The Catholic Spirit - May 26, 2022

May 26, 2022 • Newspaper of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis

What makes Minnesota’s only Catholic dual language immersion school a success — Pages 10-11

Sophia Viri-Flores, a third-grader at Risen Christ School in Minneapolis, is among 348 students at Minnesota’s only Catholic dual language immersion school, learning English and Spanish in equal measure. With about 85% of its students from low-income families, the school relies on donors and others — and with community support recently paid off all of its debt.

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Friends, parishioners remember Father Mike Byron Pax Christi pastor, 62, dies following pilgrimage to Greece — Page 5 ST. PASCAL JOINS ASCENSION ACADEMY 6 | BISHOP WILLIAMS ON SYNOD 7 | CATHOLIC CHARITIES’ NEWEST RESIDENCE 8 PELOSI BANNED FROM COMMUNION 9 | ST. MARY’S PRESIDENT ON EDUCATION 14 | ASCENSION INSIGHTS 16

2 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

MAY 26, 2022

PAGETWO ... continue to imagine Jesus walking among the people, patiently carrying out hard work, living in the everyday life of a family and a city.

Pope Francis speaking May 18 to members of the Charles de Foucauld Spiritual Family Association, who were celebrating the May 15 canonization of St. Charles de Foucauld, a French priest and hermit, who lived among the poor in Tamanrasset, Algeria. In 1916, he was killed by a band of marauders. His writings inspired the foundation of the Little Brothers of Jesus and the Little Sisters of Jesus.

NEWS notes Five deacons will be ordained priests at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul 10 a.m. May 28.

Deacon Connor McGinnis has been ministering at his teaching parish of St. Paul in Ham Lake, Deacon Joseph Nguyen has been ministering at St. Vincent de Paul in Brooklyn Park, Deacon Michael Selenski has been ministering at All Saints in Lakeville, and Deacon John Utecht has been ministering at St. Michael in St. Michael. They have been studying at The St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul. Also to be ordained is Deacon Samuel Gilbertson, who has been in formation at the Pontifical North American College in Rome. The ordination Mass will be livestreamed on the Cathedral’s Facebook page.

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NEW DEACONS Three men ordained transitional deacons at the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis May 14 process from the sanctuary at the end of Mass: Deacons William Kratt, front right, Kyle Etzel, back left, and John Rumpza, back right. Joining them is Bishop Joseph Williams, who was the principal celebrant at the Mass and ordained the three men. The men are scheduled to complete their journey to the priesthood in May 2023.

The Catholic Cemeteries will celebrate four outdoor Memorial Day Masses May 30 at Calvary Cemetery in St. Paul, Gethsemane Cemetery in New Hope, Resurrection Cemetery in Mendota Heights and St. Mary’s Cemetery in Minneapolis. For details, visit catholic-cemeteries.org.

The Cathedral of St. Paul is holding a eucharistic procession on Sunday, June 19, following the 10 a.m. Mass to locally open the national Eucharistic Revival, a threeyear initiative of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops that will include a Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis in 2024. For more information, visit archspm.org/events.

Joe Kueppers, civil chancellor for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, was honored with the Austin Ward Award from the Association of Parish Business Administrators at St. Gerard Majella in Brooklyn Park May 19. The annual award honors an outstanding contributor to parish administration and is named for the late Father Austin Ward, who served as the archdiocese’s director of administration and financial services. “I am humbled by this award and honored to serve with those in the parishes and ultimately serving God,” Kueppers said.

Students at five local Catholic schools recently made cards that were sent to Ukrainian children in a refugee camp, near the Ukraine-Poland border. Danette Halloran, a parishioner of Our Lady of Grace in Edina, collected about 900 cards made by students at Our Lady of Grace Catholic School in Edina, Ascension and St. John Paul II Catholic schools in Minneapolis, and St. Pascal Baylon Regional and St. Peter Claver Catholic schools in St. Paul. Halloran’s nephew is serving at the camp through Volunteers for Ukraine, and believes cards from children in the U.S. will lift spirits by letting refugee children know that other children are thinking about and praying for them.

COURTESY ALL SAINTS MUSIC FESTIVAL

ROCKING RELIGIOUS Franciscan Clarist Sisters Navya Memattathil, left, and Sister Noel Aranjaniyil, teachers at St. John the Baptist Catholic School in Vermillion, enjoy snacks at the All Saints Music Festival in Hastings May 20. Organized by the rural parishes of St. John the Baptist in Vermillion, St. Joseph in Miesville, St. Mary in New Trier, St. Mathias in Hampton and St. Pius V in Cannon Falls, the festival was headlined by the band Gear Daddies, which has roots in Austin, and Chris Kroeze as the opening act. The event was the fourth music festival the parishes have organized, with the others in 2014, 2016 and 2018. “We call it the first party of the summer for saints and sinners,” event co-coordinator Sylvia Belford said in a recent interview on the Practicing Catholic radio show. “We look forward to just bringing our churches together, bringing our community together, seeing people enjoy the spring weather and have some good time together.”

A three-year preparation period is drawing to a close as the local Church readies for a June 3-5 Archdiocesan Synod Assembly on pastoral priorities. The Catholic Spirit asks readers: “What has the Synod process meant to you?” Send responses of 200 words or less to CatholicSpirit@archspm.org with “Readers Respond” in the subject line. Your reflection may be included in a future edition of The Catholic Spirit.

The Catholic Spirit is published semi-monthly for The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis Vol. 27 — No. 10 MOST REVEREND BERNARD A. HEBDA, Publisher TOM HALDEN, Associate Publisher MARIA C. WIERING, Editor-in-Chief JOE RUFF, News Editor

The Catholic Native Boarding School Accountability and Healing Project — whose local members include Sister of St. Joseph Sue Torgersen, archdiocesan archivist Allison Spies and the archdiocese’s Office of Indian Ministry Director Shawn Phillips — is co-hosting with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops a two-hour conversation with Archbishop Donald Bolen of Regina, Saskatchewan, and three members of Canada’s Indigenous Delegation to Pope Francis, facilitated by Maka Black Elk, executive director for truth and healing at Red Cloud Indian School in Pine Ridge, South Dakota. The online event is 6-8 p.m. June 6. To register, visit tinyurl.com/mr2p4zx5.

The Catholic Spirit’s next issue will appear in three weeks on June 16, with special coverage of priesthood ordination May 28 and the 2022 Archdiocesan Synod Assembly, June 3-5.

PRACTICING Catholic On the May 20 “Practicing Catholic” show, host Patrick Conley interviews Father Joseph Taphorn, rector of The St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul, about formation for seminarians. Conley also interviews three transitional deacons who are preparing for their ordination to the priesthood: Deacon Connor McGinnis, a parishioner of All Saints in Lakeville; Deacon Joseph Nguyen of St. Anne-St. Joseph Hien in Minneapolis; and Deacon John Utecht of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Hastings. Listen to interviews after they have aired at PracticingCatholicShow.com or anchor.fm/practicing-catholic-show with links to podcasting platforms.

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MAY 26, 2022

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 3

FROMTHEMODERATOROFTHECURIA ONLY JESUS | FATHER CHARLES LACHOWITZER

Give it up for Easter

T

here is an old story with many variations that is told about a young novice who met with his novice master. The novice was filled with his ideas, insights and opinions. He began to tell the novice master all that he had learned and a list of suggestions for how to make life better.

The novice master interrupted the novice’s verbal resume of “I know that, I feel that and I think that …” and asked him if he would like some tea.

The novice, without pausing in his flow of words just nodded his head. The novice master filled the novice’s cup and kept on pouring. The novice saw the tea spilling on to the table and cried out, “The cup is full! No more will go in!”

The novice master stopped pouring, smiled and said, “So it is with you. You are too full of what you know, feel and think. No one can teach you anything more.”

It is a common spiritual phrase that we “empty ourselves.” Mind and heart are in the soul and when emptied of life’s preoccupations, the soul is filled with the very presence of God. In the proverbial question as to whether the glass is half empty or half full, the spiritual question is simply: “Is the glass fillable?” If

Déjalo para la Pascua

H

ay una vieja historia con muchas variaciones que se cuenta acerca de un joven novicio que se reunió con su maestro de novicios. El novicio se llenó de sus ideas, percepciones y opiniones. Empezó a contarle al maestro de novicios todo lo que había aprendido y una lista de sugerencias sobre cómo mejorar la vida.

El maestro de novicios interrumpió el resumen verbal del novicio con “Sé que, siento eso y pienso que …” y le preguntó si quería un poco de té. El novicio, sin detenerse en su flujo de palabras, solo asintió con la cabeza. El maestro de novicios llenó la copa del novicio y siguió sirviendo. El novicio vio que el té se derramaba sobre la mesa y gritó: “¡La taza está llena! ¡No entrará más!”.

El maestro de novicios dejó de servir, sonrió y dijo: “Así es contigo. Estás demasiado lleno de lo que sabes, sientes y piensas. Nadie puede enseñarte nada más.

Es una frase espiritual común que

it is, an empty cup is no longer a state of diminished supply, but the increased capacity to be filled.

Through prayer, the mind and heart are emptied of idle thoughts and anxious worry, though distractions can be persistent. Through the sacrament of reconciliation, the mind and heart are emptied of sorrow and the ache of sin.

Each and every Sunday is an Easter Sunday. Easter is at the core of our faith, the true vision of hope and the fulfillment of love. When we come to Mass, it is good for us to “give up for Easter” any preoccupations and expectations we may have.

The emptier our glass when we go to Mass, the more we are filled with the person and presence of the Risen Christ.

Even if we want to go to Mass to offer hearts filled with gratitude, we must first empty them of anything else. We imitate Jesus Christ when we sacrifice our very selves and let go of all life’s details, all cares and concerns, all that we know, feel and think.

Whether the music is like fingernails on glass or inspirational, give it up for Easter. Music is not the sole desire of the soul. Music that stirs the heart is great. No matter if it doesn’t. Whether the homily circles like backed-up planes waiting to land or we want to applaud (please don’t), give it up for Easter.

“nos vaciamos”. La mente y el corazón están en el alma y cuando se vacían de las preocupaciones de la vida, el alma se llena con la presencia misma de Dios. En la pregunta proverbial de si el vaso está medio vacío o medio lleno, la pregunta espiritual es simplemente: “¿Se puede llenar el vaso?” Si lo es, una taza vacía ya no es un estado de disminución de la oferta, sino una mayor capacidad para ser llenada.

A través de la oración, la mente y el corazón se vacían de pensamientos ociosos y preocupaciones ansiosas, aunque las distracciones pueden ser persistentes. A través del sacramento de la reconciliación, la mente y el corazón se vacían del dolor del pecado.

Cada domingo es un domingo de Pascua. La Pascua está en el centro de nuestra fe, la verdadera visión de la esperanza y la realización del amor.

Cuando venimos a Misa, es bueno que “déjalo para la Pascua” de las preocupaciones y expectativas que podamos tener.

Cuanto más vaciamos nuestro vaso cuando vamos a Misa, más nos llenamos de la persona y presencia de Cristo

Great if we are inspired. No matter if we are not.

When we look around at the other people at Mass, whether they are in a role or in a pew, and we are tempted to judge, give it up for Easter. Great if we see friends. No matter if we only see people trying frantically to silence their cell phones. And if we come to Mass filled with whatever our opinions are about the Catholic Church, whether locally or globally, give it up for Easter. The Mystical Body of Christ is bigger than all those who lead it and all those who belong to it.

When we go to Mass, give it all up for Easter.

All thoughts about everything inside and outside the doors of the church. If we want to deepen our understanding of the person and real presence of Jesus Christ in the Most Holy Eucharist, then we must be a vessel empty of all that is “me.” It is a selfsacrifice so that we may be filled with the joy of the Gospel and the sacrament of perfect love.

Like the Blessed Virgin Mary who said “yes” without understanding the mystery of God’s favor, we empty ourselves of what we know, feel and think in order to receive far more than we could ever desire and far more than we will ever realize.

After all, when we give it up for Easter, God will not be out given. Only in to an empty cup can God pour in the more that we need.

Resucitado.

Incluso si queremos ir a Misa para ofrecer corazones llenos de gratitud, primero debemos vaciarlos de cualquier otra cosa. Imitamos a Jesucristo cuando nos sacrificamos a nosotros mismos y dejamos de lado todos los detalles de la vida, todas las preocupaciones y preocupaciones, todo lo que sabemos, sentimos y pensamos.

Ya sea que la música sea como uñas sobre vidrio o inspiradora, déjala para Pascua. La música no es el único deseo del alma. La música que mueve el corazón es genial. No importa si no es así. Ya sea que la homilía circule como aviones respaldados esperando para aterrizar o queramos aplaudir (por favor, no lo hagas), déjalo para la Pascua. Genial si estamos inspirados. No importa si no lo somos. Cuando miramos a las otras personas en la Misa, ya sea que estén en un papel o en un banco, y tengamos la tentación de juzgar, déjalo para la Pascua. Genial si nos vemos amigos. No importa si solo vemos personas tratando frenéticamente de silenciar sus teléfonos celulares. Y si venimos a Misa llenos de cualquiera que sea nuestra opinión sobre

la Iglesia Católica, ya sea a nivel local o global, déjalo para la Pascua. El Cuerpo Místico de Cristo es más grande que todos los que lo dirigen y todos los que pertenecen a él.

Cuando vayamos a Misa, déjalo todo por Semana Santa. Todos los pensamientos sobre todo dentro y fuera de las puertas de la iglesia. Si queremos profundizar nuestra comprensión de la persona y la presencia real de Jesucristo en la Santísima Eucaristía, entonces debemos ser un recipiente vacío de todo lo que es “yo”. Es un sacrificio de uno mismo para que seamos colmados de la alegría del Evangelio y del Sacramento del amor perfecto.

