The Catholic Spirit - November 24, 2022

‘You Will Be My Witnesses’

Archbishop Hebda’s pastoral letter urges evangelization inspired by the Upper Room

By Joe Ruff The Catholic Spirit

In his first pastoral letter, after the first synod in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis in roughly 80 years, Archbishop Bernard Hebda invites all the faithful in prayer to visit the Upper Room — and then go forth together as witnesses to Christ, with the faith, courage and humility of the Apostles.

The Upper Room holds the mysteries of Jesus washing the Apostles’ feet, instituting the Eucharist and holy orders of the priesthood and the Holy Spirit’s descent on the Apostles at Pentecost, the archbishop writes. It all happened in the Upper Room, believed to have been on a hill in Jerusalem that is the site of pilgrimages still today.

“My dear brothers and sisters, let us then ascend to the Upper Room to learn how these lessons of faith, service, love and power will guide us in the fulfillment of our Synod dreams,” the archbishop says.

Titled “You Will Be My Witnesses: Gathered and Sent from the Upper Room,” Archbishop Hebda’s post-synodal pastoral letter was released Nov. 19-20, on the feast of Christ the King. It can be read at archspm org/synodletter

The archbishop dives deeply into the mysteries of the Upper Room, such as this excerpt from the washing of feet:

“At the Last Supper, on the brink of Jesus’s Passover offering of his very self, he rises from the table and lowers himself to wash the feet of his disciples,” the archbishop writes. “This reveals the mystery of the Incarnation in an

especially poignant way: Jesus has descended — from heaven as well as from the table — to serve us.”

And this paragraph on the Eucharist: “When we ‘take and eat’ in the Holy Mass, the love of God — substantially present in Christ — passes in mystery into us. In the Eucharist, Jesus has given what he commanded. Now, what he has done for us, we can do for others because it will be his love in us.”

The letter is born of discernment through the Holy Spirit, the archbishop writes, of three years of praying, listening and talking with thousands of parishioners across the archdiocese, while sharing the teachings of the Church.

That activity culminated in June at a three-day Archdiocesan Synod Assembly, in which nearly 500 men and women from across the archdiocese gathered in St. Paul.

Those gathered voted on 40 propositions, which were categorized into three Synod focus areas: 1) Forming parishes that are in the service of evangelization, 2) Forming missionary disciples who know Jesus’ love and respond to his call and 3) Forming youth and young adults in and for a Church that is always young.

Based on those votes, and discernment by the archbishop in prayer and consultation, the letter points the way forward for the next three years. It promises support in concrete ways from the archdiocese, a yearly guide to implementing each Synod priority, openness to new developments and continued listening. It also promises a one-day synodal gathering June 7, 2025, the Vigil of Pentecost, to address the

question of priorities for years four and five.

The nearly 60-page letter, with an appendix, and an accompanying implementation plan for the first year, sets out priorities for the next three years. Section and paragraph headings provide easy entry and re-entry points. The letter can be prayed with and studied. It is grounded and footnoted by Scripture, papal documents and homilies, Church teaching and history.

In the letter, Archbishop Hebda urges all people of the archdiocese to recognize and live out their gifts as witnesses of Christ, evangelists of the faith — laity, clergy and those in consecrated life.

It doesn’t have to be hard, the archbishop writes.

“If there is fear of the word ‘evangelization’ in many parts of the world today — and maybe even in our own hearts — it may be because we have a very narrow image of evangelization,” the archbishop writes. “Perhaps we have the misconception that the universal call of witness requires us all to knock on doors and preach on street corners. Some of us may be called and gifted to do this, but not all. St. Paul explains, ‘There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; there are different forms of service but the same Lord; there are different workings but the same God who produces all of them in everyone’ (1 Cor 12:4-6).

“How good to know that we do not each need to have all the gifts,” the archbishop writes. “How good to know we belong to a body with many members, who can supply in works of evangelization what we are lacking.”

‘What then should we do?’

Noting the question posed by the disciples of St. John the Baptist — “what then should we do?” — as the saint proclaimed a new chapter of sacred

Archbishop Hebda, Bishop Williams reflect on the pastoral letter

By Joe Ruff The Catholic Spirit

Archbishop Bernard Hebda and Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Williams sat down with The Catholic Spirit to discuss the archbishop’s post-synodal pastoral letter, “You Will Be My Witnesses: Gathered and Sent from the Upper Room,” that grew out of the Archdiocesan Synod. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Q Archbishop Hebda, Bishop Williams, thank you for joining us today in this momentous time for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Under your leadership, the archdiocese has held its first synod in roughly 80 years. The fruit of what became a three-year process is now in our hands, in the form of your pastoral letter, Archbishop Hebda, released on the weekend of the feast of Christ the King. Thank you. Archbishop, the letter spells out your priorities for the coming years. We will get into details, but what might you say about this pastoral letter in what some people might call an elevator speech?

Archbishop Hebda Yes. So, it really is an opportunity for us to translate our experience over these last three years, the movements of the Holy Spirit, in a way that leads our archdiocese forward. It’s very much a request of our pastors and our parishes, so it’s very much parish based. There’s going to be a lot of support that comes from the archdiocese. But ultimately, the pastoral letter is our response to the movement of the Holy Spirit over these past three years. That’s a long elevator speech, I know.

Q Not at all. The letter is no elevator speech. I think about the three years of meetings, of gathering information, sifting through it, and the scholarly research that really backs up the pastoral letter. Yet the letter itself is disarming and inspiring in its beauty and simplicity. I can feel the Holy Spirit in its pages. And I was able to read it in one sitting. What was it like to write it?

Archbishop Hebda Thanks, Joe, for your kind comments about the letter. That’s certainly the response that we’re hoping is that people will be able to experience the power of the Holy Spirit. In terms of writing, we tried really to also model that synodal approach, and so I was really blessed to work with a

great team of both scholars and practical intellects, as well as some great writers, that would help me to translate what I had experienced in the Synod onto the written page in a way that would be of significance for the faithful of this local Church.

And I found in particular that as we were working together, it was really an experience for me of reliving the Synod and just having so many memories of the way in which the Holy Spirit was present in the comments that we received, in the way in which people related to one another. So, in my mind, it was an incredibly positive experience.

I think that we were all very conscious, though, of the importance of what we were doing as we strive to really offer a faithful translation of our experience that’s going to inspire all of us as we move forward. PLEASE TURN TO PASTORAL LETTER Q&A ON PAGE 3A

ON THE COVER: Archbishop Bernard Hebda gives the homily during a Pentecost vigil Mass June 4 at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul, which was part of the three-day Archdiocesan Synod Assembly.

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

PASTORAL LETTER SUMMARY

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2A

history with the coming of Jesus, Archbishop Hebda writes that the same question can be asked now in the local Church.

“Having experienced the power and the promise of a historic Synod Assembly, we too find ourselves on the threshold of a new chapter in the sacred history of this Archdiocese,” the archbishop writes, “and we cannot help but ask, ‘What then should we do?’ That is, in fact, the great question of this pastoral letter.”

“I propose that we begin by following Jesus,” the archbishop writes. “With religious imagination let us walk with him from town to town in Galilee and witness him ‘teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the Kingdom and curing every disease and illness’ (Mt 9:35).”

The archbishop asks readers to imagine Christ’s distress at seeing so many people “like sheep without a shepherd” (Mt 9:36). But Jesus also sees that the harvest is abundant. The same is true today, Archbishop Hebda writes: The harvest is abundant but “the laborers are few” (Mt 9:37).

To help meet that challenge — and to assist priests who already have a great deal on their plates — the archbishop is calling on each parish to form Synod Evangelization Teams. Made up of about 12 people, modeling Christ’s call of the 12 Apostles as his companions, the teams will be at the service of evangelization. Team members will be formed to the task through a seven-

PASTORAL LETTER Q&A

week School of Discipleship experience beginning early next year offered by the St. Paul-based Archbishop Flynn Catechetical Institute.

Implementing Synod priorities

Parish teams will help pastors walk with parishioners and spur evangelization as the archdiocese moves from Synod as an event to steady accompaniment often referred to as synodality, the letter states. One of the teams’ first tasks, and the priority for year one of Synod implementation (July 2023-June 2024) will be forming and gathering with small groups of parishioners.

Small groups, the archbishop writes, can foster the experience in the Upper Room of “washing of the feet” through personal relationships, building community, and supplying formation that will help parishioners grow as missionary disciples of Christ.

Special attention at the parish also can be given to the small group found in each home: the family, Archbishop Hebda suggests. “The family is the place where each of us first encounters love, where the mother’s smile first evangelizes the infant held close and affirms the child’s goodness.”

Some small groups might reach out to the marginalized and poor, others serve as a vehicle for teaching about the beauty, form and meaning of the Eucharist and the Mass, others offer a prayer ministry for those in need, and still others might go forth in the Spirit at the service of evangelization, the archbishop suggests.

Year Two

The second year of implementing the Synod priorities will emphasize the Mass, with special attention to the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, as well as enhancing liturgies, the letter states.

“In fact, Synod Proposition 9 (Education for the Mass: Educate God’s people on the beauty, form and meaning of the Mass, with special emphasis on the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist) received the third highest number of votes in the Synod Assembly, and I have committed to make this our Synod Priority for Year 2 (July 2024-June 2025),” the archbishop writes.

“And how could I commit to anything less, given the launch of the National Eucharistic Revival this past June on the Feast of Corpus Christi? Many of you know that the Revival will take place from 2022 to 2025, thus coinciding with the first two years of our Synod implementation,” the archbishop continues. “Why a Eucharistic Revival now? The bishops themselves, under the leadership of Bishop Andrew Cozzens, our former Auxiliary Bishop, explain: ‘Scandal, division, disease, doubt. The Church has withstood each of these throughout our very human history. But today we confront all of them, all at once. Our response in this moment is pivotal.

‘In the midst of these roaring waves, Jesus is present, reminding us that he is more powerful than the storm. He desires to heal, renew, and unify the PLEASE TURN TO PASTORAL LETTER SUMMARY ON PAGE 4A

FRUITS AND HOPE

Q Well, now that it is available, Archbishop Hebda, can you share ways that it might most fruitfully be prayed over, pondered? Move people to action?

Archbishop Hebda I’m hoping, Joe, that some people will have the same experience that you did, of being able to read it, cover to cover, in one sitting. But we also know it’s long, so even if people can take section by section, we think that could be effective. We’ve tried to divide it into paragraphs as well, with headings that give us some orientation. There’s a lot of Scripture and quotations from our Holy Fathers and the Church’s catechism. I think all of those things could be bite-sized pieces for prayer and reflection as well, especially going to the Scripture texts. You know, we’re using three powerful images about what happened in the Upper Room, the experience that the Apostles had at that point. And those texts, most especially, I think, will be very fruitful for the prayer of our faithful and our priests as well.

Q Bishop Williams, you came into the archdiocese and the Synod process full bore with your ordination and appointment as auxiliary bishop in January of this year, as Auxiliary Bishop Andrew Cozzens was appointed bishop of Crookston. Prior to that, you were pastor at St. Stephen and Holy Rosary in Minneapolis. Please describe your experience of the Synod as a pastor and now as bishop.

Bishop Williams Well, Joe, I have to agree with you, it feels like a momentous time, what we’re living now. And God’s providence and the Spirit is all over this. Even as a pastor, I felt affirmed, I would say that, first of all, by the Synod process, by the archbishop’s inspiration, but not just the Synod as a call from the Holy Spirit, but the priorities that he discerned from all of those listening sessions (30 Prayer and Listening Events in 2019-2020, parish consultations in 2021 and the Archdiocesan Synod Assembly last June) that you mentioned.

He talked about, you know, a Church of parishes that evangelize, creating missionary disciples, emphasizing youth and young adult ministry for a Church that’s always young. These were the things we had done in south Minneapolis for four years. So, I thought, this is the same Spirit. This is the same Spirit at work. So, then welcoming these things that would come from the archdiocese, there

seemed to be a kind of complementarity of the small groups, for example. Bringing that to prayer and realizing the Spirit is moving and it’s enriching the parishes, that was a gift of God, no doubt about it. And then becoming a bishop. You know, the archbishop mentioned timing. That’s God’s timing, in part because Bishop Cozzens was so uniquely gifted in the faith that led to this moment, with his great gift of teaching and theology.

It was kind of a hinge moment for the Synod, I think, when I was ordained, moving from the prayer and listening toward the implementation. And now I feel this is when God wants me to give a testimony, if you will, and to bring the witness of a parish where these Synod priorities had come alive. I think that’s a gift that God wants me to give to the

THERESE COONS: As director of the Archdiocesan Synod, please share your thoughts on the threeyear process and Archbishop Hebda’s pastoral letter. Have the fruits met the hope?

“It was impressive to see so many faithful in our local Church give so generously of their time to journey together in prayer and listening, and to share their wisdom and hopes for the future of our local Church. And a shout out to the gifted, and talented, and very generous Synod Executive Committee members who worked tirelessly and inconspicuously in the background creating the excellent process and materials, and for taking great care to read, code and report every piece of feedback to Archbishop Hebda.“

“Throughout this three-year Synod process, Father Bambenek and I saw time and time again the hand of the Holy Spirit guiding the work — it was beautiful, it was powerful, it was humbling, it was fun. Archbishop Hebda has spoken about how he felt the Holy Spirit calling him to engage in this synodal process, and the pastoral letter beautifully reflects how the Holy Spirit is guiding and will continue to guide this work into the future — a future of hope.”

FATHER JOSEPH BAMBENEK: As assistant director of the Synod, and now assistant director of the Office of Synod Evangelization: What do you hope will happen in coming years in our archdiocese?

“I am hoping and praying that through an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, we will experience a time of great renewal in our archdiocese: renewal of lives and renewal of our parishes, schools and other Catholic communities. A renewal that will bring healing, encouragement and hope to those hurting in and beyond the Church; one that will in some way touch the lives of all who live in the archdiocese and transform our communities.

A renewal through which more people than we could imagine will enter into a deep relationship with our loving, triune God and will be inspired to live as disciples of Jesus in our times. A renewal that will, in turn, spread well beyond the borders of our archdiocese as its fruit becomes known and lives are transformed.”

DEACON JOE MICHALAK: You have been appointed director of the Office of Synod Evangelization. What most strikes you about the pastoral letter?

“Archbishop Hebda focuses on what the Holy Spirit is doing more than on what we are doing. It’s as though the archbishop is saying, ‘I’ve been experiencing afresh the joy, direction and power of the Holy Spirit, he’s leading me to the resurrected Jesus, won’t you come with me, too?’

“That’s called evangelization! To be sure, he talks about programmatic elements in the Synod and its implementation, but these serve a higher end: a renewed and sustained encounter with the living Jesus, and then genuine relationship with fellow disciples and with those who may not be disciples. I am compelled by the archbishop’s beautiful discernment of the Synod priorities through his meditation on three mysteries of the Upper Room — foot-washing, Eucharist, Pentecost. This is a shift in understanding what it means to be Church; it’s a move from maintenance to mission, to missionary discipleship for ALL.”

