The Catholic Spirit - March 21, 2019

March 21, 2019 • Newspaper of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis

thecatholicspirit.com

GOING GAELIC GREEN

Artistic gift DeLaSalle High School graduate helps students create a mural with highlights of the school’s history.

— Pages 10-11

Advising the archbishop Members of a Lay Advisory Board are chosen and prepare to meet April 3 with Archbishop Hebda.

— Page 5

Leaflet legacy Three daughters continue their late father’s work with thriving religious goods store in St. Paul.

— Page 6

Father Dan Haugan joins the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in downtown St. Paul March 16 dressed as St. Patrick, serving as this year’s Honorary Irishman. “I don’t have any Irish blood, but I love the Irish,” said Father Haugan, noting that this particular title is for a person without Irish lineage. “I love the Irish culture, the Irish people and Ireland itself.” Father Haugan is pastor of Holy Spirit in St. Paul.

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Important progress Archdiocesan Catholic schools mark enrollment boosts in three key entry points for students; schools find ways to broaden their reach.

— Pages 12-13

Protesting for peace A play at History Theatre in St. Paul dramatizes the lives of four religious sisters who grew up near Watertown and became peace advocates.

— Page 15

Worn marble steps of Holy Stairs to be uncovered for public to climb

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or the first time in 300 years, the marble steps of the Holy Stairs in Rome will be free from the thick wooden panels installed in 1723 to protect the stairs and left uncovered for the public. For at least 40 days, people will be able to touch and climb the bare stones that, according to tradition, are the ones Jesus climbed when Pontius Pilate brought him before the crowd and handed him over to be crucified.

The soon-to-be cleaned steps and newly restored frescoed stairway will be unveiled April 11, the week before Holy Week, during a special blessing ceremony at the Sanctuary of the Holy Stairs. The marble steps will be left open to the public temporarily before the original and restored wooden panels are replaced. The decision was made during one of the final phases of the sanctuary’s restoration — ­ a 20-year-long project overseen by the Vatican Museums and funded with the help of private donors, foundations and the Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums.

Tradition holds that St. Helen, mother of the Emperor Constantine, brought the stairs to Rome from Jerusalem in 326 A.D. The sanctuary, whose walls and ceilings are covered with newly restored decorative paintings and frescoes depicting Christ’s passion and events of the Old Testament, was built specifically for the stairs to be venerated by the public in the late 1580s, by order of Pope Sixtus V. Since then, millions of people have climbed the 28 steps on their knees, slowly and unintentionally digging deep, undulating ruts and furrows into the soft stone.

— Carol Glatz, Catholic News Service

CNS

Mei Wen of Perth, Australia, touches an area of the Holy Stairs where Jesus is believed to have fallen, during restoration work at the Pontifical Sanctuary of the Holy Stairs in Rome March 15.

Wen is one of the major donors who contributed to the restoration of the sanctuary.

Honoring Catholic business leaders whose faith shapes their work.

Nominations open through March 29 at TheCatholicSpirit.com.

DEADLINE SOON!

Awardee luncheon with Archbishop Bernard Hebda Aug. 1.

Good Work • In Christ

2 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

MARCH 21, 2019

PAGETWO

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We steadfastly affirm a person’s right to seek asylum and find recent efforts to curtail and deter that right deeply troubling. We must look beyond our borders; families are escaping extreme violence and poverty at home and are fleeing for their lives.

Bishop Joe Vasquez of Austin, Texas, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Migration, and Sean Callahan of Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. bishops’ overseas relief and development agency, in a March 13 statement opposing the U.S. “Remain in Mexico” policy of sending asylum-seekers back to Mexico while they wait for court proceedings. On March 4, nine U.S. bishops and five Mexican bishops also issued a joint statement expressing “total disagreement” with the policy.

NEWS notes

2011 DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

AND THE WINNERS ARE From left, eighth-graders Gordon Novak and Josephine Rutt of Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis react after being named the winners of “Shine On! A Showcase of Catholic School Talent” March 17 at Providence Academy in Plymouth. There were 16 finalists in the competition, including Nathan Ward, right, of St. Vincent de Paul Catholic School in Brooklyn Park. The event featured individuals and groups from Catholic elementary schools in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis displaying their musical and dancing talents in a competition organized by the Catholic Schools Center of Excellence, which partnered with Lundstrum Performing Arts in Minneapolis. Novak and Rutt performed a popular contemporary song called “Still Rolling Stones,” with Rutt performing vocals and Novak playing the piano. Taking second place was Magdalena Weleczki of Carondelet Catholic School in Minneapolis, and placing third was the St. Peter Claver Step Team from St. Peter Claver Catholic School in St. Paul. More than 130 students in grades 4-8 auditioned in January at four locations. Novak and Rutt won $500 for Annunciation’s creative arts program, as well as a trip to New York City and tickets to a Broadway play.

The year of the last website redesign for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis before its Feb. 15 redesign. The new archspm.org features a mobile-friendly design and a topic-based structure on the home page. It’s divided into three distinct categories: Your Faith, Your Life; How We Serve; and Clergy & Vocations. The archdiocese’s commitment to safe environments remains paramount with a message on each page encouraging those who have been abused to come forward.

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The number of divine beings in the universe. University of Delaware physics and astronomy professor Stephen Barr, a Catholic, will explore questions of science and faith at 7 p.m. April 4 in “God and the Universe: Modern Physics, Ancient Faith,” a lecture hosted by Anselm House, a Christian study center at the University of Minnesota. The event will be held at the university’s St. Paul Student Center Theater, 2017 Buford Ave., St. Paul. anselmhouse.org.

833-600-2670

The number for the Minnesota Farm & Rural Helpline for farmers facing difficult times.

St. Paul-based Catholic Rural Life has been informing Minnesota dioceses about the free and confidential 24/7 helpline, which is operated by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture and connects callers to trained staff and volunteers prepared to discuss financial and legal problems, as well as sadness, loneliness and worry.

$57,000

The cost of a new ultrasound machine Archbishop Bernard Hebda blessed at First Choice Clinic in Red Wing March 4. The pregnancy resource center obtained the machine through a matching grant with the Knights of Columbus Supreme Council’s ultrasound initiative.

2015

COURTESY ST. JUDE OF THE LAKE

CATCH OUR DRIFT? A sign outside St. Jude of the Lake in Mahtomedi caught the attention of thousands after it was posted on the parish’s Facebook page during a record snowfall in February. Parish employee Laura Stierman, director of formation, put the message on the sign in late February and was surprised by the response. “It’s just been everywhere,” Stierman said, noting it received more than 75,000 hits on one site where it was shared. “It’s crazy. Wow! Timing is everything.” Stierman has been in charge of the St. Jude sign for about two years. She usually changes it every week, but she left this one up for almost a month after seeing the snow pile up and the Facebook post go viral. The message finally was taken down March 12 and replaced with a new one: “Give Satan an inch and he’ll be your ruler.”

CORRECTION A March 7 story on Fathers Martin and Leonard Siebenaler celebrating their 60th anniversary of ordination misstated one of Father Martin Siebenaler’s previous assignments.

He served as pastor at Sts. Peter and Paul in Loretto from 1972 to 1986. The Catholic Spirit apologizes for the error.

The Catholic Spirit is published semi-monthly for The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis Vol. 24 — No. 6 MOST REVEREND BERNARD A. HEBDA, Publisher United in Faith, Hope and Love

TOM HALDEN, Associate Publisher MARIA C. WIERING, Editor-in-Chief

The year Pope Francis publicly thanked Sister Norma Pimentel via a satellite broadcast to Sacred Heart Catholic Church in McAllen, Texas, where the sister of the Missionaries of Jesus had established a Humanitarian Respite Center. The executive director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, Sister Pimentel will share her experience with immigrants crossing the Mexico-Texas border at a Catholic Community Foundation forum 6–8:30 p.m. April 9 at Pax Christi in Eden Prairie. Panelists will also include Archbishop Bernard Hebda, an immigration lawyer and a representative of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ Office of Latino Ministry. ccf-mn.org/events/forums/social.

40

The number of points DeLaSalle’s defense held Becker to in a 56-40 victory March 16 for the Class 3A state girls basketball championship. The Minneapolis Catholic high school won state for the first time since capturing three straight titles from 2011 to 2013.

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The number of organizations St. Thomas Becket in Eagan has partnered with to alleviate hunger in its community. The parish recently received the 2019 Green Ribbon Initiative Award from Green Ribbon Initiatives, an Eagan-based nonprofit that recognizes community engagement, partnerships and initiatives. St. Thomas Becket worked with The Open Door food pantry, Pinewood Elementary School and the YMCA to provide food for families in the Emerald Hills Village mobile home park in adjacent Inver Grove Heights.

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MARCH 21, 2019

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 3

FROMTHEBISHOP ONLY JESUS | BISHOP ANDREW COZZENS

A sacrament for healing shame

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t is always surprising to me that people turn out in such great numbers for Ash Wednesday Mass. The symbol of ashes on the forehead is an ancient symbol of repentance. It is an acknowledgment that I have sinned and I need God’s mercy. Perhaps so many people come on Ash Wednesday because deep down they recognize a basic human need ­— the need to be freed from shame.

always catch up with us.

There is really only one way out of our shame: through mercy. What is mercy? Mercy is love turned toward me in my sin. To receive mercy, I must seek forgiveness. That is, I must acknowledge the wrong that I have done and experience that, despite my sin, I am still loved by the one I wronged. This is in fact the greatest love I can experience, since it is love in my failure and sinfulness, precisely the place where I don’t love myself. When I experience this mercy, it heals shame by bringing my failure and sin into the light of love.

Despite the many pages written in modern psychology about shame, nothing captures this need There are many examples of this in the Bible, from more clearly than the first chapters of the Bible. In the the prodigal son (Lk 15) to the sinful woman who beginning when God created Adam and Eve, the only washes Jesus’ feet with her hair (Lk 7:36-50). They all statement made about their interior life is that “they experience healing from shame when they realize Jesus felt no shame” (Gn 2:25). This is what it meant to knows them and their sin and still he loves them. stand in the light of God’s love. However, as soon as This is why Jesus gives us the sacrament of they sin and separate themselves from God, Adam and confession. He knows that ultimately it is the only way Eve hide. Why? Because they are ashamed to true healing. Even in the Old Testament, as people (Gn 3:8). sought healing from sin, they came to the temple and confessed their sins before This feeling of shame is a universal Don’t miss God. This practice is continued in the human experience. It is the feeling that I New Testament period (“confess your sins have done something wrong and I don’t the chance to one another and pray for one another, want others to know about it. It is the this Lent to that you may be healed,” Jas 5:16) and desire to hide my weakness, my throughout the history of the Church. imperfections and my failures from others. receive this When it becomes strong — and it usually In the early Church, confession was the healing. does in all of us — we can begin to feel way we dealt with the most serious sins of that I am not enough, that I need to be apostasy, adultery or murder. Penitents something more, there is something confessed their sins to the bishop and wrong with me, and I need to hide my weakness or received ashes on their foreheads as they entered a failure. Many of our addictions and other period of penance, preparing to have their sins psychological struggles can be explained by this forgiven through sacramental absolution at Easter. feeling of shame. We get pretty good at hiding it by (Doesn’t this sound like Lent?) Gradually over the always trying to put forward our strengths, but we years, the Church realized that confession was good for can’t hide from ourselves or from God. Shame will all our sins because it allows God’s healing power to be

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Un sacramento para sanar la vergüenza

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iempre me sorprende que la gente se presente en números tan grandes para la misa del Miércoles de Ceniza. El símbolo de las cenizas en la frente es un antiguo símbolo del arrepentimiento. Es un reconocimiento de que he pecado y necesito la misericordia de Dios. Quizás tantas personas acudan el Miércoles de Ceniza porque en el fondo reconocen una necesidad humana básica: la necesidad de liberarse de la vergüenza.

A pesar de las muchas páginas escritas en la psicología moderna sobre la vergüenza, nada capta esta necesidad más claramente que los primeros capítulos de la Biblia. Al principio, cuando Dios creó a Adán y Eva, la única afirmación acerca de sus vida interior es que “no sintieron vergüenza” (Gn 2, 25).

Esto es lo que significaba estar a la luz del amor de Dios. Sin embargo, tan pronto como pecan y se separan de Dios, Adán y Eva se esconden. ¿Por qué?

Porque están avergonzados (Gn 3, 8).

Este sentimiento de vergüenza es una experiencia humana universal. Es la sensación de que he hecho algo mal, y no quiero que otros lo sepan. Es el deseo de ocultar mi debilidad, mis imperfecciones y mis fallas de los demás. Cuando se vuelve fuerte, y generalmente lo hace en todos nosotros, podemos comenzar a sentir que no soy suficiente, que necesito ser algo más, que hay algo malo en mí y que debo ocultar mi debilidad o mi fracaso. Muchas de nuestras adicciones y otras luchas psicológicas pueden explicarse por este sentimiento de vergüenza. Nos damos bastante bien en ocultarlo tratando siempre de mostrar nuestras fortalezas, pero no podemos

escondernos de nosotros mismos ni de Dios. La vergüenza siempre nos alcanzará.

Realmente hay solo una salida de nuestra vergüenza: a través de la misericordia. ¿Qué es la misericordia? La misericordia es amor vuelto hacia mí en mi pecado. Para recibir misericordia, debo buscar el perdón. Es decir, debo reconocer el mal que he cometido y experimentar que, a pesar de mi pecado, todavía soy amado por el que hice el mal. De hecho, este es el mayor amor que puedo experimentar, ya que es amor en mi fracaso y en mi pecado, precisamente el lugar donde no me amo a mí mismo.

Cuando experimento esta misericordia, cura la vergüenza al traer mi fracaso y mi pecado a la luz del amor.

Hay muchos ejemplos de esto en la Biblia desde el hijo pródigo (Lk 15) hasta la mujer pecadora que lava los pies de Jesús con su cabello (Lk 7, 36-50). Todos experimentan la curación de la vergüenza cuando se dan cuenta de que Jesús los conoce y su pecado, y todavía los ama.

Por eso Jesús nos da el sacramento de la confesión. Él sabe que, en última instancia, es la única forma de curación verdadera. Incluso en el Antiguo Testamento, cuando las personas buscaban la sanidad del pecado, acudían al templo y confesaban sus pecados ante Dios. Esta práctica continúa en el período del Nuevo Testamento (“confiesen sus pecados y oren unos por otros, para que puedan ser sanados”, Jas 5, 16) y en toda la historia de la Iglesia.

En la Iglesia primitiva, la confesión era la forma en que lidiamos con los pecados más graves de la apostasía, el adulterio o el asesinato. Los penitentes confesaron sus pecados al obispo y recibieron cenizas en sus frentes cuando entraron en un período de penitencia, preparándose para que sus pecados sean perdonados mediante la absolución sacramental en la Pascua (¿no suena esto como la Cuaresma?). Gradualmente, a lo largo de los años, la Iglesia se dio cuenta que confesión

24 HOURS FOR THE LORD To highlight the importance of the sacrament of confession, Pope Francis has asked the Church throughout the world to once again host “24 hours for the Lord.” From noon March 29 until noon March 30 priests will be available to hear confessions at the Cathedral of St. Paul. St. John the Baptist in Excelsior will also host 24 Hours for the Lord 5 p.m. March 29 to 5 p.m. March 30. Check parishes’ bulletins and websites for other confession times throughout the season of Lent. applied right to the wound, the place where I am ashamed. Still today, anyone who is conscious of grave sin is required to bring those particular sins to confession before receiving holy Communion.

Although it may seem counterintuitive, healing from the shame I feel in my sin requires me not to hide, but rather to acknowledge my sin and bring it into the light of God’s merciful love. This is why the sacrament of confession is so healing. When I finally admit that I am a sinner and concretely acknowledge before God and the priest in the sacrament what I have done, there I can experience the truth of God’s love for me. There I can experience that God desires to take away the shame of my sin and let me know how much I am loved by him.