Como la Santísima Virgen María que dijo “sí” sin comprender el misterio del favor de Dios, nos vaciamos de lo que sabemos, sentimos y pensamos para recibir mucho más de lo que jamás podríamos desear y mucho más de lo que jamás realizaremos.

Después de todo, cuando lo dejemos para la Pascua, Dios no se dará por vencido. Solo en una copa vacía Dios puede derramar más de lo que necesitamos.

The Rev. Mr. Will Kratt May God bless you, Deacon Will, and the people you serve.

Congratulations!

N at i v i t y

of O ur L ord

4 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

MAY 26, 2022

LOCAL

Sunflowers for Ukraine

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Mary Jane Steinhagen of Christ the King in Minneapolis works on a card she will use as a fundraiser for Ukraine. After displaying four cards during an interfaith prayer service March 5 at her Richfield apartment building to show support for the people of Ukraine, she decided to start offering them in exchange for donations.

She has made more than 100 cards for 95 donors. Her design features the colors of the Ukrainian flag, blue and yellow, plus a sunflower, which is the national flower of Ukraine. Originally, she was hoping to take in around $500. What she calls her “accidental fundraiser” now has generated $11,000. “It’s a lovely amount of money,” said Steinhagen, 75, who has been battling breast cancer for more than two years and also makes cards for people who have cancer or are grieving.

“But, it’s a drop in the bucket compared to what the people in Ukraine actually need.”

She gives the donations from the cards to a church in Minneapolis, St. Michael’s and St. George’s Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

The church, in turn, gives the money to churches in Ukraine, which distribute it to people for food, shelter and medical supplies, Steinhagen said. She will make a card for anyone who wants to make a donation for Ukraine. To request a card and make a donation, contact Steinhagen at mjsteinhagen@gmail.com.

Who is CCF? The Catholic Community Foundation of Minnesota (CCF) helps Catholics like you create meaningful charitable giving plans.

Individuals and families set up charitable funds to give through CCF to support their favorite parishes, schools, and organizations. CCF ensures their charitable giving is taxefficient and aligns with our Catholic faith.

Contact CCF to learn how we can help you.

651.389.0300 ccf-mn.org

$

LOCAL

MAY 26, 2022

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 5

Friends recall Father Byron’s wit, wisdom and way with people he served

By Dave Hrbacek The Catholic Spirit Father J. Michael Byron was a young business professional working for a bank and climbing the corporate ladder when he met Father Tim Wozniak in 1982 at the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis.

He asked to meet with Father Wozniak, and that conversation was part of a journey that led Father Byron to the priesthood.

The two priests forged a lifelong friendship that lasted four decades.

Father Byron, 62, died May 20. Father Wozniak will be the homilist at his funeral Mass June 2 at Pax Christi in Eden Prairie. Father Wozniak is among several priests who were longtime friends of Father Byron, who grew up in Edina and was ordained in 1989.

Father Byron died while serving as pastor of Pax Christi, a role he began in 2018. Parishioners gathered for a 40-minute prayer service the evening after their pastor died unexpectedly of an infection at a local hospital, two days after returning from a 10-day pilgrimage to Greece. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated 11 a.m. June 2. There will also be a visitation 4-7 p.m. June 1 at Pax Christi, with a vigil service at 6:45 p.m., and visitation 9-10:45 a.m. June 2, all at Pax Christi.

Pax Christi parishioner Fred Baumer described Father Byron as a pastoral theologian whose preaching pronoun was “we.” In Father Byron’s leadership of prayer and in his preaching, Baumer said, it was clear he looked through the lens of the Scriptures into his own life and the life of the parish community.

Early in his time at the Eden Prairie parish, Father Byron — whom many knew as “Father Mike” — removed the presider’s chair from the altar area and, instead, “sat in the pew with us,” Baumer said. His pastor’s preaching was both inspiring and challenging, he said, and it addressed how the parish community could meet God in today’s challenges.

After his ordination, Father Byron ministered as an assistant priest at Assumption in Richfield from 1989 to 1992, when he became chaplain of the Academy of Holy Angels, also in Richfield, a role he held until 1995. He was a faculty member of The St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul teaching systematic theology from 1995 to 2012, with those duties coinciding from 2004 to 2012 with his role as pastor of St. Cecilia in St. Paul.

He was pastor of St. Pascal Baylon in St. Paul from 2012 to 2018. From September 2015 until June 2016, he also served as parochial administrator of Sacred Heart in St. Paul. He was appointed to Pax Christi in July 2018.

Father Byron grew up the oldest of six siblings in Edina and attended Our Lady of Grace Catholic School and Valley View Middle School. He graduated from Edina High School before going to St. John’s University in Collegeville.

According to a profile in the Catholic Bulletin, predecessor to The Catholic Spirit, published prior to his ordination, he had thought about the priesthood while in college, but “wanted to prove something to myself — that I could live and work on my own.” He earned a degree in economics and sought a career in banking with First Bank System Inc. before ultimately entering The St. Paul Seminary.

Father J. Michael Byron, 62, was pastor of Pax Christi in Eden Prairie. He died unexpectedly May 20.

COURTESY PAX CHRISTI

While working at First Bank in the early 1980s, Father Byron was a cantor at the Basilica, said Father Wozniak, 73, pastor of St. Thomas Becket in Eagan.

“I got to know Mike, and Mike said to me one day, ‘Would you mind going out and having some pizza?’” Father Wozniak recalled, noting that the young cantor was using the invitation in order to initiate a conversation about the priesthood.

The conversations continued, and Father Wozniak encouraged him in his desire to go to the seminary and pursue a priestly vocation. They stayed connected after Father Byron was ordained, as Father Wozniak invited him to join a group of 12 priests who met monthly for dinner and socializing. Priests took turns hosting and getting the necessary ingredients for the menu, and the group then prepared the meal together, a practice that continues today. Father Byron brought more than food to the dinner, including wisdom for any priest who was struggling, plus a listening ear.

Father Byron also was part of a smaller group of priests who formed a support group at about the same time as the dinner group formed. Father Bill Murtaugh, a priest in that group, likewise met Father Byron while at the Basilica.

Father Murtaugh began ministering there in 1984, after Father Wozniak had left.

“I think Mike tried to support each guy to the best of his ability … be it anger, frustration, sadness or loneliness,” said Father Murtaugh, 77. “We go through those (emotions) as priests.”

Serving alongside Father Byron at Pax Christi in Eden Prairie for one year, Father Murtaugh, who had pastored the parish for 10 years, asked for help in 2018. Father Byron came, and Father Murtaugh was glad to stay on for a year to help his longtime friend. “I loved Pax Christi,” he said. “And, I wanted Mike to love it, too — and the people.”

Father Murtaugh especially loved Father Byron’s humor. He was known for making funny, sarcastic remarks that made people laugh and put them at ease.

Sometimes, that humor was directed at

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his fellow priests. One of his ordination classmates, Father John Ubel, rector of the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul, witnessed it firsthand on many occasions. In fact, some of Father Byron’s witticisms are recorded in a 93-page book that a friend published and gave to Father Ubel documenting the treks the two priests made throughout the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, beginning not long after their ordination and continuing until about four years ago.

They came up with the idea of visiting every parish in the archdiocese so they could better learn about the local Church. Father Ubel drove, and Father Byron took copious notes that he would later type out and send to Father Ubel.

The writings detailed the day’s itinerary, plus observations about Father Ubel’s

behavior during excursions that covered up to 198 miles in a single day, bringing them to as many as 15 churches. A footnote to an entry about a trip on June 20, 2005, read: “the tractor operating nearby was sufficiently productive of dust to warrant JLU’s (Father Ubel’s) fretting over his clean car.”

The two made about 25 trips around the archdiocese, and managed to visit every church. They tried to avoid being detected by the pastor or parish staff, slipping into a church and taking a quick look around before quietly exiting and heading to the next one. Once, they visited a rural parish and discovered that the church was locked. So, they climbed in through a window. “I’ve got very good memories of these trips with him,” Father Ubel said. “I’m going to miss them tremendously. It’s hard to lose a classmate, and it reminds me of the fragility of life, but also that we move on and we continue to live in hope.”

As these priests noted, Father Byron’s impact will be long lasting. Father Wozniak said the way this priest related to his congregations over the years embodies what Pope Francis often says when describing the relationship pastors should have with their parishioners: smelling like the sheep.

“He was a pastor of the people and for the people,” Father Wozniak said. “He was really with the people and knew the people and he … connected to their life.”

— Barb Umberger and Maria Wiering contributed to this report.

Are You a Recipient of a Skipper Slawik Scholarship?

The Skipper Slawik Fund has helped students living in Ramsey County attend Catholic or private high schools for more than 60 years. And for more than two decades, the Catholic Community Foundation of Minnesota (CCF) has stewarded the fund.

Now we’d like to understand the impact of these scholarships on the students who received them.

Please visit www.ccf-mn.org/skipper and answer five brief, anonymous questions about your experiences after high school.

6 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

LOCAL

St. Pascal school joins Ascension Catholic Academy

By Maria Wiering The Catholic Spirit St. Pascal Regional Catholic School in St. Paul was at risk of closure, but school leaders say it’s now positioned for long-term success as it prepares to join Ascension Catholic Academy.

ACA announced May 19 that St. Pascal would be the fourth school to join the consortium, which began in 2016 and includes Ascension and St. John Paul II Catholic schools in Minneapolis and St. Peter Claver Catholic School in St. Paul. Through the ACA consortium, the elementary schools share centralized leadership, business and development support.

“To have this support means that we can offer more,” said Inna Collier Paske, St. Pascal’s principal since 2018.

“St. Pascal’s future is secured for us to continue to be … a beacon of hope and education for the east side of St. Paul. And we want to be here for a long, long time.”

Located on the campus of St. Pascal Baylon Catholic Church at White Bear Avenue and East Third Street, St. Pascal school was founded in 1950. It has 134 students in preschool through grade eight, with one classroom per grade. With 68% students of color and 56% of its students the children of immigrants from Central America, Africa and elsewhere, the school reflects changing demographics of St. Paul’s east side, Collier Paske said. About 71% of its students are Catholic.

When Steve Karel joined St. Pascal’s board of directors in 2015, ultimately serving as its chairman at the time, the school was facing financial challenges due to declining enrollment and an increasing gap between what families could pay in tuition and the actual cost of education, he said. The parish’s then-pastor, Father J. Michael Byron, asked him to help the school develop a plan for its long-term viability. With the parish’s changing demographics, Father Byron was uncertain the parish would be in a position to sustain the school for the long term, Karel said.

Despite that challenge, “the St. Pascal parish and the parishioners have been unbelievably supportive of that school over history,” said Karel, 54, a certified public accountant and parishioner of Assumption in downtown St. Paul. “It had a strong reputation from an academic perspective, and the parish was … very generous, and also parishioners, on their own, had been very generous to us.”

The school considered a variety of options, Karel said, including partnering with other Catholic schools and becoming a public charter school. The parish was “committed to Catholic education first,” he said. The board decided to transition from a parish school to a regional Catholic school, with the aim of drawing students and support from other East Side parishes under a new development plan. That move also reduced St. Pascal Baylon parish’s financial responsibility for the school, as the parish subsidies for the school had waned over the previous years to nothing, Karel said.

In 2018, Steve Karel’s cousin, Jerry Karel, joined him on the board and now serves as its chairman. A 1972 graduate of St. Pascal, Jerry Karel was tasked with overseeing the school’s transition from a parish school to the regional model. That transition was complete in 2019, and the school weathered the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. However, it was evident to school leaders and supporters that a more robust plan was needed to ensure its viability.

“We became a regional school with an updated charter to serve all the families, all the parishes across the east side of St. Paul,” said Jerry Karel, 63, a parishioner of St. Mary of the Lake in White Bear Lake.

“We took that responsibility awfully seriously, and we wanted to make sure that we had a foundation for the school that was really going to sustain it into the future. … Every year it’s been a lot of work to balance the budget, and we had been doing that, but we also wanted to make sure that path into the future was sustainable and promising.”

As the school sought a long-term solution, its leaders collaborated with staff members of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ Office for the Mission of Catholic Education. Helping St. Pascal overcome financial obstacles was important to the archdiocese’s education leaders, said Yen Fasano, associate director of

MAY 26, 2022

Survey launches for Pope Francis’ Synod

By Maria Wiering The Catholic Spirit

MARIA WIERING | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

St. Pascal Regional Catholic School in St. Paul is joining Ascension Catholic Academy, the ACA announced May 19. the Drexel Mission School Initiative in the archdiocese’s Office for the Mission of Catholic Education.

Last year, St. Pascal joined the Drexel Mission School Initiative, which launched in 2019 to help schools that serve low-income families and require extra financial and business support. All three ACA schools are also among the 10 total Drexel Mission Schools.

Over recent decades, the closure of other Catholic schools on St. Paul’s east side, including those of the parishes of St. Patrick, St. Casimir, Sacred Heart and Blessed Sacrament, has left St. Pascal the last Catholic school between the State Capitol and St. Paul’s eastern border. Being a Drexel Mission School has helped St. Pascal to partner with foundations committed to Catholic education, such as the Twin Cities-based GHR Foundation, Fasano said.

“Being the last East Side school in St. Paul and with the great academic growth and the excellence that’s been seen there, it was really worth sustaining,” Fasano said of St. Pascal. “Because of the (Drexel) Initiative, it allowed for the archdiocese to really live out its priorities in a well-coordinated way to bear success, because of the Church’s commitment to urban education.”

St. Pascal’s time of need coincided with Ascension Catholic Academy’s interest in expanding, said ACA founding president Patricia Stromen. ACA launched with the collaboration of its three current schools, making St. Pascal its first new addition. Its board voted in favor of adding St. Pascal May 19. The agreement will be finalized later this summer, Stromen said.

