The Catholic Spirit - June 25, 2020

June 25, 2020 • Newspaper of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis

Supreme Court: DACA protections continue; LGBT equality ruling may impact religious freedom — Page 8

Leadership change Tim Marx to step down as Catholic Charities’ leader; search for successor underway.

— Page 6

Neighbors in Need CCF fund aims to help families affected by Twin Cities riots.

— Page 5

Police reform Georgetown facilitates conversation about potential law enforcement changes.

— Page 9

Lives of service Archdiocesan priests mark milestone anniversaries.

— Pages 12-13

HOPE IN HARDSHIP From Age to Age 1960s peace activist; a deacon and his music; burial during the pandemic.

— Pages 14-16

The Catholic Spirit is taking a short summer break. Look for the next issue July 16.

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

From left, Shea, Margaux, Dockery, Joseph, Fritz and Edith Olson take time in the backyard of their St. Paul home to play with two of their four chickens. During Minnesota’s stay-at-home order, the Olsons have been spending more time together as a family, taking walks in the neighborhood and noticing houses with chickens that inspired them to get their own. For more on how they and other Catholics are coping and learning during the coronavirus pandemic, see story on pages 10-11.

‘Besides skin color, we are all the same’ African American Catholic school family reflects on racism

By Barb Umberger The Catholic Spirit

M

ore subtle than overt. But everpresent, concerning and unjust.

That’s been the experience of racism by one family who lives near Ascension parish and school in north Minneapolis. They’re among African Americans discussing and sharing their experience in the aftermath of the May 25 death of George Floyd, an African American who died while being arrested and then pinned for more than 8 minutes beneath the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer on a city street.

Captured by a bystander on video, Floyd’s death led to protests and riots in Minneapolis, St. Paul and across the country. It is prompting changes in policing and a growing awareness of historic and systemic racism in law enforcement, education, housing and other areas of daily life.

It’s also prompted soul-searching and questions about how racism manifests itself more than 150 years after the end of slavery in this country.

For Isaac and Stephanie Hill, both 38,

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

From left, Alexandria, Isaac, Stephanie, Isaac Jr. and Allen Hill pose for a photo at their home in north Minneapolis.

and their four children, racism is reflected in being followed in stores or not helped at all. It’s being passed over for promotion, being reluctant to disclose their race in mortgage applications and other forms — even in naming their children in a way that their race is not immediately apparent, in hopes it will help provide them equal opportunity.

“So, when you look at their job application, you won’t be able to tell by their name the color of their skin,” said Stephanie. “It’s crazy that you have to get that specific, but you do.”

Similarly, Isaac has chosen several times over the years not to disclose his race when completing forms, such as a mortgage

application. He selects “I choose not to disclose” rather than “African American.”

“I’d rather leave it up in the air than tell you I’m a black guy,” he said. “If you don’t know who I am, I feel I’ll have a better chance.”

The Hills send their children to Ascension Catholic School and DeLaSalle High School in Minneapolis. They are licensed ministers at their church, True Apostolic Assembly in Minneapolis. Their faith has gotten them through difficult moments, they said, and protected them from some of the worst, overt forms of racism.

“I do believe it was the hand of God that covered us,” Stephanie said. “We are a praying family. We are strong in faith, and I believe in the power of prayer.”

The couple’s younger son, Allen, 13, and daughter, Alexandria, 11, attend Ascension. Isaac Jr., 16, attends DeLaSalle.

Their fourth child, Aniyah, 20, lives on her own.

The Hills make a point of talking to their sons about how to interact with police officers. Advice includes: Don’t run. Keep a respectful tone. Keep your hands where they can be seen. If they need something from you, ask the officer to reach into your pocket.

“As a parent, on the inside, that’s PLEASE TURN TO HILLS ON PAGE 7

2 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

JUNE 25, 2020

PAGETWO We encourage everyone to live like Chris — to love others boldly, to stand up for what’s right, to live every day to the fullest.

Jared Thomas, a nephew of Chris Beaty, a 38-yearold Catholic shot and killed May 30 as he tried to help two women being attacked near his apartment during riots in downtown Indianapolis, following protests about the deaths of black Americans at the hands of police. Family and friends have established the Chris Beaty Memorial Scholarship Fund in his honor to raise money for scholarships to Cathedral High School in Indianapolis and Indiana University, his alma maters.

CNS | ERIC MILLER, REUTERS

SEEKING HEALING AND HARMONY Kathy Boyum and Jeffrey Edwards hug during a reconciliation revival in Minneapolis June 20. The event was part of Juneteenth, the date that honors the end to slavery in the United States. It was held near the site where George Floyd, an African American, died May 25 while police officers knelt on him as he said he couldn’t breathe, sparking protests and riots across the Twin Cities and U.S. In a joint June 15 letter, the bishops of Maryland and Delaware called for action against racism.

“United, we seek healing, harmony and solutions that recognize that every person has been created in the image of God and that every person possesses human dignity,” the statement said.

NEWS notes

10

The number of Minnesota counties in the Diocese of Duluth. Our neighbor to the north received the appointment June 19 of a new bishop: Father Michel Mulloy, a priest of the Diocese of Rapid City, South Dakota. The 67-year-old will be installed Oct. 1, and succeeds Bishop Paul Sirba, who died of heart failure Dec. 1, 2019. Bishop-elect Mulloy is a 1979 alumnus of The St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul and originally ordained for the Diocese of Sioux Falls. In 1986, he incardinated in the Diocese of Rapid City after ministering there for several years. He served as his diocese’s vicar general 2017-2019, until he was elected to serve as the diocesan administrator after Bishop Dwayne Gruss was transferred to the Diocese of Saginaw, Michigan. Prior to those roles, Bishop-elect Mulloy spent most of his priestly ministry in parishes. In a notable twist, a priest from the Diocese of Duluth, Father Peter Muhich, was named last month as the new bishop of Rapid City. Archbishop Bernard Hebda congratulated Bishop-elect Mulloy in a June 19 statement, noting he is “confident that he will be a faithful servant and shepherd to the people of northeastern Minnesota.”

11

CNS | DAVID ZANDMAN, REUTERS

SAINT STATUE DESTROYED A vandalized statue of St. Junipero Serra in San Francisco is seen June 19. In a June 20 statement, Bishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco decried the vandalism and recounted the Spanish Franciscan’s defense of California’s indigenous people. “A renewed national movement to heal memories and correct the injustices of racism and police brutality in our country has been hijacked by some into a movement of violence, looting and vandalism,” he said. “St. Serra made heroic sacrifices to protect the indigenous people of California from their Spanish conquerors, especially the soldiers. Even with his infirmed leg which caused him such pain, he walked all the way to Mexico City to obtain special faculties of governance from the Viceroy of Spain in order to discipline the military who were abusing the Indians. And then he walked back to California.“ St. Junipero Serra founded several missions in what is now California and is the namesake of the Serra Club, an organization that supports priesthood vocations.

REDISCOVER:Hour On the show that aired June 19, Rediscover:Hour host Patrick Conley interviewed Allison Spies for another conversation about the archdiocesan archives; Josh Dannis and Margene Vessel on Alpha’s new marriage course; and Thomas Koehler on West Metro Young Adults. Listen each week on Fridays at 9 a.m., Saturdays at noon, and Sundays at 2 p.m. on Relevant Radio 1330 AM. Find past shows at rediscover.archspm.org.

CORRECTION The story “Catholics soul-search on Floyd’s death, role in healing” in the June 11 issue contained incorrect dates for certain events tied to the rioting in Minneapolis. The rioting at the Minnehaha Center began May 27, and the riots in St. Paul, as well as the burning of the Minneapolis Police Third Precinct building, occurred May 28.

The Catholic Spirit is published semi-monthly for The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis

United in Faith, Hope and Love

Vol. 25 — No. 12 MOST REVEREND BERNARD A. HEBDA, Publisher TOM HALDEN, Associate Publisher MARIA C. WIERING, Editor-in-Chief JOE RUFF, News Editor

The number of years Archbishop Robert Carlson led the Archdiocese of St. Louis.

Pope Francis accepted the 75-year-old’s retirement June 10, announcing he will be succeeded by Bishop Mitchell Rozanski of Springfield, Massachusetts. A Minneapolis native, Archbishop Carlson was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis in 1970, and in 1983 ordained an auxiliary bishop of the archdiocese.

He went on to serve as bishop of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and Saginaw, Michigan, before his appointment to St. Louis in 2009.

2

The number of years former Hennepin County attorney Tom Johnson served as the ombudsperson on behalf of clergy sexual abuse victim-survivors in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Johnson, 75, who died June 8 of cancer, was the first person to hold the volunteer role, created in a 2015 settlement agreement between the archdiocese and the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office. Last month, Johnson handed off the ombudsperson role to his wife and fellow attorney, Victoria Newcome Johnson. In a statement on the website of the Johnsons’ parish, Our Lady of Lourdes in Minneapolis, their pastor, Father Daniel Griffith wrote, “Personally, I count Tom and Victoria among my closest friends and have benefited greatly from their wisdom and support as pastor. Tom was a friend, a mentor and trusted counselor to many, including me, and he will be deeply missed.”

79

The number of Catholic elementary schools in the archdiocese — and the number that celebrated Parent Appreciation Week May 26-29. Its purpose was to thank parents for their role in distance learning and to show appreciation for their continued partnership in their children’s education. The Catholic Schools Center of Excellence organized the appreciation week, which included distance learning “diplomas” sent to thousands of Catholic school parents; billboards thanking those same parents; a music video parody “You Are the Champions,” sung by principals; and social media posts encouraging students to show extra love to their parents, such as by doing more household chores.

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JUNE 25, 2020

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 3

FROMTHEBISHOP ONLY JESUS | BISHOP ANDREW COZZENS

The need for healing

O

ur world is in desperate need of healing. First, there is the physical healing from the current virus, which has also caused havoc in isolating families, taking jobs and creating economic uncertainty.

All of this needs healing. Then there is the healing of race relations. All I could think of as I watched the violence in our cities during these days was how much we are in need of healing. Only the pain of a deep wound would cause this kind of violent reaction. George Floyd’s tragic death touched a wound that cries out for healing.

All these thoughts were in my head when I heard our Holy Father last Sunday, on the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi), speak about the healing power of Jesus, especially the healing power of the Eucharist. In particular, he spoke about the healing of memories. He talked about how memory is essential to know who we are and to restore who we are. When we remember the way our father or mother or grandfather or grandmother looked at us with love. When we remember important accomplishments or lessons we have learned. These memories root us in the reality of who we are.

However, memory is not just individual; it is in fact communal. We learn who we are as a people from the memory that is passed down to us.

Jewish parents share the memory of being saved from slavery in Egypt at Passover because it helps the children know they are God’s chosen people. We as Americans share the memory of the Boston Tea Party or the signing of the Declaration of Independence because these memories are part of who we are as a people.

We all have not only good memories but also bad ones. This is the result of our fallen human state. Just as good memories confirm our identity, bad memories can damage or even destroy our identity.

Through difficult or traumatic memories we can come to believe lies about ourselves. And negative memories, too, can be communal, not just individual.

A people can have a memory that robs them of their true identity. Nations will sometimes be at war for generations because the memory of hatred and revenge is passed down. People can begin to believe they are less than they should be when they are told by individuals or by society they will never amount to much. These negative memories can have profound negative effects on us.

Psychologists and spiritual theologians

La necesidad de curación

padres judíos comparten el recuerdo de ser salvados de la esclavitud en Egipto en la Pascua, ayuda a los niños a saber que son las personas elegidas de Dios. Es por eso que nosotros, como estadounidenses, compartimos el recuerdo de la fiesta del té de Boston o la firma de la declaración de independencia, estos son parte de lo que somos como pueblo.

N

uestro mundo necesita desesperadamente curación.

Primero, está la curación física del virus actual, que también ha causado estragos en aislar a las familias, tomar empleos y crear incertidumbre económica. Todo esto necesita curación.

Luego está la curación de las relaciones raciales. Todo lo que podía pensar mientras veía la violencia en nuestras ciudades durante estos días era cuánto necesitamos sanarnos. Solo el dolor de una herida profunda causaría este tipo de reacción violenta. La trágica muerte de George Floyd tocó una herida que clama por curación. Todos estos pensamientos estaban en mi cabeza cuando escuché a Nuestro Santo Padre el domingo pasado, en la Fiesta del Cuerpo y Sangre del Señor (Corpus Christi) hablar sobre el poder curativo de Jesús, especialmente el poder curativo de la Eucaristía. En particular, habló sobre la curación de los recuerdos.

Habló sobre cómo la memoria es esencial para saber quiénes somos y restaurar quiénes somos. Cuando recordamos la forma en que nuestro padre o madre o abuelo o abuela nos miraban con amor.

Cuando recordamos logros importantes o lecciones que hemos aprendido. Estos recuerdos nos arraigan en la realidad de quienes somos.

Sin embargo, la memoria no es solo individual; De hecho es comunal.

Aprendemos quiénes somos como personas del recuerdo que se nos transmite. Esta es la razón por la cual los

Todos tenemos no solo buenos recuerdos sino también malos. Este es el resultado de nuestro estado humano caído. Así como los buenos recuerdos confirman nuestra identidad, los malos recuerdos pueden dañar o incluso destruir nuestra identidad.

A través de recuerdos difíciles o traumáticos podemos llegar a creer mentiras sobre nosotros mismos. Y los recuerdos negativos también pueden ser comunales, no solo individuales. Un pueblo puede tener un recuerdo que les robe su verdadera identidad. Es por eso que las naciones a veces estarán en guerra durante generaciones, el recuerdo del odio y la venganza se transmite. O las personas pueden comenzar a creer que son menos de lo que deberían ser cuando las personas o la sociedad les dicen que nunca llegarán a ser importante.

Estos recuerdos negativos pueden tener profundos efectos negativos en nosotros.

Tanto los psicólogos como los teólogos espirituales nos dicen que necesitamos la curación de los recuerdos.

Dado que esos recuerdos nos han mentido sobre nuestra identidad, necesitamos reemplazar esos recuerdos con experiencias de amor.

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

alike tell us we need the healing of memories. Since those memories have lied to us about our identity, we need to replace those memories with experiences of love.

Here was the beautiful point of Pope Francis’ homily from June 14, which I recommend you read for yourself at tinyurl.com/y757g6h6. Pope Francis said, “The Eucharist first heals our orphaned memory. We are living at a time of great orphanage. The Eucharist heals orphaned memory. So many people have memories marked by a lack of affection and bitter disappointments caused by those who should have given them love and instead orphaned their hearts. We would like to go back and change the past, but we cannot.