Since the beginning of time every human being has had to deal with shame. Jesus himself endured the shame of sin on the Cross to heal shame in us. He gave this power to his Church to do this in the sacrament of confession (Jn 20:23).

Don’t miss the chance this Lent to receive this healing. Jesus invites you to bring the things of which you are most ashamed into the healing light of his love. Come to confession. Jesus is longing to show you the depth of his merciful love, especially in those places where we are ashamed.

era buena para todos nuestros pecados, porque permite que el poder sanador de Dios se aplique directamente a la herida, el lugar donde me avergüenzo. Aún hoy, cualquier persona que esté consciente de un pecado grave debe confesar esos pecados en particular antes de recibir la Sagrada Comunión.

Aunque parezca contraintuitivo, curarme de la vergüenza que siento por mi pecado requiere que no me oculte, sino que reconozca mi pecado y lo lleve a la luz del amor misericordioso de Dios. Por eso el sacramento de la confesión es tan sanador. Cuando finalmente admito que soy un pecador y reconozco concretamente ante Dios y el sacerdote en el sacramento lo que he hecho, allí puedo experimentar la verdad del amor de Dios por mí. Allí puedo experimentar que Dios desea quitar la vergüenza de mi pecado y hacerme saber cuánto soy amado por él.

Desde el principio de los tiempos, cada ser humano ha tenido que lidiar con la vergüenza. Jesús mismo soportó la vergüenza del pecado en la Cruz para sanar la vergüenza en nosotros. Él le dio este poder a su Iglesia para hacer esto en el sacramento de la confesión (Jn 20, 23).

No pierdas la oportunidad esta Cuaresma a reciba esta sanación. Jesús le invita a traer las cosas de las que estáis más avergonzados en la luz sanadora de su amor.

Para resaltar la importancia del Sacramento de la confesión, el Papa Francisco ha pedido a la iglesia de todo el mundo que vuelva a acoger “24 horas para el Señor.” Desde el mediodía 29 de marzo hasta el mediodía 30 de marzo tendremos sacerdotes listos para escuchar confesiones en la Catedral de San Pablo.

También puede consultar el boletín y el sitio web de su parroquia local para encontrar muchos tiempos de confesión durante la temporada de Cuaresma.

Ven a la confesión. Jesús está deseando mostrarte la profundidad de su amor misericordioso, especialmente en aquellos lugares en los que nos avergonzamos.

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MARCH 21, 2019

LOCAL

Common threads

SLICEof LIFE

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

The annual Leading with Faith Award recognizes Catholic leaders in our secular business and nonprofit communities whose faith shapes the way they approach work.

It is a much deserved “thank you” to honorees, and it holds up examples of faith-rooted leadership in today’s business world.

Recipients are recognized in The Catholic Spirit and at an Aug. 1 luncheon with Archbishop Bernard Hebda at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul.

The deadline to nominate an individual for the 2019 award is March 29.

Nomination forms are available at TheCatholicSpirit.com/LeadingWithFaith.

From left, Nimo Mohamed, Fardosa Kadar and Sadia Farah talk with Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet Kathy Ryan March 12 at St. Catherine University in St. Paul at an event called “Habits and Hijab.” Hosted by the university’s Muslim Student Association and co-sponsored by the Multicultural and International Programs and Services and the Sisters of St. Joseph, the goal was to bring together religious sisters and Muslim women to exchange thoughts and reflections about wearing habits and hijabs in their respective faith traditions. Sister Kathy brought historical photos of herself and other sisters wearing habits to show and explain to Muslim students and alumni who attended. “I thought it was lovely,” said Donna Hauer, director of MIPS. “I think it’s always a great opportunity to bring students and sisters together for mutually beneficial, intergenerational relationship building. We need to understand each other. And, it’s just another way of breaking down stereotypes (and) learning from each other.” Kadar and Farah are St. Kate’s students, and Mohamed is an alumna.

The event coincided with Islam Awareness Week and National Catholic Sisters Week.

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MARCH 21, 2019

Lay Advisory Board takes shape

By Joe Ruff The Catholic Spirit Jerry Lowe of Sacred Heart in St. Paul is going to help.

So is Paul Rebholz of St. Ambrose in Woodbury and scores of other parishioners across the archdiocese as Archbishop Bernard Hebda and other archdiocesan officials form a Lay Advisory Board to assist them in promoting healing and a renewed sense of mission in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Lowe and Rebholz were among about two dozen representatives of pastoral councils in four deaneries who gathered March 13 at the Archdiocesan Catholic Center in St. Paul to learn more about the initiative, first announced in November.

Members of each deanery also chose one representative to serve a two-year term on the board, which will have at least 15 members and meet quarterly with the archbishop. The deanery representatives will report on those meetings to the pastoral council representatives, who will share the information with their councils and ultimately with the faithful of each parish.

Similar meetings were held at St. Therese in Deephaven March 11, St. Vincent de Paul in Brooklyn Park March 12 and St. Michael in Farmington March 14, spanning all 15 deaneries — or geographic regions — across the archdiocese.

The first meeting of the advisory board with the archbishop will be April 3 at the Catholic Center.

“I’m anxious to see how it turns out here,” said Lowe, who was chosen to represent Deanery Four — which includes some parishes in St. Paul, Little Canada, Maplewood, North St. Paul, Oakdale and Shoreview — on the advisory board. “I’m kind of excited about it.”

“This is great,” said Rebholz, a representative from St. Ambrose’s pastoral council in Deanery Five. “I think the process of engaging the parish and getting the parishes together so we can have a coordinated voice is really important, so we can move forward. I think it’s great that the archbishop has done this.”

Goals for the advisory board include finding ways the archdiocese can help people heal and grow in their faith in the wake of the local clergy sexual abuse scandal that included the archdiocese filing for bankruptcy in 2015, and begin planning for an anticipated archdiocesan synod, which will be another important step forward, Father Michael Tix, archdiocesan liaison for the effort and vicar for clergy and parish services, said at the meeting.

JOE RUFF | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

From left, Paul Rebholz of St. Ambrose in Woodbury makes a point while Jerry DeZelar of St. John Vianney in South St. Paul and others in Deanery Five listen at the Archdiocesan Catholic Center in St. Paul during a March 13 formation meeting for a Lay Advisory Board to Archbishop Bernard Hebda.

The abuse has not only hurt victims/survivors and their families and friends, but every Catholic across the archdiocese to some degree or another, Father Tix said.

It will continue to take time for those wounds to heal, and the Lay Advisory Board can suggest concrete steps to take in that process, Father Tix said.

“Before we can move forward, we’ve got to do some healing,” he told the gathering. “Where do we need that healing? How do we do that?”

Archdiocesan leaders hope the lay board also can help the local Church use lessons learned in recent years to shape evangelization, Father Tix said.

Archbishop Hebda has spoken frequently about holding an archdiocesan synod, although its form has yet to be determined, Father Tix said. The lay board can help focus that vision, he said.

“We don’t know the time frame or the parameters for (a synod),” but the Church is called to evangelize, and the laity have an important role, Father Tix said.

At one point, he quoted from Pope Francis’ 2013 apostolic exhortation, “Evangelii Gaudium”: “I dream of a ‘missionary option’,” Father Tix said, reading an excerpt from the document, “that is, a missionary impulse capable of transforming everything, so that the Church’s customs, ways of doing things, times and schedules, language and structures can be suitably channeled for the evangelization of today’s world rather than her selfpreservation.”

St. Michael slated for sale and merger in late March

By Matthew Davis The Catholic Spirit St. Michael in West St. Paul plans to merge with Our Lady of Guadalupe in St. Paul by March 31, St. Michael parish leadership announced March 6.

St. Michael will also sell its campus at 335 Hurley Street E. to Community of Saints Regional Catholic School in West St. Paul.

The preK-8 school has rented St. Michael’s school building since 2012 and will continue to operate in that location.

“While it is with great sadness that we have offered these resolutions to Archbishop (Bernard) Hebda, it also comes out of a genuine concern for parishioners to move from indefinite uncertainty to a sense of closure,” St. Michael leadership stated in a March 6 letter to parishioners and friends of the parish.

Many of St. Michael’s parishioners began attending Our Lady of Guadalupe after

St. Michael ceased operations in November 2016. As part of the merger, St. Michael’s sacramental records will transfer to Our Lady of Guadalupe, which is less than two miles away.

A parish of 213 households, St. Michael lost nearly $100,000 during its last three years of operations and had a cash balance of $19,000 in October 2016, The Catholic Spirit reported at that time.

After the parish ceased operations, its leaders continued working with the archdiocese to explore a path forward for the parish’s future. At the request of parish leaders, any new parish that would open within St. Michael’s parish boundaries would retain the name, according to the March 6 letter.

St. Michael will sell its property for $440,000, which is expected to eliminate the parish’s debt. The parish has a deficit of $200,000 and a $240,000 obligation remaining from benefits paid out to former

parish and St. Michael school employees, the letter stated.

Signing the March 6 letter were parochial administrator Father Rick Banker, parish pastoral council chairwoman Valerie Gerlich, parish finance council chairman Howard Cronin and parish trustees David Gjengdahl and Pat Foley.

Community of Saints will have full use of the St. Michael property, which will include managing the parish’s perpetual adoration chapel opened in 1992.

The school formed in 2012 as a partnership of the parishes of St. Michael, St. Matthew in St. Paul, Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. John Vianney in South St. Paul. The schools at St. Michael, St. Matthew and St. John Vianney combined at that time to create the new school.

In a March 11 press release about the sale, Father Steve Adrian, the school’s canonical administrator, said it “provides Community of Saints and its families with longterm stability.”

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 5

in BRIEF Review board finds Carver priest not fit to return to ministry ST. PAUL — A board advising leaders of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis determined that Father Thomas Joseph should not return to ministry following an internal investigation into allegations of inappropriate sexual conduct with an adult. Archbishop Bernard Hebda and Tim O’Malley, the archdiocese’s director of ministerial standards and safe environment, accepted the recommendation. The former parochial administrator of St. Nicholas in Carver, Father Joseph, 46, has been prohibited from ministry since January 2018. He has denied wrongdoing, according to a March 9 statement from the archbishop.

The archdiocese was notified of the allegations in January 2018 and immediately alerted the Carver County Sheriff’s Office, which began a criminal investigation but later declined to press charges. The archdiocese later launched an internal investigation and review process, a standard procedure for clergy misconduct allegations. Father Joseph remains out of ministry, and his case will “proceed through a canonical penal process for a final determination as required by Church law,” according to the statement. He is not permitted to engage in priestly ministry or present himself publicly as a priest.

UST leaders: Virgin Mary statue vandalism ‘deeply hurt’ community ST. PAUL — Several University of St. Thomas students destroyed a statue of Mary that had long been a fixture in Ireland Hall, a men’s residence on its St. Paul campus, the university announced in a March 12 email to its community. The vandalism occurred in the early morning hours of March 3. “This was a grave act of disrespect, which has deeply hurt many in our community,” President Julie Sullivan and Executive Vice President and Provost Richard Plumb said in the statement. “We condemn this act of religious disrespect, are saddened by the pain this event has caused, and expect all in our community to respect our important faith symbols.” The plaster statue was 42 inches tall and stood unsecured on a wooden base near a stairwell. The statement said it “was moved and ultimately purposefully dropped and shattered.” The university’s public safety office concluded its investigation of the incident March 12, and students involved will “be subject to the student conduct process,” it said. A listening session for Ireland Hall residents addressing the vandalism is expected to be held the week of March 18. The university is searching for a new statue, its leaders said.

Ex-priest subject of sex abuse lawsuits dies ROCHESTER — Thomas Adamson, a former priest removed from ministry in 1985 and laicized in 2009 after being accused of sexually molesting boys, died Feb. 25 in Rochester. He was 85. Ordained in 1958 for the Diocese of Winona, Adamson served in parishes and schools there until 1975, when he was transferred to the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, where he served in five parishes over 10 years. Adamson was accused of sexually abusing boys in both dioceses and was the subject of numerous lawsuits. A lawsuit settled in 2014 in the archdiocese with one victim/survivor abused by Adamson in the 1970s ushered in 17 child protection protocols in the archdiocese and an era of collaboration between the archdiocese and law enforcement. Known as Doe 1, his was the first case filed after the Minnesota State Legislature lifted the statute of limitations in 2013 for three years on historic claims of minor sexual abuse. Other accusers of Adamson were part of the archdiocese’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, which included $210 million for 442 victims/survivors. Filed in 2015, the settlement was confirmed last year in U.S. bankruptcy court. Between 1975 and 1985, Adamson served at then-St. Leo the Great in St. Paul, St. Thomas Aquinas in St. Paul Park, St. Boniface in St. Bonifacius, Immaculate Conception in Columbia Heights and Risen Savior in Burnsville.

6 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

LOCAL

Daughters carry on Leaflet Missal owner’s legacy

By Matthew Davis The Catholic Spirit When the late Peter Welvang took over Leaflet Missal Co. in 1980, he capitalized on the advertising of religious goods on the back of missalettes the company produced and grew the business internationally.

“They sold like crazy,” said Susan Furlong, 55, co-owner of Leaflet Missal and Welvang’s daughter, about the religious goods. “That’s how they started the retail end of the business.”

Today, Furlong and her sisters, Ann Abbott and Catherine Furlong, run what has become an international religious goods catalog company and St. Paul retail store. Welvang, who purchased the store in 1980, died Feb. 5 at age 84.

In its 90th year, Leaflet Missal sells books, religious art, religious apparel, church supplies and gift DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT items for sacraments in the U.S. and From left, Ann Abbot, Susan Furlong and Catherine Furlong hold a photo of their parents, beyond through its catalog and Peter and Diane Welvang, that was taken in 1955, the year the Welvangs married. The website. Countries it has sold in three daughters have taken over Leaflet Missal in St. Paul, which Peter bought in 1980. include Canada, Ireland and Italy.

Though the St. Paul retail store on one priest wrote shortly after edition missalette for President Minnehaha Avenue and Welvang’s death and expressed John F. Kennedy’s funeral Mass.

Chatsworth Street doesn’t drive the gratitude for the years of support Because of the business’ bulk of the business, it provides a and the literature the priest found profitability, the priests stepped place where customers visit and that was rooted in the Church’s down and Roger Bauman took over engage with the Catholic faith. teaching. the company, followed by Bill “It’s a wonderful place to shop. If “(Welvang) always stood by Sausen. Welvang, a longtime they don’t have it, they’ll get it for carrying products that were parishioner of St. Mark and later you, or help you find it,” said Mary conformed to the magisterium of St. Agnes, both in St. Paul, worked Jo Rossini, 81, a parishioner of Holy the Church,” she said. for Leaflet Missal after high school Trinity in South St. Paul. at Cretin, packing and delivering Leaflet Missal has also drawn She and her husband, Dante, the missalettes to parishes. He later people seeking answers about the have been going to the store since served in the Korean War but Catholic faith. it was first located on Minnehaha returned to St. Paul and worked at “A lot of times when people are east of Dale Street. The previous Leaflet Missal again before buying either fallen away or interested in retail store had a small space for the company. the Church, they kind of get customers who wanted to see the His wife, Diane, who died in attracted to the store,” said Susan products in person.

Furlong, a parishioner of St. Peter in 2016, and six children played a “I think it was like one shelf and large role in growing Leaflet Missal.

North St. Paul. “They go by the the rest you had to order,” Rossini The children regularly helped by bookstore ... and they’ll sit there all said. stuffing mailings at the office on day reading and ask questions.”

Leaflet Missal has also delivered Saturday mornings.