Combined enrollment for Ascension, St. John Paul II and St. Peter Claver is currently 535 students.

“We have aligned missions, we have shared values, they have much to bring to the Academy, and the Academy has much to offer St. Pascal’s,” Stromen said.

“For us, it’s all about serving scholars and families. It’s about being able to share the blessings and steward the gifts that we’ve been given, to be able to expand to another site and see growth and sustainability.”

St. Pascal joining the ACA “shows the impact and unity of everyone coming together to help raise St. Pascal to a place of sustainability and academic excellence,” Fasano said.

In a May 19 statement, Archbishop Hebda said he is “confident that (St. Pascal) will become even stronger next year as it becomes part of Ascension Catholic Academy.” “I am grateful to those who have generously stepped forward at this critical moment to facilitate this new collaboration so that St. Pascal could continue the vital mission of partnering with parents in the Catholic education of their children,” he said.

Stromen emphasized that despite St. Pascal joining the ACA, the school will retain its own identity. Collier Paske said the school prides itself as a place to “believe, learn, love and connect,” the school’s four pillars established last year.

“It makes me excited to have a team I can work with, to have a team of principals I can bounce ideas off, and to have the (ACA) president that I can go to, to ask for help,” she said. “I’m very excited about it and seeing all these partnerships come together. I believe in synergy, that if we share what works in our schools, I think we can all benefit from best practices … to get even better and benefit students.”

St. Pascal joining ACA “just feels right — it is right,” Jerry Karel said. “I think it’s just a great thing for the school. ... And it just makes so much sense that really I could not be more pleased today.”

“What is ONE thing that you would like to share with Pope Francis as he guides the Church?” That’s one of the key questions asked in a new survey from the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis to gather information for Pope Francis’ Synod on Synodality.

The survey is intended for “all the baptized” and aims to reach both practicing and non-practicing Catholics, said Amy Tadlock, a canon lawyer and the archdiocese’s manager of organizational effectiveness. As of May 23, more than 1,000 people had taken the survey.

Pope Francis wants “all the Catholics in the world to come together, listen to one another, listen to the Holy Spirit, and provide feedback on how he should guide the global Church in the coming years. And every diocese is asked to participate,” said Tadlock, whom Archbishop Bernard Hebda has tasked to lead local efforts related to the Vatican’s Synod on synodality, formally titled “For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation and Mission.”

The survey invites participants to share a written response to the “one thing” question, and then to select five areas “where you think the Catholic Church should focus its greatest attention” from a list of 30 topics, including “pro-life efforts,” “climate change” and “role of women in the Church.”

The survey also asks for some demographic information, but respondents remain anonymous.

In 2020, Pope Francis announced that the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops would focus on “synodality,” which the Synod’s website defines as “a style, a culture, a way of thinking and being, that reflects the truth that the Church is led by the Holy Spirit who enables everyone to offer their own contribution to the Church’s life.” The meeting of bishops is scheduled to take place at the Vatican in October 2023.

Leading up to the Synod on Synodality is a twoyear process that includes consultation of all the faithful, divided into four phases. The current phase includes gathering information on a diocesan level.

The archdiocese’s survey quotes the Vatican Synod’s preparatory document, which states that the “purpose of the Synod … is not to produce documents, but ‘to plant dreams, draw forth prophecies and visions, allow hope to flourish, inspire trust, bind up wounds, weave together relationships, awaken a dawn of hope, learn from one another, and create a bright resourcefulness that will enlighten minds, warm hearts, give strength to our hands.’” The archdiocese will share the feedback collected by the survey with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops at the end of June.

The Vatican Synod’s emphasis on “a listening Church” dovetails with efforts well underway in the archdiocese through the Archdiocesan Synod process, which began in 2019. That process included 30 Prayer and Listening Events and focus groups in 2019-2020, through which Archbishop Hebda identified three focus areas for the local Church.

Catholics in the archdiocese gave feedback on those focus areas through Parish Consultations with six-session parish small groups in 2021, and Parish Synod Leadership Team meetings in February and March 2022. That work will culminate in the Archdiocesan Synod Assembly in St. Paul June 3-5, followed by Archbishop Hebda’s discernment for a pastoral letter, expected in November, and a subsequent action plan.

Tadlock said she hopes the survey attracts participation from a wide range of Catholics, including those who attend daily Mass to those who no longer identify with the faith, and everyone in-between. “(For) people who have left, this is still their opportunity to say … how they would think the Church can be better,” she said. “It’s important for them to know that they are still considered members of the Church, and we still want to hear from them.”

LOCAL

MAY 26, 2022

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 7

Bishop: Church a ‘sleeping beauty’ that Synod can stir awake through Spirit’s gifts

By Maria Wiering The Catholic Spirit

PRAY FOR THE SYNOD

For Bishop Joseph Williams, it’s no coincidence that his schedule in the weeks leading up to the 2022 Synod Assembly include confirmations of young people from across the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Conferring that sacrament — one of the special roles reserved for a bishop — has allowed for greater reflection on the gifts of the Holy Spirit that confirmands receive in a new way, he said.

Bishop Williams expects that the 2022 Synod Assembly June 3-5 will call on all of the faithful in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis to “unwrap” those gifts to fulfill their calling and approach the Church’s procedure is at the service of the Spirit, mission with a “newfound boldness.” at the service of renewal.”

“If we stay focused” on the Synod’s He pointed to the Church’s history priorities, “there will be a cultural of councils, including the first council change in our Church,” said Bishop in Jerusalem, recorded in Acts 15, Williams, the auxiliary bishop of where the “Apostles and the elders St. Paul and Minneapolis and chairman were gathered together” to consider of the 2022 Archdiocesan Synod questions of circumcision and the Executive Committee.

Mosaic law for non-Jews who had When Bishop Williams was ordained become Christians, to the Second a bishop in January, Archbishop Vatican Council, held 1962 to 1965 Bernard Hebda asked him to make to address the Church in the modern the Synod his primary focus, and he world. has been involved in preparations for “You can’t lead without meetings, the Synod Assembly, where about 500 without councils. It’s where the Spirit invited participants will reflect, pray speaks,” Bishop Williams said. and vote on propositions related to the As he took leadership of the Synod, Synod’s three focus areas: 1. Forming Bishop Williams believes God had parishes that are in the service of prepared him through the south evangelization, 2. Forming missionary Minneapolis parishes he shepherds: disciples who know Jesus’ love and St. Stephen and Holy Rosary. The respond to his call, and 3. Forming Synod’s focus areas “are precisely what youth and young adults in and for a we have been living in the parishes Church that is always young. where God has asked me to serve …

Participants’ feedback will help from forming parishes that are … inform a pastoral letter Archbishop bases of evangelization, to forming Hebda plans to release in November missionary disciples.” around the feast of Christ the King, “We’ve done this kind of formation,” which will be followed by an action he said of his parishes. “We have 70 plan to help parishes implement ideas right now in a missionary discipleship in that pastoral letter. (program) — 70 adults — and that’s commonplace for us.”

The three-day Synod Assembly Bishop Williams believes the Holy includes procedures mandated for Spirit has primed the archdiocese “for local Church synods by canon law, CathSpFL-C-2022.qxp_Layout 1/25/22 Pa moment to support our archbishop Bishop Williams said May116, “but12:31 the PM this

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Bishop Joseph Williams addresses the congregation during the transitional deacon ordination Mass May 14 at the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis. At right is Deacon John Rumpza, who was ordained at the Mass.

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

and his vision for leadership in this local Church,” he said. “It’s really exciting.”

His evidence for that includes the sufferings he sees in the local Church, including fear, sadness and loneliness of its members, especially young people. “There’s some very alarming statistics about the pervasive sadness experienced by high schoolers in our country, and the Lord wants to send his Holy Spirit into that sadness.

But there’s also fear, and it’s not just amongst our young people, it’s in our whole Church. It’s the fear of admitting we believe (while living) in an unbelieving world, let alone speaking the name of Jesus amongst our family and our friends and our classmates.”

The “true power of the Church,” he said, “is the power to witness to the resurrection of Jesus. And it’s only given through that outpouring of the Holy Spirit.”

All confirmed Catholics have been given a particular outpouring of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and it’s those gifts — wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety and fear of the Lord — that Bishop Williams hopes Catholics can put to the service of Jesus and his Church. He likens the image of a Christmas tree with unopened presents under it to Catholics who have received the gifts

u A novena — nine-day prayer — to the Holy Spirit begins May 27 and continues through June 4. Find the daily prayers at archspm.org/ synod/pray. u All Catholics are invited to join Archbishop Bernard Hebda and Synod Assembly participants at a Pentecost Vigil Mass, 7 p.m. June 4 at the Cathedral of St. Paul.

Praise and worship music will follow the Mass. of the Holy Spirit but “never opened that gift.”

He relates to that, he said, because he was in his 20s, a decade after his confirmation, before he recognized how God was calling him to use those gifts.

“I see the Church as the sleeping beauty,” he said. “She’s beautiful because she’s Christ’s bride. … But she’s asleep — asleep fundamentally to what is her principal vocation, which is to evangelize.” When Catholics begin to evangelize, “it’s like the sleeping beauty is being kissed into life. And the layperson realizes, ‘This is what I was confirmed for, right? This is what it means to be Church.’ And you see a joy that comes with that.”

The question of the Archdiocesan Synod is “will … it turn the tide? …

And I believe it will,” Bishop Williams said.

He encouraged all Catholics in the archdiocese to pray for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Synod Assembly, which takes place over Pentecost weekend, especially through the Synod novena (see above).

The Synod Assembly “is going to be a process, but it’s also going to be a work of the Lord,” he said. “So, we can’t pretend to know exactly what it will look like, but we can say, I sure hope it is like that southwest hill in Jerusalem where the Upper Room was. And I sure hope it’s like what the bishops and (Pope St.) John XXIII experienced in the ‘upper room’ of the Second Vatican Council, because our Church needs that.”

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8 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

LOCAL

MAY 26, 2022

Catholic Charities’ $75 million residence and health care campus to prioritize veterans

By Joe Ruff The Catholic Spirit An affordable home for 173 single adults who have experienced homelessness — particularly veterans — a recuperative care unit and a health care clinic will open soon in a $75 million public-private partnership in Minneapolis led by Catholic Charities, officials announced May 18.

Supported by the city of Minneapolis, Hennepin County and state officials, several partners and donors, the Endeavors Residence and Catholic Charities at Elliot Park campus is opening at a critical time “as our community faces an acute lack of affordable housing coupled with public health challenges related to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic,” said Michael Goar, president and CEO of Catholic Charities of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

“We know that housing is health care, and Endeavors offers an important integrated approach that brings the two together, creating opportunities for our

most vulnerable community members to thrive,” Goar said at a news conference at the new campus that included Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey; Jennifer Ho, commissioner of state housing finance agency Minnesota Housing; Marion Greene, chair of the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners; and other officials.

Formerly known as Exodus Residence near St. Olaf in downtown Minneapolis, Endeavors Residence will provide affordable apartments for homeless adults and people with complex medical conditions, Catholic Charities officials said. Veterans will receive priority, providing a boost to the state’s goal of ending veteran homelessness.

The Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation Recuperative Care Center, implemented in partnership with Hennepin County Public Health’s Health Care for the Homeless program, will provide short-term respite for up to 30 people who are without a home and need additional time to recover after being released from a hospital.

MARIA WIERING | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Catholic Charities’ new Endeavors Residence in the Elliot Park neighborhood of Minneapolis, part of a $75 million public-private partnership assisting the homeless, particularly veterans.

Hennepin County’s Health Care for the Homeless Clinic will offer health care to area residents who require medical support and qualify for services based on income. The Frey Center at Elliot Park will serve as a new headquarters for Catholic Charities and provide workspace for more than 200 staff, including administrators and Aging and

Disability Services teams.

Financial support for the project includes funds from Hennepin County, Minnesota Housing, the city of Minneapolis and Minneapolis Public Housing Authority, as well as lead gifts from the Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation and Mary and Gene Frey, and pro bono services from Plymouthbased affordable housing developer Dominium and others.

The investments allowed Catholic Charities to purchase the former Augustana Health Care Center in December 2019 to create the Elliot Park facility. “Endeavors represents a model public-private partnership — smart, innovative thinking leveraged by collective strengths and fueled by doing what’s right,” said Jeff Huggett, senior vice president and project partner at Dominium. “So many partners made bold commitments to help our community members who are struggling the most. We’re proud to be part of this historic effort that made the Endeavors project possible.”

Archbishop Hebda acknowledges federal Indian boarding school report with sadness, an apology

By Joe Ruff The Catholic Spirit Archbishop Bernard Hebda acknowledged with sadness and an apology a federal report May 11 that for 150 years hundreds of governmentsupported boarding schools — some run by the Catholic Church, including in Minnesota — sought to forcefully assimilate Native American and Indigenous children into white society.

The U.S. Department of the Interior identified 408 schools in 37 states or U.S. territories that tens of thousands of children were forced to attend from 1819 to 1969. At least 53 marked or unmarked burial sites are associated with the schools, and about 19 of the schools

accounted for more than 500 child deaths, the report said. The number of recorded deaths is expected to increase, the DOI said. The Indian boarding school coincided with the forced removal of many tribes from ancestral lands.

“It is an important first step in what I anticipate will be a painful but necessary journey for our country and for our Church,” the archbishop said in a May 11 statement, noting that the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has begun working with tribes on relationship building and records review, an effort described in a special report in the April 28 issue of The Catholic Spirit.

The archdiocese ran an industrial school near Clontarf that collaborated from 1884 to 1892 with the federal program

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for Indian boarding school students.