“God, however, can heal these wounds by placing within our memory a greater love: his own love. The Eucharist brings us the Father’s faithful love, which heals our sense of being orphans. It gives us Jesus’ love, which transformed a tomb from an end to a beginning, and in the same way can transform our lives. It fills our hearts with the consoling love of the Holy Spirit, who never leaves us alone and always heals our wounds.”

The Holy Father made the point that the Eucharist is a memorial. This is not a simple remembering, but a sacramental act. When we make memory in the Eucharist, we believe that the death and

resurrection of Jesus actually become present here and now. It is Jesus’ paschal mystery that has saved us from sin and death. This is the event that makes us God’s chosen people, the people of the new covenant.

When we celebrate the Eucharist we don’t just give thanks remembering this as an event of the past, but the event is made new before us and we participate in this event. The paschal mystery, our living memory, is made present to us, and we receive the life of Jesus poured out for us on the cross. This memory is so powerful that it can heal us, by entering into those places in our own hearts where we doubt the truth of love.

This is what St. Thomas Aquinas said in a homily about the Eucharist: “No other sacrament has greater healing power; through it sins are purged away, virtues are increased and the soul is enriched with an abundance of every spiritual gift.”

The healing of our society will not be simple or quick, and it will not happen without the healing love of Jesus Christ. Only Jesus can heal the pain and divisions we face because only Jesus can heal the wound of our sin and death. Jesus can replace the pain of our memory with his healing love, which allows us to begin to love anew. If you and I can come to the Eucharist and be healed, then we can be part of his healing love for the world.

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

parochial vicar of the Church of the Risen Savior in Burnsville.

Effective June 16, 2020

administrator of the Church of Saint Bonaventure in Bloomington. Father Hart is a retired priest of the Archdiocese who was previously serving as parochial administrator of the Church of the Annunciation in Hazelwood and the Church of Saint Dominic in Northfield.

Reverend Yamato Icochea, PES, assigned as

parochial vicar of the Church of Saint Mark in St. Paul and as sacramental minister for the Church of the Holy Rosary in Minneapolis. Father Icochea was ordained to the priesthood on May 30, 2020.

Reverend Cesar Alvixtur Valencia Martinez, PES,

assigned as parochial vicar of the Church of Saint Mark in St. Paul. Father Valencia was ordained to the priesthood on May 30, 2020.

Effective July 1, 2020 Reverend John J. Bauer, assigned as canonical

administrator of Notre Dame Academy in Minnetonka. This is in addition to his assignment as pastor of the Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Minnetonka.

Reverend Mario Castagnola, PES, assigned as

parochial vicar of the Church of the Assumption and the Church of Saint Richard in Richfield. This is a transfer from his current assignment as parochial vicar of the Church of Saint Mark in Saint Paul and as sacramental minister for the Church of the Guardian Angels in Chaska.

Reverend Cassian DiRocco, assigned as chaplain at

Regions Hospital in Saint Paul and as sacramental minister for the Church of Saint Joseph in Miesville.

This is a transfer from his current assignment as parochial vicar of the Church of All Saints in Minneapolis.

Reverend Edison Galarza, o.cc.ss., assigned as pastor of the Church of the Sacred Heart in Saint Paul. This is a transfer from his current assignments as chaplain at Regions Hospital in Saint Paul and as

Reverend Robert Hart, assigned as parochial

Reverend Brian Lynch, assigned as parochial vicar of

the Church of the Transfiguration in Oakdale. This is a transfer from his previous assignment as pastor of the Church of Our Lady of the Prairie in Belle Plaine.

Reverend Eugene Theisen, assigned as pastor of the

Church of Saint Wenceslaus in New Prague. Father Theisen has been serving as parochial administrator of the same parish.

Retirements effective July 1 Reverend Douglas Ebert, granted the status of

a retired priest. Father Ebert has served the Archdiocese as a priest since his ordination in 2009, most recently as pastor of the Church of Saint John Neumann in Eagan.

Incardination effective June 16, 2020 Reverend Thomas Niehaus, granted incardination into

the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, from the Diocese of Winona-Rochester.

Excardination effective May 19, 2020 Deacon Paul Tschann, granted excardination from

the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, into the Diocese of Winona-Rochester.

4 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

JUNE 25, 2020

LOCAL

SLICEof LIFE

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Readying to reopen Wayne Bugg stands June 18 outside the St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store he manages in south Minneapolis, just half a block off Lake Street. The store is getting ready to reopen in mid-July after being looted and vandalized in the days following the police-involved death of George Floyd. Bugg said he understands the frustrations both African Americans and business owners in the area feel as a result of Floyd’s death May 25 and the ensuing riots, and he simply wants to continue meeting the needs of the poor in the Twin Cities. He has worked for the Catholic nonprofit for the last 23 years, and was appointed store manager 10 years ago. He now also serves as associate director of St. Vincent de PaulTwin Cities. “I want to do it (reopen) as soon as possible because I believe the community needs us,” said Bugg, 41, who is married with five children. His family lives just about a mile from the store and only a few blocks from where Floyd died. “(For) some of them, this is their Target, this is their Macy’s. Even more so, this is like (the TV show) ‘Cheers,’ when you come and everybody knows your name.

This is like the community center. … And so, I want to be able to open for their sake.” It’s all part of a Gospel calling that Bugg sums up in these words: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

JUNE 25, 2020

LOCAL

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 5

New CCF fund helps Minneapolis families rebuild lives upended by riots

By Maria Wiering The Catholic Spirit In Minneapolis, families and business owners along Lake Street and other areas hard-hit by rioting in the wake of George Floyd’s death May 25 are clearing away the rubble and wondering how to rebuild — their shops, their homes, their lives.

Some are worse off than others. Seventeen-year-old Rebeca Atenco‘s family lost everything to fire May 27, when their apartment along Lake Street in Minneapolis was torched. The only thing her family recovered was a container with the remains of a baby brother her mother miscarried in 2009. Ashes pulled from ashes.

The Atencos have received help from their parish, St. Stephen, as well as Rebeca’s school, Cristo Rey Jesuit High School, both in Minneapolis. Other parishes, schools and Catholic organizations such as the St. Vincent de Paul Society, which has a thrift store near Lake Street, have also been helping families most affected by the rioting. On June 9, the Catholic Community Foundation of Minnesota launched a new avenue for supporting that work: Neighbors in Need.

As a community foundation, St. Paul-based CCF provides an “intersection” between needs and donors, said Anne Cullen Miller, CCF president. The Neighbors in Need sub-fund is “just an example of … our mission coming alive,” she said.

Neighbors in Need falls under the umbrella of the Minnesota Catholic Relief Fund, which CCF started in March initially to aid schools and parishes that had lost revenue due to COVID-19. Donors can choose to direct their fund contribution to Pandemic Relief or Neighbors in Need at ccf-mn.org/relief.

According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, at least 1,500 buildings in the Twin Cities were vandalized or looted in the days following Floyd’s death. Dozens were completely destroyed by fire.

That equates to destroyed businesses and livelihoods;

COURTESY REBECA ATENCO

Rebeca Atenco, 17, stands in front of a building that housed her family’s Lake Street apartment before rioters in Minneapolis burned it May 27. financial setbacks and insurance entanglements for business owners; and day-to-day hardship for people who relied on those businesses’ services.

Some families have no car and cannot easily travel outside the neighborhood for groceries and medicine, said Sister Margaret McGuirk, a Sinsinawa Dominican who works with families in need at Incarnation in Minneapolis. Now, places where people regularly shop, eat and bank are destroyed. For area residents with cars, many of the neighborhood’s gas stations were also vandalized and remain closed. People have already been suffering financially because of pandemicrelated closures, and have called the parish in need of rent assistance, groceries and cleaning supplies. And they continue to deal with emotional and spiritual repercussions from watching their neighborhood burn.

“It’s been very stressful for everyone,” Sister McGuirk said. “People were just terrorized.”

Many of the families affected by rioting were among the hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, said Father Joseph Williams, St. Stephen’s pastor. “They’re the first to lose their jobs because they’re in restaurants, they’re in our hotels, cleaning,” he said.

St. Stephen serves a large Latino community, and because about half of his adult immigrant parishioners are not citizens, they’re not able to access unemployment or tax relief payments to ease the burden. Meanwhile, many people in his community worked along Lake Street, he noted.

The first two nights of the riot, Father Williams housed a family at the parish rectory who felt threatened in their home near Lake Street. The third night, he housed a second family. Meanwhile, with financial support from other parishes as well as family and friends, Father Williams was able to help about 15 other south Minneapolis families afford hotels away from the rioting.

And while those other families were able to return home when the rioting subsided, the needs persist, Father Williams said.

For afflicted families, “we’re trying to relieve that anxiety and let them know that the Church is in solidarity,” Father Williams said. “It’s a beautiful time for the Church to show we’re here, and we’re not going to let them suffer this alone.”

Some parishes and schools, like Cristo Rey Jesuit, have already launched Go Fund Me campaigns or other relief fundraising and are providing rent assistance, and money for gas, groceries and household supplies. Miller said she sees the MCRF complementing, not necessarily replacing, those efforts.

“We have an expertise and a platform to do it, which can be leveraged without any additional costs to the community, or take away limited resources to do this work on the ground,” she said. “There’s multiple platforms in which people can get involved and respond, and we’re just allowing the Catholic community to leverage this one.”

Want peace and justice? Then get involved, Minneapolis pastor says

By Barb Umberger The Catholic Spirit Dominican Father Gerald Stookey saw firsthand the unrest following the death of George Floyd. He is pastor at Holy Rosary in Minneapolis, which joins St. Albert the Great as the closest parishes to the epicenter of four days of riots on Lake Street that began after Floyd’s May 25 police-related death. He was among pastors surveying burned-down businesses, smashed windows and looted stores.

He also has a degree in sociology and has spent most of his ministry working on issues related to justice and peace.

“I don’t have the answers,” he said, when asked about events related to Floyd’s death, “but I look at social systems, social structure and put it into the larger picture. And then if you look at our theology … we have to start with ‘every person is a child of God, is made in the image of God.’ If you don’t get that, you will never get to second base.”

Jesus was so clear in his life and in his behavior about the need for mercy and compassion, Father Stookey said, such as the incident described in the Gospel of John when Jesus forgives and saves the life of a woman who was about to be stoned to death for committing adultery.

Father Stookey, 71, also referred to words of wisdom often attributed to St. Augustine — that Hope has two beautiful daughters named Anger and Courage: Anger at the way things are, and Courage to see that they do not remain as they are.

“I find that helpful because I don’t think we want to brush anger under the rug,” he said. “Why wouldn’t someone be angry about injustice? Jesus could be angry.

But on the other hand, in my opinion, Jesus would not be for violence, including violent riots.”

Father Stookey said one of his heroes, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., also would not have promoted violence, nor would have Cesar Chavez, the founding president

BABIES IN THE RIVER: AN ANALOGY If people want to do charity, they should also work for justice, so they have a chance to remedy issues “upstream,” Father Gerald Stookey said. To illustrate, he tells the tale of a monk walking along a river who sees a baby drowning. The monk jumps in the river and saves the baby. Then there’s another baby and another, and the monk saves the babies, but it continues to happen.

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Dominican Father Gerald Stookey, pastor of Holy Rosary in Minneapolis, says the starting point for addressing racial injustice is recognizing that “every person is a child of God.” of the United Farm Workers.

Part of the anger that’s been on display, he said, is that people feel they have attempted nonviolently to make change, and it hasn’t happened. Father Stookey recalled a quote from King: “A riot is the language of the unheard.”

He also referenced “hooligans” in Europe who sometimes break windows and bash cars over soccer losses. “Not that I’m condoning it, but … if we can understand that just because you lost a ‘football’ game, the World Cup, you can have mob psychology take over, then we ought to be able to understand … looting, breaking windows, over a life.”

“I’m not justifying it, but I think we can put it in perspective and say, ‘Don’t be surprised,’” he said.

Earlier in his priesthood, Father Stookey worked for eight years as archdiocesan director of the Office of Justice and Peace in Denver. While he knows the value and necessity of practicing charity, he quoted St. Paul VI’s famous 1972 message at the celebration of the Day of Peace: “If you want peace, work for justice.”

People need to think about systems in ways that help

An emergency committee, social services, pediatric services and an adoption agency set up offices along the river to save babies from drowning and care for their needs. But then someone steps in and suggests while good things are being done, he’s going upstream to see who’s throwing the babies into the river, Father Stookey said.

“To me, that represents a bit of the difference between justice work and charity,” he said. “And I love that we do charity, and they’re always linked.”

— Barb Umberger

people, including the poor, Father Stookey said.

That starts with getting involved at the local level, at the local parish, in the neighborhood, he said. Get to know neighbors, start to build trust, he said.

“It can’t just be words from a couple of parishes,” he said. “We’ve got to be in solidarity.”

“Let’s see if we can find a structure, even with our parishes and Church, to help respond to what’s needed ­— structural change,” he said. “It will take a lot of work, probably ecumenical.”

Father Stookey said he was impressed to see Archbishop Bernard Hebda and other members of the clergy march together June 2 in Minneapolis because it was “so ecumenical,” with Christian, Muslim and Jewish participants.

“You know, we’re all in this together,” he said.

LOCAL

6 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Catholic Charities’ leader prepares to step down

By Joe Ruff The Catholic Spirit After nearly 10 years at the helm of Catholic Charities of St. Paul and Minneapolis, president and CEO Tim Marx said June 12 he is starting the hard work of stepping away.

The search for a successor and the process of handing over the reins will take the rest of this year and into 2021, he said.

Discernment and discussions about when best to begin such a process started more than a year ago, with Catholic Charities board members and others, Marx said. The 10-year mark was a natural time to assess the future of the organization and his own future, he said.

Those discussions took place as homelessness continued to rise in the Twin Cities and in the state, then the coronavirus pandemic grew in its impact in March and continues today, Marx said. That was followed by the May 25 death of George Floyd, an African American who died on a Minneapolis street as a white police officer kneeled on his neck, and the subsequent protests and riots.

It was concluded that this is a good time, an inflection point for the organization similar to when he took the two leadership posts in 2011, as the nation came out of the Great Recession, he said.

“Now, the entire world is at a different inflection point, and it will be good to have someone who has fresh legs, who can run hard for seven to 10 years, to see this organization through to the other side of this,” said Marx, 63.

A former deputy mayor of St. Paul and leader of the state Housing Finance Agency, Marx led Catholic Charities during a period of growth and change, including the funding and construction of Higher Ground Minneapolis, a homeless shelter and social services center, and a similar $100 million Dorothy Day Place in St. Paul. Renovating and expanding the former Dorothy Day Center was the largest publicprivate partnership of its kind in state history.

