Maronite, Mendota Heights — Annual Maronite Fall Festival, Sept.

10: 11 a.m.–6 p.m. Experience Lebanese heritage, raffles, silent auction, ethnic bakery, Lebanese youth dancers, ethnic food booths, Lebanese coffee and desserts, children and adult games. 1960 Lexington Ave. S. holyfamilymaronitechurch.org

St. Thomas the Apostle, Corcoran — Aug. 21: 11:30 a.m.–4 p.m. Turkey dinner, music, bingo, farmers market, children’s games, bake sale and more. 20000 County Road 10. saintsppta.org St. Victoria, Victoria — Sunset Fest, Aug. 27: all day, kickball tournament, food, games, music, Mass and more. Details online.

8228 Victoria Drive. stvictoria.net

St. Wenceslaus, New Prague — Aug. 13-14: 5 p.m. Aug. 13; 11 a.m.–5 p.m. Aug. 14. 5 p.m. Polka Mass Aug. 13, followed by a band on the front lawn. Aug. 14: Polka Masses, 8:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. Food, music and fellowship. 215 Main St. E. npcatholic.org

Blessed Sacrament, St. Paul — Fun Fest, Aug. 27-28: 5–9 p.m. Aug. 27; noon–4 p.m. Aug. 28. Aug. 27: spaghetti dinner, music, drinks and fun. Aug. 28: food, drinks, music, Takea-Chance, silent auction, book sale and games for all ages.

2119 Stillwater Ave. E. blessedsacramentsp.org

St. Joseph of the Lakes, Lino Lakes — Summer Festival, Aug. 13-14: 5–10 p.m. Aug. 13; 11 a.m.–4 p.m. Aug. 14. Outdoor Mass under a tent, 5 p.m. Aug. 13 and a pork dinner, other food options, the music of G.B. Leighton, adult beverages and activities

St. Luke, Clearwater — Aug. 28: 11 a.m.–4 p.m. Food and beverage, games for all ages, quilt raffle, cash raffle, silent auction, quilt auction, bingo and country market.

17545 Huber Ave. NW. churchofstlukes.com

The Catholic Spirit is published semi-monthly for The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis Vol. 27 — No. 14 MOST REVEREND BERNARD A. HEBDA, Publisher TOM HALDEN, Associate Publisher MARIA C. WIERING, Editor-in-Chief JOE RUFF, News Editor

Our Lady of the Prairie, Belle Plaine — Sept.10: 5–9 p.m. Raffle tickets, live raffle, silent auction, farmers market, food stand, food truck, beer stand, children’s games and live music by Sean Benz. 200 E. Church St. ourladyoftheprairie.com Holy Family, St. Louis Park — Sept. 10-11: Noon–10 p.m. Sept. 10, a fun day for families with carnival games, pony rides, petting zoo, inflatables, beer garden, bingo, cornhole tournament, chicken dinner,

PLEASE TURN TO FESTIVALS ON PAGE 19

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THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 3

FROMTHEMODERATOROFTHECURIA ONLY JESUS | FATHER CHARLES LACHOWITZER

Pilgrimage of penance

I

have been privileged and greatly blessed to have led many pilgrimages. Special Masses with special preaching at special places.

A pilgrimage is a step out of the ordinary and everyday life. It is an immersion into sacred places and holy ground.

Travel itself, especially international travel, can be humbling. Pilgrims are typically in unfamiliar territories and dependent on guides, bus drivers and hotel staff. Yet it is up to each pilgrim to find the deeper spiritual meaning within the whole experience.

For many pilgrims, the trip results in a changed perspective and a once-in-a-lifetime, unforgettable chapter. Some will never again have the same understanding of the Mass as they had before the pilgrimage. God ever so graces and blesses the pilgrim traveler.

There is a dimension of a pilgrimage, nevertheless, that does not appear on the brochure: With gratitude to God for the opportunity, the pilgrims are responsible to share their spiritual insights gained from the trip.

At the time of this writing, Pope Francis is preparing for his trip to Canada. He plans on bringing a message of sorrow and apology for the treatment of Indigenous peoples in residential schools. It is a recognition of the blindness of national and Church leaders to the inherent and inviolable dignity of the First Nations Peoples of Canada.

The horror of the residential schools was the intent

‘Peregrinación de Penitencia’

H

e tenido el privilegio y la gran bendición de haber dirigido muchas peregrinaciones. Misas especiales con predicación especial en lugares especiales. Una peregrinación es un paso fuera de lo ordinario y cotidiano.

Es una inmersión en lugares sagrados y tierra santa.

Viajar en sí mismo, especialmente los viajes internacionales, puede ser una lección de humildad. Los peregrinos generalmente se encuentran en territorios desconocidos y dependen de guías, conductores de autobuses y personal del hotel. Sin embargo, depende de cada peregrino encontrar el significado espiritual más profundo dentro de toda la experiencia.

Para muchos peregrinos, el viaje supone un cambio de perspectiva y un capítulo inolvidable único en la vida.

Aún otros nunca más tendrán la misma comprensión de la Misa que tenían antes de la peregrinación. Dios siempre agracia y bendice al viajero peregrino.

Hay una dimensión de un peregrinaje, sin embargo eso no aparece en el folleto.

Con gratitud a Dios por la oportunidad, los peregrinos son responsables de compartir sus conocimientos espirituales adquiridos en el viaje.

Al momento de escribir este artículo, el Papa Francisco se está preparando para su viaje a Canadá. Planea traer un mensaje de pesar y disculpa por el trato a los pueblos indígenas en las escuelas residenciales. Es un reconocimiento de la ceguera de los líderes nacionales y

Our entire lives are a ‘pilgrimage of penance.’ It takes the virtue of courage to look at the past ugly chapters in our lives and in our world in order to listen to present hurt and anger. to eradicate tradition and language. It was a mistaken viewpoint for the citizenry as well, in Canada, the United States and throughout the colonial powers of Europe. While progress has been made, to this day there are continued practices by other nations to erase the differences in some peoples within their own lands.

I noted with profound interest the use of the term “pilgrimage of penance” for the Holy Father’s trip to Canada. All Catholics are invited to accompany Pope Francis with our prayers as he reaches out on behalf of the whole Church.

It is anachronistic to take today’s awareness and with angry condemnation judge the past.

Awareness is a painful process that sometimes takes generations. We have experienced that ourselves in this archdiocese following the 2013 tsunami of scandal over the sexual abuse of children by clergy. It was with the humility that comes from humiliation that we continue to be a Church of healing for the survivors and their families and friends.

eclesiásticos ante la dignidad inherente e inviolable de los Pueblos de las Primeras Naciones de Canadá.

El horror de las escuelas residenciales fue el intento de erradicar la tradición y el idioma. También fue un punto de vista erróneo para la ciudadanía, en Canadá, Estados Unidos y en todas las potencias coloniales de Europa. Si bien se han logrado avances, hasta el día de hoy existen prácticas continuas de otras naciones para borrar las diferencias en algunos pueblos dentro de sus propias tierras.

Observé con profundo interés el uso del término “peregrinación de penitencia” para el viaje del Santo Padre a Canadá. Todos los católicos están invitados a acompañar al Papa Francisco con nuestras oraciones mientras se extiende en nombre de toda la Iglesia.

Es anacrónico tomar la conciencia de hoy y juzgar con airada condena el pasado. La toma de conciencia es un proceso doloroso a veces durante generaciones. Lo hemos experimentado nosotros mismos en esta Arquidiócesis después del tsunami de escándalos de 2013 sobre el abuso sexual de niños por parte del clero. Fue con la humildad que proviene de la humillación que continuamos siendo una iglesia de sanación para los sobrevivientes y sus familias y amigos.

Al igual que con nuestras propias dificultades arquidiocesanas, la tragedia en Canadá y los internados indígenas en los Estados Unidos, no podemos simplemente descartar e ignorar los gritos de dolor porque no son culpa nuestra.

Los pecados del mundo en todos los pueblos en todos los tiempos tampoco fueron culpa de Jesús. Sin embargo,

As with our own archdiocesan difficulties, the tragedy in Canada and the Indian boarding schools in the United States, we cannot simply discount and ignore the cries of pain because they are not our fault. The sins of the world in all peoples in all times were not the fault of Jesus, either. Yet, our Lord Jesus Christ bore all this suffering on the cross to conquer the powers of sin and death with the power of a greater love.

This is the essence of the virtue of charity. It is not just our own personal sins we bring to the mercy of Jesus, we also carry the sins of the world. St. Paul reminds us in his first letter to the Corinthians, if one part of the body suffers, the whole body suffers (1 Cor 12:26). That is, we who are part of the One Body of Christ share in the sufferings of the entire Church. It is with the deeper understanding of discipleship that we bear the wounds of Christ.

In communion with Pope Francis, we are once again brought to our knees in contrition for the sins of the past. It is unfortunately the present sin of omission to be indifferent or preoccupied with our own challenges to not hear and not respond to the pain of others.

We are an imperfect people in an imperfect world.

We are a pilgrim people in a pilgrim Church. Our entire lives are a “pilgrimage of penance.” It takes the virtue of courage to look at the past ugly chapters in our lives and in our world in order to listen to present hurt and anger. It is only when we kneel together in penance for the sins of the world that we encounter the person and real presence of Jesus Christ. It is his healing hand that reaches out with mercy so that we can all stand together for the common good of all God’s children.

nuestro Señor Jesucristo llevó todo este sufrimiento en la cruz para conquistar los poderes del pecado y la muerte con el poder de un amor mayor.

Esta es la esencia de la virtud de la caridad. No son solo nuestros propios pecados personales los que traemos a la misericordia de Jesús, también llevamos los pecados del mundo. San Pablo nos recuerda en su primera carta a los Corintios, capítulo 12, versículo 26, si una parte del cuerpo sufre, todo el cuerpo sufre. Es decir, nosotros que somos parte del Cuerpo Único de Cristo compartimos los sufrimientos de toda la Iglesia. Es la comprensión más profunda del discipulado que llevamos las heridas de Cristo.

En comunión con el Papa Francisco, una vez más nos arrodillamos en contrición por los pecados del pasado.

Lamentablemente, el presente pecado de omisión es ser indiferentes o preocupados por nuestros propios desafíos para no escuchar y no responder al dolor de los demás.

Somos un pueblo imperfecto en un mundo imperfecto. Somos un pueblo peregrino en una iglesia peregrina. Toda nuestra vida es una “Peregrinación de Penitencia”. Se necesita la virtud del coraje para mirar los capítulos feos del pasado en nuestras vidas y en nuestro mundo para escuchar el dolor y la ira presentes. Solo cuando nos arrodillamos juntos en penitencia por los pecados del mundo, nos encontramos con la persona y la presencia real de Jesucristo. Es su mano sanadora la que se extiende con misericordia para que todos podamos estar juntos por el bien común de todos los hijos de Dios.

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

Effective July 1, 2022 Reverend Timothy Rudolphi, assigned as parochial administrator of the Church of Saint Edward in Bloomington, while Father Richard Banker is on sabbatical. This is in addition to his assignments as parochial vicar of the Church of Mary, Mother of the Church in Burnsville and as parochial administrator of the Church of the Risen Savior in Burnsville.

Effective August 1, 2022 Reverend Thomas Kommers, assigned as parochial administrator of the Church of Christ the King in Minneapolis. Father Kommers succeeds Father William Murtaugh, who has been serving as pastor.

Reverend William Murtaugh, assigned as pastor of the Church of Pax Christi in Eden Prairie. Father Murtaugh has been serving as parochial administrator of the same parish as well as pastor of the Church of Christ the King in Minneapolis.

Retirements Effective July 1, 2022 Reverend Curtis Lybarger, granted the status of retired priest. Father Lybarger has served the Archdiocese as a priest since his ordination in 1977, most recently as pastor of the Church of Saint Mary of the Lake in Plymouth.

4 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

JULY 28, 2022

LOCAL

Bubbling over

SLICEof LIFE DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Gabe Dunsmore, 18, waves a bubble wand during a Gifted and Belonging event July 15 at Harmon Park in West St. Paul. GAB, a Catholic social group for young adults with and without disabilities, was started in 2020 by Gabe’s mother, Megan Dunsmore, right. The 55-year-old mother of four and her family belong to Assumption in St. Paul. The gatherings always begin with prayer and feature games, activities, food and fellowship.

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JULY 28, 2022

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 5

Catholic Cemeteries scavenger hunt underway

By Barb Umberger The Catholic Spirit

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

BUILDING BLESSING Archbishop Bernard Hebda blesses the Archdiocesan Catholic Center building July 19, which was recently purchased thanks to an estate gift in 2020 by James and Florence Trainor of St. Patrick in Edina. The archdiocese had been renting the building, located at 777 Forest St. in the Dayton’s Bluff neighborhood in St. Paul, since 2017. At left are Mary Ann Ohnsorg (Florence Trainor’s sister) and Pat (Florence’s niece) and Mark Ruhland.

COURTESY CATHOLIC SCHOOLS CENTER OF EXCELLENCE

PRINCIPAL PILGRIMAGE A donor of the Catholic Schools Center of Excellence gave pilgrimages to the Holy Land to Catholic grade school principals in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. A group of 10 principals traveled to the Holy Land from June 27 to July 8, with CSCOE planning to host the remaining pilgrimages next year.

During the pilgrimage, five principals and their spouses renewed their marriage vows at the Wedding Church at Cana in Lower Galilee. They are, from front row: Michelle and Patrick Fox, principal of Shakopee Area Catholic School; Jane and Jim Morehead, principal of St. Peter Catholic School in Forest Lake; Tricia, principal of St. John Paul II Catholic School in Minneapolis, and Eric Menzhuber; Becky, principal of Our Lady of the Lake Catholic School in Mound, and Nathan Kennedy; and Hallie and Michael Rogers, president of Risen Christ Catholic School in Minneapolis. The other five principals who made the pilgrimage were Sister Maria Ivana Begovic, St. Croix Catholic School in Stillwater; Dan Hurley, St. John’s Catholic School in Little Canada; Theresa Gunderson, St. Stephen’s Catholic School in Anoka; Justin Shay, Ave Maria Academy in Maple Grove; and Eileen Douglass, Transfiguration Catholic School in Oakdale.

A scavenger hunt designed as a fun and interesting way to learn more about cemeteries and ways people honor their loved ones is underway through Aug. 31 at Mendota Heightsbased The Catholic Cemeteries’ five cemeteries in the Twin Cities.

