The Catholic Spirit - October 12, 2017

Clergy support 6 • Catholic school chaplains 12 • Mobile pregnancy help 15 October 12, 2017 Newspaper of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis

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Lady of Fatima

Culmination of the centennial

Cathedral, parishes mark the anniversary of Mary’s final apparition to the shepherd children

By Maria Wiering The Catholic Spirit

O

ne hundred years ago, throngs of people gathered in a pasture near Fatima, Portugal, to watch three young shepherd children who had reported that Mary had been appearing to them on the 13th of each month, beginning that May. The children said she had told them to expect a miracle when she appeared Oct. 13th, and tens of thousands of pilgrims hoped to see it with their own eyes.

Witness reports vary as to what they saw when the sun broke through the clouds. Some say they saw it spin, others reported multicolored lights. Others said the sun zigzagged across the sky, giving the event the name “the dancing of the sun.” Some said they saw nothing unusual. Photos of the event show a crowd of people looking at the sky during the event, which reportedly lasted several minutes.

In 1930, the Catholic Church declared the event one of “supernatural character”; 10 years later, Pope Pius XII approved the apparitions of “Our Lady of Fatima” as worthy of belief. In May 2017, Pope Francis canonized two of the children visionaries, Francisco and Jacinta Marto.

Oct. 13, 1917, was the sixth and final time Mary appeared to the three children. At the crux of her message was a call to conversion and penance, and the power of prayer to affect world events. She showed the children heaven and hell — part of the tripartite “secret” she entrusted to the children and recorded by the third seer, Sister Lucia, and which the Vatican fully revealed under St. John Paul II — and asked for the

Eighth-graders Emma Coty of Holy Trinity School in South St. Paul, second from right, and Ben Aeshliman of St. Therese School in Deephaven place roses in a vase under a statue of Our Lady of Fatima at the start of the Children’s Rosary Pilgrimage Oct. 6 at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul. Waiting in line for their turn are, from left, Jeremiah Wrobleski of St. John the Baptist School in Excelsior, Liam Ryan of St. Jude of the Lake School in Mahtomedi, Ryan Masih of Epiphany School in Coon Rapids and Maria Conger of St. Ambrose School in Woodbury (background). About 1,200 students from 16 Catholic schools and a homeschool group came to the 15th annual event, according to volunteer coordinator Janet Houlton, who has been involved all 15 years and was honored by Archbishop Bernard Hebda at the end of the event. Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit rosary to be prayed daily and for devotion to her Immaculate Heart. She specifically asked that Russia be consecrated to it. Popes have since carried out this request, and have further consecrated the whole world to her heart.

To mark the centennial anniversary of the final apparition, several events have been scheduled in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis to honor Our Lady of Fatima. At the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul, Archbishop Bernard Hebda will reconsecrate the archdiocese to the Immaculate Heart of Mary Oct. 13 during a 5:15 p.m. Mass, followed by a 7 p.m. candlelight rosary procession from the Minnesota State Capitol to the Cathedral. The celebration is co-hosted by the World Apostolate of Fatima USA and will include prayers for personal consecration to Mary, for which Catholics across the archdiocese have

been preparing with “33 Days to Morning Glory”

by Father Michael Gaitley.

Local parishes have also held events this year related to the centennial, with some celebrating the final apparition. On Oct. 12, St. George in Long Lake is offering a 6 p.m. outdoor rosary in the parish’s Fatima garden, followed by a family movie in the parish community center about the apparitions. At Epiphany in Coon Rapids, people will gather Oct. 13 for the rosary at the parish’s Fatima shrine following the 8 a.m. Mass.

Later that day, St. Albert in Albertville will release a rosary of balloons at 3 p.m., followed by 7:30 p.m. rosary, 8 p.m. Mass and an 8:45 p.m. film about the Fatima apparitions.

For more information about the reconsecration of the archdiocese at the Cathedral, visit www.archspm.org.

ALSO inside

Leadership change

‘Little flock’ in India

Soccer sage

Rector of Bismarck cathedral named to replace Msgr. Callaghan next year as head of St. Paul Seminary.

— Page 5

Basic Christian communities serve Catholics in India who are helped by annual World Mission Sunday appeal.

— Pages 10-11

Hill-Murray Pioneers get coaching help from Minnesota United FC player Brent Kallman.

— Page 14

2 • The Catholic Spirit

PAGE TWO

October 12, 2017 OVERHEARD

in PICTURES

“It’s something deeper than chainsaw on wood.

You’re looking at the Mother of God.”

SOUL FOOD From left, Heather Hejna, Thomas Koehler, Courtney Bonnstetter, Mike Hejna, Matt Hejna and James Ircink dish up their plates during the first annual Archdiocese Young Adult Cookout Sept. 30.

They were among more than 160 young adults who gathered at Moir Park in Bloomington for a meal, fellowship and games.

Archbishop Bernard Hebda gave a short talk on the unique role young adults play in the Church and led a discussion about issues they face. The event was sponsored by Basilica Young Adults, Cathedral Young Adults and West Metro Young Adults, in collaboration with Abria Young Adults, Frassati Society of Minnesota, St. Mark Young Adults, South Metro Young Adults and Urban Catholic.