Now in its 150th year of service, Catholic Charities has helped those in need in the Twin Cities through wars, economic downturns, natural disasters and more, “always evolving and rising to meet the most urgent issues of our time,” Marx said in a June 12 note to supporters.

In 2020, the community is facing the COVID-19 outbreak and Floyd’s death and its repercussions, which calls people to stand up “stronger than ever against the virus of racism that has afflicted our society for centuries,” he said.

Marx will remain president and CEO during the nationwide search

JUNE 25, 2020

Haas denies claims of sexual misconduct; publisher cuts ties The Catholic Spirit

COURTESY CATHOLIC CHARITIES

Tim Marx, Catholic Charities of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ president and CEO since 2011, is preparing to hand off leadership of the organization later this year. for a successor. Once that handover is completed, probably sometime this fall, he will become “president emeritus” and hold that post into 2021 to support the new CEO and specific projects important to Catholic Charities’ future, he said.

Marx said he hadn’t had time to think much about what might lie ahead for him after he leaves Catholic Charities. He plans to be active in some way, and no matter what he does or where he goes, Catholic Charities will be part of his activities, he said.

“I have tremendous gratitude for the opportunity” to lead Catholic Charities, Marx said. “When it’s your passion, and also your job, that is a profound gift that Catholic Charities has provided to me.”

Catholic composer David Haas denies allegations of sexual misconduct with adult women that led his music publisher, GIA Publications, to suspend its relationship with him. In a June 16 statement, Haas, who directs the Emmaus Center for Music, Prayer and Ministry in Eagan, said he “denounces Into Account Inc.’s allegations as false, reckless and offensive.”

Into Account, a nonprofit DAVID HAAS that supports abuse survivors, emailed Haas’ associates in late May to notify them that Haas had been accused of “repeated, unethical abuse of the professional and spiritual power he has had in Church music circles,” including “sexual offenses” and “spiritual manipulation.”

A June 16 statement from Tim O’Malley, director of Ministerial Standards and Safe Environment for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, confirmed that the archdiocese denied Haas a letter of suitability, which states that an individual is in good standing in his or her home diocese and includes a statement affirming that no allegations of sexual abuse or impropriety have been made against him or her.

In 2018, the archdiocese received two reports that Haas had “acted inappropriately with two adult women in another state” and it had received a complaint in 1987 that Haas “had made unwanted sexual advances toward a young adult woman,” O’Malley said. Haas has denied those allegations.

Congratulations Fr. Skluzáček

on your 40th Anniversary!

Bearing witness to Jesus Christ who is the Way, the Truth and the Life.

New Brighton

Congratulations

FatherGregory Gregory Skrypek Father Skrypek and thank you for 50 years of of and thank you for 50 years dedication to the Church! dedication to the Church!

From the grateful parishioners From the grateful parishioners at Assumption Church. at Assumption Church

From the grateful parishioners at Assumption Church

JUNE 25, 2020

LOCAL

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 7

HILLS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 heartbreaking,” Stephanie said. “But the reality is, as much as we want to shield and protect them, it’s part of protecting them.”

The parents also had a conversation with their children following Floyd’s death. They knew their children were reading about it on social media, but it was important to discuss it with them.

“You try to explain the lessons that need to be learned,” Isaac said. “Without vilifying anyone, these are teachable moments. You try to let them know this is what is happening.” The lessons largely dealt with how to act around police officers, Stephanie said.

Still, Isaac said, he and his wife have mostly dealt with “wonderful people.”

“For the most part, our interactions have been pretty good,” he said.

One place they have experienced different treatment is while shopping.

Isaac said he sometimes feels like he is followed in a store. But Stephanie finds that she often has no one offering her assistance, when other customers are helped.

Isaac grew up in public housing projects in north Minneapolis in a predominantly black and Asian neighborhood, with some Native Americans. He attended North High School. He had little to no interaction with white people “because it wasn’t something we saw,” he said.

That changed when he started caddying at a golf course at age 13, one of the biggest eye-opening experiences of his life. He said he went from a lowincome neighborhood to spending time with successful professionals.

“Being around those type of folks was a new world,” he said, “a world I didn’t know existed.”

“You could go to downtown Minneapolis and see some of the same names of the people that you caddy for on the buildings,” he added. “You start to realize that there is a completely different world outside of a little bubble.”

Isaac said he doesn’t recall any outright racism while growing up, but some things happened “more on the sly.”

“I was one of the best caddies there,” he said, and he worked during tournaments, too, including LPGA events. Yet he felt he was not treated quite the same as others at the same experience level. He never caddied for the upper echelon players who were the biggest tippers.

Isaac worked there for more than 10 years, including as a locker room attendant. From there he became a loan

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

From left, Isaac, Alexandria, Stephanie, Allen and Isaac Hill Jr. play cornhole in the backyard of their home in north Minneapolis. processor and started showing houses, and then worked his way up to being a loan officer. Today he works for a local sanitation company.

Stephanie worked during college, graduating in 2016 with an associate’s degree in health information management. She is certified as a registered health information technologist. Today, she is a reimbursement policy manager for a large health insurer. A while back, she saw others getting promoted at her workplace so she decided to pay more attention to things like dressing for the role she wanted. But her manager hired a young white woman who had the same credentials but no experience with the company, and Stephanie learned the new hire was making $20,000 more than she was.

When her manager, who is white, said something to Stephanie following a meeting that Stephanie believed to be racist, Stephanie quit. Once she left, the company fired the manager and Stephanie was welcomed back.

More recently, after the death of George Floyd, the company CEO addressed that situation head-on, sending a company-wide memo stating that the company values equality and inclusion.

“That made me feel good to know that I worked for a company that actually took a stand,” Stephanie said.

She grew up in Lorain, Ohio, which

she said is predominantly African American and also Puerto Rican. She moved to Minneapolis permanently in ninth grade.

Stephanie’s mother sent her to a predominantly white school on the east side of St. Paul, Como Park Senior High. Most of her friends were white, and Stephanie said she didn’t have any real issues regarding race through high school.

The Hills’ children also think about racism, and hope for a better world ahead.

“Bring up a child in the way he should go,” offers Allen, choosing words from the Book of Proverbs. For him, those words help explain how racism persists — and how it could change.

Racism, he said, has its roots in how one is raised. “You’re not born racist,” he said. “You’re not born hateful of other people.

“If your parents bring you up to hate others or to have that hate in your heart, that’s what you’re going to do when you get older; that’s what you’re going to teach your kids because that’s what you were taught.”

Allen said he hasn’t experienced overt racism. His older brother said he and his friends do not get called racial slurs. “It’s mainly looks, like, ‘Why are you here?’” he said.

In order to change, people have to look at each other the same way, Isaac Jr. said.

“People have to realize we all bleed the

same blood. In the end when we die, we all return to dust. Besides skin color, we are all the same.”

Some people simply lack knowledge, he said, but others are taught in their homes. Some kids don’t really have a problem with people, he said, but it’s the way they’re brought up and the way that they’re taught to disrespect others.

“That’s what they bring out in public.”

Isaac Jr. said the topic of racism doesn’t come up in classrooms, but groups of friends sometimes talk about it. “We talk about what can we do to change this?” he said, “and how can we get people to have a different outlook?”

The Hills said they work to provide every opportunity for their children, starting with education.

“As a mom, my concern is about my children,” Stephanie said. “I want to see equal opportunity in the educational system … and equal funding across the board. I want my child to have the same experiences or opportunities on an academic level as the next kid. That’s what’s important to me.”

She said she doesn’t want Ascension seen as “the poor, black, Catholic school,” which she said she has heard from children at other Catholic schools.

“That’s learned behavior, learned conversation,” she said. “And Ascension, in all honesty, has one of the best academic programs I’ve witnessed.”

But there are differences, she said, citing the time it took for children to get Chromebooks in their private school.

“You go to a public school in the suburbs and they have Chromebooks, laptops … they get to take them home and do their homework,” Stephanie said.

“I believe there are schools in the inner city where there is more of an opportunity gap than an achievement gap,” Isaac said. “I think the achievement gap can actually close if there were more opportunities.”

Thinking about it logically, Isaac said, the schools with the most need should get the most resources. “But it actually works in reverse,” he said. “From an education system standpoint, there’s got to be someone looking at that from a higher level to say, ‘Hey, this doesn’t make sense.’”

Stephanie added that teachers in the inner city are not paid the same as those in the suburbs, “and all of this is cause and effect.”

Isaac said he wishes more people tried to live Christ’s message of love, equality and service to others. “It’s about inclusiveness,” he said, and helping those in need.

JUNE 25, 2020

8 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

NATION+WORLD USCCB president ‘deeply concerned’ about court ruling redefining ‘sex’

HEADLINES u Jesuit astronomer becomes 11th to have an asteroid named in his honor. Father Chris Corbally, a stellar astronomer at the Vatican Observatory, has had his name attached to a rocky body in the asteroid belt that orbits the sun in slightly less than four years. The particular asteroid, designated 119248 Corbally, is about a mile across in size. It was discovered Sept. 10, 2001, by Roy Tucker, a recently retired senior engineer from the Imaging Technology Laboratory at the University of Arizona. Research by the Vatican Observatory has turned up at least 10 asteroids named for Jesuits, including St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus.

Catholic News Service The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said he is “deeply concerned” that by ruling federal law protects LGBT workers from discrimination, the U.S. Supreme Court “has effectively redefined the legal meaning of ‘sex’ in our nation’s civil rights law.”

“This is an injustice that will have implications in many areas of life,” Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez said in a statement issued June 15.

Earlier in the day, the high court in a 6-3 vote said LGBT people are protected from job discrimination by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The decision handed down was for two consolidated cases about fired gay employees and a separate case concerning a fired transgender worker who had sued for employment discrimination after being fired.

At issue in this case is the wording in the Civil Rights Act, which prevents employment discrimination based on race, religion, national origin and sex. The court had to determine if discrimination that was not allowed based on sex applied to sexual orientation as well as gender identity. Archbishop Gomez said that “by erasing the beautiful differences and complementary relationship between man and woman, we ignore the glory of God’s creation and harm the human family, the first building block of society” and “protecting our neighbors from unjust discrimination does not require redefining human nature.”

The USCCB, along with a number of other religious groups, filed friend-of-the-court briefs in the cases in favor of the employers. It said the added employee protection could impact faith-based schools, health care providers and homeless shelters that operate by “religious and moral convictions.”

Michael Moreland, a professor of law and religion at Villanova University in Philadelphia and director of the college’s Eleanor H. McCullen Center for Law, Religion and Public Policy, said it is his belief that the “ministerial exception” for employees at Catholic institutions is wellestablished. Many Catholic elementary and high schools and parishes have a clause in employment contracts declaring that the employee is a minister. However, he said, it is far less likely to happen “in larger institutional settings — Catholic universities, hospitals, social service agencies — where it would be difficult to say that everybody counts as a ‘minister.’”

CNS

DACA recipients and their supporters celebrate outside the U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington June 18.

Reaction positive to SCOTUS decision on bid to end DACA Catholic News Service Reaction was largely laudatory to the Supreme Court’s June 18 rejection of a Trump administration bid to revoke Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals, an Obama-era executive order that allowed young people brought into the country illegally as minors by their parents to stay in the United States.

Under DACA, about 700,000 young people who qualify for the program have been protected from deportation and have been able to work, go to college, get health insurance and obtain a driver’s license. In the meantime, Congress has considered measures to provide these “Dreamers” a pathway to U.S. citizenship, such as the proposed Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act, or DREAM Act. “We welcome the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision noting that the Trump administration did not follow proper administrative procedures required to repeal the DACA program,” said a June 18 statement from Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Washington Auxiliary Bishop Mario Dorsonville, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Migration.

They told DACA recipients: “Through today’s decision and beyond, we will continue to accompany you and your families. You are a vital part of our Church and our community of faith.”

u Pope adds ‘Comfort of Migrants,’ other Marian titles to Litany of Loreto. Among the many titles under which Catholics invoke Mary, Pope Francis has asked them June 20 via the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments to add “Mother of Mercy,” “Mother of Hope” and “Comfort of Migrants.” The litany, which begins by invoking God’s mercy, then turns to Mary, asking for her prayers. The Litany of Loreto traces its origins back to the 16th century and already had close to 50 titles for Mary with verses like “Holy Mother of God, pray for us” and “Queen of All Saints, pray for us.” u Syracuse bishop says Chapter 11 filing will ensure victims will be treated ‘justly.’ The Diocese of Syracuse, New York, filed for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code July 19, citing the financial implications of more than 100 lawsuits alleging past child sexual abuse as well as the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The Diocese of Syracuse is the third diocese in New York to file for Chapter 11 since the 2019 Child Victims Act opened a one-year “lookback” window allowing claims of child sexual abuse previously beyond the statute of limitations to be filed. u Supreme Court stops Texas execution for inmate’s religious liberty. The U.S. Supreme Court granted a last-minute stay of execution for Texas death-row inmate Ruben Gutierrez June 16, saying the state prison officials need to reexamine their rule that bans clergy from accompanying prisoners at the execution chamber. The Texas Catholic Conference filed an amicus brief June 12 with the U.S. Supreme Court, stating the bishops’ longstanding opposition to the use of capital punishment and also emphasizing the violation of Gutierrez’s religious liberty with the state’s refusal to allow chaplains to accompany those being executed into the execution chamber. A Catholic, Gutierrez, now 43, was convicted in 1999 of killing an elderly woman the previous year during a home robbery in Brownsville, Texas. He has spent more than 20 years on death row and has spent the past 10 years fighting for DNA testing that he claims could prove his innocence.

— Catholic News Service

The Parish of St. Gabriel the Archangel in Hopkins extends our Congratulations to Fr. Jim Liekhus celebrating 15 years of priesthood.

Thank you for your 12 years of ministry with us.

God's Blessings as you continue to serve his people.

Congratulations Father Meyers

On the 10th Anniversary of your Ordination to the Priesthood, with deep gratitude for your service to our parish.

JUNE 25, 2020

NATION+WORLD

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 9

Georgetown Law School forum examines reforming, transforming police

By Mark Pattison Catholic News Service A panel of police and civil rights activists suggested numerous ways to reform the nature of police work in the United States during a June 11 forum sponsored by Georgetown University Law School in Washington.

If police officers commit crimes while on duty, as has been alleged in the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, “the court has put up a number of hurdles to make it difficult to bring injunctive relief against an entire police department,” said Christy Lopez, a Georgetown Law professor and co-director of its Innovative Policing Program.