TOM HALDEN | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

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Church and the world. How will he do it? By uniting us once again around the source and summit of our faith — the Holy Eucharist.’”

Year Three

A primary goal of the third year of Synod priorities will be forming and inspiring parents “to understand and fulfill their responsibilities as the first teachers of their children in the ways of the faith.”

That will include equipping parents with resources to teach the faith at home, and helping them prepare together for the Sunday Eucharist while reclaiming Sunday as a day of worship, fruitful leisure and solidarity with others, the letter states.

Parents will be taught ways to make their home a “school of prayer,” with special attention to the gifts of the Holy Spirit in each child. Parents also will be encouraged and assisted in finding ways to involve their children in sharing the faith with others.

Archdiocesan support

“In order to bring to life this bold vision, the Archdiocese has already undertaken or will undertake the following actions to support parishes in their implementation of the Synod Priorities,” the letter states.

Actions include the recently established Office of Synod Evangelization, new appointments of Vicars of Evangelization and a Vicar of Charisms and establishing an Office for Youth and Young Adults.

The archbishop also pledges to reconstitute an Archdiocesan Worship Commission, establish a BlueRibbon Commission to present recommendations on forming parents as primary educators and provide regular training on consultation at the parish level for effective functioning of parish pastoral and finance councils and engagement with parish trustees.

In addition, an Archdiocesan Pastoral Council will be established to facilitate ongoing synodality.

“I could not imagine asking pastors to choose the

PASTORAL LETTER Q&A

local Church. And I think it really is the fruit of our archbishop’s prayer.

Q Archbishop Hebda, the pastoral letter invites people to continue to walk together, as they had in the archdiocese during the Synod, in what the Church calls synodality. Why is this important and how can we continue to do that?

Archbishop Hebda Yes, there are two things, really, that are significant for me. The first is that we’re obviously trying to imitate Jesus in the model that he used for spreading the good news that he wanted to share with all of humanity. And so, we see how it is that Jesus called people together. So, we have the 12 Apostles, we have the 72, those close disciples.

We read about the women who traveled with Jesus as well. We know that Jesus was a community builder as he was sharing. So, he’s not just an intellect, not just somebody operating on the theoretical plane, but rather that he’s gathering a community together to have an experience, and in a way that then would enliven them to go forward once they had received the Holy Spirit to share that message.

So, first of all, it is an imitation of the method that Jesus had adopted in the course of his public ministry. And then secondly is that we have a really powerful example from Pope Francis,

synodal path of evangelization if I were not willing to walk that ‘same path’ (synodos) myself,” Archbishop Hebda writes. “Indeed, I am committed to continuing the work of consultation with the Presbyteral Council, the College of Consultors, and the Lay Advisory Board, and I am in the process of choosing my own ‘twelve’ — clergy, religious and laity — who will ‘walk with me’ and advise me as we seek to implement the Synod.”

Holy Spirit you are welcome here

In the letter, Archbishop Hebda writes about his intuition that fruits of the Archdiocesan Synod would have to come through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He also credits Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Williams with encouraging him in the days of writing the pastoral letter to reread a book titled “Meeting God in the Upper Room,” by Msgr. Peter Vaghi, a lawyer and

who has really looked at synodality as being one of the most important themes of his pontificate. And as he looks to the Church in the world, the universal Church, he sees how important it is that we would kind of go back to some of those synodal structures that helped the Church in the past to be that credible witness to the Gospel.

You mentioned the word walking together or journeying together. It’s a way in which we in English try to translate the concept that was conveyed with the word synod in Greek, it’s that idea of a people who are journeying together. One of the things that Pope Francis has talked about is how important it is that on that journey together that we prayerfully listen to one another and recognize that everybody in the Church has a gift that God has given to them for the building up of the Church.

We can never get to that point where it’s just the pope or just the bishops or just the priests or just the religious. But really recognizing that all of us have gifts. And the only way we’re going to manifest the strength of the Church is if those gifts are being used. And we do that as we journey together, as we listen to one another, as we have that opportunity to hear of others’ experiences. Our faith is very incarnational, because Jesus took on human flesh.

And so, in the very way in which we continue to proclaim what Jesus proclaimed, we have to be able to do it in a way that really is relevant to the concrete situation that we find ourselves

prominent pastor in the Archdiocese of Washington.

“Monsignor Vaghi insightfully calls the Upper Room ‘the most important room in all of Christendom’ because of the significance of the actions that tradition tells us occurred there,” the archbishop writes.

“I soon found myself wondering with him (Bishop Williams) if the image of the Upper Room and the mysteries celebrated therein could give us a key to interpreting the Synod Assembly data,” the archbishop writes. “The longer I pondered the Synod data through the lens of the Upper Room, the more this seemed to be the case.”

Closing the main body of his letter, Archbishop Hebda notes the resources of many local organizations and movements “who in this Archdiocese carry the fire of the Spirit at the heart of their apostolates,” and he names more than a dozen, such as the Archdiocesan Catholic Charismatic Renewal Office and its many affiliated prayer groups, NET Ministries of St. Paul and its national outreach to high school students and St. Paul’s Outreach and its national apostolate to university students and young adults.

Many parishes are already collaborating with these groups, the archbishop writes. “I would encourage all parishes to make friends with these friends of the Holy Spirit! If the fire of the Spirit were to become an ordinary part of the life of each parish, what would be the effect? I think Pope Francis paints a vivid picture for us:

‘The parish is not an outdated institution: precisely because it possesses great flexibility, it can assume quite different contours depending on the openness and missionary creativity of the pastor and the community … It is a community of communities, a sanctuary where the thirsty come to drink in the midst of their journey, and a center of constant missionary outreach.’

“‘A center of missionary outreach,’” the archbishop continues. “... what an inspiring and ambitious vision for our Catholic parishes! Would we be lamenting the decline of our beloved Church if every Catholic parish in this Archdiocese adopted this vision? Some would say this is too bold; I would say this is precisely what our Synod has been all about!”

in, in 2022 or 2023. And that requires that we really be listening to people and allowing them in, in a prayerful way, to share their experience of life, of the Church and where the Holy Spirit is moving them.

so many parts of the Church, especially in the Western world, and maybe in particular in these United States.

A powerful image in the pastoral letter is the Upper Room. I wonder if Bishop Williams might walk us through that, with how the apostles came to be there and what they learned from Jesus in that room and how that applies to us now in this pastoral effort.

Q

Bishop Williams The Upper Room is a place in southwest Jerusalem where Jesus, we know, instituted the holy Eucharist. He celebrated his Last Supper in the Upper Room. We also know the Apostles were waiting for the Holy Spirit in that same Upper Room. They were told to pray there. According to an ancient tradition, the spirit of Pentecost fell in that same room. It’s one of the holiest places in the world for Christians. And I had the privilege in 2016 to make a sabbatical, a privilege given by the archbishop. I spent a semester at the Ecole Biblique, a French biblical school just outside the Old City. And part of the reason I had gone, what drew me to the Holy Land, was that room, believe it or not.

And you’re processing, you’re asking questions, you know, “How is it we have such a holy Church?” The Catholic Church is a holy Catholic church, but we’ve largely lost our capacity to witness to Jesus Christ. So, we’re seeing decline in

And there seemed to be a key in the Upper Room. The phrase that had come to mind was what God had joined in that Upper Room, the Church has divided. What did he join there? The mystery of the holy Eucharist with the mystery of Pentecost, both according to a very ancient tradition happening in that place.

The holy Eucharist is the sacrament of charity. It does lead us to holiness, but it’s not necessarily the sacrament of witness. Jesus himself said, “Stay here and you’ll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes to you.” And what is that power?

“And you will be my witnesses.” The power to witness comes from the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of fire.

And it turns out the archbishop has this same intuition. The Catholic Church needs more Holy Spirit, and the more we receive from that Holy Spirit, the more we can renew and even reclaim that culture of witness. It was beautiful to see how that image of the Upper Room came to help both of us. And then, once we had this massive inspired data, after all of the voting, how do we make sense of it?

The Upper Room seemed to give us an interpretive key or a lens through which we can say that the data could be interpreted with these mysteries, in a way that helps our local Church be as fruitful as the Upper Room. That was part of the archbishop’s inspiration, and I think it’s crystallized, as you’ve now read, in the pastoral letter.

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT Molly and Bill Hickey enjoy Mass at Nativity of Our Lord in St. Paul Oct. 1 with their son, Tommy. They were attending a Mass celebrating the 100th anniversary of their parish.

At onset of pandemic, University of St. Thomas launched health college

New nursing program began this fall with 46 graduate students

By Christina Capecchi For The Catholic Spirit

For the first time, University of St. Thomas students can earn a nursing degree, thanks to a new health college that quietly launched during the COVID-19 pandemic. The public health crisis added urgency and purpose to the nascent program, named the Morrison Family College of Health.

Today, 46 new graduate nursing students are enrolled, working toward a degree that is urgently needed in a health care system upended by the pandemic.

“There’s been excitement for a long time, and now that it’s become a reality, it’s a point of pride,” said Martha Scheckel, founding director of the School of Nursing.

The Morrison Family College of Health, located in the Summit Classroom Building on UST’s St. Paul campus, was named and formally established in late 2019 with a $25 million gift from John M. Morrison and Susan Schmid Morrison, a Floridabased couple who have been generous, longtime donors to St. Thomas. They shared the university’s vision for a wholistic college that trains health care providers and leaders to address the physical, mental, social and spiritual needs of their patients, administrators said.

The college is comprised of four departments, three of which already existed at St. Thomas: social work; psychology; health and exercise science; and nursing, the new addition. This fall, the nursing program launched at a graduate level. Next fall, it will begin offering undergraduate courses. Leaders hope to add a physician’s assistant program to the school in the future.

Once the nursing program is fully operational, the college expects a total combined enrollment of 1,250 undergraduate and graduate students, which would double the enrollment of the three pre-existing programs and make the Morrison Family College of Health the third largest college at St. Thomas. The college is directed by MayKao Hang, the founding dean.

Morrison was designed to be cross-curricular, allowing students in one program to learn from the others.

Hang and Scheckel are designing coursework that integrates these programs. For example, the new nursing students join social work students for a whole-person well-being course.

“Now we’re co-located with social work, so we see social work faculty in the hallway and there is crosscollaboration occurring even in day-today communication,” Scheckel said. “It’s poking holes in the silos. We can inspire one another.”

Nurses who have a well-rounded, interprofessional education are linked with patient safety and quality outcomes, she added.

Shaped by COVID

This was made clear during the pandemic, which shaped every element of the nursing school’s development.

“It fueled the passion and the purpose and the urgency,” Scheckel said.

For starters, COVID exacerbated the nursing shortage, reaching a level she has never before seen. “It’s perfect

timing for the School of Nursing,” she said.

On a subtler level, the pandemic guided their planning. “It informed how we’re going about our work and the way in which we are preparing students to enter practice,” Scheckel said.

For instance, the new nursing students are learning about self-care and resilience, an important education at a time of widespread burnout among nurses. Scheckel is practicing what she preaches: She’s working with the YMCA to launch a health-coaching program for faculty and staff. “It’ll be part of a broader initiative to say, ‘Here’s the tune-up we need in order to model this for students.”

For Scheckel, who has steady practices around adequate sleep, healthy diet and regular exercise, that “tune-up” can center on spiritual renewal.

“I try to find ways to re-energize,” she said. “They have Mass here at noon, so there are days where I’m going to Mass. It’s very centering. If you’re connecting spirituality, you’re always

getting recharged on the mission and the purpose and why you’re here, at this particular time in your life, doing what feels like God’s work.”

Another biproduct of the pandemic: It brought about a smoother adaptation of technology. The nursing students are benefiting from an iPad program that gives them “everything they need at their fingertips,” Scheckel said.

Wholistic learning

From the onset, the aim of the Morrison Family College of Health has been to train health care professionals who understand that the body, mind and soul are connected — a Catholic belief that resonates for nurses, Scheckel said.

“That’s always been a given for us,” she said. “Nurses take care of the whole person. Because there seems to be a significant focus on acute care, we’re increasing our emphasis on community,

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Sarah Abuisnaineh, a graduate student in the School of Nursing at the University of St. Thomas, practices clinical skills on a mannequin along with fellow student Christopher-Jerell Edwards Nov. 16 in a classroom at the Morrison Family College of Health on the St. Paul campus.

From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., donors dropped off 27 turkeys, 13 hams, 20 packages of bacon, 10 packages of ground beef, pork, chicken, potatoes and a variety of canned goods. Some donated cash. The food will be used for Thanksgiving, Christmas and other meals at the senior living facility for the needy, which includes skilled care, boarding care and independent living apartments. At capacity, the religious sisters’ facility has room for 73 residents, and close to 50 people live there now. But, food donations are welcome any time, said Jeanie Greene, development director. Meat is the biggest need, she said. With today’s inflation and costs, food donations are “a wonderful help to us,” said Mother Theresa, superior and administrator. “We just appreciate the generosity of so many people who support us.”

The U.S. Supreme Court is now functionally a rubber stamp for executions. Stays and injunctions issued by lower courts are routinely lifted without full briefing and without explanation from the justices, no matter how egregious the underlying legal issues.

Sister Helen Prejean, a Sister of St. Joseph and longtime death penalty opponent, commenting in a tweet on four death penalty cases in the third week of November that had last-minute appeals to the Supreme Court denied in a 24-hour period. Three executions by lethal injection took place in the U.S. in just two days and a fourth execution was called off after failed attempts happened close to the expiration of the prisoner’s death warrant. Catholic leaders spoke out against the Nov. 16 executions in Texas and Arizona as well as the next day’s execution in Oklahoma and the halted one in Alabama. Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City noted that five Oklahoma inmates had been executed this year.

NEWS notes

Former Cretin-Derham Hall and University of St. Thomas baseball coach Dennis Denning died Nov. 15 at age 76. The St. Paul native played for Cretin High School (now Cretin-Derham Hall) in the 1960s, and coached the team from 1977 to 1994, winning six state championships. He then coached at the University of St. Thomas from 1995 to 2009, winning Division III national championships in 2001 and 2009. He also coached at Nativity of Our Lord School and St. Luke School (now St. Thomas More Catholic School), both in St. Paul. While at St. Luke, he coached former Major League Baseball player and former Minnesota Twins coach Paul Molitor. At Cretin, he coached Bill Lentsch, chief operating officer for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. In 1981, Lentsch and his teammates won the first of six state titles by Denning’s Cretin teams. “He was a remarkable human being and a remarkable coach,”’ said Lentsch, who played in the outfield for Denning his junior and senior years. “He taught me a lot of life lessons. He taught me how to compete, and to compete fairly — fairly and fiercely on the field. … More than anything, he taught me that there’s nothing more valuable than hard work. Hard work is what matters. And, whether it’s with your family, (or) it’s on the ball field, (or) it’s your career, if you work hard and if you perform, you will get rewarded.”

The Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul will host the sixth “Christmas (back) Together with Steven C” concert 7:30 p.m. Dec. 15. This free concert ($10 donations encouraged to cover costs), which took a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic, will feature the music of recording artist and contemporary pianist Steven C. Anderson, along with Jack Cassidy, Jillian Gubash and Nate Wilson. Anderson will play his 9-foot grand Bösendorfer (“Bosie”) piano, and internationally acclaimed organist Chris Ganza will roll out the Cathedral pipe organ console and play side-by-side with Anderson. A surprise guest will read the Christmas story to musical accompaniment.

PRACTICING Catholic

On the Nov. 18 “Practicing Catholic” radio show, Joe Ruff, editor-in-chief of The Catholic Spirit, interviews Archbishop Bernard Hebda of St. Paul and Minneapolis, who describes his pastoral letter, which was released Nov. 19-20. The latest show also includes interviews with Father David Blume, director of the Office of Vocations for the archdiocese, who discusses the state of vocations and tips for talking about answering God’s call; and Kevin Gearns, a member of the St. Joseph Business Guild, which is sponsoring a retreat Nov. 26 called “Abundance — in Life and Death,” with retreat speaker Amy Miller, who will address bringing families and communities together to support people as they’re aging. Miller is author of “Last Life Lesson: A Guide for Aging Adults and their Families.” Listen to interviews after they have aired at PracticingcatholicShow com or anchor fm/Practicing catholic Show with links to podcasting platforms.

Spirit

semi-monthly

The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis Vol. 27 — No. 22

JOE RUFF, Editor-in-Chief

The Office of Vocations for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has just released its annual Seminarian Poster, which lists men studying for the priesthood at The St. Paul Seminary and St. John Vianney College Seminary, both in St Paul. Individual photos of the 53 men appear on the poster, including the 2023 priest ordination class — Deacons Kyle Etzel (St. Hubert in Chanhassen), Ryan Glaser (St. Michael in Prior Lake), William Kratt (Divine Mercy in Faribault) and John Rumpza (Nativity of Our Lord in St. Paul). The posters will be distributed to parishes and schools in the archdiocese. To see the poster online, visit 10000vocationS org. To donate toward the distribution of the posters, call 651-962-6890.

More than 120 men and women in consecrated life from across the archdiocese — including religious priests, brothers and sisters — gathered at the Archdiocesan Catholic Center in St. Paul and on Zoom Oct. 30 for “An Afternoon with the Archbishop.” Archbishop Bernard Hebda encouraged those present to engage in both the Archdiocesan Synod and the worldwide Synod of Bishops.

Materials credited to CNS copyrighted by Catholic News Service.

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MOST REVEREND BERNARD A. HEBDA, Publisher

TOM HALDEN, Associate Publisher

TOM HALDEN | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

GUEST HOST Meisha Johnson sits in for host Patrick Conley Nov. 8 for the “Practicing Catholic” show on Relevant Radio 1330 AM. A longtime television host and journalist, Johnson now is the director of pastoral care and the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults at St. Joseph of the Lakes in Lino Lakes. Conley regularly hosts the weekly show, but Johnson will serve as a potential guest host when Conley cannot do the program. Practicing Catholic is taped at Relevant Radio’s studio in Golden Valley.

JORDANA TORGESON, JORDANA TORGESON PHOTOGRAPHY | FOR THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT DRIVE-UP FOOD DRIVE From left, Tony Fahey of Epiphany in Coon Rapids drops off food donations to volunteer Nicole Greene Nov. 12 during a food drive at the Little Sisters of the Poor Holy Family Residence in St. Paul.

ONLY JESUS | BISHOP JOSEPH WILLIAMS

The archbishop’s pastoral letter: ‘Good news of great joy’

“

o not be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people” (Lk 2:10). The announcement of the birth of a Savior was a “great joy” to a people who had long awaited this “good news.” This week we celebrate the publication of Archbishop Hebda’s post-synodal pastoral letter. I can think of no better words to describe what this means for our local Church than those of the angelic messenger: “good news of great joy”!

When we consider that the letter is the fruit of three years of praying, listening, healing and, finally, voting, we can say that it, too, has been long awaited. At the historic Synod Assembly this past June, Synod members expressed their hopes for the future of this archdiocese by voting on the concrete priorities that emerged from the consultative phase of the Synod process. This resulted in a body of “inspired data” that the archbishop has been “reflecting on in (his) heart” (Lk 2:19) these past five months. The fruit of that reflection is the document many of you now have in your hands, “You Will Be My Witnesses: Gathered

Dand Sent from the Upper Room.”

But what is a post-synodal pastoral letter (besides a mouthful)? We might say that it is a hinge document that moves us from preparation to action; from talking about the needs of the Church to doing something to meet those needs. A post-synodal document asks the million-dollar question first asked by disciples of John the Baptist, “What then should we do?” (Lk 3:10)

That is exactly the question that Archbishop Hebda addresses in “You Will be My Witnesses.” Our shepherd, who has patiently listened to us all these past years, now speaks, and he does so with unique pastoral authority. The Second Vatican Council taught “that bishops by divine institution have succeeded to the place of the apostles, as shepherds of the Church, and he who hears them, hears Christ” (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church “Lumen Gentium,” 20). What does this mean? It means that we will be able to hear the voice of Jesus, the Good Shepherd, in the words that our shepherd, Archbishop Hebda, speaks to all of us in “You Will be My Witnesses.”

Those who have already had the opportunity to read the pastoral letter have sensed their hearts enkindled by its contents, like the disciples on the road to Emmaus who asked themselves,

“Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the way?” (Lk 24:32) I have no doubt that it is the fire of the Spirit they are feeling, for those who pick up the pastoral letter will soon find themselves spiritually in the Upper Room of Jerusalem. This holy of holy places, which hosted the washing of the feet and the breaking of the bread at the Last Supper, as well as the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost, is where the archbishop wants to gather the whole local Church, because this is where he finds the intersection of all our Synod hopes.

As you will read, however, Archbishop Hebda does not want us to stay in the Upper Room. Rather, as the title implies, he wants to send us from the Upper Room to the ends of the archdiocese to be Jesus’ witnesses (Acts 1:8). He trusts the Holy Spirit to do this. He also trusts each one of us. As the angel of the Lord revealed to the shepherds, the “good news” was for “all the people.” The archbishop’s pastoral letter is for all the women, men, youth and young adults of this archdiocese. In the archbishop’s vision, all of us will be protagonists in the Synod implementation because all of us have been uniquely gifted in our baptism and confirmation.

My dear brothers and sisters, I could

not more strongly encourage you to read “You Will be My Witnesses.” It is really “good news” for our beloved Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, but it will only bring the “great joy” of a renewed and growing local Church if all of us do our part. Let each of us, then, take to heart the first words of the angel of the Lord to the shepherds who were keeping watch of their flocks by night, “Do not be afraid.” I would like to conclude by echoing those words: Do not be afraid to read the archbishop’s pastoral letter! Do not be afraid to let its contents challenge and transform you. Do not be afraid of the missionary discipleship to which you have been called since the day of your baptism!

The pastoral letter can be found here:

Carta

“

N o tengas miedo; porque he aquí, os anuncio una buena noticia de gran gozo que será para todo el pueblo” (Lc 2,10). El anuncio del nacimiento de un Salvador fue una “gran alegría” para un pueblo que había esperado por mucho tiempo esta “buena noticia”. Esta semana celebramos la publicación de la carta pastoral postsinodal del arzobispo Hebda. No se me ocurren mejores palabras para describir lo que esto significa para nuestra Iglesia local que las del mensajero angélico: ¡”buenas nuevas de gran alegría”!

Cuando consideramos que la carta es el fruto de tres años de oración, escucha, sanación y, finalmente, votación, podemos decir que también ha sido largamente esperada. En la histórica Asamblea del Sínodo en junio pasado, los miembros del Sínodo expresaron sus esperanzas para el futuro de esta arquidiócesis al votar sobre las prioridades concretas que surgieron de la fase consultiva del proceso del Sínodo. Esto resultó en un cuerpo de “datos inspirados” que el arzobispo ha estado “reflexionando en (su) corazón” (Lc 2:19) estos últimos cinco meses. Fruto de esa reflexión es el documento que muchos de vosotros tenéis ahora en vuestras manos: “Ustedes serán mis testigos: recogidos y enviados desde el aposento alto. “

Pero, ¿qué es una carta pastoral

postsinodal (además de un trabalenguas )? Podríamos decir que es un documento bisagra que nos mueve de la preparación a la acción; de hablar de las necesidades de la Iglesia a hacer algo para satisfacer esas necesidades. Un documento postsinodal plantea la pregunta del millón de dólares planteada por primera vez por los discípulos de Juan el Bautista: “¿Qué debemos hacer entonces” (Lc 3,10)?

Esa es exactamente la pregunta que aborda el arzobispo Hebda en “Ustedes serán mis testigos”. Nuestro pastor, que nos ha escuchado pacientemente todos estos años, ahora habla, y lo hace con una autoridad pastoral única. El Concilio Vaticano II enseñó “que los obispos han sucedido por institución divina en el lugar de los apóstoles, como pastores de la Iglesia, y quien los escucha a ellos, escucha a Cristo” (Constitución Dogmática sobre la Iglesia “Lumen Gentium”, 20). ¿Qué significa esto? Significa que podremos escuchar la voz de Jesús, el Buen Pastor, en las palabras que nuestro pastor, Bernard Hebda, nos dirige a todos nosotros en “Ustedes serán mis testigos”.

Quienes ya han tenido la oportunidad de leer la carta pastoral han sentido sus corazones encendidos por su contenido, como los discípulos en el camino de Emaús que se preguntaban: “¿No ardía nuestro corazón en nosotros mientras nos hablaba en el camino?” (Lc 24,32)? No tengo ninguna duda de que es el fuego del Espíritu lo que están sintiendo, porque aquellos que recogen la carta pastoral pronto se encontrarán espiritualmente en el Cenáculo de Jerusalén. Este lugar santo, que acogió el lavatorio de los pies y la fracción del pan en la Última Cena, así como la venida del Espíritu en

Pentecostés, es donde el arzobispo quiere reunir a toda la Iglesia local, porque es donde encuentra la intersección de todas nuestras esperanzas sinodales.

Sin embargo, como leerá, el Arzobispo Hebda no quiere que nos quedemos en el Aposento Alto. Más bien, como implica el título, quiere enviarnos desde el Aposento Alto hasta los confines de la arquidiócesis para ser testigos de Jesús (Hechos 1:8). Él confía en el Espíritu Santo para hacer esto. Él también confía en cada uno de nosotros. Como el ángel del Señor les reveló a los pastores, las “buenas nuevas” eran para “todo el pueblo”. La carta pastoral del arzobispo es para todas las mujeres, hombres, jóvenes y adultos jóvenes de esta arquidiócesis. En la visión del arzobispo, todos seremos protagonistas en la implementación del Sínodo porque todos hemos sido dotados de manera única en nuestro bautismo y confirmación.

Mis queridos hermanos y hermanas, no podría animarlos con más fuerza a leer “Ustedes serán mis testigos”. Son realmente “buenas noticias” para nuestra amada Arquidiócesis de St. Paul y Minneapolis, pero solo traerá la “gran alegría” de una Iglesia local renovada y en crecimiento si todos nosotros hacemos nuestra parte. Que cada uno de nosotros, pues, tome en serio las primeras palabras del ángel del Señor a los pastores que velaban sus rebaños de noche: “No temáis”. Quisiera concluir haciéndome eco de estas palabras: ¡No tengáis miedo de leer la carta pastoral del arzobispo! No tengas miedo de dejar que su contenido te desafíe y te transforme ¡No tengáis miedo del discipulado misionero al que habéis sido llamados desde el día de vuestro bautismo!

OFFICIAL

Effective November 11, 2022

Reverend Weldit Tesfazgi Abay, in residence at the Queen of Peace Friary in Saint Paul. Father Weldit is a priest of the Archdiocese of Asmara, Eritrea.

Deacon Russell Kocemba, granted the status of retired deacon. Deacon Kocemba has served the Archdiocese as a permanent deacon since his ordination in 2004, most recently as deacon at the Church of the Nativity in Saint Paul.

Deacon Scott Wright, granted the status of retired deacon. Deacon Wright has served the Archdiocese as a permanent deacon since his ordination in 1998, most recently as deacon at the. Church of Saint John Vianney in South Saint Paul.

Effective November 20, 2022

Reverend Spencer Howe, assigned as Vicar for Evangelization for Deaneries 12 and 13. This is in addition to his assignment as pastor of the Church of the Holy Cross in Minneapolis.

Reverend Chad VanHoose, assigned as Vicar for Evangelization for Deaneries 1 and 4. This is in addition to his assignment as pastor of the Church of Saint Jude in Mahtomedi.

Reverend Leonard Andrie, assigned as Vicar for Evangelization for Deaneries 10 and 11. This is in addition to his assignment as pastor of the Church of Saint Therese in Deephaven.

pastoral del arzobispo: “Buenas noticias de gran alegría”

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

SLICEof LIFE

Retirement Fund for Religious

In touch with the Word

From left, Melanie Lund and her daughter, Mia, of St. John the Baptist in Savage look at a volume of The St. John’s Bible during a presentation and showing at Mary, Mother of the Church in Burnsville Nov. 17. Thanks to a donation from Unity High School, which uses classroom space at Mary, Mother of the Church, all seven volumes (high-quality lithograph copies of the original, which resides at St. John’s University in Collegeville) were on display at the church from Nov. 17-20. “I came because I learned about The St. John’s Bible in religion class at school,” said Mia, 12, a seventh-grader at St. John the Baptist Catholic School in Savage. “I was really curious about it, and I wanted to know a little bit more about it because it’s really kind of fascinating.”

Father Jim Perkl, pastor of Mary, Mother of the Church, said the church will keep two of the volumes — the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles — for a year, and place them in an alcove on the north side of the church interior.

“We’ve established this place in our church as an example of what we would like to do in all of our homes,” Father Perkl said. “We’ve encouraged all of our parish families to enthrone the Bible in their homes, and then pray.” The St. John’s Bible, a 15-year project completed in 2011 at a cost of more than $8 million, features hand-written calligraphy and hand-painted illustrations, called illuminations, on 1,120 pages.

Elderly religious need your help.

Like those pictured, nearly 25,000 senior sisters, brothers, and religious order priests have devoted their lives to prayer and ministry—educating the young, tending the sick, aiding the needy, and more. Yet years of serving for little or no pay have left a profound shortage in retirement savings. Your support of the Retirement Fund for Religious helps furnish care, medicine, and other necessities. Please give generously.

Please donate at your local parish December 10–11 or by mail at:

Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis Attn: Sister Lynore Girmscheid, SSND 777 Forest Street St. Paul MN 55106-3857 Make check payable to Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis/RFR.

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

PANDEMIC HEALTH CARE

public health care across all the dimensions. That creates a different way of looking at people, an expanded worldview that isn’t just confined to one course but very intentional partnerships.”

For example, the nursing students are partnering with the Minneapolis Downtown Improvement District, a nonprofit that aims to create a clean, safe, vibrant downtown. “By having students on site to help with public education or do a community assessment we can increase our engagement and visibility with an eye toward health,” Scheckel said.

For the nursing school’s first students, that wholistic emphasis was a big draw.