From dawn to dusk, people can visit some or all of its five cemeteries — Calvary in St. Paul, Gethsemane in New Hope, Resurrection in Mendota Heights, and St. Anthony’s and St. Mary’s in Minneapolis — to find and photograph 15 specific symbols, many of which are Christian, on grave markers. Participants are asked to complete an online entry form and upload the photos for verification at The Catholic Cemeteries’ website catholic-cemeteries.org.

Rules are posted on the website. The first three people who submit the most symbols listed by the deadline, along with appropriate ID, will win a $50, $25 or $10 Target gift card.

Grave marker symbols and their meanings represent the individuals and how loved ones honor them, said Cindy Keller, director of corporate operations for The Catholic Cemeteries. Symbols are often a nod to their faith and values, and provide an opportunity for others to learn the meaning behind them, such as a peacock or anchor, which may not be obvious to many people today, Keller said.

According to a list on The Catholic Cemeteries’ website, an anchor is a symbol of hope in future existence.

The “eyes” in a peacock’s tail feathers symbolize the all-seeing God and, in some interpretations, the Church.

A peacock drinking from a vase is a

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Calvary Cemetery in St. Paul is one of five Catholic cemeteries in the Twin Cities participating in a scavenger hunt through Aug. 31. symbol of a Christian believer drinking from the waters of eternal life.

“We thought this would be fun for families and a chance to learn more about the cemeteries,” Keller said.

It’s also a way to see the cemeteries’ beauty, including imagery used on grave markers and monuments, she said.

It’s not unusual for family members and friends of the deceased to spend time in cemeteries, Keller said, some bringing lawn chairs. On significant days, such as a birthday or anniversary, loved ones may gather to tell stories and pray, she said. And sometimes raise a toast.

6 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

LOCAL

JULY 28, 2022

Gitchitwaa Kateri parishioners reclaim Ojibwe language through hymn translation

By Maria Wiering The Catholic Spirit Holding a wooden flute, Larry Martin stood during Mass July 10 and welcomed the congregation to join the responsorial psalm. He began: “Aw ge-chi-twaaa-wen-daa-go-zid, Gi-gi-zhe-ma-ni-doo-mi-nann.”

The language was Ojibwe, and the words translated to “Our God is one who is glorious,” taken from Psalm 19.

Martin, a 79-year-old director emeritus of American Indian Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, worked with another language expert to convert the English to Ojibwe, the traditional language of many of the American Indian Catholics who worship at Gichitwaa Kateri in south Minneapolis, Martin’s parish.

Most of them can’t speak their ancestors’ language, but it’s meaningful to pray in it, he said. “It helps them give voice to their Indian identity,” he said.

Gichitwaa Kateri is home of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ Office of Indian Ministry. Since 2018, Martin and fellow parishioner Rick Gresczyk have translated into Ojibwe most of the responsorial psalms used in the Church’s three-year Sunday Mass cycle.

That built on a project they began years earlier to translate popular hymns such as “Ode to Joy,” “Hail, Holy Queen” and “How Can I Keep from Singing?”

Their work caught the attention of Catholics planning Pope Francis’ visit to Canada, which began July 24 (see the special report, pages 9-11). At the request of organizers of the pope’s visit, Martin submitted for consideration several hymns, including “Wezhitooyan Gakina Go” and “Hymn for Kateri Tekakwitha.”

The first, an Ojibwe creation song Martin and Gresczyk composed, was

MARIA WIERING | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Larry Martin holds a wooden flute he uses to lead music at Gichitwaa Kateri in Minneapolis. He collaborates with Ojibwe-language expert Rick Gresczyk to translate hymns and psalms into Ojibwe for use at the parish, home to the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ Office of Indian Ministry. inspired by three sources: an Old English creation hymn, an Ojibwe creation story and a hymn attributed to Pope St. Gregory the Great. It was set to a traditional hymn melody called “Prospect,” and in 2019 it was sung by members of the choir of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., during the Knights of Columbus’ Supreme Convention, held that year in Minneapolis. Martin and his wife,

Claire, worked on pronunciation with the singers, he said. The hymn was also recently featured at the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis in connection with the art exhibit “Terra Nostra, Our Earth,” which was on display in May and June.

The second hymn was created by Father Jan Michael Joncas, a wellknown liturgical composer and recently retired priest of the archdiocese.

In 2012, he collaborated with the Gitchitwaa Kateri community to craft a hymn to celebrate the canonization of the parish’s namesake.

None of the hymns Martin submitted was ultimately chosen for the papal visit, confirmed Deacon Pedro GuevaraMann, senior programs lead for the 2022 papal visit to Canada.

Martin thinks that might be partly due to regional difference: The Ojibwe dialect spoken in Canada differs from the dialect Martin and Gresczyk use, he said. He said it was an honor for the hymns to be considered.

In addition to their translation of popular Catholic hymns and psalms, they’ve set to music Ojibwe-language prayers of Bishop Frederic Baraga, the first bishop of Marquette, Michigan, whose 19th-century missionary work focused on communities around Lake

Superior, including Minnesota’s North Shore. Bishop Baraga created a prayer book and hymnal in Ojibwe, set to the melodies of French Folk tunes. The hymns were popular among Ojibwe Catholics, Martin said.

Martin, who holds a doctorate in English linguistics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, dedicated some of his academic work to preparing about 100 of those hymns for contemporary use.

Like elements of Pope Francis’ Canadian pilgrimage, Martin and Gresczyk’s translation initiative is tied to culture reclamation efforts underway in the U.S. and Canada, in response to the Indian boarding school era, where American Indian and Indigenous children were removed from their homes and sent to government-funded schools, some run by Catholic religious orders and dioceses, where they were often not allowed to speak their native languages or express their cultures.

“The Church is responsible for damage to language, so we thought we should do something about bringing it back,” said Martin, who is Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe.

For the translations, Martin credits Gresczyk’s deep knowledge of Ojibwe.

Martin doesn’t consider himself fluent, but says he can tweak grammar and align Gresczyk’s translations with the chosen common melodies. Gresczyk now lives in northern Minnesota, so the two mostly collaborate by phone.

Martin, who received graduate-level seminary formation at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., but left before ordination, also writes a short lesson to explain the translation, including notes on culture and theology. Those notes are published in Gichitwaa Kateri’s Sunday worship guide along with the psalm’s translation.

Shawn Phillips, director of the archdiocese’s Office of Indian Ministry and pastoral minister at Gichitwaa Kateri, said the translations help parishioners pray and learn more about their culture and heritage. He hopes one day there will be a similar effort to translate prayers into Dakota, so both of the primary Native American cultures in Minnesota would be represented, he said.

The translation effort is important, Phillips said, because “God will speak to them in their own language.”

“That was the Pentecost message,” he said. “It wasn’t that the Gospel be in Greek or in Roman, but … all of these people could understand it. It’s that God cares about us and speaks to us in our own language and knows us intimately.”

CORRECTIONS An article in the July 14 edition incorrectly stated that Father Richard Sudlik came to Christ the King Retreat Center in Buffalo in 2018 to replace Father Anthony Dummer as director. He came that year to join the preaching team after the 2017 death of Father Dummer, who had served on the preaching team. Father Sudlik then became director of Christ the King in 2020 to replace Father James Deegan, whose health was declining. Father Deegan remained on the preaching team at Christ the King until his death Sept. 20, 2021.

A special jubilarian section for priests in the June 30 edition included the middle names of some celebrating priests, rather than first names. These included 25-year jubilarian Father William Deziel and 50-year jubilarian Father Robert Monaghan.

LOCAL

JULY 28, 2022

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 7

Healing Center to hold retreat in November

By Barb Umberger The Catholic Spirit

REGISTRATION

Father Tony O’Neill, pastor of St. John Neumann in Eagan, enjoyed an out-of-state retreat on “Healing the Whole Person” so much in 2017 that he asked that it be offered at his parish. The retreat was “one of the most beautiful experiences,” observing people encountering God’s love in a powerful and healing way, he said.

Father O’Neill discussed the retreat, which was held at a parish in Lansing, Michigan, where his brother and sisterin-law work, during a recent episode of the “Practicing Catholic” radio show, and said the same retreat will be offered at St. John Neumann Nov. 3-5, again led by staff from the Florida-based John Paul II Healing Center. Early-bird registration begins Aug. 1.

The ministry is well known across the country and the retreat tends to sell out fast, Father O’Neill said.

He hopes 600 to 800 people will attend, with some travelling from out of town. They can expect a series of talks and time for personal reflection and journaling, prayer, adoration and the sacraments, he said. Teaching sessions will address an introduction to healing the whole person, facing brokenness, encountering God the Father’s love and living in freedom, Father O’Neill said.

Launched in 2004 to help people encounter God’s healing love, the center was founded by Bob Schuchts, who helps present retreats, along with his brother Bart Schuchts, who also presents at conferences and retreats through his Church on Fire ministry. Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity Sister Miriam James Heidland, who has been associated with the Healing Center since its earliest days, also is a regular presenter

Registration with early-bird pricing opens Aug. 1. Livestreaming is offered in addition to in-person attendance, with two-week access to a recording of the retreat. For more information, with links to registration, venue information and a tentative schedule, visit archspm.org/events or sjn.org.

at its retreats.

“We’re all broken in some sense,” Father O’Neill said, “and that brokenness stops us from fully receiving and experiencing God’s love.” Being able to recognize that brokenness, identify its root cause and pray for healing makes a tremendous difference in people’s lives, he said. The great fruit of the ministry is not praying for healing of things on the surface, he said.

“We all have sins that we fall into, or difficulties in relationships, but those are really symptoms of a deeper healing that needs to happen,” Father O’Neill said.

Often, the need for healing stems from a past wound or failure, and part of the retreat’s purpose is identifying that inner brokenness and “pray into that,” he said.

“The whole point is to experience life in Christ in a new and vibrant way,” he said. “It’s a beautiful thing.”

Several St. John Neumann parishioners participated in the retreat by livestream last year, and each said it was a powerful experience. “The Holy Spirit entered more fully into my journey to heal those areas which weighed heavy on my heart,” said Lori Hannasch, its pastoral care director. The retreat brought her into a deeper, more intimate relationship with God, she said.

Thomas Dzurik, St. John Neumann’s

CORN DAYS Saturday, Aug. 13, 2022 12 noon – 10 p.m.

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help you to love and be loved by God in so many special ways.”

Brittany Majeski said the healing center team helped her encounter the Father’s love and to know her identity as his beloved daughter.

“I would not be the person I am today without their ministry,” she said.

A pilgrimage is a journey where a person is in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, …, through the experience.

Christ the King Retreat Center has been a place of pilgrimage for many. The Holy Spirit has transformed lives through the work of our retreats.

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liturgical coordinator, said he encountered God’s love more deeply than ever.

“It was as if God opened up all these new avenues for me to love and be loved,” he said. “Regardless of whether or not you see yourself as especially broken or in need of healing, this retreat can

70th Anniversary – 1952-2022

Church of St. George

Pancake Breakfast

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

MINISTRY ANNIVERSARY From left, Rico Duran of Sacred Heart in St. Paul, Gerardo Marin of Risen Savior in Burnsville, Father Stan Sledz, a retired priest, and Eva Garnica of St. Francis de Sales in St. Paul talk July 13 at Ascension in Minneapolis during a celebration of the 25th anniversary of New City Ministry. The anniversary took place in 2020, but the celebration was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Father Sledz, 79, started the ministry with $200,000 he inherited to engage and recruit more members of minority communities for Church leadership. After Father Sledz worked with the Catholic Community Foundation of Minnesota to create a donor-advised fund in 1995, his ministry has provided annual grants to Catholics from minority communities who are involved with faith formation in their parishes. In the first 25 years, New City Ministry gave 426 grants totaling $237,323. Duran and Garnica both have received multiple grants from the ministry over the years.

fiesta dinner 5 p.m.

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Commentary/ideas/opinion? Email catholicspirit@archspm.org

8 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

JULY 28, 2022

NATION+WORLD Bishops must be good listeners, says nun at Vatican who helps select them

By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service While the perfect bishop does not exist, he does have to be a person who knows how to get others involved in the life of the Church and to listen to everyone, including those with whom he may disagree, said a new member of the Dicastery for Bishops.

French Salesian Sister Yvonne Reungoat told Vida Nueva, a Spanish publication reporting news about the Catholic Church, that “the ideal bishop does not exist.” But he has to be a shepherd who is “close to the people entrusted to him, he has to know how to involve priests, laity and religious, and people of different generations.”

“The path of synodality” is essential for this process and “it must be the usual way of animating the Church to favor collegiality,” she told the publication in an interview published online July 24.

Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet, who heads the dicastery, once told Vida Nueva that “30% of those chosen to be bishops reject the appointment.” The publication asked Sister Reungoat what might explain this situation.

“There may be a difficulty in accepting the responsibility of being bishop of a particular church, with all the joys, challenges and complaints that it entails,” she said.

“That is why I think that, to be a bishop, one must have the ability to listen, both to those who have the same

HEADLINES u Growing need for Hispanic priests spurs new Spanish-speaking Serra Club. For every Catholic priest in the U.S., there are 1,230 Catholics in the general population. But that ratio is far greater in the Hispanic community, with 9,925 Hispanic Catholics per every Hispanic priest, according to a national report by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Candice Tyrrell, vice president of membership for the USA Council of Serra International, has worked with Father Miguel Solorzano, pastor of St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in Houston, and his parishioners to create the first Hispanic Serra Club in the United States.

The Serra Club, named after the evangelizer St. Junipero Serra, is an international Catholic association of lay men and women of all ages and walks of life committed to promoting vocations to the priesthood and religious life. u Cardinal Gregory issues norms to implement pope’s ‘Traditionis Custodes.’ Cardinal Wilton Gregory of Washington promulgated liturgical norms July 22 for implementing Pope Francis’ apostolic letter “Traditionis Custodes” (“Guardians of the Tradition”), which limits celebrations of the Mass according to the rite used before the Second Vatican Council.

Effective Sept. 21, celebration of the Mass according to the 1962 Roman Missal can take place on Sundays in three nonparochial churches in the archdiocese. The pope’s apostolic letter, promulgated July 16, 2021, contains a set of norms for the celebration of what is popularly known as the “traditional Latin Mass,” drawn from the 1962 Roman Missal. Under the cardinal’s norms, all priests, deacons and instituted ministers will need to request in writing and receive permission

VATICAN MEDIA | CNS

Sister Yvonne Reungoat, the newest member of the Dicastery for Bishops, is pictured with Pope Francis during a meeting with members of her order in Rome in this Oct. 22, 2021, file photo. ideas and to those who protest. It is not easy. Just think of the issue of abuse, which has marked the life of the Church in various parts of the world in recent years,” she added.