Catherine Furlong, who manages on supporting vocations. The sisters “The six of us kids, every one of the call center, said sometimes said they’ve had five priests work us has dabbled into the business, theological questions and personal for Leaflet before ordination, and some more than others,” said stories roll in with the calls for four religious sisters have worked orders. She said they generally can’t Abbott, 62. there before they joined religious offer advice, though.

Diane would travel with Peter to life.

“We get a lot of people that think Catholic conferences to promote One employee, John Hastreiter, Leaflet Missal’s products. In her 60s, we’re a confessional,” said Furlong, who has managed liturgical church she took on a larger role managing a parishioner of St. Ambrose in goods since 1999, was discerning a the warehouse.

Woodbury. possible call to the priesthood, but “She would pull all the orders Leaflet Missal employees have chose not to go into seminary and and keep everyone on their toes in become familiar to customers, too. eventually married. the back,” said Abbott, a The sisters noted longtime Hastreiter, 49, recalled having parishioner of Assumption in St. employee Karen Perfect, who many theological discussions with Paul.

Welvang, who hired him to work in worked her whole career for Welvang before retiring eight years Abbott and Susan Furlong also the warehouse in 1996. Welvang ago. worked for their father in later approached Hastreiter about adulthood and expressed interest in “He never gave up. He was going starting a liturgical goods running the business. All six to spread ... Catholicism no matter department. children were offered the chance to what,” said Perfect, 71, a “You had to be organized,” run the business, but three of the parishioner of St. James in Aitkin.

Hastreiter said of working under six decided to run it. The sisters said Leaflet Missal began with the late Welvang. their father worked on the business Fathers Paul Bussard and Edward Hastreiter gets to meet many of until nearly the end of his life.

Jennings in 1929 in St. Paul when the clergy who come to the store.

They hope to keep building the they published missalettes to help He said they found a lot of support store and catalog for the future. in Welvang, who responded to their Catholics follow the Mass in Latin.

Abbott said they have a catalog The late Father Louis Gales, also a ministry needs. plan that “drives everything” and priest of the archdiocese, joined “The priests, I think, when they helps them adapt to changes in them in the business. They also came in here to shop , they always sales each year. started Catholic Digest, and their felt like they could talk to Peter,” work with both spread across said Hastreiter, a parishioner of All “With today’s technology, we the U.S. Saints in Minneapolis. hope we can keep it up,” Abbott Catherine Furlong, 58, noted that Notably, they produced a special said.

MARCH 21, 2019

Aim Higher launches midyear emergency tuition aid fund

By Matthew Davis The Catholic Spirit Principal Nikki Giel of Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary School in Maplewood credits annual Aim Higher Foundation scholarships with making it financially possible for about a quarter of her 141 K-8 students to attend the suburban Catholic school.

“We have a large need (for) financial assistance at our school, larger than we and the parish can offset or subsidize,” Giel said.

But some families need help midyear because of extenuating financial circumstances, a need not met by the annual $1,000 scholarships Aim Higher grants to qualifying students.

So the St. Paul-based nonprofit is stepping up again, this time to meet that challenge and retain those students. On Feb. 26, Aim Higher started a Tuition-Assistance Reserve Fund program, also with a $1,000 scholarship for each K-8 student from a family in need. Six schools with families in need applied for it within the first week.

“Ultimately, this fund is another way to fulfill our obligation … that we’re going to do everything possible for everyone possible to make a Catholic education available to as many kids as possible,” Aim Higher President Jean Houghton said.

Since 2011, Aim Higher has supported Catholic school families in need around the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis with its annual scholarships.

Giel said she also sees families face unforeseen challenges, such as job loss or major illness, which warrant more scholarship help.

As members of Aim Higher’s school leader advisory committee, Giel and others shared their concern in a 2018 fall meeting. All nine members urged Aim Higher officials to start a program in response to the need.

“Every school represented said they experience at least one family per year who experiences sudden and unexpected financial hardship — a loss of a job, death in the family, or serious medical situation,” Houghton said.

“The committee hoped our foundation could find a way to help keep these children enrolled in a Catholic school when their family’s ability to pay tuition came under pressure from extenuating circumstances.”

Under the new program, Aim Higher will help children of families facing sudden financial difficulties at any point during the school year. Families can contact their school to request the scholarship, and the school will contact Aim Higher about the need. The funds will go to the families immediately upon approval by Aim Higher and continue supporting the students through the eighth grade. Continuing the scholarship into future years recognizes that families’ extenuating circumstances can mean prolonged financial needs.

Funds for the new program will come from money made available when families offered an annual Aim Higher scholarship choose not to attend a Catholic school.

“Before Aim Higher had implemented their program, we have had to work with the family, and it’s a loss to us, (if the family leaves),” said Kari Staples, principal of St. Alphonsus Catholic School in Brooklyn Center.

“Hopefully this will be something that we’ll be able to retain these families (with).”

MARCH 21, 2019

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 7

NATION+WORLD

Cardinal: Vatican-China agreement motivated by mission

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service The Vatican’s tentative agreement with the government of mainland China obviously has a diplomatic component, but it was motivated by a desire to spread the Gospel and ensure the appropriate freedom of the Catholic Church, the Vatican secretary of state wrote.

A firm belief that the Catholic Church truly is “catholic” or universal “pushes the Holy See to nurture no distrust or hostility toward any country, but to follow the way of dialogue in order to reduce distances, overcome misunderstandings and avoid new divisions,” Cardinal Pietro Parolin wrote in the preface to a new book.

The book, “The Church in China,” is a collection of essays published in the Jesuit journal La Civilta Cattolica and reflects themes treated by the “China Forum for Civilizational Dialogue,” a project of the journal and Georgetown University.

In mid-September, representatives of the Vatican and the Chinese government signed what they described as a “provisional agreement” on the appointment of bishops, a key sticking point in Vatican-Chinese relations.

Just prior to the agreement’s signing, Pope Francis lifted the excommunications or regularized the status of seven bishops who had been ordained with government approval, but not the Vatican’s consent, marking the

first time in decades that all the Catholic bishops in China were in full communion with the pope.

Reports from various regions of China indicate the agreement has not meant an end of government repression or even persecution of Catholics, including the detention of priests.

Cardinal Parolin, writing in the book’s preface, acknowledged that “many problems remain for the life of the church in China,” but he insisted the provisional agreement “is not so much a point of arrival as a starting point.”

He also acknowledged a sentiment among critics of the agreement who believe it ignores the courageous faith of Catholic bishops, priests and laity who for decades refused to cooperate with the government’s Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, worshipping underground and maintaining their ties to the Vatican.

“Today, as always, the Church does not forget the sacrifice of so many of her sons and daughters in China,” the cardinal wrote, “but in light of their example, the Church looks for the most opportune ways to reach those who still do not know the Good News and desire a greater witness from all who call themselves Christian.”

“History,” he said, “often forces religious matters and political issues, ecclesial themes and cultural discussions, moral questions and social drama, into inextricable knots,” and the provisional agreement is an attempt to untie those bonds so that the faith can flourish in China.

CNS

The faithful attend Mass at Beijing’s South Catholic Church Sept. 29, 2018; the Chinese national flag flies the next day in front of a Catholic church in China.

Much of the cardinal’s preface reflected on the 100th anniversary of Pope Benedict XV’s document on mission, “Maximum Illud,” which, Cardinal Parolin said, urged a renewal of missionary outreach to people who had never heard the Gospel, but also insisted that European and other Western missionaries must not export their cultural, social and political views along with faith in Christ.

“The proclamation of the Gospel in China cannot be separated from a stance of respect, esteem and trust toward the Chinese people and their legitimate state authorities,” Cardinal Parolin said.

“The aims and objectives of the action

of the Holy See, specifically in a Chinese context, remain the same as ever: the ‘salus animarum’ (salvation of souls) and the ‘libertas ecclesiae’ (freedom of the Church),” the cardinal wrote.

“For the Church in China,” he said, “this means the possibility of announcing with greater freedom the Gospel of Christ and doing so in a social, political and cultural setting of increased trust.”

“The Catholic Church in China,” he insisted, “is not a ‘foreigner’ but an integral and active part of Chinese history and can contribute to the edification of a society that is more harmonious and respectful of all.”

Georgetown University troubled by coach’s alleged involvement in scam

By Carol Zimmermann Catholic News Service Officials at Georgetown University were “deeply troubled” to learn that the school’s former tennis coach, Gordon Ernst, is alleged to be part of a widespread college admissions scandal.

He is one of at least nine athletic coaches and 33 parents, including celebrity moms, charged March 12 in the scandal that involved bribing college coaches and others to secure coveted spots at selected colleges and universities around the country.

In announcing the charges in the case March 12 in Boston, U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling called the parents involved “a catalog of wealth and privilege.”

Coverage of the announcement by

The Associated Press said no students were charged and in many of these cases they didn’t even know what was going on.

“For every student admitted through fraud, an honest and genuinely talented student was rejected,” Lelling said.

Ernst, along with more than 40 others, including coaches from several universities, were allegedly part of a conspiracy with the college preparation company, The Key Worldwide, which helped facilitate cheating on college entrance exams and bribed coaches to propose students as athletic recruits. Its CEO, William Singer, was paid about $25 million from 2011 to 2018 by parents who wanted their kids to get into elite schools, authorities alleged.

Another Catholic University, the University of San Diego, was also

named by federal prosecutors as a victim in the admissions scam.

According to the San Diego Union Tribune, a former coach at the university allegedly took bribes to help get students enrolled at the university.

The coach’s name has not been announced, and the newspaper said it is not clear if charges are pending.

A March 12 letter to the University of San Diego community from the school’s president, James Harris III, acknowledged the investigation was taking place, the school was cooperating and no current staff is believed to have been involved.

Ernst, head coach for the men’s and women’s tennis teams from 2006 to 2017 at Georgetown, resigned last year from the Washington, D.C., school and is currently the tennis coach at the

University of Rhode Island. He was charged with conspiracy to commit racketeering March 12 and accused of accepting $2.7 million in bribes. He was released on a $200,000 bond later that day. Ernst, who resides in Maryland, had to surrender his passport and can only travel within the state.

A letter sent the same day to members of the Georgetown University community by school officials said: “Earlier today, we were deeply troubled to learn that former tennis coach, Gordon Ernst, is alleged to have committed criminal acts against the university that constitute an unprecedented breach of trust.”

“Ernst’s alleged actions are shocking, highly antithetical to our values and violate numerous university policies and ethical standards,” the letter said.

Fish Fry and

Lenten Meal Guide

thecatholicspirit.com/nomeat

8 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

HEADLINES Four Catholic Relief Services employees killed in plane crash remembered at memorial Mass.

Mulusew Alemu, Sintayehu Aymeku, Sara Chalachew and Getnet Alemayehu, CRS employees from Ethiopia who were killed in an airplane crash that took the lives of all 157 on board, were remembered at a March 14 memorial Mass at CRS’ Baltimore headquarters. The March 10 Ethiopian Airlines crash shortly after takeoff in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, also contributed to a virtual worldwide grounding of the Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft.

With heavy hearts, U.S. bishops condemn mosque attacks. U.S. Catholic bishops condemned the two mosque attacks in Christchurch, New Zealand, March 15 that left at least 50 people dead and dozens injured, and pledged their solidarity with the Muslim community. Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said he was “deeply saddened by the senseless attacks” and joined with New Zealand’s bishops in “expressing solidarity with the Muslim community and in calling Catholics to join in prayer for the victims of this shooting, their families and the Muslim community that was directly targeted.”

Judge sentences Cardinal Pell to six years in prison on abuse charges. Australian Cardinal George Pell, 77, was sentenced to six years in prison March 13, just over two weeks after a Melbourne court allowed the publication of news that he had been found guilty of sexually abusing two boys in 1996. Cardinal Pell, who continues to maintain his innocence, will try to appeal the verdict. The court expects to

NATION+WORLD consider the basis for the appeal June 5-6. In December, a jury had found him guilty on five charges, each of which carried a maximum jail term of 10 years.

French cardinal convicted for failing to report sexual abuse. Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, 68, of Lyon, France, given a six-month suspended sentence at a civil trial after being convicted March 7 of covering up clerical sexual abuse, is stepping aside temporarily for the good of the archdiocese. In a statement published by the Archdiocese of Lyon March 19, the cardinal said Pope Francis, “invoking the presumption of innocence,” declined to accept his resignation but told him to do whatever he felt necessary for the good of the archdiocese. The cardinal’s lawyers are appealing the conviction.

CNS

Iowa bishop presents coalition’s Pacem award to Dalai Lama in India. In a Buddhist temple nestled in the foothills of the Himalayas, more than 7,200 miles from Davenport, Iowa, the Dalai Lama received the Pacem in Terris Peace and Freedom Award from Bishop Thomas Zinkula of Davenport March 4. The journey culminated a years-long dream of the interfaith Pacem in Terris Coalition of the Quad Cities to honor one of the world’s most respected peacemakers and recipient of the 1989 Nobel

MARCH 21, 2019

Peace Prize. The Dalai Lama advocates nonviolently on behalf of the Tibetan people for preservation of their culture, language, religion and well-being. China views the Dalai Lama as a threat to its efforts to control Tibet and Buddhism.

New York court rules Archbishop Sheen’s remains should be transferred to Peoria.

Bishop Daniel Jenky of Peoria, Illinois, announced “with great joy” March 5 that the New York State Supreme Court’s Appellate Division ruled 5-0 that the remains of Archbishop Fulton Sheen should be transferred from New York to the Peoria Diocese. Bishop Jenky is promoter of the canonization cause of Archbishop Sheen, a Peoria diocesan priest, who gained fame in the 1950s with a prime-time television series called “Life Is Worth Living.”

A spokesman for the New York Archdiocese said the trustees of St. Patrick’s Cathedral were reviewing the ruling.

The possibility Maryland will legalize assisted suicide adds urgency to march. The Maryland March for Life took on added urgency March 4 in Annapolis after committees in the Maryland House passed a measure to legalize physicianassisted suicide. Three days after the march, the House of Delegates approved it, 74-66.

Called the “End-of-Life Option Act,” the bill now goes to the state Senate. Baltimore Archbishop William Lori celebrated Mass in Annapolis just before the march, saying in his homily that as “citizens, we should be very alarmed by the possibility that physician-assisted suicide could become legal in our state.”

California bishops applaud governor for death penalty moratorium. The Catholic bishops of California welcomed the March 13 decision by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom to issue a

moratorium on executions in the state and a temporary reprieve for all inmates on the state’s death row. “We appreciate this recognition that the state has the adequate means to defend human dignity and public safety without recourse to capital punishment,” San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone said in a statement on behalf of the state’s bishops, which also called for a permanent end to the death penalty in California.

Cardinal DiNardo, USCCB president, recovering from a mild stroke. Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, 69, of Galveston-Houston, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, was taken to the hospital late March 15 after experiencing symptoms of what tests confirmed was a mild stroke, according to an archdiocesan statement. During his recovery, Cardinal DiNardo has assigned his USCCB duties to Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez, vice president of the conference, as provided for by the USCCB bylaws.

Pope says cooperatives based on Gospel values make an economy more humane. True wealth lies in relationships with other people, not material goods, which is why cooperatives based on Gospel values are “the right road” to take, Pope Francis said. Alternative economic and business models inspired by the social doctrine of the Church offer another way to live in a world “that is not governed by the god of money, an idol that deceives (society) and then leaves it increasingly more inhumane and unjust, and also, I would say, poorer,” the pope said during an audience March 16 with members of the Italian Cooperative Confederation, which was celebrating its 100th anniversary.

Free Lenten Educational Series Making Sense of Suffering: A Christian’s Perspective · Physical Suffering: Friday, March 15th 2:30-3:30 p.m. · Emotional Suffering: Friday, March 22nd 2:30-3:30 p.m. · Grief: Friday, March 29th 2:30-3:30 p.m.