It’s a big reason Christopher-Jerell Edwards, a 28-year-old nurse aide from Mississippi, enrolled. “A wholistic view of health care is something I strive to provide to my patients, even now as an NA. It’s all intertwined — treating a person physically, spiritually, psychologically. I appreciate that St. Thomas is taking the lead in integrating these dimensions, as they were meant to be.”

Edwards said he is guided by Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, a pyramid of needs starting with basic physiological needs such as food, shelter and sleep, and reaching up to self-actualization. Sometimes a patient who arrives at the ER needs a sandwich or warm clothes, he said. When he was caring for a man nearing death, for instance, he sensed the primary nurse was busy and took it upon himself to be present with that patient. “He wanted someone to sit with him and just be in that moment. I was there when he passed away. Not everyone who goes into health care is given the gift to be able to just listen to a patient, to have an open-posture demeanor where patients feel accepted and able to talk to you.”

COVID underscored the need for this approach, Edwards said. “Let’s look at this person as a whole, not as a series of check boxes before we can send them on their way. I want to be a leader who understands that we’re here to treat patients as persons. COVID showed me how broken of a system we have. I want to be part of creating a system that’s better.”

His classmate, Sarah Abuisnaineh, a 25-year-old from Brooklyn Park, agreed. “There needs to be a huge change, a more wholistic approach to health care,” she said. “I feel compelled to be part of the solution.”

Abuisnaineh has a child psychology degree and currently works as a nurse aide, working in assistedliving settings and nursing homes. Her instructors this fall are teaching her how to really see her patients. “We’re learning about the well-being of the patient and how to notice the small things that other nurses might not notice, how to really be there for them emotionally and how to communicate with them,” she said.

The emphasis on collaboration among other departments is also appreciated, said Abuisnaineh, who makes a point to communicate with the social worker on site.

She aspires to get her doctorate after completing St. Thomas’ nursing school. “I know this program will set me up for that,” she said. “It feels amazing to be in the very first class. It feels better than I even imagined.”

Looking to future of COVID Anointing Corps

By Maura Keller The Catholic Spirit

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a wealth of new protocols and programs, including the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ COVID-19 Anointing Corps ministry. Since its inception in April 2020 and as of early November, the specially trained corps of priests has provided the sacrament of the anointing of the sick for 1,636 people in hospitals, nursing homes and other settings.

The COVID Corps began as a brainchild of (thenAuxiliary) Bishop Andrew Cozzens, in conjunction with Sydney March, a member of Transfiguration in Oakdale and a nurse who works in the emergency room at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis, as well as other pastoral and medical professionals. Priests with the corps are trained in using personal protective equipment and other protocols to prevent spread of COVID or other infectious diseases.

As Bishop Cozzens was installed last December as bishop of the Crookston diocese, Father Tom Margevicius, the archdiocese’s director of worship, assumed oversight of the Corps, ensuring that March and the priests involved have what they need to carry out their ministry.

“Health care facilities have been doing heroic, selfless work under stressful, exhaustive and heart-breaking conditions. To watch patients who they care about be refused access to spiritual practices (such as receiving the sacraments) has deeply grieved the medical community,” Father Margevicius said of the corps’ efforts to fill that gap. “Many are faith-filled Catholics who want all Catholic patients, irrespective of health condition, to be able to receive the sacraments. Even non-Catholic health care professionals acknowledge that practicing some kind of spiritual life benefits patients beyond what medicine alone can do.”

March said that while the ministry’s efforts have slowed as the pandemic itself has waned, it is still active until Archbishop Bernard Hebda says otherwise.

“It will remain that way until more priests for their deaneries are trained or pastors step up to be trained,” March said. “It also is important for pastoral care duties to go back to the level of the parishes, so that the sacramental obligation of the sick and dying needing our Lord in his sacraments and in the form of the priest for the salvation of their souls is spread evenly, now that COVID and isolation precautions in facilities are a ‘new normal,’” March said. “Parishes and pastors need to be equipped to minister to a virus that is here to stay.”

March also stressed that the Anointing Corps will not go into any type of “hibernation” until a clear plan has been implemented, hospitals are notified, and parishes and pastors are ready to step into the role of anointing COVID patients. Even when this happens, the COVID hotline number will remain active for at least six months or more to ensure things go smoothly.

Plans also will be in place should a new disease arise, March said.

Currently, 29 priests serve on the COVID-19 Anointing Corps. The anointing structure varies with availability — some are for their parish only, some are only within their deanery, and some serve with no limitations.

Father John Paul Erickson, pastor of Transfiguration in Oakdale, volunteered to serve on the corps soon after its inception. “It’s been a very beautiful and powerful experience of my priesthood,” Father Erickson said. “To be able to be present to the sick and dying in their moment of profoundest need is certainly one of the principal reasons I became a priest. I have been able to anoint and absolve dozens of the dying who otherwise

OFFICIAL CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3B

Reverend Tony O’Neill, assigned as Vicar for Evangelization for Deaneries 7 and 8. This is in addition to his assignment as pastor of the Church of Saint John Neumann in Eagan.

Reverend Kevin Finnegan, assigned as Vicar for Evangelization for Deaneries 9, 14,

may not have been able to receive the sacraments, and even baptized the baby of a COVID-positive dad.

“It’s also been a great grace to be a witness to hospital staff that the Church has not been afraid to be on the front lines of a health crisis,” Father Erickson said. “This is where we belong, as instruments of mercy, following all necessary safety precautions, of course.”

Father Timothy Sandquist, parochial vicar of Holy Family in St. Louis Park, joined the Anointing Corps about six months into the pandemic, as cases were starting to multiply.

“I regard the sacraments as the most important thing we brought COVID patients we served,” Father Sandquist said. “In fact, since many patients we served were no longer alert, the sacraments were sometimes the only thing we could offer.”

“The sacrament of anointing of the sick fortunately carries with it the power of forgiveness of sins, even if the recipient is unconscious,” Father Sandquist said. “Nevertheless, for those patients who were alert, the presence of a priest was usually a great consolation. Last week, after I anointed an elderly woman who had COVID and was dying, she said to me, ‘I’m ready to go home.’ I knew that she was not talking about her earthly home.”

Deacons have not been trained for the Anointing Corps, but that might change, March said. “It will be a part of my recommendation for ongoing and preventative measures,” she said.

A rebound of COVID, or another pandemic or medical emergency, will require priests and others to continue safely providing pastoral care. “Having hammered out many of the details for how to do so during this COVID pandemic has given us a template for how to approach future crises,” Father Margevicius said. “It has also strengthened the cooperation between the medical community and religious caretakers, inasmuch as both recognize the essential role each plays in providing holistic care for all patients suffering, both bodily and spiritually.”

Father Andrew Jaspers, chaplain at North Memorial Health Hospital in Robbinsdale, was assigned as a chaplain at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis in May 2020, just as the COVID-19 pandemic was hitting Minnesota. He joined the Anointing Corps.

The corps has made the “ultimate difference for many of those who died, as receiving anointing, apostolic pardon, and sometimes confession are the best assurances that one will go to heaven,” Father Jaspers said. “It brought profound consolation to families who learned that their loved one died with sacraments.”

Father Erickson said it’s important that the Church be ready to minister to the sick and dying in whatever circumstance may arise.

“Unfortunately, this will not be the last time visitors to hospitals, including family members and clergy of the actively dying, will face severe restrictions to entry,” he said. “I hope the local Church can continue to utilize a version of the corps for true health emergencies, but I also hope that all pastors and priests see it as their duty to minister the saving sacraments to their people in moments of public health crises,” Father Erickson said.

“The time needed to train for proper donning and doffing is brief, and this training will open doors to my brothers that otherwise may be closed,” he said. “Behind those doors are the sick and suffering, waiting to know of the healing presence of Christ.”

and 15. This is in addition to his assignment as pastor of the Church of Our Lady of Grace in Edina.

Reverend Michael Creagan, assigned as Vicar for Evangelization for Deaneries 5 and 6. This is in addition to his assignment as

pastor of the Church of Saint Joseph in West Saint Paul.

Reverend Marc Paveglio, assigned as Vicar for Evangelization for Deaneries 2 and 3. This is in addition to his assignment as pastor of the Church of Saint Rose of Lima in Roseville.

FATHER TOM MARGEVICIUS

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT Martha Scheckel, the founding director of the School of Nursing at the University of St. Thomas, stands in a classroom at the Morrison Family College of Health.

Religious sister’s craft sales help her order’s retirement fund

National collection for retired religious is Dec. 10-11

By Barb Umberger The Catholic Spirit

A workspace at the Archdiocesan Catholic Center in St. Paul was covered Nov. 15 with colorful suncatchers with faceted pendants, beaded bookmarks and zipper pulls for jackets, embellished “to, from” gift tags created from recycled cards and other craft items.

The following day, School Sister of Notre Dame Lynore Girmscheid sold more of her homemade items at a five-hour craft sale at the senior living Carondelet Center in St. Paul.

The craft items are proof that Sister Lynore gives both her time and talent to encourage donations for retired religious. While all proceeds from her craft sales benefit the retirement fund for her order, Sister Lynore also coordinates the broader Retirement Fund for Religious for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, a position she has held for five years. She plans to retire from that post in June.

For more than 45 years, Sister Lynore worked in parish ministry, which involved music and liturgy, and she also did church décor yearround, which became “more intense” during the holidays, she said. “It’s just

something I’ve always loved doing,” she said. She isn’t involved in that anymore, and crafting is a way to use her creativity, she said. It was also something she had more time to devote to during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s been a real gift to be part of different crafters,” Sister Lynore said, as she participates in various shows. “It’s

Preparing Catholic School Leaders with Faith and Excellence

just a real positive and it’s been a real blessing in my life.”

This year, Sister Lynore got a jump on the parish collection for the broader fund, which begins Dec. 10-11 in the archdiocese. Last year, parishioners gave a total of $472,797 to the fund. Across the country last year, the National Religious Retirement Office reports,

nearly $28.5 million was donated and distributed to 271 U.S. Catholic religious communities.

In a recent video about the campaign, Sister Lynore said senior religious are sustained and blessed by the faithful’s prayers, advocacy and generosity. “As we like to say, ‘generous giving honors generous living,’” Sister Lynore said in the video. “Thank you for your support of those who have given a lifetime of service.”

U.S. Catholic bishops started the national fund in 1988 due to a significant lack of retirement funding for Catholic sisters, brothers and priests in religious orders. Today, only 7% of religious communities providing data to the NRRO reported adequate funding for retirement.

Making it more challenging, people in religious life past age 70 today outnumber those who are younger by nearly three to one, the NRRO has said.

On average, in 2021, it cost about $50,000 per person to care for those in religious life over 70, the office reported. Skilled care costs about $78,000 per person. The average, annual Social Security benefit for a retired member of a religious order is $7,326, compared to $19,896 for the average U.S. retiree.

In addition to the weekend collections, people wishing to donate can visit retiredreligious org, or mail donation to: Retirement Fund for Religious at the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, 777 Forest St., St. Paul, MN 55106.

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

School Sister of Notre Dame Lynore Girmscheid stands behind a collection of her homemade

Sister Lynore is also the coordinator for the Retirement Fund for Religious for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

As USCCB president, Archbishop Broglio says he welcomes meeting with Biden

By Dennis Sadowski Catholic News Service

The incoming president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said he is willing to meet with public officials, including President Joe Biden, to discuss public policy issues of concern to the Church.

“I don’t see my role as political, but if there is any way to insert the Gospel into all aspects of life in our country, I certainly will not miss any occasion to do that,” Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services told reporters Nov. 15, hours after he was elected during the bishops’ fall general assembly in Baltimore.

He said his predecessor as president, Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles, had desired to meet with Biden, but that such an opportunity did not present itself since Biden’s election two years ago.

“If he wants to meet with me, I’d be happy to meet with him,” Archbishop Broglio said.

After Biden was elected in 2020, Archbishop Gomez announced the formation of a working group of bishops to address issues surrounding the election of a Catholic president and policies that may come about that would be in conflict with Catholic teaching and the bishops’ priorities.

That effort eventually led to the bishops issuing a statement on the importance of holy Communion in the life of the Catholic Church and did not address any conflicts between the stances of Catholic elected officials and Church teaching on the dignity of life.

Archbishop Broglio also said he planned to continue efforts that began under his predecessor to bring the U.S. bishops closer together after recent assemblies demonstrated in public conflicting views on a variety of issues they have addressed.

This year’s fall assembly included specific periods of “fraternal dialogue” and reflection. The arrangement of the assembly room also was changed to promote more face-to-face dialogue at round tables rather than long rows of seating focused on the stage where USCCB leaders led proceedings.

“I intend to continue the good work that Archbishop Gomez began, I think, by giving us a good example of listening but then of leading. I think I will just try to continue in that same vein,” Archbishop Broglio said.

In response to a question about why he was elected and the perception that his election showed that the

uCatholic leaders respond to shooting at Colorado nightclub. Catholic leaders have condemned the Nov. 19 attack on an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado, by a suspected gunman that killed at least five people and injured at least 25. Seven of those wounded were in critical condition. The Church leaders — the archbishop of Denver, leaders of religious orders and congregations, and a Catholic outreach group to members of the LGBTQ community — also prayed for those impacted by the attack and urged an end to hate crimes and use of language that condemns those in the LGBTQ community.

uPope suspends Caritas Internationalis officers, appoints administrator. Pope Francis has suspended the secretary-general and other top officers of Caritas Internationalis, appointing a temporary administrator to oversee improved management policies and to prepare for the election of new officers in May. Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, whose second term as Caritas president was to end in May, also loses his position, although he is to assist the temporary administrator in preparing for the future by taking “special care of relations with the local churches and the member organizations,” said the papal decree published Nov. 22. Caritas

‘EXCELLENT’ USCCB PRESIDENT

Kind, humble and joyful, Archbishop Timothy Broglio will be an excellent president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Archbishop Bernard Hebda said Nov. 17, after returning from the U.S. bishops’ meeting in Baltimore.

“I have known and admired Archbishop Broglio for more than 25 years and am confident that he will be an excellent president for our conference,” the archbishop said in an email interview.

“He was exceptionally kind to me when I began my work at the Holy See as a young priest and has consistently offered me an inspiring example of humble and joyful service to the Church. His willingness to take on this new position, in addition to his already weighty responsibilities as shepherd for U.S. military around the globe, is nothing short of heroic,” the archbishop said.

TIMOTHY BROGLIO

U.S. bishops may not have the same priorities as Pope Francis when it comes to building a Church that is more synodal in nature, Archbishop Broglio said that the query was better asked of his fellow bishops.

“I don’t know the answer to that question,” he said.

“As far as I know, I’m certainly in communion with Pope Francis as part of the universal Church. As brother bishops, we certainly know each other. I’m not aware that this indicates some dissonance with Pope Francis,” the archbishop continued.

He also said he planned to ensure that progress continues toward the upcoming Synod of Bishops on synodality. The process is now in the continental phase, where bishops’ conferences are meeting to discuss what issues to bring forward when the bishops meet in Rome in October 2023.