In mid-July, Pope Francis named 14 new members to the dicastery responsible for helping the pope choose bishops for Latin-rite dioceses outside of the Church’s mission territories. For the first time ever, the members included from Washington’s archbishop to celebrate the Eucharist using 1962 Roman Missal either privately or publicly in the territory of the archdiocese. u Pope modifies Opus Dei’s relationship to Curia, highlighting its ‘charism.’ Saying he wanted to highlight the spiritual gifts of Opus Dei and its contributions to the Catholic Church’s evangelizing activities, Pope Francis said it will now work with and answer to the Dicastery for Clergy, rather than the Dicastery for Bishops. In the apostolic letter “Ad Charisma Tuendum” (“For the protection of the charism”), released by the Vatican July 22, Pope Francis also said the head of the personal prelature of Opus Dei “will not be made, nor will he be able to be made” a bishop. u German Synodal Path must not create new structures, doctrines, Vatican says. “It seems necessary to make it clear that the ‘Synodal Path’ in Germany does not have the power to compel bishops and the faithful to assume new modes of governance and new approaches to doctrine and morals,” said an unsigned “declaration of the Holy See.” Released by the Vatican press office in German and Italian July 21, the declaration said the Catholic Church in Germany could not “initiate new official structures or doctrines in the dioceses prior to an agreed understanding at the level of the universal church.” At its meeting in early February, the assembly passed resolutions calling for a greater role and voice for laypeople in Church decisionmaking. It also made its initial consideration of motions to encourage a relaxation of the rule of mandatory celibacy for most Latin-rite priests and in favor of the ordination of women as deacons. The blessing of same-sex unions has been widely discussed as well, but not

women: two religious and one lay. Before Pope Francis’ reform of the Roman Curia took effect in June, members of the dicastery were only cardinals and a few bishops.

Members meet twice a month to review dossiers submitted by Vatican nuncios about potential candidates and to vote on the names they recommend to the pope.

Sister Reungoat, former superior formally adopted by the assembly. u Nigerian priest who was found dead is most recent to be kidnapped, killed. The body of a priest was discovered July 19, four days after he was abducted from a parish rectory in central Nigeria, an official with the Diocese of Kafanchan reported. Father John Cheitnum was one of two priests kidnapped by assailants July 15 in the central state of Kaduna, said Father Emnanuel Okolo, diocesan chancellor. The second priest, Father Donatus Suleiman, was able to flee the abductors and is safe. Father Cheitnum was killed by his abductors on the same day he was whisked away from the parish. u Documents detailing Portuguese Inquisition to become available online.

Rare documentation of the Portuguese Inquisition with detailed information about the sentencing trials that took place 500 years ago has been digitized for the first time in the Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People Jerusalem’s National Library of Israel.

The trials mainly occurred in Lisbon, with a brief mention of trials in Tomar. Written in Portuguese, the manuscript holds information about trials conducted by inquisitors from 1540 to 1669 against Jews newly converted to Catholicism who were accused of continuing to secretly practice Judaism. u House bill to codify Roe is ‘unjust, extreme,’ say USCCB committee chairmen. In a mostly party-line vote of 219 to 210, House members approved an updated version of the Women’s Health Protection Act of 2022, which would codify a right to abortion in federal law. An earlier version was passed in March by the House, but it failed to pass in the Senate.

The bill, H.R. 8296, would impose abortion on demand nationwide at any stage of pregnancy and would eliminate pro-life laws at every

general of her order, told Vida Nueva it is important for women to have a role in the naming of new bishops.

The presence of women in the dicastery will allow for views and a sensitivity or awareness that are both common among men and women and “complementary,” she said.

Women are more likely to be working very closely and have “direct contact” with people and situations “on the ground,” she said. “We have knowledge that starts from reality. This experience is also about listening and dialoguing with this reality.”

Having this “complementary vision” can help in getting “closer to reality, which is complex” and varied since bishops serve in different parts of the world, and the dicastery must study and discern much information coming from the different nunciatures, she said.

Seeing more women represented at high levels of the Church may make women feel more involved, she said.

However, having a woman in a particular position “does not mean that the situation will automatically change.

There needs to be a reciprocal openness.”

It is a path that opens up by “walking together. We must give women their place, but we must also accept our position, because sometimes we back down because we think that we are not up to the task or that it does not concern us. We must also have the courage and simplicity to be ourselves to enter a path that is opening up,” Sister Reungoat said. level of government — including parental notification for minor girls, informed consent, and health and safety protections specific to abortion facilities. “Answering the needs of women by promoting taxpayer-funded elective abortion, as this bill would do, is a grave evil and a failure to love and serve women,” said Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, and Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee for Religious Liberty, in a July 18 statement. u Sister Campbell, Trumka, 15 others receive Presidential Medal of Freedom. Sister Simone Campbell, a longtime advocate for economic justice and health care policy, and late labor leader Richard Trumka received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, in a White House ceremony. President Joe Biden presented the award to 15 others as well July 7. Sister Campbell, a California native and a member of the Sisters of Social Service, stepped down as executive director of Network, a Catholic social justice lobbying organization, in March 2021 after serving for 17 years.

Biden particularly noted her role in passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010, a complex law that expanded access to health care for millions of people. He also cited a series of annual “Nuns on the Bus” nationwide tours that Sister Campbell led touting health care as a right and that federal budgets were moral documents that must reflect the priorities of serving poor and marginalized people. Trumka was president of the AFL-CIO from 2009 until his death in August 2021. The faith of Trumka, a Catholic born to a Polish father and an Italian mother, helped shape a lifelong career in the labor movement.

— Catholic News Service

JULY 28, 2022

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 9

SPECIALREPORT

‘I am deeply sorry’ Returning moccasins, pope apologizes for Church role in residential schools

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service

T

he first step of Pope Francis’ “penitential pilgrimage” to Canada involved him returning two pairs of children’s moccasins.

The little shoes were not among the Indigenous artifacts held in the Vatican Museums, but rather reminders that Chief Marie-Anne Day Walker-Pelletier of the Okanese First Nation in Saskatchewan had left with Pope Francis in March so he would think and pray about the children who went to residential schools and, especially, about those who never returned home.

On the treaty land of the Ermineskin Cree Nation, Samson Cree Nation, Louis Bull Tribe and the Montana First Nation, near the former site of one of Canada’s largest residential schools, Pope Francis said, “I humbly VATICAN MEDIA | CNS beg forgiveness for the evil committed by so many Christians against the Indigenous peoples.”

Pope Francis kisses the hand of an Indigenous leader during a meeting with First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities at Maskwacis, Alberta, July 25.

“The first step of my penitential pilgrimage among you is that of again asking forgiveness, of telling you once more that I am deeply sorry,” the pope said July 25.

Emily McKinney, 21, a member of the Swan Lake wheelchair, to the site of the former Ermineskin Indian “I am sorry,” he said again. “I ask forgiveness, in First Nation, traveled to Maskwacis from the Treaty 1 Residential School. particular, for the ways in which many members of territory in Manitoba, where she is chair of the Treaty 1 Five teepees were erected on the site — four of them the Church and of religious communities cooperated, Youth Council. to represent each of the nations that call Maskwacis not least through their indifference, in projects of She said she had gone hoping “to hear a sincere, home, and the fifth to mark the school. cultural destruction and forced assimilation promoted genuine apology for those who need it to heal from Pope Francis had described his visit to Canada by the governments of that intergenerational trauma.”

July 24-29 as a “penitential time, which culminated in The schools’ policy separated parents and children, pilgrimage” to ask forgiveness the system of residential she said. “It wasn’t natural, but by force, and for seven for the trauma inflicted on I ask forgiveness, in schools.” generations. There are huge, traumatic effects.”

Indigenous children by too The pope spoke in particular, for the ways in which “These kids were raised in institutions. How were they many of the priests and nuns Spanish. When his words of supposed to know how to raise their families with love who ran about 60% of the many members of the Church apology were read in English, and kindness and our teachings?” she asked. schools for the Canadian the crowd responded with and of religious communities At the powwow grounds, Pope Francis acknowledged government. applause. the Church’s complicity in the “deplorable evil” The government now cooperated, not least through Pope Francis’ meeting of suppressing native languages and cultures, the estimates at least 150,000 with more than 2,000 destruction of family and community bonds and the First Nation, Inuit and their indifference, in projects of residential school survivors, trauma endured by the children at the schools and Métis children were taken community elders and cultural destruction and forced often passed on to their children and grandchildren in from their families and knowledge keepers, their the form of a lack of affection or actual abuse. communities and forced to assimilation promoted by the family members and mental Cree Chief Wilton Littlechild, 78, an Ermineskine attend the schools between and emotional support staff residential school survivor who had traveled to Rome in 1870 and 1997. At least 4,120 governments of that time, which was held at the Muskwa, or March to meet Pope Francis, welcomed the pope to his children died at the schools, Bear Park, Powwow Grounds culminated in the system of home. and several thousand others under a persistent drizzle.

Littlechild, a lawyer and politician, told the pope vanished without a trace. residential schools.

Canada’s governor general, that as a member of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation As the meeting with the Mary Simon, and prime Commission, he had heard “nearly 7,000 testimonies pope began, dozens of people Pope Francis minister, Justin Trudeau, from former students of residential schools” across carried a long red banner were in attendance. But the Canada. The people gathered at Maskwacis, he said, through the crowd. The dignitaries were the pope and Indigenous chiefs from represented all of them. banner bore the names of each of the 4,120 deceased across Canada who made a grand entrance, carrying children and the school where they died.

After Pope Francis spoke, Gerry Saddleback offered staffs decorated with eagle feathers and wearing “war Students at the schools were forbidden to speak an “honor song” in Cree. The Canadian organizers bonnets.” their native languages or practice their traditions. said the song is a way of showing “openness and, for The local master of ceremonies explained that the The government provided so little financing that the some, acceptance of the Holy Father’s apology and (is) chiefs must be warriors who defend the Indigenous students often were malnourished. And many were an invitation to all those present, in their own way and people, language, customs and children. emotionally, physically or even sexually abused. according to their own personal timeline, to seek to Before the pope arrived, Ruby Rose Henry of the The discovery of what are believed to be unmarked accept that same invitation toward forgiveness.”

Tla’amin Nation warmed up her drum and voice by a graves and of possible burial grounds at several sites The pope promised the Church’s cooperation in fire. She hoped to sing the “Wild Flower Song” for the across Canada in 2021 increased attention on the further investigating what occurred at the schools and pope. residential-school legacy and increased pressure on Pope to walk alongside survivors in their journey toward When government officials would come into the Francis to apologize on Canadian soil for what members healing. village to take children to the residential school, she of the Church had done.

“On this first step of my journey,” the pope said, “I said, “the children would run and hide.” When the Ernest Durocher, a member of the Métis Nation have wanted to make space for memory. Here, today, officials would leave, “the children would sing this song Saskatchewan and a survivor of the Ile-a-la-Crosse I am with you to recall the past, to grieve with you, to so the parents would know they were not kidnapped.”

Residential School, traveled to Maskwacis with his bow our heads together in silence and to pray before the wife, also a survivor. He sat alone outside the powwow graves.”

The pope had begun his visit meeting the pastoral grounds for a while, just thinking, he said. staff and a few parishioners at Our Lady of Seven “In the face of evil, we pray to the Lord of goodness,” “I hope to hear an apology from the pope,” he said Sorrows Church before stopping to pray in the he said. “In the face of death, we pray to the God of prior to the pope’s remarks.

Ermineskin Cree Nation Cemetery and then going, by life.”

SPECIAL

10 • JULY 28, 2022

Pope’s Canada trip: Beginning and ending with ‘sorry’

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service

P

ope Francis said all the speeches he has prepared for his trip to Canada “begin and end” with asking forgiveness.

In an early July interview, he acknowledged the “cruel way” the Catholic Church collaborated with the Canadian government in “colonization” by uprooting Indigenous children from their families, cultures and spiritualities and forcing them to attend residential schools where many suffered abuse.

Cutting children and young adults off from their cultures “is diabolical, it is to kill life and richness,” the pope said in the interview that aired July 11 on Univision.

Pope Francis began his Canadian “pilgrimage of penance” July 24, flying to Edmonton, Alberta. The visit was also to include Quebec and end July 29 in Iqaluit. The pope has visited the site of a former residential school near Edmonton, joined Indigenous pilgrims at Lac Ste. Anne and was to celebrate Mass at the National Shrine of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré near Quebec.

Ted Quewezance, a former chief of the Keeseekoose First Nation and former executive director of the National Residential School Survivors Society, was at the Vatican in early April when Pope Francis apologized to delegates of Canada’s Métis, Inuit and First Nation communities.

And he was also there July 25, when Pope Francis visited Maskwacis, Alberta, home of the former Ermineskin Residential School, one of the largest residential school sites in Canada.

Quewezance was one of the first survivors in Canada to speak publicly about having been sexually abused at a Church-run residential school. While he still gets emotional talking about it — “when you shed a few tears, more weight comes off your chest,” he said — after the Rome trip he decided it was time to forgive and move forward. But he said he still wants one thing from the pope: A recognition of “the true inherent right that was given to us by the Creator through our language, through our traditions, our customs, our ceremonies. And that’s a sacred inherent right; it is given to us by the Creator.”

Quewezance will be one of about 100 survivors and family members traveling to Maskwacis with Archbishop Donald Bolen of Regina, Saskatchewan, who also accompanied the delegates to Rome in late March and early April.

“In many Indigenous cultures, when there are issues between families, the fathers of those families must meet to discuss and heal those divisions and wounds,” the archbishop said. “Pope Francis, rightly, is seen as the father of our global Catholic family.

In this sense, it is important that he meet face-to-face with the leaders of the Indigenous, Métis, and Inuit families who, even today, continue to be affected by the harms caused by the residential school system.”

The pope, he said, consistently calls the Church to “walk with others in all manner of woundedness. This is particularly true when those wounds have been caused by the Church herself.”

Susan Beaudin, a member of the Cowessess First Nation,

co-chairs with Archbishop Bolen the archdiocese’s Truth and Reconciliation Committee and helped to organize the Saskatchewan survivors’ trip to Maskwacis. She expected to join other survivors of Marieval Indian Residential School who were to gather on the Cowessess territory to watch the pope on TV. She went to the Catholic-run school in the 1950s, from the time she was 8 until she was 13. Her parents and siblings and cousins all went there, too, and family members, like almost all the families of survivors, she said, are still dealing with sexual abuse, physical abuse, addiction and unhealthy relationships — the intergenerational trauma that many say began at the schools.