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MARCH 21, 2019

NATION+WORLD

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 9

World health depends on changing way food is made, eaten, say speakers

By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service The food people pick at the supermarket and cook in their kitchens can make a huge difference in helping address the global problems of hunger, obesity and climate change, a number of speakers said at a Vatican conference on sustainable development.

But helping the planet and human health will need more than a change in behavior, said Vandana Shiva, a quantum physicist and Hindu activist.

“It is about a consciousness shift: How do we live in this world? What is the food we eat? Is my eating helping the bees, butterfly and the farmer? Or is my eating part of the extinction of the bees and the extinction of the farmers?” she said.

The trend in modern industrial agriculture is to get to a point where farming can be done without local, independent farmers, she said.

“If you do farming without farmers, you will have food production without care; it will be toxic food and, even if it is plant-based, toxic food will still make you very ill,” she said.

Shiva, who advocates biodiversity and cultural diversity as part of fighting poverty, hunger and climate change, was one of dozens of speakers invited to the Vatican for a three-day international conference on how religions can contribute to the world reaching the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

The conference, held March 7-9, was jointly organized by the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development and the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. It brought together a large number of religious leaders from all major faith backgrounds as well as advocates and experts in the fields of development, the environment and health care.

Even though the problems the development goals seek to address are massive and complex, a number of speakers said March 7 that an individual’s seemingly small step has a big impact.

The first step, Shiva said, must be with food.

“We can start eating in ways that protect the planet and our health” and do not use toxic pesticides, herbicides and other poisons that “contaminate the world,” she said.

Rene Castro Salazar, assistant director general at the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, said 16 percent of all food grown for consumption is left behind in fields and wasted. The old practice of “gleaning,” in which people, particularly the poor or marginalized, were allowed to gather what was left behind from a harvest, has been stopped “because it is not a good business.”

Another 16 percent of the food that makes it to supermarkets or sellers is thrown away or wasted because the products, mostly fruit and vegetables, “are ugly.”

Being able to recover and use perfectly edible food from these two areas in the food production and distribution chain “would be enough to feed all the hungry people in the world,” he said.

Experts know what needs to be done to feed the hungry — an estimated 821 million people, he said — because they have the skills and instruments to do it. But the harder challenge, he said, is what to do to stop the other pandemic: the 1.9 billion people who are overweight or obese.

Overeating impacts human health, costs of health care, nature and the climate, he said. For example, one kilo of beef requires 15,000 liters of water while a kilo of tomatoes needs just 13 liters.

Is the solution not to eat beef? he asked. “I don’t think so. The problem is that people in developed countries are eating 100 kilos of beef per year and people in Africa are only eating four kilos per year.

That is a problem of equity there, and (by) balancing that we can do a lot to reduce climate change.”

Rabbi David Rosen, international director of the American Jewish Committee’s department of interreligious affairs, questioned the morality of eating factory-farmed meat by people whose religion forbids cruelty to animals.

“Present-day modern conditions and the demands of modern livestock industry and factory farming are

CNS

A butcher in Lima, Peru, uses fire to pluck feathers from a chicken July 25, 2017. Speakers at a Vatican conference on sustainable development said the food people choose at the supermarket and cook in their kitchens can make a huge difference in helping address the global problems of hunger, obesity and climate change.

CREIGHTON PROGRAM TO INTEGRATE ‘LAUDATO SI’’ Creighton University and the Catholic Climate Covenant are collaborating on the first of three biennial conferences to inspire parish and school leaders to more fully integrate Pope Francis’ encyclical on the environment into Church life.

“We want to be able to catalyze ‘Laudato Si’’ across all of the ministries in the Catholic Church and to do so in a programmatic way, and to help institutions to most effectively bring it into their respective ministries as they see fit,” said Jose Aguto, associate director of the Catholic Climate Covenant.

Set for June 27-29 at the Jesuit university in Omaha, Nebraska, the conference will find participants joining one of seven tracks and hearing from experts in the fields of theology, ethics and the sciences to guide development of programs in parishes, schools and religious communities.

The 2015 encyclical, formally titled “Laudato Si’, on Care for Our Common Home,” challenges humanity to understand how integral all life on earth is and that steps must be taken to protect God’s creation by changing personal habits and collaborating as one human family.

While the pope’s offering has been welcomed across the Church, Aguto said the time was right to undertake an effort to not consonant with” Judaic teachings about respecting and caring for creation and, therefore, “raise questions to whether a carnivorous diet today can be considered ethically legitimate at all.”

Scattered applause in the audience gradually spread until Rabbi Rosen looked up from his text and smiled, saying, “Glad I have some fellow vegans here.”

The book of Jewish law, the Talmud, “prohibits any wanton destruction, any waste, pollution, even over ostentation and overindulgence. In other words, Judaism sees as fundamentally religiously offensive a lifestyle that Pope Francis has described as a throwaway culture,” he said.

Shiva said hope comes from understanding science and “understanding that our ancient teachings” already teach all the right and just ways people should be living and treating each other and creation.

Modern-day science does not have all the answers, she said, because it is “only 200 years old. It was born with fossil fuels; it is a fossilized idea of a dead earth; it is a fossilized idea that conquest is progress.”

That is what “Laudato Si’,” Pope Francis’ encyclical on the environment, “was waking us up to: that we are not here to conquer and master. We are part of one human family, on one mother earth,” she said.

Religions have in common a sense that humanity is

help parishes, schools and religious orders implement the various aspects outlined in the encyclical.

Individual speakers will introduce various aspects of the encyclical and suggest environmental action. Bishop Robert McElroy of San Diego will deliver the keynote address to open the conference the evening of June 27. Sister Patricia Siemen, prioress of the Adrian Dominican Sisters in Michigan, will close the conference June 29.

The seven tracks will be led by experts in areas of adult faith formation, advocacy, the development of creation care teams at parishes, schools and religious orders, energy management, liturgy, school education and young adult ministry.

“We’re encouraging participants to develop plans that are viable and implementable and to be able to launch programs that would enable the Catholic Church writ large to enter ‘Laudato Si’’ in a respectful way,” Aguto told Catholic News Service.

About 250 people are expected for the conference. While 140 to 200 participants are being invited, others interested in attending can apply online at bit.ly/2EFmGQt. — Dennis Sadowski, CNS a custodian of creation and was meant to “enjoy the gifts without greed,” she said.

“It is the greed that has caused a billion people to be hungry” and has caused obesity or overeating, which in turn leads to chronic diseases, Shiva said.

People need to remember their duty toward creation and bring back a sense of “the sacredness of food,” water, the air and one’s body.

It is not about criminalizing other people’s food choices, such as eating animal products or not, she said. It is about correcting one’s own habits and mindset and choosing food and farming methods that help nature and farmers.

For example, soy production in the Amazon has had devastating consequences on the land, the people and the economy there, and on the health of those who eat the soy products because of the use of pesticides and genetically modified organisms, she said.

“Food production and food consumption are nothing more than care for creation. If we do that right, everything else will fall into place. In Greenland they will eat fish, in the Sahara they will have to live on milk products and in places where vegetables grow they will eat lots of vegetables,” she said.

“Where we begin is small, and we can all do it,” she said.

10 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

rush Bwith history

Artistically gifted alumnus guides DeLaSalle students in painting a mural that shows ‘who they are’ Story and photos by Dave Hrbacek • The Catholic Spirit

“D

on’t go into art.”

That’s what Joe Duffy remembers people, including his parents, telling him back when he was trying to chart a career path. If he had listened, his alma mater, DeLaSalle High School in Minneapolis, would not have a 25foot mural depicting its history and the history of the Mississippi River island on which it sits.

When Duffy attended the school in the 1960s, he developed a passion for art that he hoped would turn into a career. Eventually, it did. Going against the advice of others, he started Duffy & Partners, a graphic design firm in Minneapolis, in 1984 and now is passing it down to two of his adult children.

His success led the school in August 2018 to give him the first ever Brother Michael Collins Award, named for an influential DeLaSalle president and designed to honor achievements in the arts. From there, the school asked him about doing an art project, and he suggested the mural, which was completed in December and dedicated Feb. 12 at an all-school assembly. About 30 students, all of whom have artistic interest and talent, did the painting. The mural is located in the lobby of the school’s “A” building.

The project was a big deal for the school, President Barry Lieske said, because it draws attention to the arts, which he said often are overshadowed by other activities like sports. That’s why he wasn’t about to cancel school the day of the assembly when falling snow that morning made travel difficult. “(What) is really central to what we do as a Catholic high school is to connect students to who they are,” Lieske said, explaining the meaning behind the mural, which depicts adjoining images of Brother Michael and St. John Baptist de La Salle, founder of the religious order that established the school. “That relational piece is so central to the Gospel message. ... (The mural) grounds our students in their history — who are we as a school, who are we as a people, who are we as a faith community.”

The roots of the mural stretch back to the 1960s, when Duffy took the bus daily from his home in south Minneapolis to the school, located on Nicollet Island. He transferred buses in downtown Minneapolis to finish the ride.

“To come to downtown Minneapolis and into the heart of the city was a really, really great experience for me,” said Duffy, 70, who now lives just a few blocks from the school and belongs to Our Lady of Lourdes in Minneapolis. “I loved being in the city, I loved taking the bus.”

Though most of his friends attended Washburn High School near his childhood home, his parents insisted he attend a Catholic high school and chose DeLaSalle. In the end, he said, “I was glad that they did.”

It was there that he met Brother Michael Collins, who grew up in north Minneapolis and graduated from DeLaSalle in 1955. After joining the Christian Brothers, he taught English, religion and music at the school from 1959 to 1967, the year Duffy graduated. After taking positions in teaching and administration elsewhere, including Cretin-Derham Hall in St. Paul, Brother Michael returned as president of DeLaSalle in 1991. He held that post until 2012. He died Jan. 8 of that year after battling lung cancer.

ABOVE A mural depicting both the histories of DeLaSalle High Schoo graduated from the school in 1967.

LEFT Joe Duffy delivers remarks about his mural project during an al At the time Brother Michael took the helm, DeLaSalle was struggling with finances and low enrollment. Under his leadership, the school rebounded and also built a new addition and athletic field. He is beloved at the school and also widely known for his musical talents. He was an accomplished singer who performed as a tenor at the school and beyond.

Duffy was inspired by Brother Michael, who sang for a few summers in the late ‘60s at a bar owned by Duffy’s father called Duff’s in downtown Minneapolis. In high school, Duffy played bass guitar for Brother Michael in a group called De Men. They performed locally during Duffy’s sophomore, junior and senior year, but also went to the World’s Fair in Montreal in 1967. The two remained friends after high school, with Brother Michael becoming “like part of the family,” Duffy said, noting that Brother Michael is godfather to his son, Joseph Duffy.

Brother Michael’s influence would prove crucial to Duffy’s choice to pursue an art career. While a teenager, nearly everyone tried to steer Duffy away from the arts as a profession.

“My counselor here at DeLaSalle and a number of my teachers at DeLaSalle said, ‘Don’t go into art. You’re going to be a starving artist. You’re not going to make any money,’” Duffy said. “My parents said, ‘Come on, you should go to law school or medical school.’”

But, Duffy recalled Brother Michael saying, “Go with your heart. Go with what you want to do.”

That underscored Duffy’s own sentiments. “I have to do art,” he said. “It’s such an important part of me.”

It still is, which is why he wanted to do the mural with DeLaSalle students. He and senior Liam Brubaker designed the mural, while other students painted it. Duffy only occasionally picked up a brush for some minor touch-ups.

Mostly, he passed along some valuable life lessons he learned throughout his 35 years at Duffy & Partners.

During those years, he became accomplished in both design and branding, receiving in 2004 the Legacy Medal from the American Institute of Graphic Arts for a lifetime

W

hen artist Joe Duffy began meeting with DeLaSalle art teacher Megan Longman to map out the mural project, she picked art students from various grades to do the painting.

“I was excited because I know that ... my students are so crazy talented,” she said. “I knew that it would be no problem for them to help with this mural. ... It was awesome for these kids to do it and that they were acknowledged for the many talents that the fine arts department has.”

The first step was designing the mural. Duffy worked closely with senior Liam Brubaker to design the mural, identifying important visual elements that show the history of the school and the city of Minneapolis.

The centerpiece adjoining image teacher at DeLa school presiden and St. John Ba Brothers of the C Christian Brothe was a Christian who started the

Other images inc Brother Michael becoming co-ed field built in 2009 located just bloc Minneapolis; the which stands ne

MARCH 21, 2019 • 11

FOR THE SAKE OF ART

An eagle painted by student Kate Graham is located on the upper left corner of the mural.

S

enior Kate Graham of DeLaSalle High School quickly said yes when she was invited to take part in Joe Duffy’s mural painting project in the school lobby.

“I just love to paint,” she said. “I just love art.”

But, when she got her assignment from Duffy, things took a turn. He wanted her to paint the eagle, which would mean working about 20 feet in the air.

“I don’t like heights,” she said. “I cried the first time I went up the scaffolding. I was so scared.”

She summoned the courage to go up, but she was so fearful about coming back down that she ended up staying on the scaffolding all day before climbing back down on her own when the school day was over. She had to later explain that to teachers of her classes, but it wasn’t a serious problem, one administrator said; she is an honor student.

Eventually, Graham got used to being on the scaffolding — where she was always under adult supervision — and she ended up painting the entire eagle herself. That impressed Duffy.

He noted that Graham wasn’t the only student who was scared to go on the scaffolding. “Everybody was,” he said. The key was to climb it himself in front of the students so they could learn how to use their hands as well as their feet.

ol and of Minneapolis resides in the lobby of the school’s “A” building. It was painted by students under the direction of Joe Duffy, who

ll-school assembly Feb. 12. of achievement in visual communications, and the American Institute of Graphic Arts Fellow Award in 2007 for leadership in the state’s design and business community. In 2005, he published a book called “Brand Apart.”

“I tell all the students that I work with now, you want to wake up in the morning and look forward to going to work. You want to love what you do, day in and day out,” he said. “I’ve known so many people throughout

my life who can’t stand going to work. And some of them are millionaires and some of them are blue-collar workers ... but they can’t stand going to work.”

He said enjoying what he does “has made a huge difference in my life.”

Brubaker said he hopes to follow Duffy’s example and pursue a similar career. In the fall, he plans to attend the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.

“I’ve wanted to do graphic design or art since middle

MEANINGFUL IMAGERY

e they came up with was es of Brother Michael Collins, a aSalle from 1959 to 1967 and nt from 1991 to 2012, on the right, aptist de La Salle, founder of the Christian Schools, aka the ers, on the left. Brother Michael Brother, and it was the brothers e school in 1900.

clude a woman to the right of l to represent the school ducational in 1971; the athletic 9; Our Lady of Lourdes church cks from the school in northeast e iconic Grain Belt beer sign, ext door to the school; plus a

largemouth bass, Native American chief and an eagle, all of which represent the general history of the Minneapolis region.

“I love it; I think it’s absolutely amazing,” Longman said of the finished mural. “I think it definitely depicts a part of who we are at DeLaSalle as a community.”

Once the images were chosen, Duffy and Brubaker created a montage on a computer that was then projected on the wall for the students to paint.

They worked during art classes, lunch periods and after school. The students met their goal of finishing in December, and they relished the chance to work with Duffy, who wanted to mimic the collaboration he employs at Duffy & Partners.

“It meant a lot,” Brubaker said. “I learned a lot about being able to deal with other artists and the communication aspect. And, I feel a lot more comfortable now being able to preach my ideas and put myself out there a lot more.”

Placing the mural in the school lobby gives students the chance to be reminded of history every day. The same goes for all visitors.

