The Catholic Spirit - March 8, 2018

March 8, 2018 • Newspaper of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis

Priest and patriot Archbishop John Ireland remembered 100 years after his death.

— Pages 12-13

Mission leaders League of Catholic Women using micro grants to help people in need.

— Page 7

#MeToo Basilica panel explores sexual abuse response in light of anti-harassment movement.

The first five years

As election anniversary approaches, Pope Francis’ priorities reviewed

— Page 8

Rev. Billy Graham dies Archbishop Harry Flynn among clergy who admired the 99-year-old evangelist.

— Page 10

No place like home Annual Senior Housing guide showcases a range of local living options for aging men and women.

— Pages 14-17

After the pill Deborah Savage considers “Humanae Vitae” in light of the sexual revolution.

— Page 22

— Page 11

Pope Francis visits the “Casa di Leda,” a group home for women prisoners and their young children, in Rome March 2. The visit was one of the pope’s Friday works of mercy, an outreach he began during the Jubilee Year of Mercy in 2016. March 13 will mark Pope Francis’ fifth anniversary as pope.

CNS

24 Hours for the Lord returns to Cathedral

By Matthew Davis The Catholic Spirit

F

or the third year, the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul will host 24 Hours for the Lord during Lent. The annual event offers the sacrament of reconciliation for 24 consecutive hours, this time from 8 a.m. March 9 to 8 a.m.

March 10, as well as eucharistic adoration.

“We anticipate that there will always be someone in the church for prayer and confession, and what a powerful way to prepare oneself for the sacrament of penance, reflecting in the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist,” said Father John Ubel, Cathedral rector.

The event began locally in 2016 during the Year of Mercy when Pope Francis asked every diocese in the world to designate a church for confessions for a 24-hour period.

Father Ubel, whom the pope designated a “missionary of mercy,” hopes many people will come this year, especially those “who [otherwise] might be too busy or occupied [but] might just say to themselves, ‘What’s my excuse? If

TCS

someone is waiting there for people, why not me?’”

“With respect to this great sacrament of God’s mercy, Pope Francis said back in 2014, ‘The mercy of God is stronger than sin,’” Father Ubel continued. “He [the pope] added in one of his general audiences that God ‘never tires of forgiving us. And we must never tire of going to ask

for forgiveness.’”

Archdiocesan Director of Worship Father John Paul Erickson noted that parishes around the archdiocese offer a “plethora of options for folks to go to confession Monday through Sunday.”

However, he said 24 Hours for the Lord “is a special heightened time for confession here in the archdiocese, but it is by no means the only special time.”

At least two priests are anticipated to hear confessions during each of the 24 hours, with four priests from 5-10 p.m.

Both Father Ubel and Father Erickson said the Cathedral, as the “mother church” of the archdiocese, is an appropriate host for the event, and it offers additional anonymity for penitents.

“In a very real sense, [the Cathedral] is the parish church of the archbishop,” Father Erickson said. “This [24 Hours for the Lord] is a papal endeavor. Archbishop Hebda is a collaborator of Pope Francis.

It’s fitting that this activity … should be at the parish that is our own local [arch]bishop’s church.”

2018

BUILDING

Archdiocesan Men’s Conference

FATHERS

Saint Thomas Academy • Mendota Heights

CHRISTIAN

SATURDAY, MARCH 10 thecatholicwatchmen.com

2 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

MARCH 8, 2018

PAGETWO

“

As Pope Francis notes in ‘Amoris Laetitia,’ the Church is a family of families, and the home of pastoral accompaniment is the parish. The parish has a central role in making clear the Gospel vision for marriage and family life.

Cardinal Donald Wuerl, speaking March 4 about “Sharing in the Joy of Love in Marriage and Family,” a new pastoral plan for the Archdiocese of Washington to implement “Amoris Laetitia” at the parish level.

NEWS notes

1.94 million

The number of Knights of Columbus worldwide. The Catholic fraternal men’s organization launched an initiative that allows eligible men to become associate members by joining online, rather than through a parish. Associate membership is geared especially for men not able to make the time commitment to join a council, but it entitles them to similar benefits of council-based Knights. For more information, visit kofc.org/joinus.

150

The number of psalms in the Book of Psalms. Two parishioners at the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis, Jonathan and Julia Vikesland, have combined their respective talents in video and music to create Psalm Reflections for the Lenten season. Each week during Lent, MARRIAGE LONGEVITY Marvin and Ellen Scheuble were honored at their parish, St. Mary in Waverly, they are releasing a video on the psalm from the upcoming Sunday’s Mass. Shot at the

by Worldwide Marriage Encounter March 3 for being the longest married couple in Minnesota. They have been married 73 years and exchanged their vows on D-Day, June 6, 1944. St. Mary’s pastor, Father Basilica, videos feature commentary by Johan van Parys, the Basilica’s director of liturgy, along with Julia’s musical performance of the psalm. The couple hopes to continue to Kenneth O’Hotto, blessed them during Mass. produce the videos at other parishes after Easter. To subscribe to the videos, visit juliaelizabeth.org.

COURTESY DICK AND MARY JO HRUBY

150

The age of the Diocese of La Crosse in west-central Wisconsin. The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ neighbor opened its anniversary year March 3 with Mass celebrated by Bishop William Patrick Callahan of La Crosse at St. Gabriel in Prairie Du Chien, the oldest church in the diocese. Other celebrations and Masses are planned throughout this year. For more information, visit diolc.org/150/event-schedule.

125

The number of weekly volunteers it takes to run St. Albert the Great’s fish fries on Fridays during Lent. WCCO honored the south Minneapolis parish March 1 with its Viewers’ Choice award for Best Friday Fish Fry in Minnesota.

44 DAVID PIERINI | COURTESY ASCENSION CATHOLIC ACADEMY

BLACK HISTORY MONTH St. Peter Claver Catholic School third-grade students Arianna Muia, left, and Edna Gogra dance in a Black History Month program Feb. 23 at adjacent St. Peter Claver church in St. Paul. Kindergarten through eighth-grade students observed Black History Month in February by studying historical figures such as Mansa Musa and St. Peter Claver. The celebration culminates with a wax museum event 1 p.m. March 9. The multi-cultural school is rooted in the traditions of AfricanAmericans and African immigrants. To see videos of the program, visit bit.ly/2FjdEeo.

ONLINE exclusive Leaders of local Catholic institutions that benefited from philanthropist John Nasseff’s generosity reflect on his legacy following his death Feb. 21 at age 94. A Catholic, former West Publishing executive and the son of Lebanese immigrants, Nasseff made his final public appearance at St. Agnes School in St. Paul, which he helped save from closure in 2007. “When God blessed him, he did not forget where he came from,” said Chorbishop Sharbel Maroun, pastor of St. Maron Maronite parish in Minneapolis, which also benefited from Nasseff’s generosity. “His roots were very, very important to him.” Read more at TheCatholicSpirit.com.

The Catholic Spirit is published semi-monthly for The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis Vol. 23 — No. 5 MOST REVEREND BERNARD A. HEBDA, Publisher TOM HALDEN, Associate Publisher MARIA C. WIERING, Editor

The number of different women religious communities with sisters serving in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, according to the 2017 Minnesota Catholic Directory. National Catholic Sisters Week runs March 8-14. For local events, visit nationalcatholicsistersweek.org.

CORRECTIONS In the Feb. 8 issue, a story about the Aim Higher Foundation included an incorrect figure for the amount of additional scholarships it distributed last year with funds from the Catholic Services Appeal. The correct amount is $340,000.

Also in the Feb. 8 issue, a story about Rachel’s Vineyard provided an incorrect cost to attend a retreat. The cost is $180, and it is always waived for participants who cannot afford it.

In the Feb. 22 issue, a story about the Shakopee Passion Play incorrectly listed Father Erik Lundgren as pastor of Sts. Joachim and Anne. He is the parochial administrator.

Also in the Feb. 22 issue, a story about Catholic Community Foundation staff member Mike Ricci provided an incorrect timeline of his employment with the foundation. He was offered a position at CCF in October 2016.

The Catholic Spirit apologizes for the errors.

Materials credited to CNS copy­righted by Catholic News Service.

All other materials copyrighted by The Cath­olic Spirit Newspaper.

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MARCH 8, 2018

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 3

FROMTHEARCHBISHOP ONLY JESUS | ARCHBISHOP BERNARD HEBDA

Catholic voices belong in the public square

Y

ou may recall that as I celebrated Ash Wednesday Mass last year, a group of Catholics unfurled a banner on the facade of our Cathedral stating: “Speaking up for unborn lives more than black and brown lives is white supremacy. Silence is sin.” Some of our brothers and sisters see the Church so consumed by our pro-life efforts and so “over[ly] vigilant on the single issue of abortion” that every other effort pales in comparison.

Fast-forward one year. As the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis joined in a “National Catholic Call-In Day in Support of Dreamers” organized by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, I have heard from an equally impassioned segment of Catholics: “Why not the same idea to end abortion?” “Are we saying that illegal aliens are far more important than 60 million dead babies?”

While some in our archdiocese have accused me of “partner[ing] with the Democrats on their pet projects,” others have written to tell me that they are concerned “about the rightward drift of the hierarchy and how it has contributed to the division within our country.”

As reflected in the breadth of those opinions, our diverse local Church includes Catholics all over the political spectrum, with a wide variety of political philosophies, perspectives and experiences. As was mentioned by the U.S. bishops in the document “Faithful Citizenship,” “Catholics may choose different ways to respond to compelling social problems, but we cannot differ on our moral obligation to help build a more just and peaceful world through morally

acceptable means so that the weak and vulnerable are protected and human rights and dignity are defended.”

Those who would prefer that the Church not address political issues often mistakenly appeal to the so-called “separation of church and state” enshrined in our American political system. They misread our Constitution as requiring a division between personal belief and public action, or between moral principles and political choices. In contrast, the intention of our Founding Fathers was precisely to protect the right of believers and religious groups to practice their faith and act on their values in public life.

The recent Call-In Day organized by the USCCB asked Catholics to act on their values by contacting their representatives in Washington to work for a “just and compassionate” solution for “Dreamers,” a distinct group of young people who had entered this country as children before 2007 without the necessary documentation, and who had applied for, and been granted, certain protections under the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (see page 9).

Many of the Dreamers, through no fault of their own, had been brought here as infants or toddlers; the United States is accordingly the only home that they have known, and the prospect of deportation to an unknown county is devastating. Sadly, in spite of widespread support across party lines, they have for far too long been caught up in partisan infighting that seems to see them more readily as pawns in a political chess game rather than as brothers and sisters endowed with the dignity that comes from being created in the image and likeness of God. For those of us who have come to know Dreamers as valued friends, colleagues, classmates and fellow

parishioners, as well as for those who are guided by Catholic teaching on justice, on the dignity and legitimate aspirations of the human person, and on the importance of family life, the Call-In Day was a welcomed opportunity to encourage our lawmakers to address an issue of urgency. The initiative did not single out legislators of any one party and did not demand any one particular course of action.

Providentially, the Call-In Day coincided with the first of three “Capitol 101” workshops presented by the Minnesota Catholic Conference at the State Capitol to equip our lay faithful to engage in the political process.

Within the Church, it is the laity who are called upon to “especially assist with their Christian wisdom” the shaping of the temporal order in order to both further the common good and prepare the way for the Gospel.

That teaching comes from the Second Vatican Council’s “Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity,” which went on to explain that: “In loyalty to their country and in faithful fulfillment of their civic obligations, Catholics should feel themselves obliged to promote the true common good. Thus, they should make the weight of their opinion felt in order that the civil authority may act with justice and that legislation may conform to moral precepts and the common good.”

I am grateful for the educational work of the Minnesota Catholic Conference, and I encourage participation in the remaining two workshops. You can consult mncatholic.org for details. All of us share the responsibility of striving to build a just community in which the weak and vulnerable are protected and human rights and dignity are defended. Let us pray for one another in undertaking this important work.

Los ‘Dreamers’ son personas, no peones

precisamente proteger el derecho de los creyentes y grupos religiosos a practicar su fe y actuar sobre sus valores en la vida pública.

El reciente Call-in Day organizado por la USCCB les pidió a los católicos actuar sobre sus valores al contactar a sus representantes en Washington para trabajar por una solución “justa y compasiva” para “Dreamers”, un grupo distinto de jóvenes que habían ingresado a este país como niños antes de 2007 sin la documentación necesaria, y que habían solicitado y se les habían otorgado ciertas protecciones bajo el programa federal de Acción Diferida para Llegados en la Infancia. Muchos de los Dreamers, sin culpa propia, habían sido traídos aquí como bebés o niños pequeños; Estados Unidos es, en consecuencia, el único hogar que conocen, y la perspectiva de la deportación a un país desconocido es devastadora.

Tristemente, a pesar del apoyo generalizado a través de las líneas partidistas, durante demasiado tiempo han quedado atrapados en luchas internas partidistas que parecen verlos más fácilmente como peones en un juego de ajedrez político que como hermanos dotados con la dignidad que proviene de siendo creado a la imagen y semejanza de Dios.

Para aquellos de nosotros que hemos llegado a conocer a los Dreamers como amigos valiosos, colegas, compañeros de clase y feligreses, así como a aquellos que se guían por la enseñanza católica de la justicia, la dignidad y las aspiraciones legítimas de la persona humana, y la importancia de la vida familiar, el Día del Llamado fue una oportunidad bienvenida para alentar a nuestros legisladores a abordar un problema de urgencia.

La iniciativa no identificó legisladores de ninguna parte y no exigió ningún curso de acción en particular.

Providencialmente, el Día de Llamadas coincidió con el primero de tres talleres “Capitol 101” presentados por la Conferencia Católica de Minnesota en el Capitolio Estatal para equipar a nuestros fieles laicos para participar en el proceso político. Dentro de la Iglesia, los laicos son llamados a “ayudar especialmente con su sabiduría cristiana” a modelar el orden temporal con el fin de promover el bien común y preparar el camino para el Evangelio. Estoy agradecido por el trabajo educativo de la Conferencia Católica de Minnesota y

alenté la participación en los dos talleres restantes.

Puede consultar mncatholic.org para más detalles. Todos nosotros compartimos la responsabilidad de esforzarnos por construir una comunidad justa en la que los débiles y vulnerables estén protegidos y se defiendan los derechos humanos y la dignidad. Oremos unos por otros al emprender este importante trabajo.

R

ecordarán que cuando celebré la Misa del Miércoles de Ceniza del año pasado, un grupo de católicos desplegó una pancarta en la fachada de nuestra Catedral que decía: “Hablar por las vidas no nacidas más que las vidas negras y marrones es la supremacía blanca. El silencio es pecado. “Algunos de nuestros hermanos y hermanas ven a la Iglesia tan consumida por nuestros esfuerzos pro-vida y, por lo tanto,” más [n] atentos a la única cuestión del aborto “que cualquier otro esfuerzo palidece en comparación.

Avance rápido un año. Cuando la Arquidiócesis de St. Paul y Minneapolis se unió a un “Día nacional de llamadas católicas en apoyo de los soñadores” organizado por la Conferencia de Obispos Católicos USA, escuché de un segmento igualmente apasionado de católicos: “¿Por qué no la misma idea? para terminar con el aborto? “ “¿Estamos diciendo que los inmigrantes ilegales son mucho más importantes que 60 millones de bebés muertos?”

Mientras algunos en nuestra arquidiócesis me han acusado de “asociarme con los Demócratas en sus proyectos preferidos”, otros han escrito para decirme que les preocupa “la deriva hacia la derecha de la jerarquía y cómo ha contribuido a la división dentro de ella nuestro país.”

Como se refleja en la amplitud de esas opiniones, nuestra Iglesia local diversa incluye católicos de todo el espectro político, con una amplia variedad de filosofías políticas, perspectivas y experiencias.