U.S. and Canadian Church leaders, part of the North American continental group, have planned to hold a series of 10 meetings by March to prepare for the synod’s first gathering. A second gathering is planned for October 2024.

“The USCCB will try to listen as much as we can,” during the upcoming sessions, he said.

While geographically in North America, Mexican Church officials planned to prepare for the synod through CELAM, the Latin American bishops’ council.

Internationalis is the umbrella organization for 162 official Catholic charities working in more than 200 countries, including the U.S. bishops’ Catholic Relief Services and Catholic Charities USA. The Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development said the suspensions will have no impact on the functioning and services of member organizations. Earlier this year, the dicastery said in a statement, it “commissioned a review of the workplace environment of the CI General Secretariat.”

No evidence emerged of financial mismanagement or sexual impropriety, but deficiencies were noted in management and procedures, jeopardizing morale, the discastery said.

uQuestions about Synodal Path dominate German bishops’ ‘ad limina.’ The German bishops’ meeting with officials of the Roman Curia was not a “showdown,” but it did make clear the Vatican’s strong concerns about Germany’s Synodal Path, especially regarding its support for official ministries for women and for a change in Church teaching about homosexuality, said the president of the bishops’ conference. Coming at the end of the bishops’ weeklong “ad limina” visits to Rome, the meeting Nov. 18 with the heads of Vatican offices was “a serious test of synodality,”

Asked about a perception among some that Archbishop Broglio’s election shows the bishops may not have the same priorities as Pope Francis in building a Church that is more synodal in nature, Archbishop Hebda said he didn’t see evidence of that.

“To the contrary, I think that Archbishop Broglio is particularly well-poised to lead the conference in the synodal direction,” Archbishop Hebda said. “I’ve served the past two years on a planning committee that Archbishop Broglio chaired and I was consistently impressed by both his collaborative style and his explicit commitment to integrating the priorities of Pope Francis into the life of the Church in the United States. His service in the Vatican’s diplomatic corps, moreover, has assisted him in developing exceptional listening skills while giving him a first-hand experience of many of the issues that are at the heart of Pope Francis’ teaching.”

Bishops at the fall assembly heard reports and advanced plans on several initiatives, including the three-year National Eucharistic Revival, led by former auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Bishop Andrew Cozzens, now bishop of Crookston. It has “incredible momentum,” Bishop Cozzens told the bishops, pointing out how the three-year initiative launched this summer on the feast of Corpus Christi with eucharistic processions around the country.

Archbishop Hebda said Bishop Cozzens’ work on behalf of the Revival is particularly encouraging to him. “It’s wonderful to see his gifts being utilized on such a large stage and in a way that will bring great blessings to the Church in the United States,” the archbishop said.

— Joe Ruff, The Catholic Spirit

Bishop Georg Bätzing told reporters the next day. In that meeting, “it was important to me to make it clear that the uncovering of abuse and structures that facilitated abuse in the Church have so shattered trust and called into question the authority of the bishops to such a degree that new paths are necessary in order to confront the crisis in the Church,” he said. The German bishops promise to reflect on what was said and heard, he said, but that reflection and the continuing dialogue with the Curia must involve those who “make up the largest part of the people of God: the laity.” “We are Catholics, and we will remain Catholics, but we want to be Catholics in a different way,” Bishop Bätzing said.

uCardinal Dolan says Senate’s marriage bill threatens religious liberty. A bill on same-sex marriage advancing in the Senate is “a bad deal for the many courageous Americans of faith and no faith who continue to believe and uphold the truth about marriage in the public square today,” said New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan. “It is deeply concerning that the U.S. Senate has voted to proceed toward potential passage of the Respect for Marriage Act, which would essentially codify the Supreme Court’s ruling in Obergefell (in 2015) that found a constitutional right to same-sex

civil marriages,” the cardinal said Nov. 17. The Respect for Marriage Act “does not strike a balance that appropriately respects our nation’s commitment to the fundamental right of religious liberty,” said the cardinal, who is chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee for Religious Liberty. The Senate advanced the measure with a 62-37 vote Nov. 16. A final vote will take place after the Thanksgiving holiday.

uNew Ascension yearlong podcast starts Jan. 1, will present entire catechism. Beginning Jan. 1, Ascension Press will launch “The Catechism in a Year,” taking listeners through the four parts of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and “providing explanation, insight and encouragement along the way.” Over the course of 365 daily podcast episodes, Father Mike Schmitz of the Diocese of Duluth will read the entire catechism. Throughout 2022, the priest has hosted the popular “The Bible in a Year” podcast with Scripture scholar Jeff Cavins of the Archbishop Flynn Catechetical Institute in St. Paul. “For us to grow as Catholics, we need to know what our faith is. We need to articulate our faith in order to share it,” said Cavins, who will host a new program titled “The Bible Timeline Show.”

ARCHBISHOP

Riding the ‘May Train’ from St. Olaf

By Mark Johnson For The Catholic Spirit

Jim May might not fit most people’s image of a man known for inspiring young people to embrace a Catholic religious vocation. A distinguished classics professor, he served for years as provost and dean of the college at one of the nation’s premier Lutheran higher education institutions — St. Olaf College in Northfield.

Yet through his Catholic faith and his ability to extend Christian friendship, as well as his understanding of music as a bridge to the true and beautiful, he has opened the door to religious life to an impressive number of St. Olaf students. In each case, the journey began in a van packed with students that Jim and his wife, Donna, drove each Sunday for 40 years on the 100-mile round trip from Northfield to St. Agnes in St. Paul. The students affectionately dubbed it the “May Train.”

The Mays’ youthful protegees have included a young classics scholar who went on to enter the Church and become a cloistered nun; a student who became a Dominican priest and then director of music at the Pontifical North American College in Rome; a third who experienced a conversion and is now pastor of St. Hubert in Chanhassen, and a fourth who is a priest in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. All credit Jim and Donna with opening their eyes to the beauty and richness of a religious vocation.

Some might say the fruits of the May Train’s weekly round trip would be enough for one lifetime. Not so for Jim, who is a true Renaissance man. He is a worldrenowned expert on the great Roman orator Cicero. He rowed in the world’s only replica of an ancient Greek trireme battleship and built from scratch a harpsichord that’s a perfect replica of an instrument played by Handel.

He also built, with his father-in-law, the elaborate log house in rural Northfield where he and Donna live — and hand-crafted almost every piece of furniture in it. On weekends, he often scours the country for additions to his collection of antique vehicles, which includes nine antique John Deere tractors, a fire engine, and his pride and joy — a 1938 ¾-ton panel truck. Twice, he was state doubles handball champion in his age category. If that’s not enough, he retreats each night to the top floor of his log house and watches satellite television from Greece to keep up on his conversational Greek. “Needless to say, my sleep requirements are minimal,” he quipped. Jim and Donna, both now 71, have two adult sons and four grandchildren.

Lifelong Catholic

Jim, a lifelong Catholic who grew up in Ohio, spent his career as a classics professor at St. Olaf, retiring in 2017. The college, which was founded in 1874 by Norwegian Lutheran immigrants and is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, has the nation’s largest undergraduate Lutheran enrollment.

Jim’s Catholic faith integrated naturally with his teaching of Greek and Latin — ancient languages that played a vital role in salvation history. “I had occasion scores of times to teach New Testament Greek or Medieval Latin, where issues of faith and morality surface continually,” he explained.

His influence extended to campus life outside the classroom, as an adviser to Catholic student and pro-life groups on campus. Every day for 40 years, he wore his faith “on his sleeve”— displaying on his lapel the pin of the pro-life movement, which depicts the tiny feet of an unborn child at 12 weeks gestation. “My little pin was frequently a conversation starter … or ender,” Jim said. “Often, you couldn’t tell what people thought of it, but a number of folks in the St. Olaf community seemed to think it was at least a brave stand to take.”

Still, Jim’s Catholicism might have remained a footnote in his St. Olaf career, were it not for the extraordinary story of the May Train.

One of the former regular riders entered the Church in her sophomore year at St. Olaf and is now Sister

Cecilia Maria, 38, a cloistered Passionist nun in Kentucky. “It was 100 percent by word-of-mouth invitation — friends inviting friends to ride ‘the May Train’ to experience the liturgy and have fellowship in the car,” she observed.

Another former student, Patrick Behling, 33, coldcalled Jim after hearing about the May Train during his sophomore year at St. Olaf. “The next Sunday, Jim rolled up to campus in his pickup truck to take me to Mass, and he and Donna ended up driving me to and from St. Agnes every Sunday for the rest of my time in college,” he said. Behling, who said he was “won over” by the May Train and the St. Agnes experience, went on to become Father Behling and is now a priest in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.

St. Olaf College is renowned for its music department, and many of the students who rode the May Train were initially drawn to investigate Catholicism by the beauty and reverence of St. Agnes’ music and liturgy, especially within the Novus Ordo Latin Mass celebrated there. For some, it was an encounter with Gregorian chant. For Jim’s students in the classics department, it was an opportunity to see their study of Latin come alive. For others, it was Renaissance polyphony, including the opportunity to sing in Donna’s Chamber Choir.

“Sharing the faith through sacred music is one of the greatest joys of my life,” said Donna, who has worked in music leadership roles at the parish. “To fill your senses with the beauty of art, architecture and music can bring you closer to the Maker of all that is good, true and beautiful.”

Worship at St. Agnes “drew me deeper into that language of rite and beauty, of mystery, of history, of the physical and spiritual senses,” explained Sister Cecilia. “It gave me a living context for my favorite subjects of study, Latin and Renaissance polyphony. Who knew that they actually had a world in which they lived and breathed, not just as a fun and beautiful thing to learn?”

“The austere beauty of Gregorian chant made a deep impression on my soul: made my soul sing with the power of tradition and continuity with the past,” explained Father Rolf Tollefson, 51, a convert who is now at St. Hubert.

Father Vincent Ferrer Began, 39, who was inspired by the May Train to join the Dominicans and recently left Rome’s North American College to become diocesan and music director at the Cathedral of St. Thomas More in Arlington, Virginia, put it this way: “It was such a blessing to be able to sing this music in the context for which it

Jim and Donna May outside St. Agnes church in St. Paul, site of many student-teacher visits from St. Olaf College in Northfield that led to several Catholic vocations. ROBERT CUNNINGHAM, PHOTORESOURCE MN | FOR THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Olaf College to Catholic religious life

hobby to read widely on Church history, doctrine and dogma,” said Jim, “and Donna taught religion in school for many years, so we were well-versed in the faith, which was a critical first step in imparting the faith to students.” In the end, however, he downplays his own role: “We only provided the transportation — the Holy Spirit and St. Agnes did the rest.” Sister Cecilia added that “worshipping and commuting with the Mays invited me to process what I experienced, to listen to their conversations and begin to experience the world and daily life through ‘Catholic eyes.’”

Open door

In addition to the weekly round trips, the Mays regularly opened their home to students who were far from family. Donna said when she was growing up, her family’s house was often filled with neighbors and friends. “Jim and I have tried to carry on this hospitality, and food is an important component. Inviting our priests, friends and local college students to share a home-cooked meal and a good conversation opens hearts to the work of the Holy Spirit.” She added with a smile, “I often fall into playing Martha instead of Mary at these dinners.”

Sister Cecilia forged a familial relationship with the Mays during Thanksgiving and Easter celebrations at their home. “I’ve affectionately called them my Catholic Mom and Dad for years.” In the Mays, she says, “I witnessed Catholicism fully alive, so much the more beautiful and challenging as it was thoroughly real, incarnate in the joys and sorrows and frustrations of sometimes-messy real life.” She could see in their hearts and lives “a lived and earthy version of the sublime realities we encountered and celebrated in the high liturgies of St. Agnes.”

Jim emphasizes that Donna was a key influence on these students, especially in her role as director of the St. Agnes Chamber Choir. “When the students sang Renaissance music in her choir — in the surroundings of a beautiful baroque church — they were definitely moved closer to God. Donna and I are firm believers in the old adage that singing in a church choir is like praying twice.”

EMBRACING CHRIST’S CALL

In struggles that Sister Cecilia Maria, a cloistered Passionist nun in Kentucky, experienced as her attraction to religious life grew, she said Jim and Donna May offered “a safe sounding board.” However, especially as she drew near graduation from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Jim had become an academic mentor as well as a spiritual adviser. She remembered one episode in which these roles “whipped up a bit of a storm in my spiritual life and in my discernment.”

Sister Cecilia, an outstanding student, had long dreamed of an academic career that would begin with a Ph.D. in classics or Scripture studies. In her senior year, she was accepted at a number of prestigious universities, and all offered fellowships.

At the same time, however, it became clear to her in prayer that God was asking her to pursue a different course of study elsewhere. “The only reason he gave me at the time was that it was because of the vocation he had in mind for me,” she recalled. She decided to follow the course God set for her in answer to her prayers. It was a difficult choice, she said, “but the grace and clarity of this ‘message’ from the Lord seemed so certain that I believed the matter was settled.”

Shortly afterward, at lunch after Mass, Jim asked her if she had decided where to attend graduate school. When she joyfully announced her decision, he responded with shock and asked her to explain. She described her experiences at prayer, then asked, “Should I just ignore all that?” Jim leaned back and answered a long “nooo!,” she recalled, but added with deep seriousness, “You need to know that if you make this choice, you are throwing away your academic career.”

ABOVE

was written and for the end for which it was written: the praise of God in the Church’s public worship.”

Jim summed up these students’ attraction to the faith like this: “I learned early on that young adults are searching — whether they know it or not — for their vocation, or their path in life, which will lead them to everlasting happiness.” At St. Agnes, he believes, this search began to yield answers: “Humans are affected in profound ways by the good, the true and the beautiful.” In his view, St. Agnes successfully offered the Eucharist to these young people in a fitting environment of beauty through the treasury of sacred art and music.

Benefits of this exposure to St. Agnes did not flow only in the direction of the St. Olaf students. Donna said she has often needed additional singers, especially tenors and “a soprano who could pop out a high C for Allegri’s ‘Miserere Mei Deus’ on Good Friday.” She often found those singers at St. Olaf. “The Holy Spirit has many ways of fostering vocations … another win-win for the choir and the Lord,” she said.

The conversation on the May Train’s return trips from St. Agnes to Northfield offered “ample time for reflection on what we had just experienced,” Jim explained. Jim and Donna came amply prepared for these in-transit discussions. “I have made it almost a

In addition to her impact on the students, Jim credits Donna’s constant self-gift to him as essential to all his accomplishments — whether it be his impact on St. Olaf students or “all the wild and crazy ideas and activities I’ve gotten myself into, from handball tournaments, trips to Texas to pick up tractors, rowing triremes, and the rest.” Through it all, Jim is convinced “I couldn’t have done half the stuff I’ve accomplished if it hadn’t been for her unending and selfless support — I often end up getting the credit, but she deserves it as much or more than I do.”

When some of the May Train riders began considering religious life, the Mays became steadying confidants in this momentous decision. After Father Behling told them he was thinking about entering the seminary, he said, “Jim and Donna told me about the priests they most admired, and the St. Olaf students who had converted in the back seat of their car and gone on to become priests and religious.” “To them,” he added, “it was totally normal for a young Catholic man to want to be a priest, and that confidence gave me some important freedom for my discernment.”