By comparison, if a truck driver is responsible for a fatal accident, the driver’s company can be sued, said Lopez, who prior to coming to Georgetown was deputy chief in the Special Litigation Section of the federal Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

Lynda Garcia, director of the policing program at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, looked at legislative approaches to reforming policing during the forum, “Transforming the Police.”

States should adopt a “use of force” standard, Garcia said, permitting police to apply it only when necessary. “Now, they’re allowed to use it when it’s not necessary; all it has to be is ‘reasonable,’” Garcia said.

She cited the Eric Garner Act, named after the victim of a police chokehold in 2014 who, like Floyd, also told the officer

restraining him, “I can’t breathe.”

“George Floyd’s murder has really brought this back up,” Garcia said, adding that a law should ban “any maneuver that restricts the flow of blood or oxygen to the brain.”

Garcia advocated for other measures, including a ban on racial profiling, data collection on racial profiling and creation of a national police officer misconduct database. Too often, she said, cops are hired by “the department the town over” after being fired from their original police force. “This creates a huge accountability issue.”

Ronald Davis, former police chief of East Palo Alto, California, advocated for policing to be considered a profession, like attorneys, who can be disbarred for malpractice.

Meanwhile, he added, “The United States has the most decentralized system of law enforcement in the world. … We don’t even know how many we’ve got.”

Estimates put the figure between 16,000 and 18,000 police agencies. The United Kingdom, by comparison, has about 50 police agencies.

Were his appendix to burst, Davis said, medical treatment would “work the same way in New York or Los Angeles or Chicago — I hope.”

But when it comes to policing, “they do not do the research, they do not have the best practices,” said Davis, who headed the 2014-15 White House Task Force on 21st Century Policing.

Asked if reform was a worthwhile project, Davis replied, “I’m not going to answer this as a 30-year veteran of

CNS

Police in Minneapolis face off with protesters May 31 during demonstrations following the death of George Floyd. law enforcement. I’m going to answer this as a black man. We don’t have an option. We cannot continue to harm communities of color. ... We need change, and we need it as soon as possible. We know it’s not going to take (place) overnight. But we got to get out of our comfort zone.”

Martin Haiman, executive director of the professional development bureau of the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department in the nation’s capital, said he was “both appalled at the actual murder (of Floyd) itself, but (also) at the officers who stood by.”

Over the past two decades, the D.C. police department has made “dramatic changes” in who it recruits, Haiman said.

“It starts with who agencies hire. The agency has to mirror the community it

serves. … (Otherwise) there’s where the building block for trust begins to fall apart.”

The D.C. Council ushered in emergency reforms in a package approved unanimously June 10. Those include making it easier to fire officers for misconduct and to publicly release the names of officers involved in deadly confrontations as well as body-camera footage of such incidents. Other practices already forbidden by the city’s police, such as chokeholds and the use of rubber bullets and chemical irritants, are now unlawful. The measure is good for 90 days while the council prepares a permanent bill.

In Louisville, Kentucky, the City Council passed a bill banning “noknock” raids. It was during one such raid in March that Breonna Taylor was killed by police when they entered her apartment looking for drugs — they were at the wrong address — and her boyfriend, thinking he and Taylor’s residence was being broken into, shot at the unseen intruders. Taylor also was a focus of the wave of protests that cascaded throughout the country.

Panelists acknowledged that police get conflicting messages. “There’s a lot of gun violence. That violence kills young black men. We absolutely want to eliminate that. Officers are rewarded if they get guns off the street,” Lopez said.

“They understand the way to do that is to stop a lot of people. ... If I have to stop 100 cars to get one gun, that’s great. I’ll do it. But the other 99 people are going to be mad.”

10 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Stay at home, search within Catholics reflect on spiritual awakenings that came from pandemic restrictions

By Christina Capecchi For The Catholic Spirit

D

errick Diedrich was supposed to spend spring in Rome, studying with a group of University of St. Thomas students in the acclaimed Catholic Studies travel abroad program.

He had visions of papal encounters, gelato stands, late-night theological discussions and epic sightseeing.

Instead, the 21-year-old business leadership major found himself back on his family’s Wisconsin farm — participating in Zoom classes at the dining-room table, squabbling with siblings and putting up trim in their butcher shop.

The contrast couldn’t have been starker.

For Catholics across the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the coronavirus pandemic has brought many losses. Quarantine felt, at times, like being trapped with their worst habits, their innermost thoughts and their messy children. With every semblance of normalcy stripped away, it was hard not to re-examine life. Some came to difficult conclusions.

But many now recognize that the struggle was worth it, packing years of spiritual growth into one intense season, rearranging their hearts in unexpected ways. As business resumes, many Catholics say they are determined to continue the positive changes forced by the pandemic.

Shea Olson used to keep a jam-packed schedule.

A St. Paul mom of four — ages 7 to 1 — who works at home as a Beautycounter mentor, she and her husband are both extroverts who like to fill their days with youth sports and social gatherings.

When that came to a screeching halt, their orientation shifted.

“We have turned inward in who we are as a family,” said Olson, a member of St. Agnes in St. Paul. “We have grown in love for one another without all the distractions of constantly thinking or prepping for our next event or social time.”

The blank calendar felt “freeing,” she said, and prodded her to measure their time differently. She was surprised by what ensued: a season not of idleness but of abundance.

“We have celebrated four birthdays, been on too many hikes to count, potty trained, sleep trained, read more stories than I thought possible, mailed cards to friends who live down the street and made our little corner of the world in the backyard so much prettier.”

On daily neighborhood walks, the Olsons studied gardens and noticed two houses with chickens. It inspired them to get chickens of their own. Their 7-year-old son built a coop with his dad.

The feathered flock — a Buff Orpington, a Silver Wyandotte, a Rhode Island Red and a Prairie Bluebell Egger — have ushered in many lessons beyond the kids’ formal curriculum. And they provided a tangible way for Olson and her husband, Joseph, to embrace a challenge that emerged during the quarantine: to take a closer look at what the family consumes, food and otherwise.

The couple also became better communicators.

“Joseph and I have had to re-learn how to communicate with one another without having somewhere to rush off to or friends to chat with,” she said. “We have each other and we’re in this together.”

Another takeaway from the pandemic was the charge to enrich their experience of home. “It’s been a joy to see my kids’ creativity emerge without the pressure to get ready to get out of the house,” she said.

“There seems to be a gentleness in the day with more time spent at home.”

Reading “Theology of Home: Finding the Eternal in the Everyday,” published last year, has spurred Olson’s thinking. It includes a quote from Mother Teresa that resonated with the 30-something mom: “Try to

put in the hearts of your children a love for home.

Make them long to be with their families. So much sin could be avoided if our people really loved their homes.”

As activities resume, Olson plans to be more selective. “I think it may mean we’re not as social with as many people as we were before,” she said. “Maybe our circle will become smaller. And I might have to get over fear of missing out, that I’m not giving my kids as many opportunities — but to what end?”

Giving thanks COVID-19 poses a serious threat to Sister Liz Kerwin, a Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet and retired spiritual director. At 87 and with an underlying condition — chronic lymphocytic leukemia — she’s well aware of her risk.

“I know this could end my life,” said Sister Liz, who lives at the Carondelet Village retirement home in St. Paul. “But I’m trying to focus more on the people around me. Since we only have today, I try to live as fully, lovingly, meaningfully and gratefully as I can.

Love drives out fear, and I think gratitude does, too. In the morning, I say, ‘Lord, thank you for another day.’

And whatever it brings, I try to live with that.”

She has felt her trust in God deepening amid the pandemic, and she’s come to a peaceful acceptance of her life. “As I look back, I’m really grateful and amazed, and I guess I consciously have to let go of criticizing myself for the things I haven’t done in my life and just live with where God has led me,” she said.

Quarantine provided the time and space for many meditative exercises. Sister Liz has spent more time in prayer and in letter writing, which she describes as “an act of love.” She’s taking a painting class and making her own cards for the first time. She also joined a poetry group this spring that meets on Zoom, a “very contemplative” experience.

The reduced traffic has enhanced the birdsong on her grounds. “I love it,” Sister Liz said. “It warms the cockles of my heart.”

She is delighted by two Canadian Jays — a “magnificent” gray bird uncommon in St. Paul — that flutter outside her window.

Despite the arthritis in her knees, Sister Liz makes a point to get outside. In the span of one week, she hung a hummingbird feeder, planted tomatoes and picked Shasta daisies.

The quarantine has strengthened her resolve to care for the environment. It has forced her to give up a favorite hobby of shopping and instead cut back on her wardrobe, donating unused clothing.

She commemorated the fifth anniversary of Pope Francis’ encyclical “Laudato Si’, on Care for Our Common Home” and watched two films on plastics.

Eliminating them from daily life is a sacrifice but worthwhile, she said.

Sister Liz recently joined three groups dedicated to sustainability — a local CSJ group, a national CSJ group and an archdiocesan team called the Archdiocesan Care for Creation Committee.

She trusts in God, she trusts in her fellow Catholics and she trusts that blessings will emerge from the pandemic. “The Chinese word for ‘crisis’ is the same word as ‘opportunity,’” she said. “What kind of opportunity is this for us? I wonder how we’re going to be changed, how we’re going to be different as we move forward.”

Doctor dad Samuel Russ, a member of St. Peter in Mendota, is asking those same questions. The young dad just completed a five-year residency program to become an orthopedic doctor.

Before the coronavirus, he would work 12- to 16-hour days. Sometimes, when he was on call, he could log up to 24 hours straight.

In response to COVID-19, his residency split i teams. Russ would work one week and then spe following two weeks home in quarantine.

“It was definitely an adjustment to go from constantly moving 100 mph to life slowing dow with more time at home,” he said. “It was a wel adjustment, though, to take some much-needed with the family.”

Finally, Russ had the chance to tend to everyt he had shoved to the back burner. “In many wa this pandemic gave us time to catch up on life t and renew our relationships as a family,” he said During quarantine, Russ taught his oldest to r bike, played T-ball with his 3-year-old and watch youngest child learn to walk. “Being present for precious moments is something I do not take for granted.”

The experience reinforced his goal to make fa time a priority after his residency. “I will work h to ensure I have some sort of work-life balance g forward,” he said.

The quarantine enabled the new doctor to ad an area of weakness. “I have struggled with mak prayer a priority during the busyness of work an family life,” he said.

This spring he completed the Exodus 90, a 90 spiritual exercise for Catholic men, reaping man fruits. “I believe it has made me a better husban father, doctor and servant to my family,” he said

Rural wisdom

Then there is Diedrich, the St. Thomas studen suddenly found himself back home in Hortonvi Wisconsin, struggling to reconcile the gap betw the Eternal City and the family farm.

As he wrote papers in the dining room and contended with his brothers, little grievances returned. “Spending every day with your sibling start to remember all the pet peeves you had,” h “Your old self starts to come back.”

It felt like a setback for the student who had enjoyed so much autonomy since starting colleg St. Paul.

Diedrich had been going to daily Mass. Now, couldn’t attend Mass at all. He juggled Zoom cla with farm chores but also had time to hang out his 16-year-old sister.

She was 13 the last time he’d lived at home fo extended period. She had changed.

The two talked about everything — her intere her friends, the guy who had begun texting her. the end of the day, Diedrich would go to her roo and encourage her to get out of bed and kneel w him to pray.

There were times Diedrich recognized as some special, such as when all six members of the fam settled in together to watch a movie or play a bo game. “I realized we were having really quality f time that we got away from having because our are so busy,” he said. “To have that family life ag and to interact so frequently was a blessing. I do know if that’ll ever happen again.”

He vowed to make Easter on the farm memor knowing how sacred the holiday would have be Rome. The novice cook prepared the biggest me ever made, spending hours on an elaborate brun for his family — complete with Finnish pancake Spanish tortillas and Mexican horchata, recipes pick up from his travels.

“I was in over my head, but I pulled it off, and was a great family time,” he said.

Slowing down on the farm didn’t come natur to the extrovert accustomed to lively college life Connecting with his scattered peers felt differen forcing him to examine the content of their friendships.

“It was humbling to call up friends,” he said.

JUNE 25, 2020 • 11

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BELOW From left, Fritz, Edith, Dockery, Joseph and Shea Olson, holding Margaux, make kombucha together in the kitchen of their St. Paul home.

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“Normally you catch up and share about your lives, but now I didn’t have much to talk about, and I thought, ‘Oh, wow, maybe I haven’t been very substantive in my relationships.’”

Diedrich adjusted.

“Now I asked totally different questions. ‘How are you feeling? How are things with your family? Do you need any help?’”

Different questions shook out different insights.

“You knew what people were going through because they weren’t doing anything, so they would talk about their thoughts and feelings and their prayer life.”

He and his friends set up a 9 p.m. rosary via Facetime on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. He was surprised how many joined — and how rewarding it was.

“I’m used to being super social, and I became more introverted,” he said. “What I really looked forward to was not interacting with my friends but praying with them. That felt substantive. It was really beautiful.”

It’s a ritual Diedrich plans to continue, and it helps him feel more optimistic about a senior year that will look different this fall than he had envisioned.

“The normal I was expecting isn’t happening, but that doesn’t mean I can’t be joyful and take the opportunity to do new things, connect more deeply with people and continue to see the Lord working in my life,” he said.

Yes, he acknowledges, it would’ve been glorious to spend a semester in Rome, worshipping at St. Peter’s Basilica, studying art history and moral theology.

But perhaps the sweaty, dusty lessons Diedrich learned on the farm this spring were the ones he needed most.

PHOTOS BY DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

12 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

JUNE 25, 2020

JUBILEES

FATHER ERIK LUNDGREN

10

Uniting merged parishes

F

ather Erik Lundgren has spent his first 10 years as a priest managing merged parishes and helping them become one — responsibilities he feels may be an important part of priests’ lives in the future.

“I’d say the one great takeaway is needing to learn how to pace yourself, needing to learn how to ask for help because the more that gets combined under one person’s responsibility, the less time one has to figure out things on their own,” said Father Lundgren, 37, pastor of Sts. Joachim and Anne in Shakopee, which formed in 2012 through the merger of three parishes.

Since his 2010 ordination, Father Lundgren has served at merged parishes as well as smaller ones in the southern area of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. At the same time, he has worked with parish schools and bilingual ministry. As Father Lundgren has gained experience, he’s also put on a lot of mileage traveling between parish campuses.

Father Lundgren grew up in a family that valued but also at times questioned the Catholic faith, which he said has helped him explain it to others. He began considering priesthood as a teen, influenced by his pastor at Our Lady of Grace in Edina, the late Father Bob Cassidy. After college, Father Lundgren decided to try The St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul, and when it gave him joy, he didn’t leave.