“Particularly disturbing is that today’s report finds that the government chose to contract with Christian entities to operate some of the schools in the hope that Christian formation would strip away the indigenous identity of the children brought to these schools,” the archbishop said. “The report sadly mentions, moreover, the involvement of Catholic organizations in that process.

Any such instrumentalization of the faith or disrespect for culture is abhorrent. The clear teaching of the Catholic Church today is that indigenous peoples and cultures are to be respected, and never harmed or sacrificed in the name of evangelization.”

Pope Francis met in April with

Indigenous leaders from Canada to discuss their own experience of boarding schools, and expressed feelings of sorrow and shame for the role a number of Catholics played in those schools, the archbishop said. “Please allow me to also add my heartfelt apology to that of Pope Francis,” he said. “I am sorry. I am sorry for the role that our Church played as part of the U.S. government’s systemic separation of families, often leading to the intergenerational trauma experienced by so many of our sisters and brothers.

There are women and men in our Archdiocese and across our state who personally experienced the boarding school system. They are with us now.

Their stories must be told and we must listen to them.”

MAY 26, 2022

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 9

NATION+WORLD SF archbishop: No Communion for Pelosi over abortion stand

By Julie Asher Catholic News Service San Francisco’s archbishop declared May 20 that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is not “to be admitted” to Communion unless and until she publicly repudiates “support for abortion ‘rights’” and goes to confession and receives absolution “for her cooperation in this evil.”

Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone said he decided to make this declaration “after numerous attempts to speak with her to help her understand the grave evil she is perpetrating, the scandal she is causing and the danger to her own soul she is risking” as a Catholic who supports legalized abortion.

Pelosi represents California’s 12th Congressional District, which is entirely within San Francisco. A call to Pelosi’s Washington office from Catholic News Service to request a comment was not returned immediately.

“Please know that I find no pleasure whatsoever in fulfilling my pastoral duty here,” Archbishop Cordileone said. “Speaker Pelosi remains our sister in Christ. Her advocacy for the care of the poor and vulnerable elicits my admiration. I assure you that my action here is purely pastoral, not political. I have been very clear in my words and actions about this.”

The archbishop opened a 1,300-word “letter to the faithful” by saying that Pope Francis “has been one of the world’s most vocal advocates of human dignity in every stage and condition of life.”

“He decries what he evocatively calls the ‘throwaway culture,’” Archbishop Cordileone said. “There can be no more extreme example of this cultural depravity than when direct attacks on human life are enshrined in a nation’s law, celebrated by society, and even paid for by the government. This is why Pope Francis, as much as any pope in living memory, has repeatedly and vividly affirmed the Church’s clear and constant teaching that abortion is a grave moral evil,” he said.

Archbishop Cordileone said he is bound by canon law to be “concerned for all the Christian faithful entrusted” to his care. He added that over the years he has heard from many Catholics “expressing distress over the scandal being caused by such Catholics in public life who promote such grievously evil practices as abortion.”

In September, Archbishop Cordileone asked Catholics in the San Francisco archdiocese to pray for Pelosi on abortion. What prompted the call for prayer was her leadership on the Women’s Health Protection Act, or H.R. 3755, passed by the House in a 218-211 vote Sept.

24.

The measure establishes the legal right to abortion on demand at any stage of pregnancy in all 50 states under federal law. The bill was pushed forward over fears by abortion supporters the Supreme Court will overturn Roe v. Wade in its decision on a Mississippi ban on abortion after 15 weeks. The measure failed to advance to a full vote in the Senate May 11.

Pelosi considers abortion health care and, as recently as May 13 in remarks on the steps of the U.S. Capitol, she warned the Supreme Court to keep its “hands off women’s reproductive health care.” Pelosi’s position on abortion “has become only more extreme over the years, especially in the last few months,” Archbishop Cordileone said. “Just earlier this month she once again, as she has many times before, explicitly cited her Catholic faith while justifying abortion as a ‘choice,’ this time setting herself in direct opposition to Pope Francis.”

“Conversion is always better than exclusion, and before any such action can be taken it must be preceded by sincere and diligent efforts at dialogue and persuasion,” Archbishop Cordileone wrote. If the person in question still presents himself or herself to receive the Eucharist, “the minister of holy Communion must refuse to distribute it,” he said, quoting canon law.

Aboard the papal flight from Slovakia Sept. 15, Pope Francis said he did not want to comment directly on the issue of denying Communion in the United States “because I do not know the details.”

However, he said that while there is no question that “abortion is homicide,” bishops must take a pastoral approach rather than wade into the political sphere.

“If we look at the history of the Church, we can see

HEADLINES u Chinese bishop’s whereabouts remain unknown a year after his arrest. A Vatican-approved Chinese bishop remains in detention more than one year after his arrest for allegedly violating the communist country’s repressive regulations on religious affairs. Bishop Joseph Zhang Weizhu of Xinxiang, 63, was arrested May 21, 2021. A day earlier, police arrested 10 priests and an unknown number of seminarians from a Catholic seminary in the diocese that was set up in an abandoned factory building.

KEVIN LAMARQUE, REUTERS | CNS

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington Sept. 24, 2021, about the Women’s Health Protection Act, which aims to establish a legal right to abortion in all 50 states under federal law.

ABORTION POLLING How to make sense of Americans’ attitudes toward abortion? It isn’t easy. In polls, many respondents will give answers that contradict each other.

A Gallup poll in 2019 — Gallup has polled regularly on abortion since 1975 — found that 92% of Americans believed that using birth control was “morally acceptable,” but their support for abortion, by contrast, was more mixed. (The Catholic Church teaches that both are morally wrong.)

But the year before, Gallup found that 65% of Americans believed abortion should generally be illegal during the second trimester of pregnancy — but in the same survey, 69% said the Supreme Court should not overturn Roe v. Wade.

FiveThirtyEight, which itself analyzed abortion polls, “found that a large majority of Americans support abortion in the first trimester, but that support tends to drop in the second trimester.”

In an ABC News-Washington Post poll conducted in late April, 54% of Americans want the court to uphold Roe, nearly twice as many as the 28% who want to see it struck down. Also, an ABC poll offering only a yes-or-no choice found that 57% of Americans opposed a ban on abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy, while 58% opposed a ban after six weeks.

Pew has been polling regularly about abortion since 1995. Pew has found that whenever certain statements about abortion used in its polling also describe the respondent’s views as well, they’ve been offered the same seeming contradictions.

Results of Pew’s latest polling on abortion, issued May 6, show a starker partisan divide than had existed in the past.

Since 2007, Republicans who say abortion should be legal in all or most cases went up from 37% to 39%. Among Democrats, the percentages went up from 63% in 2007 to 80% in 2022. In 2012, the percentages of Americans either for or against abortion came together the closest they’d been, but support for legal abortion has never fallen below 50%.

Younger Republicans, including 47% of those ages 18-29, said abortion should be legal in most or all cases. Among all Americans, though, the older the respondent, the less likely they are to agree with that view — although majorities supporting a “right to abortion” extends through the oldest age group.

And through it all, Gallup has found that support for legal abortion, after nearly 50 years of polling, has gone up all of 1%, and opposition is down by the same 1%.

— Mark Pattison, CNS that every time the bishops did not act like shepherds when dealing with a problem, they aligned themselves with political life, on political problems,” he said.

He also said he never denied Communion to anyone, but he was “never aware of anyone in front of me under those conditions that you mentioned.”

Recalling his apostolic exhortation, “Evangelii Gaudium,” the pope said that “Communion is not a prize for the perfect,” but rather “a gift, the presence of Jesus in his Church and in the community. That is the theology.”

However, Pope Francis also said he understood why the Church takes a hard stance because accepting abortion “is a bit as if daily murder was accepted.”

u Religious brothers can be superiors of orders with priests, pope says. Granting an exception to canon law, Pope Francis said the Vatican office that deals with religious orders can permit men’s communities that are made up of both priests and brothers to choose one of the brothers to be a provincial superior or even the superior general.

A rescript from the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life published by the Vatican May 18 said the approval for appointing or electing a brother to head a “clerical institute” would be given “discretionally and in individual cases.” u Buffalo bishop lays flowers, personal prayer at mass shooting memorial. Bishop Michael Fisher of Buffalo, New York, joined mourners outside a Tops grocery store where 10 people were killed and three others were injured May 14 in what law enforcement authorities said was a racially motivated crime. Placing flowers and a handwritten note remembering “the souls of our brothers and sisters lost to the acts of violence and racism” at a growing memorial outside the store, Bishop Fisher paid his respects to the victims May 17. u Mexican priest killed in border community. A Catholic priest who directed a migrant shelter was killed in the Mexican border state of Baja California, reinforcing Mexico’s reputation as a murderous country for clergy. Father José Guadalupe Rivas Saldaña and another unidentified individual were found dead May 17 in the municipality of Tecate, east of Tijuana, after being reported missing May 15, according to local media. There were signs they suffered head injuries. u Archbishop, 97, says he thinks Church is growing secretly in North Korea. One of South Korea’s most senior clergymen says he believes the Catholic Church in communist North Korea is growing, although Catholics live in hiding and endure persecution. Archbishop Victorinus Youn Kong-hi, 97, former head of the Archdiocese of Gwangju, South Korea, made the remarks in a recently published book on the history of the North Korean Church. In the book, he gave vivid testimonies of how the Church thrived in the territory before the Korean Peninsula was divided between the democratic South and communist North and the eruption of the Korean War. u Pro-life leaders reject penalizing women who seek abortions. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and more than 70 state, national and international pro-life organizations signed an open letter May 12 urging state lawmakers across the nation to reject initiatives that would impose criminal penalties on women who have abortions. Scott Fischbach, executive director of Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life, added his signature, as did Archbishop William Lori, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Pro-Life Activities.

— Catholic News Service, The Catholic Spirit

10 • MAY 26, 2022

Risen Christ ascends to n

Now debt free, Minnesota’s only Catholic dual language immersion school prepare

B

ack in 2016, Rosa Brandt was on a mission. She and her husband, Barry, needed to choose a school where their older daughter could start kindergarten that fall. Both parents wanted a Catholic school that offered dual immersion in English and Spanish. They talked to parents and toured about 10 schools, but they could not find a Catholic school that offered Spanish as something more than an introductory language.

Then a breakthrough: Rosa Googled.

Up popped Risen Christ, a school in Minneapolis unfamiliar to her. But she liked what she read: It was Catholic. Check. It supported English and Spanish languages. Check. And a bonus: It was on the way from her home in Bloomington to her job in Minneapolis.

“We were like, wow, there really is one,” she said.

And she hasn’t looked back.

The kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school serves more low-income students (85%) and Latinos (93%) than any other Catholic school in the Twin Cities. It is the only Catholic dual language immersion school in Minnesota and one of 22 in the nation. According to the school, Englishlanguage learners enrolled at Risen Christ significantly outperform their peers in Minneapolis public schools and across Minnesota. Experience with the school has earned praise from former students, loyalty from families and support from the community.

And while it struggled with costs, parents, donors and others recently stepped up to help the school retire all of its debt. (See sidebar.)

“The Lord definitely graced us with this school,” said Rosa Brandt, whose father is from Mexico; her mother is from southern Texas. While Hispanic, her daughters face challenges learning Spanish in the family because they speak predominantly English at home.

“We love the teachers and they’re constantly pushing and challenging the kids in both English and Spanish,” Brandt said. She loves the school’s “Catholic base” and celebration of Hispanic traditions, such as Los Posadas, a December custom commemorating the journey Joseph and Mary made from Nazareth to Bethlehem, where Mary gave birth to Jesus. “It’s been really beautiful and amazing, a great blessing to have it all come together,” she said.

Today, the Brandts have a fifth-grader and a third-grader at Risen Christ. Their youngest starts kindergarten there this fall.

Founded in 1993 out of five Minneapolis Catholic schools — Holy Name, Holy Rosary, Incarnation, St. Albert the Great and St. Stephen — Risen Christ is best known for its immersion program. With the school’s “50/50 model,” students receive 50% of their instruction in English each day and 50% in Spanish. Every student receives daily instruction in English and Spanish literacy. Grade-level teaching teams include one teacher fluent in English and one fluent in Spanish.

The effort began with the fall 2014 kindergarten class, and one grade has been added each year.

Today, only the school’s eighth-graders did not start under the immersion program.

The model attracted Sonia Rosas, 28, of Minneapolis, and her husband, Jose, to Risen Christ. They have a 10-year-old daughter in third grade, and a 6-year-old daughter in kindergarten. In choosing the school, Sonia Rosas said it was important that students learn in Spanish and English, that it is a Catholic school, and she heard

Story by Barb Umberger • Photos by Dave Hrbacek • The Catholic Spirit

RISEN CHRIST AT A GLANCE u348 children in grades K-8 (260 families) u Religion (as reported by families): 87% Catholic, 5% other Christian, 1% non-Christian, 8% unknown u 93% Latino, 3% Black, 2% Asian, 2% Caucasian, 1% multiracial uFree or reduced lunch: 85% uEnglish language learners: 66% uPer-pupil cost to educate: $8,823 uFull price of tuition: $3,550 uStudents receiving financial aid: 96% uAverage daily attendance: 92% uStudent retention: 97% *2021-2022 school year that people at the school “are very supportive with families and have a deep understanding (of) the culture and the language.”

Rosas and the children primarily speak English at home, while her husband mainly speaks Spanish.

But since they’ve gone to Risen Christ, the girls have grown more comfortable communicating in Spanish, she said.

Her children are happy at the school, she said, and she values the way parent-teacher conferences are handled and how the staff makes time for celebrations, such as an autumn festival with student activities, and some events in which students play games with teachers “and see them outside the classroom environment.”

Including Latino traditions is important to her family. Sonia said there is a special altar at school where on el Día de los Muertos (the Day of the Dead) students can bring photos and mementos honoring loved ones who have died.