Quienes prefieren que la Iglesia no aborde cuestiones políticas a menudo recurren erróneamente a la llamada “separación de iglesia y estado” consagrada en nuestro sistema político estadounidense. Leen mal nuestra Constitución como que requiere una división entre creencia personal y acción pública, o entre principios morales y elecciones políticas. En contraste, la intención de nuestros Padres Fundadores fue

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

Effective February 12, 2018 Reverend Luis Albert Curbelo, SEMV, is no longer assigned as parochial vicar at the Church of Saint Francis de Sales in Saint Paul and has been recalled to Puerto Rico by his Religious Superior. Accordingly, he no longer possesses faculties to minister in the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis.

Effective February 15, 2018 Reverend Hak Sun Kim, appointed parochial administrator of the Church of Saint Andrew Kim in Saint Paul. Father Kim is a priest of the Diocese of Incheon, Korea.

Effective February 21, 2018 Reverend Jules Omalanga, a priest incardinated in the Archdiocese of Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of Congo), is no longer assigned as chaplain at the University of Minnesota Medical Center and chaplain to the Francophone community at the Church of Saint Boniface in Minneapolis. Accordingly, he no longer possesses faculties to minister in the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis.

Effective March 1, 2018 Deacon Tim Zinda, appointed chaplain for Anoka County correctional facilities. This is a transfer from his previous appointment as chaplain for Ramsey County correctional facilities, and is in addition to his current assignment as Coordinator of Correctional Ministry for the Archdiocese and to the Church of Saint Paul in Ham Lake.

‘Angel’ among us

4 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

MARCH 8, 2018

SLICEof LIFE LOCAL

St. Joseph of Carondelet Sister Avis Allmaras, center, talks with Rose Carter, left, and Irene Eiden at Peace House in south Minneapolis Feb. 27. Sister Avis goes to the center weekly and visits frequent guests like Carter. Eiden, of St. William in Fridley, is a lay consociate of the Carondelet Sisters. Peace House is a day shelter for the poor and homeless.

“It’s a real privilege to know these people and hear their stories,” Sister Avis said. “I could not survive on the streets like they do. There are so many gifted people Marian Beissel, left, PatAvis: Reinardy here.” Said Carter of and Sister “She’sof St. Pius V She in Cannon Falls shareunder a laugh an angel. hides her wings that as they workShe on truly a quilt March 1 during a sweatshirt. is an angel.” gathering of womenCatholic who meet every Dave Hrbacek/The Spirit other Thursday for two hours of sewing and fellowship. The group started three years ago when parishioners Joyce Lorentz and Diane Pagel approached National Catholic Sisters Week is several women, including Reinardy, who March 8-14. An official component of is president of the parish’s Council of Women’s History Month and Catholic Women, about making quilts to headquartered at St. Catherine University donate to people in the parish, in St. Paul, the week celebrates women community and beyond. They estimate religious and their contributions to the they have made more than 300. Volunteer Church and society. View local events, Phyllis Hommes, who has been involved including two art exhibitions, at since the group began, said, “We all www.nationalcatholicsistersweek.org. enjoy quilting, we all enjoy giving to the needy, we all enjoy getting together.”

SLICEof LIFE

In a stitch

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MARCH 8, 2018

LOCAL

In wake of gun violence, local Catholic high schools review safety measures

By Matthew Davis The Catholic Spirit Cretin-Derham Hall High School in St. Paul dealt with copycat effects in the weeks following a tragic shooting at a Parkland, Florida, school in February.

CDH administrators addressed a rumor of a threat the week of Feb. 18. Frank Miley, CDH president, said students brought it to their attention.

“We took it very seriously, and we involved the St. Paul Police,” he said. “We made a decision to have school that day because there was no [credible] threat.

For precaution, we had the police in the building and in the neighborhood so that people felt more secure.”

While the rumor never materialized into a real situation, it’s a reminder that Catholic schools are not immune to the shooting tragedies that have occurred in their public school counterparts.

“Kids really are on high alert,” Miley said. “They share information with us [the administration], and we really encourage them: ‘If you’re getting information from out in the community or on social media, you share that with us.’”

Since the Florida shooting in which 17 people were killed, at least 10 Minnesota schools, including FRANK MILEY public high schools in Minneapolis, Rosemount, Orono and Cambridge, have addressed threats of violence. Potential school shooting incidents have been a concern since the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado.

At Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Minneapolis, “safety is our utmost concern,” said Principal Jeb Myers. The school is hiring an organization to review and help improve its safety procedures, he said.

It is already among a number of Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis that use the ALICE Training Institute. ALICE stands for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter and Evacuate. The Ohio-based organization provides safety training for schools, churches, businesses and government entities around the country. “It’s basically an updated way of thinking about how to respond to emergencies like a school shooting,” said Sue Skinner, principal of Benilde-St. Margaret’s High School in St. Louis Park, which also uses ALICE. “It used to be one way: You just locked down and that was it. And now with ALICE, they have options.”

Part of that is a communications and strategy plan.

“We provide more information to people, real time information, and we train people to think about what they would do,” Skinner said.

Besides emergency plans, Catholic schools have regular safety measures in place such as locked doors to the outside during the school day. Academy of Holy Angels in Richfield plans to install an additional locked buzzer system. Mark Melhorn, assistant principal, said it adds more security and allows a staff member to see who is coming into the building before allowing that person in.

Some schools have outside safety staff involved.

BSM has a full-time St. Louis Park police officer on site.

Besides monitoring the halls and keeping the administration informed about safety, he presents in classes. “He knows our students,” Skinner said. “It provides another level of expertise in our building.”

Cristo Rey Jesuit works with the Minneapolis Police Department to protect its students when they’re off-campus for the school’s Corporate Work Study Program. That includes safety training for students who use the transit system. The students also receive safety training at their various work sites.

“We talk to our students about constantly being mindful … that they need to be aware of their surroundings and put themselves in safe [situations] or keep themselves in safe situations,” Myers said.

Communication is paramount, Miley said. He wants CDH students to be able to report anything suspicious at any time. Skinner added that strong relationships

MCC: Some firearms regulations could serve common good As gun control advocates have focused on the Minnesota State Capitol in the weeks following the Parkland, Florida, school shooting, the Legislature has delayed gun regulation bills.

Minnesota Catholic Conference Executive Director Jason Adkins doesn’t anticipate the state’s legislative response to gun control to change this session.

“Gun-violence restraining orders for persons struggling with mental illness has a very small chance of moving forward,” Adkins said. “But it is more likely that the political response to school shootings will be calls for more funding for mental illness treatment and counseling in schools, as well as more funding for school security measures.”

Adkins does not believe political efforts to curb gun violence by addressing mental illness alone will suffice. The MCC has been tracking bills in the House and Senate regarding firearms possession and background checks. All of the bills were introduced in 2017, prior to the Florida shooting. While opposition to gun control legislation often stems from a defense of the Second Amendment, Adkins said it’s important to look at the issue “in terms of rights and responsibilities.”

Just because “shootings begin with wounds in the heart does not mean we are impotent to enact gun control measures to make people safer,” he said. “We have to protect people with prudent laws while we bind the wounds of hurting people and address the social and cultural factors that nurture gun violence.”

The Second Amendment allows for the right to bear arms and has been interpreted by the U.S. Supreme Court to allow for self-defense.

“The right to self-defense is part of the natural law, and the use of force one applies in selfdefense can be effective force,” Adkins said.

“You don’t have to bring a butter knife to a gun fight.

“But the natural right to self-defense and the civil right to own a gun come with duties and responsibilities to the common good,” Adkins continued. “In particular, the public has a responsibility to ensure that those who exercise gun ownership can do so responsibly.

Therefore, tools like background checks and gun-violence restraining orders for people with mental illnesses are legitimate regulations of gun ownership.”

He added that the Legislature can also legitimately enact “bans on certain classes of weapons that are meant for military personnel, or that can endanger large groups of people in the wrong hands” because of the right to life.

He also noted that “improvements in gun technology can make weapons more dangerous, but also much safer.”

“Legislatures must balance these considerations in their particular social, cultural and geographic contexts,” Adkins said. “There is not necessarily one over-arching set of gun regulations that should apply in all places and at all times.”

— Matthew Davis also keep a school safe. Teachers, guidance counselors and students can address issues well before anything could turn into a scenario leading to gun violence.

“When you think about it, most school shootings involve somebody known by the school,” Skinner said. “Most of them, somebody knew something beforehand.”

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 5

in BRIEF Priest removed from ministry at St. Boniface following assault charge MINNEAPOLIS — A priest of the Archdiocese of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, ministering in Minneapolis was removed from ministry after he was charged with domestic assault against an adult woman, Archbishop Bernard Hebda announced March 1. Father Jules Omba Omalanga had been a chaplain at the University of Minnesota Medical Center and served the French-speaking African Catholic community at St. Boniface. According to the archbishop’s statement, the alleged assault occurred in a context unrelated to the priest’s ministry. When the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis was notified of the allegation, it followed protocol and reported it to police, learning that law enforcement was already investigating, the statement said. Anoka County jail records show Father Omalanga was arrested Feb. 19. He was later charged with fifthdegree misdemeanor domestic assault, or a nonphysical assault. After the charge, the archdiocese notified the Archdiocese of Kinshasa, and “without making any judgment on the veracity of the legal charges,” the archbishop said, he relieved the priest of his assignments and informed him that he could no longer minister in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Diocese of St. Cloud plans to file for Chapter 11 Reorganization ST. CLOUD — The Diocese of St. Cloud is planning to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, Bishop Donald Kettler announced Feb. 28 at a meeting in Albany with pastors and trustees from the diocese’s 131 parishes. No date has been set for the filing, according to a news release from the diocese. The decision comes “after much prayer and discussion over the last 21 months, including ongoing consultation with attorneys for the diocese and for victims/survivors” following the expiration of the Minnesota Child Victims Act, the diocese said. The act, which lifted for three years the civil statute of limitations for allegations of past sexual abuse of minors, ended in May 2016. During that time, a total of 74 civil claims were made against the Diocese of St. Cloud. The claims named 31 members of the clergy who served in the diocese and 30 parishes.

Catholic Rural life conference exploring agricultural vocation ST. PAUL — Catholic Rural Life is hosting a conference March 21-23 to explore the connection between food, faith and the environment in light of CRL’s 2016 document “Vocation of the Agricultural Leader.” Held at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, “A Noble Vocation: Integrating Faith, Food and the Environment” will draw agricultural leaders, faith leaders, theologians, scientists and students. Archbishop Bernard Hebda will give the event’s opening address March 21. “My hope for the conference this year is that it will be a transformative experience for all participants,” said James Ennis, CRL executive director, in a Feb. 23 statement. “Many people tell me how much they need to hear from the Church that their work in agriculture is affirmed.” CRL held a related conference in 2014. For more information, visit catholicrurallife.org.

MCCL, MCC support ultrasound viewing informed consent bill ST. PAUL — Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life and the Minnesota Catholic Conference are backing legislation that would give abortion-seeking women a right to view the sonogram from the ultrasound taken before the procedure. “When women are informed, they make better decisions that result in better lives and fewer regrets,” said MCCL Legislative Director Andrea Rau in a March 1 statement. The bill, SF 2849/HF 3194, was introduced in the respective chambers March 1 by Sen. Michelle Benson (R-Ham Lake) and Rep. Abigail Whelan (R-Ramsey). It would add a paragraph to the existing Woman’s Right to Know informed consent statute.

6 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

LOCAL

MARCH 8, 2018

During March Campaign, parish efforts aim to help Catholics ‘see hunger’

By Matthew Davis The Catholic Spirit All Saints in Lakeville has a goal to top 3,040 pounds of food and household goods donated to local food shelves during Lent.

According to Feeding America, beating the goal will serve only one meal for about 7 percent of the estimated 32,550 people who experience food insecurity in Dakota County. Minnesota FoodShare, which draws national statistics from the Chicago-based nonprofit Feeding America, uses its annual March Campaign to help parishes become more aware of how much hunger persists in the state.

“One in 10 Minnesotan households is experiencing food insecurity,” said Summer Anthony, Minnesota FoodShare program director.

Anthony explained that “food insecurity” describes the situation of people not being able to access food consistently for a healthy lifestyle. She said the cause often stems from a lack of money or additional financial obligations. “Often, you’ll hear stories about how parents are … skipping a meal just to ensure that their children are eating,” Anthony said.

Minnesota FoodShare is a program of the Greater Minneapolis Council of Churches, which includes Catholic parishes among its supporting institutions. As a “food and fund drive,” the March Campaign aims to help churches and communities stock the state’s nearly 300 food shelves.

Deacon Jim Marschall, who leads pastoral care and social justice at All Saints, hopes his parish’s participation in the March Campaign will serve as an opportunity for people to see hunger differently. He said the parish will use some of the informational resources for the March Campaign to educate people on hunger.

“Most of the people who use food shelves are working,” Deacon Marschall said. “That’s one of the things that’s often a misconception, that ‘somebody’s got a job, [so] they’re OK.’ Not all the time.”

Deacon Marschall also noted that seniors and children are the two main groups of people that food shelves serve in Minnesota. Anthony said 13.8 percent of children experience food insecurity.

Overall, more than 3 million Minnesotans visit a food shelf annually, according to both Minnesota FoodShare and Hunger Solutions, a partnering organization in St. Paul.

“When you think 3 million people visit our Minnesota food shelves in a year, that’s a lot of people,” said Vicki Bazille, pastoral minister for Immaculate Conception in Columbia Heights, noting that 552,000 Minnesotans experience food insecurity.

Bazille leads Immaculate Conception’s participation in the March Campaign, serving the Southern Anoka Community Assistance food shelf in Columbia Heights. She also sees the need in her parish work. “It’s amazing how many people come and ask for food [resources],” Bazille said.

Sophia Lenarz-Coy, associate director for Hunger Solutions, said food shelf visits passed 3 million during the Great Recession. She also noted that hunger has become a forgotten issue since that time.

“Even though Minnesota’s economy has improved since then, food shelf visits have not dropped,” Lenarz-Coy said.

Both Lenarz-Coy and Anthony said that food shelves across the state have been operating at maximum capacity.

They also noted that food shelves alone can’t meet all of the needs. Bazille and Deacon Marschall understand that reality, too.

“They [food shelves] help people fill the gap between what they can afford and what they need, but it’s that old adage about ‘you give a man a fish, he eats for a day; you teach a man to fish, he eats for the rest of his life,’” Deacon Marschall said. “[A] food shelf is giving people fish, and then there’s other things that need to happen to address it on a broader sense.”

The broader scope concerns LenarzCoy, as Congress has proposed diminishing its funding to the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, a federal safety net program.

Lenarz-Coy encourages Minnesotans to advocate for the hungry and contact state and federal representatives. Hunger Solutions is organizing advocacy at the State Capitol with Hunger Day on the Hill March 20, which Minnesota FoodShare supports.

Minnesota FoodShare will also

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highlight the ongoing financial need for food shelves, a growing concern in recent years. Food shelves have faced strong competition from other nonprofits for donors’ dollars. Both Anthony and Lenarz-Coy said monetary food shelf donations are down.

“Donors, as generous are they are, it’s hard to meet the demand,” Anthony said. “Our charitable giving across the state and across the country is really stretched thin.”

Bazille, who uses the March Campaign materials to educate parishioners, informs them of the benefits of offering cash donations to food shelves, because they can stretch a dollar further and buy items most needed.

Deacon Marschall said the educational part of the campaign is about “inviting people to just become more informed … and weigh that against our Catholic values [and] Catholic social teaching.”

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LOCAL

MARCH 8, 2018

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 7

League of Catholic Women rooted in service, fellowship

By Susan Klemond For The Catholic Spirit Marta Ritten Melin, 53, joined the League of Catholic Women 30 years ago because she missed the deep discussions she’d had in college.

Now, the parishioner of the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis still finds stimulating conversations, along with support during different seasons of her life and friendships with women of all ages, in the Minneapolisbased service and social organization.

“You can jump in with both feet or just go in with a toe or not at all, and come back when you have time,” said Melin, who is also the League’s office administrator.

Melin’s mother and sister are also members.

Steeped in the history of Minneapolis and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the 107-year-old League remains relevant by giving new generations of Catholic and non-Catholic women opportunities to help the poor and find fellowship and spiritual enrichment.