His first assignment was to the parishes of Divine Mercy in Faribault, St. Michael in Kenyon and St. Patrick in Shieldsville. As Father Lundgren adjusted to serving Divine Mercy and two other parishes, he was inspired by the energy and engaging tone of Father Kevin Finnegan, then-pastor of Divine Mercy.

In 2014, Father Lundgren was transferred to Sts. Joachim and Anne and four years later became pastor. Three church buildings are used for worship, and the parish school, Shakopee Area Catholic School, is located on another site.

Leading communities that once had distinct identities is challenging because people continue to gather on different campuses, Father Lundgren said. As he works to create one parish family, Father Lundgren has learned to accompany parishioners through significant changes.

While trying to unite parishioners, he has also ministered to Latino Catholics during his assignments.

Reflecting on his mother’s experience as a Belgian immigrant has helped him to better understand issues immigrant parishioners face, he said.

In working with parish schools, Father Lundgren said he’s been surprised at their power to form souls and introduce young people to the faith.

Encouraging the talents of school and church employees and asking for help have helped him grow in humility, he said.

“The reality of how much needs to get done in a large, multi-campus, merged-parish assignment really forces one to discern, ‘What are my greatest priorities in life, and what do I value most when time is limited?’”

Despite challenges, Father Lundgren said the highlight of his first decade of priesthood has been offering Mass.

“Letting yourself be used by God to make God present in a physical way to people is beyond our ability to completely appreciate,” he said.

FATHER MICHAEL VAN SLOUN

25

FATHER GREGORY SKRYPEK

50

Teaching about Scripture

Seeking common ground

ather Michael Van Sloun began giving lectures to seminarians when he was a religious brother, and he has continued to teach in different ways since leaving religious life to become a priest of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Now celebrating 25 years as a priest, the pastor of St. Bartholomew in Wayzata instructs parishioners, those he leads on pilgrimage and, in his monthly Faith Fundamentals column, readers of The Catholic Spirit, about the Catholic faith and Scripture.

“I’ve watched person after person come to new insight about the faith and understand their faith better, and that puts joy in my heart,” said Father Van Sloun, 68, who also spent 23 years as a Crosier brother.

His boyhood faith inspired by priests at Incarnation, his south Minneapolis parish, Father Van Sloun considered attending the archdiocese’s preparatory seminary until he visited an Onamia, Minnesota, seminary run by the Canons Regular of the Order of the Holy Cross, commonly known as the Crosiers. He joined the community as a religious brother in 1972 because of its fellowship, spirituality and commitment to service.

Still sensing a call to the priesthood in the late 1980s, Father Van Sloun decided to pursue the possibility. With his superiors’ approval, he studied at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago and was ordained at St. Odilia in Shoreview in 1995.

Father Van Sloun’s first priestly assignment was at St. Stephen in Anoka, then run by the Crosiers. Six years later, he was appointed as pastor of the parish, which then had 4,400 families. When the Crosiers shifted their vision to de-emphasize ministry work and withdrew from St. Stephen in 2004, Father Van Sloun began serving there as a diocesan priest. He was formally incardinated into the archdiocese in 2006.

Father Van Sloun missed the Crosiers’ community life, but as a diocesan priest, his parishes have become his community.

“They are truly different vocations, so I’ve had a chance to have a foot in both worlds,” he said.

His experience also helped him mentor and build collegiality with the many new associate priests who served with him at St. Stephen.

Since being appointed pastor of “St. Bart’s” in 2013, Father Van Sloun hasn’t worked with associates.

He celebrates all the Masses for the parish’s 1,500 families, which has given him more opportunities to get to know them.

“All of a sudden, the connection I have to the parishioners is even stronger, because I have more contact with regular parishioners,” he said.

Along with leading St. Bartholomew, Father Van Sloun instructs Catholics through parish Bible studies and the columns he’s written for The Catholic Spirit since 2007.

“We’re trying to go right at the heart of the way people live out the prayer part of their faith, and if they understand it, they’ll appreciate it more and it will give them more strength,” he said.

Looking back on his ministry as both a religious and diocesan priest, Father Van Sloun said he is grateful for the entire 25 years. “I would do this again in a minute, for sure.”

s a prison chaplain, Father Gregory Skrypek tried to find connecting points with non-Catholic inmates, and he’s done the same while serving Catholics in parishes.

“It was an experience of making things common,” Father Skrypek said of his 50 years of priesthood. “I was amazed at how people received me. … What I learned was not what I taught.”

From serving in his home parish to decades of prison work and now part-time ministry in retirement, Father Skrypek, 77, reflected on his ministry as he undergoes prostate cancer treatment.

After attending St. Columba’s parish school, Father Skrypek pursued the priesthood first at Nazareth Hall, the archdiocese’s former preparatory seminary, and then at The St. Paul Seminary, both in St. Paul.

During seminary he served as a counselor at thenSt. Joseph’s Home for Children in St. Paul. He took a year off from seminary to continue discerning and working at the home.

After his 1970 ordination, Father Skrypek was assigned to his home parish, St. Columba. He was transferred to the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis in 1977 and served for three years, including as parochial administrator while starting the parish council.

Because of his experience working with troubled kids, Father Skrypek was asked to serve as chaplain at the Hennepin County Adult Correction Facility in 1980.

After seven years there, he said he thought he was ready to go back into a parish. But instead he was asked to take over the chaplaincy at the Minnesota Correction Facility-Stillwater.

“I said, ‘That’s the natural progression, isn’t it? You go from jail to prison.’” He served prison inmates for 22 years.

As a chaplain, Father Skrypek learned to listen while frequently serving men with addictions. “It taught me to center myself wherever I am,” he said. “God is the answer, and it’s not so much that I need to answer, but the answer is in listening to people’s questions and being part of … that growth.”

While Father Skrypek served Catholics at the prison, all the inmates saw him as their chaplain.

“I never went into the prison as a prison,” he said. “It was my assignment, so I went into the prison realizing that I needed to respect that’s where they lived, and I tried to see it that way.”

Grateful for his chaplain experience, Father Skrypek said he learned more deeply the meaning of Christianity. “I jumped into an experience where there was so much to take in and it was so good, it didn’t seem like 30 years.”

Since leaving prison ministry in 2009, Father Skrypek has served part time at Assumption in St. Paul. The active parish has kept him busy, although he has slowed down some.

In his various assignments, Father Skrypek said, what’s shaped his ministry is trying to be humble and accompany people in difficulties.

“When you’re with people in their journey, they can cry only for so long,” he said. “I’ve laughed so deeply with people at seemingly the hardest times when they come to an awareness. That’s a good place to be at this time in my life.”

F

A

— Stories by Susan Klemond and photos by Dave Hrbacek

JUBILEES

JUNE 25, 2020

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 13

Congratulations, jubilarians!

The Catholic Spirit is honored to celebrate the priests who are marking 10, 25, 50, 60 and 70 years of priestly ministry this year. In addition to the jubilarians featured on page 12, the following men are observing these significant anniversaries of their ordination to the priesthood. Congratulations to all of the archdiocesan priests — including those not listed below — celebrating milestone anniversaries this year.

10 years (2010 ordination) Father Joseph Bambenek, 50,

has served as assistant director of the Archdiocesan Synod in the auxiliary bishop’s office at the chancery since 2019. He has also ministered at Nativity of Our Lord in St. Paul (2010-2012), Ave Maria Academy in Maple Grove and St. Michael in St. Michael (2012-2013) and St. Pius X and Frassati Catholic Academy in White Bear Lake (2013-2019).

Father Patrick Barnes, 41, has served as canonical administrator of Holy Cross Catholic School in Webster since 2015 and as pastor of St. Nicholas in New Market since 2013. He has also ministered at DeLaSalle High School in Minneapolis (2008-2013) and St. Charles Borromeo in Minneapolis (2010-2013).

Father Alex Carlson, 36, has served as pastor of St. John the Baptist in Excelsior since 2013. He has also ministered at Epiphany in Coon Rapids (2010-2012) and St. Ambrose in Woodbury (2012-2013).

Father Paul Kubista, 51, has served as sacramental minister at St. Joseph in Miesville, as chaplain at Regina Senior Living in Hastings and in the Archdiocesan Catholic Center in St. Paul since 2019. He has also ministered at St. Mathias in Hampton, St. John the Baptist in Vermillion and St. Mary in New Trier (2010-2011), St. Hubert in Chanhassen (2011-2013), St. Columbkill in Goodhue and St. Mary in Bellechester (2013), Holy Trinity in Goodhue (20132015), Immaculate Conception of Marysburg in Madison Lake and Nativity in Cleveland (2015-2016), Epiphany in Coon Rapids (2016-2017) and St. Jude of the Lake in Mahtomedi (2017-2019).

Father Nathaniel Meyers, 37, has served as pastor of St. Francis Xavier in Buffalo since 2014. He has also ministered at St. Michael in St. Michael (2010-2012).

25 years (1995 ordination) Father Glen Jenson, 60, has served as pastor of Sts. Peter and Paul in Loretto and St. Thomas the Apostle in Corcoran since 2018. He has also ministered at Most Holy Redeemer in Montgomery (1995-1997), Nativity in Cleveland and Immaculate Conception of Marysburg in Madison Lake (1997-2001), St. Nicholas in New Market (2001-2004), Pope John Paul II Catholic School in Minneapolis (2004-2015), Catholic Eldercare in Minneapolis (2004-2008), St. Anthony of Padua in Minneapolis and St. Hedwig in Minneapolis (2004-2013), Holy Cross in Minneapolis (2008-2017) and St. Patrick in Edina (2017-2018).

Father Jonathan Shelley, 59, has served in occasional ministry at the Missionary Sisters of St. Peter Claver of North America since 2018. He has also ministered at St. Michael in Stillwater (1995-1997), St. Charles in Bayport (19961998), St. Jude of the Lake in Mahtomedi (1998-2005), St. Wenceslaus in New Prague (2005), St. John the Baptist in Jordan (2005-2006), St. Stephen in Minneapolis (20062008), St. John the Baptist in Hugo (2008-2012) and Visitation Sisters in Minneapolis (2018-2019).

50 years (1970 ordination)

Father Lyle (Matthew) Ehmke, 80, retired in 2012 after serving as an assistant priest at Our Lady of Grace in Edina in 2012 and as chaplain at St. Therese of New Hope from 2011 to 2012. He also ministered at Our Lady of Grace (2007-2012) and was incardinated to the archdiocese from the Crosiers in 2011.

Father Eugene Pouliot, 75, retired in 2006 after serving as pastor of St. Peter in Richfield (2002-2006). He has also ministered at Sacred Heart in Robbinsdale (1970-1974), Immaculate Heart of Mary in Minnetonka (1974-1976), Our Lady of Grace in Edina (1976-1985) and St. Michael in Farmington (1986-2002).

60 years (1960 ordination) Father Gordon Doffing, 86, retired in 1998 after serving as pastor of Holy Childhood in St. Paul from 1986 to 1998. He has also ministered at St. Joseph in West St. Paul (1960-1966), St. Thomas Academy in Mendota Heights (1966-1973 and 1974-1986) and the former Archbishop Brady High School in West St. Paul (1973-1974).

Father John (Jack) Donahue, 85, retired in 1999 after serving at Maternity of the Blessed Virgin in St. Paul from 1981 to 1999. He has also ministered at St. Michael in Stillwater (1960-1967), as a military chaplain (1962-1991), St. Pius X in White Bear Lake (1967-1968), vocations office at the chancery (1968-1972), St. Vincent de Paul in Osseo (1968-1969), Blessed Sacrament in St. Paul (1970-1972), St. Mary of the Lake in White Bear Lake (1972), St. Peter in North St. Paul (1972-1973), St. Patrick in Cedar Creek (1973-1981) and as cruise ship chaplain (2013-2014).

70 years (1950 ordination)

Father Charles Brambilla, 75, retired in 2015 after serving as pastor of St. Timothy in Blaine from 2005-2015. He has also ministered at St. Stephen in Anoka (1971-1977), St. Charles Borromeo in Minneapolis (1977-1981), Transfiguration in Oakdale (1981-1994) and St. Bridget of Sweden in Lindstrom (1994-2005).

Father Marvin Klaers, 94, retired in 2002 after serving as pastor of St. Joseph in Miesville from 1976 to 2002. After assignments outside the archdiocese from 1950 to 1952, he has also ministered at St. Mark in Shakopee (1952-1965), St. Mathias in Hampton (1965-1971), St. Thomas the Apostle in St. Paul (1971-1975), St. Mary in St. Paul (1975-1976) and St. Mary in New Trier (1976-2002).

TheCatholicSpirit.com

14 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

JUNE 25, 2020

FROMAGETOAGE 1960s peace activist reflects on George Floyd’s death and its aftermath One of ‘Baltimore Four,’ Jim Mengel recalls protesting with Berrigan brothers, honors their legacy

By Joe Ruff The Catholic Spirit

J

im Mengel, 91, watched neighborhoods in the Twin Cities burn from his room at Cerenity Senior Care in White Bear Lake after the May 25 death of George Floyd, an African American who died while pinned under the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer.

Largely keeping to his room to avoid contracting COVID-19, Mengel, who is white, followed via TV the protests, which led to several days of riots, looting and arson and the calling up of the National Guard.

The situation led him to reflect on his own political activism and the legacy of the Berrigan brothers — the late Minnesota natives Jesuit Father Daniel Berrigan and his brother, former Josephite Father Philip Berrigan, who led protests against the Vietnam War and at times were arrested and criticized for their tactics. Philip Berrigan also was excommunicated from the Catholic Church after marrying a former nun.

Mengel, a United Church of Christ pastor when he joined Philip Berrigan as one of the “Baltimore Four” — who occupied the Selective Service Board in the Customs House in Baltimore on Oct. 27, 1967, and poured blood on draft records — said he and the Berrigan brothers acted against the violence of the Vietnam War. With Floyd’s death and other police-related deaths of African Americans around the country the last

CNS

Then-Josephite Father Philip Berrigan, left, and his brother Jesuit Father Daniel Berrigan, center, participated in numerous anti-war activities beginning in the 1960s. They were part of the Catonsville 9, a group of Catholics who burned draft files outside of a draft board in Catonsville, Md. on May 17, 1968. The previous year, Jim Mengel, now a White Bear Lake resident, joined Philip Berrigan and two others for a demonstration against the Vietnam War in Baltimore. several years, the violence of war appears to be perpetrated on American citizens, he said.