“There’s something on this mural here that connects with everybody who passes by it,” said communications director Matt Lehman, himself a graduate of the school. “It is something visible and permanent and tangible.”

— Dave Hrbacek

“I climbed up it and said ... don’t look down and you’ll be just fine,” he said.

Graham took his advice and worked through her fear, even though she did wonder if she was up high enough to die if she fell. After contemplating that question, she reached a simple conclusion: “A few seconds of thinking I might die is worth it,” she said. “I figured this would be something I wouldn’t forget.”

— Dave Hrbacek school,” Brubaker said. “This has been something that I’ve been doing on my own for a while. So, being able to have a mentor like Joe Duffy ... was really nice.”

Brubaker and the other students who worked on the mural were honored at the Feb. 12 school assembly. Lieske wanted everyone to acknowledge Duffy, the students who worked on the mural and the arts. Hopefully, Lieske said, they will be inspired enough to say to themselves, “I’m going to do something like Joe did.”

Lieske also hopes that putting attention on the arts can help temper the emphasis on athletics.

“As a society, we do a really remarkable job of holding up athletic prowess and success,” Lieske said, alluding to DeLaSalle’s reputation for strong athletics. “But, rarely do we take time to acknowledge the really broader cocurricular activities of theater, music, the arts. And when we looked at our hall-of-fame structure, one of the things we said is we’re putting all these athletes into our hall of fame ­— as well we should. But, we’re really not acknowledging that (artistic) dimension of our graduates.”

The school plans to give the jkAward every year. For Duffy, being the first winner “is a wonderful honor.”

“I was just blown away” after being notified, he said.

“I was just dumbfounded. I was like, ‘Wow.’”

12 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

MARCH 21, 2019

FAITH+CULTURE

Local Catholic schools gain enrollment at key entry points

By Joe Ruff The Catholic Spirit

C

atholic schools across the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis saw enrollment increases this year at key entry points for students — preschool, kindergarten and ninth grade.

The kindergarten and ninth-grade classes also were the largest they have been in the last three years.

Credit goes to pastors and principals, school staff and parents, and supporters such as the Catholic Schools Center of Excellence, said Jason Slattery, director of the archdiocese’s Office for the Mission of Catholic Education.

Particular attention has been given to linking preschool and kindergarten classes, creating a clear connection to the larger elementary school to help parents see a pathway through Catholic education, Slattery said.

“We hope there is more and more of this translation, so that many of our eighth-grade students can understand how great it is to go onto a Catholic high school,” he said.

Anne Marie Lamers is among parents who have experienced the warm welcome of a Catholic preschool for her daughter, Amelia, and first grade for her son Benjamin, both at St. Joseph School in Rosemount.

The preschool opened last school year in rooms converted from the school library with help from a $50,000 CSCOE grant. Lamers and her husband, Michael, brought their children to the school this year, and noted how the teachers, staff and students participate in the broader school’s efforts to help families feel part of the community through family nights and events such as an all-school science and zoo fair.

“Getting to know other parents is really a blessing,” Lamers said. “It’s been amazing. We love the community. Everybody is very welcoming and sweet.”

Members of the parish of St. Joseph, the Lamers hope all four of their children — including 3-year-old Leo and 1-year-old Lucas — will be able to attend St. Joseph through eighth grade.

“It’s really important through grade school to lay the foundation of their faith,” Lamers said.

Retaining families with students like the Lamers so they can continue to take advantage of the academic and faith-based strength of Catholic schools has been a key goal for CSCOE, a nonprofit based in Minneapolis that supports excellence and enrollment efforts at archdiocesan elementary schools.

Jessica Trygstad, CSCOE’s enrollment manager, pointed in particular to a broad effort CSCOE began when it was founded in 2015 to increase the number of preschools and expand those already in place. Since then, five more of the archdiocese’s 79 elementary schools have started a preschool, bringing the total to 73.

And a program CSCOE began for preschools two years ago titled Faithful Beginnings has attracted St. Joseph and 49 other preschools in the archdiocese.

That effort includes consistent logos and branding, a website, and assistance with enrollment and retention strategies, teacher training, communicating with parents and developing a relationship with the grade school, Trygstad said.

Those efforts appear to be working — the number of students in archdiocesan preschools grew this year to 3,700 students from 3,529 in 2017-2018, up 4.8 percent, according to an annual report from the Office for the Mission of Catholic Education.

The number of kindergarten students also has increased, to 1,979 from 1,941 last year and 1,967 in 2016-2017, the report said, using Oct. 1 data submitted by schools.

In other key areas of growth, there are 1,888 students in ninth grade this year, up from 1,818 last year and 1,832 in 2016-2017. (See related stories on page 13.)

In the archdiocese overall, Catholic schools — ­ from preschool through 12th grade — lost 121 students this year, or 0.4 percent, with 29,303 students filling classrooms this year, compared to 29,424 last year.

But that is a far cry from large losses of students

COURTESY ALYSSA DUET

Nolan Pergolski, foreground, and Luke Owusu-Afriyie play cars during “free choice time” Sept. 20 in the preschool classroom at St. Joseph School in Rosemount.

KEY NUMBERS Three enrollment growth areas in the archdiocese can be important entry points to Catholic education: Preschool (first two years of tracking) 2017-2018: 3,529 students 2018-2019: 3,700 students, up 171, or 4.84 percent growth Kindergarten (largest class in last three years) 2016-2017: 1,967 students 2017-2018: 1,941 students 2018-2019: 1,979 students, up 12 students over three years, or 0.6 percent growth. This year there are 38 students more than last year, up 1.95 percent.

Ninth grade (largest class in last three years) 2016-2017: 1,832 students 2017-2018: 1,818 students 2018-2019: 1,888, up 56 or 3 percent growth. This year’s enrollment increased by 70 students over last year, or 3.85 percent.

experienced in the archdiocese and around the country in the years before 2015, said Steve Hoeppner, CSCOE interim president.

One reason for the turnaround in the archdiocese and nationally is a recognition that it is important to communicate more effectively what Catholic schools offer, Hoeppner said.

Slattery cited the same turnaround, noting in part that pastors, foundation partners and the archdiocese are unified in stressing the important role schools play as partners with parents in solidifying students’ faith and building up the Church.

“We try to be cautiously optimistic that we’ve realized a level of stability,” Slattery said of enrollment.

The archdiocese’s “Roadmap for Excellence in Catholic Education” announced this year is designed to build on that stability, helping ensure consistency across Catholic education’s many partners, with teams identifying action plans and taking steps to help students flourish in elementary schools, Slattery said.

“At the heart of that is helping (the schools) grow,”

Slattery said. Strengthening grade schools will in turn “invariably strengthen our Catholic high schools,” he said.

Publicizing those efforts includes noting that Catholic schools educate the whole child, spiritually and academically, with an emphasis on developing a personal relationship with Christ, while building strong character and an orientation to serving others, Slattery said. It also involves having school parents acting as school ambassadors to spread the good word with other parents, he said.

Other examples of publicly celebrating Catholic schools in the archdiocese include CSCOE hosting allschool Masses of the Holy Spirit, with Archbishop Bernard Hebda presiding, that drew 12,000 students to U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis last year and to CHS Field in St. Paul in 2016, Hoeppner said.

CSCOE’s work to reach the growing Latino community includes touting Catholic schools at festivals and parades, hosting a weekly show on Spanish radio station La Raza, enlisting four Latino enrollment coordinators and opening a satellite office in the heart of that community in Minneapolis, Hoeppner said.

CSCOE’s overall enrollment efforts are led by two people, director Annemarie Vega and Trygstad.

Their efforts this year include helping fund enrollment plans of 64 schools, 18 of which also opted into the organization’s Latino enrollment plan, Trygstad said. In these initiatives, CSCOE asks for detailed plans and works with principals and other school officials on enrollment goals, strategies and tactics, such as holding open houses and visiting neighboring parishes that don’t have a Catholic elementary school, she said.

Beyond those efforts, CSCOE publishes a quarterly magazine about Catholic schools and offers workshops and other assistance to all elementary schools on enrollment, marketing and development initiatives, such as best practices for conducting tours, developing websites, handling social media, enhancing staff training and other efforts, Trygstad said.

Schools also make certain that students and their families have top-notch faith and academic programs in the classrooms and extracurricular offerings, Hoeppner said.

“We want to enhance excellence in every way and increase enrollment,” Hoeppner said. “When families take a look at what Catholic schools have to offer they are amazed and say, ‘We want to be part of it.’”

FAITH+CULTURE

MARCH 21, 2019

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 13

ENROLLMENT STRATEGIES, SUCCESSES In addition to efforts from the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ Office for the Mission of Catholic Education, the nonprofit organization Catholic Schools Center of Excellence and other supporters, schools across the archdiocese are finding creative ways to attract more students.

By Joe Ruff • The Catholic Spirit

‘OPERATION BAR STOOL’

UNIFYING COMMUNITY Bridget Kramer has ridden a roller coaster of enrollment that’s now on the rise in this community school serving four parishes.

Formed seven years ago from St. Michael, St. John Vianney and St. Matthew schools, and serving those parishes plus Our Lady of Guadalupe, Community of Saints Regional Catholic School in West St. Paul opened in 2012 with 230 students in kindergarten through eighth grade, as well as a prekindergarten class.

As the communities it serves adjusted to the new configuration, enrollment dropped as low as 131 students in K-8, said Kramer, the principal.

But enrollment is bouncing back, growing 34 percent over the last three years to 176 students in kindergarten through eighth grade. Add the 46 students in preschool, and Community of Saints serves 222 students.

“Establishing ourselves as a community really took some time,” said Kramer, who taught at the school when it opened and began serving as principal five years ago. “Parents are happy with the programming and the educational experience their children are having. They are spreading the word to others.”

Kramer also credits the Catholic Schools Center of Excellence in Minneapolis and its outreach to the Latino community and others at public events such as parades and school expositions.

CSCOE’s Latino enrollment coordinator, Maricruz Hernandez, also is a parent advocate for Community of Saints. And the school has an administrative assistant, Angie Lopez, who speaks Spanish, helping many families feel more comfortable, Kramer said.

Community of Saints is raising money for tuition assistance and emphasizing its affordability, she said. The school wants to lower all barriers to a Catholic education, Kramer said.

“We work very hard to fundraise,” she said. That includes taking full advantage of the experience and contacts of a group known as Alums and Friends and Families, which formed in 2007 at then-St. Matthew School and has remained with Community of Saints.

A committee of 12 people in that group publishes a magazine titled The Good News that touts the school and its latest successes, initiatives and history.

The publication is distributed to more than 6,000 school supporters four times a year.

“We’re working hard to make sure our story is told,” Kramer said.

COURTESY PAULA CHARCHENKO, HOLY FAMILY CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL

From left, freshmen Lucas Schoenecker and Laura Theis talk March 11 with sophomore Daniel Borbonio outside Holy Family Catholic High School in Victoria. All three live in Shakopee and benefit from Holy Family’s efforts to boost enrollment by busing students into the school from beyond the school’s usual Chaska-Chanhassen area.

As he joined the staff of Holy Family Catholic High School in Victoria in 2016, Scott Breimhorst, executive director of admissions, didn’t like one aspect of what he saw: 395 students enrolled, the first time in 10 years administrators expected fewer than 400 students to fill Holy Family classrooms.

affordability vary depending on the family, Breimhorst said. So the school increased the number of merit scholarships it awards regardless of a family’s income, while continuing to offer grants based on need or certain qualifications, such as coming from one particular middle school, he said.

Partly because there were fewer students in area Catholic schools overall, Holy Family’s freshman class numbered only 71.

“Going from a $6,000 (annual tuition) grade school to a $15,000 high school … is a leap,” he said. “We need to at least take the edge off.”

“That’s scary when you’re used to 100 to 110” students in each freshman class, Breimhorst said.

In another initiative, Holy Family now buses students into school from outside its usual Chaska-Chanhassen area, Breimhorst said. About 20 new students came from outside that area last fall, and this year more than 30 students are coming to the high school from more distant towns including Shakopee, Prior Lake, Mound, Eden Prairie and Edina, he said.

So he and others at the school, which includes grades nine through 12, looked at ways to expand the school’s reach. Those efforts are bearing fruit, he said, with freshman enrollment growing to 94 students in 2017-2018 and 108 students this year. Overall, enrollment dipped to 391 students last year, but grew this year to 403 students, and interest is increasing, Breimhorst said.

“We are tracking ahead of last year, and last year was a good year,” he said of interest in 2019-2020 enrollment.

“We anticipate reaching 500 kids in the next two or three years.”

Breimorst’s first big push was to meet with families in person wherever they could get together, such as their homes, churches and restaurants. “We realized we needed a very, very personal endeavor,” he said of attracting new families to the school. “We called it Operation Bar Stool.”

Information gathered in those meetings and elsewhere fueled several strategies employed by Holy Family. For example, school officials realized definitions of

The school also is partnering with five Catholic elementary schools in the area to offer advanced music, foreign languages and mathematics. Elementary school students either come to the high school or a high school instructor goes out to the schools.

That initiative is premised on the idea that Catholic elementary schools and high schools don’t need to operate as silos, each standing alone, Breimhorst said.

“We can work together.”

The ultimate goals are for Holy Family to meet families’ needs and offer a faith-based, academically challenging environment, he said. Families are responding, he said.

“We’ve discovered the power of the community,” Breimhorst said.

Members of the committee also organize fundraisers and contact donors.

Since its founding, the group has raised nearly $2 million for tuition assistance, Kramer said. Last year alone, the group raised $275,877, she said.

“It’s pretty amazing,” she said. “It’s a great way to have a broader network to support families who want Catholic school for their kids.”

OPEN ARMS For Anne Gattman at St. Jerome School in Maplewood, bringing more students into Catholic schools is all about an open heart and open arms.

After seeing a number of children playing two summers ago on the school grounds north of St. Paul where she serves as principal, she learned they were Catholic members of the Karen people of Burma who have fled violence in their home country. Many of their families spent years in refugee camps in Thailand, where the children received a scattered education, before being granted refugee status in the United States.

As detailed in a September 2018 story in The Catholic Spirit, Gattman began inviting the families to send their children to St. Jerome.

This school year, she secured a three-year grant from the GHR Foundation in Minneapolis to hire a teacher for English as a second language. Now, many of the Karen children are part of an increase of 34 students this school year at St. Jerome, boosting total enrollment in kindergarten through eighth grade from 102 students to 136.

Add in preschool, and St. Jerome, an elementary school that relies on donations and grants to help families strapped for tuition, grew this year from 134 to 168 students, Gattman said.

All together, the school is serving 47 Karen students. It’s been a wonderful opportunity, Gattman said. “I love working with a very diverse group of families.”

It’s also an example of how Catholic schools can help others and increase enrollment in the process, she said.

“The idea of opening your arms, having an openness to the community, that is something each Catholic school could do,” Gattman said. “And to really believe that access to a Catholic education should be available to all those who want one.”

14 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

MARCH 21, 2019

FROMAGETOAGE

Old guard looks to new generation of voices against nuclear arms

By Dennis Sadowski Catholic News Service

K

elsey Davenport admits that the Cold War and “the impending doom of nuclear annihilation” is not something she recalls while growing up in her native Marquette, Michigan, even though her family lived not far from a now-closed airbase that was a key part of the U.S. nuclear triad.

It wasn’t until Davenport enrolled in the master’s program in peace studies at the University of Notre Dame in 2009 that she understood the threat from nuclear weapons had not subsided even though Russia and the United States were partners on nuclear arms treaties.

Now on the staff of the Washingtonbased Arms Control Association, Davenport, 34, is ascending as a leading voice on nuclear nonproliferation in a time when nuclear weapons are making headlines again.