Douglas Hildebrandt/ Courtesy Kristin Vanevenhoven

Deacon Bob Durham, parish business administrator of Our Lady of Grace in Edina, on a carved statue featuring angels and a silhouette of Mary the parish recently commissioned for its grounds. It was carved from an old oak tree stump. In May, the same artist also carved a St. Francis statue from a stump in the yard of parishioners of St. Joseph in West St. Paul. Read the story at www.TheCatholicSpirit.com.

NEWS notes

Benedictine Center extends a call for artists The Benedictine Center in Maplewood invites Minnesota artists to participate in its seventh annual juried art show, “Seeing God,” Jan. 31-March 2, 2018. Awards totaling $375 will be granted to the top three entrants. The center is a ministry of the Benedictine Sisters of St. Paul’s Monastery. For more information, visit http://tinyurl.com/2018juriedexhibit.

Health care provider White Mass Oct. 17 A White Mass for health care professionals will be held 7 p.m. Oct. 17 at the Cathedral of St. Paul, 239 Selby Ave., St. Paul, followed by a reception in the Cathedral’s Hayden Hall and presentation by Dr. Dan Huesgen, “Practicing Inpatient Child Psychiatry in a Post-Christian Age.” The event is sponsored by the St. Paul and Minneapolis Guild of the Catholic Medical Association and Curatio, in cooperation with the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ Office of Marriage, Family and Life. For more information, visit www.archspm.org/events.

Fall Formation Day in Burnsville Oct. 26 Clergy, parish staff, lay leaders and school leaders are invited to Fall Formation Day, 9:30 a.m.–3:30 p.m. Oct. 26 at Mary, Mother of the Church, 3333 Cliff Road E., Burnsville. Speakers include Jack Jezreel, founder of JustFaith Ministries, and Ann Garrido, Church leadership and ministry expert. $30. For more information, visit www.archspm.org/formationday.

Archdiocesan Youth Day in St. Paul Oct. 28

RED MASS From left, Peter, Paul, Anne and Ellen Hendricks of Lumen Chrisit in St. Paul pray during the Red Mass Oct. 7 at Assumption in St. Paul for lawyers, judges and others working in the legal profession.

Archbishop Bernard Hebda celebrated the Mass, along with the pastor of Assumption, Father Paul Treacy.

Peter Hendricks is an attorney with the law firm Maser, Amundson, Boggio & Hendricks. The event was organized by the Lawyers Guild of St. Thomas More. Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit

ONLY ON THE WEB and social media After President Donald Trump reignited controversy over NFL players taking a knee during the national anthem to protest racism, how do local Catholic high schools respond to the potential for student imitation? Read the story at www.TheCatholicSpirit.com.

Dan Steger, a parishioner of St. Michael in Prior Lake, reflects on the “secret” to his 31-year marriage: the advice he received on his wedding day in the sacristy from the celebrant, Father Patrick Lannan.

The Catholic Spirit is published semi-monthly for The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis Vol. 22 — No. 19 MOST REVEREND BERNARD A. HEBDA, Publisher United in Faith, Hope and Love

TOM HALDEN, Associate Publisher MARIA C. WIERING, Editor

Emily Wilson, a Catholic speaker, author and recording artist from California, will be the special guest of Archdiocesan Youth Day 1:30–9 p.m.

Oct. 28 at Roy Wilkins Auditorium, St. Paul RiverCentre, 175 West Kellogg Blvd., St. Paul. The annual event will also include Mass, dinner, opportunities for reconciliation and eucharisitic adoration, and music by the local band Sonar. Participants must register through a group; interested high school youths should contact their high school or parish youth ministers. For more information, visit www.archspm.org/ayd.

in REMEMBRANCE

Father Dummer, 76, served at King’s House Oblate Father Anthony Bernard Dummer, 76, died Oct. 3 at Lakeridge Oasis in Buffalo. Father Dummer had ministered at Christ the King Retreat Center in Buffalo since 2014. A native of New Ulm, Father Dummer joined the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate and was ordained in 1984.

A funeral Mass was offered Oct. 9 at St. Francis Xavier in Buffalo.

Father Widhammer, 81, ministered in St. Paul Capuchin Franciscan Father Nicholas Widhammer, 81, died Oct. 3.

A native of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Father Widhammer professed final vows in 1958 and was ordained a priest in 1963. He ministered at St. Patrick in St. Paul from 1993-1994. A funeral Mass was offered Oct. 9 at the St. Lawrence Seminary Chapel in Mount Calvary, Wisconsin.

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FROM THE MODERATOR OF THE CURIA

October 12, 2017

The Catholic Spirit • 3

Unfinished

F

our years ago in September, I sat at the kitchen table in the rectory reading the newspaper. I was a parish pastor and had been serving parishes and schools for over 23 years. I saw the headlines and was disturbed. There was yet another story on clergy sexual abuse. I felt angry at Church leaders and fighting attorneys. I felt frustrated that this issue had been going on since before I was ordained. I felt sadness and compassion for victims and their families.

I was clueless that in less than a week, I would be named vicar general and moderator of the curia for the archdiocese.