Father Tollefson, too, believed that “Jim May verified the call that I already felt deeply stirring in my soul.”

When asked about his and Donna’s remarkable impact on religious vocations, Jim answered by reflecting on their own vocations. “At a very young age, I decided I wanted to teach Latin and the classics — that this would be my vocation — and Donna decided on teaching as her vocation just a few years later in college. We have always viewed ‘vocation’ as a call from God, every bit as sacred and serious as those calls to others who enter the religious life.” In explanation, he invokes one of the old Baltimore Catechism’s first questions:

“Why did God make us?” and points to its answer: “God made us to show forth His goodness and to share with Him His everlasting happiness in heaven.”

He added that, “while I never openly wear my Catholic faith on my sleeve, in a proselytizing fashion,

“The next morning, after a rough night, I shared with Jim how he had really scared me,” she recalled. In response, “he fully supported my sense of vocation and fidelity to God’s grace,” but reiterated that she needed to embrace its lifelong consequences. “His challenge to me, as both Catholic father figure and academic mentor, helped steel me in my resolve to follow Christ crucified wherever he led: To begin to choose hiddenness and littleness, rather than the praise and acclaim of this world.”

Jim was not unique among those, including other professors and mentors, who warned her about the consequences of her choice, according to Sister Cecilia. What was different about him, however, was that “he did not treat me or my vocation as ‘less than.’” Jim told her the truth, that “by choosing to follow the Lord on the path he was setting before me, I was turning away from my dreams and aptitudes in academia. But at the same time, he admired and supported and encouraged in me the strength needed to make such a choice.” Jim “believed in the value and beauty and power of a religious vocation, and he knew that I would hardly be ‘less than’ by following God’s call to become a nun.”

I tried throughout my 40-plus years of teaching to provide a model of someone who is attempting to live his life in accord with his Catholic faith.”

Father Behling believes it’s simple: “The Mays just live proudly, robustly Catholic lives. They have internalized the spirit of the liturgy, which is the very breath of the Church’s life.” He also believes their lightness of spirit is key: “The obvious fulfillment they derive from life in the Church is winsome and attractive, especially for young people who so often have been adrift their whole lives and are looking for rootedness and identity and meaning, whether they know it or not.”

Sister Cecilia said she was inspired by Jim and Donna because they are “thoroughly and unabashedly Catholic.” “For the first time in my life,” she said, “I discovered that Sunday worship and daily life are not two different things; they are just two different settings of the same glorious music.”

FAR LEFT Jim with one of nine antique John Deere tractors.

LEFT Jim tinkers under the hood of a 1951 Chevrolet Suburban, one of several antique vehicles he owns.

TOP Jim and Donna outside their log home in rural Northfield. Jim built the house with his father-in-law.

Jim with the harpsichord he built from scratch.

PHOTOS COURTESY THE MAYS

Deaf Jesuit novice: Visit by first deaf priest in U.S. offered ‘a cool mix’

By Barb Umberger The Catholic Spirit

Parishioners at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Minneapolis, about half of whom are deaf, had the chance to attend Mass Nov. 20 celebrated by the first deaf man ordained a Roman Catholic priest in the U.S., Father Tom Coughlin.

Ordained in 1977 for the Order of the Most Holy Trinity, Father Coughlin, 75, left that order and helped found a community of priests and brothers who minister to the deaf, disabled, marginalized and minorities in parishes and hospitals — the Castello (Dominican) Missionaries for the Deaf and Disabled of USA, based in Newark, New Jersey. He is an incardinated priest in the Diocese of Honolulu.

After Mass, deaf parishioner Carol Buley, 73, said it was “really exciting” to have a deaf priest celebrate Mass, which doesn’t happen often. “It’s … fantastic to be able to see a deaf priest signing directly with us. It’s great to have interpreters, but to have somebody of our own culture, having a deaf priest signing directly with us, is just fantastic.”

About 80 people attended the Mass at the small church, a fact noted by Father Coughlin in his welcome. He used American Sign Language to say he came from a “huge, fancy, million-dollar cathedral” in New Jersey to this “cute, little church” that is cozy and warm. “I

feel all the warmth and love,” he said. “Jesus is here with you.”

Interpreter and parishioner Susan Sweezo, born to deaf parents, used a microphone at the front of the church to speak his words to the hearing audience.

During parts of the Mass with singing, parishioner Stephanie Stroik stood on steps near the altar and signed the words. Two others each took a turn.

Father Coughlin concelebrated Mass with pastor Father Mike Krenik, who

is learning ASL. The visiting priest also mingled with parishioners during a casual breakfast in the church basement before Mass. The parish has about 120 parishioners.

Jesuit Father William O’Brien, director of novices for the Jesuit Novitiate of St. Alberto Hurtado in St. Paul, extended an invitation to Father Coughlin to visit sometime with deaf novice Todd Honas of Nebraska, who is in his first year of formation. That opportunity presented

itself when Father Coughlin traveled to the Twin Cities to preside at a wedding Nov. 19.

Honas, 25, has been helping at the parish since early September, serving as a lector at Sunday Masses, leading a weekly “faith group” and, occasionally, delivering Communion to deaf parishioners. Father Coughlin said Father O’Brien hoped to give Honas support and encouragement.

“He has the right personality, skills and intelligence, and he has the vocation for it,” Father Coughlin said of Honas. The pair have been communicating for about a month via a “video relay phone,” signing back and forth on the screen.

“It’s very important for him that I’m his friend and supporter because he’s so new in this experience, coming into a religious community, religious life, … and I’m so happy to give him advice and support,” Father Coughlin said through an interpreter.

Honas said having the first ordained deaf priest in the U.S. connect with “the most recent man to want to become a deaf priest (is) kind of a cool mix.”

Father Coughlin recalled feeling lonely when he was a novice and thinking about leaving. But his director told him, “You have to suffer so that other people can have it easier.” Father Coughlin then understood the meaning of his suffering.

“That gave me a purpose of why I have

PLEASE TURN TO MOUNT CARMEL ON PAGE 15B

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DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Father Tom Coughlin, right, the first deaf man ordained a priest in the U.S., prays the Eucharistic Prayer using sign language during Mass at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Minneapolis Nov. 20. At left is Father Mike Krenik, the pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, who is learning American Sign Language.

Feels like home: The Olive Branch, an inviting new St. Paul shop

By Christina Capecchi For The Catholic Spirit

This will be the first holiday season for The Olive Branch, a new home-goods store run by MarySarah Stokman, a 28-year-old Catholic who attends St. Mark in St. Paul. Stokman’s love of beautiful household objects reflects her faith. She’s eager to share artisan-made treasures — and the stories behind them — with Christmas shoppers in her airy, inviting storefront in the Mac-Groveland neighborhood.

Q You opened The Olive Branch in July. Tell me about the storefront.

A It’s about 600 feet — a smaller space, which I like. You can make it homey. I always have a shop playlist going. It’s very folky. I often have fresh flowers. I always have a candle burning. I try to use the natural light as much as I can. We have a lot of shop plants, adding literal life to the space. And there are a lot of antique pieces from my family that make it feel homey, like a hutch and little side tables and rugs. These antique milk jugs from my family’s little farm in Colorado are in here and my grandmother’s wheelbarrow, which I fill with dry flowers.

Q She loved beautiful home goods, as does your mom. Did that flow from their Catholic faith?

A I definitely see in both of them a huge heart and love for the other. My grandma embraced the native art and the indigenous communities in the Southwest, where her ranch was. My mom always had an old pine-needle basket on our living room coffee table that held all the rosaries. Those baskets were a staple, but super striking. That marriage of function and form was really impressionable, and the perfect example of the type of things that I carry in the shop.

Q

Was this shop a longtime dream?

A No, it was more of a surprise. I’ve always loved small shops. After graduating from college, I was working at a small home-goods shop in D.C. That put the idea in the back of my mind. I did their photography and marketing, and I realized I love telling the stories of the makers. I thought about how you can create this environment and invite people in, and I just thought, “I should try it!” After trying it, it was clear: I love it. It’s simple work, but it engages all aspects of my personality. All my interests and skills have a home here.

Q

You

just went for it!

A I’m more spontaneous, and my dad is an entrepreneur, so he was really supportive. I was freelancing at a shop and the owner kind of offered me her business. I vividly remember driving home and thinking: “How in the world did that fall into my lap?” But then I thought there’s something more that I have to say than a concept built by someone else. It lacked something deeper that, for me, would be the

core of anything I would start. I had this moment of wondering: “Does God really just want what we desire? Could it be that simple?” I had tears in my eyes, thinking: “He will bless this if it’s a good thing.” I felt this freedom to take this desire seriously. Every desire of my heart is from God and has a place in the world.

Q And God has blessed it.

A It’s clear that this place was blessed and given to me and all of these things unfold here. Every customer is such a sign of that! There will be customers who I would’ve thought I’d have nothing in common with and then in conversation be so surprised by their desire for beauty and their receptivity to the shop. I have customers who would stop by on their daily or weekly walk, and slowly this friendship grows. It became such a place of encountering the other, and that was such a gift. That’s partly why something so simple could be so fulfilling. Yesterday this older woman came in and she had drawn me a beautiful sketch of an olive branch for our nursery. I’m expecting. I was so touched!

Q Wow!

A Now I’m in the habit of really engaging with people. I don’t like to sell in an aggressive way. I love just having a warm environment. I love sharing the stories of the goods and the makers, and people can buy if they want. The more I really engage someone, the more I’m surprised and blessed — but also it makes people more free to engage your product and buy things, they feel more free to do that. It’s a cool give-and-take.

Q It’s easy to imagine you, running this charming little shop, as the protagonist of a Hallmark Christmas movie. But I bet there’s an unglamorous side.

A That’s true. I also see that in having something that’s your own, you really care about the parts you never thought you’d care about. Even the accounting for me, which is hard to do every week, is something I embrace and care to do well. It’s less glamorous, but it’s more

rewarding. There’s a huge element of the mission of the shop, this conviction that beauty happens in the mundane. The everyday moments that could seem against you are totally possible to be filled with beauty or to break through your day. My friend once told me: “Live every day at the service of beauty.” And that motto has always stuck with me, especially when doing mundane chores like sweeping or watering plants. Once a week I take all my shop plants outside and water them, and it’s the hardest task! It’s messy. That’s a moment where I try to say to myself, “This is a moment to live at the service of beauty.” When you approach those chores like that, it’s often when I’m aware of something like the way the light is interacting with the leaves of the plants, and I’m struck in a new way. Or sweeping and finding peace in the rhythm of it. It’s this choice of disposition.

Q Is Christmas shopping at The Olive Branch more meaningful in an age of Amazon Prime?

A For sure. Nothing here is bought without an intentionality. I’ve had a lot of people say, “Oh, it’s so peaceful in here, I feel like I could stay for hours.” They’ll slow down when they come in. For me it’s a sign that we all crave beauty. The experience of a beautiful home is that you enter and you can rest.

Q The prices of artisan-made goods can’t compete with Target.

A I really want to be accessible. I hate when people think that shopping this way you have to be rich. That’s not true. It’s different: You consume a lot less when you shop this way because you take care of each object. You’re also affirming something really human and beautiful. I want it to be possible that artists can make a living, and we embrace craft as a way of life. It’s really meaningful to connect people to thoughtfully made goods and to make that possible. The small pine-needle baskets we carry are $20, and it’s a beautiful thing that could totally change your entryway or your coffee table in your living room, and it’s really functional. It’s not that every single piece in your home has to be homemade. One thing can elevate a room so much.

Q Your thinking on this reflects Catholic social justice principles and guidance from Pope Francis.

A Pope Francis helped me embrace environmentalism and sustainability and being more intentional. The tendency is to overbuy and then get rid of things quickly. Even with fashion I’ve tried to buy pieces I really value rather than for less.

Q What do you know for sure?

A I’m certain of beauty. I know for sure that my heart is continually changed by beauty. And in following that, I have found a purpose for my life and known the Father’s love.

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DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Three-fold coming of Jesus Christ

The word Advent means “coming,” and today’s liturgical texts focus on the coming of Jesus Christ — to be more precise, on multiple comings of Christ. Advent is about a lot more than Christmas.

The celebration of Jesus’ birth on Dec. 25 predominates in the culture around us. We have been seeing Christmas decorations in stores since before Halloween. Everyone knows Christmas commemorates a historical fact. But that was a onetime event two millennia ago, never to be repeated; Jesus does not become a baby again every year. The Church believes the birth of Jesus changed history, but this is not the only coming of Jesus the Church professes.

The first two weeks of Advent emphasize instead the future coming of Jesus at the end of time. Today, Jesus warns his disciples, “Be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.” St. Paul likewise urges the Romans: “It is the hour now for you to wake from sleep … the day is at hand.” They are talking not about what happened in Bethlehem decades earlier, but about what will happen in the future. The fact that the Church has been waiting 2,000 years for Jesus’ final coming does not change the fact that it will arrive, somehow, someday. It could even be today! How would we get ready if we knew that Jesus would be returning soon? That is why the Church speaks of a third coming, in between

FATHER MIKE | FATHER MICHAEL SCHMITZ

Taking care when speaking up

Q I was talking with a friend the other day, and she started saying negative things about Jesus and the Church. I knew that what she was saying wasn’t true. I didn’t say anything, but feel like I should have. I just feel so badly for not speaking up. Was that wrong?

A I am so glad that you are asking about this. It demonstrates that you actually care and that you want to defend the truth about God and the Church. Rather than looking at your question (“Was that wrong?”), I think it might be more productive to ask what was going on in your mind and heart at that moment.

There are at least four possible reasons you didn’t say something. There might be more, but I have found that these are typically the four reasons why we fail to speak when something like this happens. (Note that these can also be the reasons we don’t speak up when someone is being gossiped about or otherwise maligned.)

The first reason could be a lack of wisdom: You simply didn’t know what to say. This is common. Someone might be talking about something they heard on a podcast or watched on YouTube somewhere. Maybe it is something along the lines of, “Did you know that the story of Jesus is based off of the ancient Egyptian story of Horus?” They can sound so certain and authoritative. They could possibly even make references to stories you have never heard of. How does a person engage these claims without having studied the fact that the “connection” between Jesus and Horus was completely fabricated in the 19th century by an English poet who was interested in Egyptology? If one were to read the actual myth of Horus, it is plain to see there is absolutely no connection between this myth and the factual and historical events of the life of Jesus. But if you have never encountered this claim, how could you know? In those cases, it would not be wrong not to speak up. Your

the first and final coming: Jesus comes to us sacramentally every day. St. Bernard of Clairvaux wrote, “In the first coming Jesus was seen on earth, dwelling among men; he himself testifies that they saw him and hated him. In the final coming, all flesh will see the salvation of our God and they will look on him whom they have pierced. The intermediate coming is a hidden one; in it, only the elect see the Lord within their own selves, and they are saved. In his first coming, our Lord came in our flesh and in our weakness; in his middle coming he comes in spirit and power; in the final coming he will be seen in glory and majesty.” (See the Office of Readings, Wednesday, First Week of Advent.)