The abuse was spiritual as well. The children “hated the God they were told about” at school, she said, because “if the God of those Catholic nuns and priests was so horrible that he allowed the people that were working for him to do these things to 3-, 4-, 5-, 6-, 7-, 8-, 9-, 10-, 11-, 12-, 13-year-olds, what kind of a god is that? Can you imagine how confused people were about God?” Rediscovering her people’s traditional spirituality and seeking healing through their ceremonies, Beaudin said she learned God really is the “all-loving and all-giving Creator and the forgiving Creator.” Then, she said, “the onus was on me to forgive the Catholic Church. If I was to go further in my healing, I needed to do that. That’s why the papal visit is going to be very important to some survivors that need to hear that (apology) in order to continue their journey or to start their journey.”

Cassidy Caron, Métis National Council president, said the pope’s apology in Rome was “the first step in our journey toward truth, reconciliation, justice and healing.”

The next step is for the pope to repeat the apology “in Canada where the highest number of survivors, elders, families and communities would be able to attend,” she said. “It is our hope that Pope Francis, the Vatican, and the CCCB (Canadian bishops’ conference) will fully commit to walking the path that we set out for them to join us on following the apology, and understand that this will be an ongoing process, and that it will take time.”

Canadian Cardinal Michael Czerny, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, is part of the papal entourage for the trip. Asked what more the pope can do after his apology at the Vatican, he said, “It’s not a matter of ‘doing more’ but of ‘going deeper.’ An apology can be achieved by a text, whereas reconciliation requires human encounter, a ceremony, a liturgy.”

“Humanly and spiritually speaking,” he said, “if you want to say sorry, taking the trouble to go in person and say it ‘among us’ is very significant; saying sorry is always worth repeating, you don’t just say it once and be done with it.”

And while Pope Francis’ visit will focus on the Indigenous communities of Canada, it is clear all Catholics and all Canadians have a role to play in discovering the truth about how the land’s original occupants were treated and how discrimination against them continues today, Cardinal Czerny said.

“Catholics today may feel no share in the errors of the past, but they are called to care for those who today suffer the consequences of colonialism, racism and cultural repression,” the cardinal said.

“The sins of the past live on, and everyone has a share in overcoming them.”

Pope’s visit to Canada comes in wake of U.S. report on boarding schools

Can

By Joe Ruff The Catholic Spirit

By Michae Catholic Ne

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federal report May 11 found that for 150 years hundreds of government-supported boarding schools in the United States — some run by the Catholic Church, including in Minnesota — sought to forcefully assimilate Native American and Indigenous children into white society.

As Pope Francis apologizes in Canada July 24-29 for Church involvement in boarding schools and other forms of assimilation in that country, many observers hope that will radiate to the United States and other nations.

Oneida First Nation activist Daisee Francour and her colleagues at the U.S.-based international Indigenous nongovernmental organization Cultural Survival told The Catholic Register in Toronto that they will pay close attention to the pope’s actions.

“An apology for one nation, in a way it’s a win for all of our nations,” said Francour. “When I say nation, I mean that as an Indigenous community —

not necessarily the nation state or colonial state.

“There’s a huge opportunity, because the Catholic Church is just such an influential institution globally,” she said. “There’s a huge opportunity to leverage, influence and push nation states like the U.S. government to join this collective process for justice, toward truth and toward healing.”

In May, Archbishop Bernard Hebda of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis immediately acknowledged the U.S. report with sadness and an apology. In a statement posted on the archdiocese’s website, the archbishop said in part, “It is an important first step in what I anticipate will be a painful but necessary journey for our country and for our Church.”

The archbishop noted that the archdiocese has begun working with tribes on relationship building and records review, an effort described in a special report in the April 28 issue of The Catholic Spirit.

The review and The Catholic Spirit stories include information on the archdiocese’s operation of an industrial school near Clontarf, in western

Minnesota, that collaborated from 1884 to 1892 with the federal program for Indian boarding school students.

The archbishop also noted in his May 11 statement about the U.S. report that Pope Francis had met in April with Indigenous leaders from Canada to discuss their own experience of boarding schools, and expressed feelings of sorrow and shame for the role a number of Catholics played in those schools.

“Please allow me to also add my heartfelt apology to that of Pope Francis,” Archbishop Hebda said May 11. “I am sorry. I am sorry for the role that our Church played as part of the U.S. government’s systemic separation of families, often leading to the intergenerational trauma experienced by so many of our sisters and brothers. There are women and men in our Archdiocese and across our state who personally experienced the boarding school system.

They are with us now. Their stories must be told and we must listen to them. We must also listen to the voices of the children and grandchildren whose ancestors endured such pain and death.”

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or T Nati brou Muskwa, “It’s jus Catholic after Pop historic a Catholic and othe behalf. “F Ward l Aleea Fou confessed against In schools.

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LREPORT

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 11

Indigenous and Catholic: One can proudly be both, pope says

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service

W

ABOVE An Indigenous woman reacts as Pope Francis meets with First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities at Maskwacis, Alberta, July 25.

PAUL HARING | CNS

LEFT As the meeting with Pope Francis begins in Maskwacis, Alberta, July 25, dozens of people carry a long red banner through the crowd. The banner bears the names of 4,120 Indigenous children and the residential school where they died.

PAUL HARING | CNS

hile presented as missionary work, the operation of residential schools by Catholics in Canada was actually an attempt to impose European culture on Canada’s Indigenous people, Pope Francis said.

“One cannot proclaim God in a way contrary to God himself,” the pope said July 25 at Edmonton’s Sacred Heart Church of the First Peoples.

Several of the First Nation, Inuit and Métis parishioners of Sacred Heart and many of their parents and grandparents were forced by the Canadian government to attend residential schools, which were set up to force the Indigenous to adopt European languages, culture and forms of Christianity.

“If we think of the lasting pain experienced in these places by so many people,” the pope said, “we feel nothing but anger and shame.”

“Nothing can ever take away the violation of dignity, the experience of evil, the betrayal of trust,” suffered by the students, he said. And nothing can “take away our own shame as believers.”

The pope did not mention the physical and sexual abuse many Indigenous people said they endured in the schools; rather, he focused on the Church’s complicity in trying to suppress Indigenous identity and culture.

“That happened because believers became worldly, and rather than fostering reconciliation, they imposed their own cultural models” on the students, he said.

Unfortunately, he said, “this attitude dies hard, also from the religious standpoint.”

“Indeed, it may seem easier to force God on people, rather than letting them draw near to God,” Pope Francis said. “Yet this never works, because that is not how the Lord operates.”

“He does not force us, he does not suppress or overwhelm; instead, he loves, he liberates, he leaves us free. He does not sustain with his Spirit those who dominate others, who confuse the Gospel of our reconciliation with proselytism,” the pope said.

“While God presents himself simply and quietly,” he said, “we always have the temptation to impose him, and to impose ourselves in his name.”

Pope Francis made his early evening visit to the parish — the first officially designated Indigenous parish in Canada — after an emotional morning meeting in Maskwacis, where he apologized to survivors of residential schools.

Candida Shepherd, a member of the parish council, and Bill Perdue, chair of the parish finance committee, formally welcomed the pope. Both are members of the Métis community and described the parish as a place where they could live fully their identity as Indigenous Catholics.

The parish is in a neighborhood where many rely on assistance with food and housing or need healing and liberation from addiction. Perdue told the pope, “Many of those challenges can be traced back to the legacy of the Canadian Indian residential school system, including those operated by the Roman Catholic Church.”

Pope Francis’ visit, he said, “gives us the opportunity to confront, to understand, to release and to transcend our trauma” and has inspired parishioners to work to make the church “a venue for healing and reconciliation between the Indigenous of this land and all those who choose to come here now and in the future.”

At Sacred Heart, the pope expressed admiration for the many survivors who did not lose their faith and who still go to church.

“I can only imagine the effort it must take for those who have suffered so greatly — because of men and women who should have set an example of Christian living — even to think about reconciliation,” he said.

The Church, Pope Francis said, must be a place of reconciliation, a place where all are welcome as they are and where discrimination has no place.

On “the tree of the cross,” he said, “sorrow is transformed into love, death into life, disappointment into hope, abandonment into fellowship (and) distance into unity.”

nadian Indigenous react to papal apology: ‘It’s just very powerful’

el Swan ews Service

Tammy Ward of the Samson First tion, Pope Francis’ words “I am sorry” ught tears as she listened on the , or Bear Park, Powwow Grounds. st very powerful,” Ward told The Register, Toronto-based newspaper, pe Francis finished delivering his apology on Indigenous land for the Church’s role in residential schools er wrongs done on the Church’s For me, it’s the healing.” leaned into her 21-year-old daughter, ureyes, for comfort as Pope Francis d the sins Catholics committed ndigenous Canadians in residential

e face of this deplorable evil, the kneels before God and implores his ess for the sins of her children,” Pope

Francis said, invoking St. John Paul II’s 1998 bull, “Incarnationis Mysterium.” “I myself wish to reaffirm this, with shame and unambiguously. I humbly beg forgiveness for the evil committed by so many Christians against the Indigenous peoples.”

For 49-year-old Ward, it brought memories of her relationship with her parents.

“I always thought my parents didn’t love me. I was always wondering why they were silent,” she said.

Years later she understood how a childhood spent institutionalized in residential schools had left her parents unprepared for family life.

It was a day full of emotion as Indigenous people responded to Pope Francis’ presence among them.

Ted Quewezance, an elder from the Keeseekoose First Nation in Saskatchewan, spoke to the crowd of about 5,000 about the long process of reconciliation.

“The pope’s apology is not asking for instant trust,” Quewezance said. “Today I am willing to extend my hand to the pope and to the bishops.”

But Quewezance warned about the politicization and bureaucratization of reconciliation efforts by governments and churches.

“Reconciliation in Canada is all about recommendations, reports. It’s not about action,” he said.

Quewezance prefers to replace the word reconciliation with “real-conciliation.”

“Reconciliation implies there is a time we would like to go back to,” he said.

Jonathan Buffalo didn’t just come to hear Pope Francis. He came to dance. Indigenous dance, he said, is a path to healing.

“I dance with pride and honor. I dance for my people, my ancestors, my elders,” said the young administrative assistant at the Samson Cree Community Wellness Centre.

Buffalo said he hopes non-Indigenous Catholics hear what the pope has said and read the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report, to know the truth about residential schools. “It has to be talked about for people to understand (intergenerational trauma),” said Buffalo, whose mother is a residential school survivor.

Showing up to hear Pope Francis apologize once more was an act of hope for 78-year-old Norman Meade, who brought his 8-year-old granddaughter, Everlee Meade, with him to Maskawacis. “I do have hope. I always have hope,” Meade said. “When we walk together — the pope is leading us that way — things are better.”

Meade is still working on his wife Thelma Meade’s claim file, seeking compensation for her years in the Presbyterian-run residential school in Birtle, Manitoba. He said getting records from government offices has proved to be a painfully slow process.

12 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

JULY 28, 2022

FAITH+CULTURE 70 years as a Catholic sister, many blessings: ‘more than I deserve’

By Christina Capecchi For The Catholic Spirit

in her room, then I’d meet with her, and I’d try to point out all the wonderful things and save the things she needed improvement in till last.

Sister Catherine Schoenecker, 92, grew up in New Prague and devoted her career to education, working as a teacher, principal and supervisor. A Benedictine living at St. Paul’s Monastery in Maplewood, she recently marked her 70th anniversary as a professed Catholic sister.

Q Then you became a supervisor of 17 Catholic grade schools in the Twin Cities. Was that assignment daunting?

A You could gently say no if you didn’t think you were

qualified or had the strength or the courage. But you were always made to feel that you could do that. If they had that much confidence in you, there must be a reason.

Q Those Benedictines know how to celebrate! For

your jubilee, you renewed your vows on Facebook Live, gathered with friends and family and had a surprise visit from King Boreas from the Winter Carnival, who knighted you. How are you feeling?

A I feel fine, but I’m ready to go back to normal.

Q What compelled you to enter religious life at 21?

A I worked with sisters and I admired them. They

inspired me to not just be a teacher, but to be a religious teacher. I thought I could do more good that way. I was called.

Q Were people supportive of your decision?

A The pastor did not want me to leave. He said, “You’re still really young,” and I said, “Well, that’s the time to go.” At the time, they didn’t want to lose lay teachers, which I was. My brother, three sisters and wonderful parents were all very supportive of me. I remember my mother telling me, “If it’s not right, you can come home.” That would’ve been kind of a scandal, but I appreciated her telling me that.

Q Was it hard to let go of the prospect of marriage and motherhood?

A No. I did have a boyfriend, and he was killed in a car accident. That was hard on me. It did lead me in the right direction though.

Q It made space in your heart?

A That’s right. God did lead me in the right direction, and I followed as well as I could.

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Sister Catherine Schoenecker July 20 with St. Paul Winter Carnival royalty: King Boreas (Billy Given), right, and Prime Minister (Christine Arme), left.

A I think I adjusted quite well. I was already close to the

sisters and knew a lot about religious life. That helped.

Those early years were good ones. I went out to teach right after novitiate. I was going to teach eighth grade, and one of the sisters said, “They should give you a ring already because those kids are going to know that you’re very young.”

Q She wanted you to have that outward symbol as a cover. What does the Benedictine virtue of hospitality mean to you?

A To have a welcoming spirit — whoever comes to the

door, whoever you meet. We all work together to make each guest feel welcome. One person does one thing, another does another. Hospitality is part of our life.

When I entered the community, the hospitality began right there. I always felt welcome. They loved to sit with me at the table so we could converse together.

Q What did you enjoy about teaching?

A My students really liked when I read to them, so I’d

Q Were you allowed to leave the monastery and visit home?

read part of a story every day. I loved to read the second graders “Ramona the Pest” by Beverly Cleary. I would impersonate her.

A We couldn’t go home for five years. But my family

Q You went on to be a principal. What helped you

could come twice a year to visit. There was peace in my heart, but I missed my family. We were very close.

Q Was the experience of religious life similar to your expectations for it?

develop into a good leader?

A Humility, listening well. Being open, always being in conversation with the teachers, as much as you could.

I tried to lead by example. When I’d observe a teacher

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Q What’s the secret to a long life?

A The routine in our community. The food we have is

always healthy. Those things make a difference. Prayer, community. My parents gave us our faith, a good home life and a good education. I thank them every day. My mother lived to 95. No one can replace your mother. No one can.