Although League participation has declined in recent decades as working women have less time for its activities, it hopes to attract younger women with outreach projects, retreats, speakers and social events that fit into their family and work schedules.

The League is not affiliated with the archdiocese, parishes or any other archdiocesan women’s organization, but it offers a positive influence with its charitable work and educational programs, said Mary Catherine Jubenville, 57, League president and a parishioner of Christ the King in Minneapolis.

Of its 300 members — ages 25 to 90 — 90 percent are Catholic and work in a variety of occupations. League membership is open to all women who support its mission, and it serves women regardless of their faith background, Jubenville said. Members choose their level of involvement.

“Just as Jesus helped all, we believe it’s important to serve women of all faiths,” Jubenville said.

Micro grants target specific needs of women, children

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Ginny Vizard of the League of Catholic Women reads to firstand second-graders at St. John Paul II Catholic Preparatory School in Minneapolis March 1. Vizard, who belongs to Good Shepherd in Golden Valley, volunteers regularly at the school.

In 1911, Archbishop John Ireland asked Catholic lay women to find shelter for the young women arriving to the area seeking employment. What resulted was the Minneapolis League of Catholic Women.

Through the past century, members of the nonprofit have recognized and addressed needs, including those of immigrants, troubled teens, senior citizens and women with HIV and AIDS. Besides serving these groups, League members have raised money through charity balls and other events while organizing social and educational programs for members.

League members also work with seniors and the homeless, tutor youths in Catholic schools, and organize clothing drives and a book drive for children in north Minneapolis. It also organizes Advent and Lenten retreat days, book clubs, speakers, and art and garden tours. It will host a public panel on immigration

Youth Groups Welcome!

Now in its second year offering micro grants of approximately $1,000 to disadvantaged women and children, the League of Catholic Women can see how members’ philanthropy is reflected in recipients’ stories. One homeless woman who requested anonymity received a $1,000 grant for tuition and books for a computer class last fall. She wrote to League members saying she looks forward to a better life and hopes to change someone else’s life, too. The 107-year-old Minneapolis-based League has allocated $20,000 in 2018 for the grants, which cover specific educational or economic advancement needs for women and children. They are administered by nonprofit organizations. Funds for the grants come from interest and earnings on the League’s more than $2 million endowment invested with the St. Paulbased Catholic Community Foundation.

— Susan Klemond

April 20 at The Woman’s Club of Minneapolis.

In 2009, the organization dropped “Minneapolis” from its name, reflecting its outreach to the entire metro area. In 2014, the League sold its downtown Minneapolis building and moved into The Woman’s Club of Minneapolis near Loring Park, which better suits its needs, Jubenville said. The League invested the sale proceeds with Catholic Community Foundation and uses the endowment, in part, for micro grants.

“Many of us who were raised Catholic still want to have a connection to our roots,” Jubenville said, “and the League is an excellent vehicle to do that.”

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LOCAL

8 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

MARCH 8, 2018

Basilica hosts #MeToo panel

By Bridget Ryder For The Catholic Spirit In light of a growing tide of women from Hollywood to state houses and beyond who have shared publicly on social media about having been sexually violated, the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis decided to join the conversation.

During #MeToo: A Community Conversation and Christian Response Feb. 25, Basilica parishioners and other attendees heard from Project Pathfinder representatives about their work to prevent sexual abuse.

Paula Kaempffer, director of learning at the Basilica, said she organized the panel because she thought it was important for the Church to address the issue of sexual abuse that the #MeToo movement has raised. “The Church has been silent on many issues,” she said, explaining that she didn’t want another opportunity to pass. “I wanted to talk about all sex abuse through #MeToo — use it as a doorway to all sex abuse. We were hoping people would be able to speak about it and hear about it.”

Project Pathfinder, a St. Paul nonprofit, provides adult sexual behavior treatment.

Since its founding in 1986, its work and mission have expanded to help families affected by abuse and advocate in the community to prevent sexual abuse. The organization works from the premises that sexual abuse is preventable and treatable, and that, for offending adults, it’s a decision for which they must be held accountable.

“We take a holistic approach, looking at what led up to the decision,” said Mitch Mueller, a clinical staff member of Project Pathfinder.

He explained that the treatment process analyzes what causes the perpetrators to abuse — both the moment-by-moment reactions and actions, and the underlying psychological issues. He said many times, abuse is fueled by unmet psychological

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IN THEATERS MARCH 23

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needs, cycles of shame and holding untrue beliefs.

“If we can make life better for people who have perpetrated, we can prevent future harm,” Mueller said. “That’s hard to understand. It seems like [that approach] minimizes it or is unjust, but experience and research has shown it works.”

Mueller and Katie Holmgren, also from Project Pathfinder, discussed how the justice system leaves little room for nuance and can make reporting abuse more difficult for victims. Mueller offered the example that if the abuser is the breadwinner of the family, reporting the abuse could leave the family destitute if the abuser is incarcerated.

Participants also shared their experiences of dealing with what they described as a draconian, black-and-white legal system. One participant shared that a man in his 60s whom he knew was severely affected by having to register as a sex offender for urinating behind a dumpster. “The legal system doesn’t have room for individualized treatment of a person’s behavior,” Holmgren responded.

One attendee asked if treatment included addressing the spiritual aspect of the person. “Spirituality is one of our goals, that they connect to what gives them meaning and purpose, or a higher power. That’s important because many times, offense is committed in a place of despair,” Mueller said.

Regarding the #MeToo movement, Mueller and Holmgren said they were cautiously optimistic. They hoped it would cause people to take even small sexual offenses more seriously and also to take victims seriously. At the same time, they fear it could cause a reaction that would further entrench self-defeating aspects of the legal system, and a tendency to think that sex offenders are “beyond grace and forgiveness.”

The Basilica is offering small-group discussions with trained volunteers. For more information, visit mary.org.

MARCH 8, 2018

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 9

NATION+WORLD

Immigrants, advocates navigating post-DACA-deadline landscape

By Mark Pattison Catholic News Service The last threatening of a government shutdown seems so long ago.

The nine-hour “funding lapse” of Feb. 9, like the three-day shutdown that began Jan. 20, hinged on how Congress was going to address the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that President Donald Trump said he would end March 5.

He also called on Congress to pass a measure to save the program, created in 2012 by President Barack Obama via executive order.

In the January shutdown, Democratic lawmakers backed down on their threat to keep the government closed until a DACA deal was reached. In the February funding lapse, Democrats and Republicans agreed to conduct a debate and vote on DACA in the weeks to come, as a six-week continuing resolution to keep the government funded through March 23 was overshadowed by the $1 trillion spending package of which it was a part.

The congressional sidestepping of DACA prompted the U.S. bishops to declare a “National Call-In Day to Protect Dreamers” for Feb. 26, one week before the program’s expiration date. The day resulted in thousands of phone calls to lawmakers.

That, in turn, was overshadowed by the Supreme Court declining that same day a request by the administration to bypass federal appellate courts and rule on whether the administration has the right to shut down DACA. The justices’ action wiped out the March 5 deadline date, leaving DACA up and running at least until the high court accepts the case for the appeals court — and possibly renders a decision — or until Congress deals with it. The high court’s action only keeps DACA intact for those currently with DACA status; two federal judges have blocked Trump, saying the administration must continue to accept renewal applications for the program. The rulings do not make DACA available to those who had not already applied for it.

The exact path ahead remains unclear.

“I think a lot of people feel a little insecure, they don’t feel safe, and they’re unsure what’s going to happen because things are up in the air,” said Michelle Sardone, director of strategic initiatives for the Catholic Legal Immigration Network.

“They’re feeling fear about whether or not to apply: ‘Will the government use information they have on me to use against me?’ If you submit your application with the application fee, will it be adjudicated or ... will it be a waste of your money?”

Sardone said. “Each person has a particular case.

They should go to an accredited legal services provider to find out the best situation for them and for their family.”

“We just buried a man in his 60s who came from Ireland in a house with no electricity, no plumbing.

He came over to the U.S. without a trade, [but] became a pipe fitter and a coach,” said Mary Harkenrider, a member of the Southside Catholic Peace and Justice Committee in Chicago, which sponsored a forum March 1 to show support for the city’s DACA holders.

“We would be amiss without the talents of the immigrants in our communities ... whether it’s the

Women, men religious arrested as they ask Congress to help ‘Dreamers’

CNS | JACLYN LIPPELMANN

A U.S. Capitol Police officer arrests religious sisters during a “Catholic Day of Action With Dreamers” protest inside the Russell Senate Office Building Feb. 27 in Washington. Some of them sang and prayed, and many of them — such as Dominican Sister Elise Garcia and Mercy Sister JoAnn Persch — said they had no option but to participate in the act of civil disobedience to speak out against the failure of Congress and the Trump administration to help the young adults. “I have never been arrested in my life, but with the blessing of my community, I am joining with two dozen other Catholic sisters and Catholic allies to risk arrest today as an act of solidarity with our nation’s wonderful, beautiful Dreamers,” Sister Elise said. “To our leaders in Congress and in the White House, I say ‘arrest a nun, not a Dreamer.’”

Of the 30 or 40 arrests, eight were Mercy Sisters. They were charged with disorderly conduct, crowding, incommoding and obstruction. The 40 or so who were arrested paid a $50 fine, and all were released by late afternoon.

— Catholic News Service Irish or the Polish or the Hispanic. I think we have to continue to recognize our history and build on it.”

Patricia Zapor, a spokeswoman for the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, said a January check of DACA applications showed the government was still processing applications from 2016. Renewals ordinarily took two to three months; Zapor said without DACA, immigrants in the country without legal permission cannot legally work in the United States.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, had said the upper chamber would debate a banking bill in early March, making no mention of DACA. How to deal with this interim period is “tricky,” said Ian Pajer-Rogers, communications and political director for Interfaith Worker Justice. Anxiety among DACA families cuts both ways, he said.

“What I’ve seen among the undocumented folks is a very willingness to self-sacrifice. Among the DACA recipients I’ve worked with, they don’t want to trade their parents’ safety and security for their own. ... I think you find the parents who are willing to say the opposite, almost. They’re willing to see more enforcement and risk detention if their kids are safe. We’re really going for the starting point that all are protected.”

in BRIEF German bishops prepare Communion rules for mixed marriages BERLIN — The German bishops’ conference continues to develop its recent decision to allow nonCatholic spouses in mixed denomination marriages to receive Communion in limited cases. The document, primarily addressed to pastors, contains specific guidance about whether Communion is possible in particular cases for married couples of different Christian faiths. The document has been developed over several months, based on Pope Francis’ 2016 apostolic exhortation “Amoris Laetitia” and previous Catholic doctrine. It is now undergoing revisions. The bishops have yet to agree on a final version, which will be published in the coming weeks. “There are still possible additions,” Daniela Elpers, spokeswoman for the German bishops’ conference, told Catholic News Service. The initial announcement, made by Cardinal Reinhard Marx, conference president, Feb. 22 following the bishops’ spring plenary conference, stated that the bishops deem it possible in certain cases to allow the Eucharist to be given to a nonCatholic spouse in a mixed-denomination marriage.

Pope adds feast of Mary, Mother of the Church to universal calendar VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis has decreed that Latin-rite Catholics around the world will mark the feast of “the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church” on the Monday after Pentecost each year.

The Gospel reading for the feast, which technically is called a “memorial,” is John 19:25-31, which recounts how from the cross Jesus entrusted Mary to his disciples as their mother and entrusted his disciples to Mary as her children. The decree announcing the addition to the Church calendar was released March 3 by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments. Pope Francis approved the decree after “having attentively considered how greatly the promotion of this devotion might encourage the growth of the maternal sense of the Church in the pastors, religious and faithful, as well as a growth of genuine Marian piety,” the decree said.

Pope, cardinal advisers studying regional tribunals for abuse cases VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis and his international Council of Cardinals discussed the possibility of establishing regional tribunals around the world that would judge cases of sexual abuse allegedly committed by clergy, said Greg Burke, Vatican spokesman. He confirmed a report published Feb. 27 on the website Vatican Insider that said the pope and his cardinal advisers were considering decentralizing the role of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in handling cases, but would not diminish the congregation’s authority. “I can say that this is one of the options.

The pope himself spoke about this in one of his press conferences,” Burke told journalists Feb. 28. The Council of Cardinals, often referred to as the C9, held its first meeting of the year Feb. 26-28 with Pope Francis. The pope appointed the council members five years ago to advise him on the reform of the Roman Curia and on Church governance.

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10 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

NATION+WORLD

Rev. Graham admired by many, including Archbishop Flynn Catholic News Service A private funeral was celebrated in Charlotte, North Carolina, March 2 for the Rev. Billy Graham, a fiery Baptist preacher who was easily the most famous evangelist of the 20th century and for decades one of the world figures most admired by Americans.

In a nod to Rev. Graham’s close ties to the Catholic Church, Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York was there to pay his respects and remember the influence Rev. Graham had on his life and on REV. BILLY GRAHAM Christianity in the United States.

“I grew up in a sound Catholic home, and yet my mom and dad and my grandparents loved listening to Billy,” Cardinal Dolan said.

He died early Feb. 21 at his home in Montreat, North Carolina. He was 99.

He had suffered from Parkinson’s disease for many years, although he continued to lead crusades until 2005, when he held his last one in New York. In recent years, he also had cancer and pneumonia.

Rev. Graham welcomed representatives of other denominations, including Catholics, to attend his crusades. In many places, local Catholic authorities welcomed him and formed pastoral follow-up programs to welcome lapsed Catholics who were prompted by the preacher to return to the Church.

This happened in the Twin Cities when Rev. Graham held a crusade June 19-23, 1996. On the morning of the first day, he met with Archbishop Harry Flynn and Bishop David Olson of the Minneapolis Area Lutheran Synod.

“When I met with him, I was extremely impressed

because, to me, he was a sincere man of God,” Archbishop Flynn said. “It was a monumental moment in my life, having met a man who preached the Gospel so vividly and so enthusiastically. … I think every person who preaches the word of God needs to walk the walk before he talks the talk. And, Billy Graham walked the walk.”

Archbishop Flynn said he was saddened to hear of Rev. Graham’s death “because I think a great light has gone out in our culture, in our country.”

Rev. Graham had strong roots in the Twin Cities throughout his decades of ministry. He started the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association in 1950 and established headquarters in Minneapolis, remaining there until moving to Charlotte in 2003. He also was the president of Northwestern Bible College (now Northwestern University) in Roseville from 1948-52.

In 1949, he launched KTIS Radio, a Christian station that still operates today.

In 1964, Cardinal Richard Cushing of Boston said that no Catholic who heard Rev. Graham preach “can do anything but become a better Catholic.”

Rev. Graham — who preferred to be called Mr. Graham — was sometimes regarded as a pastor to presidents because he was known as a spiritual adviser to 13 U.S. presidents, from Harry S. Truman to Donald Trump. He delivered the invocation at eight presidential inaugurations. Rev. Graham met with St. John Paul II on several occasions.

Rev. Graham is survived by two sons and three daughters, 19 grandchildren and 41 greatgrandchildren.

— Dave Hrbacek at The Catholic Spirit contributed to this story.

MARCH 8, 2018

HEADLINES

CNS

uChristian leaders reopen Church of the Holy Sepulcher

after ‘emergency.’ The decision in the Holy Land was made Feb. 28 after the Israeli government set up a negotiating team to resolve a municipal dispute over property taxes.

uClaims of heresy over ‘Amoris Laetitia’ are out of place,

cardinal says. Pope Francis’ exhortation on the family should prompt discussion and even debate, but accusing him and others of heresy is completely out of place, said German Cardinal Walter Kasper.

uSupreme Court says government can detain some

immigrants indefinitely. In the 5-3 ruling, with Justice Elena Kagan recusing herself, the court reversed a lower court ruling that required periodic bond hearings for immigrants held in custody with U.S. immigration officials.

uCardinal explains, apologizes for tweet that caused

‘misunderstanding.’ Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark, New Jersey, apologized for a tweet that sent Twitter tongues tweeting late Feb. 22 when he wished someone “Nighty-night, baby, I love you” on the public part of his feed. He later clarified it was meant to be a private message to his sister.