“They ought to be recognized in this day and age as real prophets,” said Mengel, speaking of the Berrigan brothers, Philip, who was born in Two Harbors, and Daniel, who was born in Virginia, Minnesota. “The police are in a sense at war with civilians in our own country. It’s coming to the fore. I think people in general maybe are getting this.”

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Protests after Floyd’s death swept the country, and Mengel spoke with The Catholic Spirit only days before President Donald Trump signed an executive order June 16 to provide incentives to police departments to adopt new standards for the use of force; to encourage mental health professionals to respond with officers on calls dealing with such issues as mental illness, drug addiction and homelessness; and to create a national database allowing departments to track potential hires with records of abuse.

A Pennsylvania native who 30 years ago converted to the Catholic faith and who could walk to Mass at his parish, St. Mary of the Lake, before the pandemic, Mengel said he believes money spent on military-style guns and heavy equipment for police should go instead toward preventing the need for that kind of police protection by “trying to help people with their problems, whatever they are.”

“We don’t help people by beating up on them,” he said. “There may be a slight need for the kind of policing we have. But generally, and from my own experience with police, you don’t need that kind of action. We’re tearing ourselves apart. It’s like suicide.”

Mengel said that in Baltimore, he

and the three others involved in the action — Philip Berrigan, an artist named Tom Lewis and a writer named David Eberhardt — drew their own blood before they entered the Selective Service office.

They added blood from a local butcher shop.

Mengel did not pour blood, instead opting to hand out paperback versions of the New Testament to draft board workers, news media and police. Berrigan was sentenced to six years in prison, Eberhardt and Lewis served jail time, and Mengel served five years of probation.

Raising two young children at the time with his late wife, Norma, Mengel decided not to pursue future actions against the war that would break the law.

But he continued to attend war protests, and in later years he protested against other wars, as well as against abortion.

About 30 years ago, he and Norma moved to White Bear Lake to be close to their children and grandchildren.

Mengel said his beliefs are based on Christ’s words and actions, and trying to live those words in his own life.

“Christ came to give us peace, not violence and war. That’s ridiculous,” he said. “I’m not important. Christ is.

Jesus is, and everything that follows from that.”

FROMAGETOAGE

JUNE 25, 2020

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 15

Stories in sound offer calm in challenging times

By Debbie Musser For The Catholic Spirit

A

s was the case for many Catholics, Deacon Bob Wagner’s season of Lent was far beyond the norm.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic stay-athome order, Deacon Wagner was unable to attend Mass at his home parish, St. Wenceslaus in New Prague, or participate in his current volunteer commitments, which include leading support groups for the separated, divorced and grieving, and conducting Communion services at a local nursing home.

So, Deacon Wagner, 67, who recently retired from 42 years of church ministry and has long worked with music, began a new mission, drawing upon both his experience of caring for the vulnerable and his musical talents.

“I began to compose music that I thought might grant some feeling of peace,” Deacon Wagner said. “Music has the ability to calm us during our most frantic times, and allows God to embrace and comfort us.”

Since the pandemic began, Deacon Wagner has composed 10 works on the piano, dedicating his music as an aural prayer of calm and peace for those suffering through illness, anxiety, unease, loss of loved ones, loss of work and loss of security.

One of the songs, “Prelude For Those Who Are Suffering,” was composed for the people trapped aboard a cruise ship anchored off the coast of San Francisco in the early days of the pandemic.

“The song is in simple AABA form, similar to a hymn, and unified by a four-

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Deacon Bob Wagner sits at the piano at his home parish, St. Wenceslaus in New Prague. measure harmonic ostinato — a repeated pattern of chords,” Deacon Wagner said.

“The combination of the melody and chords elicits the empathy that welled up within me for the plight of those trapped on that cruise ship. ... There is a feeling of isolation, heartache, the notion that one has been abandoned by others, and having little to no one to whom to turn for help. The question, ‘What do I do now?’ underlies the music, and the answer to that question is to trust only in God.” A native of Chicago, Deacon Wagner began piano lessons in the third grade, picking up brass instruments along the way before zeroing in only on piano, earning a music degree from the thenCollege of St. Thomas in St. Paul. He went on to graduate from The St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity with a masters

TAKE A LISTEN Deacon Bob Wagner’s music can be heard on YouTube under his full name, Robert Charles Wagner, and found on most music streaming services such as Pandora. It can be purchased and downloaded through Amazon, iTunes and CD Baby. Deacon Wagner also has a blog, deaconbob94.org, where he posts music, homilies and reflections.

HYMNS FOR NEIGHBORS Deacon Wagner isn’t the only local Catholic writing music.

Philip Robert Nelson, a retired music teacher and choir director in public schools and longtime music volunteer and minister at several parishes and schools in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, is offering recordings of his own faith-filled compositions on YouTube.

It’s an effort 20 years in the making to evangelize and teach the faith, and it can also offer comfort, reflection and support to people staying home to help prevent spread of the novel coronavirus, said Nelson, a fourth-degree member of Knights of Columbus Council 10138 in Coon Rapids and Knights Assembly 529 in Maplewood, who is tying his project to the national Knights’ coronavirus initiative “Leave No Neighbor Behind.”

“People (are encouraged) not to go church if they are over 65, so the Knights are calling on them, providing food, visiting, reaching out,” said Nelson, 71. “I decided that, here I am, a retired music teacher, I’ll do my part.”

Nelson is a member of Epiphany in Coon Rapids with his wife, Cheryl. Nelson was inspired by St. John Paul II’s idea of the new evangelization, he said, and for years he has been composing

songs based on Scripture and Church teaching and using them in his service to youth groups and student choirs at parishes and schools including St. Alphonsus in Brooklyn Center, St. Peter in Forest Lake and Academy of Holy Angels in Richfield.

Spurred by a 2019 Pew Research Center study that found fewer than one-third of Catholics believe the Eucharist is the actual body and blood of Jesus, he began last year recording the compositions with his wife playing the piano and Katie Jonza of Guardian Angels in Oakdale as vocalist.

They finished the recordings in December, with titles such as “The Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity,” “Mary, Queen of Heaven” and “Eucharistic Miracle,” and in March began releasing them as music videos with religious images, just as COVID-19 cases were increasing in Minnesota and stay-at-home orders went into effect. The music videos can be found by searching Nelson’s name at youtube.com.

Now, Nelson said, his apostolate of music with the visual arts and Church teaching and the Knights’ COVID-19 outreach are combined in a fortuitous way.

“This is a perfect fit,” he said.

— Joe Ruff

in pastoral studies, and was ordained a permanent deacon for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis in 1994. He has served in numerous ministries, including music educator, catechist, director of liturgy and music, director of pastoral ministry, parish life coordinator and pastoral associate.

Deacon Wagner’s lifetime of compositions includes 30 choral settings of psalms for church choirs. His 109 piano compositions, which he calls “psalm offerings,” were composed for others as gifts or in memory of those he has admired and loved.

“Like an artist (uses) a variety of primal colors, combination of colors, brush strokes, shapes and imagination, a composer uses tempo, note lengths, crescendos, decrescendos, dynamics and

articulation such as accent, staccato and rhythm to paint an emotion or a story, only in sound,” Deacon Wagner said.

“Composing is certainly helping me through this pandemic.”

A father of four children and grandfather to five, Deacon Wagner is married to his wife of 45 years, Ruthie, a retired nurse, whom he met while attending thenSt. Bernard’s High School in St. Paul. He’s experienced some major health issues over the years, including injuries suffered in a head-on car collision in 2002.

“It nearly killed me and injured my right hand so badly that the surgeon could only restore 60% of its use,” Deacon Wagner said. “That pretty much ended my playing piano professionally.”

“I mourn losing some of the use of my hand, but rejoice in that I once was able to perform at a very high level, and God has shown me a new way by which I can perform music,” he said.

That new way: composing music on his computer. Deacon Wagner’s new project, “A Paschal Journey,” is a collection of 13 songs to help bring some clarity to people who are in the midst of suffering due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“As St. Paul writes in Romans, we are immersed into a pattern of Christ’s passion, death and resurrection,” Deacon Wagner said. “As a nation dealing with COVID-19, we are now immersed into the Paschal Mystery of Christ.”

“There are many individual paschal journeys happening now throughout our nation,” he added, “and my hope is that parts of these 13 songs will impact others along the way.”

FROMAGETOAGE

16 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

JUNE 25, 2020

Goodbye, in stages Small burial service gives comfort to grieving family as they await memorial Mass

By Dave Hrbacek The Catholic Spirit

only chance to say goodbye to Jerry, and it was an emotional moment as she placed her fingers on top of the box. Sister Fran then took the box off of the stand Jerry had made for her and handed her the box to hold before it was placed in the mausoleum niche.

B

arbara and Jerry Bovy met in the first grade at Holy Spirit School in St. Paul nearly 80 years ago.

Romance developed during their senior year of high school — he went to Cretin, she went to Monroe — and they married in 1956. The bond deepened, and so did Jerry’s love for woodworking. He made various pieces of furniture for family and friends over the years, including a short stand for Sister Fran Donnelly, whom he met in 1985 when she worked with Barbara at St. Thomas the Apostle in St. Paul (now merged with Blessed Sacrament).

The precious piece of hand-crafted wood came full circle after Jerry died April 21. It was used as a stand for the cherrywood urn containing his ashes during a small burial service at Resurrection Cemetery in Mendota Heights May 8. It was an important part of the service, called rite of committal, which was severely downsized due to restrictions on burials and funerals during the novel coronavirus pandemic.

For Barbara, 85, and a member of Blessed Sacrament, it was something tangible to connect her with her husband, whom she saw only once during the final five weeks of his life because he was quarantined at a hospital in Arizona, where they lived during the winter months. Her sole visit was just a few days before he died, when he was unresponsive and bedridden. The couple talked by phone the day he died, but Jerry hardly spoke, his voice garbled, Barbara said.

Jerry, who was 84, died of heart failure and complications from polymyalgia rheumatica, an inflammatory disorder that attacks the muscles and mostly afflicts elderly people. He never contracted COVID-19.

The separation intensified Barbara’s grief, which began even before he died.

“If my mom could have seen him when he was responsive, and when

“I felt very, very peaceful,” Barbara said. “Part of that was Fran and part of that was these beautiful surroundings (at Resurrection Cemetery).”

“It was the start of some closure for us, which means the world,” Gretchen added.

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Barbara Bovy, center, touches an urn containing the remains of her husband, Jerry, during a rite of committal May 8 at Resurrection Cemetery in Mendota Heights. Joining her are her daughter, Gretchen Tentis, left, and Gretchen’s husband, Dave Tentis.

“

I just thought, ‘There had to be some (physical) touch.’

There had to be some way to give them something in which they could reach out and say, ‘Bye, Jerry.’

Sister Fran Donnelly

they could have kissed each other and he could have maybe held her hand, that would have been really nice,” said the Bovys’ daught er, Gretchen Tentis of Guardian Angels in Oakdale, who helped Barbara navigate the COVID-19 restrictions and provided some company during the days when she was apart from Jerry.

That her mom didn’t see her dad responsive at their final visit “probably was the hardest thing,” she added.

“I wanted to just hug him” during the last visit, Barbara said. “Actually, I wanted to lay down next to him and hold him, (but) I couldn’t because he was in such a narrow bed. It was so sad.”

To make matters worse, at the time, public Masses were suspended due to the pandemic, which meant Barbara could not go to Mass and pray for Jerry. It was agonizing for her, and she

reached out to Sister Fran, a member of the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who began helping her with funeral and burial arrangements.

COVID-19 restrictions limited the number of people who were invited to attend. Also, people had to stay 6 feet apart and wear masks, though they did take them off during the final part of the rite of committal, which took place outside the cemetery’s mausoleum.

Sister Fran, director of LifeTransition Ministries at The Catholic Cemeteries and who has worked with grieving families to plan funerals and burials, invited the group to watch cemetery workers lift the urn to its final resting place in a niche in the mausoleum wall.

Moments before this took place, Sister Fran invited Barbara to come forward near the urn, the cherrywood box. Gretchen and her husband, Dave Tentis, joined Barbara. It was Barbara’s

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Sister Fran was moved as well, fighting to hold her composure as she led prayers of committal for her “extremely faith-filled” friend.

Although she has 12 years of experience working with grieving families, doing so during a pandemic is different, and the burial service with the Bovy family was one of her first chances to navigate this new reality.

Handing the urn to Barbara was a spontaneous idea she hoped would add meaning and make the service more personal.

“I just thought, ‘There had to be some (physical) touch,’” Sister Fran said. “There had to be some way to give them something in which they could reach out and say, ‘Bye, Jerry.’ … It’s just the power of touch. Even though it’s through wood and it’s his cremated remains inside, it’s the best they could do because none of them could be there to hold his hand (when he was dying), touch his arm. You’ve got to do what you can do, I think, to allow people some expression of intimacy.”

Sister Fran added her own personal expression when she helped Barbara plan the rite of committal and burial.

Reflecting on the “number of things” in her home made by Jerry, she happened to glance at the stand one day and thought “that stand would be perfect for the urn.”

She also came up with the idea of a wooden urn, made by the Trappist monks in Iowa. The combination of a stand and urn each made of wood was in keeping with who Jerry was, she said, making it fitting for his rite of committal. She placed the urn on top of the stand for the service.

The 2 1/2-foot stand was one of the last pieces he made for her, she said, and she received it sometime within the last decade. After having used it for Jerry’s rite of committal, she will treasure it all the more, she said.

The Bovy family plans to have a memorial Mass at Blessed Sacrament so more people can pay final respects. But, with some restrictions still in place, the timing is uncertain. Recently, the rules were loosened to allow 50% of a church to be filled for public Masses, with a maximum of 250 people.

“Right now, we don’t have any idea when we can have a memorial Mass,” Gretchen said. She called the May 8 committal rite “a partial closure, but we won’t have full closure until we have that memorial Mass.”

JUNE 25, 2020

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 17

FOCUSONFAITH DAILY Scriptures

SUNDAY SCRIPTURES | FATHER JOSEPH BAMBENEK

God’s breath of life

The COVID-19 pandemic, the tragic killing of George Floyd and the strong reactions to that injustice have given me reasons to reflect upon my mortality the past few months. In doing so, I have been struck that a common thread of the typical death by coronavirus and George Floyd’s death is that the breath of earthly life was extinguished. It calls to mind how Jesus, himself, died on the cross, most likely by asphyxiation. In St. Mark’s account of the Passion he writes that Jesus “breathed his last” at the moment of his death. As I have pondered our times, the song “Breathe on Me O Breath of Life” has often come to mind and brought me comfort in moments that could otherwise devolve into fear.