When I walked into my new office in the chancery, I entered a world flooded by a tsunami of media attention. The statute of limitations for child sex abuse claims had been lifted, and all of the dioceses in Minnesota were affected by scores of people coming forward with some of the most heartbreaking stories.

After four years, I am sympathetic with all those who want this all to go away. Yet I know that it never will go away and should not go away. The bankruptcy case, now in its third year, is only a step toward restitution and only one part of the work necessary for reconciliation and healing.

Eventually, the archdiocese will emerge from bankruptcy, but we cannot just dust off our hands in that familiar gesture of finishing a project. When civil justice has run its linear process, then the virtue of justice must continue to direct our path.

The iconic symbol of civil justice has a blindfold and a set of scales. The virtue of justice is served when the blindfold is removed, and the scales are tipped to favor those without power. This is why we cannot be done when our Chapter 11 bankruptcy case is completed. To be a people of reconciliation and healing, we must see and listen to those who have been so traumatically harmed, through no fault of their own. We must work on their behalf not only to complete civil restitution, but also to do all we can to restore trust and, wherever possible, restore faith.

Awareness is a painful process, and this has been a painful time. Yet our pain pales in comparison to the suffering of people who have had to live their lives as victims of clergy sexual abuse. This trauma also extends to their families and friends. For all of us who have listened to victims and survivors, reviewed documents and transcripts, and read police and court reports, the stories disturb our consciences and grieve our hearts. No dollar amount can erase what has happened, and there is no excuse. For all, the pain is real and the wounds are some of the most serious in the body of Christ in our time.

I cannot say that victims and survivors should be patient ONLY JESUS until we have completed the bankruptcy proceedings. That Father Charles Lachowitzer would be wrong. I write this because I do not want the

Inconcluso

H

ace cuatro años, en septiembre, me senté a la mesa de la cocina en la rectoría leyendo el periódico. Yo era un pastor de la parroquia y había estado sirviendo parroquias y escuelas por más de 23 años.

Vi los titulares y me molestó. Había otra historia sobre el abuso sexual del clero.

Me sentí enojado con los líderes de la Iglesia y abogados de lucha. Me sentí frustrado porque este asunto había estado ocurriendo desde antes de que fuera ordenado. Sentía tristeza y compasión por las víctimas y sus familias.

Yo no tenía ni idea de que en menos de una semana, sería nombrado vicario general y moderador de la curia de la archidiócesis.

Cuando entré en mi nueva oficina en la cancillería, entré en un mundo inundado por un tsunami de atención mediática. El estatuto de limitaciones para las denuncias de abusos sexuales de niños había sido levantado, y todas las diócesis en Minnesota fueron afectadas por decenas de personas presentando algunas de las historias más desgarradoras.

Después de cuatro años, soy simpático con todos aquellos que quieren que todo esto se vaya. Sin embargo, sé que nunca desaparecerá y no debe desaparecer. El

caso de la bancarrota, ahora en su tercer año, es sólo un paso hacia la restitución y sólo una parte del trabajo necesario para la reconciliación y la curación.

Eventualmente, la arquidiócesis saldrá de la bancarrota, pero no podemos desempolvar con nuestras manos en ese gesto familiar de terminar un proyecto.

Cuando la justicia civil ha llevado a cabo su proceso lineal, entonces la virtud de la justicia debe seguir dirigiendo nuestro camino.

El símbolo icónico de la justicia civil tiene una venda de ojos y un conjunto de escalas. La virtud de la justicia se sirve cuando se quita la venda de los ojos y las escamas se inclinan a favor de los que carecen de poder. Esta es la razón por la cual no podemos hacerlo cuando se complete nuestro caso de bancarrota del Capítulo 11. Para ser un pueblo de reconciliación y curación, debemos ver y escuchar a aquellos que han sufrido un daño tan traumático, y debemos trabajar en su favor no sólo para completar la restitución civil, sino también para hacer todo lo posible para restablecer la confianza y, donde sea posible, restaurar la fe.

La conciencia es un proceso doloroso, y este ha sido un tiempo doloroso. Sin embargo, nuestro dolor palidece en comparación con el sufrimiento de las personas que han tenido que vivir sus vidas como víctimas del abuso sexual del clero. Este trauma también se extiende a

Eventually, the archdiocese will emerge from bankruptcy, but we cannot just dust off our hands in that familiar gesture of finishing a project. When civil justice has run its linear process, then the virtue of justice must continue to direct our path. survivor community to lose hope. We will continue to cooperate with the bankruptcy court with a humility that comes from humiliation. We will continue, at great financial cost, to be the debtor who pays for everything — including attorneys on all sides. We depend on the judge to keep things fair and to point our way to our last chapter in his courtroom. From there, the archdiocese will proceed to put our heart where our money has been.

With great compassion, we will continue to be led by the survivor community to steps of reconciliation, restoration and healing.

When I used to meet with survivors before there was a wall of attorneys, it was a common request that no child will ever have to go through what they have gone through. Our policies and procedures for safe environments are not just compliance requirements — they are our commitment to our children, and to victims and survivors who want children to be safe. Every parishioner, every member of parish and school staffs, and everyone in archdiocesan and community leadership are the open eyes, open ears and ready voices for the well-being of our children and youth.