Read the stories at TheCatholicSpirit.com.

MARCH 8, 2018

NATION+WORLD

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 11

FIVE YEARS A POPE

Pope Francis’ focus has been on outreach

Wonder and wit A native-Spanish speaker who grew up with Italianspeaking relatives in Argentina, Pope Francis has a striking way with words. Bringing a background in literary themes and devices with him to the papacy five years ago, the pope has shown himself to be a master of metaphor and allegory.

His cross-cultural and eclectic knowledge of literature and cinema has supplied him with numerous visual elements that he mixes and matches with a religious message, creating such compound concoctions as “the babysitter Church” to describe a parish that doesn’t encourage active evangelizers but only worries about keeping parishioners inside, out of trouble. “Armchair Catholics,” meanwhile, don’t let the Holy Spirit lead their lives. They would rather stay put, safely reciting a “cold morality” without letting the Spirit push them out of the house to bring Jesus to others.

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service

C

ardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected pope just a few days after telling the College of Cardinals that the Catholic Church faced a clear choice between being a Church that “goes out” or a Church focused on its internal affairs.

After the cardinal from Buenos Aires, Argentina, was elected March 13, 2013, and chose the name Francis, he made “go out,” “periphery” and “throwaway culture” standard phrases in the papal vocabulary.

Catholics have a wide variety of opinions about how Pope Francis is exercising the papal ministry, and many of his comments — ­ both in informal news conferences and in formal documents ­­­— have stirred controversy.

But, as he wrote in “Evangelii Gaudium,” the apostolic exhortation laying out the vision for his pontificate: “I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security.”

But there are two areas of internal Church affairs that he recognized needed immediate attention: the reform of the Roman Curia and the full protection of children and vulnerable adults from clerical sexual abuse.

The organizational reform of the Curia has been taking place in stages, but Pope Francis has insisted that the real reform is a matter of changing hearts and embracing service.

On the issue of abuse, nine months into his pontificate, Pope Francis established the Pontifical Commission for Child Protection to advise him on better ways to prevent clerical sexual abuse and to ensure pastoral care for the survivors.

Pope Francis has emphatically proclaimed “zero tolerance” for abusers and recently said covering up abuse “is itself an abuse,” but as his fifth anniversary approached, serious questions arose about how he handled accusations that Chilean Bishop Juan Barros, who was a priest at the time, covered up allegations of abuse against his mentor.

The new scandal threatened to undermine the widespread popularity of Pope Francis and his efforts to set the Catholic Church on a new course.

Evangelization at forefront For Pope Francis, that new course involves evangelization first of all.

“Evangelizing presupposes a desire in the Church to come out of herself,” he had told the cardinals just days before the conclave that elected him. “The Church is called to come out of herself and to go to the peripheries, not only geographically, but also the existential peripheries: the mystery of sin, of pain, of injustice, of ignorance and indifference to religion, of intellectual currents and of all misery.”

Mercy is the first thing the Catholic Church is called to bring to those peripheries, he says.

Although in 2013 he told reporters he would not be traveling as much as his predecessors, Pope Francis has continued their practice of literally “going out,” making 22 trips outside of Italy and visiting 32 nations.

But he also regularly visits the peripheries of Rome, both its poor suburbs and its hospitals, rehabilitation centers, prisons and facilities for migrants and refugees.

His desire to reach out has inspired innovations that were noteworthy at the beginning of the papacy, but now seem to be a natural part of a pope’s day. For example, after beginning with Vatican gardeners and garbage collectors, the pope continues to invite a small group of Catholics to join him most weekday mornings for Mass in the chapel of his residence.

The residence, the Domus Sanctae Marthae, is a guesthouse built by St. John Paul II with the intention

The Ignatian spirituality that formed him as a Jesuit also comes through many of his turns of phrase. Just as a Jesuit seeks to use all five senses to find and experience God, the pope does not hesitate to use language that involves sight, sound, taste, touch and smell. And so he urges the world’s priests to be “shepherds living with the smell of sheep” by living with and among the people in order to share Christ with them, and he tells his cardinals that all Catholic elders need to share with the young their insight and wisdom, which become like “fine wine that tastes better with age.”

— Carol Glatz, CNS CNS

of providing decent housing for cardinals when they would enter a conclave to elect a new pope. Pope Francis decided after the 2013 conclave to stay there and not move into the more isolated papal apartments in the Apostolic Palace.

On Holy Thursday each year, he has celebrated Mass at a prison, care facility or refugee center and washed the feet of patients, inmates or immigrants, both men and women, Catholics and members of other faiths. He also ordered the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments to clarify that the feet of both women and men can be washed at the Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord’s Supper. During the 2015-16 Year of Mercy, he made a visit one Friday a month to people in particular need, including those at a school for the blind, a neonatal intensive care unit, a community of recovering alcoholics, a children’s group home and a community for women rescued from traffickers who forced them into prostitution. Once the Year of Mercy ended, the pope continued the visits, although not always every month.

In September 2015, as waves of migrants and refugees were struggling and dying to reach Europe, Pope Francis asked every parish and religious community in Europe to consider offering hospitality to one family. The Vatican offered apartments and support to a family from Syria and a family from Eritrea. Then, seven months later, Pope Francis visited a refugee center on the island of Lesbos, Greece, and brought 12 refugees back to Rome on the plane with him.

Less than three months into his pontificate, Pope Francis began denouncing the “throwaway culture” as one where money and power are the ultimate values and anything or anyone that did not advance money or power is disposable: “Human life, the person are no longer seen as primary values to be respected and protected, especially if they are poor or disabled, if they are not yet useful — like an unborn child — or are no longer useful — like an old person,” the pope said at a general audience.

Document controversy In the first three years of his papacy, he published three major documents: “Evangelii Gaudium” (The Joy of the Gospel); “Laudato Si’, on Care for Our Common Home,” on the environment; and “Amoris Laetitia” (The Joy of Love) on love in the family, his reflections on the discussions of the Synod of Bishops in 2014 and 2015. People skeptical about the scientific proof that human activity is contributing to climate change objected to parts of “Laudato Si’,” but the criticism was muted compared to reactions to Pope Francis’

document on the family, especially regarding ministry to divorced and civilly remarried Catholics and the possibility that, under some conditions, some of those Catholics could return to the sacraments.

The strongest criticism came from U.S. Cardinal Raymond Burke and three other cardinals who sent to the pope and then publicly released in November 2016 a formal, critical set of questions, known as “dubia,” insisting that allowing those Catholics to receive the sacraments amounted to changing fundamental Church teaching about marriage, sexuality and the nature of the sacraments.

Pope Francis has not responded to the cardinals, two of whom have since died. But in December, the Vatican posted on its website the guidelines for interpreting “Amoris Laetitia” developed by a group of Argentine bishops, as well as Pope Francis’ letter to them describing the guidelines as “authentic magisterium.”

The guidelines by bishops in the Buenos Aires region said the path of discernment proposed by Pope Francis for divorced and civilly remarried couples “does not necessarily end in the sacraments” but, in some situations, after a thorough process of discernment, the pope’s exhortation “opens the possibility” to reception of the sacraments.

In the document and throughout his pontificate, Pope Francis has emphasized God’s mercy and the power of the sacraments to spur conversion and nourish Christians as they try to progress in holiness.

Like all popes, Pope Francis frequently urges Catholics to go to confession, telling them it is not a “torture chamber.” And he repeatedly gives priests blunt advice about being welcoming and merciful to those who approach the confessional.

Like St. John Paul II did each Lent, Pope Francis hears confessions in St. Peter’s Basilica. But, he surprised even his closest aides beginning in 2014 when, instead of going to the confessional to welcome the first penitent, he turned and went to confession himself.

He also has surprised people by being completely honest about his age. In April 2017, when he was still 80 years old, he told Italian young people that while they are preparing for the future, “at my age we are preparing to go.” The young people present objected loudly. “No?” the pope responded, “Who can guarantee life? No one.”

From the beginning of his papacy, Pope Francis has expressed love and admiration for retired Pope Benedict XVI. Returning from South Korea in 2014, he said Pope Benedict’s honest, “yet also humble and courageous” gesture of resigning cleared a path for later popes to do the same — including perhaps himself, if one day he no longer felt “prepared to go on.”

12 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

T

he day after Archbishop John Ireland died, tributes filled the front pages of every daily newspaper in the Twin Cities. It was the same in The Catholic Bulletin, then a Catholic weekly, dated four days after his Sept. 25, 1918, death. An obituary called him “one of the most distinguished churchmen of this or any other country during the past 100 years.”

An editorial in the same edition continued the praise: “For well neigh half a century the name John Ireland has been synonymous with the most exalted standards of patriotism and religion,” it stated. “When future historians limn the dim past and record on the scroll of Time the life of God’s Church in America, amid the faint blur of lesser names will stand forth, emblazoned in letters of burnished gold, the words, John Ireland, Archbishop of St. Paul.”

Archbishop Ireland, who oversaw what was then the Archdiocese of St. Paul from 1884 to 1918, had been nicknamed “the Consecrated Blizzard of the Northwest” for his robust personality, extensive vision and ability to make that vision reality. He was Minnesota’s first archbishop, as the pope elevated the Diocese of St. Paul to an archdiocese in 1888, and both a Church and civic leader, said Lori Williamson, acquisitions and outreach coordinator with the Minnesota Historical Society. “He was part of that time and place where religious leaders had great sway over the happenings, especially here, because it was the frontier,” she said. “He was right at that pivotal time where he could really influence the development of a place.”

Michael Hollerich, a theology professor at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul who specializes in Church history, described him as having an “unquenchable” spirit.

“Ireland himself, by temperament, was enormously optimistic and positive minded and forward looking,” he said. “He seems to have been one of those lucky human beings who can’t be laid flat for very long, but just bounces up again — and he had his setbacks and humiliations of many kinds.”

Young immigrant Like other Irish immigrants of their time, Ireland’s family left its homeland in the late 1840s to escape famine and disease.

The Irelands first lived in Vermont and then Chicago before heading up the Mississippi River from Galena, Illinois, to Minnesota.

When Ireland, at age 13, arrived in 1852 in St. Paul, the walls were not yet plastered in the newly erected Church of St. Paul that served as the fledgling diocese’s cathedral, replacing Father Lucien Galtier’s log cabin chapel. Bishop Joseph Cretin, the first bishop of St. Paul, had taken possession of the see only a year earlier. Minnesota was still six years away from statehood.

“St. Paul and Minneapolis were just raw and recently founded,” Hollerich said. “[Archbishop Ireland] was part of a society that was being built from the ground up, and he got in literally on the ground floor.”

Ireland and fellow immigrant Thomas O’Gorman — the one-day bishop of Sioux Falls, South Dakota — were among the Cathedral school’s first students, and Bishop Cretin hand-selected them for seminary. In 1853, he sent the boys to a Marist preparatory seminary in Meximeux, France. After four years of study there, Ireland spent four more years at a seminary near Toulon, becoming the Francophile that would later be manifested in his

commission of the new Cathedral of St. Paul and simultaneously constructed Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis, designed by the French-born Emmanuel Masqueray. He returned to St. Paul for his ordination Dec. 21, 1861. He was 23 years old.

Three days before then-Father Ireland’s ordination, President Abraham Lincoln called for a regiment from Minnesota to fight for the Union in the Civil War. In March 1862, the priest received a chaplaincy commission, and he was with the Fifth Minnesota Volunteer Regiment when it played a key role in the Union’s October 1862 victory in the Battle of Corinth — an achievement memorialized in a painting in the governor’s suite in the Minnesota State Capitol. In it, Chaplain Ireland is depicted with the charging regiment. In an early biography of Ireland

by College of St. Thomas President Msgr. Humphrey Moynihan published in the journal Acta et Dicta, he noted that Father Ireland “was seen hurrying down the line, heedless of the bullets flying around him, carrying a supply of ammunition and crying, ‘Here are your cartridges, boys, don’t spare them,’” meanwhile tending to the wounded and dying.

Temperance advocate After returning to Minnesota in 1867, he was assigned to the Cathedral and engaged his next battle: the launching of a temperance movement in St. Paul.

According to the lore, three drunk men showed up at his door one evening in 1869, and handed him a crumpled piece of paper with the words, “For God’s sake organize a Temperance Society.” It had seven signatures, including that of a saloonkeeper.

Father Ireland launched the Total Abstinence Society and went from town to town — and later around the country and into Europe — exhorting the societal and moral dangers of drinking alcohol.

St. Paul was the “absolute epicenter” of the American temperance movement, said James Rogers, director of the University of St. Thomas’ Center for Irish Studies and editor of the New Hibernia Review. As a priest and later a bishop, Archbishop Ireland deeply desired that Irish Catholics earn respectability at a time awash with stereotypes of drunk, irresponsible Irishmen. He saw America as a place where the Irish Catholics, long oppressed in their homeland, could come into their own.

“He was really a commanding figure,” Rogers said. “He was obsessed with the idea that the Irish would be able to prove themselves good citizens, would be able to prove themselves responsible, admirable Catholic men and women.”

When Archbishop Ireland’s father, whom Rogers described as a “small-time politician,” died in 1887 while the bishop was in France, he sent a transatlantic cable to his family with two words: “No wake.”

Local folklore also attributes the 50-year hiatus of St. Paul’s annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade to Archbishop Ireland, who is said to have thought its revelry reflected badly on the Irish Catholic community and requested that it end in 1915, Rogers said.

Frontier colonizer When Nebraska’s bishop died in 1874, Father Ireland was at first slated to take his place, but Bishop Thomas Grace, who became Bishop of St. Paul in 1859, implored Pope Pius IX not to take him from Minnesota, Moynihan wrote. The following year, he was consecrated coadjutor bishop of St. Paul.

He soon set to work on another project: a systematic colonization of Minnesota.

Appalled by the poor urban living conditions of so many Irish immigrants, Ireland was convinced that they would be better off in the country, where hard work could yield a prosperous life on the land. He organized the Catholic Colonization Bureau in St. Paul and the Minnesota Colonization Company, which sold stock shares to help fund the endeavor. He secured 117,000 acres of land along the railroad in Swift County in west central Minnesota for two years. To entice Catholic pioneers, he assigned priests to the area with orders to build churches and places for immigrants to live until they could settle their own land.

The program lasted until 1881 and brought about the settlement of 4,000 families across the state.

While many of the communities flourished, one was a notorious failure involving a delegation of peasants from Connemara, Ireland, who settled in Graceville, but who were more interested in day labor than beginning their own farms. Amid accusations that Archbishop Ireland wasn’t caring for them, he brought the families back to St. Paul. The episode temporarily soured the appetite for western migration among some U.S. Catholics.

Former Bishop James Shannon described the episode in the Minnesota Historical Society’s journal, writing that the settlement program “was the most extensive and successful wholesale Catholic colonization effort in American history” and that the Connemara failure — while widely known — “is in reality an insignificant part of the story of Catholic colonization in Minnesota.”

‘The Con Blizzard North

Archbishop Irela 100 years aft

By Maria Wiering •

‘Americanist’ By 1884, Archbishop Ireland was in the national spotlight for an entirely different reason. That year he had succeeded Bishop Grace as Bishop of St. Paul. When the bishops gathered for the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore — a meeting that gave birth to the parochial school system in the U.S. and to the Baltimore Catechism — Bishop Ireland, a gifted orator, gave an impassioned discourse titled “The Catholic Church and Civil Society,” which outlined his vision for the Church in America.

“There is no conflict between the Catholic Church and America,” he told his fellow bishops. “I speak ... as an American citizen no less than as a Catholic bishop. ...

I could not utter one syllable that would belie, however remotely, either the Church or the Republic, and when I assert, as I now solemnly do, that the principles of the Church are in thorough harmony with the interests of the Republic, I know in the depths of my soul that I speak the truth.”