“Given the challenges facing the field right now,” Davenport told Catholic News Service, “I think it’s more critical than ever for the public, for those of us working in the field, to stay engaged on the issues and remain motivated and committed to freeing the world of nuclear weapons.”

Davenport, who is Catholic, is one of an emerging generation of experts who are taking the reins from the old guard of nuclear disarmament advocates.

The need for young leaders, advocates, moral theologians, scholars and policy specialists such as Davenport to raise their voice on disarmament far exceeds the number of people interested in peace studies, said Gerard Powers, director of Catholic peacebuilding studies at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame.

“Students tend to focus on poverty and development, the environmental issue and gender rights issues,” Powers said.

Still, there have been breakthroughs in outreach to young people, he said.

Stephen Colecchi, who retired last April as director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Office of International Justice and Peace and who now consults on nuclear disarmament issues, acknowledged that it is difficult to attract young people to the field.

“It seems like an issue of the past. It seems like something that the world has moved beyond,” he said, recalling his participation in bomb raid drills in grade school in the 1950s and 1960s. “We have a lived experience of that fear that the current generation doesn’t have.”

Powers said the need for Catholics in particular to engage in the nuclear disarmament debate is as crucial as it has ever been because of the recent announcement by both Russia and the U.S. to withdraw from the IntermediateRange Nuclear Forces treaty.

Only the 10-year-old New START pact between the world’s foremost nuclear powers remains. It is set to end in 2021 unless the two countries agree to an extension. The treaty caps the number of deployed strategic nuclear warheads and bombs by each country at 1,550.

Powers, colleagues at Notre Dame and partners at Georgetown University, Boston College and the USCCB are driving an effort to attract new — and younger — voices to engage in ethical and policy arguments for reducing and eliminating nuclear weapons.

Starting in 2014 with a program hosted by two former secretaries of state — George Shultz and William Perry — that brought bishops and scholars together at Stanford University, the effort has also brought clergy, Vatican officials, ethicists, theologians and students into the discussion, which includes questions surrounding Church teaching on the possession and use of nuclear weapons.

The latest effort involves a spring

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Kelsey Davenport, director of nonproliferation policy at the Arms Control Association, in an undated photo. seminar May 19-24 at Georgetown University that they hope will bring college students into a wide-ranging discussion with academic and policy leaders on the state of nuclear disarmament.

Powers said he and others hope their effort also will find clergy more confidently and consistently addressing the pastoral and moral issues surrounding the most powerful weapons ever produced.

But young people are the lynchpin, Powers said.

“Young people understand the environmental question and climate change,” he explained. “I think that’s one way to increase interest in the nuclear question among young people, if you can tie it to issues of development and the environment.”

Jesuit Father Drew Christiansen, distinguished professor of ethics and global development at Georgetown University, is a partner in the effort. He said he believes it’s time for the Catholic voice to rise to the pinnacle it held in the 1980s, and new voices can lead the way.

In the face of a nuclear arms race, the U.S. bishops in 1983 released a pastoral letter, “The Challenge of Peace: God’s Promise and Our Response,” that offered moral perspectives on war and peace, nuclear deterrence and the possession of nuclear weapons.

While the letter set off years-long debates on the issue, the profile of nuclear weapons gradually subsided as the Cold War ended, leading many people to believe that such armaments no longer posed a threat. One of those was Coadjutor Bishop Oscar Cantu of San Jose, California, and former chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace.

The bishop’s level of awareness changed years after the Cold War’s demise when he learned that nuclear weapons were at the ready, being stored and being transported on the country’s highways, at times in unsafe conditions.

Bishop Cantu, 52, said he believes that people of any age, but especially millennials, would be motivated to seek disarmament if they better understood the risks posed by such weapons.

The same concern is on the mind of Father Christiansen, who said the “delusion of deterrence” — that having nuclear weapons will deter other powers from striking — continues to pose a danger to the world.

With more nuclear weapons-possessing states today than in the 1980s, “the times demand an update in our thinking,” he said, adding that he hopes a new generation will emerge to carry on the work he and others have shepherded for more than three decades.

MARCH 21, 2019

FROMAGETOAGE

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 15

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ABOVE From left, Sisters Kate, Jane, Rita and Brigid McDonald of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet remain active in the local peace movement.

LEFT The McDonald sisters, pictured in an undated photo, are the subject of the play “Sisters of Peace,” which will be performed at the History Theatre in St. Paul March 23-April 14.

PHOTOS COURTESY HISTORY THEATRE

History Theatre showcases peace activist sisters

By Matthew Davis The Catholic Spirit

F

our sisters who grew up on a farm near Watertown, joined religious life and protested for peace are the subject of a play that will be performed at the History Theatre in St. Paul.

Set to run March 23-April 14, “Sisters of Peace” depicts how the four Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet became major peace activists in the Twin Cities and beyond. Sisters Brigid, Kate, Jane and Rita McDonald, all retired, have been working for peace for more than 30 years.

Los Angeles-based playwright Doris Baizely wrote the play at the request of History Theatre artistic director Ron Peluso, who had often seen the sisters’ weekly vigils on the Lake Street Bridge in Minneapolis. Barbara Berlovitz, a parttime theater professor at Augsburg College in Minneapolis and the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, directs the play.

The theatre hosts plays and musicals that explore Minnesota history. Baizely said she sees a strong local significance to the four sisters’ peace work.

“I know when I went to the reading (of the play) in St. Paul in January (2018), … the house was full,” said Baizely, who teaches theater part time at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. “The sisters stood there and greeted every one of the hundreds of people who came in to hear the reading.

I think they’re very well-known and loved in the community.”

Baizley wrote the play over a two-year span, which included interviewing the

sisters and studying their lives. Four actresses play the sisters while another four performers play the other characters. The plot moves back and forth between their upbringing and peace efforts, including the sisters’ arrests for civil disobedience while protesting.

“I think they’ve given a lot of comfort to people in pretty dangerous situations,” Baizely said. “They’ve even made friends with the police in certain situations.”

The play also delves into the sisters’ theological opinions, some of which conflict with Catholic Church teaching.

Sister Brigid, 86, and Sister Jane, 84, still rally for peace at the Lake Street Bridge every Wednesday, holding signs and singing songs of peace.

“It’s so deplorable,” Sister Brigid told The Catholic Spirit about war. “To me, it was connected to everything. I really feel if we use the trillions and trillions of dollars (another way), we wouldn’t have homelessness, poverty and alcoholism.”

Sister Kate and Sister Rita are in their 90s and don’t make it to the bridge regularly due to health concerns. Over the years, the four sisters have also rallied for peace at Honeywell Corp. in Minneapolis, the State Capitol in St. Paul and the U.S. Army School of the Americas in Fort Benning, Georgia.

“Ninety-some percent of being active is showing up, so I want to show up and be present as long as my feet can take me there,” Sister Brigid said. “Because I think presence is a power with people coming together and an energy. I believe in making peace energy because there is a lot of war energy going on.”

er of the Archdiocese March 7, 2019 • Newspap

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in Catholic puck power 75 Local schools mainta hockey tourney turns as state high school League Boys’ Hockey Tournament

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16 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

MARCH 21, 2019

FOCUSONFAITH SUNDAY SCRIPTURES | FATHER MICHAEL JOHNSON

God in the darkness “God called out to him from the bush, ‘Moses!

Moses!’ He answered, ‘Here I am.’

God said, ‘Come no nearer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.’”

“The place you stand is holy ground.” The first time I ever encountered the sense of a place’s sacredness, where I knew I was standing on holy ground, was a most unlikely place: Auschwitz concentration camp.

Even two decades later, the jarring contrast between the horror of that place and the awareness of God’s presence remains vivid in my memory.

The day I visited Auschwitz was a dreary day. The thick clouds that threatened, but never quite delivered a downpour of rain, added to the dark weight the prison camp imposed upon me as I toured the dormitories and warehouses of that awful place. The evil of the place kept bubbling to the surface as I passed through warehouses full of hair, suitcases, spectacles, pots and pans. There are few if any places on earth that have witnessed such a concentration of evil

such that the stones of the buildings — and even the ground itself — cry out with the blood of those who died there.

My tour wound deeper and deeper into the heart of the camp until we came to the prison within a prison. The wall of the courtyard was pockmarked with bullet holes.

Inside was even darker, with a series of tiny cells where the Nazis gave special attention to problematic prisoners. Yet in that cellblock, I was struck by a profound sense of peace — dare I say holiness.

One of the cells was slightly adorned: a candle flickered softly and a bunch of flowers lay on the floor, but there was nothing to indicate why such peace could radiate from this cellblock. The tour guide may have mentioned the who and the what of this place, but to someone just out of high school, the words washed over me without penetrating.

However, the sense of peace, the sense of God’s presence did penetrate.

After I entered seminary several years later, I stumbled across St. Maximilian Kolbe after discovering that the Church celebrates his memorial on my birthday. I bought a biography on him and eventually got around to reading it. As it began to

FAITH FUNDAMENTALS | FATHER MICHAEL VAN SLOUN

Taste and see: the Eucharist as a meal One of the most distinctive aspects of the Eucharist is that it is a meal. It is readily apparent by the configuration of the Church: The focal point is the table in the center of the sanctuary.

And it is not just an ordinary table. It is an altar. It is taller and larger than the dining room table. It is covered with a fine linen, the altar cloth, and it is set with the finest tableware — a paten and chalice made with precious materials.

The Eucharist is not like an ordinary meal. For breakfast or lunch, we commonly grab a few items, gobble them down, eat alone or with a few others, chat a little and move on with the day. Then there are major dinners like Thanksgiving or

Christmas when family and friends gather joyfully, have extended conversations and partake in delicious foods. The Eucharist takes dining to another level — it is a banquet feast.

At a sit-down dinner, the family reminisces about the many events they have shared over the years, and at the eucharistic meal the community reminisces about Jesus and retells his story during the Liturgy of the Word.

Then the family shares food and drink, and at the eucharistic meal the community shares the body and blood of Christ.

A meal is a time of togetherness. The members of the Christian community include old and young, men and women, boys and girls, upper-class and common folk — all held together in a holy Communion, united in their belief in Jesus, their Catholic

DAILY Scriptures

“

If God can penetrate into the darkness contained within the walls of a concentration camp, then God can penetrate anywhere.

iSTOCK | CLEMENTA MORENO

describe the events leading to his death in Auschwitz, the pieces began to fall into place.

That room I had visited years before was the room in which St. Maximilian Kolbe had been killed by the Nazis.

The lesson from that day, though taking a while to learn, remains with me today: If God can penetrate into the darkness contained within the walls of a concentration camp, then God can penetrate anywhere.

Moses is tending the flocks of his father-in-law when we encounter him in this Sunday’s first reading from Exodus. At this point in his life, Moses has become the disgraced son of Pharaoh’s daughter, yet God comes to him in the desert and announces himself. Then, even more improbably, God announces that he has heard his people’s cry and that he will deliver his people from their

slavery in Egypt. God never abandons his people in their darkest hour.

Centuries later, the prefigurement found in Moses would find its fulfillment in Christ — in his incarnation, passion, death and resurrection.

God is with us — Emmanuel.

Wherever we find ourselves, into whatever darkness we have descended, wherever we feel most estranged from God — he is there.

As we continue our journey through the season of Lent, let us open our lives to Christ and allow him to come into whatever darkness shrouds us, allow him to come into whatever prison binds us and allow him to lead us through whatever dark valley we may have found ourselves lost.

faith, in the true presence of Christ in the Eucharist, and in their common sharing of the one bread and the one cup.

and offered them a new beginning. At every eucharistic meal, Jesus forgives us and re-emphasizes his faithful friendship with us.

The meal is about service. At the eucharistic meal, believers are seated at the table, and Jesus is the one who waits on them (see Lk 12:37). Jesus explained, “Who is greater: the one seated at the table or the one who serves? I am among you as the one who serves” (Lk 22:27). At Mass, the priest serves in “persona Christi capitis” — that is, in the person of Christ the head — and the priest serves the meal in the name of Jesus. The eucharistic meal is an invitation for believers to serve others.

Lastly, the meal is a foretaste.

The banquet of the Eucharist on earth prefigures the eternal banquet in heaven. As Jesus promised, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life” (Jn 6:54).

“Whoever eats this bread will live forever” (Jn 6:58).

The eucharistic meal is inclusive. When Jesus fed the crowd of 5,000, “all ate and were satisfied” (Lk 9:17); no one was left out. In the Parable of the Great Feast (Lk 14:15-24), the master extended his invitation to those in the streets and the alleys, along the highways and hedgerows, the poor and the crippled, the blind and the lame. All are welcome.

A meal provides nourishment. At the eucharistic meal, Jesus feeds us with his flesh, which is “true food” (Jn 6:55a) and his blood which is “true drink” (Jn 6:55b). Just as physical food sustains the life of the body, the one who receives the Eucharist receives sustenance for the soul. Jesus said, “The one who feeds on me will have life because of me” (Jn 6:57b).

A meal is an occasion for forgiveness. If there have been disagreements or hostilities, those who share a meal lay down the hatchet, reconnect, heal and move ahead together.

Jesus regularly ate with sinners, befriended them, forgave them

Father Johnson is the judicial vicar of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Father Van Sloun is pastor of St. Bartholomew in Wayzata.

This column is part of an ongoing series on the Eucharist. Read more of his writing at CatholicHotdish.com.

Sunday, March 24 Third Sunday of Lent Ex 3:1-8a, 13-15 1 Cor 10:1-6, 10-12 Lk 13:1-9 Monday, March 25 Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord Is 7:10-14; 8:10 Heb 10:4-10 Lk 1:26-38 Tuesday, March 26 Dn 3:25, 34-43 Mt 18:21-35 Wednesday, March 27 Dt 4:1, 5-9 Mt 5:17-19 Thursday, March 28 Jer 7:23-28 Lk 11:14-23 Friday, March 29 Hos 14: 2-10 Mk 12:28-34 Saturday, March 30 Hos 6:1-6 Lk 18:9-14 Sunday, March 31 Fourth Sunday of Lent Jos 5:9a, 10-12 2 Cor 5:17-21 Lk 15:1-3, 11-32 Monday, April 1 Is 65:17-21 Jn 4:43-54 Tuesday, April 2 Ez 47:1-9, 12 Jn 5:1-16 Wednesday, April 3 Is 49:8-15 Jn 5:17-30 Thursday, April 4 Ex 32:7-14 Jn 5:31-47 Friday, April 5 Wis 2:1a, 12-22 Jn 7:1-2, 10, 25-30 Saturday, April 6 Jer 11:18-20 Jn 7:40-53 Sunday, April 7 Fifth Sunday of Lent Is 43:16-21 Phil 3:8-14 Jn 8:1-11

MARCH 21, 2019

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 17

COMMENTARY YOUR HEART, HIS HOME | LIZ KELLY

‘Get on your knees, dummy’

It was a rather odd little flare-up of multiple sclerosis. I’d gradually gone numb from my lower back, down the back of my legs and across the bottom of my feet. I could still walk and move normally, and to look at me you’d never know this was going on, but I couldn’t feel the back part of my lower body. I will leave to your imagination the full range of indignities such a condition introduced, but among them, sitting was terribly irritating and at times, a little iffy.

As this exacerbation stretched on for some months, it got a little wearing. One day, it came to a head as I was sitting in adoration. The chapel at my church had very hard wooden pews that were uncomfortable even when I could feel my whole body, but combined with this weird sensation, I was having a hard time entering into prayer. As I grumbled about this before the Blessed Sacrament, it was as if the Lord said to my heart, “Why don’t you kneel, dummy?” (This is one of his many terms of endearment for me; another favorite is “donkey.” You see the pattern.)