Q Do you think about being reunited with her in heaven?

A Oh yes, I do. I look forward to that day. Whenever

the Lord calls me, I’ll be ready. We don’t know when that will be. Good thing we don’t know. We don’t need to know.

Q Did life slow down when you retired?

A I was supposed to be retired, but I don’t think I am.

I’m still in charge of housekeeping. Other than that, I just keep busy. I don’t like getting up in the morning, but I do. I like to sleep in. I should do that — we’re able to do that if we want to — but I guess the guilt would get to me. I’d think, “Oh, they’re down there praying, they need me.”

Q Did your idea prove true that you’ve been able to do more good as a sister?

A I think it did. I really felt that.

Q What do you know for sure?

A I’m blessed. Just being able to be up and around.

There are so many people who have to use walkers.

I look at them and think, “I’m blessed with good feet and legs.” I try to be grateful for all that I have because I know that I have more than I deserve. I try to thank God every morning when I wake up. “Thank you for another day.” For all he’s given me, what can I give back?

JULY 28, 2022

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 13

FOCUSONFAITH SUNDAY SCRIPTURES | FATHER BRYCE EVANS

Searching for the ‘good life’

What is the good life? According to a common American conception, the “good life” is imagined as one of sufficient economic success to secure a timely and restful retirement. Stating it so simply already begins to make the idea sound frivolous.

But when we think about it, this really is a driving narrative of our culture that shapes the way we conceive of our lives.

What makes for a good life? What makes for success? What is the goal we are driving at in life? Work hard, play occasionally, amass wealth and, finally, enjoy the fruits of our labors in “peace” and “freedom.” While I am sure that many retirees would object to the terms “peace” and “freedom” as descriptors of their experience, we must nevertheless acknowledge this myth of the “good life” as a powerful force within our culture. In a very real way and to a significant extent, we are trained in our society to imagine the goal of our lives as the ability to one day say to ourselves the words of the man in the parable today: “Now as for you, you have so many good things stored up for many years, rest, eat, drink, be merry!”

This should make us distinctly uncomfortable as Catholics and as Christians, because our Lord is unsparing in his diagnosis of

ASK FATHER MIKE | FATHER MICHAEL SCHMITZ

How can I grow and become a saint?

Q I really want to grow. I mean, I really want

to become the person that God has called me to be, but I find myself being so busy that I can’t imagine adding more to my plate in order to be a saint. How can I fit more in?

A Thank you so much for writing and for your

question. First, you have the correct goal: You know that you are called to be a saint. To be anything else is to fail permanently. I know that is quite the claim, but consider the words of Jesus: “What does it profit a person to gain the whole world and lose their soul?” (Mk 8:36). Apparently, you and Jesus are on the same page (which is a very good page to be on).

But to move forward, it will be very important to keep a few things in mind.

First, what is a saint? A saint is not someone who has accomplished a certain task, has certain gifts or has achieved a certain notoriety. Most saints live what look like ordinary lives, without any distinguishing gifts or abilities, and are lacking popular recognition. A saint is merely someone who does God’s will.

St. Maximillian Kolbe put it like this: “When one’s will is the same as God’s Will, then one is holy.” This doesn’t mean that a person is perfect or that they are an expert at every task in their life. It does not mean that they never fail. But it does mean that they continually return to the Lord, regardless of victory or defeat.

The late Father Benedict Groeschel said that “a saint is a person who says yes to God … and who never stops saying yes.” While this means many things, one of the things it highlights is that a person can always choose to be a saint. Even if they have sinned. Because what is the call from the Lord to every person who has sinned?

God calls every person, virtuous or vicious, heroic or sinful, to let themselves be loved by him. Therefore, if a person is without sin, they are called to say “yes” to God and continue to walk in his grace. And if a person has sinned, they are called to say “yes” to God’s invitation to repent, go to confession, and walk in his grace. Our answer to God

this attitude in life: It is foolishness; it is vanity; it forgets about the inevitability of death and its seismic power to relativize all the prior values in life. Of what value will all our former wealth and pleasure and relaxation and luxury be to us in that moment when all is taken away from us, and, confronted with the judgment of eternity, we are found wanting?

The parable of this Sunday’s Gospel concludes with Jesus saying: “But God said to him, ‘You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?’ Thus will it be for all who store up treasure for themselves but are not rich in what matters to God” (Lk 12:20-21).

It is difficult to say what this parable should imply for our IRAs and our 401Ks, especially in a society that is to a large extent built around these structures for its sustenance and viability. I am not advocating rash decisions here. But, at the very least, these words of our Lord should make us uncomfortable, and spur us to examine our lives carefully. Living in the society that we do, we need to be especially wary of the temptation Jesus highlights in this Gospel, lest we end up confusing our goals with the goals of the world.

For as Christians, our goal is not rest, or retirement or ease. The only goal of life that makes sense for us, at the end of the day, is that of conforming ourselves to the crucified love of Jesus, which empties itself and stores up all its treasures in the love of the Father. That is the real “good life” that Jesus reveals to us. May we strive for it, even more energetically than we do for our “retirement.”

Father Evans is co-pastor of St. Mary in St. Paul’s Lowertown neighborhood. He also serves part time at the Center for Catholic Studies at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. He can be reached at fr.evans@saintmarysaintpaul.org.

is always “yes.” This is sanctity. Nothing more and nothing less.

And yet, God doesn’t just call us to have the “feeling” of saying yes — or the sentiment of walking with him. He wants us to actually say yes to his invitations to live out our relationship with him. This means spending time with him in prayer, participating actively in the sacraments, growing daily in living a life of virtue, and actively loving the people around us. And all of those things take energy, attention and time.

This is actually very practical. We all know that love requires energy, attention and time. Without these three, there really isn’t the possibility of love existing, much less growing and flourishing.

We love what we give our heart to; which is to say that we love what we give our energy, attention and time to. A person cannot say that they love their spouse if they do not give their spouse their energy, attention and time. The same is true for our relationship with God. If a person had the situation where their lives were so full that they did not have room for their spouse, they would be forced to ask themselves a question: “Do I love my schedule and the life I have created for myself, or do I love my spouse?” And then they would have to make changes. Time and attention and energy are limited resources. I can only give myself away to a limited number of things and people. I will need to make a choice. And so will you. If I love God, then he gets my energy, attention and time.

Now, this means that I have to say “no” to other things. That isn’t me being mean. It is just the truth; if I only have $5, I can’t buy both the medium latte and the Jimmy John’s sandwich. I have to choose between them.

And yet.

God is so good that he is calling us to say yes to him (to love him) in the midst of the life we are currently living. This is connected to something called the “sacrament of the present moment.” God is present at every moment and in every place. He is actively loving us at every moment and in every place. Because of this, we can grow in holiness (we can give him our heart — our energy, attention and time) by simply recognizing that every moment is a gift from God and can be a gift back to God. Yes, there are some things in our lives that will have to be discarded (repentance, after all, requires some real change), but God chooses to work out the extraordinary process of sanctification through ordinary means. This is the wisdom of the saints.

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

DAILY Scriptures Sunday, July 31 Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Ecc 1:2; 2:21-23 Col 3:1-5, 9-11 Lk 12:13-21 Monday, Aug. 1 St. Alphonsus Liguori, bishop and doctor of the Church Jer 28:1-17 Mt 14:13-21 Tuesday, Aug. 2 Jer 30:1-2, 12-15, 18-22 Mt 14:22-36 Wednesday, Aug. 3 Jer 31:1-7 Mt 15:21-28 Thursday, Aug. 4 St. John Vianney, priest Jer 31:31-34 Mt 16:13-23 Friday, Aug. 5 Na 2:1, 3; 3:1-3, 6-7 Mt 16:24-28 Saturday, Aug. 6 Transfiguration of the Lord Dn 7:9-10, 13-14 2 Pt 1:16-19 Lk 9:28b-36 Sunday, Aug. 7 Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Wis 18:6-9 Heb 11:1-2, 8-19 Lk 12:32-48 Monday, Aug. 8 St. Dominic, priest Ez 1:2-5, 24-28c Mt 17:22-27 Tuesday, Aug. 9 Ez 2:8–3:4 Mt 18:1-5, 10, 12-14 Wednesday, Aug. 10 St. Lawrence, deacon and martyr 2 Cor 9:6-10 Jn 12:24-26 Thursday, Aug. 11 St. Clare, virgin Ez 12:1-12 Mt 18:21–19:1 Friday, Aug. 12 Ez 16:1-15, 60, 63 or Ez 16:59-63 Mt 19:3-12 Saturday, Aug. 13 Ez 18:1-10, 13b, 30-32 Mt 19:13-15 Sunday, Aug. 14 Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time Jer 38:4-6, 8-10 Heb 12:1-4 Lk 12:49-53

KNOW the SAINTS ST. JOHN VIANNEY (1786-1859) Born near Lyon, France, this farmer’s son studied for the priesthood for many years, and eventually was ordained more for his devoutness and good will than for other qualities. But he became a model parish priest in Arsen-Dombes, where he served for 40 years. He was devoted to his parishioners, and became famous for rigorous preaching and insights in the confessional. The Cure of Ars, as he was known, spent up to 18 hours a day hearing the confessions of pilgrims who sought him out. He is the patron of parish priests, and the secondary patron of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. His feast is Aug. 4.

— Catholic News Service

14 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

JULY 28, 2022

COMMENTARY YOUR HEART, HIS HOME | LIZ KELLY STANCHINA

Our Lady of the Rockies, pray for us in the weeds

I’d invited a group of girlfriends to join me for a mini-pilgrimage to Our Lady of the Rockies in Butte, Montana. We flew into nearby Bozeman, piled into a rental car, and about an hour later, poured out into a quirky rental — a former Baptist church basement social hall that had been remodeled for living space where we would pray our rosary together every night. The next day, we climbed aboard a school bus to make the 40-minute trek from Butte up to the Continental Divide where Our Lady of the Rockies is situated. The first 20 minutes were easy, paved roadway. What we didn’t know was that the last 20 minutes consisted of treacherous switchbacks on a dirt road with no guardrails in a school bus that was

CATHOLIC WATCHMEN | DEACON GORDON BIRD

Revive the Eucharist in prayer and fellowship Prayer and fellowship do not lay idle in the summer any more than other vibrant parish activities or Christian outreach ministries would.

The formalities or informalities that bring us together regularly cannot afford a respite from prayer, as they are designed to strengthen us in holiness as we reach out for God’s help. Like a body needs a sound routine of exercise, a healthy diet and rest to stay fit, the soul needs regular engagement with others in prayer and fellowship to keep active and robust.

Since Catholic Watchmen are asked to pray in monthly parish gatherings, our prayer intention in August is to do our part to support the National Eucharistic Revival within our parish communities, both now and on the Revival’s three-year journey.

We pray that parish families within our archdiocese help to fulfill the mission of the Eucharistic Revival: “To renew the Church by enkindling in God’s people a living relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist.” Led by our bishops, its mission of bringing people to encounter the love of Jesus in the

rather geriatric. There were more than a few moments when I had to simply close my eyes and pray the bus did not tip over and start rolling down the mountain.

As we lurched back and forth up the narrow passage, I prayed earnestly that I had not invited my dear good girlfriends to their deaths.

Alas, Our Lady was worth a few perilous moments.

Our Lady of the Rockies is dedicated to all women, especially mothers. She was built through the remarkable devotion and vision of the local people and stands 90 feet tall weighing more than 400 tons.

She was placed on the mountain by an Air National Guard team in four parts using a Sikorski Sky Crane, an unbelievable feat in itself, and she shares the Butte skyline with a few new cell and radio towers looming next to her.

Though there have been miraculous healings reported through Our Lady of the Rockies, and there are hundreds of rosaries draped there in testimony to answered prayers, we came to understand that she’s had her share of controversy. There are those who resent her presence.

Still, there she remains, beautiful, dazzling white, arms open, inviting all the world below to know her.

The day after our return from Montana, Roe v. Wade was overturned. In the aftermath of this announcement, like many people, I imagine, my husband and I wanted to pull up roots and move some place where antiabortion laws are far more likely to stick. I wanted to

“come out from among them” and hole up somewhere I wouldn’t be targeted as a Catholic.

But then I pictured Our Lady of the Rockies overlooking Butte, she who fights quietly, beautifully for her right to be there, good seed among the weeds. In the parable of the weeds among the wheat (Mt 13:2430), Jesus says the kingdom of heaven is a like a field sown with good seed, until the enemy comes in the night and scatters weeds among the good seed. The slaves ask their master if they should pull up the weeds, but the master replies, “‘No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, ‘Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned but gather the wheat into my barn.’”

Though I may want to escape my culture, run away to some place I imagine to be safer, I am reminded that at this time, the Lord might be calling me to be more like Our Lady of the Rockies, standing with the weeds, trusting in the impending harvest and the Mighty, Master Harvester.

Our Lady, pray for us, that we may stand our ground as gently, steadfastly, and as invitingly as you do.

Eucharist and “experience the life-changing effects of that love,” is in its early stage. St. Boniface said, “The Church is like a great ship being pounded by the waves of life’s different stresses. Our duty is not to abandon her, but to keep her on her course.” Watchmen are compelled to be devoted to this calling.

I both chuckled and lowered my head during a monthly conference call of the Catholic Men’s Leadership Alliance (CMLA), when a nationally renowned deacon vividly expressed his disappointment at hearing of an evangelical ministry that was “taking the summer off” from their regular gatherings. His point being that — whether it be ministry to men, women, the elderly, the poor, those addicted — to gain and keep traction in any movement that brings the saving knowledge of Jesus to others does not let up for a few months.

People do need their leisure, of course, yet the movement of any apostolate needs to keep moving.

Not everyone is taking vacation at the same time.

The benefit of Catholic ministries is that they are very much communal — eucharistic — in nature and supernaturally. As Catholic Watchmen, we do not believe we are alone “standing in the breach” protecting, providing and leading the faith. Men that take time for regular prayer and fellowship collectively grow and sustain their friendship with one another as their divine friendship with Christ flourishes.

What is “regular”? As our archdiocesan Watchmen movement commenced, we viewed monthly as the minimum, which is in lockstep with our seventh discipline, the anchor of the CW movement: “Build fraternity and evangelize men in monthly parish gatherings.” Knowing that while this may be more practical for larger group parish fellowship, small groups of six to eight men can branch off from those

bigger numbers and meet more regularly (e.g., weekly).