To the silent sufferers, we offer an open door to reconciliation and healing. We assure you of our sorrow and daily prayers. As long as there is one person still bearing wounds of clergy sexual abuse, we must keep the candle lighted. As disciples of Jesus Christ, this truth is proclaimed in the opening prologue of the Gospel of John: “and light shines in darkness, and darkness could not overpower it.”

We do believe and profess as people of faith that the light of Jesus Christ is the greater light over all powers of darkness, including death itself. Just as the community of survivors has found in its own healing a light greater than the darkness, so too must we be bearers of the light.

My sisters and brothers in Christ, may we be true to our Church and never end our responsibility to bring the light of Christ to every darkness — and not just pray that it all goes away.

sus familias y amigos. Para todos los que hemos escuchado a las víctimas y sobrevivientes, hemos revisado los documentos y las transcripciones, leído los informes de la policía y de los tribunales, las historias perturban nuestras conciencias y entristecen nuestros corazones. Ninguna cantidad en dólares puede borrar lo que ha sucedido, y no hay excusa. Para todos nosotros, el dolor es real y las heridas son algunas de las más graves en el Cuerpo de Cristo en nuestro tiempo.

No puedo decir que las víctimas y sobrevivientes deben ser pacientes hasta que hayamos completado el procedimiento de quiebra. Eso estaría mal. Escribo esto porque no quiero que la comunidad de sobrevivientes pierda la esperanza. Seguiremos cooperando con el tribunal de bancarrota con una humildad que viene de la humillación. Vamos a continuar, a un gran costo financiero, para ser el deudor que paga por todo incluidos los abogados de todas las partes. Dependemos del juez para mantener las cosas justas y para señalar nuestro camino a nuestro último capítulo en su sala de audiencias. A partir de ahí, la arquidiócesis procederá a poner nuestro corazón donde ha estado nuestro dinero. Con gran compasión, seguiremos siendo guiados por la comunidad de sobrevivientes a pasos de reconciliación, restauración y sanación.

Cuando solía reunirme con los

supervivientes antes de que hubiera un muro de abogados, era una petición común que ningún niño tuviera que pasar por lo que han pasado. Nuestras políticas y procedimientos para ambientes seguros no son sólo requisitos de cumplimiento: son nuestro compromiso con nuestros niños y con víctimas y sobrevivientes que desean que los niños estén seguros. Cada parroquiano, cada miembro del personal de la parroquia y de la escuela, y todos los líderes arquidiocesanos y comunitarios son los ojos abiertos, los oídos abiertos y las voces listas para el bienestar de nuestros niños y jóvenes.

Para los enfermos silenciosos, ofrecemos una puerta abierta a la reconciliación y la curación. Les aseguramos nuestro dolor y nuestras oraciones diarias. Siempre y cuando haya una persona que siga teniendo heridas de abuso sexual de clérigos, debemos mantener encendida la vela. Como discípulos de Jesucristo, esta verdad se proclama en el prólogo de apertura del Evangelio de Juan: “y la luz brilla en tinieblas, y la oscuridad no puede dominarla.”

Mis hermanos y hermanas en Cristo, podamos ser fieles a nuestra Iglesia y nunca terminar nuestra responsabilidad de traer la luz de Cristo a todas las tinieblas, y no sólo orar para que todo se vaya.

4 • The Catholic Spirit

LOCAL

October 12, 2017

SLICEof LIFE

Racing pumpkins

Adie Tredinnick, left, and Zach Bartsch of St. Gerard Majella in Brooklyn Park work the starting line of the Pumpkin Derby Oct. 7 during the parish’s Pumpkin Fest, which also featured a pumpkin launch, pumpkin bowling and other pumpkin games. Racing their pumpkin cars are Peyton Harrer, second from left, and Carter Opbroek. Five people participated in the race, with winners being named in three categories: speed, distance and creativity. Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit

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LOCAL

October 12, 2017

Bismarck priest named to succeed Msgr. Callaghan as seminary rector

in BRIEF CROOKSTON

Bishop partially settles lawsuit The Diocese of Crookston announced Sept. 20 that Bishop Michael Hoeppner reached a settlement agreement with Ronald Vasek, a permanent diaconate candidate who alleged the bishop tried to silence his claim of childhood clergy sexual abuse against a wellregarded priest and prevented his ordination. In a Sept.

27 statement, Bishop Hoeppner emphasized that the settlement states that there is no admission of unlawful conduct or wrongdoing on his part, and it avoided “costly attorney fees and a drawn-out legal process.”

The bishop denied pressuring Vasek not to speak about his claim and said that Vasek chose not to be ordained.

“Looking back and knowing what I do now, I believe I would have handled my conversations with Mr. Vasek differently,” he said in the statement. “However, please know that I did not pressure Mr. Vasek into making any decision with which he was not comfortable.” The diocese is seeking dismissal of the lawsuit’s remaining claims. In a Sept. 20 statement, the diocese said it “takes all matters of clergy sexual misconduct seriously and is reviewing its policies in light of this case.”