So, I got on my knees. And, of course, immediately, I discovered this was the perfect position for prayer — I could feel the front side of my body. I could feel my knees and shins pressing against the kneeler. I could feel the pew in front of me touching my abdomen. It was almost like my symptoms disappeared, and for the duration of my holy hour, I felt whole and stable, and I

FAITH IN THE PUBLIC ARENA | EMILY ZINOS

Finding common ground for the common good

When I came back to the Catholic Church 20 years ago, it was due in large part to the Church’s public witness defending the sanctity of life in the womb.

Since then, my experience of the Catholic faith has broadened my pro-life convictions into a concern for human life at every stage.

The Church’s concern for the common good was on display for all to see at Catholics at the Capitol Feb. 19 as over 1,000 Minnesota Catholics came together with one voice to defend the dignity of the human person.

It was a beautiful day that left me feeling grateful for the opportunity to bring a consistent ethic of life to a wide scope of issues in political advocacy.

The morning was filled with encouragement and education, including my participation on a panel of local Catholics who have taken up the call of discipleship to be faithful citizens. I am involved with a global multi-partisan women’s coalition that advocates for those who have been hurt by the influence of gender ideology. The same principle that motivated me to offer help to pregnant women seeking abortion 20 years ago now motivates me to protect children from suffering the medical harms of the transgender issue.

In my work, much of my time is spent cooperating with people across the political spectrum, including many transgender-identified people, pro-choice feminists, and people who identify as lesbian or gay. In a time when many of us find ourselves living inside a “Catholic bubble,” I see this aspect of my work as a gift that challenges me to “head for the periphery” and

entered into a lovely period of prayer with a huge smile of relief across my face and spirit.

I am a dummy, but a much-loved one.

In contemplating Christ’s passion in the especially intentional way that we do during Lent, it cannot escape our attention that Jesus did in fact choose human nature to express himself. He does in fact have a body — a vulnerable body with many needs, a body that submitted itself to the laws of human growth, a body that suffered, a body that thirsted and bled and responded fully and humanly to every kind of pain. A body that felt relief, too, in our acts of compassion.

Because of this, we know: The body matters. Your body matters. In all of its limitations and needs, in all of its wonder and beauty, in the ways that it allows you to connect to the human family and to God, your body matters. The great convert Robert Hugh Benson wrote, “We are body as well as soul; we are incomplete without the body. The soul is insufficient to itself, the body has as real a part to play in redemption as the soul.”

We needn’t fear the radical vulnerability that it is to be in a human body. In choosing all that it means, Jesus not only dignifies human nature and exalts it, he shows us how our bodies can become vehicles by which he can introduce us to more of his mercy and his grace. If the limitations of my body keep me on my knees before the Father, then I am blessed indeed, even if a smidge numb and a bit dumb.

Father, thank you for the tremendous gift that it is to have a body, no matter how flawed or imperfect or needy it might be. Bless this body of mine, that it may be effective to your purposes and a witness to your glory, mercy and might.

Kelly is the author of six books, including the awardwinning “Jesus Approaches” (Loyola Press, 2017), and is a parishioner of St. Pius X in White Bear Lake. “Your Heart, His Home” is now a podcast. Listen at lizk.org.

bring the love of Christ to those who are often overlooked.

My fellow Catholics at the Capitol panelist Lynn Varco captured this point in a quote he shared during our discussion, taken from the Epistle of Barnabas: “Do not live entirely isolated, having retreated into yourselves, as if you were already justified, but gather instead to seek the common good together.” We cannot work for the common good all by ourselves; it is always a collaborative effort, and the goal is always a society where the dignity of every single person is acknowledged, and every person’s contribution is embraced.

Catholics at the Capitol was a valuable lesson in finding common ground and working with legislators on both sides of the aisle. During the morning program we received practical tips about meeting with our legislators and discussing issues with them. This year, we focused on two issues: a bill that would ban commercial surrogacy, and a four-bill package highlighting the importance of the “First 1,000 Days of Life,” from conception until a child’s second birthday.

My afternoon lobbying companions included the Little Sisters of the Poor, the Franciscan Brothers of Peace and high school students from St. Agnes, making us a group that not only donned habits, but also represented the needs of the elderly, poor and youth.

What a joy it was to find points of agreement with the three legislators we met with, even if we did not agree on everything. The presence and engagement of legislators from across the ideological spectrum throughout the day at Catholics at the Capitol highlighted the importance of working to find common ground for the common good.

Advocating for the poor and the weak is just one of the many ways we build a culture of life. The poor, the vulnerable and the stranger are all just as worthy of the law’s protecting hand as the unborn, and for the same reason: Every man, woman and child is created in the image of God. That is not to say that all issues are of equal importance, nor that those who propose harmful legislation should get a pass. It is to say that the evangelical witness of the Church demands our constructive engagement even with those with whom we disagree.

LETTER Reaping what’s sowed Are we through playing God? Or hasn’t it yet hit home that some of our drastic actions might unintentionally also affect us? The latest laws signed in some states that allow a baby to be born and then “kept comfortable” while the mother and doctor decide whether or not to let him or her live, has a name: infanticide. “Slippery slope” also fits.

For hasn’t it occurred to the middle-age men and women applauding this new law that it might some day be turned on them as they age? What can be done now to an innocent child can possibly be done, later, even more easily to the aged who are seen as on their way out. So why not hasten it?

With gnarled hands folded they might be “kept comfortable” as they get thumbs up or down from bystanders. Does it seem macabre or unbelievable?

No more so than what is happening to babies now under the new law. If infanticide seems plausible to some, why would they stop at babies? “Be careful what you wish for” is an old saying. It might come back to haunt you. It’s at our peril if we take lightly this new law and allow it to stand. No one is safe.

Another’s life is not ours to take.

Lucille Carlson St. Peter, Forest Lake Share your perspective by emailing CatholicSpirit@ Please limit your letter to the editor to 150 words and include your parish and phone number.

The Commentary page does not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Catholic Spirit. Letters may be edited for length or clarity. archspm.org.

Support sick and safe time HF 11/SF 1597, the Earned Sick and Safe Time bill, is a basic employment standard that allows employees to accrue up to six days of paid time off to care for themselves or a loved one. Too many working people are forced to make impossible financial choices between caring for themselves or a loved one and missing a paycheck or even getting fired. Good public policy should protect people who have to take time away from their jobs to handle serious family responsibilities, and people should not have to worry about being penalized for taking care of themselves, a sick child or spouse. The legislation would help not only family life but would also send the message that children and families are real priorities within our society. We must stand up for the dignity of the human person and protect the laborer when employers fail to provide just working conditions (CCC 2432-34).

Please reach out to legislators and ask them to support HF 11 (Rep. John Lesch)/SF 1597 (Sen. Sandra Pappas) and give all employees this basic right.

One of the keynote presentations from Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia underscored the importance of bringing a consistent ethic of life to the Capitol: “(A)ll of us are here today to live, to work, to do, as we struggle together for the dignity of the human person — all human persons, from the unborn child, to the poor, the weak, the immigrant and the suffering ... . There are no pro-life Catholics or social justice Catholics — just Catholics.”

Zinos is the mother of seven children and serves as the Minnesota coordinator for Hands Across the Aisle. She is a guest contributor for Faith in the Public Arena, the column of the Minnesota Catholic Conference.

18 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

CATHOLIC WATCHMEN | DEACON GORDON BIRD

A communal Lenten check-in

OK family and friends, how is your observance going two weeks and a few days into Lent? As for me, I’m pondering that question as I peruse through my Daily Roman Missal, reminding myself of its two-fold theme: to embrace a spirit of repentance, and to recall and renew my baptismal promises as a child of God. Thank you, Jesus — Lord and Savior, brother and friend — for making this possible.

Lent is not for keeping a scorecard on personal progress, but it is helpful to engage in relationships that include insightful discussions, prayerful discernment and plain ol’ encouragement because we all want to grow in our Catholic faith. This liturgical season in particular gives us that opportunity for recollection, detachment and gift of self in trying to live as Christ taught.

By serendipity or grace — God knows — I came across five friends recently in a local café who were sharing their Lenten thoughts and plans with each other in an informal, accountability fashion — listening fraternally and astutely to one another. In their kindness, they invited me to take part in this practical, spiritual

GUEST COMMENTARY | MICHELLE LA ROSA

Abortion dialogue in time of extremism At the end of February, 44 U.S. Senators voted against legislation that would ban the willful or negligent homicide of babies born alive after a botched abortion.

The bill would not have placed any restrictions on abortion in this country. It would simply have clarified in law that it is illegal to directly kill or withhold necessary life-saving medical care from a newborn baby who survives an abortion attempt. Yet nearly half of the Senate opposed this legislation, saying that they did so on the grounds of supporting women’s reproductive rights.

The vote demonstrated just how far supporters of abortion are expected to go in the name of women’s rights. But it also sheds light on the broader polarization of our country on the issue of abortion. Amid speculation that Roe v. Wade could soon be overturned, activists on both sides of the issue are working adamantly to gain ground, particularly at the state level.

Last month, New York enacted a law permitting abortion in all nine months of pregnancy if deemed necessary for the sake of the mother’s health, a provision that has been interpreted by courts so broadly as essentially to allow for abortion-on-demand. Illinois and Vermont are considering even broader legislation that would openly allow abortion for any reason at any time in a pregnancy. Expansive abortion bills have also been introduced in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Mexico.

Meanwhile, pro-life states are also working to pass laws that would protect life if Roe v. Wade were overturned. In Kentucky, lawmakers passed a bill to ban abortion after a baby’s heartbeat can be detected, and the Missouri House has advanced a similar bill. Iowa is considering an amendment to declare life as beginning at conception. Arkansas’ governor signed into law a bill to limit abortion to the first 18 weeks of pregnancy. In North Dakota, House legislators passed a ban on the most common method of second-trimester abortion.

The stage is set for an intensified cultural confrontation over abortion, one in which each side thinks the other is

COMMENTARY

MARCH 21, 2019

activity. For context, this is before some of us were heading off to work.

It’s heavy stuff in which to engage before switching gears to your day job. Nonetheless, similar to the men returning to Jerusalem from the road to Emmaus — “hearts burning within” (Lk 28:32) — these men are authentic in their faith life. With confidence, I can sense that their immense love and desire to live for Jesus is undivided; it is evident whether at home, work, leisure or fellowship. They’re a genuine, trustworthy crew to commune with on prayer, fasting and almsgiving progress.

Refreshed — just back a few days from a three-day silent retreat — I delved into the dialogue. Sharing briefly some highlights of the quiet time on retreat that I hoped would benefit my experience this Lent, it was indeed fruitful for me to discuss areas of detachment and sacrifice with my friends.

Encouraging and assuring to me was the goodness in these men. I listened to the sincerity and commitment in their voices as they offered concrete examples on how they were going to give more of themselves. They honed in on spiritual and corporal works of mercy through evangelization, holy hours, rosaries, novenas, catechesis and sponsorships for specific people in mind and in great need. Thereby, they were planting seeds of faith, hope and charity, and assisting the Holy Spirit to do the divine nurturing.

There was as much, if not more, about sacrificial giving this Lent from the spirited mouths of these men as there was about giving up something.

Sharing a common faith with these men awarded me the opportunity for pause as I trek through Lent, to

recollect and refocus the inward movements of my heart through prayer and fellowship. It also helped me to better manifest these movements outwardly. Reflecting and acting upon penitent activities should not only be for personal spiritual gain, but also to inspire more activity to reach out to the margins — as Pope Francis has asked us to do. That might mean possibly reaching out further to the people of God than the norm by discovering those in need of basic living essentials: health care, education and natural resources, to name a few.

Yet, the margins may not be too far from home. For some of these five it was the home, a relative, a neighbor. There was a powerful resonance of offering spiritual works of mercy to bring family and friends to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Our Lord needs more laborers to help with the harvest — it is “abundant but the laborers are few” (Mt 9:37).

A prayerful dialogue this Lent — a “checkpoint,” so to speak — to help gauge how we are prioritizing our time, talent and treasure may be helpful. We all have faithsharing trustees out there with whom we can commune. My fellowship with a local brotherhood of Catholic Watchmen — leaders, providers, protectors of the faith in their own homes, parishes and communities — kept me in check.

a threat to fundamental human rights.

For those of us on the pro-life side, abortion is an issue of the utmost moral significance. Because we understand the humanity of the unborn person, we recognize abortion as the murder of the most vulnerable, helpless, innocent human life, something that can never be justified.

But to those who support abortion, the issue is also critical. Planned Parenthood’s new president, Leana Wen, said in an interview last week, “We should be approaching health care from a social justice lens, valuing each person and their choice. Only then can all people be free and equal.”

Those who believe legally protected access to abortion is necessary for freedom and equality see restrictions on abortion as a real repression of women’s basic and fundamental rights.

Abortion politics are a zero-sum game, in which neither side is content to agree to disagree. And with nearly two dozen abortion-related cases just one step away from the Supreme Court, it is clear that this issue is not going away.

A reversal of Roe v. Wade — a crucial first step — will usher in state-level fights in which supporters of abortion will not quickly give up.

In fact, a legal victory at the Supreme Court level would yield an unprecedented flood of money, manpower and determination for Planned Parenthood and its allies, who would broadcast immediately the message that women’s essential rights are in grave danger.

What, then, is the solution for pro-lifers? It cannot be a solely political back-and-forth, a tangled and vicious cycle of legislation and court rulings. If nothing else, pro-lifers are at a strategic disadvantage and likely to remain so unless something changes: We can be outspent by the abortion lobby because of the extraordinary financial resources at the disposal of Planned Parenthood, NARAL and others.

The people speaking up most vocally about abortion tend to be those with the strongest views — either for or against. But polls consistently show that the majority of Americans are somewhere in the middle. They do not think abortion should be completely banned, nor do they think it should be completely unrestricted. They are uncomfortable with abortion — despite efforts by Planned Parenthood to depict it as something normal and even empowering — but they see it as an unfortunate solution to an unfortunate problem.

To win the abortion battle at the federal and state levels, we will need to change the hearts and minds of those people in the middle. And to do that, we need to

learn how to dialogue with people who disagree with us on important issues — ­ politicians, perhaps, but more important, ordinary people who have not been engaged meaningfully on the topic. We need to see them as human persons to be encountered.

The “us vs. them” mentality that leads to bitter, vitriolic arguments in Congress — or, more frequently, on social media — is only doing damage to the pro-life cause. That’s not how hearts and minds are changed.

Because these people “in the middle” often haven’t given a lot of thought to the issue of abortion, they have the potential to shift their views in a more pro-life direction, if they are presented with both scientific facts about unborn human life and compassionate solutions to difficult pregnancies. Especially if the pro-lifers presenting those things are open to patient and respectful conversation that recognizes the human dignity of those with whom we disagree.

This month, the movie “Unplanned” will be released in theaters nationwide. It tells the true story of Abby Johnson, a Planned Parenthood employee who underwent a powerful conversion and is now a pro-life activist. For Johnson, the conversion process included several key moments that led her to question her underlying assumptions about the abortion industry and, ultimately, to have a profound change of heart.

Johnson’s story is a reminder that many of those who support abortion are well intentioned. They want to help women. They’ve seen the challenges that an unexpected pregnancy can present. They believe, in the words of Planned Parenthood’s current president, that abortion is necessary for women’s equality and freedom.

Many of them also believe that pro-lifers are sexist bigots or religious zealots who want to repress women and stifle equality and freedom. Those stereotypes are purposefully disseminated to demonize pro-lifers. But we can’t overcome them without dialogue and encounter.

Nearly 25 years ago in “Evangelium Vitae,” St. John Paul II called for “a new culture of life.” It would be “new,” he said, in part “because it will be capable of bringing about a serious and courageous cultural dialogue among all parties.”

Almost a quarter-century later, the need for “dialogue among all parties” is perhaps even greater. And it is Catholics who should be leading the charge.