While important and a differentiator, school President Michael Rogers said dual immersion is probably the third reason parents choose the school, behind the fact it is Catholic and it provides a safe environment. “A lot of our families don’t perceive Minneapolis public schools as being very safe, unfortunately,” he said.

Two-thirds of Risen Christ students are Englishlanguage learners, but the goal is not to teach native Spanish speakers how to speak English, said fourthgrade teacher Susana Villalobos, who has taught at Risen Christ for nearly five years. Instead, the goal is creating bilingual emergence, she said.

“Our goal is to help the students grow in both languages at the same time,” Villalobos said. “The knowledge is there; knowledge can be transferred in any language.”

Villalobos, 29, said many children who arrive in the United States as immigrants are very smart, with great knowledge of math and reading. “They have amazing skills that had been underestimated because they think they don’t know anything because they don’t know English,” she said.

Middle school religion teacher Maria Lara, 45, said she remembers being in second grade and translating for her Spanish-speaking mother when they visited a doctor or a store, even though Lara was not fluent in English at the time. And when Latino students at other schools read, write and speak only English, some students “cannot communicate with their family,” including their parents, Lara said. Today, her students “know .

TOP LEFT A mural painted by students is on display in the main hallway on the first flo BOTTOM LEFT Second-grade teacher Jessica Hentges sits with students who are pla Center Time.

TOP RIGHT Second-grader Samantha Chavez and teacher Reyna Payan celebrate suc during class April 21.

BOTTOM RIGHT From left, first-grader Leo Vega, fifth-grader Immanuel Rowland, first fifth-grader Camila Lopez listen during a school Mass April 21. exactly what they are saying,” she said, because they speak English and Spanish.

Carmen Grace Poppert, 26, has taught at Risen Christ for the five years since her college graduation. “Everything I teach is always in Spanish,” she said. Twice a week, Poppert said, she shares planning time with her partner teacher, who teaches subjects in English.

In addition to talking with people who speak two languages, students benefit from dual immersion because it fosters a global perspective, Poppert said.

Students are invited to be empathetic and to see and understand other cultures, she said.

Being bilingual will open doors to many possibilities for students as companies seek employees with that skill, Poppert said. Spanishspeaking parents appreciate that their native language is as valued as English, and many of them

learn from their chi comfortable with En A global perspecti population is reflect mural honoring Jesu Father Leo Schneide is adjacent to the sc school could use a s longer needed. Roge has a degree in fine Venezuela, led a pro flowers circling the s At the suggestion represent home cou and families, includ Rico, carnation for S for Vietnam, dahlia Venezuela, lobster c

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 11

new life

es low-income students for success

oor of Risen Christ. aying a game during what is called

ccess with Spanish flash cards

t-grader Ian Montano Alarcon and

ildren and become more nglish, she said. ive and the school’s Latino ted in a colorful, student-painted us on a main floor hallway wall. er, pastor of Holy Name, which chool, asked Rogers in 2019 if the statue of Jesus that the church no ers said yes, and Villalobos, who arts and taught art in her native oject where students painted statue on a wall. n of students, the flowers untries of Risen Christ students ding a flor de maga for Puerto Spain, ceibo for Uruguay, lotus for Mexico, orchid for claw for Bolivia, roses for Ecuador

GRADUATES EXPRESS GRATITUDE Many graduates of Risen Christ School in Minneapolis attend DeLaSalle High School or Cristo Rey Jesuit High School, both in Minneapolis, and appreciate their elementary school experience.

DeLaSalle senior Anahi Sanchez Lazcano, 17, said she switched from a public school to Risen Christ in sixth grade and learned to enjoy math and science. She plans to attend Macalester College in St. Paul this fall, majoring in neuroscience to become a biomedical engineer.

“Before I went to Risen Christ, I didn’t really know what I wanted to be or study,” Sanchez Lazcano said.

Staff at Risen Christ prepared her not only for high school, she said, but also for college.

“There were so many activities that we did in math and science … that really sparked (my interest) in doing something for other people,” she said, “helping them while also learning.”

She also believes the dual immersion learning environment at Risen Christ will bring more opportunities for her and other students in their careers and in life. “It gives you more possibilities,” she said.

DeLaSalle senior Stacy Ruiz, 18, attended Risen Christ all nine years of her elementary education. Starting before dual immersion began, she took classes in English. Ruiz praised the teachers, especially those who recognized her abilities in math, tutored and challenged her. Ruiz said she plans to attend a community college this fall before starting dental hygiene school.

A mentoring program for middle school students at Risen Christ influenced Daniel Onofre, today a senior at Cristo Rey. Onofre, 18, recalled one mentor whose business worked with an engineering company involved with robotics. The experience helped spark his desire to study mechanical engineering in college. Onofre said the school also made him feel more like part of the community than simply a student.

That, he said, along with opportunities to lead group activities for classwork, helped him develop leadership skills.

Karen Modesto, 17, Onofre’s Risen Christ classmate also attending Cristo Rey, said everyone at the elementary school, from teachers and counselors to kitchen employees, created a supportive environment for students. Her favorite classes were social studies and religion, but her social studies teacher at Risen Christ, now her advanced placement government teacher at Cristo Rey, James Nelson, influenced her desire to become an attorney.

— Barb Umberger

FUTURE ONCE IN DOUBT, RISEN CHRIST NOW DEBT FREE During an annual gala May 13, Risen Christ School’s largest fundraising event, school president Michael Rogers made a surprise announcement to the more than 400 attendees: The school’s debt — which had grown as large as $4.5 million — was officially paid off. More than a year and a half ahead of schedule.

and the United States — and a pink lady’s slipper for Minnesota.

“We wanted to do something that would represent our cultures and our people and everyone who has been here at school,” Villalobos said.

Painting faces felt cliché, she said, so students came up with the idea of painting flowers.

“It is so beautiful because we’re serving our community, predominantly Latino-Hispanic families, and not telling them you need to choose your culture or the culture of the U.S.,” Poppert said. “You … get the best of both worlds, so to speak, that you can be fully bilingual, fluent in both English and Spanish.”

Having passionate teachers — many of whom are native Spanish speakers who later learned English and understand what students live day to day — helps create a community and a family at Risen Christ, Poppert said. The school is tight-knit, she said. Everyone looks out for each other.

Because many students at Risen Christ come from low socioeconomic backgrounds, often with parents who work several jobs to support their children and give them more opportunities than what they had, students look to teachers as parental figures, Poppert said.

Risen Christ is among nine Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ Drexel Mission Schools Initiative, which launched in 2019 to support Catholic schools serving low-income families with the help of community partners, including the GHR Foundation, Aim Higher Foundation and the Catholic Community Foundation of Minnesota.

Expectations are high at Risen Christ, not only with academics, but with daily life skills, Villalobos said. “My kids are amazing,” she said. “They’re so capable of understanding ‘Why are we here? Who are we together in Christ?’ We’re brothers and sisters who create a community to help each other and grow. That’s why I love working here.”

Cheers erupted from the audience, which included donors to the school, foundation partners, school families, alumni, teachers, staff and volunteers. Many donors had accelerated their payments toward the debt, Rogers said.

Rogers asked attendees to stand, and many raised a glass of champagne to toast the big news, the champagne courtesy of the Risen Christ board of directors. Rogers thanked everyone who had faith “that we can do this,” including those who contributed to a capital campaign to retire the debt, or to maintain the school’s general operations year after year, as well as foundation supporters, teachers and staff, students and families “who we are honored to partner with and blessed to serve for many generations to come.”

The school had carried debt for years. Formed from five Catholic schools, Risen Christ opened two campuses in 1993, one on the school’s present site next to Holy Name church and the second at the former Incarnation school in Minneapolis.

“At some point, they wanted ... everybody in the same location, in the same building, to have some efficiencies,” Rogers said. The move happened in 2003, but it required an addition with four classrooms made to the north side of the present Risen Christ building. It was a big project, and the school had not raised all the money needed. With interest payments, other loans and falling behind on paying its obligations to the archdiocese, the debt added up. For a long while, the school owed $3.75 million, said Rogers, who joined the school in 2015. The debt increased to $4.5 million in 2018.

The school started a capital campaign in 2017 solely to apply funds toward the debt, which raised about $1.5 million. But more was needed. By fall 2019, finances and the school’s future looked bleak. Rogers discussed the issue with Archbishop Bernard Hebda and funders, including the St. Paul-based Catholic Community Foundation of Minnesota. “We explained … that if the debt was gone, we’re going to be fine,” Rogers said. “We were making ends meet. We were becoming more efficient with costs. So, it was just the debt.”

Rogers said it came down to “people have to come together and help us with this or this school ceases to exist.” The timing did not help, as it preceded the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, which hit school families hard because so many parents are frontline workers holding multiple jobs. Civil unrest and violence following the police-involved killing of George Floyd not far from the school in May 2020 also impacted school families. One school family’s apartment building burned to the ground in rioting that followed Floyd’s death, Rogers said. When stores were boarded up, generous people brought food and household supplies for school families, he said.

The GHR Foundation stepped up to help with the debt, Rogers said, and brought financial expertise and other funders to the table. A plan came together in November 2020, with the debt consolidated into a low-interest commercial bank loan initially estimated for payoff in December 2023.

“We’ve continued to operate in a very sustainable way with our general operating budget,” Rogers said.

“Our donors have continued to support us.”

With the debt retired, Rogers said school leaders can plan the school’s future. “We really couldn’t with the debt,” he said. “I could never look past the next year.”

The gala itself, held at the InterContinental Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport hotel, raised more than $500,000 to support the school’s mission to make Risen Christ financially accessible to all families who want their children to attend, Rogers said. Funds were raised through benefactor gifts, live and silent auctions, a special appeal, raffle ticket sales, sponsorships and gala ticket sales.

— Barb Umberger

LEFT PAGE 12 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

MAY 12, 2022

PAID ADVERTISEMENT

Website and Donor Reports Reveal Cross Catholic Outreach’s Major Impact on Global Poverty Every donor wants his or her charitable contributions to have a big impact. They also want to know how their gifts have been used. To satisfy these donor demands, Cross Catholic Outreach has worked hard to develop highly effective aid programs and to provide donors with excellent follow-up reports on the projects they fund.

“One of the ways we highlight our ministry’s impact is through a special section of our website. It can be reached at CrossCatholic.org/impact,” explained Jim Cavnar, president of Cross Catholic Outreach. “In addition to this, we provide donors with detailed reports on many of our major projects.”

The information paints an inspiring picture of what Catholics in the U.S. have accomplished by funding nearly 320 specific projects in more than 30 developing countries.

“In addressing hunger alone, we took on 92 projects in 18 countries and delivered 20,592,416 meals to needy families. We also blessed 96,417 people with clean, safe water; built, repaired or upgraded 391 homes for 2,270 people; shipped $1,325,284 in COVID-19 prevention supplies to seven countries; funded academic scholarships for 4,531 needy students; and shipped $17,145,443 in supplies to help families struggling after natural disasters,” Cavnar said.

“That’s just part of the impact our donors have had on the lives of the poor.

Compassionate U.S. Catholics have also funded agricultural projects and microloans to help families become more self-sufficient. These incredible works of mercy have transformed lives and communities in profound ways.”

Cross Catholic Outreach achieves these works of mercy by partnering with a diocese or in-country ministry to minimize expenses.

“We want as much of the donor’s dollar as possible to reach the poor, and the best

way to do that is to empower in-country Church leaders and programs already working in the trenches in countries like Haiti, Guatemala, Kenya, Malawi and the Philippines,” Cavnar confirmed. “It is an approach that also supports the Church’s spiritual formation programs, building the faith of the community.”

Africa is one of the places Cross Catholic Outreach focuses its efforts, and the results it has achieved there have

“We want as much of the donor’s dollar as possible to reach the poor, and the best way to do that is to empower in-country Church leaders.”

Jim Cavnar, President Cross Catholic Outreach

been life transforming — particularly its efforts to feed the hungry, educate the poor and supply communities with safe water. (See related story on the opposite page.)

When asked why Cross Catholic Outreach places such importance on results and on keeping its donors informed about the impact of their giving, Cavnar said the ministry pursues these goals because it creates a stronger bond between the ministry, Church missions and those who contribute.

“People often want to give to support a specific cause — feeding the hungry, building dignified housing or providing clean water to the poor. They also want to know that their gift produced a lasting, positive change,” Cavnar said.

“Our goal is to provide them with those opportunities and to show them that their giving has an impact. When we do that, they are thrilled and often want to become even more involved. Many end up supporting multiple Church missions and helping us further expand our

Addressing hunger in poor communities is a priority for Cross Catholic Outreach. The charity’s recent annual report shows progress made in 18 countries, where 20,592,414 meals were delivered to needy children and families. Behind these impressive statistics are the joyful faces of the many children who were blessed by this work of mercy. outreaches to the poor of the world.”

Readers interested in supporting Cross Catholic Outreach food programs and other outreaches to the poor can contribute through the ministry brochure inserted in this issue or send tax-deductible gifts to: Cross Catholic Outreach, Dept. AC02036, PO Box

97168, Washington DC 20090-7168.

The ministry has a special need for partners willing to make gifts on a monthly basis. Use the inserted brochure to become a Mission Partner or write “Monthly Mission Partner” on mailed checks to be contacted about setting up those arrangements.

Dedicated Catholics Make Major Impact on Poverty by Serving as ‘Mission Partners’ Consistency and reliability have always been recognized as important character traits in American culture, and most of us bring up our children to uphold those values, especially in the workplace. We do that because we know consistency and reliability produce stability and help us weather the unexpected storms in life.

The same is true when it comes to charity, according to Jim Cavnar, president of Cross Catholic Outreach.

That is why his ministry cherishes its

Mission Partners — donors who have committed to monthly giving.