The impact is huge in developing and strengthening spiritual fathers. That Man is You, Exodus 90, The King’s Men, Fathers of St. Joseph, Game-Changers, or weekly Bible or book study gatherings are examples.

The Watchmen movement was never intended to replace existing men’s ministry platforms or programs.

It’s an umbrella movement for ministry to men — start-ups or those existing within a parish — intended to encourage men to embrace and keep each other accountable to its seven common disciplines (i.e., three daily, two weekly, two monthly). It can help provide a common language for spiritual fatherhood — in family life, parish activities, vocations and spheres of influence in the greater community. (Find these at archspm.org/ faith-communities/men.) Knights of Columbus outside of their regular meetings, for example, might break off into small-group gatherings that include prayer vigils, rosaries or an adoration hour with the Blessed Sacrament, thus incorporating the Watchmen’s first discipline: “Pray with persistence and with devotion to Jesus, Mary and Joseph.”

Catholic Watchmen are prayer warriors who know that a persistent, consistent and vital daily prayer life is essential to staying alive in Christ: “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them” (Mt 18:20). Revive the Eucharist in yourself and others through continuous prayer and fellowship, helping to strengthen the Church — the body of Christ — as mission!

Congratulations Father William Deziel on your 25th Anniversary of Holy Priesthood from your parish family at Annunciation Church.

Kelly Stanchina is the award-winning author of 10 books, including “Love Like a Saint: Cultivating Virtue with Holy Women.” Visit her website at lizk.org.

Deacon Bird ministers at St. Joseph in Rosemount and All Saints in Lakeville and assists with the archdiocese’s Catholic Watchmen movement. To receive a tool kit of Watchmen materials for start-up or existing ministryto-men apostolates please contact him at gordonbird@ rocketmail.com.

Celebrate Walk forLife!

Life Laps for Life 2017 and 5K Run

and 5K run Saturday, August 5

10 AM August - 2 PM 16 Saturday, 10AM to 2PMStadium Eastview High School Apple Valley

Eastview High School Stadium warm-ups @ 9:30 a.m.

6200 140th St. W.

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COMMENTARY

JULY 28, 2022

FAITH AT HOME | LAURA KELLY FANUCCI

Catching God at the ballfield

As a mother of five boys, I have spent countless nights at baseball fields, but never have I glimpsed God in the dugout until tonight.

Can I confess that I was bored by my own son’s game — bored only because his team was winning and he’d finished pitching, so my attention wandered for a moment, long enough to catch a shout I’d never heard from the sidelines on the next field.

“I love you! I’m so proud of you! You’re doing it!”

What shocked me was that such enthusiasm came not from a fellow parent in the bleachers, but a coach hanging on the backstop.

“I love you!” he called again through the chain-link fence, this time to another player stepping up to the plate. “I see you! I’m here for you!”

The dad sitting next to me heard it, too. He turned around, startled by the strangeness. Youth sports is now the thorny terrain of adult tantrums and

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 15

parental outbursts — not often pure outpourings of love or grace.

But grace it was, ball cap slung backward, sunglasses shading the setting sun, thick arms hanging on the backstop, enthusiasm pouring on every 8-year-old like it was Game 7 of the World Series.

Cynic that I am regarding youth sports, I figured the first inning cheers would fade from heat and exhaustion (if not defeat) as the game went on.

Instead surged the opposite.

In inning two, the coach hollered to a kid who got tagged out at second, “That was hard! But I’m proud of you. You did a hard thing!”

In inning three, he confirmed an ump’s tough call and shouted to his team’s opponent on first base, “That was a great hit! Way to go.”

In inning four, he lined up his players by batting order on the bench and ran down the row, highfiving each one, then reeled around and yelled, “No, that’s not done; I’m coming back!” and ran right back down the line of stretched-out hands, every kid erupting in laughter.

“Now you need to be there for each other,” he cheered. “Be the team we need to be!”

Here’s the best part: I couldn’t tell which player was his child. It must have been one of them: A father’s love had surely brought him there; this truth was clear as the bright blue sky on that warm summer night.

But his child could have been any player on the

team — or all of them at once, so wide and embracing was his enthusiasm.

Often we picture God like an umpire: crouching down whenever we step up to the plate, waiting to call strikes and outs, watching for the least infraction.

But ours is a God of justice and mercy. Not simply the judge with the rulebook and the last word, but also love incarnate, calling each of us by name, rejoicing in all we can be.

The word “enthusiasm” means to be inhabited by God, the delightful indwelling when divine love and joy spark to life within us, electric with possibility.

I saw enthusiasm personified on the ballfield tonight, and it was contagious.

The dad next to me let out a low whistle of admiration. “Wish I’d had a coach like that when I was a kid.” The grandparents to my left nodded, too.

“We need more of that these days.”

“Christ plays in ten thousand places,” wrote the Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins. He might never have meant the Little League dugout, but I caught a glimpse of God tonight on the sidelines, and I will not soon forget such rare and unceasing joy.

A parishioner of St. Joseph the Worker in Maple Grove, Fanucci is a writer, speaker and author of several books, including “Everyday Sacrament: The Messy Grace of Parenting.” Her work can be found at laurakellyfanucci.com.

LETTERS ‘Catholics in confusion’ Recent, very public actions by Pope Francis, and his public and seemingly tacit approvals of the Pelosis during their seemingly purposeful visit to Rome, are confusing and discouraging to my spouse and I, who are now “Catholics in Confusion” as a result of the pope’s displays and lack of leadership. Who can say something to us in print or by video that will explain why we should honor the pope when his actions are not appropriate and on display to the world and encouraging contradictions to the beliefs and teachings of the Catholic Church?

Bill Pavlik St. Gerard Majella Church, Brooklyn Park

Gratitude for Bishop Pates Thank you to writer Christina Capecchi and The Catholic Spirit for the deeply inspiring interview with our beloved Bishop Pates. His qualities of wisdom, wit and warmth are an example

toward excellence to which I can only attempt to aspire. I wish for him a fulfilling retirement (at last). May he indeed write his book, for the edification of us all.

Lawrence Lawyer Cathedral of St. Paul, St. Paul

Gratitude prayer Thank you, Lord, for inspiring the SCOTUS to overturn Roe v. Wade. What took you so long? To die is sorrowful, but the idea of having to die without having lived is unacceptable (based on a statement by Erich Fromm, a German sociologist).

Rich Osborn Christ the King, Minneapolis

Roe overturned, now what?

Many Catholics appear to be happy with Roe overturned and the babies the ruling will now save. But those babies represent real lives. If they survive infancy and beyond, many will still be living in poverty (the rich will be able

to get abortions regardless), still have little or no access to birth control, still be discriminated against, still have unmet mental health needs, still be raped, assaulted, treated as second-class citizens, particularly if they are female or people of color, and if they are LGBTQ+, God help them, because this fractured society will not. The promises of pro-life advocates to take care of the babies saved rings hollow. We’ve had years to do this.

In a world without universal health care, family leave, without guarantee to clean water, air and unpolluted earth, and with more guns than the entire Ukrainian army, are we really taking care of the babies that have been saved? Or just the fetuses?

Elizabeth Rosenwinkel St. Albert the Great, Minneapolis

Mothers’ safety Even though Roe v. Wade has been overturned, giving birth in this country is still dangerous. According to a recent study in Obstetrics & Gynecology, homicide is now the leading cause of

Disappointing coverage As a practicing Catholic, I was deeply disappointed by your inclusion of Julie Asher’s political piece in the July 14th edition (“Archbishop Lori calls Biden’s abortion order ‘deeply disturbing, tragic’”). Considering the pro-life stance of your publication, readers may reasonably assume you agree with activist Carol Tobias who was quoted, accusing President Biden of thinking that “killing children” is the only way to solve “Americans’ problems.” Surely you PLEASE TURN TO LETTERS ON PAGE 18

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Nick Hansen Basilica of St. Mary, Minneapolis

“We do not learn so much from conversation or argument as from humble recourse to God.”

Let your Faith Take Flight Join Spiritual Director Fr. Fitz Join SpiritualthisDirector Fr. Fitz fall touring historic mission churches along California’s this fall touring historic mission Pacific Coast Highway while churches alongenjoying California’s Pacific harvest season in the vineyards.

death for pregnant women in the United States — and the rates are higher for Black women. Women still experience intimate partner violence at disturbingly high rates, and the U.S. still has the highest rates of maternal mortality in the developed world. Please call on your elected leaders to better protect pregnant women.

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16 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

LEFT PAGE

JULY 28, 2022

PAID ADVERTISEMENT

“They can be confident knowing they will receive a house that will provide better protection from any major storm or earthquake to come.”

Jim Cavnar, Cross Catholic Outreach Cross Catholic Outreach, he understood exactly how the disaster would impact Haiti’s poorest families.

“The earthquake came without warning, killed indiscriminately, and left scores of shattered lives — and homes — in its wake,” he explained. “While it was centered in a part of Haiti that is less populated than the country’s capital city, we were on high alert that day because the Tiburon Peninsula contains a lot of makeshift homes, and we knew they would never hold up to an earthquake of that severity.” (See related story on opposite page.)

Even before roads had been cleared and damaged bridges could be repaired, Cross Catholic Outreach had found routes to provide earthquake survivors with food and other relief supplies. The ministry continued this emergency relief work for weeks following the disaster, but it also began working with its in-country Catholic partners to determine what kinds of long-term support would be needed. It

was then that Cross Catholic Outreach’s staff learned something encouraging.

The homes it had been building for poor families prior to the earthquake through an in-country partner called Pwoje Espwa (Project Hope) were among the few structures that had remained intact during the tremors.

“We were very impressed by the quality of homes our partner had built.

Few sustained any serious damage, while many other cement houses in the area had been reduced to rubble. That proved the importance of our commitment to build simple but high-quality homes through the ESPWA team,” Cavnar said. “It also inspired us to expand our plans so we could provide new homes to the families that had lost everything in the earthquake.

The quality of Espwa’s work will be a comfort to them too. They can be confident knowing they will receive a house that will provide better protection from any major storm or earthquake to come.”

Photo courtesy of Overture International.

Within a few horrifying minutes, the lives of hundreds of Haitian families were literally turned upside down. On Aug. 14, 2021, a massive earthquake struck Haiti’s Tiburon Peninsula, causing 2,248 deaths, injuring more than 12,760 people, and damaging hundreds of homes, parishes, schools and medical buildings. It was a day Jim Cavnar remembers very well. As the president of

As with all of its programs, Cross Catholic Outreach will approach this housing project in a way that blesses families both materially and spiritually, according to Cavnar.

Photo courtesy of Overture International.

Cross Catholic Outreach Partners With Pwoje Espwa to Rebuild Homes Destroyed

by Haiti Earthquake

The impact of the earthquake reduced poorly constructed homes to rubble in a few minutes, so Cross Catholic Outreach and Pwoje Espwa — the ministry’s in-country partner in Haiti — are using improved construction techniques on the new homes being built.

“We believe in integral human development. That is a formal term used by the Catholic Church, but its meaning is actually very simple,” he said. “It means we believe spiritual and emotional support must accompany the material aid we provide. We stress that because we know true, lasting change is only possible when we address the needs of both the body and the soul.”

Cavnar added that Cross Catholic Outreach feels a sense of urgency and is eager to get its next large-scale housing project underway.

“We’ll be launching a campaign soon to get funding for this effort from Catholic donors in the U.S.,” he said, “and we are confident a lot of individuals, families and even Catholic businesses will want to participate. No one wants these Haitian families to be homeless or living in tents because of

this disaster. Our housing project will build quality homes at a very reasonable cost using local labor, which also helps support poor families in Haiti through job training and employment. There’s not a more impactful or life-transforming gift a donor could give.”

Readers interested in supporting Cross Catholic Outreach’s housing program and other ministries to the poor can contribute through the brochure inserted in this issue or by sending a tax-deductible gift to: Cross Catholic Outreach, Dept. AC02151, PO Box 97168, Washington, DC 200907168. The ministry has a special need for partners willing to make gifts on a monthly basis. Use the inserted brochure to become a Mission Partner, or write “Monthly Mission Partner” on mailed checks to be contacted about setting up those arrangements.

Cross Catholic Outreach’s ‘Day of Prayer’ Blesses Catholics Spiritually Each year, one of the nation’s leading international relief and development ministries sets aside a special day to offer prayer as a gift to those in need — particularly to Catholics in America who have been supporting its work overseas.

It is yet another sign of the organization’s deeply spiritual approach to charity.

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

U.S. parishes to share about our mission during the homily of the Mass,” explained Jim Cavnar, president of Cross Catholic Outreach. “The Day of Prayer we celebrate in August is a full day dedicated to prayer for others, particularly our missionary partners overseas and those they serve. It also includes a wonderful additional blessing: in Rome, on the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Cardinal Konrad Krajewski will offer a special Mass for the collective intentions of all our benefactors.”

Individuals interested in participating in the Day of Prayer are encouraged to use the ministry’s special online form to submit their prayer intentions. It can be found at CrossCatholic.org/dayofprayer.

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

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

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

JULY 28, 2022

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 17

RIGHT PAGE

PAID ADVERTISEMENT

On Aug. 14, 2021, more than 60,700 homes were destroyed and 76,100 damaged by a 7.2 magnitude earthquake. Days later, a tropical storm battered the same area, dumping torrential rain that destroyed crops at the peak of the harvest season.

“Those two devastating natural disasters shook thousands of families to their core and left many wondering if it would ever be possible to rebuild their lives,” confirmed Jim Cavnar, president of Cross Catholic Outreach, one of the leading Catholic ministries serving in Haiti and involved in relief efforts after these events. “It was terrible to see the suffering, to learn about how many lives had been lost and how many homes had been reduced to piles of rubble. Roads and bridges were destroyed, and families were driven into the streets in fear. Fortunately, the Church was in a position to help, and we could join in with the work they were doing to provide help and hope to the families that were suffering most.”

While the destruction caused by the 2021 earthquake was staggering, most Americans were unaware of the disaster because they saw or heard very little about it on the news.

“We work in Haiti, so we understood the scale of the Aug. 14 disaster, but very few American Catholics were aware of what had happened,” said Cavnar. “That’s probably because the earthquake occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, and because a blitz of other international news stories hit during the same week. The disconnect is understandable, but you can imagine how discouraging it was to the earthquake survivors. Thousands had lost family members, homes and possessions, and they wondered if their pleas for help were even being heard.”

Fortunately, Cross Catholic Outreach was aware of the disaster’s impact and remained vigilant, doing whatever it could to provide relief. In the months following the earthquake, it arranged shipments of food, medicines, tarps for temporary shelter, and other important supplies to the areas where the needs of the poor were greatest.