That speech was the first of many similar orations he would give in the following years that addressed what he saw as an intrinsic complementarity between the Church in America and the country’s founding vision, as well as the Church’s need to adapt to meet the opportunities and challenges of the day.

Along with similarly minded American bishops such as Cardinal James Gibbons of Baltimore; Archbishop John Keane of Dubuque, Iowa; and Bishop John Lancaster Spalding of Peoria, Illinois, Archbishop Ireland became known as an “Americanist,” and he used the term himself to describe his position. The label encompassed a worldview that accepted a pluralistic society and believed that Catholics could not only reconcile their faith with the United States’ democraticrepublic, but also that the non-

COURTESY

monarchical system of government was one in which Catholicism could thrive.

“Basically, it was simply the willingness to embrace the particular political and cultural circumstances of the United States of America as not just tolerable, but a favorable environment for the growth of the Catholic Church,” Hollerich said.

The view rubbed wrong at the Vatican, where Pope Leo XIII was dealing with the aftermath of the French Revolution, in which Catholics who hoped for a return of the monarchy were at odds with those who thought they could stake a place within the French Third Republic. Pope Leo XIII’s efforts to reconcile with the French government had failed, and some Church leaders blamed Archbishop Ireland, who had backed the effort. In part to assuage the French monarchists, Hollerich said, the pope condemned the “Americanism heresy” in “Testem benevolentiae nostrae” (“A Witness of Goodwill”), a 1899 encyclical addressed to Cardinal Gibbons.

nsecrated d of the hwest’

and remembered ter his death

• The Catholic Spirit

MARCH 8, 2018 • 13

Eight years later, Pope Pius X would condemn modernism, striking a much bigger blow to Archbishop Ireland’s vision than “Testem benevolentiae” did, Hollerich said However, his “modernist” view was vindicated, in some respects, with the Second Vatican Council, particularly in his view of the laity’s vocation, Sister Katherine McLaughlin, a Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet, argued in her 1990 doctoral dissertation on the subject. “[Archbishop] Ireland emphasized the need for courage, fortitude and perseverance for the laity in their social mission,” she wrote. “He wanted a proactive rather than reactive laity.”

Provocateur

The papal condemnation of Americanism didn’t help Archbishop Ireland’s ongoing dispute with local German Catholics, who were arriving in the area in great numbers. Germany had undergone a Catholic revival in the mid-1800s, and German Catholic immigrants zealously guarded their liturgies, language and culture, resisting Archbishop Ireland’s desire for Catholic assimilation and temperance, Hollerich said. He noted that the trend among German immigrants would persist until World War I made assimilation desirable for German Americans.

Archbishop Ireland also disliked “national churches,” a trend in parish founding that organized Catholics by their nationality instead of geography.

Nonetheless, several national churches began under his watch.

Archbishop Ireland had an infamous encounter with a Byzantine Catholic priest with wide-reaching consequences. When Father Alexis Toth, a Ruthenian, presented himself in 1889 to Archbishop Ireland for local permission to minister, Archbishop Ireland asked if Father Toth was married, or had been, as is canonically permitted in the Church’s Eastern rites, which were influenced by Eastern Orthodoxy. Father Toth told the archbishop he was a widower, and recalled that Archbishop Ireland “threw the paper on the table and loudly exclaimed, ‘I have already written to Rome protesting against this kind of priest being sent to me!’” and that he didn’t consider Father Toth Catholic.

The rejection caused Father Toth to leave the Catholic Church for Orthodoxy, an exodus joined by thousands of Byzantine Catholics in the United States, including Y ARCHDIOCESE OF ST. PAUL AND MINNEAPOLIS ARCHIVES entire parishes. The development delighted the Russian Czar, Hollerich said, and he The friction also resulted from the helped to fund the building of new misunderstandings Vatican leaders had for Churches, including St. Mary’s Orthodox the American Church, Hollerich said, Cathedral in Minneapolis. The Orthodox calling America and Rome at the time “two Church in America canonized Father Toth ecclesiastical cultures walking right past in 1994. one another.”

To illustrate the “incomprehension” Politician and diplomat Vatican leaders had for Archbishop Ireland, Archbishop Ireland was not afraid to Hollerich pointed to a vignette from the dive into politics, and he was friends with prologue of Father Marvin O’Connell’s Presidents William McKinley and Theodore 1988 biography “John Ireland and the Roosevelt, who was part of an unsuccessful American Catholic Church,” in which campaign to win Archbishop Ireland a Father O’Connell describes Archbishop much-desired red cardinal’s hat. Although Ireland in Paris in May 1899 following a he campaigned for Republicans, speech he gave to honor Joan of Arc — Archbishop Ireland’s stances defy then yet to be canonized — whom he contemporary “liberal” and “conservative” extolled for loving both country and categories, Hollerich observed.

Church. Walking with his priest secretary, he turned to his companion and asked “What was magnificent about the man him, “Do you know what they asked me in was his openness and his confidence that Rome? At the Vatican?” this was a world that offered opportunity “No,” the priest secretary said. and possibility for ... human growth “They asked me if I believe in the divinity potential, that this is a world where there is of Christ,” Archbishop Ireland said. still more good to be done than evil to be

avoided,” he said.

Archbishop Ireland championed the reform of policies that made it difficult to preach Catholicism to inmates in penal institutions, a cause that succeeded with the enacting of an influential Texas law. He also advocated for racial equality in society and especially within the Catholic Church, ordaining the nation’s first diocesan AfricanAmerican priest. As tensions mounted between Spain and America over Cuba in 1898, the Vatican asked Archbishop Ireland to try to persuade President McKinley to avoid war, but to no avail. In the aftermath of the Spanish-American War, Archbishop Ireland worked with American and Church officials in the Philippines, then a U.S. territory fighting for independence, to navigate the tense relationship there between Church and state.

Education visionary Back at home, Archbishop Ireland was an ardent supporter of Catholic higher education. In addition to founding the St. Paul Seminary (with the support of his frequent collaborator, railroad baron and Methodist James J. Hill, whose wife, Mary Mehegan Hill, was Catholic), the College (now University) of St. Thomas and what would become St. Thomas Academy in Mendota Heights, he helped to establish The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. He also funded the establishment of DeLaSalle High School on Minneapolis’ Nicollet Island.

“A lot of the geography of St. Paul is the way it is because of things he did,” Williamson said, noting that the seminary and college influenced their neighborhoods’ settlement.

Despite his love for Catholic higher education, Archbishop Ireland had misgivings about a parochial school system. He thought it might slow Catholic immigrants’ societal assimilation, Hollerich said. In the 1890s, he experimented with an educational arrangement in which Catholic schools would rent their building to the public school during the day while standard subjects were taught, and the Catholic students would arrive before the school day for Mass and stay after school for catechesis, when the building reverted to parish control. Schools in Faribault and Stillwater tried the arrangement, but it drew suspicion from both the public school system, which feared it was a Catholic takeover, and from Catholics, who thought it was undercutting the parochial school system, Hollerich said.

Archbishop Ireland went to Rome to

defend the arrangement and received permission to continue it, but the “Faribault Plan” had unraveled due to public school opposition by the time he returned, Hollerich said.

Lasting legend Archbishop Ireland died 14 days after his 80th birthday. He had been ill for a year, but he still pushed himself to work. His childhood friend, Bishop O’Gorman, administered last rites two days before his death. His obituary in The Catholic Bulletin stated, “The close of his career was like the gradual descent of the flaming orb of day into a calm and peaceful sunset.”

Today, “anyone who studies American Church history has to learn about Archbishop Ireland,” said Archbishop Bernard Hebda. The century since the prelate’s death, and especially the Second Vatican Council, has put his vision and leadership into a positive perspective, he said.

“He really was in favor of strong pastors [and] strong parishes. Even though he was such a strong leader, he was very much an advocate of subsidiarity. ... As a result, we continue to have parishes that are very independent, we have schools that are very independent, and that’s part of the fabric of this local Church,” he said.

He said he has been inspired by Archbishop Ireland’s attentiveness to the needs of immigrants and his sense of justice. “It’s important to see how dedicated he was to this local Church and to this community,” he said. “Even though he had a national vision, he was always operating out of his pastoral care for this local Church.”

Archbishop Ireland’s most obvious lasting legacy, Rogers noted, is brick-andmortar, with the numerous parishes, schools and institutions established under his leadership, many of which gave immigrants a path to success in their adopted country.

He also modeled a tradition of the local Church’s engagement in the public life, Rogers said. “He had an activist view of the Church’s mission,” he said. “He definitely thought that the Church was to be a presence and a force in public and civic life.”

“He’s one of those people who had really big ideas about the way things should go and happen, and he worked really hard to put them into action,” Williamson said.

“He was an immigrant from Ireland, but he wanted to be part of this country. He knew in his head what he wanted to do to get there.”

Cathedral exhibit opens March 18 Archbishop John Ireland is the subject of an exhibition the Cathedral of St. Paul is hosting this year in its Hayden Hall and Cathedral Museum. Opening March 18, “John Ireland and the Catholic Church in America” will tell his story from his boyhood to his death through photos, documents and objects he owned and used. Among them is his 130-year-old mitre restored with a grant from the Cathedral Heritage Foundation.

Some of the objects that will be on display are owned by the Minnesota Historical Society, which has more than 50 titles in its library on Archbishop Ireland, including collections of his writing. Archbishop Ireland’s death mask — a cast of his face made after he died — is among MNHS’ objects on display in the Cathedral exhibit. The MNHS collection also includes objects from his life, including his cane and a “lava medallion” of Queen Victoria he donated to the Minnesota Historical Society in the 1870s.

Archbishop Ireland “had so many talents, and he put them all into the service of the Church,” said Celeste Raspanti, Cathedral archivist and the exhibition’s curator.

“He was a great man because he built up the Church,” she said. “He was faithful always to Rome, but he was building up the Church in America. He wanted an American Church.”

For more information, visit cathedralsaintpaul.org.

SENIOR HOUSING GUIDE

2018 MARCH 8 • PAGE 14

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THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 15

Pope: At Mass, God accepts humble gifts, gives abundantly

By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service God asks so little of people and yet he gives so much in return, Pope Francis said.

“He asks for our goodwill in daily life, he asks us for an open heart, he asks us to be willing to be better,” the pope said at his weekly general audience at the Vatican Feb. 28.

Because of ice and unusual freezing temperatures in Rome, Pope Francis held the audience in the Vatican’s Paul VI hall. But the Vatican also opened St. Peter’s Basilica to accommodate the overflow. Giant screens were set up in the Basilica, so people could follow the audience, and later the pope went to the Basilica to greet and bless those inside.

“It’s better to be here than in the cold, right?” he asked those in the Basilica.

In his main talk, the pope continued his series on the Mass, focusing on the Liturgy of the Eucharist, which begins with the preparation of the gifts of bread and wine that are then consecrated and distributed to the faithful at holy Communion.

During the Mass, the priest represents Christ and does what the Lord did at the Last Supper: takes up the bread and wine to give to his disciples, saying “this is my body, this is my blood. Do this in memory of me,” the pope said.

It’s good, he said, that the people of God present the priest with the bread and wine for consecration because the

elements represent “the spiritual offering of the Church.” At the offertory, all the faithful are invited to present their own lives as a spiritual offering together with the gifts brought to the altar, he said.

“The center of the Mass is the altar, and the altar is Christ. Always look at the altar,” which also represents the cross where Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice, he added.

“To the altar of Christ, we bring the little [there is with] our gifts — bread and wine — and they become the plenty — Jesus himself, who gives himself to us” in the Eucharist, the pope said.

“Of course, our offering isn’t much, but Christ needs this tiny amount. The Lord asks for little and he gives us so much,” he said.

Catholics should experience the preparation of the gifts at every Mass as an invitation to offer their lives more fully to the Lord so that they would receive from him the grace needed to grow in holiness, encounter others with love and compassion, and “build the earthly city in the light of the Gospel,” the pope said.

After a summary of the pope’s talk was read in Arabic, the pope asked everyone to pray for all the people of Syria and the Middle East — “a martyred land.”

“We have to pray for these brothers and sisters who are at war and for the persecuted Christians — they want to expel them from that land. Let us pray for our brothers and sisters,” the pope said.

16 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

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THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 17

Palliative care is pro-life response to euthanasia, panelists say

“

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service

The doctor’s task always is to care, even when it is not possible to heal.

I

ntentionally causing a patient’s death is different from accepting that a patient is dying, then providing emotional and spiritual support and pain relief, said a doctor who practices and promotes palliative care.

Dr. Eduardo Bruera, medical director of the Department of Supportive Care Center at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, was one of the speakers at a Feb. 28-March 1 international congress on palliative care sponsored by the Pontifical Academy for Life.

“The reality is that, in medicine, we have focused much more on disease than on patients,” Bruera said.

For example, he said, patients who report a “highsymptom burden” may be suffering from their cancer or from the toxicity of their treatment, but their situation also may be approaching the unbearable because they lost their job or are worrying about the impact of their illness on their families.

Palliative care, Bruera said, asks the medical team, the patient and the family to work together to alleviate suffering, whether it is physical, emotional or spiritual.

In a message to the conference at Rome’s Augustinian Patristic Institute, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, said palliative care involves “a rediscover[y] of the most profound vocation of medicine, which consists first of all in taking care of the patient. The doctor’s task always is to care, even when it is not possible to heal.”

Obviously, he said, medicine and medical research have an enduring commitment to discovering new cures and defeating illness, but palliative care shows an awareness that, when everything medical has been attempted, limits must be “recognized and accepted.”

“When all the resources of ‘doing’ seem to be exhausted,” he said, “then comes the most important aspect of human relations, that of ‘being’: being present,

Cardinal Pietro Parolin being near, being accepting.”

For Christians, he said, that means “sharing the impotence of those reaching the end of life,” and making sure that the final phase of a person’s life on earth “is no longer a place of separation and solitude, but an occasion of encounter and communion.”

“Pain therapy” is a particularly sensitive area of palliative care, he said, noting that “already Pope Pius XII, distinguishing it from euthanasia, clearly gave legitimacy to the administration of analgesics to alleviate unbearable pain that could not be treated in any other way even when, in the phase of imminent death, it could cause a shortening of life.”

“Attentive discernment and much prudence” also is needed when determining the appropriate use of pharmacological sedation, “especially when prolonged and profound,” because it “annuls the relational and communicative dimension” of palliative care, especially its emphasis on family and community.

Prolonged sedation at the end of life, he said, “is, therefore, always partially unsatisfactory and so should be considered an extreme measure to be taken only after having examined and clarified its implications attentively.”

Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Academy for Life, said palliative care’s focus on communication among caregivers, patients and family members is essential for overcoming the confusion and debate about “therapeutic obstinacy,” which is using “an excess of treatments that lead to useless suffering.”

“In other words,” he said, “doing everything possible

— when understood in the sense of always using every means available — can mean doing too much.”

“Doing more does not always mean doing better,” the archbishop said.

Archbishop Paglia told the conference that experience has shown that people who support or request euthanasia or physicianassisted suicide focus on “two fears: that of being abandoned and that of pain.”

Palliative care, he said, is an attempt BISHOP to respond to and allay such fears and, KEVIN VANN as such, “is a fundamental part of our pro-life work.”

Bishop Kevin Vann of Orange, California, attended the meeting on behalf of the California Catholic Conference, which is working closely with the Alliance of Catholic Health Care to educate people about palliative care and offer it in every Catholic hospital in California, which made physician-assisted suicide legal in 2016.

The Catholic program is called “Whole Person Care” and has the mission of showing every person he or she is “loved, wanted and worthy, and will be prepared for and supported in health and serious illness through the end of life,” according to the project outline.

Bishop Vann said the project offers “an alternative to physician-assisted suicide” by “improving all of our pastoral care and outreach.”

“Being present to folks” experiencing the fragility of the end of life, “being on the journey with them to explain to them and teach them” the sacred value of life at every stage and, particularly, showing them that they are not alone are essential for combating euthanasia, the bishop said.

When the California legislation passed, he said, fear of dying alone and in pain and a desire to exercise autonomy at the last moments of life seemed to be the primary motivations for supporting the measure.