“Mission Partners represent the foundation of our ministry,” he said.

“Their commitment to helping the poor on a monthly basis gives us a steady, reliable way to serve. Without them, the missions we support in the developing world would never know whether they could rely on us to help with long-term projects, and it would be much more difficult for us to respond to disaster situations. When we can depend on the

support of Mission Partners, we can move forward confidently and take on every challenge that’s put before us.”

Because monthly giving is so important to Cross Catholic Outreach’s work overseas, the ministry makes it as easy as possible for its donors to become Mission Partners. That option is included on appeals, on the charity’s website and in the brochures it distributes at Catholic parishes and in Catholic newspapers.

“Ultimately, we ask people to become Mission Partners because monthly

giving has a huge impact on the priests, religious sisters and Catholic lay leaders working in the trenches, fighting to end hunger and alleviate poverty,” Cavnar said. “When they face an unexpected crisis or a natural disaster strikes, the missions know they can come to us for help because our Mission Partners have provided the resources needed to overcome those immediate challenges.

We can make decisions in a matter of hours and send help within days — and the poor are blessed as a result.”

RIGHT PAGE MAY 26, 2022

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 13

PAID ADVERTISEMENT

American Catholics Rally in Support of Catholic Ministry’s Effort to Address African Water Crisis In recent years, several African countries have been in the news because of droughts that resulted in famines, but according to Jim Cavnar, president of Cross Catholic Outreach, those natural disasters are only part of the water crisis families must endure.

“Even when weather patterns are normal, millions of families in Africa face extraordinary challenges getting safe water,” he explained. “Of course, every African country is different and the situation in each of them is unique, but water scarcity is such a common problem that we chose to make providing water solutions a priority mission for Cross Catholic Outreach.”

The ministry’s most recent annual report includes details on the projects the charity took on just this last year — projects that supplied safe water to nearly 100,000 people. In addition to the installation of effective water systems, Cross Catholic Outreach’s donors also supported educational efforts to address the health and sanitation problems that are typically linked to water scarcity.

“The installation of wells, special filters and community water distribution systems are all important, but we believe these families will only thrive if they understand the dangers of unsafe water and poor sanitation practices,” Cavnar said. “To that end, the local field staff works with local Catholic leaders to provide something we call WASH training.”

WASH is a commonly used acronym for an approach to helping the poor that focuses on WAter, Sanitation

Above: Water scarcity is a major problem in many African nations. Families are often forced to draw their water from unsafe sources that can cause serious illnesses.

Below: Church leaders supported by Cross Catholic Outreach use drilling equipment to provide clean water wells in the neediest communities.

and Hygiene. Most experts agree that this combination of material aid and educational support vastly improves the impact of the water projects implemented in developing countries.

“We take it a step further by adding spiritual support to our WASH programs wherever possible, because we believe every outreach we undertake should inspire a greater faith in Christ,” Cavnar added. “Opening minds and hearts to God is essential because only his divine love and guidance can create a lasting transformation of lives, families and communities. Acts of charity done without this spiritual support are never going to be as effective.”

In the case of the water and sanitation projects Cross Catholic Outreach implements, community involvement is also an important part of the process, according to Cavnar.

The American Catholics who support

the ministry’s humanitarian missions prefer this forward-thinking approach to charity and often tell Cavnar they appreciate his goal of strengthening communities and promoting greater self-sufficiency.

“We must always address urgent issues like hunger and the need for safe water, but our ultimate goal should always be to restore dignity to the poor by helping them earn a living wage and advance in life,” Cavnar said. “I think most charitable donors want that too.

They are eager to help end the suffering hunger and unsafe water create, but they also want to see long-term progress achieved in these poor communities.

They want to give these families hope and the tools they need to escape the poverty that has ensnared them for generations. My hope is that American Catholics will continue to support our efforts in Africa so more can be done to help the poorest of the poor.”

How to Help To fund Cross Catholic Outreach’s effort to help the poor worldwide, use the postage-paid brochure inserted in this newspaper, or mail your gift to Cross Catholic Outreach, Dept. AC02036, PO Box 97168, Washington, DC 20090-7168. The brochure also includes instructions on becoming a Mission Partner and making a regular monthly donation to this cause.

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

14 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

MAY 26, 2022

FAITH+CULTURE A priest, a psychologist and a college president: Meet Father James Burns

By Christina Capecchi For The Catholic Spirit Father James Burns has been recognized as an outstanding Minnesota leader. He relies on his psychology doctorate, his priestly formation and his Lasallian values in his role as president of St. Mary’s University of Minnesota, which includes a Minneapolis campus with bachelor’s completion and graduate programs in business, health and human services, and education. “I’m always interested in attending talks and being part of the intellectual life,” said Father Burns, 55, a priest of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. During the bustling graduation season, he reflected on the value of a Catholic education. Like several Twin Cities Catholic high schools, St. Mary’s was established in Winona by Christian Brothers, who were founded by St. Jean-Baptiste de La Salle.

Q Tell me about your childhood in St. Paul.

A I grew up on the West End of St. Paul, the Fort RoadWest Seventh Street area, in the parish of St. Francis de Sales. Our social life as a family circled around the parish. Everybody knew everybody. We played basketball in the alleyways. Dodgeball, Kick the Can, boot hockey.

Q You went on to become a priest and a licensed

psychologist. How did your psychology background serve you as a priest?

A I was in Boston for my doctorate when the clergy

abuse crisis happened, and we did some initial landmark work at Boston University looking at the effects of the abuse crisis in the life of the parish. We coined a term called “spiritual post-traumatic stress.” It’s the effect of the abuse crisis coupled with the wholesale closing of parishes. The experience people were having was a lot like what we would see in post-trauma. We found that some people were still growing spiritually in dynamic ways. They found a way to grow through that. Others didn’t.

Q What was the difference?

A In post-trauma, world concepts and views are

shattered. Those who were able to reconstitute those concepts and have a broader understanding of the human condition could dive in more intentionally.

They used it as an opportunity to really dig in, making sense of suffering — as opposed to those who had a more cursory approach to faith.

Q Would a psychology degree serve every priest?

A I wish every priest had more tools to understand the

challenges that the faithful are dealing with, so they can take a step back and try to have a more immediate evaluation of the situation rather than reacting. It’s that pause. Sometimes people can come at a priest and it can be very jarring, so it helps to be able to say: “I don’t have to have all the answers right here. I can just listen — and listen for the messages underneath what I’m hearing.” We sometimes say: The issue is not the issue.

Q As president of a Catholic university, you have

our undergrad college in Winona. We reviewed majors that have low enrollment, meaning not in demand by students. We will phase those out over time, which will allow us to invest and focus on majors that are of greatest interest for students and employers and that we can deliver especially well. Our Lasallian Catholic mission calls for a practical education rooted in character formation along with a deep grounding in liberal arts.

Students will continue to be required to take liberal arts courses as part of their core requirements including theology, history and English; they just won’t be offered as majors. This well-rounded core coupled with in-demand majors and virtue formation prepares students for excellent careers and ethical lives of impact and service.

Q Lasallian tradition identifies 12 virtues of a good

COURTESY ST. MARY’S UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA

a unique vantage point on the value of a Catholic education. Can you speak to this?

A There’s a direct connection to how a person leads

ethically and what Catholic education is supposed to be about. Fundamentally, a Catholic education is inspired

by Christ, who is the best role model. If Christ is the center of Catholic education, then naturally will emerge the opportunity to challenge the dominant paradigms we see and ask: What does it mean to be a good person? What is ethical? We want to help our students experience God’s grace, his presence, even if they aren’t of any faith. We view them with a God-like perspective.

We try to convey: “You are of inestimable value because you are you.”

Q You’ve said that a Catholic university should never be afraid to ask tough questions. Can you expand on that?

A If we’re grounded in goodness and we’re seeking

the truth, and we know, by our tradition, that truth is knowable — it’s not some abstract thing that God is hiding from us — there isn’t any respectful question that should be off limits. And we should bring in people who have different opinions because, if what we are looking for is the truth, it will emerge from that. Having those two people with varying perspectives engage in dialogue can offer incredible insight.

Q What’s the hardest thing about being president of a college?

A One of the hardest things right now is really staying

true to the mission of a Catholic university in the midst of challenging enrollment times. Not to allow solely enrollment — or the financial condition — to drive the mission, but the mission to be clear. Sometimes you can’t do everything you may want to do.

Q That brings us to the news that St. Mary’s is

cutting 11 majors over the next few years, which will mean laying off 13 faculty members. Can you speak to that decision?

A To ensure financial stability and a bright future, we

needed to make difficult decisions, specific to the size of

leader, including gentleness, patience, silence and humility. What keeps you humble?

A I’m regularly humbled by the thoughtfulness, the

sincerity and the deep understanding of many of the folks here at St. Mary’s, a number of whom report to me directly. When I’m consulting with them, I’m realizing, “I may have a direction or a way that I think would be helpful — and as a leader you have to have a vision — but it’s always better when you can bring in those other voices.” Humility allows you to shift your original thinking and incorporate things that are often better or make the experience or idea more rich. I rely a lot on the staff who work with me, day in and day out. We challenge each other — that’s what humility allows. You can be respectfully challenged without diminishing the other person. That’s a key to a successful, humble leader.

Q Generosity is another virtue on the list.

A Humility and generosity are tightly linked because a

person who’s truly humble recognizes how much has been given from God and wants to share that back.

When we truly realize the immensity, we’re in awe of what God has done for us and then reflect on what we have to give. Throughout the day in my own prayer, I try to call to mind things I’m grateful for. You have to be deliberate about it at first, but gratitude can punctuate your day. It’s a great antidote to becoming negative or overly critical.

Q A new batch of graduates is now heading out into the world. How do you think this class is different having been shaped by COVID?

A No one would’ve wished for or wanted COVID, but it

happened. God works miracles even through the most desperate circumstances. We believe in providence. Bad things happen so that greater good comes of it or greater evil may be avoided. A greater good that came of it is I see the students being more resilient, more adaptive.

Even if they missed major milestones, they learned how to turn that into gratitude for what they have rather than becoming resentful for what they don’t have. It’s allowed them to communicate in a whole new way about challenges and be not just sympathetic but be problem solvers in a holistic way.

Let your Faith Take Flight Our expansion includes contemplative gardens and courtyard areas with traditional graves, cremation graves and a beautifully designed columbarium with more than 300 niches for cremation.

Trips • 2022-2023

Wisconsin Shrines (Fr. David Grundman & Fr. Jerry Mischke)

• August 30-31, 2022

California Missions/Wineries • Oct. 22-29, 2022 Father David

Branson Jesus Christmas Show • Dec. 1-4, 2022

Father Jerry

Guadalupe (Fr. Derek, Fr. Doug) • March 3-10, 2023 Find out more at: www.saintvdp.org/cemetery or (763) 425-2210

Italy (Fr. Peter) • March 13-24, 2023 Father Derek

Father Doug

JeriCo Christian Journeys • jericochristianjourneys.com for details or a brochure call 1-877-453-7426

Father Peter

MAY 26, 2022

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 15

HERE, ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE. Mark 9:23

Here, we live and learn by our Lasallian Catholic beliefs. Our students join and contribute to a community called on to live and care for each person created in the likeness and image of God. • Recognized as a 2021-22 national Catholic College of Distinction.

• Ranked as Minnesota’s ‘Best Value’ by U.S. News & World Report, 2022.* • Renowned transformational learning community, emphasizing academic quality, access, value and real-world preparation. *Midwest regional universities

Learn more: smumn.edu/faith

1689 Catholic Spirit (May Issue) 10.33x13.5.indd 1

5/9/22 10:37 AM

16 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

MAY 26, 2022

FOCUSONFAITH SUNDAY SCRIPTURES | FATHER NELS GJENGDAHL

Ascension of our Lord

During my years in college, my faith took on a greater maturity than I had known in my youth. One of the ways this happened was in my prayer of the rosary. It was at the Newman Center at North Dakota State University where I experienced the power of the prayer of the rosary — how through a meditation on the mysteries, God could share his love and mercy with me with great intimacy.

However, there was one mystery whose meaning and significance remained elusive to me for quite some time: the Ascension. The other mysteries, such as the Resurrection or the descent of the Holy Spirit, have a significance that is so obvious. But I was always confused by the significance of Jesus departing from his Apostles, his disciples, from the ones whom he

ASK FATHER MIKE | FATHER MICHAEL SCHMITZ

Feeling like you never do enough and just want to quit?

Q I serve at my parish all of the

time. Whenever my pastor (or really anyone) asks me to help, I usually say yes. On top of that, I feel like I am never doing enough, praying enough or serving enough.

I just want to quit. What do I do?

A First, let me thank you so much for reaching out.

There are times when we are simply at the end of our rope and we can feel like we have tried everything.

These are the times when we are most tempted to flip the table, give up and just be done with all of it. It sounds like this is exactly the kind of moment you find yourself in right now. So, before you abandon ship, let me thank you for asking for help.

It can be absolutely exhausting when a person feels like they have to do it all, when they feel like they have to do it perfectly, and when they feel like it is never enough. The fact that you have acknowledged and admitted this means that you are open to hearing the truth. And the truth is: You don’t have to do it all. But

loved. Finally, one quiet night in the chapel, the Lord helped me to understand this great mystery much more intimately: It was not about Jesus leaving humanity; rather, it was about humanity entering into the most intimate relationship with God. When Jesus descended to humanity in the incarnation, humanity was joined to divinity for all eternity. Now, the divine creator of the heavens has come down to our level, walked with us, talked with us and fully become one with us. But the joining was not yet consummate. Not until the Ascension was the relationship between God and humanity complete.

In the Gospel of Luke, the author notes, “As (Jesus) blessed them he parted from them and was taken up to heaven.” It was at this moment that a fully human being was brought to heaven, not just a “place” or “location” but into the very nature of God himself. As you read this column, there is now a human being, body, blood, soul, at the very center of who our God is.