The liturgy expresses this three-fold coming. One of the options for the Kyrie at Mass says, “Lord Jesus, you came (past) to gather the nations into the peace of God’s kingdom … You come (present) in word and sacrament to strengthen us in holiness … You will come in glory (future) with salvation for your people: Lord have mercy.”

Many of us remember that the Memorial Acclamation in the Eucharistic Prayer used to say, “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.” Even though that was removed from our current translation of the Missal because it does not appear in Latin, it does express sound eucharistic theology: the coming of Christ past, present, future. See St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica III, 73,4,c.

The best way to observe the historical birth of Christ is by celebrating the Eucharist today, not just on Dec. 25. Likewise, the best way to prepare for the final coming of Christ is also by celebrating the Eucharist today. Coming to Mass often in Advent (even on weekdays) prepares us to meet Jesus whenever and wherever he comes to us. As the Collect for the First Sunday of Advent puts it, let us “resolve to run forth to meet Christ.”

Father Margevicius is director of worship for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

silence simply means that you lack the wisdom to engage. The second reason could be a lack of courage: You knew how to respond but were afraid. This can also happen quite often. It might be possible that we have a great deal of respect (or fear) for the person speaking. Because of this, we may shrink back from challenging them for fear of what they might think. This could be connected to vanity. Vanity is not limited to the kind of person who checks themselves out in a mirror often. The sin of vanity is much more ubiquitous: an inordinate preoccupation with what others might think. Because of this, I may not speak up because of what an individual might think of me.

Or maybe this happened in the context of a group. In that case, I may not say anything because I am not willing to appear different from the rest of the people involved. In Minnesota, we have this issue in spades. We are known for “Minnesota Nice.”

In this case, it might be wrong to remain silent. But knowing that the reason is a lack of courage is helpful, because it reveals the way forward: There is a need for greater courage.

The third reason could be a lack of love: You didn’t care enough to speak. This could come from our postmodern sense of indifference. In some circles, it is “not cool to care.” The kind of person who gets riled up enough to contradict someone could merely be contentious. But they could also be the kind of person who cares about the truth enough to become uncomfortable. Too often, our lack of love for others (or the truth) can leave us silent when we should speak. In this case, it might be wrong to not say anything. This should rouse us to ask the God of love to move our hearts with a real and genuine concern for the truth and the people in our lives.

The fourth reason could be that you discerned that this moment was simply not the right moment. There can be a time and a place for correction. It might be possible that you read the situation and figured that engaging the person in conversation or debate would not be helpful.

If that is what happened, then we have to make sure that, sometime in the future, we have the wisdom, the courage and the love to reach out and offer that word of truth if the situation calls for it.

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, Nov. 27

First Sunday of Advent Is 2:1-5 Rom 13:11-14 Mt 24:37-44

Monday, Nov. 28 Is 4:2-6 Mt 8:5-11

Tuesday, Nov. 29 Is 11:1-10 Lk 10:21-24

Wednesday, Nov. 30 St. Andrew, apostle Rom 10:9-18 Mt 4:18-22

Thursday, Dec. 1 Is 26:1-6 Mt 7:21, 24-27

Friday, Dec. 2 Is 29:17-24 Mt 9:27-31

Saturday, Dec. 3 St. Francis Xavier, priest Is 30:19-21, 23-26 Mt 9:35–10:1, 5a, 6-8

Sunday, Dec. 4 Second Sunday of Advent Is 11:1-10 Rom 15:4-9 Mt 3:1-12

Monday, Dec. 5 Is 35:1-10 Lk 5:17-26

Tuesday, Dec. 6 Is 40:1-11 Mt 18:12-14

Wednesday, Dec. 7 St. Ambrose, bishop and doctor of the Church Is 40:25-31 Mt 11:28-30

Thursday, Dec. 8 Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary Gn 3:9-15, 20 Eph 1:3-6, 11-12 Lk 1:26-38

Friday, Dec. 9 Is 48:17-19 Mt 11:16-19

Saturday, Dec. 10 Sir 48:1-4, 9-11 Mt 17:9a, 10-13

Sunday, Dec. 11 Third Sunday of Advent Is 35:1-6a, 10 Jas 5:7-10 Mt 11:2-11

ST. ANDREW (5-60 A.D.) In the synoptic Gospels, Andrew is a Galilean fisherman grouped with his brother, Peter, and with James and John in the inner circle of Apostles; in John’s Gospel, he is the disciple of John the Baptist who is the first to follow Jesus and who brings his brother to the Lord. Many traditions about Andrew come from the apocryphal secondcentury Acts of Andrew, which depicts him as a zealous missionary in the Black Sea region who is crucified — tied to an x-shaped cross — by the Roman governor. Some early Church historians also said he evangelized in Greece and Asia Minor. He is the patron saint of Scotland, Russia, Greece and those who fish for a living. His feast day is Nov. 30.

ASK

The ‘red wave’ we really need is not on a map

I don’t usually put stock in news analysts, but I’ll be honest, I was hoping for the promised “red wave” of the midterm elections. I was convinced propositions to codify abortion would be struck down in Michigan and Kentucky, for example. In my own state, I watched intelligent, worthy candidates work tirelessly to run robust campaigns I was sure would speak to the hearts and minds of my fellow Minnesotans.

As the evening wore on and my candidates struggled to stay in the race, my heart sank. When we awoke to more bad news, I spent the day in a defeated funk. As the votes were tallied throughout the week, it was like death by a million paper cuts — my favored pro-life, pro-Catholic social thought candidates losing by the tiniest margins.

I wondered what I might have done differently. Obviously, it’s not enough to put out a yard sign or write a check. Where might I have had more influence? Did I make too many assumptions about how involved and invested my neighbors are in the direction of this country and the role of religion in determining that direction?

It’s become a popular notion — with good reason — that we no longer live in a Christian era but have returned to an apostolic age; and therefore, we must return to the same methods used in an apostolic age to bring others to conversion. Of course, a predominant outcome of those methods was martyrdom. So maybe the question I need to ask is:

CATHOLIC WATCHMEN | DEACON GORDON BIRD

Jesus dwells with and within us

Resonating in our hearts to remind us of the joy of the coming season, the supernatural and natural forces of faith and reason dwell within us — as we prepare to celebrate that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us”

(Jn 1:14).

Yes, we walk by faith, but we must operate with prudence as well during what can be bustling weeks before us. We ride the tide of Thanksgiving festivities to the shores of Advent, anticipating and preparing for the experience of the Christmas activities. At the same time, we will be trying to keep top of mind that God became one of us — giving us much to be thankful for.

Dare we ask why Jesus blessed us so on that first Christmas and continues to bless us with his real presence yet today? Certainly, it was and remains a pure act of supernatural love surpassing our understanding. To bring us closer to him — body, blood, soul and divinity — in his infinite wisdom he became one of us to lead us to everlasting life. Which is why as Watchmen we approach the new liturgical year — entering the Advent season and celebrating the Christmas Nativity — by lifting our hearts and minds with special prayer devotions, vigils and

Am I willing to go as far as the first Apostles to defend the faith? Am I willing to allow my life to shrink in comfort and ease to live for the truth of Christ?

My friends, let’s never forget whom we serve! There is no “balance of power” in heaven. God is God, and he reigns in majesty and splendor, without worry or fear or uncertainty. He cares mightily for his creation and sends his Holy Spirit before us always. It can be no coincidence that Church leadership has been stirred with the need for a prolonged Eucharistic Revival at this time. How much the early Church must have needed the fervor Jesus brought to them in the Eucharist. How much we need that same fire and fervor to face our culture.

No matter your political bent, we can all agree that our world is in desperate need of apostles on this point — to reach neighbors and friends and family with the truth of Jesus present in the Blessed Sacrament, to remember what has been accomplished through his blood shed on the cross, to remember that the Incarnation has left the world radically new.

The battle imagery of St. Paul is as fitting now as it was when he first used it. “Take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day,” he writes. How we need the “belt of truth ... the breastplate of righteousness. . . the shield of faith ... to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one” (Eph 6:10-17).

The “red wave” we really need is not on an election map; he is in the sanctuary, the precious body and blood of Christ longing to renew our fervor, to give us fresh ideas about how to reach the lost, the confused and the openly adversarial.

Lord, I forgot you for a moment. Forgive me. I beg you for a fresh anointing from the Holy Spirit, a renewed armor ready and able to quench the flaming arrows of evil, error and ignorance.

Kelly Stanchina is the award-winning author of 11 books, including “Love Like A Saint: Cultivating Virtue with Holy Women” and “A Place Called Golgotha: Meditations on the Last Words of Christ” (January 2023). Visit her website at lizl org

adoration hours with the Blessed Sacrament. We pray that all families — especially those of our archdiocese — encounter, experience and revive the real presence of Jesus Christ.

Only in the Eucharist is Christ truly, really and substantially present — body, blood, soul and divinity. Yet in simple family and fellowship gatherings he may also be present in his divine person, in his attention, his affection and the gift of his grace. “Where two or three are gathered in my name there I am in their midst” (Mt 18:20).

Take advantage of Jesus being present in these gatherings. Pray together and give thanks to God for so many things he has done. If necessary, ask Jesus for his help to close the gap on some trivial family matters, for example, that made their way into larger ones — causing division. And use his help outside of the home “where two or three are gathered.” Should you call upon him and his name, Jesus said he would be present.

Church Fathers, Christian philosophers and theologians over time have given us various thoughts on how grace builds on and perfects nature, helping us recognize and experience the supernatural and natural forces at play. Divine forces are constantly at play to help us recognize that Jesus is present among us. God’s grace operates within us to move us and experience Christ’s presence in the seven sacraments, in sacred Scripture, in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, and in the sacrifice of the Mass. We are more prone to recognize Jesus among us in these predominant modes. Yet, our faith necessitates that we identify and engage in how he is present with us always in various ways throughout our sacramental life of self-gift.

St. Pope Paul VI describes how in various ways

LETTERS

Compelling and inspiring

Once in a happy while, we see something that just grabs our hearts and draws us deeply in. Such was the case for me when I picked up the Oct. 27 issue of The Catholic Spirit. What I saw on the cover of the newspaper that day was a picture of love, motherly love. I saw the beautiful image of a young woman embracing her baby son. That picture beckoned me to open the paper and read the moving story about the important help and free services being provided to mothers by pregnancy resource centers throughout Minnesota. As the story explained, trained professionals render compassionate care to those who come seeking support and assistance. They offer their helping hands, nonjudgmental ears, and a place of peace and welcome. The story on the inside of The Catholic Spirit was just like the picture on the front — compelling and inspiring. And it all began with those beautiful smiles of love.

Jim Mulrooney Assumption, St. Paul

Abortion and the Ten Commandments

Some 4,000 years ago, give or take a century, God gave to Moses and the Jewish people the Ten Commandments. Over the years Christians and Muslims incorporated the Ten Commandments into their faith practices; the Ten Commandments are widely endorsed and preached across the globe. I have been taught to believe that God and his Commandments are eternal. The Fifth Commandment is “You shall not kill.” Based on this Commandment, it would appear that God reserved the prerogative of giving and taking life to himself. I ask — how do we reconcile “abortion rights” with the Fifth Commandment? Some thoughts for consideration. I am guessing that God will have the final say on this issue.

Duane Crosland St. Vincent de Paul, Brooklyn Park

Christ is present in his Church in his encyclical on the Eucharist, “Mysterium Fidei,” such as: “He is present in the Church as she performs her works of mercy, not just because whatever good we do to one of His least brethren we do to Christ Himself, but also because Christ is the one who performs these works through the Church and who continually helps men with His divine love. He is present in the Church as she moves along on her pilgrimage with a longing to reach the portals of eternal life, for He is the one who dwells in our hearts through faith, and who instills charity in them through the Holy Spirit whom He gives to us.”

Encounter and experience Jesus as he is present in family gatherings, during daily Advent meditations, through supporting Christmas Giving Tree charities, while engaging in small group fellowship or in serving and visiting the poor, homebound or senior living centers, just to name a few. Engage him in all daily activities. Do the same as a true believer — at the Mass, whether on regular days, memorials, feast days, Christmas Midnight, Easter Vigil, weddings and yes, even funerals. The reality of Jesus’ humanity and divinity becomes really present in the Eucharist. In adoration, gaze upon him, and see him gaze back in the Blessed Sacrament. Eventually others will then want to experience and come to believe in the Real Presence.

Deacon Bird ministers at St. Joseph in Rosemount and All Saints in Lakeville and assists with the archdiocese’s Catholic Watchmen movement. For Watchmen start-up materials contact him at gordonbird@rocketmail com Also, see heroicmen com for tools supported by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis to enrich parish ministry to men.

AT HOME | LAURA KELLY FANUCCI

When reentry is rocky

I recently returned from a beautiful pilgrimage to France, but unexpectedly brought home a stomach bug to my beloved family. Talk about a bumpy reentry to ordinary life: from Lourdes to laundry heaps and Lysol wipes within 24 hours.

As I scrubbed toilets, I found myself musing about resentment, readjustment and reunions.

Over the years, I’ve learned that reentry can be rocky when my husband or I travel for work. Like an airplane bumping through clouds upon descent, we end up with a day or two upon arrival when everything feels off and everyone has to readjust to being together again.

Thinking about jet lag has helped me: If it takes our bodies one day per time zone crossed to acclimate, little wonder our hearts and minds need time to readjust upon reentry, too.

Reuniting can be hard, like returning to reconciliation after years away from the sacrament or getting honest

about our hardest hurts. But even happy reunions can bring ordinary obstacles as we struggle with the shifting dynamics within families and the stress brought by homecomings.

What can we do to prepare for our family holidays this year? We could pray for gentler hearts turned toward compassion, or try to set aside picture-perfect ideals to make more space for the real flesh-and-blood humans around us.

But we can also borrow a page from Scripture and remember the parable of the prodigal son. The younger child chose selfishness and greed over family, treating his father as dead by demanding his inheritance before his time.

Yet Jesus tells of a father willing to look foolish for forgiveness, running down the road for everyone to see, arms flung wide to embrace his estranged son “while he was still a long way off” (Lk 15:20).

If a rejected father could cast aside every care and rush to forgive his beloved child, could I do much less for the ones around me? Couldn’t I forgive their ordinary sins and shortcomings as I pray they will forgive mine?

Too often I have been the older brother in Jesus’ parable, bitter that I stayed home, did the right thing and kept it all together during disruption or absence. I have missed out on the joy when I let resentment rule.

Better to soften my knees like standing in a jostling subway car and brace for the bumps I know are coming rather than risk further rupture by souring the reunion.

As we turn toward Thanksgiving and Christmas,

holiness, among other topics.

I never cease to be stirred when reading the opening lines of “Gaudium et Spes”: “The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the men of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ.”

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council. I’ve found myself rereading the council documents, since they are a treasure trove of insights about the liturgy, Scripture and the universal call to

But it’s a text from the closing of the council with which I’m preoccupied these days, and one that underscores Pope Francis’ characterization of St. Paul VI as prophetic.