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18 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

MARCH 8, 2018

FAITH+CULTURE

W

hen Pope Benedict XVI’s custom-made red leather loafers became a signature part of his wardrobe after his election in 2005, Newsweek labeled him “a religious-fashion icon” and Esquire named him “Accessorizer of the Year.”

While some critics saw the media’s sudden fixation on papal fashion as frivolous and a way of trivializing the true meaning behind elegance in ecclesial dress, one top art curator said he saw this spotlight as actually raising “deeper, more profound considerations — namely, the role that dress plays in the Catholic Church and the role that the Catholic Church plays” within the world of fashion’s imagination.

Andrew Bolton, head curator of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute in New York, has now, over a decade later, turned those considerations into its most extensive exhibition ever.

The exhibit, “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination,” includes more than 100 pieces from top designers inspired by Catholic symbolism and art, as well as 40 vestments and accoutrements from the papal office of liturgical celebrations. The exhibit will be spread over three locations in Manhattan May 10-Oct. 8, making it “a veritable pilgrimage” for and The pope, visitors disciples of faith fashion, in short, does and said Carrie Barratt, not wear Prada, Rebora the museum’s deputy director, but Christ. at a press L’Osservatore Romano preview in Rome Feb. 26.

“Some might consider fashion to be an unfitting or unseemly medium by which to engage with ideas about the sacred or the divine,” Bolton said at the preview, which was held in the gilded halls of the Colonna palace — home of an Italian noble family that produced one pope and a number of cardinals and religious.

Surrounded by statues, frescoes, tapestries and paintings of biblical or bucolic scenes, Bolton said, “Dress is central to any discussion about religion.”

While religious wear and fashion are two distinct worlds, he said they are both “inherently performative” when it comes to the ritual of runway shows or the rite of a liturgy. And they both use “visual language” or “subtle visual codes” that often indicate, for example, the wearer’s identity, function or position within a hierarchy or social status, he said.

Runway to heaven Vatican, the Met piece together faith and fashion

By Carol Glatz • Catholic News Service

“

Spiritual, sacred meaning Anna Wintour, editor of Vogue and a trustee of the museum, told reporters that “part of the power of the Catholic Church has been how they look and how they dress,” referring in part to the triple-tiered papal tiaras covered with gold and precious gems on display.

PHOTOS CNS | PAUL HARING

Italian fashion designer Donatella Versace talks with Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, during a press presentation for the exhibit, “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination,” at Galleria Colonna in Rome Feb. 26.

ABOVE The tiara of Pope Pius IX is seen during a press presentation for the exhibit.

“I mean, they have this extraordinary presence,” said Wintour, whose ankle-length black and scarlet velvet dress with tunic collar subtly coordinated with the black and scarlet cardinal clothes of Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, head of the Pontifical Council for Culture.

The cardinal, who wrote the introduction to the exhibit’s catalogue, was the perfect choice to be a kind of mediator between, and interpreter of, faith and fashion. He studied, taught and worked for many years in Milan, Italy’s fashion capital. And as head of

the culture council, he has developed numerous initiatives and networks fostering dialogue and cooperation between the Church and the world of culture and the arts.

God is not just the creator, he said at the press preview, he is also “a tailor” as seen in the Genesis account of how the Lord made Adam and Eve, recently banished from Eden, “garments of [animal] skin.”

Clothing carries with it not just the essential task of providing necessary cover or protection from the elements, but it can also carry social, cultural,

moral and even spiritual and sacred meaning.

For example, liturgical vestments and ornaments are often crafted, Cardinal Ravasi said, to exalt a kind of “richness” and opulence so that it stands out from the everyday and the merely functional.

The ornate represents “the transcendent, religious mystery” because the divine is “splendid, marvelous, sumptuous, glorious,” he said.

However, the cardinal wrote in the catalogue’s introduction, there is risk of the superficial — satirized in Federico Fellini’s film, “Roma,” which depicted an absurd and “grotesque runway show of clerical fashions.”

Jesus admonished against purely external shows of observance and criticized worshipers who “lengthen their tassels” just for the sake of appearances, the cardinal wrote.

Clothing reform Pope Pius XII initiated modern dress reforms in 1952 by snipping cardinals’ 9-foot trains in half, making footmen trailing behind with reams of fabric in hand a remnant of the past.

But it was Blessed Paul VI who launched a major reform of clerical attire in keeping with the pursuit of simplification in the spirit of the Second Vatican Council.

Pope Paul VI was the first to ditch the papal tiara as a sign that his authority did not come from earthly power and that he did not want earthly glory. He also reduced the height of the miter, stopped giving new cardinals wide-brimmed scarlet hats and ornate sapphire-studded rings, and asked cardinals, bishops and other prelates to bid goodbye to red shoes and silver buckles.

Many see Pope Francis’ simpler sartorial style as also reminiscent of this desire to shed the superficial in pursuit of the essentials of inner conversion.

Ornate liturgical vestments, in fact, are meant to symbolize not the love of fashion, but the spiritual transformation of the person in putting on “the new clothes of Christ,” according to an article in the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, in 2008.

“The pope, in short, does not wear Prada, but Christ,” the newspaper said, writing in response to popular media misrepresentations.

Even the push for simplification should have limits, Cardinal Ravasi said, because liturgical dress should help people lift their eyes, hearts and minds to the transcendent.

An example, he said, are the beautiful chasubles Henri Matisse designed, which are now in the Vatican Museums.

When Pablo Picasso saw the designs, he said, “These aren’t sacred vestments, they are butterflies that fly in the sky of God,” Cardinal Ravasi said.

“And that, in the end, is the real meaning of the sacred vestment.”

MARCH 8, 2018

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 19

FOCUSONFAITH SUNDAY SCRIPTURES | FATHER JAN MICHAEL JONCAS

From fearful faith to fearless faith

The few verses appointed in the lectionary for the Fourth Sunday of Lent in Year B (Jn 3:14-21) offer an embarrassment of riches in terms of the themes the Gospel writer touches upon: being “lifted up”; the connection of belief in the Son of God and eternal life; the mission of the Son (“so that the world might be saved through him”); and the contrasts between believing or being condemned, loving light or darkness, doing evil or doing the truth, all of which provide rich fare for meditation and preaching.

Here I’d like to concentrate on the figure of Nicodemus, understood as a model of someone who comes to fearless faith in Christ Jesus, much like the Samaritan woman at the well, the man born blind, and the sisters of Lazarus in the Gospel readings for the Third, Fourth and Fifth Sundays of Lent in Year A. As is typical in the Gospel of John, historical figures and events can carry layers of symbolic meaning. Thus, the three appearances of Nicodemus in this Gospel (Jn 3:1-21, 7:46-52, Jn 19:39-40) narrate not only discreet snapshots of the actions of a first-century Jew, but also those of a whole class of Jewish leaders who gradually move from fearful faith in a wonder-worker to fearless faith in the Crucified One. We first meet Nicodemus when he approaches Jesus under the cover of darkness, apparently afraid that he would lose respect as a member of the Sanhedrin — the official Jewish court consisting of priests, scribes and elders — if he is identified as consulting

ASK FATHER MIKE | FATHER MICHAEL SCHMITZ

‘Test of Three’ can help us eliminate gossip Q. I know that you have commented on

gossip in the past, but I sometimes struggle with practical ways to determine whether I should share information. Do you have any advice?

A. The fact that you want to honor the

truth and honor God with your words is a very good sign. We know how often the Bible admonishes us to choose our words wisely. In fact, the Letter of James says, “The tongue is like a fire.” The way we use our words can either provide light and comfort for someone, or they can do irreparable damage. James also says that one who does not know how to control his tongue deceives himself, and his religion is worthless (Jas 1:26).

But since you already know how serious this is, what are some practical tips for implementing the prudent use of language?

I came across something that referred to Socrates’ “Test of Three.” I found it to be incredibly helpful in sorting out what should be said from what ought not to be said. It was a story (most likely fictional) about an individual who wanted to share some news with Socrates about one of his people.

Before he could share the information, Socrates asked him, “Is what you have to share with me true?” The man admitted that he wasn’t sure if the information he had was accurate or not. At this, Socrates challenged him over why he would want to share information that he wasn’t certain was true.

This happens to us all of the time. How many times have we heard a tidbit of information about some celebrity, politician or person in our lives, and we were more interested in sharing that piece of gossip than we were in checking out whether it was true or not? This was Socrates’ test of truth.

Next, Socrates asked him, “This information you want to share with me, is it good news?” The man replied that it was most definitely not something good. Again, Socrates challenged him regarding why he would be willing to share something that was not favorable when he didn’t even know if it was true.

How often do we stumble into that trap? Typically, the kind

with Jesus. Nonetheless Nicodemus, evidencing the beginnings of faith since he addresses Jesus as “Rabbi” and “teacher from God,” is instructed by Jesus that no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born “again” or “from above” (the Greek term is ambiguous). Nicodemus takes it to mean “again” and questions whether it is possible to enter the mother’s womb that gave him birth a second time, in effect conceiving of Jesus as a wonderworker actualizing such a “re-birth.” But Jesus, taking the word in its alternative meaning, speaks of being born by “water and the Spirit.” Nicodemus’ further question “How can this be?” leads to the discourse we hear in the Gospel reading for March 11.

The second time we meet Nicodemus is in his role as a member of the Sanhedrin, now split in its assessment of Jesus in the light of his teaching in Jerusalem at Sukkoth, the feast of tabernacles.

When the chief priests and Pharisees send the temple guard to arrest Jesus and they return to the Sanhedrin apparently struck by his teaching, the Jewish leaders are infuriated. But Nicodemus, risking their wrath and derision, reminds the Sanhedrin of the legal rules by which they operate: An accused has the right to defend himself (Jn 7:50-51). In John Pilch’s wonderful phrase, the nighttime visitor has become a daytime defender.

The final time we encounter Nicodemus is in John 19 where he collaborates with Joseph of Arimathea (identified as a secret disciple for fear of the Jewish leaders) to prepare and bury Jesus’ body after his death. According to John 19:39-40, Nicodemus brings a mixture of myrrh and aloes weighing 100 Roman pounds (equal to 75 pounds of ours), an enormous amount fit for the burial of a king. Nicodemus has moved from inquirer to defender to believer in the Crucified One as sovereign; by helping with Jesus’ burial, he takes on the responsibilities of Jesus’ kin, publicly casting his lot with Christ.

May Nicodemus’ growth in faith serve as a model for our elect and the faithful this Lent!

Father Joncas, a composer, is an artist in residence at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul.

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How many times have we heard a tidbit of information about some celebrity, politician or person in our lives, and we were more interested in sharing that piece of gossip than we were in checking out whether it was true or not? iSTOCK | YOEML

of information that gets spread is the same kind of information that gets headlines or clicks on the internet. In our fallen human nature, we are often more fascinated and preoccupied with bad news than we are with good news. Yet, sharing someone else’s bad news (or sharing something negative about another person) can be a sin against charity.

Lastly, Socrates asked the man, “Is what you have to share with me useful to me?” He was asking if this kind of information (even if it was bad information) was something that Socrates himself could benefit from knowing.

How quick many of us can be to simply talk and utter many words rather than weigh whether or not what we have to say would actually help the other person. As Scripture tells us, “Say only the good things that men need to hear, things that will really help them” (Eph 4:29).

These questions could be incredibly practical ways that we can learn how to prune our speech so that it does not hurt, but only helps. The “Test of Three” asks the three questions: Is this true? Is this good? Is this useful? If not, then consider it not worth sharing. I hope that helps!

Father Schmitz is director of youth and young adult ministry for the Diocese of Duluth and chaplain of the Newman Center at the University of Minnesota Duluth. Reach him at fathermikeschmitz@ gmail.com.

DAILY Scriptures Sunday, March 11 Fourth Sunday of Lent 2 Chr 36:14-16, 19-23 Eph 2:4-10 Jn 3:14-21 Monday, March 12 Is 65:17-21 Jn 4:43-54 Tuesday, March 13 Ez 47:1-9, 12 Jn 5:1-16 Wednesday, March 14 Is 49:8-15 Jn 5:17-30 Thursday, March 15 Ex 32:7-14 Jn 5:31-47 Friday, March 16 Wis 2:1a, 12-22 Jn 7:1-2, 10, 25-30 Saturday, March 17 Jer 11:18-20 Jn 7:40-53 Sunday, March 18 Fifth Sunday of Lent Jer 31:31-34 Heb 5:7-9 Jn 12:20-33 Monday, March 19 Solemnity of St. Joseph, spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary 2 Sm 7:4-5a, 12-14a, 16 Rom 4:13, 16-18, 22 Mt 1:16, 18-21, 24a Tuesday, March 20 Nm 21:4-9 Jn 8:21-30 Wednesday, March 21 Dn 3:14-20, 91-92, 95 Jn 8:31-42 Thursday, March 22 Gn 17:3-9 Jn 8:51-59 Friday, March 23 Jer 20:10-13 Jn 10:31-42 Saturday, March 24 Ez 37:21-28 Jn 11:45-56 Sunday, March 25 Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion Mk 11:1-10 Is 50:4-7 Phil 2:6-11 Mk 14:1—15:47

20 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

MARCH 8, 2018

COMMENTARY SIMPLE HOLINESS | KATE SOUCHERAY

Our faith: A resource in challenging times

Spring is coming! According to our calendars, it should arrive in 12 days, and likely for many Minnesotans this year, it simply cannot be here soon enough. With the bitter cold that began before Christmas, followed by more cold weather, a 10-inch snowfall in January and another dumping in late February, the first signs of spring will be a welcome sight.

It’s interesting how life can be like this year’s winter.

We may have periods in life that seem relatively easy for us to handle, like the past few winters, and then something surprises us like this winter, and we find we’re not prepared for it. As we grow older, we know retirement is coming, and we must ask ourselves if we have prepared for the years we will not be working and must rely on our savings, investments and Social Security. If we are new parents, we must ask ourselves if we are prepared to return to work after maternity leave.

Have we hired child care, figured out schedules and managed the changes that are sure to unfold, those expected and unexpected? If we are “in-between”

Action challenge When you attend Mass this month, listen carefully to the Gospels. Put yourself in the stories and think about how you would feel if you could change places with someone in the Gospel. Would you have been able to trust and believe in Jesus? parents, are we dedicated to raising our family by saying “no” to enticing activities and events, so we can say “yes” to the needs of pre-adolescent and adolescent children?

Preparing ourselves for what is ahead, no matter the stage of life in which we find ourselves, is not always easy. We have to look ahead to the unknown and understand there will be occurrences we did not anticipate, and yet we must manage as best we can.

Even with those experiences we anticipate correctly, we know there will still be surprises. No matter what sorts of challenges we face in the future, the better prepared we are, the better those events are likely to unfold. We must ask ourselves if we have taken the necessary steps to be ready for what lies ahead by identifying and building our resources.

In 1949, Rueben Hill created a theory called “The ABC-X Theory of Crisis or Coping.” In this theory, “A” represents an event that happens to us; “B” represents the resources we have to manage the event; “C” represents the meaning we make of the event, based on the quality of our resources; and “X” represents whether we are able to cope with the event, or go into crisis, based on our resources. When something unexpected happens to us and we lack good

TWENTY SOMETHING | CHRISTINA CAPECCHI

‘I sold them life’: Learning from the Angel of The Gap Little did he know what noble purpose awaited him when Don Ritchie settled into a house on Old South Head Road back in 1964. The former Navy seaman and retired salesman was eager to soak in the stunning view with his wife: an ocean cliff at Watsons Bay in Eastern Sydney known as The Gap. But just as the vista attracts tourists from across the globe, it also lures in desperate souls looking to end their lives with a jump, claiming an average of 50 suicides a year.

The first time Don spotted someone on the ledge — a mere 50 yards away, visible through his living-room window — there was no question whether he would step in.

He would do so again and again for half a century: quietly approaching the cliff, palms facing up and gently asking, “Is there something I could do to help you?”

Some had laid their shoes and wallets on the rocks, poised to leap. Others had left farewell letters.