First, the connection between God and humanity is now eternal. Through this occurrence, God has now lifted the humanity that we all share into his very heart.

This means that when we speak to God in prayer, we are not merely speaking to a divine being who observes us from on high, but rather, we speak to one who knows the fullness of the human existence and freely embraces

our humanity in love.

The second gift of the Ascension is that now human dignity has been elevated beyond its own nature. I am a fan of hockey, and I recall one time when I was invited into an NHL locker room. As I walked in, I knew this was not where I belonged. I am not good at playing hockey, and I certainly didn’t make the team. However, I was invited into the space, not because I was worthy, but because of the generosity of another. In a similar way, humanity is not worthy of being welcomed into the very heart of the Trinity. However, when Jesus Christ ascended back to his Father, the humanity that we all share was elevated to a dignity beyond our own imagining. This means that the way I see and interact with my fellow humans needs to respond to this great honor.

Our Lord’s ascension began as a rather elusive event for me to understand. Now, it is one of my favorite mysteries of the rosary. On this day, let us celebrate with the original witnesses and recognize the gift that this celebration is for all of humanity. Our God has united himself to us and elevated our nature to his love.

before you do anything, there is one thing you need to do. You need to be reminded who you are.

In our culture, our worth is often based on our work.

And this is partly true. When it comes to sports or work, those who bring greater benefit to the team or to the company have a more highly valued place. But when it comes to life, this is decidedly untrue. Your worth is not predicated on your output, even when it comes to “Church work.” There are so many Christians who will buy into the lie that their place in the Father’s heart rises and falls depending on how much they do or how well they perform. That is contrary to the Gospel, and yet so many of us believe it.

We can be tempted to put our mission first. After all, the mission is important, isn’t it? If you don’t do it, who will? And yet, over the centuries, Christians have discovered that this is a recipe for burnout and disaster.

The great saints of the Church have discovered another way of thinking. And this has recently been formulated in three letters (representing three words): R-I-M. Relationship. Identity. Mission. If you remember (and keep in order) these three reminders, you will be saved from what you described in your letter.

Relationship comes first. Always. When we remember that we have been brought into relationship with God the Father, everything changes. We can let go of the endless working for approval. We can abandon the temptation to believe that we are obligated to continuously prove our worth. In baptism, you were given access to the Father, through the Son, in the power of the Holy Spirit. You have been brought into relationship with the most Holy Trinity; God himself!

This relationship is a pure gift; none of us has ever done anything to deserve it. It simply flows from the fact that

God has loved you first.

This relationship gives you your Identity. Too often, we take our identity from our mission. But that is a lie.

If it were true, what would happen when our mission changes? What would happen when we no longer have anything to offer? What would happen when the mission is over? No. Our identity is a direct result of having been brought into relationship with God. When you were baptized, you were given a new identity; you were made into a child of God. This is what and who you are. And it is not based off your performance. It is based off the relationship you have been brought into with God himself.

Lastly comes Mission. Our mission (the tasks God has entrusted to us) comes only as a consequence of having been brought into relationship with the Father and having been given our identity by that relationship.

When the mission changes (or when we fail at our mission), we experience sadness but not devastation, because our mission or our success does not determine our identity or worth. When you and I live out of this truth, we become free. In your case, you will become free to say “no” when you are invited to serve. You will become free to not pray all of the prayers or all of the devotions that other people might be doing. You will be free, not to quit everything, but to quit some things.

In fact, I wonder if that isn’t what God is asking you to do in your exhaustion: remember whose you are, remember who you are, and to simply do less as a beloved child of the Father.

Father Gjengdahl is chaplain for Holy Family Catholic High School in Victoria and sacramental minister for Sts. Peter and Paul in Medina and St. Thomas in Corcoran.

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

DAILY Scriptures Sunday, May 29 The Ascension of the Lord Acts 1:1-11 Eph 1:17-23 or Heb 9:24-28; 10:19-23 Lk 24:46-53 Monday, May 30 Acts 19:1-8 Jn 16:29-33 Tuesday, May 31 Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Zep 3:14-18a or Rom 12:9-16 Lk 1:39-56 Wednesday, June 1 St. Justin, martyr Acts 20:28-38 Jn 17:11b-19

Thursday, June 2 Acts 22:30; 23:6-11 Jn 17:20-26 Friday, June 3 St. Charles Lwanga and companions, martyrs Acts 25:13b-21 Jn 21:15-19 Saturday, June 4 Acts 28:16-20, 30-31 Jn 21:20-25 Sunday, June 5 Pentecost Sunday Acts 2:1-11 1 Cor 12:3b-7, 12-13 or Rom 8:8-17 Jn 20:19-23

Monday, June 6 Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of The Church Gn 3:9-15, 20 or Acts 1:12-14 Jn 19:25-34 Tuesday, June 7 1 Kgs 17:7-16 Mt 5:13-16 Wednesday, June 8 1 Kgs 18:20-39 Mt 5:17-19 Thursday, June 9 1 Kgs 18:41-46 Mt 5:20-26 Friday, June 10 1 Kgs 19:9a, 11-16 Mt 5:27-32

Saturday, June 11 St. Barnabas, apostle Acts 11:21b-26; 12:1-3 Mt 5:33-37 Sunday, June 12 Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity Prv 8:22-31 Rom 5:1-5 Jn 16:12-15 Monday, June 13 St. Anthony of Padua, priest and doctor of the Church 1 Kgs 21:1-16 Mt 5:38-42 Tuesday, June 14 1 Kgs 21:17-29 Mt 5:43-48

Wednesday, June 15 2 Kgs 2:1, 6-14 Mt 6:1-6, 16-18 Thursday, June 16 Sir 48:1-14 Mt 6:7-15 Friday, June 17 2 Kgs 11:1-4, 9-18, 20 Mt 6:19-23 Saturday, June 18 2 Chr 24:17-25 Mt 6:24-34 Sunday, June 19 Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ Gn 14:18-20 1 Cor 11:23-26 Lk 9:11b-17

MAY 26, 2022

COMMENTARY FAITH AT HOME | LAURA KELLY FANUCCI

A story of grudges chipped away with the right chisels.

Resurrection was meant to be shared, spread and shouted. If we do not speak of resurrection, we lock up God’s best stories within cold tombs.

What’s more, when you tune your eyes and ears to the infinite ways God works to bring life from death, you will start to glimpse God everywhere.

The hair on your arms will rise when a child asks a question about life or faith that you have never thought to ask.

We don’t talk enough about resurrection.

The memory in your bones will leap like joy when you offer How a marriage can be resurrected: How forgiveness to a loved one and remember how it feels to start what felt dead and gone, ready to be buried over. in the dark earth forever, is not always The tidy categories you assigned to heaven and earth will dead and gone. How a friendship can be start to unravel when you listen to a friend admit that in resurrected: How speaking hard words can deepest grief, they felt surprising joy — and they never had a breathe new life into brittle bones. How place to share such a story so she buried it for years. relationships can come back to life through Ordinary hints of resurrection will start to push into your grace, mercy and forgiveness. life, certain as spring, stubborn as seedlings.

How miracles happen every day in hospitals, clinics and You could start to see dawn as affirmation: that God has churches. How every priest and doctor, if you press them for deemed it good and worthy that we keep going, offering us hops, dynamic Church leaders, andwill1,000+ Catholics from a story and if they trust you with the truth, tell you they another chance to try again. things with their own eyes that cannot be explained You could open the confessional door, taking one step r a dayhave of seen inspiration and advocacy at our State Capitol. by anything they learned in school. beyond the fear that kept you on the side of long-held sin, How children secrets to God’s upside-down ts 22-and-under FREE!holdthe Learn the issues, hear dynamic stepping out again with the freedom of forgiveness. kingdom. How freely the young speak of life, death and speakers, and meet your legislators.We don’t talk enough about resurrection. But we could start heavenwith — and how arresting their simple truths can be to to try, and it would change us — you and me, our children nch included older ears. and grandchildren, our friends and neighbors, this lost and  See the newly renovated State Capitol! lonely world.

We need to tell many stories: loss and grief, suffering and If we follow Mary Magdalene to the tomb and stay when love, doubt and faith. Stories that challenge and complicate. others leave, if we turn around when God calls our name, if But we also need the startling stories that defy category. we let go of what we carried and take up new truth into open Like the first disciples who found the empty tomb, we too hands, then we can keep spreading the good news, telling have run and stumbled, disbelieving and grappling with what what we have seen and heard and known. makes no sense by earthly terms.

We don’t talk enough about resurrection. But each year we But if we could make ourselves vulnerable, like Christ have the whole season of Easter to keep trying. stretching out wounded hands so others would believe, we What stories will we tell this year? What truths will we find? might summon the courage to speak a few words — to a ARCHBISHOP BERNARD HEBDA BISHOP ANDREW COZZENS GLORIA PURIVS spouse, a friend or a child — about the holiest glimpses we A parishioner of St. Joseph the Worker in Maple Grove, Black Catholics United for Life Archdiocese of Saint Paul & Minneapolis have been given.

Fanucci is a writer, speaker, and author of several books including A story of sobriety after years of addiction.

“Everyday Sacrament: The Messy Grace of Parenting.” Her work A story of a lost child returning home. can be found at laurakellyfanucci.com.

Speaking of eal chresurrection allenges. Catholics are called to respond.

ARCH 9, 2017 • SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA

OTECT LIFE & MAN DIGNITY

s is our moment.

Combating the Let’s go !

INSIDE THE CAPITOL | MCC

ACTION ALERT Learn ways you can support a culture of life at walkingwithmoms.com.

throwaway MCC continues supporting nd register at Cathoculture licsAtTheCapitfor oEthical l.orHealthcare, g principled end-of-life care and advocating for compassionate

STS:

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 17

from womb to tomb SPONSORS:

As the legislative session winds down, lawmakers are pushing bills that energize their supporters ahead of the election. This was visible May 12 when Minnesota Senate Democrats attempted to vote on nine bills, some of which promoted pro-abortion ideology. Fortunately, each attempt failed the procedural vote.

The cornerstone of the nine-bill package, SF 731, goes by the name Protect Reproductive Options Act. Minnesota Catholic Conference opposes this bill because it codifies the right to an abortion until birth without restrictions, denying prenatal justice to unborn children who are then discarded at will.

Their second bill, SF 1205, would remove Women’s Right to Know protections that safeguard mothers seeking an abortion by requiring the physician to share the medical risks of abortion, the gestational age of the baby and access to state-sponsored materials that share alternatives to abortion.

Other proposals included mandating insurance coverage of contraception (SF 1884), and increasing funds for the state’s Family Planning Grant, which gives money straight to Planned Parenthood and other pro-abortion facilities (SF 644).

MCC opposes such bills, which promote a throwaway culture. Catholics and all people of goodwill must work together to ensure we never just talk the talk, but that we are truly walking with moms in need. We can do this by supporting local pregnancy resource centers and promoting pro-family policies such as increasing funding for the state’s Positive Alternatives Grant program.

With our partner organization, the Minnesota Alliance

alternatives to legalizing physician-assisted suicide. For seven years in a row, efforts have stopped the PAS bills from even being brought up for a full vote in committee. This year was no different, as HF 1358/SF 1352 was not heard in committee.

Pope Francis has spoken out against the legalization of PAS saying, “we can and must reject the temptation, also induced by legislative changes, to use medicine to support a possible willingness of the patient to die, providing assistance for suicide or directly causing death by euthanasia.”

The Catechism also teaches that PAS and by “whatever its motives and means, direct euthanasia consists in putting an end to the lives of handicapped, sick or dying persons … is morally unacceptable” (CCC No. 2277). Instead, Catholics are called to create principled care models that support the medical needs of all people. Protecting the choices of a few by legalizing assisted suicide would endanger the health care choices of all.

The alliance has built bipartisan opposition to PAS while promoting authentically compassionate care. The Palliative Care Advisory Council bill (HF 2517/SF 2400) would fully fund the Council, allowing it to fulfill its purpose of analyzing barriers to greater palliative care access. The Palliative Care Definition bill (HF 3148/SF 2912) would modify the state statute to accurately define palliative care, which could help expand access to palliative care insurance coverage in the future.

“Inside the Capitol” is an update from Minnesota Catholic Conference staff during the legislative session.

“Catholic Watchmen” by Deacon Gordon Bird is online only this month at TheCatholicSpirit.com.

LETTERS

Students’ lost faith I was intrigued to read about the recent panel at UST, particularly Dr. Ann Maloney’s comments that “Our colleges are indeed religious colleges now, but the religion isn’t Catholicism.” I am a recent graduate of another large midwestern Catholic university and I saw many friends enter as joyful, devoted Catholics only to leave the faith entirely after only four years. Many friends tell of similar stories at other legacy Catholic universities. This isn’t just a systemic problem; this is a scandal. Now is the time for us concerned alumni, students, faculty, administrators, clergy and benefactors to reclaim our beloved Catholic universities that have been hollowed out by a cynical, toxic and empty culture that predominates contemporary academia. And if they won’t courageously preach the Gospel of Christ and all that it requires of them, then we need to redirect our donor and tuition dollars to institutions that will.

Patrick Freese Our Lady of Grace, Edina

Sign language I read with interest the article about St. Thomas and Catholic Identity.

I couldn’t help but reflect on how often I have walked the campus these last few weeks and observed several signs wishing “our Muslim friends” a blessed Ramadan. It seemed strange that nowhere were there signs during Holy Week and Passover wishing the same sentiments to “our Christian and Jewish Friends.” It’s no wonder some feel the university has lost its Catholic identity.