By Maria Wiering The Catholic Spirit The rector of the cathedral in the Diocese of Bismarck, North Dakota, has been named to succeed Msgr. Aloysius Callaghan as rector of the St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul.

The seminary announced Oct. 1 that Msgr. Thomas Richter, a priest of the Diocese of Bismarck, has been appointed the seminary’s 15th rector, effective June 1, 2018.

Msgr. Callaghan plans to step down from his position at the end of the academic year, which marks the end of his second six-year term at the seminary. On Jan. 1, 2018, Msgr. Richter will assume the responsibilities of vice rector and work alongside Msgr. Callaghan to help him transition to the new role.

Archbishop Bernard Hebda of St. Paul and Minneapolis and Msgr.

Callaghan jointly announced the leadership transition plan for the seminary. According to an Oct. 2 statement, the decision to appoint Msgr. Richter as rector is the culmination of a process that began earlier this year when Msgr.

Callaghan informed the archbishop that he planned to retire from the position.

Archbishop Hebda serves as chairman of the board of trustees of the St. Paul Seminary.

“Serving as a father and rector to men preparing to be good, holy priests, as well as contributing to the formation of lay women and men in preparation for ecclesial leadership, has been the greatest joy and blessing of my priesthood,” Msgr. Callaghan said in the Oct. 2 statement. “To help them know the joy of being priests and to help them know the beauty of fraternity as missionary disciples for Christ has been an awesome and humbling experience. I am grateful that the good work of the seminary will continue under the very capable guidance of Msgr. Richter.”

Msgr. Richter, 49, was ordained in 1996 after receiving formation and studying at the Pontifical North American College and Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome. He previously served as the vocations director for the Bismarck diocese.

He has also served on the executive board of the National Conference of Diocesan Vocations Directors, and been a faculty member and spiritual director of the Institute for Priestly Formation in Omaha, Nebraska. He has been rector of the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit since August 2012.

“I am deeply grateful to Bishop [David] Kagan of the Diocese of Bismarck and Archbishop Hebda for this opportunity, and I look forward to working closely with Archbishop Hebda on forming men for the priesthood,” Msgr.

Richter said in a statement.

“My priorities are to listen to and

The Catholic Spirit • 5

ABOVE Msgr. Aloysius Callaghan preaches the homily during the opening Mass Sept. 11 for the Archbishop Harry J. Flynn Catechetical Institute in St. Mary’s Chapel at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity in St. Paul. He is retiring at the end of the academic year.

Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit

COLLEGEVILLE

Saint John’s Bible gallery opens A permanent gallery to display the Saint John’s Bible opened to the public Oct. 6 at St. John’s University’s Alcuin Library. It exhibits original folios from the work’s seven volumes. The university commissioned calligrapher Donald Jackson to handwrite and handilluminate the Bible in 1998. Original folios have been on tour since their completion.

RIGHT Msgr. Thomas Richter, rector of the cathedral in the Diocese of Bismark, North Dakota, will begin the leadership transition at the seminary Jan. 1, 2018, when he will assume the responsibilities of vice rector and work alongside Msgr. Callaghan to learn his new role.

Courtesy Msgr. Richter learn from the archbishop, Msgr.

Callaghan, the faculty and staff at the St. Paul Seminary, the priests of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, and the lay faithful,” he continued. “As a pastor and formator of seminarians for the past 15 years, it has been a blessing, an honor and a privilege to be involved with the formation of the men who will give their lives to God’s people as priests.”

As rector emeritus, Msgr.

Callaghan plans to continue to serve the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity in advancement and community relations, and he also plans to assume new responsibilities related to the archdiocese’s ongoing Clergy Support Initiative. (See related story on page 6.)

Msgr. Callaghan was ordained in 1971 for the Diocese of Allentown, Pennsylvania. He has ministered in various leadership positions for the Allentown diocese, including vocations director. He has also served as an official at the Vatican in the Congregation for Religious and Secular Institutes and as an official with the Congregation for Bishops. He spent a decade as vicar general and moderator of the curia for the Archdiocese for the Military Services in the U.S. Archbishop Harry Flynn appointed Msgr. Callaghan rector and vice president of the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity in 2005. He succeeded Bishop Frederick Campbell, now bishop

MINNEAPOLIS

Cristo Rey mourns graduates killed

of Columbus, Ohio. Under Msgr. Callaghan’s leadership, more than 170 men have been ordained priests and the Archbishop Harry J. Flynn Catechetical Institute and the Institutes for Diaconate and Ongoing Clergy Formation were established.

“This local Church has been blessed with wonderful priests — many of whom have benefitted greatly from Msgr. Callaghan’s wisdom, guidance, and his love of the priesthood and the people of God,” Archbishop Hebda said in the statement. “His 13 years as rector of the St. Paul Seminary will positively impact the lives of people in this archdiocese and beyond for generations to come.

I am grateful that Msgr. Callaghan agreed to continue to play an active role in the life of the seminary and of the archdiocese.”