He offered them tea, a personal invitation for breakfast in his home across the street. He physically removed some people from the cliff, once lying on his stomach to reach out. But it was his smile that coaxed them, his listening ear.

Most of the time it worked. Officials say he spared some 150 lives. His family believes the number could be 500.

One morning Don looked out his bedroom window and saw a woman sitting on the cliff’s edge. “I quickly got dressed and went over,” he told the Associated Press. “She had already put her handbag and shoes outside the fence, which is pretty common. I said to her, ‘Why don’t you come over and have a cup of tea?’” She obliged. A few months later, she returned with a bottle of French champagne.

The thank-you gifts poured in unexpectedly, sometimes a decade later.

Christmas cards. Letters. A painting of an angel and brilliant sunrays with the message, “An angel who walks among us.”

Indeed, Don came to be known as the Angel of The Gap, but he shrugged off the praise. Patrolling The Gap was his duty, a matter of fact, and he considered himself the beneficiary. “I’m 85 and even at my age, it has broadened my horizons with all the wonderful people I have met,” he once told a reporter. “It’s important for troubled people to know that there are complete strangers out there like myself who are willing and able to help them get through that dark time and come out on the other side.”

From his time in the Navy during World War II to his years selling scales and bacon cutters, he had “learned to talk to all different people about all sorts of things,” his youngest daughter said after his 2012 death at age 86.

Don also had recognized his training for the cliff-side ministry, saying, “I was a salesman for most of my life, and I sold them life.”

“

Preparing ourselves for what is ahead, no matter the stage of life in which we find ourselves, is not always easy. resources to manage the event, we will often not make good meaning of the event and experience crisis rather than coping. I often say to my clients, “Life is managed; it’s not cured.” The most important thing we must do as human beings is to learn to cope with the events life sends our way.

As we look back at winter this year, we may find we were less prepared than we needed to be to handle the stress that unfolded. Spring brings with it an invitation to enter into this new season with a commitment to preparing ourselves for the expected or unexpected events that lie ahead. Throughout this year, we will hear from the Gospel of Mark, with its message of Jesus’ love and desire to fill our lives. We will encounter stories of Jesus’ willingness to be one with the people he touched and served. As we hear the stories, let’s consider an important question: Do we turn to Jesus for help and assistance when we face difficult events in our lives, and do we believe he has the resources to help us?

Soucheray is a licensed marriage and family therapist and a member of Guardian Angels in Oakdale. She holds a master’s degree in theology from the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity in St. Paul.

“

We never know who is struggling, slogging through a long winter, desperate for Easter.

iSTOCK | YINAN_LI

He could draw them in and calm them down. He listened without judgment, with eyes that matched the sea.

Don lives on today, reminding us of our Christian call to prop up neighbors in need. We never know who is struggling, slogging through a long winter, desperate for Easter. A text or an Instagram “like” might lend cheer, but sometimes our physical presence is the only way. We must walk up to the gap, palms up and ask, “Is there something I could do to help you?”

Capecchi is a freelance writer from Inver Grove Heights.

LETTER Raising larger families There is no denying that our American society is undergoing fundamental changes. One of the most troubling demographic changes is that of falling birth rates.

To be entirely frank, Americans are not having enough children to sustain our way of life. Most economists and demographers strongly agree that we must continue to rely on immigrants to keep our economy and our society growing. This is not my preferred solution to growing and sustaining our nation; however, unless married couples start raising large families, this may be our only solution.

It is deeply troubling that over the relatively short course of 350 years, our nation has petered out. Its citizens have stopped planning for the future, preferring to live in the moment with nary a thought about the tomorrows yet to come. Have we forgotten God’s commandment: “Be fruitful, multiply, replenish and have dominion over the earth?” (Gn 1:28).

Blunt as it may seem, Americans better get busy raising families very soon, or the American way of life is doomed.

Bill C. Holm Bloomington Share your perspective by emailing CatholicSpirit@archspm.org. Please limit your letter to the editor to 150 words and include your parish and phone number. The Commentary page does not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Catholic Spirit.

Letters may be edited for length or clarity.

COMMENTARY

MARCH 8, 2018

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 21

FAITH IN THE PUBLIC ARENA | SHAWN PETERSON

The inseparable link: Pornography and human trafficking Every second, people spend $3,075.64 on pornography; every second, 28,258 people view it online; every 39 minutes, a new pornographic video is made in the United States; and every day, approximately 11 million teens access some form of pornography.

No matter where or how it is accessed, Americans’ views support a $13 billion industry.

Consuming pornography is often considered a victimless act with no consequences other than to the consumer. But that is wrong. The connections between pornography and sex trafficking are often neglected, or even dismissed. Even more important, too few realize pornography itself is a form of sex trafficking.

The insidious influence of pornography cha nges people into objects, making it easier to dehumanize and lack empathy for human suffering.

This pornography-induced mass desensitization to the suffering of others is akin to an infection in our society.

To fight this infection, we need to purify our hearts, as well as take steps in the public arena to help people understand the social disease of pornography and its effects.

The social dimension of sin The Church reminds us that pornography is not simply a private matter that impacts only the viewer.

Pornography harms others, too.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: “Pornography ... does grave injury to the dignity of its

participants (actors, vendors, the public), since each one becomes an object of base pleasure and illicit profit for others. It immerses all who are involved in the illusion of a fantasy world. It is a grave offense. Civil authorities should prevent the production and distribution of pornographic materials” (2354).

What people often miss is that pornography is sex trafficking with the camera turned on. It also perpetuates sex trafficking through its creation of debauched “fantasy worlds” that users feel compelled to experience firsthand with persons who can be discarded when the act is complete.

According to a report by Shared Hope International, an organization that aims to prevent sex trafficking, pornography is the primary gateway to purchasing humans for commercial sex. A survey of 854 women sold for sex in nine different countries makes it clear — pornography is inextricably linked to prostitution. In each surveyed country, almost half of the respondents said traffickers forced them to make pornography while enslaved.

By choosing to consume porn, we “vote with our wallet” to support the continuation of these offenses against human dignity. It is impossible to consider pornography a private affair; it is directly linked to the systematic commodification of human persons, who are victims of both the pornography and sex trafficking industries.

The new ‘it’ campaign In the past few decades, powerful social movements have promoted public health and well-being. Campaigns to

FAITH AT HOME | LAURA KELLY FANUCCI

Three truths that parenting taught me about Lent

Our greatest spiritual teachers can be our nearest and dearest. The familiar ones with whom we share sinks and sheets and silverware.

I don’t mean that all families are full of prophets, pastors or professors. But the simple fact of bumping up against each other’s needs and flaws can teach us volumes about humility, forgiveness and faith.

All of which come in handy during Lent.

This year as I prepared for the season’s practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving, I realized three truths my children have taught me about parenting and Lent.

The first: You don’t have to do everything.

Parents today feel pressure to give their children every opportunity. Kids

have become overscheduled, their activities overspecialized.

Take youth sports, for example — now a year-round industry of travel teams, elite coaches and offseason training starting with the youngest players.

Meanwhile, the widening gap between rich and poor means that many get left behind, lacking the resources that allow a lucky few to play the game or join the club.

Whenever our family opts for less instead of more, I feel the nagging tug of guilt. What if our kids can’t play high school sports because they didn’t start as preschoolers? What if they miss out because we couldn’t afford all the music lessons, summer camps and extracurricular activities?

Yet contrary to popular wisdom, I find that the less we fill our family calendar, the more peace and contentment we feel.

Likewise, Lent can turn into a

Ask your legislators to support SF 2554/HF 2967 SF 2554/HF 2967 publicly recognizes the link between pornography and sex trafficking.

This bill also directs fines collected for the offenses of child pornography and the dissemination and display of harmful materials to minors to the Safe Harbor Program, which assists sex trafficking victims. You can reassure your legislators that this bill does not redirect funds from any existing programs.

To find contact information for your state senator and state representative, call 651-296-8338 or visit bit.ly/2GUaXx5. ban smoking in public places or to promote recycling each sought to connect our individual choices with how our choices could harm others or the planet.

We must raise the fight against pornography to this level of consciousness. The consequences of its use — the failed marriages and broken families, the violence against women and children, the desensitization to violence and suffering — are too great to ignore.

Purifying our hearts and homes is the first step, for our culture needs witnesses, not just teachers. As the U.S. bishops say in their 2015 pastoral letter “Create in Me a Clean Heart,” “The Church as a field hospital is called to proclaim the truth of the human person in love, to protect people — especially children — from pornography, and to provide the Lord’s mercy and healing for those wounded by pornography.”

Raising awareness also involves public witness and effective use of public policy. Because pornography is

ubiquitous and often protected by courts, making the link between pornography and the public health crisis it has created will require incremental, judicious steps.

competition — with ourselves or others.

The Olympics of prayer, fasting and almsgiving.

But less can be more for the spiritual life, too. Picking one or two simple practices often bears more fruit than trying to do it all.

The second: What matters is faithfulness, not success.

It is not wrong to desire good for our families. But if we start to lust after idols of success, we can lose sight of God. No one is handing out trophies at the end — to kids or parents. No state championship, college scholarship, top-notch job, big house or comfortable retirement can guarantee joy or fulfillment for us or our children.

“We are called upon not to be successful, but to be faithful,” said St. Teresa of Kolkata. Her wisdom reminds us that society’s end goal is not the ultimate good.

So, too, for Lent.

If we inverted our view of Lent — not as a win-or-lose contest but as a slow walk toward God — we might discover what looks like failure is actually faithfulness if we keep trying.

The third: God is in control, not you.

Parents are no more in control of their child’s life than their own, despite our secret wishes, our deepest prayers and

an entire industry of parenting experts, books and solutions.

We can give our children love, comfort, instruction and discipline as they grow. But we cannot shape them into our own creation or save them from the world (or themselves).

Only God can do that.

Lent is the same: a journey of humility. Not a do-it-yourself project of self-fulfillment, but a gift of growth to be received with head bowed. An invitation to turn back to the God who created us.

The plans we made must be set aside to take up the unexpected direction in which God leads.

This is often the case in families, too.

Marriage, parenting and caregiving — indeed, every relationship between humans — ask us to surrender our desire to control to serve another in love.

This Lent, remember the ones closest to you. They may hold the truths God is waiting to teach.

One such measure is legislation being proposed this year. Supporting SF 2554/ HF 2967 will help impose additional fines on convicted child pornography offenders and direct those monies to victims of sex trafficking. It would also direct public officials to further study the connections between pornography and human trafficking.

Understanding the links between pornography and sex trafficking forces all of us to see that pornography is not a victimless act nor a harmless, private activity. It is instead a root cause of human sex trafficking and a major contributor to the commodification of our fellow human beings.

Peterson is associate director for public policy for the Minnesota Catholic Conference.

Fanucci, a parishioner of St. Joseph the Worker in Maple Grove, is a mother, writer and director of a vocations project at the Collegeville Institute in Collegeville. She is the author of several books and blogs at motheringspirit.com.

22 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

COMMENTARY

MARCH 8, 2018

THE LOCAL CHURCH | DEBORAH SAVAGE

Pope Paul VI predicted it all

Editor’s note: This is the first in a series of columns exploring the content and impact of “Humanae Vitae,” Blessed Pope Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical affirming the Church’s proscription on the use of contraception. This year marks the 50th anniversary of its promulgation.

When Blessed Pope Paul VI promulgated his landmark encyclical “Humanae Vitae” (“On the Regulation of Birth”) in July 1968, I was just getting ready to enter my junior year in high school. I knew nothing of the controversy that swirled around the document at the time. I was blissfully unaware that anything like artificial contraception even existed, let alone that the birth control pill had been recently invented, or that its use had even more recently been legalized. I was a more or less “normal” 16-year-old, a diligent student and an athlete, looking forward to college. But now I well understand why, both in our archdiocese and throughout the world, we are taking the time to mark the 50th anniversary of the encyclical’s publication. That “Humanae Vitae” was an undeniably prophetic document is obvious to me — and not just because of all that has happened since. I witnessed firsthand what it had intended to avert. For, by the time I got to college in 1970, everything had changed.

Pandora’s box I was born in San Francisco and went to a college barely an hour’s drive from the famous HaightAshbury district, ground zero of the then burgeoning “free love” movement. I guess you could say that I had a front row seat to what we now refer to as the sexual revolution. Though the cultural transformation that took place during that time is now widely considered “liberating,” from where I sit now, I would say it was the beginning of a new kind of slavery. I watched from the sidelines as the young women around me dropped like flies in the face of its onslaught. We had all entered into college life full of hope; for many, that hope lost its sheen in the meaningless sexual encounters that lay ahead.

The first indication that one of my dorm mates had “done it” was most often morning-after tears, followed soon by a kind of despair as it dawned on her that the young man to whom she had given herself had no intention of calling back. The second was the heavy sense of desperation that filled the halls of the dorm as we all waited with baited breath for someone’s menstrual cycle to begin. When it did, there was usually some kind of party; when it did not, the girl just disappeared.

It just no longer made sense to say “no” to young men so intent on their desires; at least it didn’t make sense to them. The advent of the pill had opened the door to sex without consequences, apparently even if you weren’t taking it. Or such was the assumption.

Most of us didn’t really know yet that one simply needed to visit the campus clinic and procure a prescription for those magical birth control pills. It had all happened so fast. And anyway, to do so was an open admission that one had decided to “do it” on a regular basis. And, at least at first, that was a hard step to take.

It gradually became clear that almost no one was likely to acquire a steady boyfriend. The men were looking for conquests. The women took their chances on every date — and every date brought with it the same tussle. No? Yes? No? Until, finally, one by one, the women, exhausted, surrendered.

Though I was Catholic, I knew nothing about the pope’s encyclical. It simply was not on my radar screen. I was at a public university, and it never really came up. I have no recollection of the priests at the Newman Center ever mentioning it — nor do I remember the priest at my home parish preaching

“

... the unitive and the procreative aspects of sex cannot be torn asunder merely by human fiat. The attempt to do so has led not to the liberation it promised, but to decades of confusion, pain and tragedy in a vital aspect of human life, and to the degradation of women, to the murder of countless ‘unwanted’ children, to the spread of pornography and to the breakdown of the family. iSTOCK | TOEPS

about it (though no doubt he did). I knew what sex was but had little experience of it. What I did know for sure was that it was darn hard to get a date those days unless it was known that you were willing to “go all the way.”

One young man said to me — when I protested that I did not do that sort of thing — “Well, I would like to hear your reason, but it had better be a good one.” I remember feeling panicky as I realized I actually wasn’t completely sure why; I did not know how to explain my reasons for saying no to his demand for sex. It was just an instinct, really, for which I had no coherent explanation. But I was fairly certain that to tell him that “my mom had told me not to” was not going to fly. After all, he had taken me out for a nice dinner.

Unitive, procreative aspects essential The sexual revolution defined my generation. Its aftermath has continued to define the experience of young people ever since — on college campuses, in bars and at parties — in the normal search for love. It has encroached on the workplace, insinuated itself into every form of media, shackled relationships and destroyed marriages. It has led directly to the situation we face now. For when the sexual act is divorced from its procreative dimension, or from the sacramental love that ought to accompany it, there is no reason to rule out any kind of sexual encounter.

Like the diseases that have spread as a result, it is itself a virus, a sort of permanent, culturally transmitted STD. One that now lurks in almost every interaction between men and women, young and old alike.

Though “Humanae Vitae” simply reaffirmed what Catholics (and most Christian denominations) had always believed — that the unitive and procreative dimensions of the marital act were both essential to its meaning — the document sparked a storm of

controversy among those who had fully expected the Church to open the door to the use of the pill. Many were disappointed, others enraged, still others dumbfounded. How could the pope be so oldfashioned? When was the Church going to get with the times?

But as it turned out, Pope Paul VI was right. These two dimensions — the unitive and the procreative aspects of sex — cannot be torn asunder merely by human fiat. The attempt to do so has led not to the liberation it promised, but to decades of confusion, pain and tragedy in a vital aspect of human life, and to the degradation of women, to the murder of countless “unwanted” children, to the spread of pornography and to the breakdown of the family.