Father Bob Hart Retired priest

Death penalty positions I hope that Archbishop Cordileone will refuse communion to Supreme Court Justice Alito, Supreme Court Justice Thomas, Supreme Court Justice Roberts, Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh, and Supreme Court Justice Coney Barrett for their stand on the death penalty (“San Francisco prelate says no Communion for Pelosi over her abortion stand,” TheCatholicSpirit. com, May 20). If only that majority of five Catholics would join the other Catholic, Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor in denouncing the death penalty. Then we would not be in the company of such countries as Afghanistan, China, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Syria and others, who value life as little as they do their political opponents.

Elizabeth Rosenwinkel St. Albert the Great, Minneapolis Share your perspective by emailing TheCatholicSpirit@archspm.org. Please limit your letter to the editor to 150 words and include your parish and phone number. The Commentary pages do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Catholic Spirit.

18 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

MAY 26, 2022

Why I am Catholic Catholic

By Luke Bauman

I’

COURTESY JOE MCDONALD, MCDONALD’S STUDIO OF PHOTOGRAPHY

ve thought often about this question over the years, as have

is a real blessing. Understanding how our blessed Lord works

many of us, I’m sure.

in my life becomes easier to see and understand. Now that

First, I was born into the Catholic faith. I was blessed

to be born into a family with a strong Catholic practice

As I continue on this journey, the beauty and harmony of the teachings of our Catholic faith slowly come into better focus.

and identity that goes back many generations. I was raised in a home where prayer and various discussions about our faith were and still are a regular part of family life. My parish, St. Maximilian Kolbe (formerly St. Peter) in Delano, has always been a reliable constant in my life. My first

trip in and my last trip out of the door of a church will likely be here in Delano — unless God has other ideas!

That is a straightforward way to begin to answer the question “Why am I Catholic.” But in a sense, this question is never fully answered. The way I look at it, this is a question I should ask myself and answer every day of my life. God wants me to choose him and his Church in freedom. I have to “own it” every day.

And “owning it” certainly looks different as I grow older.

My free choice certainly looks different in my middle-age stage of life than it did when I was 15 years old, or 30 years old, and so forth. Like ancient Israel’s faith journey, as I get older, being able to look back and reflect on more of my life

I’ve been able to experience the fruits of a few crosses, it is a little easier to examine my conscience as to what motivates me in my volunteer activities, and even in running my insurance agency.

This perspective I am attempting to convey — my ability to recognize and be grateful for these blessings, and my hope for eternal life — is all gift from the Lord. It is the Church our Lord established 2,000 years ago that he sustains and guides today. He allowed me to be born into it, and he presents it anew to me each day of my life. The teachings and the sacramental life of his Church are his way of guiding me ever closer to him. As I continue on this journey, the beauty and harmony of the teachings of our Catholic faith slowly come into better focus.

Behold, he makes all things new!

Bauman, 54, is active in pro-life organizations, the Delano business community and bearing witness to a culture of life in the political arena. He likes to travel, and he owns and operates Bauman Insurance and Financial.

“Why I am Catholic” is an ongoing series in The Catholic Spirit.

Want to share why you are Catholic? Submit your story in 300-500 words to CatholicSpirit@archspm.org with “Why I am Catholic” in the subject line.

MAY 26, 2022

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 19

CALENDAR Archdiocesan Synod: Pentecost Vigil Mass — June 4: 7 p.m. at the Cathedral of St. Paul, 239 Selby Ave., St. Paul. Catholics are invited to this historic gathering of the local Church, joining Archbishop Bernard Hebda, Bishop Joseph Williams and 500 Synod participants from across the archdiocese who are meeting June 3-5 for the Synod Assembly, the final step in the threeyear Synod journey. archspm.org/events

PARISH EVENTS St. Bridget’s Summer Rummage Sale — June 2-4 at St. Bridget’s parish center, 3811 Emerson Ave. N., Minneapolis. June 2: 8:30 a.m.

–5 p.m.; June 3: 8:30 a.m.–4 p.m.; June 4 ($5 bag day): 8 a.m.–11 a.m. stbridgetnorthside.com Holy Childhood Rummage Sale — June 9-10: 9 a.m.–6 p.m. at Holy Childhood, 1435 Midway Pkwy., St. Paul. No entrance fee. Bag day June 10, afternoon only. Clothing, furniture, housewares, books, toys and games, jewelry, vintage. Entrance in parking lot behind church, off Pascal Street. holychildhoodparish.org

WORSHIP+RETREATS Women’s Silent Retreat — May 31-June 3 at Christ the King Retreat Center, 621 First Ave. S., Buffalo. $200 suggested donation. $50 deposit per person, includes three nights and nine meals. kingshouse.com

Women’s Midweek Retreat — June 14-16 at Franciscan Retreats and Spirituality Center, 16385 St. Francis Lane, Prior Lake. Theme: “Hope Rising; Revisioning Our Dream.” Includes scheduled and open time with confession, anointing, Mass, Holy Hour and prayer sessions. franciscanretreats.net Widows’ Day of Reflection — June 18: 8 a.m.–1 p.m. at Our Lady of Grace, 5071 Eden Ave., Edina. 11th Annual Widows’ Day of Reflection. Father Michael Becker will speak on “Living Widowhood in the Divine Will.” $25, includes breakfast and lunch. Register by June 8. tinyurl.com/ypa7shv9 Eucharistic Procession to Inaugurate Eucharistic Revival — June 19: 11–11:45 a.m., Cathedral of St. Paul, 239 Selby Ave., St Paul. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is launching a three-year Eucharistic Revival on Corpus Christi Sunday June 19 (concluding with a National Congress in 2024). The procession with the Blessed Sacrament will go around the city block of the Cathedral of St. Paul following the 10 a.m. Mass. eucharisticrevival.org Silent Retreat (men and women) — June 23-26 at Franciscan Retreats and Spirituality Center, 16385 St. Francis Lane, Prior Lake. Theme: “Hope Rising; Revisioning Our Dream.” Includes scheduled and open time with confession, anointing, Mass, Holy Hour and prayer sessions. franciscanretreats.net

Dementia-Friendly Mass — June 2: 1:30 p.m. at St. Odilia, 3495 Victoria St. N., Shoreview. Special Mass at St. Odilia for those with memory loss and their caregivers. Everyone is welcome. Hospitality will follow with community resource information available. Please enter through Door 11 on southeast side of the building. 651-484-6681. stodilia.org

Pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe — June 25: 8 a.m.–7 p.m. Leaves from St. Rose of Lima, 2048 Hamline Ave., Roseville. Join St. Rose of Lima for a one-day pilgrimage to the National Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse, Wisconsin, on feast day of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. 651-645-9389. saintroseoflima.net

17th Annual Northeast Eucharistic Procession — June 12: 3 p.m. at Holy Cross, 1621 University Ave., Minneapolis. Procession begins at 3 p.m. at Holy Cross and will conclude with Benediction at All Saints, 435 Fourth St. NE, Minneapolis. Shuttle service back to Holy Cross provided. ourholycross. org/events

Rural Life Mass — June 26: 1:30 p.m. at the Jack and Debbie Lorentz family farm, 12670 270th St. E., Cannon Falls. Host parish St. Pius V, Cannon Falls. Celebrant Archbishop Hebda. Enjoy a box lunch and hotdogs following Mass (freewill offering), plus music, children’s activities and games. archspm.org/rural-life-sunday-2/

“Come and See” exploring life as a Secular Franciscan — June 26: 2–4 p.m. at Epiphany, 1900 111th Ave. NW, Coon Rapids. Meeting in the Charity Room. An informational meeting about life as a secular Franciscan. For information, contact Teresa Walker, OFS, 763-553-1343 or Patti Urick, OFS, 763-754-3062. queenofpeaceregion.org/coon-rapids-st-alphonsa Ignatian men’s silent retreat — ThursdaySunday most weeks at Demontreville Jesuit Retreat House, 8243 Demontreville Trail N., Lake Elmo. Freewill donation. demontrevilleretreat.com

MUSIC 2022 Basilica Music and Arts Immersion Camp — June 27-July 1: 9 a.m.–4 p.m. at the Basilica of St. Mary, 88 N. 17th St., Minneapolis. A choral music enrichment for singers in grades 4-8 (in the fall with unchanged voices). Youth will enjoy a week of arts immersion camp, complete with field trips to local arts and theater venues, percussion ensemble and hand bell ensemble. Registration ends June 12. Scholarships available. mary.org

VIRTUAL EVENTS “Joyful and Alive Conversation” — June 7: 7–8 p.m. Are you curious about religious life or how to discern God’s will for you? Single women ages 18-45 are invited to a casual, online “Joyful and Alive Conversation” with the School Sisters of Notre Dame. Learn more and register by June 6 at ssnd.org/events/6-7-22.

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

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

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

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

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

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20 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

MAY 26, 2022

CONGRATSGRADS! To honor graduating high school seniors in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, The Catholic Spirit asked three Catholic high schools — Chesterton Academy in Hopkins, St. Thomas Academy in Mendota Heights and Totino-Grace High School in Fridley — to nominate students for the following profiles. The three students selected credit their Catholic education with deepening their faith and commitment to living out its principles. The Catholic Spirit congratulates all 2022 high school graduates!

Learning ‘what it means to be Catholic’

Valuing deep faith on campus

Passionate about helping people

igh school senior Levi Meyer, 18, played the jester in performances of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” this spring at his school, Chesterton Academy in Hopkins. But he is serious about his future plans.

rowing up, Brennan Crow, 17, also felt a calling to the priesthood. “I kind of assumed that’s where I would end up,” he said, but in high school, he started “really discerning it because it was so close around the corner.”

aggie Walsh, 18, a self-described “people person,” plans to attend St. Olaf College in Northfield to study what she calls “people sciences.”

This fall, Meyer will enter St. John Vianney College Seminary at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. “Since I can remember, people have always told me, ‘You’re going to be a great priest’ or they’d think I have a lot of attributes that would make a good priest,” Meyer said. “My mom’s always been open to the possibility and encouraged me, so I’ve always been open to it.”

Those thoughts re-emerged one day after Mass his junior year at Chesterton while he was waiting in line to go to confession. Meyer heard the words, “You’re going to be a priest,” so he thought he’d best ponder it more. He stayed open to the idea and started considering it more seriously. “So, I was excited to apply, and I hope it brings a lot of fruit,” he said.

Meyer has been involved in his home parish, St. Nicholas in Elko New Market, since second grade when he became an altar server. He has enjoyed singing in the church choir, occasionally serving as a lector, helping with parish dinners and other events, and he has volunteered at vacation Bible school.

Meyer plays sports, too, especially soccer and basketball. He also enjoys hanging out with friends and singing the past two years in Chesterton’s chamber choir, which requires an audition. (All students at Chesterton are required to sing in the school choir, he said.) “I love singing,” he said. “I love music in general.”

Daily Mass at Chesterton has played a big part in keeping him on the right track and centered in faith every day, Meyer said.

He values “the foundations of knowledge” that Chesterton provided. “I think that’s a very important part of why I’ve grown to love Christ and his Church so much is that I’ve gotten such a good idea of what Catholicism is and what it means to be a Catholic,” he said. “I’m excited for the future.”

The senior at St. Thomas Academy in Mendota Heights said he has had many conversations with St. Thomas chaplain Father Mark Pavlak and spent a lot of time in prayer. The more he thought and prayed about it, the more confident he feels, Crow said. “I’ve realized that’s definitely where the Lord is calling me for next year, which is very exciting,” he said.

Crow plans to attend St. John Vianney College Seminary at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul.

Serving as a sacristan at Nativity of our Lord in St. Paul bolstered his faith and helped develop a deep love for liturgy outside of school, he said. And at St. Thomas Academy, Crow has gotten to know people of deep faith on campus, including Father Pavlak and his sophomore morality class teacher, Justin Matelski, whose class covered many “morality topics within the Church and within our daily lives,” Crow said.

Service is an important focus at the academy, Crow said. He worked as a camp counselor for a week, for example, and is serving for a week in late May at a local Catholic school. Crow also served with the school’s Honor Guard, whose members have carried a statue of Mary as part of a Marian rosary at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul, for example, and attended funerals as a way to support families, he said.

Crow has been one of eight members of the STA Choir for three years, which he said helped him develop leadership skills and bring out his faith. “It’s through acts like that and serving at Mass, you start to find pockets of people that share the same values as you,” he said, “and it’s fun to … grow in faith with other people.”

To the senior at Totino-Grace High School in Fridley, that means she is not yet certain of a major, but she does know she enjoys “community and relationship with people and understanding people.”

“So ‘people science’ is a good word for studying biology, psychology, sociology, anthropology, those types of things. And maybe even social work types of things, too,” she said. Walsh said she values the chance to learn at an “academically rigorous school” with “its sense of community,” which she also found at Totino-Grace.

Walsh served on a team that welcomes freshmen, through orientation and their first couple weeks at school. She also helps with open houses and tours for families of students considering Totino-Grace.

Walsh played soccer all four years at Totino-Grace and on a club team since early childhood.

She recalled three religion teachers who impacted her life and shaped her faith, from one who welcomed questions and debate; to a second who taught about women’s voices in theology, including Dorothy Day, St. Katharine Drexel and Sister Thea Bowman; and a third who taught service and justice.

With her teachers providing a solid base in Catholic Church teachings, Walsh wants to turn that academic learning into “real action.”

“Jesus was constantly with people,” she said. “He was one of the changemakers, someone who was with the poor, with people who were sick, with outcasts.”

She added:“My academic learning is that you have to go out and do the work and form relationship.”

One way Walsh does that is helping the Envision Community, which focuses on providing affordable housing for those experiencing instability. Her work is simple: hanging posters, completing paperwork, “random jobs,” she said. Envision leaders have shown her how to take teachings and put them into action, she said.

— Stories by Barb Umberger, photos by Dave Hrbacek