Eventually, the focus of Catholic leaders working in the hardest-hit areas of Haiti shifted from providing emergency aid to finding solutions to long-term challenges. For example, families had found ways to create makeshift shelters or were huddling under tarps, but they clearly needed more substantial shelter, especially if they had children.

“That’s why constructing housing is our priority now,” Cavnar said. “Once food, water and medical needs are addressed after a disaster, it is essential that we get families out of tents and other primitive shelters and into safe, sturdy homes. The house can have a

Photo courtesy of Overture International.

US Catholics Play Critical Role in Helping Poor Haitian Families Still Struggling After Major Earthquake

Families who were displaced by the Haiti earthquake are finally able to start rebuilding their lives — thanks to an outreach of Cross Catholic Outreach funded by compassionate Catholic donors in the U.S. Much has been accomplished, but more remains to be done. simple design, but it should be well constructed and secure and meet sanitary needs. Supplying this housing is critical because it restores hope and gives families a foundation for rebuilding their lives. The homes we build are perfectly suited to the areas we serve, and they are designed to address these poor families’ need for shelter and security.”

According to Cavnar, Cross Catholic Outreach has launched this major housing reconstruction project in Haiti, and an in-country ministry team called Pwoje Espwa (Project Hope) will be involved in managing the process to ensure each house is built to a high standard. (See related story on opposite page.)

Based on the way U.S. Catholics have supported previous efforts like these, Cavnar is confident many will again want to join the cause and build homes for these displaced families.

“I have been involved in ministries to the poor for 30 years and worked on many relief projects like this before. In my experience, Catholics are deeply compassionate people and are always eager to help needy families, particularly in the wake of a disaster,” he said. “They

understand how important having a safe home is to their own family, and they sympathize with parents who feel hopeless desperation when their children are suffering and there is nothing they can do to improve their situation. For some, providing a home to a poor family is also a way to show gratitude to God for the blessings he has bestowed on them. Others see it as a tangible way to respond to Christ’s call to love others as you love yourself.”

Sponsoring a home for a needy family is also popular because it produces a tangible impact with long-term benefits,

Cavnar said.

“When people give, they want to know their contribution is achieving something specific and will improve someone’s life in a profound way,” he shared. “That is another reason both our disaster relief efforts and our home-building initiatives are so popular. When you donate to those causes, you know your gift is going to produce a significant benefit to the families being helped. In the case of relief efforts, it can literally save a life.

With the gift of a home, you restore lost hope and bless a family for many years to come.”

How to Help To fund Cross Catholic Outreach’s effort to help the poor worldwide, use the postage-paid brochure inserted in this newspaper, or mail your gift to Cross Catholic Outreach, Dept. AC02151, PO Box 97168, Washington, DC 20090-7168. The brochure also includes instructions on becoming a Mission Partner and making a regular monthly donation to this cause.

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

18 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

JULY 28, 2022

CALENDAR PARISH EVENTS

Stillwater. moderncatholicpilgrim.com/bl-solanus

National Night Out — Aug. 2: 5–7 p.m. at St. Mary, 261 E. Eighth St., St. Paul. A fun night and opportunity to meet Lowertown neighbors. Live music, a “selfie” with Pope Francis and church tours. Children‘s games and visits from the police and fire departments. Food and beverages provided. Free parking. stmarystpaul.org All Saints, Lakeville, Garage Sale — Aug. 3-6 at All Saints, 19795 Holyoke Ave., Lakeville. Thousands of items available: antiques, collectibles, clothing for all ages, household goods, furniture, sports equipment and more. Hours and sales at allsaintschurch.com/garagesale.

St. Thomas More Free Store — Aug. 6-20: 1–3 p.m. at St. Thomas More School, 1065 Summit Ave., St. Paul. New and gently used clothing, books, toys and housewares to those in need. No income limit or identification required to shop. Use alley school entrance, store in school basement. tmorecommunity.org/free-store

RETREATS+WORSHIP The Blessed Solanus Casey Pilgrimage — July 30: 8 a.m.–5:30 p.m. A walking pilgrimage, for the feast of Blessed Solanus Casey, to St. Michael, 611 Third St. S., Stillwater, where he was confirmed. Full day option beginning at St. Peter, 2600 N. Margaret St., North St. Paul, or an afternoon option beginning in

Help for Struggling Married Couples — Aug. 5-7 at Best Western/Dakota Ridge Hotel, 3450 Washington Drive, Eagan. Retrouvaille is a lifeline for troubled marriages. helpourmarriage.org Silent Weekend Retreat for Men and Women — Aug. 5-7 at Christ the King Retreat Center, 621 First Ave. S., Buffalo. “The Practice of Sabbath in our Lives — Some Tips for Sanity in an Over-Stimulated Time” presented by Father Ron Rolheiser, OMI. Suggested donation: $250. kingshouse.com Life in the Spirit Day — Aug. 6: 8 a.m.–3:45 p.m. at St. William, 6120 Fifth St. NE, Fridley. Discover what it means to enter a personal relationship with the Holy Spirit and have the graces of your baptism stirred up. Presentations include God’s Love, Salvation, The New Life, Receiving God’s Gift, Praying for Baptism in the Holy Spirit, Growth and Transformation in Christ. The day will include praise and worship. $10 includes lunch. Organized by the Catholic Charismatic Renewal Office. Register at 763-571-5314 or ccro-msp.org.

Silent Retreat — Aug. 11-14 at Franciscan Retreats and Spirituality Center, 16385 St. Francis Lane, Prior Lake. Blend of scheduled and open time, confession, anointing, Mass and prayer sessions in silence. franciscanretreats.net Silent Weekend Retreat for Men and Women — Aug. 19-21 at Christ the King Retreat Center, 621

LETTERS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 15

Marijuana and heartbreak

would want to avoid any hint of giving legitimacy to such an absurd appeal.

Even more disturbing was the author’s haste to cast doubt on the story of a child sexual assault victim, a disgusting irony considering our Church still reels from a sexual abuse crisis and cover-up while striving to be a safe harbor for the most vulnerable. Please be more discriminating in your editorial choices, especially as it relates to aligning yourself with political movements that may not be truly “pro-life” in the broadest sense of Catholic social teaching.

The Randy Bacchus story (“Highpotency marijuana, mental health challenges lead to son’s suicide,” June 30) was heartbreaking and represents every parent’s nightmare. I’m glad his family has come forward with his story.

One thing to be learned, of course, is that marijuana is not an innocuous drug. Another may not be as explicit.

Children who suffer learning disabilities (e.g. ADHD) often deal with high levels of anxiety and depression, tempting them to misuse substances such as marijuana, tobacco and alcohol. This may persist into adulthood. Until the underlying issue is treated, interventions may not be very successful. In my years

Kyle Harvison St. Albert the Great, Minneapolis

First Ave. S., Buffalo. “The Fifth Gospel: The Land of Jesus” presented by Father Charles Lachowitzer.

Looks at the geography and towns during Jesus’ time, offering rich insight into his life and teachings.

Mass, prayer and reflection on Scripture, where the scenery is part of the message. Suggested donation: $225. kingshouse.com

OTHER EVENTS Walk for Life — Aug. 7: 10 a.m.–2 p.m. Sponsored

by Knights of Columbus at Eastview High School Athletic Fields, 6200 140th St. W., Apple Valley.

All ages welcome. Proceeds to a pregnancy choice center and pro-life educational materials. Contribute online at knightsforlife.org. knightsforlifemn.org GAB in the Park — Aug. 19: 6–8 p.m. Harmon Park, 230 Bernard St. W., West St. Paul. Gifted and Belonging (GAB), a Catholic social group for young adults with and without disabilities, is hosting summer get togethers at Harmon Park. Bring lawn chairs, favorite yard games or outdoor activities, snacks to share and a beverage. giftedandbelonging@gmail.com Aim Higher Foundation‘s Back-to-School Ice Cream Celebration — Aug. 28: 1:30–3 p.m. at Cathedral of St. Paul, 239 Selby Ave., St. Paul. All Aim Higher Scholars and their families are invited to celebrate the beginning of a new school year in Catholic schools. Outside ice cream, lawn games and fellowship. aimhigherfoundation.org

as a physician, I often noticed that it was people of faith who were most reluctant to consider medical treatment, or to have themselves or their children placed on medication. I suspected they believed that behavioral issues were better treated with good parenting. Intellect and mood are not just spiritual issues. They are greatly influenced by our brain, which is an organ. Good parenting cannot always make up for that, any more than it would for diabetes or asthma.

G.J. Mayer St. Peter, Forest Lake Share your perspective by emailing TheCatholicSpirit@archspm.org. Please limit your letter to the editor to 150 words and include your parish and phone number.

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

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

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

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

ITEMS MUST INCLUDE the following to be considered for publication: uTime and date of event uFull street address of event uDescription of event u Contact information in case of questions TheCatholicSpirit.com/calendarsubmissions

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EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES Part-time Law Office Typist in West St. Paul, Minnesota: Produce legal documents including Wills, Trusts, Briefs, Pleadings, and Reports. Administrative support to attorneys and paralegals. In addition, a paralegal or legal assistant is also needed with similar duties but expanded to include research and composition of documents and other related duties. Contact John Trojack 651-451-9696. TrojackLaw.com

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Seamstress-Sewer Drapery WorkroomEdina Full /Part time. In need of experienced sewers. Attention to detail and pride in your work. Call George Ross: 952-831-8300.

Resurrection Cemetery: Section 7; lots 1, 2, 3, & 5; $3379 each. 208-720-0919

EVENTS

Calvary: 2 plots; Ask $1400/ea. 651-698-5208

EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES Fabric Presser Drapery Workroom-Edina Full/part time. Need someone to pre-press fabrics. Bottle-fed commercial irons.

Attention to detail required. Able to stand for long periods. Will train. Call George Ross: 952-831-8300

GREAT CATHOLIC SPEAKERS CD of the Month Club Lighthouse Catholic Media, Scott Hahn, Jeff Cavins and more! $5/month includes shipping.

Subscribe online at www.lighthousecatholicmedia.org/cdclub Please Enter Code: 119 HANDYMAN WE DO 1,162 THINGS AROUND THE HOME! Catholic Owned Handyman Business: We will fix/repair and remodel almost anything around the home. Serving entire Metro. Call today. Mention this ad and receive 10% off labor. ACE Handyman Services 952-946-0088.

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JULY 28, 2022

FESTIVALS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2 outdoor food, cash raffle, auction, and live entertainment. Noon– 4 p.m. Sept. 11, kickball tournament, donuts and coffee, food truck and Chance Baskets. 5900 W. Lake St. hfcmn.org St. Michael, St. Michael — Sept. 10-11: 3–8 p.m. Sept. 10; 11 a.m.–5 p.m. Sept. 11. Sept. 10: “bags” tournament, food trucks and craft beer tasting. Sept. 11: chicken dinner, food trucks, refreshments, country store, arts and crafts, children’s games, silent auction and more. Raffle tickets: $10 each, drawing 4 p.m.

Sept. 11. stmcatholicchurch.org Sacred Heart, St. Paul — Sept. 11: 10 a.m.–3:30 p.m. Kid and adult games, raffles, Mexican and American food, live entertainment, general store and garage sale. 840 Sixth St. E. sacredheartstpaul.org St. Mary, Stillwater — 53rd Annual Wild Rice Festival, Sept. 11: 11 a.m.–4 p.m. Wild rice and chicken dinner, silent auction, games, bingo, football game, beer tent, Country Fair, cakewalk, quilts and more. Dinner tickets at stmaryswildrice.brownpapertickets.com or in person day of the festival. 423 Fifth St. S. stmarystillwater.org St. Stanislaus, St. Paul — Sept. 11: 11 a.m.–5 p.m. Fall Festival with bingo, wheel of fortune, mini golf, cotton candy, kid store and games, live music, beer and hot dogs, white elephant garage sale, variety of booths, silent auction, jar bar, bakery and the famous turkey dinner with all the trimmings. 398 Superior St. ststan.org St. Edward, Bloomington — Gather Fall Festival, Sept. 16-17: 5–7 p.m. Sept. 16; 11 a.m.– 4:30 p.m. Sept. 17. Sept. 16: Eddie’s Spaghetti. Sept. 17: live music, games and inflatables, bingo, Eddie’s bake sale, silent auction and raffle. Lunch or a snack in the dining tent. Wine and beer available. 9401 Nesbitt Ave. S. stedwardschurch.org Our Lady of Guadalupe, St. Paul — Family Fun Festival, Sept. 16-17: 5:30–9:30 p.m. Sept. 16; 8 a.m.–6 p.m. Sept. 17. Sept. 16, 5:30 p.m. Mass, followed by food and a movie. Sept. 17, 8 a.m.

Mass, 9 a.m. soccer tournament, authentic Mexican food, music, children’s games, dancing horses, face painting and more. Tickets ($1 each) are needed for food, drinks, etc. Proceeds benefit the parish. 401 Concord St. olgcatholic.org Our Lady of the Lake, Mound — The Incredible Festival, Sept. 16-18: 5–11 p.m. Sept. 16; 11 a.m.–11 p.m. Sept. 17; 11 a.m.–4 p.m. Sept. 18. Benefits the parish. Food, silent auction, carnival rides, games, beer tent, bingo and more. No entrance fee.

2385 Commerce Blvd. ourladyofthelake.com St. Helena, Minneapolis — Autumn Daze Festival, Sept. 16-18: 5–10 p.m. Sept. 16; 10:30 a.m.–10 p.m. Sept. 17; 10:30 a.m.–5 p.m.

Sept. 18. Food, quilts and cash bingo, rides, children’s games, silent auction, baskets, rummage sale and raffles. Sept. 16, fish fry and fireworks; Sept. 17, morning parade; Sept. 18, afternoon car show. 3204 East 43rd St. sainthelena.us St. Peter, North St. Paul — Sept. 16-18: 6:30–8 p.m. Sept. 16, Presentation on the World Vatican International Exhibit, which is on display through the weekend. 5–9 p.m. Sept. 17, live music with Big Toe and the Jam, food trucks, raffles, pull tabs, beer garden, games, inflatables, craft market and silent auction; 9 a.m.–3 p.m. Sept. 18, pancake breakfast, Rock it Man dueling piano show, bingo, games, inflatables, craft market, silent auction, cornhole tournament, food trucks, beer garden, pull tabs and two grand prize raffles: first, $5,000 cash; second, an all-inclusive trip for two to Mexico or Bahamas.