Such comfort is only possible because, three days after Jesus’ death, a supernatural breath of life came into Jesus’ glorified body as he rose from the dead. And as we hear in this Sunday’s second reading, we have great reason for hope that we will experience the same. For in the reading, St. Paul encourages us with truths such as, “We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life.” These words are familiar to me, for they are the scriptural basis for the words that I and every priest pray as we sprinkle the casket at the start of a Mass of Christian burial.

In these times of uncertainty and fear, we as Christians can be people of great hope: that if we live out our baptism — if we follow what Jesus taught us through word and example about how to live, by loving God and neighbor, by asking forgiveness when we fail — we will have the reward of eternal life.

One of the ways that we can show God’s love to others is by being hospitable. The virtue of hospitality was important even before Jesus in the ancient world, and with Jesus it takes on new meaning. As St. Teresa of Kolkata (Mother Teresa) reminds us, we can see Jesus in the face of each person, including and especially those who are suffering. St. Benedict would adopt hospitality as a key charism of the monastic life.

The importance of hospitality is stressed too, in Sunday’s first reading and Gospel passage. When combined together, the readings teach us that we will receive the reward of a prophet

FAITH FUNDAMENTALS | FATHER MICHAEL VAN SLOUN

The biblical basis for confirmation

Confirmation is a sacrament instituted by Christ and established in sacred Scripture.

Jesus promised the gift of the Holy Spirit.

When he warned his disciples that they would stand trial, he promised that the Holy Spirit would come to them and give them what they were to say (Mt 10:19-20; Mk 13:11; Lk 12:11-12).

When Jesus spoke about living water, it was “in reference to the Spirit that those who came to believe in him were to receive” (Jn 7:39).

On Holy Thursday evening Jesus promised his disciples, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always” (Jn 14:16). He went on to say that the Father would send the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, in his name (Jn 14:26), and that he would take an active role in the conferral of the Holy Spirit: “I will send you from the Father (the Advocate, the Spirit of truth)” (Jn 15:26). He then promised, “I will send him (the Holy Spirit) to you” (Jn 16:7).

When Jesus appeared to his disciples in Jerusalem after his resurrection, he told them, “I am sending the promise of my Father (the Holy Spirit) upon you” (Lk 24:49). Before he ascended to heaven, he instructed them to wait for “the promise of my Father” (Acts 1:4) because “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you” (Acts 1:8).

Sacred Scripture gives several accounts of the coming of the Holy Spirit: one on Good Friday, another on Easter Sunday, and a third on Pentecost. As Jesus died on the cross, “he handed over the spirit” (Jn 19:30b). While some interpret this to mean that Jesus handed over the spirit of his life to his Father in heaven,

Sunday, June 28 Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time 2 Kgs 4:8-11, 14-16a Rom 6:3-4, 8-11 Mt 10:37-42 Monday, June 29 Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul, apostles Acts 12:1-11 2 Tm 4:6-8, 17-18 Mt 16:13-19 Tuesday, June 30 Am 3:1-8, 4:11-12 Mt 8:23-27 Wednesday, July 1 Am 5:14-15, 21-24 Mt 8:28-34

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even simple acts such as sending a note of gratitude … can touch another’s soul. iSTOCK PHOTO | PAVILA

when we act with hospitality, and that a prophet’s reward is life.

Yet as we hear about hospitality, we do so as people who have been sheltering in place for months; we do so as people who are not supposed to get within 6 feet of another person. The strange realities can lead us to ask, how can we be hospitable in these times of social distancing? Our Archdiocesan Synod prayer journal, which can be found at archspm.org/synod, features beautiful daily meditations on the Scriptures, and gives us the following suggestion for social distance hospitality, “even simple acts such as sending a note of gratitude, sharing a word of encouragement, or offering a listening ear can touch another’s soul. Moreover, Jesus tells us that whatever kindness we do for another we do for him.”

Through such actions of love and hospitality may we collaborate with God to be people whose actions figuratively breathe life into our brothers and sisters, confident that a great reward awaits us even after we have breathed our last.

Father Bambenek is assistant director of the Archdiocesan Synod.

He can be reached at bambenekj@archspm.org.

others interpret this to mean that as Jesus breathed his last, he exhaled and breathed over those at the foot of the cross as well as the whole world, and that his parting gift from the cross was his abiding presence in the form of the Holy Spirit.

The second coming of the Holy Spirit was on the first day of the week (Jn 20:19), Easter, when Jesus “breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’” (Jn 20:22). The third was on Pentecost, 50 days after the Resurrection, when tongues as of fire came to rest on each one of them and all were filled with the Holy Spirit (see Acts 2:3,4). In the first two accounts, Jesus bestowed the Spirit, and it was given before the Ascension; while in Acts it is presumed that the Father bestowed the Spirit and it was given after the Ascension.

The conferral of the Holy Spirit, a ritual that resembles confirmation, was an important part of the spiritual life of the early Church. When Peter and John traveled to Samaria, they prayed over the Samaritans in the hope that they might receive the Holy Spirit, and when they laid hands upon them, they received the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:14-18).

Likewise, Ananias laid his hands upon Saul (Paul) so he would be filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 9:17). When Peter spoke to a crowd in Caesarea, “the Holy Spirit fell upon all who were listening” (Acts 10:44), and when he spoke in Joppa “the Holy Spirit fell upon them” (Acts 11:15). When Paul traveled to Ephesus, “he laid hands on them (and) the Holy Spirit came upon them” (Acts 19:6).

Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would come. His promise came true when the gift of the Holy Spirit was imparted at the time of his death, on the day of his resurrection and on Pentecost.

After the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles, the apostles bestowed the divine gift of the Holy Spirit upon believers, and the bishops, the successors of the apostles, confer the gift of the Holy Spirit on those who receive the sacrament of confirmation.

Father Van Sloun is pastor of St. Bartholomew in Wayzata. This column is part of an ongoing series on confirmation. Find the series at TheCatholicSpirit.com.

Thursday, July 2 Am 7:10-17 Mt 9:1-8 Friday, July 3 St. Thomas, apostle Eph 2:19-22 Jn 20:24-29 Saturday, July 4 Am 9:11-15 Mt 9:14-17 Sunday, July 5 Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Zec 9:9-10 Rom 8:9, 11-13 Mt 11:25-30 Monday, July 6 Hos 2:16, 17c-18, 21-22 Mt 9:18-26 Tuesday, July 7 Hos 8:4-7, 11-13 Mt 9:32-38 Wednesday, July 8 Hos 10:1-3, 7-8, 12 Mt 10:1-7 Thursday, July 9 Hos 11:1-4, 8e-9 Mt 10:7-15 Friday, July 10 Hos 14:2-10 Mt 10:16-23 Saturday, July 11 St. Benedict, abbot Is 6:1-8 Mt 10:24-33 Sunday, July 12 Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Is 55:10-11 Rom 8:18-23 Mt 13:1-23 Monday, July 13 Is 1:10-17 Mt 10:34–11:1 Tuesday, July 14 St. Kateri Tekakwitha, virgin Is 7:1-9 Mt 11:20-24 Wednesday, July 15 St. Bonaventure, bishop and doctor of the Church Is 10:5-7, 13b-16 Mt 11:25-27 Thursday, July 16 Is 26:7-9, 12, 16-19 Mt 11:28-30 Friday, July 17 Is 38:1-6, 21-22, 7-8 Mt 12:1-8 Saturday, July 18 Mi 2:1-5 Mt 12:14-21 Sunday, July 19 Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Wis 12:13, 16-19 Rom 8:26-27 Mt 13:24-43

JUNE 25, 2020

18 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

COMMENTARY FAITH IN THE PUBLIC ARENA | JACK LAWLIS

The Gospel of life

On March 25, St. John Paul II’s landmark papal letter “Evangelium Vitae” (“The Gospel of Life”) marked its 25th anniversary. Addressing society’s devolving opinion on issues such as abortion, contraception and euthanasia, “Evangelium Vitae” resoundingly reaffirmed the dignity of each person and emphasized the Church’s role in upholding the primacy of life.

A quarter-century has passed, and attacks on life continue with alarming frequency. As each attack further darkens our society, we — the Church — must carry the light of life preached in St. John Paul’s “Gospel of Life.”

In solidarity with our neighbors and in service to the Church, we are called to proclaim the Gospel of life unceasingly in both word and action. We must ensure that neither civil law nor public opinion runs contrary to the truth embedded in the hearts of all people — that life at every stage is to be loved, cherished and respected.

Throughout “Evangelium Vitae,” St. John Paul compares the Gospel of life to the “culture of death.”

While the Gospel of life affirms the dignity of each person, the culture of death denies human dignity.

Failing to recognize each person’s intrinsic worth, the culture of death values individual persons inasmuch as they are deemed useful.

This judgment based on utility leads to “a war of the powerful against the weak.” The powerful discard the weak who are perceived to be a burden or useless — an act that is devoid of solidarity and a recognition of human worth. Such discarding is evident in abortion

YOUR HEART, HIS HOME | LIZ KELLY

A place for rage?

Over these past very disturbing few weeks, as protests, violence, looting, and upheaval have erupted throughout our country, taking lives, destroying businesses and eradicating a sense of security for too many, I find myself thinking about Jesus and anger. It has often passed through my mind, the one moment in Scripture when it seems Jesus actually experiences rage enough to take up violence: that moment in the temple, his Father’s house, when he overturned the money lender’s tables.

You will recall, this immediately follows his triumphal entry into Jerusalem. He has just been met with waving palm fronds and choruses of hosannas. Matthew recounts what happened next this way: “Then Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. He said to them, ‘It is written, “My house shall be called a house of prayer”; but you are making it a den of robbers.’

(Then) the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he cured them.”

One of my study Bibles comments on the use of violence by Jesus, noting he rooted out those who were stealing in order to create space for healing (I’m paraphrasing).

And furthermore, there is no evidence that he laid a hand on anyone, only the goods used for corrupt ends that were such a corrosive evil.

When you imagine the time of Christ and its wide variety of social ills — leper colonies, poverty, slavery, racial and sexual discrimination, warring factions and political corruption of every sort — it

and physician-assisted suicide, wherein the victim is weak and the victim’s family does not serve its actual purpose as “the sanctuary of life.”

St. John Paul also cautioned that prenatal screenings be used only for legitimate medical purposes, and not as a tool in eugenics. Yet, in the United States, best estimates indicate that over two-thirds of children diagnosed in the womb with Down syndrome are aborted. This tragedy reflects a culture that sees an atypical life as a burden rather than a gift.

The culture of death extends through the whole of life, especially with the threat of physician-assisted suicide. St. John Paul states that end of life decisions have the potential to be “marked by an attitude of excessive preoccupation with efficiency and (which) sees the growing number of elderly and disabled people as intolerable and too burdensome.”

The culture of death has harmed our elderly community amid the COVID-19 pandemic, with estimates listing 79% of COVID-19 deaths as having occurred in Minnesota’s long-term care centers due at least in part to recovering patients being sent there and then spreading the virus in the community. The concentration of COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes suggests that we must re-evaluate how to provide better care for the elderly.

As the culture of death darkens our society, we look to our Lord, the best example and light of the Gospel of life. As St. John Paul said, “Truly great must be the value of human life if the Son of God has taken it up and made it the instrument of the salvation of all humanity!”

In humbling himself to come to us in human form and undergoing immense suffering for us in his Passion, Christ shows the inestimable value of human life: He ennobles it and challenges the belief that it be discarded because of its limitations, stage of development or usefulness.

We, too, can participate in Christ’s ennobling work.

doesn’t sound all that different from our current culture. And when you remember that this same Jesus told us to turn the other cheek, and that blessed are the peacemakers, we must pay attention to how and when he expresses violence, and precisely to what degree. Is it possible to argue that this same Jesus who sanctified human fear as he sweat tears of blood in the Agony in the Garden, also sanctified a degree of indignation when he drove out the moneylenders? And if he did, what can this possibly mean for us as a Church, a people so concerned with combating the evils of the world?

We could ask it this way: Would Jesus kneel outside of abortion clinics praying the rosary, or would he set them on fire, burn them to the ground?

Maybe the more important question is: When we rage at injustice — and make no mistake, I agree there is wild injustice out there against which to rage — what is the result? After Jesus drove out the moneylenders, the very next thing he did was to heal the sick who came to him. Let’s be clear: Rage for Jesus had a holy purpose, to restore holiness and to bring about healing.

It’s easy to point a finger or shake an angry fist, and sometimes that’s justified. But it bears asking, do I vigilantly drive out the corruption from my own heart in order to create more space for holiness and healing, greater reverence for others, their very lives and livelihoods?

Father of all, we are in turmoil. But you have created us for order and harmony, to love and to be loved. Restore in me a proper sense of justice.

Take the rage I feel against injustice and pour it into something worthy and good that will bring about more healing, greater sanctity and reverence for all you have created. Do not abandon this country to the darkness of hate and chaos, but save us, give us wisdom to know precisely what tables to overturn.

Amen.

Kelly is the author of seven books, including the award-winning “Jesus Approaches” (2017) and the “Your Heart, His Home Prayer Companion” (2019). Visit her website at lizk.org and on Instagram at kizktoday.

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM WEEK Religious Freedom Week began June 22, the feast of Sts. Thomas More and John Fisher. During this time, join fellow Catholics to pray, reflect and take action on religious liberty in the United States and abroad. All people desire to know their Creator. All people have a natural impulse to seek the good and to live in accordance with that good. All people can flourish when they pursue the truth about God and respond to the truth. Religious freedom means that all people have the space to flourish.

Religious freedom is both an American value and an important part of Catholic teaching on human dignity. When we promote religious freedom, we promote the common good and thus strengthen the life of our nation and the community of nations.

Learn more at usccb.org/religiousfreedomweek.

By supporting mothers and families during pregnancy, we affirm that life is a blessing, not a burden, and uphold the Gospel of life. By standing in solidarity with those receiving end-of-life care and supporting legislation that promotes legitimate improvements in end-of-life care, such as palliative care or hospice, we are visible witnesses to the Gospel of life.

Minnesotans also stand at the edge of a decision to support or condemn the culture of death, as bills to legalize physician-assisted suicide have been introduced in Minnesota’s Legislature every year since 2015. This legislation hasn’t passed, and we should ensure it doesn’t.

When we take “Evangelium Vitae” to the public square, we bring to light where the culture of death has seeped in and caused harm. In confronting this darkness with the light of the truth, that human life is valuable and must be protected at every stage and in every capacity, we become the visible and vocal reminders needed to turn hearts back to serve the good of all.

Lawlis is policy and outreach coordinator for the Minnesota Catholic Conference.