Archbishop Hebda said he was confident Msgr. Richter’s experiences will help him “continue the great work of helping seminarians discern God’s call to the priesthood, guiding men closer to Christ himself and preparing them to be shepherds who lovingly minister to the flocks that will be entrusted to them.”

He also expressed confidence that Msgr. Richter will also “provide excellent leadership to the deacons and lay faithful who study at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity” and expressed gratitude that he has accepted the appointment.

Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Minneapolis is mourning the deaths of 2017 graduates Diana RojasMartinez and Christopher Buñay, who were killed in a car accident Sept. 26 after being hit by a wrong-way driver on Interstate 94. A statement from the school called the graduates “bright lights in our community.”

“They were fierce friends, hard-working students and driven to succeed in all parts of their lives,” the school said. A funeral for Buñay, 19, was held Sept. 29 at St. Stephen in Minneapolis. A funeral for RojasMartinez, 18, was held at St. Richard in Richfield Oct. 2.

MINNETONKA

$600K raised for scholarships The Aim Higher Foundation raised more than $600,000 for scholarships for students attending Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis at its annual Night of Light fundraiser, according to the nonprofit. The fifth annual event was held Sept. 22 at the JW Marriott Minneapolis in Bloomington.

DIACONATE ORDINATION Deacon Colin Jones, center, stands with his family following his ordination Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City Sept. 28. From left is his father, Gavin; his sister, Lydia; his brother, Liam; and his mother, Meghan, parishioners of St. Patrick, Oak Grove. Deacon Jones is in formation for priesthood at the Pontifical North American College in Rome and plans to be ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis in May 2018. His home parish is St. Charles Borromeo, St. Anthony.

Susanna Bolle/For The Catholic Spirit

6 • The Catholic Spirit

LOCAL

Gianna Homes Gala Angels AmongUs Which raises money for the “Steve & Mary Mattson Fund” that provides financial assistance to those residents who are otherwise unable to pay for their care.

2017 Gala Co-chairs: Terry & Debbie Kopp

Friday, October 27, 2017 • 6:00 pm The metropolitan Club

Keynote speaker: Dr. Gianna Emanuela Molla, MD

(daughter of St. Gianna) from Milan, Italy

Memory care that celebrates each moment.

Purchase tickets at: www.GiannaHomes.org/gala2017 For questions, contact: 952.443.6100 or anne@giannahomes.org

BEHINDTHESCENES Photos from The Catholic Spirit Instagram: @TheCatholicSpirit

October 12, 2017

New initiative aims to support clergy ‘from seminary to cemetery’

By Maria Wiering The Catholic Spirit Priests and deacons in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis can expect to find more avenues for support, thanks to an initiative underway to provide stronger comprehensive care for clergy.

Called the Clergy Support Initiative, it is in its early stages of implementation, but has shaped at least three newly created leadership positions for priests.

Undergirding the effort is the conviction “that with the right support, clergy are going to be successful, and if clergy are successful, that’s ... an important factor in parishes being successful and living their mission of making Jesus Christ known and loved,” said Father Mike Tix, who has been working with implementing aspects of the support initiative.

The aim, he said is to build a network of support for all areas of a priest or deacon’s life, so that no one feels like he is on his own — whether it’s in dealing with personal health issues or navigating a sticky personnel situation.

In the summer of 2016, Archbishop Bernard Hebda expressed his desire to improve support for clergy, and he asked priests and deacons to reflect on what that could look like. In October 2016, he established a committee to gather information and make recommendations.

Led by Bishop Andrew Cozzens, the committee surveyed clergy in January.

Father Tix said the survey was the most comprehensive survey of clergy in the archdiocese in the past 20 years.

The committee synthesized the feedback into nine categories: ongoing formation, evaluation and feedback for clergy, personal care of clergy, mentoring, spiritual direction and support groups, building community within the clergy, strategic planning, the work of the comprehensive assignment board, and improving chancery services.

Based on the feedback, the committee developed recommendations, and then sought more input from priest leaders before submitting them to Archbishop Hebda in the spring.

Bishop Cozzens called it “a highly consultative process,” but emphasized that to do it right, the framework will take time to build. “There was always a lot of support going on for priests, but we did acknowledge ... that a lot more emphasis was put on dealing with problems than helping our priests feel supported,” he said. “It’s not that this has never been done before, it’s just that we wanted to do this in a very concerted and clear way.”

The effort to provide better comprehensive support for clergy also draws on lessons from the past, when priests or deacons might not have known where to turn to for help in certain areas, or didn’t feel like they could.

Tim O’Malley, the archdiocese’s director of ministerial standards and safe environment, coordinates the archdiocese’s Ministerial Review Board, which reviews priest misconduct. He said the initiative offers “the right combination of support and accountability that was, frankly, inadequate in the past.”

He compares it to support networks that exist in other professions “that position them to do their job better,” he said. “And we owe it to them, from

seminary to cemetery.”

However, what differentiates priesthood or the diaconate from professions is that “this is a vocation beyond just employment. This is really a combination of a job and a personal relationship to God, comparable to a marriage,” O’Malley said. Even after a priest’s retirement, he added, “we owe it to them and everyone to keep them healthy and supported.”