Indeed, as scholar Mary Eberstadt demonstrates in her 2008 essay “The Vindication of Humanae Vitae,” all the evidence, much of it compiled by social scientists with no stake in the Catholic understanding of human sexuality, demonstrates that absolutely every prediction made by the late Holy Father in his encyclical has come to pass.

How I wish we knew then what we know now. How different my life, and the lives of several generations of young people since, would have been. If only someone would have explained to us then — in language we could understand — that the sexual act has two intimately intertwined aspects, and that its unitive and procreative dimensions cannot be separated without damage to the persons engaged in it.

‘Radical gift of self’ As we would learn years later from St. John Paul II’s own reflections on the deeper meaning of “Humanae Vitae,” the sexual embrace unites the couple in a radical gift of self that must be understood to include the whole person, body and soul. And in order for this gift of self to be total and therefore authentic, the union of two persons who are literally designed for love requires an openness to the further blessing that can result from that union — the miraculous gift of children.

At the heart of Pope Paul’s prophetic document is an understanding of human sexuality that presents the body as the sign of a sacred inner reality: the person — not a something, but a someone who must never be used as a mere object of pleasure. It presents a profoundly beautiful teaching that reveals that the body is a sacrament, one given to us by our Creator, in order to participate, as St. John Paul tells us in “Love and Responsibility,” in the very transmission of existence.

Though the irony is lost on most of today’s thought leaders, it is patently obvious to any honest observer that the excesses of the “hook-up culture” — revealed so profoundly by the #MeToo phenomenon — are merely the logical consequences of the tacit decision — midway through the 20th century — that it was time to separate sex from a loving, committed, sacramental relationship. If we had just given it but a moment’s thought, all of this could have been predicted.

Oh, wait. It was predicted — by Pope Paul VI in 1968.

Savage is a faculty member at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity in St. Paul where she directs the Masters in Pastoral Ministry program. She is also the director of the Siena Symposium for Women, Family and Culture at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul and a member of St. Mark in St. Paul. Learn more about the Siena Symposium at stthomas.edu/sienasymposium.

For more commentary:

CatholicHotdish.com

MARCH 8, 2018

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 23

CALENDAR FEATURED EVENTS Catholic Community Foundation Giving Insights Forum — March 12: 6–8:30 p.m. at St. Catherine University, Rauenhorst Ballroom, 2004 Randolph Ave., St. Paul. For more information, see the CCF advertisement on page 6 or visit ccf-mn.org/forums/social.

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

Friday Night at the Friary — Third Friday of each month: 7–9 p.m. at Franciscan Brothers of Peace, 1289 Lafond Ave., St. Paul. Men ages 18-35 are invited for prayer and fellowship. facebook.com/queenofpeacefriary.

An Evening with George Weigel — March 14: 7–8:30 p.m. at the Cathedral of St. Paul, 239 Selby Ave., St. Paul. The Catholic Studies programs of both the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul and the University of Mary in Bismarck, North Dakota, host an evening with best-selling author and renowned biographer of St. John Paul II, George Weigel. The evening includes a Q&A and signing of his book, “Lessons in Hope,” which will be available for purchase. A free-will offering will be accepted. For more information, visit cathedralsaintpaul.org.

Parish events

St. Patrick’s Day Hibernian Mass with Archbishop Bernard Hebda — March 17: 9:30 a.m. at the Cathedral of St. Paul, 239 Selby Ave., St. Paul.

Bunny bingo and raffle — March 11: 1–4 p.m. at St. Bonifacius, 8801 Wildwood Ave., St. Bonifacius. stboniface-stmary.org.

Dining out Mary Queen of Peace Religious Education Breakfast — March 11: 8:30 a.m.–noon at Church Hall-St. Martin campus, 21304 Church Ave., Rogers. mqpcatholic.org.

St. Patrick’s ham dinner hosted by St. Paul parish — March 11: 10:30 a.m.–1 p.m. at the Zumbrota VFW, 25 E. First St., Zumbrota. stpaulstmichael.com.

St. Agnes 2018 Lenten Lectures — Fridays during Lent: 7–9 p.m. at 535 Thomas Ave. W., St. Paul. churchofsaintagnes.org/events.

Bible study: Finding Christ in the Old Testament — Tuesdays during Lent: 7–8:30 p.m. at St. Mark, Carolyn Hall (across Moore Street from the church), 2001 Dayton Ave., St. Paul. saintmark-mn.org.

St. John the Baptist Fasching Gala — March 10: 6–11 p.m. at 680 Mill St., Excelsior. stjohns-excelsior.org/parish.

St. Stephen Lenten Parish Mission Series with David Rinaldi and music by Luke Spehar — March 18, 19 and 21 at St. Stephen, 525 Jackson St., Anoka. ststephenchurch.org.

St. Patrick’s Day dinner — March 17: 6–8 p.m. at St. Peter, 1405 Highway 13, Mendota. stpetersmendota.org.

Knights of Columbus 17th annual spaghetti bingo — March 24: 5:45–9 p.m. at St. Michael, 22120 Denmark Ave., Farmington. stmichael-farmington.org.

Music The Passion of Jesus in Music, Word and Light by Father Robert Cassidy with seasonal actor Father Erik Lundgren as Jesus — March 8, 9 and 10: 8 p.m. at St. Mark, 350 Atwood St., Shakopee. English narration March 8 and 10, Spanish narration March 9. shakopeepassionplay.org.

CALENDAR submissions

Meister Eckhart Lenten Day of Prayer presented by Jayne Krim — March 8: 9:30 a.m. at Franciscan Retreats and Spirituality Center, 16385 St. Francis Lane, Prior Lake. franciscanretreats.net.

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.

Putting art back into practicing ministry — March 8-10: at St. Paul’s Monastery, 2675 Benet Road, Maplewood. benedictinecenter.org.

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

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

Caryll Houslander Lenten Day of Prayer presented by Debbie Koop — March 15: 9:30 a.m. at Franciscan Retreats and Spirituality Center, 16385 St. Francis Lane, Prior Lake. franciscanretreats.net.

Annunciation’s awakening biannual retreat — March 16-18 at Dunrovin Christian Brothers Retreat Center, 15525 St. Croix Trail N., Marine of St. Croix. annunciationmsp.org.

Lenten retreat for men and women presented by Jesuit Father Larry Gillick — March 16-18 at Christ the King Retreat Center, 621 First Ave. S., Buffalo. kingshouse.com.

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

Lenten retreat: Big Men, Big Dreams and Big Possibilities presented by Father Tom Santa — March 17: 9 a.m.–3 p.m. at St. Gerard, 9600 Regent Ave. N., Brooklyn Park.

763-424-8770, judyf@st-gerard.org or st-gerard.org.

• Full street address of event • Description of event • C ontact information in case of questions

Men and women’s Lenten midweek retreat — March 20-22 at Christ the King Retreat Center, 621 First Ave. S., Buffalo. kingshouse.com.

ONLINE: thecatholicspirit.com/

Bingo and ham raffle — March 18: 12:30–3:30 p.m. at Immaculate Conception, 4030 Jackson St. NE, Columbia Heights. 763-788-9062 or iccsonline.org.

Women’s Palm Sunday silent weekend retreat — March 23-25 at Franciscan Retreats and Spirituality Center, 16385 St. Francis Lane, Prior Lake. franciscanretreats.net.

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

Ham bingo — March 18: 1–2:30 p.m. at Guardian Angels, 8260 Fourth St. N., Oakdale. guardian-angels.org.

Conferences/workshops

Sts. Peter and Paul ham bingo — March 18: 1 p.m. at the Community Center, 150 Railway St. E., Loretto. saintsppta.org.

St. Patrick’s Day corned beef dinner and live entertainment — March 17: 5 p.m. at St. George, 133 N. Brown Road, Long Lake. stgeorgelonglake.org.

Retreats

Living Stations of the Cross — March 21, 23, 25 and 30 at St. Ambrose, 4125 Woodbury Drive, Woodbury. saintambroseofwoodbury.org.

The Seven Last Words of Christ presented by Art Zannoni — March 26: 6–8 p.m. at St. Richard, 7540 Penn Ave. S., Richfield. 612-869-2426 or strichards.com/lent.

Prayer/worship Prayer Service for Healing — March 10: 10 a.m. at Guardian Angels, 8260 Fourth St. N., Oakdale. guardian-angels.org.

Healing Mass with Father Jim Livingston — March 13: 7 p.m. at Immaculate Conception, 4030 Jackson St. NE, Columbia Heights. 763-788-9062 or iccsonline.org.

Ongoing groups

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

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

Taize Prayer — Third Friday of each month: 7 p.m. at The Benedictine Center at St. Paul’s Monastery, 2675 Benet Road, Maplewood. 651-777-7251 or stpaulsmonastery.org.

2018 Archdiocesan Men’s Conference — March 10: 9:30 a.m.–4 p.m. at St. Thomas Academy, 949 Mendota Heights Road, Mendota Heights. Keynote address from Msgr. Thomas Richter of the St. Paul Seminary. $25. thecatholicwatchmen.com.

calendarsubmissions

Working with clay as a spiritual process — Mondays through March 26: 6:30–8:15 p.m. St. Paul’s Monastery, 2675 Benet Road, Maplewood. benedictinecenter.org.

Speakers

Sidewalk Counseling Training Seminar — March 12: 7–9 p.m. at Bethlehem Baptist Church, 720 13th Ave. S., Minneapolis. 651-797-6364, debra.braun@plam.org or plam.org/ events.

Why Dante Matters: Beginning at the End presented

by Billy Junker — March 13: 6:30–7:30 p.m. at the University of St. Thomas, 2115 Summit Ave., St. Paul. stthomas.edu/catholicstudies/news/events.

Conversation: Virtue and Living a Public Life — March 15: 9 a.m.–1 p.m. at St. Paul’s Monastery, 2675 Benet Road, Maplewood. benedictinecenter.org.

Charles Coulombe: Catholic Influence on French Immigration into North America — March 17: 2–4:30 p.m. at Our Lady of Lourdes, parish hall, 1 Lourdes Place, Minneapolis. fahfminn.org/charles-coulombe.

Youth gathering: ‘Made for Happiness: Dare to Want More’ — March 17: 9 a.m.–noon at Immaculate Conception Church, 4030 Jackson St. NE, Columbia Heights. 763-788-9062 or bit.ly/2FbxFTV. Order Franciscans Secular (OFS) — Third Sunday of each month: 1 p.m. at Catholic Charities, 1200 Second Ave. S., Minneapolis. 952-922-5523.

Finding Words to Describe Spiritual Insights led by Vic Klimoski — March 19, 26 and April 2: 7–9 p.m. at St. Paul’s Monastery, 2675 Benet Road, Maplewood. benedictinecenter.org.

Lenten forum: Water is Life — March 18: 10:30– 11:30 a.m. at Corpus Christi, 2131 Fairview Ave. N., Roseville. churchofcorpuschristi.org.

Other events Knights of Columbus 52nd Annual Sisters’ Appreciation Day — March 25: Noon at Immaculate Conception, 4030 Jackson St. NE, Columbia Heights. 651-636-2382.

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

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24 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

MARCH 8, 2018

THELASTWORD ‘The Pilgrim’ in concert uMINNEAPOLIS

8 p.m. April 5 Bryant-Lake Bowl, 810 W. Lake St. $12 advance, $15 at the door All ages uST.

PAUL

7:30 p.m. April 20 University of St. Thomas O’Shaughnessy Educational Center Auditorium, 2115 Summit Ave. $10, free for UST students All ages

Life’s snapshots in song Catholic musician Luke Spehar continues pilgrimage with new album

By Jessica Weinberger For The Catholic Spirit

S

trumming his guitar and sharing prayerful melodies at the University of St. Thomas’ popular Sunday night Last Chance Masses, then-seminarian Luke Spehar kept fielding requests to play more of his music, which he began writing as a high schooler in Chisago City. From members of his swim team to fellow seminarians looking for an acoustic set to entertain visiting parents, Spehar’s growing list of gigs led him to consider a music career.

He “discerned out” of St. John Vianney College Seminary in St. Paul his senior year, but before graduation, Spehar announced that he would embark on a nationwide tour. He had just recorded seven original songs, but with no money to produce his first album, he turned to the seminarians at SJV to gauge interest in pre-ordering copies.

Then one morning, Spehar awoke to a pile of dollar bills slid underneath his dorm room door and a list of pledges via email. It was enough to order 500 copies with 1,000 more to follow soon.

“It’s such a testament to the fact that if the Lord wants it to happen, literally nothing can stop it,” he said.

Now fresh off of his 30th birthday, Spehar is working as a full-time musician, traveling the country to play his music and minister to people of all ages, especially youths and young adults. He recently released his fourth album, “The Pilgrim” — his first album recorded locally with local musicians. A parishioner of St. Joseph in West St. Paul, Spehar regularly tours with his wife, Elizabeth, and their two young daughters, proving that faith, family life and one’s vocation can unite in a powerful way.

Often compared to musicians such as Jack Johnson and Ben Harper, Spehar describes his music as modern folk-style. Lyrically, his songs carry faith-based themes

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

with titles like “The Champion,” “All Is Gift” and “The Sonrise.” Many of his songs also play off his early years growing up north of the Twin Cities with his four siblings.

As a songwriter, he considers each of his albums and songs to be autobiographical.

“It takes a snapshot of those years and puts them in song,” said Spehar, who will be performing at the 2018 Archdiocesan Catholic Men’s Conference March 10 at St. Thomas Academy in Mendota Heights. “For me, they’re very much the prayers that I was praying at that time.”

Father Nathan LaLiberte, pastor of St. Maximilian Kolbe in Delano, remembers gatherings at SJV where the room would fall silent as he and other seminarians listened to Spehar’s lyrics. Now Father LaLiberte has hosted him at his parish, noting how Spehar evangelizes through storytelling and an “amazing” live performance.

“To have a musician that intertwines music and faith allows for the Gospel message to enter into the daily life of the faithful, hopefully resulting in the music moving them to the good, the true and the beautiful,” Father LaLiberte said.

‘Concert with a point’ Spehar’s latest album offers a fuller, more mature sound with a bluegrass vibe that still stays true to his accessible music style that is both relatable and reflective. The album title draws upon his experience of walking the 500-mile Camino de Santiago — aka the Way of St. James — in Spain and experiencing many life milestones.

“The concept of ‘pilgrimage’ is we’re all on this journey and our own path to the Lord,” Spehar said.

“From marriage to fatherhood to buying our first home to touring together as newlyweds, my life has really just reflected the reality that we’re pilgrims in a very tangible way.”

Faith serves as the common denominator of all his roles and fuels each performance, which Spehar calls a “concert with a point.” He chooses songs to emphasize a specific theme that will resonate at parish events, college campuses or young adult conferences.

His most recent theme was being courageous and stepping out in faith.

LEFT Luke Spehar sings one of the songs on his new album to an audience of three: his wife, Elizabeth, and daughters Mary, left, and Jane.

BELOW Luke Spehar

during a performance.

COURTESY LUKE SPEHAR

Each set of lyrics, drawn from personal experience, has different meaning to the songwriter.

The death of his brother, Navy SEAL Nicholas Spehar, in 2011 has also had a significant impact on his ministry.

“What was inspiring about his service and gift was he lived a lifestyle that was just poured out,” Spehar said. “That aligned my priorities and made me realize that I have to go out and give this gift of music away.”

While on the road for about one week per month, Spehar prays the rosary and scrolls through the daily Mass readings on his phone each morning. He’s a fan of Lighthouse Catholic Media CDs and has taken an interest in audio books, including his current read, G.K. Chesterton’s “Orthodoxy.”

He feels blessed that his young family can minister to others and draw them to Christ through his music, which continues to resonate with his audiences, just as it did with his former peers at St. Thomas.

“Our hope is that the music and ministry continue to grow in such a way that honors all of our different roles,” he said. “The deepest hope is that the gift is given to its fullest potential.”