LETTERS A shepherd defends his sheep Thank the Lord for the gift of Archbishop Bernard Hebda to our archdiocese. He is a true pastor, a shepherd like the true shepherd, Jesus. The true shepherd, like Jesus, defends his sheep! Archbishop Hebda and the other bishops of Minnesota stood up against the unfair decisions of Gov. Walz about how many people could be in church for Mass. After several meetings with representatives of the archdiocese, the governor still insisted on a maximum of 10 people, even for large churches such as the Cathedral!

Finally, when all the bishops of Minnesota banded together, and they were going to reject his unjust decision about the number of people who could be present for Masses, the governor was forced to recognize the injustice to churches. Other secular events could have many more people than only the 10 people at a religious service.

Christians and especially Catholics must stand together to protect our religious freedoms! God Bless you, Archbishop Hebda and all the bishops of Minnesota.

Father Kenneth Ludescher Retired priest of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

Why so fast?

Two very respectful letters to The Catholic Spirit (June 11) expressed concern about the reopening of church services. Mine will not be as respectful. I was shocked that the archbishop was prepared to defy the governor’s order to restrict public gatherings. Many Catholic communities have been able to connect with their members via Zoom and other devices, as well as Masses broadcast over television and radio. Why would the archbishop be in such haste to reopen against all the medical advice to the contrary (especially considering a possible resurgence of COVID-19 in the coming weeks)? I am left with the unfortunate conclusion that the concern is less about our spiritual welfare, and more about the loss of weekly offerings. My offerings are by electronic funds transfer, so I will not have to endanger my health by delivering them in person.

Caroline Ries Cathedral of St. Paul, St. Paul

JUNE 25, 2020

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 19

CALENDAR Submit events at TheCatholicSpirit.com/calendarsubmissions.

CATHOLIC WATCHMEN | DEACON GORDON BIRD

Virtual events “COVID-19 and Health Care in Our Community: A Conversation with Sydney March” — June 25: 7-8 p.m. Livestream on Facebook and YouTube. An ER nurse, March has served as the lead triage coordinator and program developer for the nursing side of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ COVID-19 Anointing Corps, including part of the medical team training priests. This conversation will address many effects of the pandemic on our community, from a Catholic healthcare perspective. archspm.org/events “Grief In Our City, Can We Talk?” — June 27: 9-10:30 a.m. Panel discussion via Zoom: How do we stop to listen, embrace and yield to the experiences of minority communities? How do we grieve together?

Sponsored by the Basilica of St. Mary, Minneapolis. Advance registration is required to receive the Zoom log-in credentials. mary.org

Retreats Healing retreat for men and women — July 10-12: Christ the King Retreat Center, 621 First Ave. S., Buffalo. Theme: “Healing Our Tired Heart.” Suggested offering: $175 per person (includes $30 non-refundable deposit). kingshouse.com Women’s silent midweek retreat — July 14-16: Christ the King Retreat Center, 621 First Ave. S., Buffalo. King’s House preaching team presents “Broken, Blessed and Sent.” Suggested offering: $160 per person (includes $30 non-refundable deposit). kingshouse.com

Speakers “The Imprint of Trauma: Understanding How Abuse Shapes Our Psychology and Perception” — July 8: 6:30–8:30 p.m. at St. Michael, 11300 Frankfort Parkway NE, St. Michael. Join Laura Harder, a compassion fatigue therapist, for an event focused on the topic of abuse specifically from the survivor’s perspective. Participants will gain a basic understanding of how trauma functions and what makes it difficult for survivors to “move past” it. archspm.org/events Taxation and Justice — July 9: Noon–1 p.m. Sponsored by the University of St. Thomas. Featured speaker Robert Kennedy, Catholic Studies department. Free and open to the public. Registration required. stthomas.edu/murphyinstitute/events “Distributors of Justice: Achieving Just Wages in Light of Catholic Social Teaching” — July 23: Noon–1 p.m. Sponsored by the University of St. Thomas. Featured speaker Professor Michael Naughton, Catholic Studies department. This talk will address the meaning of justice in its relationship to wages. Free and open to the public. Registration required. stthomas.edu/murphyinstitute/events

Being fully human in justice and mercy

God does not make mistakes. He balances justice with mercy perfectly via his wisdom. Justice encompasses a just due to God and neighbor.

Penalties require payment; wrongs need reconciliation. By looking into the depths of our hearts, God’s omniscience prevails in pure acts of love and forgiveness. Hence, his mercy abounds. As Jesus, God became one of us, so he could teach us how to be fully human in word and by example. To embrace the perfection of the divine in this discernment is to live a Christian life of virtue.

Hanging in the balance today are these two virtues: justice and mercy. They are meant to be mutually inclusive. A disordered proportion of their weight results in a less-than-stable outcome, and iniquities take over. Due to the tragedy of the death of George Floyd, we are all directly or indirectly facing the injustices that occurred. Many of us will never know all the details, much less empathize with what it feels like to be discriminated against, yet the events, from cause to effect, are taking their toll on anyone who has a listening and caring heart. Wrongs happen when the love of God and love of neighbor — the two greatest commandments (cf. Mt 22: 37-40) — are sifted out of the balance of virtuous living. Jesus taught that fulfilling the law entails devotion to both commandments, leading us to be more fully human and closing in on the kingdom of God. We have much to learn to be perfect due to our fallen nature. The crisis we are experiencing can provide the opportunity to advance in perfection, as trials and tribulations often do. Our own Catechism teaches: “Justice is a cardinal/moral virtue that consists in the constant and firm will to give their due to God and to neighbor” (CCC 1807). Mercy is a fruit of charity — loving kindness, compassion, or forbearance — shown to someone who offends. In a perfect outcome, mercy fulfills justice, and all stakeholders move forward in healing and/or amending their lives. Due to our human condition, however, it does not often work perfectly.

Turning a blind eye to the issues that devalue the

very existence of any human being does not play well. Nor should it. “Every human being, regardless of considerations of race, education, intelligence, strength, or accomplishment, is a subject of inestimable value because he or she has been created by God and destined

by God for eternal life” (“Seeds of the Word,” 231).

For example, racism is a sin. Church teaching is clear that unjust discrimination based on the race of a person is wrong. Lacking “love of neighbor” is a violation against the dignity of a human being, and a sin against justice. “Created in the image of the one God and equally endowed with rational souls, all men have the same nature and the same origin. Redeemed by the sacrifice of Christ, all are called to participate in the divine beatitude; all therefore enjoy an equal dignity” (CCC 1934). We are all meant to flourish in the fullness of life and give our fellow man that opportunity. These are teaching moments for all of us.

We are not perfect — and yet, Jesus compels us to “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt 5:48). There is always the need for ongoing development in our lives, and Jesus is asking us to go deeper as children of God. We can all start by helping and loving others in our own sphere of influence to better understand the Christian duty imprinted at our baptism — our “munus” — to sanctify, to teach, to lead in service.

As Catholic Watchmen, this is to be sacrificial protectors, providers and leaders of our family, in our parish and throughout our community. We start by listening attentively, praying fervently, acting prudently, and having effective dialogues with family members regarding the present crisis. We should do this for all trials that come in life, especially when it impacts the dignity of the human person. To be fully human, we must work in imitation of Christ — in justice, in mercy — for peace, enveloped by the virtues of faith, hope and charity.

“For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Ptr 1:5-8).

Deacon Bird ministers at St. Joseph in Rosemount and All Saints in Lakeville, and assists the Catholic Watchmen movement. Learn about the archdiocese’s Catholic Watchmen initiative at thecatholicwatchmen.com.

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20 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

JUNE 25, 2020

THELASTWORD

Beyond ‘last rites’: sharing the gift of the anointing of the sick

By Jonathan Liedl For The Catholic Spirit

‘POWERFUL EXPERIENCE’

W

hen Father Joseph Johnson speaks about the sacrament of the anointing of the sick with an elderly or ill parishioner, he sometimes has to get creative.

“What I’ll say initially is, ‘I have this really special blessing that the Church offers to someone in your situation,’” said Father Johnson, pastor of Holy Family in St. Louis Park.

Why this approach? Because Father Johnson, like many other local priests, knows that conversation about iST OC the sacrament can actually KP HO be received with a great amount TO |R of fear, especially by those of an AN DY DO older generation, who associate the LLI NS anointing with the last rites and dying.

That was how the sacrament was emphasized in a previous era, when it was often referred to as “extreme unction” and was reserved for the very You don’t have to wait until grandma has end of life. But as part of the liturgical two-and-half breaths left, at 2 a.m. in the morning, reforms of the Second Vatican Council, the sacrament was before you say, ‘Let’s call the priest’ ... re-grounded in its scriptural origins and in the early Church’s Father Joseph Johnson understanding and practice.

“We realized that anointing of the sick in earlier manifestations was not reserved to those only at over and anoint” a sick person with be a great fruit,” Father Johnson said. death’s door,” explained Father Tom oil “in the name of the Lord,” a Archdiocesan priests say there’s still Margevicius, the Archdiocese of pattern the Church follows when more work to be done to help those St. Paul and Minneapolis’ director of ministering this sacrament today. who could benefit from the sacrament worship and an instructor of liturgical to receive it more easily. Across the Like any other sacrament, Father theology at The St. Paul Seminary. board, they recommend “calling Margevicius says that the Church’s The Vatican II document sooner rather than later,” and even celebration of the anointing “is a way “Sacrosanctum Concilium” teaches being proactive about scheduling an to ensure that what happened while that “the fitting time for (a Catholic) anointing in the parish.

Jesus was alive on earth happens to receive this sacrament has certainly “We are blessed to have some priests today.

He healed people.

The Church arrived” when he or she “begins to dedicated to hospital ministry who continues to heal people.” be in danger of death from sickness can be available,” said Father Jim or old age.” It also teaches that the The Catechism of the Catholic Livingston, pastor of St. Paul in Ham sacrament is more appropriately called Church (CCC 1520-1523) teaches Lake and a former hospital chaplain. “anointing of the sick” than “extreme that this healing is primarily spiritual.

“But it’s very nice to gather a family unction.”

The anointing unites the recipient around a loved one after Mass, and to Christ in his passion, for his or Experienced pastors say there lead them in praying for the one they her own good and the good of the is some discernment involved in love and giving the sacrament in a Church, and gives the graces “of determining who might be eligible peaceful setting.” strengthening, peace and courage” to receive the sacrament, which has Father Livingston added that to face difficulties associated with received a boost in attention due to long-term conversion and catechesis illness or old age, as well as final the COVID-19 pandemic. While the among the laity is needed to perseverance. The sacrament also sacrament is not necessarily reserved appreciate the sacrament more deeply, absolves the recipient of their sins if for those in their last moments but also said that priests have a he or she is unable to go to confession, of life, there is a connection with special obligation to make themselves which explains both why ministering mortality and risk. Facing a surgery available to offer the anointing. involving general anesthesia, receiving of the sacrament is reserved to bishops Father Louis Floeder, ordained a and priests, and also why babies and a diagnosis of a serious illness, or priest only a year ago, already has young children who cannot be held crossing into one’s “senior” years are found anointing of the sick to be a culpable for their actions have no generally accepted indicators that the powerful part of his ministry; he’s need to, and should not, receive it. sacrament can be worthily received. one of 12 local priests who have been If in doubt, priests suggest it’s always The Church also teaches that, “if trained to anoint Catholics with better for someone to request the such is God’s will,” reception of the COVID-19. But even in more routine sacrament. sacrament can result in bodily healing. anointings, such as his monthly visit “You don’t have to wait until But as Father Margevicius points to a nursing home, he’s struck by the grandma has two-and-half breaths left, out, not even the healing miracles of power of the sacrament. at 2 a.m. in the morning, before you Christ were primarily about preserving “Everyone I anoint has a family, say, ‘Let’s call the priest,’ who lives 20 bodily health indefinitely. They always a story and a history, and their soul minutes away,” Father Johnson said. pointed to something more enduring. is just as precious as my mom’s or The sacrament is alluded to in anyone else’s,” he said. “They’re “Maybe this (illness) will go away, Mark’s Gospel, but is more explicitly not necessarily looking for me to do maybe this is the beginning of the rooted in the Letter of James anything ‘beyond.’ I just go, I’m end; but maybe this sacrament gives (5:13-15). James instructs “the you peace to face whatever comes, and a priest, and the Church is with presbyters of the Church” to “pray hope to live in eternal life. That would them.”

“

Amy Wivell was first anointed in 2015, when she was just 27 years old. She was scheduled for a surgery to remove a growth in her abdomen when her mother, the pastoral care coordinator at Nativity of Our Lord in St. Paul, suggested she receive the sacrament. After a Sunday Mass, Wivell came up to the altar, where she was anointed

by Father Patrick Hipwell, in what she remembers as “a powerful experience.”

“It felt good to have my spiritual life and faith taken care of going into a medical procedure like that,” she recalls. “There were just a lot of unknowns.”

When Wivell came out of surgery, the challenges — but also the graces — really began. Doctors informed her that she had Stage IV of a rare form of ovarian cancer. They told her to enjoy each day as if it were her last.

Despite the diagnosis, Wivell says she experienced great peace and confidence, which she believes was a fruit of the sacrament. People were shocked at how hopeful she was in the midst of it all.

“I never thought for a second that I would not be OK. God will take care of me. He always has. And this will be no different,” she said.

In the weeks following the diagnosis, what actually upset her the most was the possibility of losing her hair due to chemotherapy. “I was basically given a death sentence, and I was like, ‘But my hair!’” she recalls.

Wivell eventually beat the cancer, and believes the anointing of the sick also had something to do with that. In December 2019, however, doctors discovered the cancer had come back. So before going in for another surgery, she received the sacrament again, this time ministered by Father Nick Hagen.

“I was extremely grateful to receive that sacrament, because I was really afraid,” said Wivell, who is still receiving treatment for the disease. “It will help me get through this, however it is that I’m supposed to come out of it.”

Nancy Shatek-Suek, Wivell’s mother, is committed to helping others experience the same comforting grace through the anointing of the sick. Through her work at Nativity, she organizes two anointing Masses per year. They are well attended; the priests come around to each person to anoint them, and Mass is followed by a lunch put on by the local chapter of the Council of Catholic Women.

Don Eiden, 83 and a longtime Nativity parishioner, has helped with the anointing Masses for about 25 years. He also receives the anointing himself, something he’s been doing since he turned 65.

“It brings into your heart a feeling of comfort and security,” he explained. “You’re closer to God. To me, it’s a gift that’s being offered by the Church. So I take advantage of it. I’m grateful for it.”

— Jonathan Liedl