As expectations of priests have changed in recent decades, so have the natural supports that bolstered priests in the past, Bishop Cozzens said. Today there are fewer priests with more responsibilities, and they are less likely to live in community. They’re also named pastors more quickly than their predecessors.

Already, some pieces have been put into place that reflect the committee’s recommendations. They include naming Father Peter Williams to the newly created role of minister to clergy. As such, he is available for priests to talk confidentially about personal challenges, help them find spiritual directors, and reach out to priests who may need help — the areas often identified in clergy formation as the “internal forum.”

Father Williams also oversees formation for new and recently ordained priests, assists priests struggling with addiction or burnout, and accompanies clergy who are going through a process with the Ministerial Review Board. It’s “an extension of the archbishop’s care for his priests, wanting them to be healthy and thrive in their ministry,” he said.

In June, Father Tix took on a newly created role, episcopal vicar for clergy and parish services, that emerged from the recommendations. Father Tix works with aspects of the “external forum” — the practical aspects of priesthood and parish life — including archdiocesan strategic planning, priest assignments, and working to strengthen the relationship between the clergy and archbishop.

Father Tix collaborates with the Institute for Ongoing Clergy Formation at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity in St. Paul, which provides development opportunities for clergy in the four areas of seminary formation: human, spiritual, pastoral and intellectual. “The IOCF is responsible for the ongoing education, training and formation of priests and deacons and works closely with the [Clergy Support Initiative] to provide opportunities for ongoing support, based on the feedback received,” said Deacon Dan Gannon, the institute’s director.

Another tangible outgrowth of the committee’s work is a new effort to help clergy who struggle with addictive behaviors. In September, Archbishop Hebda assigned Father Robert Hart, pastor of St. Patrick in Inver Grove Heights, to coordinate a small group of priests willing to walk with, and minister to, clerics facing issues related to chemical dependency. The response of priests willing to help has been generous and inspiring, Archbishop Hebda said.

Bishop Cozzens said that in the past, some priests felt like they were on their own. “I’m worried that some still feel that way. ... So, I’m excited if priests will at some time begin to feel like they’re not out there on their own, and if we can get to the point where they’re feeling regularly supported.”

LOCAL

October 12, 2017

Claire McMahon, a senior at Cretin-Derham Hall High School in St. Paul, talks with classmate Isaiah Sullivan during Spanish class Oct. 3.

Dave Hrbacek/ The Catholic Spirit

Perfect ACT — times three — rooted in Catholic education

By Matthew Davis The Catholic Spirit Cretin-Derham Hall High School student Claire McMahon had extra pressure when taking the ACT college entrance exam this fall.

Two of her older brothers, Matt and Michael, both scored a perfect 36 in 2015 and 2017, respectively, before graduating from CDH. It has made for friendly competition among the siblings.

“It motivated me to be confident in my abilities, and walking in, I knew if they got a 36, I could also get a 36,” said Claire, a senior at the St. Paul Catholic school.

Earning a 36 herself made her the third perfect scorer in the family. CDH has had six perfect ACT scorers since 2015, with three coming from the McMahon family.

A perfect score is rare, so ACT Inc. doesn’t track if siblings hit 36. The probability of a student earning a perfect score is about 1 in 1,000 test takers.

“The ACT is not an IQ test, but rather an academic achievement test that measures what a student has learned throughout their years in school,” ACT Senior Director Ed Colby said in a CDH news release Sept 26. “So, a top score of 36 on the ACT reflects a student’s hard work and dedication in school. It’s rare enough for any student to earn a 36 composite score, but three siblings in one family each earning a top score is a truly remarkable achievement.”

The McMahons credit the excellence of education at CDH and other Catholic schools they’ve attended as key to their scores. Claire said she didn’t need a lot of extra prep time for the ACT because of it.

“My teachers prepared me well in all

the coursework areas tested on the ACT. They allowed me to learn for understanding rather than just learn for a test,” said Claire, who previously attended middle school at Convent of the Visitation School in Mendota Heights.

All five of the McMahon children went to Holy Spirit Catholic School in St. Paul for grade school. Connie McMahon, their mother, said it laid a foundation of passion for learning in their early years.

“Throughout their education, they just had very supportive, committed teachers that have taught them to care about learning, not just teaching for a test or a standard test score,” Connie said. “The teachers they’ve had, you can tell they love what they’re teaching.”

Connie and her husband, John, have long been dedicated to Catholic education in the archdiocese. Connie has been teaching math at CDH for the past 29 years, but never had Claire in the classroom. John has served on various educational committees in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, including recent board membership with the Aim Higher Foundation, which provides need-based scholarships for students attending local Catholic schools.

Connie has emphasized the bigger picture in life when it comes to her children and standardized tests, she said, adding that “the community and the Catholic faith has taught them” to recognize the different gifts and talents in others.

“Who you are is what you do with the skills and talents that you have — not a score that you get on a test,” Connie said.