Deacon Bird ministers at St. Joseph in Rosemount and assists the Catholic Watchmen movement of the archdiocese’s Office of Evangelization. Reach him at gordonbird@rocketmail.com. Learn about the archdiocese’s Catholic Watchmen initiative at rediscover.archspm.org/ the-catholic-watchmen.

La Rosa is the deputy editor-in-chief at Catholic News Agency. A version of this column originally appeared March 4 at catholicnewsagency.com.

MARCH 21, 2019

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 19

CALENDAR Truth: Messages of Hope for Challenging Times.” arimond@stodilia.org. stodilia.org.

Chastity pro-life girls teen retreat — March 30: 9:30–11:30 a.m. at St. Michael, 11300 Frankfort Parkway NE, St. Michael. stmcatholicchurch.org.

Soup and solidarity — April 3: 6:15–7:30 p.m. at Guardian Angels, 8260 Fourth St. N., Oakdale. A meal and discussion about “What would you bring in your bag?” RSVP sfleetham@guardian-angels.org. guardian-angels.org.

St. Helena high tea for women — April 7: 2–4 p.m. at 3204 E. 43rd St., Minneapolis. Music by The Resistors.

Reservations 612-729-9445. sainthelena.us.

St. Michael parish mission — April 8-11: 7 p.m. (6:30 p.m. April 9) at 11300 Frankfort Parkway NE, St. Michael.

Featuring Father Larry Richards. 763-497-2745. stmcatholicchurch.org.

FEATURED EVENTS Archdiocesan Men’s Conference — March 23: 9 a.m.–4:30 p.m. at St. Thomas Academy, 949 Mendota Heights Road, Mendota Heights. Featured speaker is Patrick Madrid, Catholic author and radio host. The conference includes Mass with Bishop Andrew Cozzens, breakout sessions and confession. $30 per person for adults, $25 per person for groups of two to 10.

For more information, contact Enzo Randazzo at 651-291-4483 or randazzov@archspm.org. archspm.org/2019-archdiocesan-mens-conference.

24 Hours for the Lord — March 29 at the Cathedral of St. Paul, 239 Selby Ave., St. Paul.

Confession will be available from noon March 29 to noon March 30. The event will include perpetual adoration for the 24-hour period.

St. John the Baptist will also host 24 Hours for the Lord 5 p.m. March 29 to 5 p.m. March 30 at 680 Mill St., Excelsior. archspm.org/24-hours-for-the-lord.

Prayer/worship Lenten vespers — March 24: 7 p.m. at Guardian Angels, 8260 Fourth St. N., Oakdale. guardian-angels.org.

College of St. Scholastica Concert Choir — March 24: 5 p.m. Mass at the Cathedral of St. Paul, 239 Selby Ave., St. Paul. cathedralsaintpaul.org.

Healing service: sacrament of the sick — March 30: 10 a.m. at Guardian Angels, 8260 Fourth St. N., Oakdale. guardian-angels.org.

Healing Mass — April 2: 7 p.m. at Immaculate Conception, 4030 Jackson St. NE, Columbia Heights.

Celebrant Father Jim Livingston. 763-788-9062. parish.iccsonline.org.

“Passing on the Faith: What Grandparents Are Doing Right, and Where Do We Go From Here?” — 6:30–8 p.m. April 2 at St. John the Baptist, 835 Second Ave. NW, New Brighton.

Featuring speakers Andrew Blake, campus ministry director and dean of students at TotinoGrace High School in Fridley; and Kim Doyle, grandparent ministry coordinator at St. Joseph in Rosemount. Freewill offering. RSVP available; walk-ins welcome. archspm.org/events.

Retreats

Music Choir of King’s College from Cambridge, England — March 28: 7:30 p.m. at the Cathedral of St. Paul, 239 Selby Ave., St. Paul. Director Stephen Cleobury’s final tour. Sponsored by Minnesota Public Radio. Tickets at 1-800-514-3849 or bddy.me/2R62J9P.

Parish events St. Odilia parish mission — March 25-27: 7–9 p.m. at 3495 Victoria St. N., Shoreview. Father Charles Lachowitzer on “The Parables of Jesus — Envelopes of

Embracing the Holy Time of Lent — March 24: 3:30–6 p.m. at St. Paul’s Monastery, 2675 Benet Road, Maplewood. benedictinecenter.org.

Women’s silent weekend retreat — March 29-31 at Christ the King Retreat Center, 621 First Ave. S., Buffalo.

“Be Patient in Affliction” presented by King’s House preaching team. kingshouse.com.

Women’s Lenten retreat — March 30: 8:30 a.m.– 1 p.m. at 4030 Jackson St. NE, Columbia Heights.

“Heart of the beloved” presented by Yen Fasano. RSVP

by March 22 to Diane at 763-788-1897. iccsonline.org.

Art Retreat: “Seeking the Way of Beauty” — April 5-6 at St. Paul’s Monastery, 2675 Benet Road, Maplewood. benedictinecenter.org.

Hermitage retreat weekend — April 5-7 at Pacem in Terris Hermitage Retreat Center, 26399 Highway 47 NW, Isanti. 763-444-6408. paceminterris.org.

CALENDAR submissions DEADLINE: Noon Thursday, 14 days before the anticipated Thursday date of publication. We cannot guarantee a submitted event will appear in the calendar. Priority is given to events occurring before the next issue date.

Conferences/workshops Great Conversation: What Holds Us Steady — April 4: 9 a.m.–1 p.m. at St. Paul’s Monastery, 2675 Benet Road, Maplewood. benedictinecenter.org.

Twin Cities prison ministry — April 6: 9 a.m.–1 p.m. at St. Timothy, 707 89th Ave. NE, Blaine. Pre-registration requested. tcprisonministry.com.

LISTINGS: Accepted are brief no­tices of upcoming events hosted by Catholic parishes and organizations.

If the Catholic connection is not clear, please emphasize it in your submission. Included in our listings are local events submitted by public sources that could be of interest to the larger Catholic community.

Schools

ITEMS MUST INCLUDE the following to be considered for publication: uTime and date of event uFull street address of event uDescription of event u Contact information in case of questions ONLINE: thecatholicspirit.com/calendarsubmissions MAIL: “Calendar,” The Catholic Spirit 777 Forest St., St. Paul, MN 55106

Annual Highland Catholic School book sale — April 5-7: 6–8 p.m. April 5 ($10 preview sale); 8:30 a.m.–6 p.m. April 6; 8:30 a.m.–noon April 7 at Lumen Christi, 2017 Bohland Ave., St. Paul. lumenchristicc.org.

Immaculate Conception all-school open house — April 6: 9:30 a.m.–noon at 4030 Jackson St. NE, Columbia Heights. iccsonline.org.

Totino-Grace High School open house — April 8: 6:30 p.m. at 1350 Gardena Ave. NE, Fridley. totinograce.org.

Young adults

Speakers

Cathedral of St. Paul Young Adults Lenten adoration and fellowship — Saturdays through April 13: 10 a.m.–noon at various St. Paul adoration chapels followed by lunch at a nearby restaurant. facebook.com/groups/joincya.

St. Agnes Lenten Lecture Series — Fridays during Lent: 7–9 p.m. at St. Agnes, 535 Thomas Ave., St. Paul.

“Great Spiritual Doctors of the Church.” churchofsaintagnes.org.

“What to Do: A Conversation on Life and Death Issues” — March 26: 6:45–8 p.m. at St. Stephen, 525 Jackson St., Anoka. Father Matt Quail and Life Matters Ministry present “Standing Up for the Vulnerable.” ststephenchurch.org.

“What to Do: A Conversation on Life and Death Issues” — April 2: 6:45–8 p.m. at St. Stephen, 525 Jackson St., Anoka. Father John Floeder presents “Living a Consistent Ethic of Life.” ststephenchurch.org.

St. Catherine spring salad luncheon — April 6: 11:30 a.m. at 4500 220th St., Prior Lake. “Inspiration for the Road Ahead” featuring Rhonda Zweber. RSVP to Margaret 952-461-2214. stpandc.mn.org.

“The Real Pierre Bottineau” — April 7: 2–4 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker, 7180 Hemlock Lane N., Maple Grove. Presented by Virgil Benoit, professor emeritus of the University of North Dakota and Pierre Girard from the French American Heritage Foundation of Minnesota. fahfminn.org.

Catholic softball group — April 23: 6–9 p.m. every Tuesday for 10 weeks at Victoria Ball Fields, 2490 Victoria St. N., Roseville. Sign-ups for summer league are open. catholicsoftballgroup@gmail.com or facebook.com/catholicsoftballgroup.

Other events “The Passion of Jesus in Music, Word and Light” — April 4-6: 8 p.m. at St. Mark’s campus, 350 Atwood St., Shakopee. Presented by Sts. Joachim and Anne parish. April 4 in Spanish, April 5 and 6 in English.

612-849-3485. shakopeepassionplay.org.

“Loved and Loving” art exhibit — April 7-27: 9 a.m.–5 p.m. at Pax Christi Catholic Community, 12100 Pioneer Trail, Eden Prairie. Featuring artists Gregg Rochester, Pat Duncan and Jacqueline Syrup Bergan. paxchristi.com.

Marketplace • Message Center Classified Ads Email: classifiedads@archspm.org • Phone: 651-290-1631 • Fax: 651-291-4460 Next issue: 4-4-19 • Deadline: 3 p.m. 3-28-19 • Rates: $8 per line (35-40 characters per line) • Add a photo/logo for $25 ACCESSIBILITY SOLUTIONS

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EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, a nonprofit corporation of the state of Minnesota, seeks an Executive Director in its Winona MN office.

The Executive Director is responsible for the overall design, implementation, and oversight of all social service and social justice programs of Catholic Charities for the 20 southern counties of Minnesota.

A key responsibility includes achieving significant positive outcomes for poor and vulnerable people throughout southern Minnesota.

The successful candidate must possess a Master’s Degree in a relevant field with 8-10 years experience preferably, in nonprofit program and agency administration, program development, and fund development. Must be a practicing Catholic and understand and support the moral and social teachings of the Church, including the principles of Catholic Social Teaching.

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Thank you Jesus, Blessed Virgin Mary, Ss. Theresa, Peregrine, Jude and all the angels and saints for prayers answered.

TM NOTICE: Prayers must be submitted in advance. Payment of $8 per line must be received before publication.

TRAVEL Curious about China? Fr. Dave Tushar offers a 2-week small group tour (up to 10) to 5 cities with the same tour guide. Leave Oct. 7/Return Oct. 22. From MSP, Back to MSP. For more info, call Fr. Dave at St. Francis Church, Carlton, MN at 218-384-4563.

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20 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

MARCH 21, 2019

THELASTWORD

Music & faith

Retired violinist now serving as an Indianapolis deacon

By Sean Gallagher Catholic News Service

V

iolinist David Bartolowits played his last concert with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra Dec. 23, 2016, winding up his 35-year musical career with a heartwarming Christmas concert.

A little more than a week later, he began ministry as director of catechesis for St. John the Evangelist in Indianapolis. Six months later, he was ordained a deacon for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis and has continued to serve at St. John since then.

Although he laid down his violin to minister in the Church full time, Deacon Bartolowits still makes beautiful music, a symphony of faith.

For him, music and faith are deeply intertwined. Each has sharpened his appreciation of the other.

“I don’t know how someone who performs classical music cannot experience spirituality,” Deacon Bartolowits said. “I can’t see how you can separate that.”

For him, entering into the great works of classical music is like reading sacred Scripture.

“When you read a passage of Scripture, it speaks to you differently each time you hear it,” Deacon Bartolowits, 61, told The Criterion, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis. “It’s created for that.

“And it’s the same with classical music. It’s not a onetime experience. There’s so much depth in the technique of writing a piece so that it has that depth that can speak to you in multiple ways, at multiple times over the course of a lifetime. There’s a parallel there.”

Deacon Bartolowits’ love affair with music and his faith grew in different ways at different times.

He gained a passion for music while in high school in Pittsburgh. He later studied violin performance as an undergraduate student at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University.

After graduating in 1981, he was hired by the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and stayed there until he retired.

“You’re putting more of who you are as a human being into that music,” Deacon Bartolowits said. “It’s not just a way to make money or provide for your family. There’s another level that goes into being a musician. Your soul is involved somehow.”

Although raised as a Catholic and never one to miss

Sunday Mass, he said that until about 20 years ago, he had only a “rudimentary faith.”

When his children became young adults and began to question the faith, he began to delve more deeply into it.

A retreat at St. Meinrad Archabbey in St. Meinrad, Indiana, eventually led Deacon Bartolowits to participate in the monastery’s oblate program, a way for lay Catholics to practice Benedictine spirituality.

He later enrolled as a lay student at St. Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology in St. Meinrad, taking some courses there and others online.

During this time, praying about God’s will for him took on greater importance. “(I) was always discerning, ‘What is it that you’re calling me to do?’”

This ultimately led him to consider that God might be calling him to be a deacon.

The archdiocese’s deacon formation program, though, would be challenging for him. It meets one weekend per month most months of the year. And it’s on weekends that the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra plays most of its concerts.

After speaking with the symphony’s leader, he found them amenable to him taking one weekend off per month.

“I said, ‘Well, God, that piece of the puzzle’s been solved,’” Deacon Bartolowits recalled.

During his year of formal discernment of the diaconate and four years of formation, he thought that, were he ordained, he would continue to be a violinist in the symphony, much like other deacons continue in their careers after ordination.

However, during his final year of formation, Deacon Bartolowits and his wife, Leslie, began considering his retirement from the orchestra. He found himself drawn more to ministry and felt he had already accomplished most of what he wanted to do as a musician.

“We prayed about it,” he recalled. “We took some time and sought some counsel. Although I wasn’t prepared for that, over the years I had always asked God to let me be open to his will.”

Not long afterward, Father Rick Nagel, pastor of St. John, where Bartolowits was a parishioner, invited him to consider becoming the faith community’s director of catechesis.

“It was God just stepping in and giving him the answer that he needed,” Leslie said. “It was really amazing. It was an awesome decision. It was God

saying, ‘This is the right thing for you to do.’”

In his ministry, Deacon Bartolowits oversees catechetical programs for parishioners of all ages, and its Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults and jail ministry.

He is currently helping 42 people, from ages 18 to 67, prepare to be received into full communion with the Church at the Easter Vigil.

“I am overwhelmed by the stories of people that are coming into the faith and searching for God,” Deacon Bartolowits said.

He sees guiding each of these people, with their own unique journeys of faith, into a broader community of believers as like leading dozens of individual musicians with their own interpretations of a musical piece to unite in making beautiful music together.

“One of the goals of formation is to help them understand that participating and journeying with a community is what it means to be Catholic,” Deacon Bartolowits said.

He also believes that practicing one’s faith in a community enables “all of us to use our individual voices to engage in a harmony that allows us to see that Christ is truly present in an individual when that person lives within the reference of a living community.”

Father Nagel appreciates how God used music to prepare Deacon Bartolowits for ministry at St. John.

“As much as Deacon Dave is gifted as a musician, he is equally gifted as a minister in the Church,” Father Nagel said. “God has the plan, and the years before formal ministry were helpful for Deacon Dave to understand that all things good require discipline, rhythm and commitment. His time in the orchestra certainly challenged him to these virtues, which are now being used in ministry.”

About the photos TOP LEFT In this undated photo, David Bartolowits performs with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. He played with the orchestra for 35 years, then became the director of catechesis at St. John the Evangelist in Indianapolis in 2017 and was ordained a deacon for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis that year. CNS TOP RIGHT Deacon David Bartolowits, left, and Father Rick Nagel elevate the Eucharist during a Feb. 7 Mass at St. John the Evangelist Church in Indianapolis. CNS