In 1965, on the feast of the Immaculate Conception, Pope Paul VI penned an address to women, summoning them to meet the challenges of the modern world: “The hour is coming, in fact has come, when the

perhaps we could pack extra empathy and forgiveness for our holiday reunions this year. Expecting a bit of turbulence doesn’t mean ruining the whole ride.

Instead, preparing for the probable makes more space to receive the grace God is waiting to pour out, just like the forgiving father sprinting down the road to meet us while we are still a long way off.

Our God taught us everything about returning, a God of resurrection who came back to his friends transformed. How hard it was for those closest to him to recognize him; how challenging to set aside their expectations.

But how incredible their epiphanies, too: over a meal in Emmaus, behind locked doors in Jerusalem or in a garden with an empty tomb.

After Easter, Jesus sat with Peter on the lakeshore and offered him the chance to reconcile. He does the same for us: drawing us away from the crowd to reconnect, giving us the grace to accept and offer forgiveness, and feeding us with a feast of grateful celebration.

With every reunion we ask the same question Jesus posed to Peter: “Do you love me?” Every time we embrace each other, even within a rocky reentry, we are saying yes.

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

vocation of woman is being achieved in its fullness, the hour in which woman acquires in the world an influence, an effect and a power never hitherto achieved.”

The pope was not referencing a worldly power, as if he were calling for more female world leaders or C-suite executives.

The Church would, in the decades after the council, advocate for women’s equal dignity and treatment and insist that their gifts be welcomed into every social, political and economic sphere. And the Church would even apologize for the ways in which it was complicit in women’s oppression throughout history.

But the power and influence the pope referenced was to be like our Lord’s. It was to be leadership for the sake of others. It was an explicit call to women to “reconcile men with life” and help all people understand both the fullness of their humanity and our common destiny.

One glance at today’s headlines shows that our work is still cut out for us.

Take the steady number of women who face an unplanned pregnancy each year. With the question of abortion now open for debate in America, women have a critical role in persuading men and women against taking the lives of their children.

Because women are “present in the mystery of a life beginning,” they have an intimate knowledge that can inform their arguments. They know firsthand what challenges are present in pregnancy, childbirth and childrearing, and can work to eliminate the obstacles that create the demand for abortion.

Women, with their “love of beginnings,” can help other women be reconciled with the new life growing inside of them.

Or take the growing number of people seeking assisted suicide. One recent news report chronicled the story of a

Canadian mother who happened upon her 23-year-old son’s appointment to die at the hands of a doctor. Afflicted with diabetes and blindness, her son filled out an online application for “medical assistance in dying.”

As of 2021, more than 30,000 Canadians had died this way, many meeting the minimum criteria of having a condition that is “intolerable to them,” terminal or not.

Women often intuit when others are silently suffering or feel like a burden. They can play a crucial role in helping those in distress to be reconciled with their own lives, no matter the painful physical, psychological or social difficulties that they might be facing.

Last, consider the growing number of men who are opting out of education, work and relationships, and who spend more time in front of screens than with other people.

Women who seek justice need not dream of a world without men, or one in which they are optional but unnecessary. Women must summon these men to be better, dream bigger and find a place in families and society at large.

Men must be reconciled with life in its fullness — with adventure and courage — and not be content to pass their days listlessly or without purpose.

Many people in our midst struggle to recognize God’s presence in life’s tribulations. It is more important than ever that women, with their capacity to make the “truth sweet, tender and accessible,” share the good news that our God is a God of the living.

In so doing, they will do as Pope Paul VI encouraged and “save the peace of the world.”

Italiano Ureneck is a communications consultant and a columnist for Catholic News Service.

FAITH

PARISH EVENTS

Christ Child Luncheon — Dec. 2: 10:45 a.m.–1 p.m. at St. Ignatius, 35 Birch St. E., Annandale. Luncheon in a Christmas setting, sweet treats and a raffle. All proceeds to MCCL, Elevate Pregnancy and Family Resource Center, Options for Women, Cornerstone and Human Life Alliance. StignatiuSmn Com

Christmas Village Road to Bethlehem — Dec. 3: 8:30 a.m.–3 p.m. at St. Raphael, 7301 Bass Lake Road, Crystal. Prepare for Christmas with delicious food and baked goods, a Christmas Carol concert by the children from St. Raphael’s school, crafts, games, and holiday shopping. StraphaelCryStal org

Christmas Boutique and Cookie Sale — Dec. 3-4 at Guardian Angels, 8260 4th St. N., Oakdale. For sale: cookies, candy, Christmas trees and wreaths. Many crafters from Guardian Angels. Santa Shop: where kids can shop. Also, White Elephant sale and refreshments. See Santa, enjoy carolers and lunch Dec. 3 from 11 a.m.–3 p.m. guardian angelS org/boutique

Christmas Fair — Dec. 3-4 at St. Hedwig, 129 29th Ave. NE, Minneapolis. 9 a.m.–4 p.m. Dec. 3. 10 a.m. Mass Dec. 4, Fair continues 11 a.m.–noon. A special drawing 12:30 p.m. New and used items for sale. Questions? Contact Carolyn at CarolynkraSkey@gmail Com

Christmas Bazaar — Dec. 3-4 at St. Vincent de Paul, 91000 93rd Ave. N., Brooklyn Park. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Dec. 3: Craft fair, bakery (holiday favorites, cookies, bars and specialty breads), raffles, lunch, music and more. 9 a.m.–1 p.m. Dec. 4: Bakery, raffles, and music. Saintvdp org

“Sugar Plum Days” — Dec. 3-4 at Holy Family, 5900 W. Lake St., St. Louis Park. Noon–7 p.m. Dec. 3; 8 a.m.–1 p.m. Dec. 4. From “Dollar Store” to hand-crafted items and homemade Christmas cookies, there is something for everyone. Dec. 3: enjoy a bowl of homemade chili; Dec. 4: enjoy a buttery cinnamon roll while shopping. hfCmn org

Ave Verum Corpus — Dec. 4: 4–5 p.m. at St. Nicholas, 51 Church St., Elko New Market. Pairing adoration and

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 10B

to suffer coming into the seminary,” he said. He decided to stay.

Through an interpreter, Honas said people who are deaf do not need to be fixed, and they don’t want sympathy. “We accept our deafness … but we want (others) to understand that from our

classical sacred music. Sacrament of penance, Vespers and Benediction. StnCC net/ave verum CorpuS

Come to the Stable: A Living Nativity — Dec. 11: 3–6 p.m. at Our Lady of Peace, 5426 12th Ave. S., Minneapolis. Take a moment to reflect on the true meaning of Christmas. A holiday tradition in south Minneapolis. olpmn org/Come to the Stable

PRAYER/RETREATS/WORSHIP

Advent Day of Centering Prayer and Lectio Divina — Nov. 30: 9 a.m.– 3 p.m. at Christ the King Retreat Center, 621 First Ave. S., Buffalo. Advent prayers and Scripture. kingShouSe Com

Ignatian Retreat for Men — Dec. 2-4 at Christ the King Retreat Center, 621 First Ave. S., Buffalo. Silent retreat for men preached by a priest of the Miles Christi Religious Order. For more information and to register, email minneSota@SpiritualexerCiSeS net mileSChriSti org/event/ buffalo mn-1

Men’s Silent Weekend Retreat — Dec. 2-4 at Christ the King Retreat Center, 621 First Ave. S., Buffalo. The Preaching Team will present talks on the Our Father, St. Paul’s favorite hymns, and Pinocchio: Paradigm for Christian Living. The retreat includes quiet time for individual prayer, rosary, Mass, healing service, confession and optional spiritual direction. Private accommodations and meals included. kingShouSe Com

Serenity Retreat (for those in recovery from addictions) — Dec. 2-4 at Franciscan Retreats and Spirituality Center, 16385 St. Francis Lane, Prior Lake. Blend of scheduled time and open time. Confession, anointing, Mass, Holy Hour and prayer sessions. franCiSCanretreatS net

Advent Evensong — Dec. 4: 7 p.m. at St. Cecilia, 2357 Bayless Place, St. Paul. Advent Evensong with choir and strings. StCeCiliaSpm org

Men’s Weekend Retreat — Dec. 9-11 at Franciscan Retreats and Spirituality Center, 16385 St. Francis Lane, Prior Lake. Blend of scheduled time and open time. Confession, anointing, Mass, Holy Hour and prayer sessions. franCiSCanretreatS net

perspective,” he said.

It can be frustrating meeting with priests and bishops who can’t communicate with the deaf, he said. Many priests know Latin, Greek, Spanish … “Could they learn ASL?” he asked, as he suggested offering it at seminaries as a start.

Deaf people face big challenges as priests, he said, such as administering

Advent Silent Weekend Retreat for Men and Women — Dec. 9-11 at Christ the King Retreat Center, 621 First Ave. S., Buffalo. “The Journey of Advent,” presented by Susan Stable. Reflect on the Advent journey to find a deeper relationship with God. kingShouSe Com

Advent Morning of Reflection for Mothers of Young Children — Dec. 10: 8–11:30 a.m. at St. Raphael, 7301 Bass Lake Road, Crystal. Be encouraged in faith and friendship and find practical ways to welcome Christ into the home this Advent. httpS://tinyurl Com/2n4bxmSh

DINING OUT

Knights of Columbus Brunch — Dec. 11: 8 a.m. –12:45 p.m. at Epiphany, 1900 111th Ave., NW, Coon Rapids. kC10138.mnknightS org/eventS

MUSIC

A St. Thomas Christmas: Dawning Light — Dec. 4: 4–5:30 p.m. at Orchestra Hall, 1111 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis. The 35th annual St. Thomas Christmas unfurls with “Dawning Light,” honoring the persistent hope and resilience of the community with more than 200 student performers. minneSotaorCheStra org/StthomaSChriStmaS Handel’s Messiah — Dec. 4: 3 p.m. at Holy Family, 5900 W. Lake St., St. Louis Park. Holy Family’s Sacred Music Department presents portions of Handel’s Messiah, performed by the church’s choir, with a professional orchestra and soloists. Bring the family. VIP to student ticket pricing available. hfCmn org/pay meSSiah ConCert

SCHOOLS

Vis the Season — Dec. 3: 11 a.m.–3 p.m. at Visitation School, 2455 Visitation Drive, Mendota Heights. Vis the Season Christmas fun for all ages. Santa arrives at 12:30 p.m. with visits and complimentary photos available until 2 p.m. Christmas Marketplace for holiday shopping. Local vendors will offer a variety of products. viSitation net/viStheSeaSon

the sacrament of penance because “you can’t use an interpreter for penance; you have to have a deaf priest.” He wishes interpreters were not needed at Mass because “circumventing has to occur.”

“It’s not direct communication,” he said.

Father William Kenney, 92, who served the deaf and hard of hearing in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

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.

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MOVIE REVIEWS

PRAYERS

for 40 years, attended the Nov. 20 Mass. Our Lady of Mount Carmel initially served a large population of Italians, and as numbers dwindled, there had been talk of closing the parish, he said. So, he told parishioners that “if we wanted to keep it open, if we brought our deaf community here, they would have the opportunity to stay open,” he said. “And they all wanted the deaf to come.”

VACATION/FAMILY GETAWAY

Knotty Pines Resort, Park Rapids, MN. 1, 2 & 3 bdrm cabins starting at $565/week. www.knottypinesresort.com (800) 392-2410. Mention this ad for a discount!

VEHICLE FOR SALE

2004 Honda Odyssey 7-passenger van; 183M miles; good condition $2800. Contact Jim: 612-618-1774

TheCatholicSpirit.com

MOUNT CARMEL

Why I am Catholic

By Mary Fox Schaefer

ife is a journey and mine started on May 30, 1965. I was born within hours of my mother returning home from daily Mass (Memorial Day). I grew up on the family farm, just a few minutes’ walk from our country church, St. Mary’s-Big River in River Falls, Wisconsin (Venerable Solanus Casey country). I remember riding my bike to church and going inside to contemplate in peace the beautiful stained-glass windows. My first Communion and first reconciliation were grace-filled moments that stayed with me in my journey into my teenage and young adult years, when my Catholic faith was tested. My father died of a heart attack when I was 18 and my sister died of cancer when I was 26.

Nevertheless, I kept going to Sunday Mass … I’d say Jesus was in my car but locked away in the trunk as I got lost on several detours. Later, I was blessed to marry my husband, John. We were blessed with three beautiful children and were active in our Catholic church and school. Jesus was now in the back seat of the car.

Then my life imploded April 17, 2011 (Palm Sunday), when I got the knock on the door at 8:30 a.m. and my brother-in-law told me my John had passed away that morning while at the cabin from a heart attack. I crumbled … it was as if a “sword had pierced my heart.” Sound familiar? That was Simeon’s prophecy to our Virgin Mother Mary during Jesus’ presentation in the Temple. So, I knew she (Mary) knew my pain. I turned to Mary and asked her to hold me as she held her son (remembering my small Pietá statue I had as a child).

A few weeks after John’s death, I still wasn’t sleeping at night. A friend loaned me her iPod and said “here Mary, borrow this, listen to the rosary recording. It will help you sleep.” Okay, so while I was a “good Catholic” and said evening prayers, went to Mass every weekend, I was not a fan of the rosary. But as I listened to the meditations, I started to understand even more how Mary understood my pain and how she wanted to help me through this. What I love most about our Catholic faith is the enormous

toolbox (credit to my new husband, Michael, for that analogy) that Christ has given us to draw closer to him and keep our car’s engine finely tuned. I dug into every drawer in this toolbox: the sacraments, the Bible, the saints, Catholic books and podcasts, small faith groups, retreats, pilgrimages, Relevant Radio, and the graces poured out like honey, filling the “honeycombed” holes in my soul caused by sin. Jesus was finally driving my car.

Time in adoration led me to write and record the Widow’s Rosary at Relevant Radio. Reviewed by multiple priests and Bishop Andrew Cozzens, it has meditations on each mystery unique to a widow’s journey of grief. It is available as four separate songs or free podcasts on Apple’s iTunes.

One parting story to share. Back to the Pietá image (which is also the CD cover for the Widow’s Rosary) from the day my husband died. In 2015, I joined the WINE (Women in the New Evangelization) group on a pilgrimage to Italy with my daughter Maddie. On the day we visited St. Patrick’s Cathedral, our tour guide, Liz Lev, was speaking to us through earphones. The space was filled with thousands of pilgrims, and I heard Lev say “this is amazing” as the crowd just opened up a path and our small group walked right up to the Pietá. I was able to stand in front of the statue and pray, truly overwhelmed with love and gratitude. Thank you, Mother Mary! Thank you, Jesus! Thank you for this beautiful universal Catholic Church and its powerful communion of saints!

And that, my dear friends, is why I am Catholic.

Fox Schaefer, 57, a member with her husband, Michael, of St. Joseph in West St. Paul, works in financial services. They have three children and an infant grandchild. She likes biking, downhill and crosscountry skiing, and taking semi-annual trips to the Boundary Waters.

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

“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 subject line “Why I am Catholic.”