2600 Margaret St. churchofstpeternsp.org Nativity of Our Lord, St. Paul — The Nativity County Fair, Sept. 16-18: 4:30–10 p.m. Sept.

16; noon–10 p.m. Sept. 17; 11 a.m.–3 p.m. Sept. 18. Mass at 10 a.m.

1900 Wellesley Ave. Details online. nativitycountyfair.org All Saints, Lakeville — Sept. 16 and Sept.18: 6 p.m. Sept. 16, buffet dinner catered by Las Tortillas followed by bingo ($18 per person). 11 a.m. Sept.

18, outdoor Mass followed by food, children’s games, petting zoo, pony rides and inflatables for all ages.19795 Holyoke Ave. allsaintschurch.com/festival Sacred Heart, Robbinsdale — Family Fun Fest, Sept. 17: 2–10:30 p.m. “Bags” tournament, bingo, raffle, children’s games, face painting, several food selections, pull tabs and fun new surprises, 7–10 p.m.: Band: 45rpm. 4087 W. Broadway Ave. N. shrmn.org

PARISHFALLFESTIVALGUIDE Divine Mercy, Faribault — Spirit Fest Fall Festival, Sept. 17: 4–9 p.m. The 22nd annual, with smoked pork and turkey drumstick dinner, food trucks, live music by Sonar Worship at 4 p.m. Mass and on outdoor stage. Children’s games, free drive-in movie, country store, Catholic history exhibit, raffles, silent auctions and fireworks. 139 Mercy Drive. spiritfest.cc or divinemercy.cc Holy Name of Jesus, Wayzata — Sept. 17: main events 4–9 p.m. Outdoor Mass 4 p.m., followed by live music by Emerson Avenue, children’s carnival games and inflatables, food (including Rock Elm Tavern), bake sale, beer pull and wine walk. Morning activities include the Turtle Trot 5K at 9 a.m. and the Wiffle Ball Tournament beginning at 9:45 a.m. 155 County Road 24. hnoj.org/fallfest Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Maplewood — Sept. 17-18: 4–10 p.m. Sept. 17; 9:30 a.m.–3:30 p.m.

Sept. 18. Highlights include Kiddie Land games, food booths, pull tabs, silent auction, basket booth, taco dinner, a bonfire, bingo and an outdoor movie. 1725 Kennard St. presentationofmary.org

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 19 St. Pius V, Cannon Falls — Hometown Market and Great Fall Raffle, Sept. 18: 10 a.m.–3 p.m. Mass, 10 a.m. followed by artists, crafters, vendors, live auction and food vendors. Great Fall Raffle drawing 3 p.m. 410 Colvill St. W. stpiusvcf.org St. Vincent de Paul, Brooklyn Park — Harvest Festival, Sept. 18: 11 a.m.–6 p.m. Games for children, teens and adults, bingo, pull tabs, raffles, beer tent, pig roast and more. Drawings at 6:15 p.m.

9100 93rd Ave. N. saintvdp.org St. Ambrose, Woodbury — Fifth annual FallFest, Sept. 23-24: 5:30 p.m.–10 p.m. Sept. 23; 11 a.m.–10 p.m. Sept. 24. Entertainment for all ages. Including a talent show Sept. 23. Adults: wine raffle, silent auction, bucket raffle, beer garden and a big-ticket raffle.

Children: games with prizes, carnival rides and bingo. Food options from local restaurants. Headliner bands: Rizer (6–10 p.m. Sept. 23) and Good for Gary (6–10 p.m. Sept. 24). 4125 Woodbury Drive. saintambroseofwoodbury.org St. John, Little Canada — Sept. 24: 5:30–8 p.m. following 4:30 p.m. Mass. Easy, breezy evening of food, fellowship and family-friendly activities. Every parish ministry gets involved in hosting a catered meal, desserts, inflatables, refreshments, children’s games, corn “holy,” a magician and more. 380 Little Canada Road. sjofc.org

St. Patrick, Inver Grove Heights — Sept. 17-18: 4:30–7:30 p.m.

Sept. 17; 11:30 a.m.–4 p.m. Sept.

18. Sept. 17: bingo, pull tabs, food trucks and silent auction.

Sept. 18: bingo, pull tabs, food trucks, silent auction, children’s games, cash raffle and more. 35335 72nd St. E. churchofstpatrick.com St. Peter, Forest Lake — Sept. 17-18: 8 a.m.–9 p.m.

Sept. 17; 9 a.m.–4 p.m. Sept. 18.

5K run, beer tent, bingo, cake walk, casino chili cook-off, coffee house, country store, cribbage, dunk tank, face painting, $5,000 grand/meat raffle, golf tourney, jewelry, children’s games, media medley, music, silent auction, talent show, treasure palace, turkey/pork dinner and wine toss. 1250 South Shore Drive. stpeterfl.org/fallfestival St. Peter, Mendota — Sept. 17-18: 6 p.m. Sept. 17, outdoor movie night, bring chairs and blankets. Hotdogs, brats and other items are available. Sept. 18, 10 a.m. Mass followed by festival activities including food trucks, cheese curds, cotton candy, silent auction (online), country store, bingo, children’s games, Mariachi Band, beer bar and more. 1405 Highway 3. stpetersmendota.org Immaculate Conception of Marysburg, Madison Lake — Sept. 18: 10 a.m. Mass followed by food off the grill, root beer floats and other treats and activities. Details online. 27528 Patrick St. maryschurches.com Immaculate Conception, Watertown — Sept. 18: 10:30 a.m.–1:30 p.m. Turkey dinner with all the trimmings, raffle, children’s games, bingo, cake walk, cork pull, beer tent, silent auction and country store. Music by West Highway.

109 Angel Ave. NW. iccwatertown.org Sacred Heart, Rush City — Fall Festival Chicken Dinner, Sept. 18: 10:30 a.m.– 1:30 p.m. Featuring Brass Rail’s Signature Broasted Chicken dinner. Takeout or dine in. Visit the country store, take a chance with the 50/50 Spirits game and raffle.

415 W. Fifth St. sacredheartrcmn.org St. John the Baptist, Jordan — Sept. 18: 11:30 a.m.–3:30 p.m. Chicken dinner (dine in or takeout), bingo, quilt and silent auctions, raffles, children’s games, prizes, country store, food stands, beer tent and more.

313 E. Second St. sjbjordan.org St. Mary of the Lake, White Bear Lake — Sept. 18: 10 a.m.–3 p.m.

Food trucks, music by Emerson Avenue (bring lawn chairs), Marketplace includes handmade items: mittens, pillows, décor, salsas, breads, produce, flowers and more. Buy wine to sip while shopping. Jewelry sale, raffles, bingo and children’s games.

4690 Bald Eagle Ave. stmarys-wbl.com

St. Gabriel, Hopkins — Sept. 24-25: 5:30 p.m. Sept.

24, live music, KC grill, beer garden, Hispanic food, mini donuts, games, inflatables, shopping. 11 a.m.–4:30 p.m.

Sept. 25, chicken dinner (11 a.m.–3 p.m.), online auction, bingo, bake shop, country store, games, inflatables, burgers and brats, mini donuts and beer garden.

Raffle drawing 4:30 p.m.

1310 Mainstreet. stgabrielhopkins.org/news/fall-festival Annunciation Hazelwood, Northfield — Sept. 25: 11 a.m.–2 p.m., Mass at 10 a.m. Food, music, $100 cash raffle drawing, bingo and more. 3996 Hazelwood Ave. thechurchoftheannunciation.org Most Holy Redeemer, Montgomery — Sept. 25: 11 a.m.–2 p.m.

An afternoon of Christ-centered fellowship, music, food, beverage, games, prizes and more. 206 W. Vine Ave. hredeemerparish.org St. Gregory the Great, North Branch — Fall Festival and Booya, Sept. 25: 10:30 a.m.–2 p.m. A fall celebration for the family with the best booya in town. Children’s games, raffle, bottle booth, variety booth, wine booth, silent auction, prizes, hotdogs, chips and drinks. 38725 Forest Blvd. stgregorynb.org St. Michael, Pine Island — Sept. 30-Oct. 2: Sept. 30: Fish fry, silent auction, country store with fall mums. Oct. 1: Country store with fall mums, silent auction, food stand. Oct. 2: Children’s pedal tractor pull, children’s outdoor games, food stand, antique tractor show, country store, silent auction, raffle. Details online. 451 Fifth Street NW. stpaulstmichael.com

OCTOBER Holy Name, Minneapolis — Oct. 16: 9 a.m.–4 p.m. Food, entertainment, crafts, silent auction, raffle, children’s games and more. 3637 11th Ave. S. churchoftheholyname.org Our Lady of Peace, Minneapolis — Party at the Patch, Oct. 22: 11 a.m.–7 p.m. Family-friendly afternoon in the autumn at the OLP Pumpkin Patch. Food truck, petting zoo, pumpkins for sale and more. 5426 12th Ave. S. olpmn.org

DECEMBER St. Vincent de Paul, Brooklyn Park — Christmas Bazaar, Dec. 3-4: 9 a.m.–5 p.m. Dec. 3: Craft fair, bakery (holiday favorites, cookies, bars and specialty breads), raffles, lunch, music and more.

9 a.m.–1 p.m. Dec. 4. Bakery, raffles, and music. 91000 93rd Ave. N. saintvdp.org FESTIVAL PHOTOS Images were taken during 2021 parish festivals at Nativity of Our Lord in St. Paul, St. Timothy in Blaine and Holy Family Maronite Church in Mendota Heights by Dave Hrbacek, staff photographer at The Catholic Spirit.

20 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

JULY 28, 2022

THELASTWORD

Pope Francis and Vatican II: It’s not a battleground, but the future

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service

P

ope Francis is the first pope to have been ordained to the priesthood after the Second Vatican Council.

Unlike his two predecessors, St. John Paul II and retired Pope Benedict XVI, Pope Francis was not present in Rome for any of the sessions of the council, which met from 1962 to 1965.

But for the Catholic Church in the modern world and its future health and holiness, Pope Francis is convinced that the Second Vatican Council holds the key.

Presenting the logo for the Holy Year 2025, Archbishop Rino Fisichella said June 28 the pope is asking Catholics worldwide to prepare for the next jubilee year by studying the council documents, especially its four constitutions, which focused on: the liturgy; the Church as the people of God; Scripture; and the role of the Church in the modern world.

Pope Francis seemed to kick off the study the next day by issuing “Desiderio Desideravi” (“I have L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO | CNS earnestly desired”), an apostolic letter he described as a meditation on the liturgy and one that strongly Pope John XXIII leads the opening session of the Second Vatican Council in St. Peter’s Basilica Oct. 11, 1962. affirmed the Vatican II reform of the Latin-rite Mass as inspired by the Holy Spirit. “ecclesial conversion” and an “openness to a constant “For example,” he wrote, “if in the course of the “I do not see how it is possible to say that one self-renewal born of fidelity to Jesus Christ.” liturgical year a parish priest speaks about temperance recognizes the validity of the (Second Vatican) 10 times but only mentions charity or justice two or The pope’s push to get Catholics familiar with Council — though it amazes me that a Catholic three times, an imbalance results, and precisely those the Second Vatican Council does not involve study might presume not to do so — and at the same virtues which ought to be most present in preaching alone; through the ongoing process of preparing time not accept the liturgical reform born out of and catechesis are overlooked. The same thing for the Synod of Bishops in 2023, he wants them to ‘Sacrosanctum Concilium,’ a document that expresses experience it for themselves. happens when we speak more about law than about the reality of the liturgy intimately joined to the grace, more about the church than about Christ, more In 2015, marking the 50th anniversary of the vision of church so admirably described in ‘Lumen about the pope than about God’s word.” restoration of the synods for the universal Church, Gentium,’” the dogmatic constitution on the Church, Pope Francis called them “one of the most precious In his famous interview with Jesuit Father Antonio Pope Francis wrote in the letter, published June 29.

Spadaro in August 2013, he said, “Vatican II was a legacies of the Second Vatican Council.”

Meeting in May with the editors of Jesuit magazines re-reading of the Gospel in light of contemporary Tying the council’s insistence on the dignity and and journals in Europe, the pope did not mince words responsibility of all the baptized for the Church’s life culture” and “produced a renewal movement that when talking about the resistance simply comes from the same Gospel. Its fruits are and mission, he told cardinals of some bishops and priests to the enormous.” and superiors of Roman Curia teaching of the Second Vatican The council that “The dynamic of reading the Gospel, actualizing its offices in December, “The synod Council and its vision of the Church. message for today — which was typical of Vatican II wants to be an experience of some pastors remember feeling ourselves all members “The council that some pastors — is absolutely irreversible,” the pope said. remember best is that of Trent. What of a larger people, the holy and For Pope Francis, who entered the Jesuits in 1958 best is that of Trent.

I’m saying is not nonsense,” he told faithful people of God, and thus and was ordained a priest in 1969, the council and its the editors.

What I’m saying is not disciples who listen and, precisely renewal of the life and vision of the Church were part “Restorationism has come to gag by virtue of this listening, can also and parcel of his formation for ministry. nonsense. the council,” he said, adding that understand God’s will, which is “In the history of Latin America in which I was “the number of groups of ‘restorers’ always revealed in unpredictable immersed, first as a young Jesuit student and then in Pope Francis — for example, in the United States ways.” the exercise of my ministry, we breathed an ecclesial there are many — is significant.”

Pope Francis continually talks climate that enthusiastically absorbed and made its Pope Francis also noted something he has said about making concrete the council’s vision of the own the theological, ecclesial and spiritual intuitions many times before: “It takes a century for a council to Church as the community where all the baptized of the council and inculturated and implemented take root. We still have 40 years to make it take root, are empowered to take their responsibility for going them,” he wrote in the preface to “Fraternity: Sign of then!” out to share the Gospel with the world, especially the Times,” a book by Cardinal Michael Czerny and Throughout the nine years of his pontificate, the with those who are excluded or tossed aside by civil Father Christian Barone published in 2021. pope has been trying to help the Church make that society.

“Quite simply,” he wrote, “the council had entered progress.

In “The Joy of the Gospel,” he said one of the into our way of being Christians and of being church, In “The Joy of the Gospel,” the 2013 apostolic “pastoral consequences” of the council’s teaching was and throughout my life, my intuitions, perceptions exhortation that laid out the vision for his a “fitting sense of proportion” in Church teaching and spirituality were simply generated by the pontificate, he described the council as calling for and preaching. suggestions of the doctrine of Vatican II.”