The Catholic Spirit • 7

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Our Lady Friday, October 13 Cathedral of St. Paul 5:15 Mass, 7 p.m. candlelight procession Archbishop Bernard Hebda reconsecrates the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis to Our Lady of Fatima

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8 • The Catholic Spirit

U.S. & WORLD

October 12, 2017

Trump administration expands exemptions on contraceptive mandate A woman lights candles at a makeshift vigil on the Las Vegas Strip Oct. 2 following a mass shooting at an outdoor country music festival. Late Oct. 1 a gunman perched in a casino hotel unleashed a shower of bullets on the festival below, killing 59 people and wounding almost 500. CNS

Do not let hate, violence ‘have the last word,’ says Las Vegas bishop

By Catholic News Service At an emotional interfaith prayer service at Guardian Angel Cathedral, Las Vegas Bishop Joseph Pepe told those filling the pews Oct. 2 that “in the face of tragedy we need each other.”

“And in the face of violence, we stand together because we cannot let hate and violence have the last word,” he said in his remarks at the evening service. “We gather from all faiths and walks of life.

We pray and sing and listen to the word of God to remind ourselves that amidst this tragedy, God is with us. God cries with our tears.”

The service at the Las Vegas cathedral brought people together as they were still trying to fathom what had occurred barely 24 hours earlier: A gunman, later identified by law enforcement officials as Stephen Craig Paddock, 64, shot into a crowd of about 22,000 attending a country music festival in a venue on the Las Vegas Strip the evening of Oct. 1.

From his perch in a room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay casino resort hotel, he fired off hundreds of rounds of bullets down on the crowd below, ultimately leaving 59 people dead and almost 500 injured. It is the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

“I am struck by the signs of goodness even in the face of violence,” Bishop Pepe said, pointing to the actions of first responders, emergency medical personnel and hospital staff members, and individuals who rendered aid, gave rides and helped each other. “They are living reminders of the good Samaritan and God who calls us all from fear to care.”

By Carol Zimmermann Catholic News Service The Trump administration Oct. 6 issued interim rules expanding the exemption to the contraceptive mandate for religious employers, such as the Little Sisters of the Poor, who object on moral grounds to covering contraceptive and abortion-inducing drugs and devices in their employee health insurance.

Leaders of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops praised the action as “a return to common sense, long-standing federal practice and peaceful coexistence between church and state.”

The contraceptive mandate was put in place by the Department of Health and Human Services under the Affordable Care Act. While providing an exemption for religious employers, the new rules maintain the existing federal contraceptive mandate for most employers.

President Donald Trump had pledged to lift the mandate burden placed on religious employers during a White House signing ceremony May 4 for an executive order promoting free speech and religious liberty, but Catholic leaders and the heads of a number of Catholic entities had criticized the administration for a lack of action on that pledge in the months that followed.

From the outset, churches were exempt from the mandate, but not religious employers. The Obama administration had put in place a

A group of Little Sisters of the Poor are joined by other women as they walk down the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington in 2016 after attending oral arguments in the Zubik v. Burwell contraceptive mandate case. CNS religious accommodation for nonprofit religious entities such as church-run colleges and social service agencies morally opposed to contraceptive coverage that required them to file a form or notify HHS that they will not provide it. Many Catholic employers still objected to having to fill out the form.

The HHS mandate has undergone legal challenges from religious organizations, including the Little Sisters of the Poor.

A combined lawsuit, Zubik v.

Burwell, made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where the justices in May 2016 unanimously returned the case to the lower courts with instructions to determine if contraceptive insurance coverage could be obtained by employees through their insurance companies without directly involving religious employers who object to paying for such coverage.

Senior Health and Human Services officials who spoke to reporters Oct. 5 on the HHS rule on the condition of anonymity said that the exemption to the contraceptive mandate would apply to all the groups that had

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sued against it. Groups suing the mandate all the way to the Supreme Court include the Little Sisters of the Poor, the Archdiocese of Washington, the Diocese of Pittsburgh, Eternal Word Television Network and some Catholic and other Christian universities.

In reaction immediately after the 150-page interim ruling was issued, religious groups that had opposed the mandate were pleased with the administration’s action.

An Oct. 6 statement by Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of GalvestonHouston, USCCB president, and Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore, chairman of the USCCB’s Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty, said the new rule “corrects an anomalous failure by federal regulators that should never have occurred and should never be repeated.”

Cardinal DiNardo and Bishop Lori said the decision was “good news for all Americans,” noting that a “government mandate that coerces people to make an impossible choice between obeying their consciences and obeying the call to serve the poor is harmful not only to Catholics but to the common good.”

U.S. & WORLD

October 12, 2017 in BRIEF BARCELONA, Spain

Spanish church urges dialogue after disputed Catalan referendum Church leaders appealed for calm in Spain’s autonomous Catalonia region after hundreds of people were detained by authorities and more than 800 others were injured during a disputed independence referendum. The appeal came as Catalonia regional President Carles Puigdemont said in a televised address after polls closed that Catalans had “won the right to statehood.” The vote went forward despite Spain’s Constitutional Court suspension of a law passed by the Catalonian parliament that said if more than 50 percent of voters in the referendum supported independence, the state would secede. Catalonia, the wealthiest of Spain’s 17 autonomous regions, is home to 7.5 million people with its own language and culture, and separatist politicians promised the referendum after forming a coalition government in 2015. The vote was backed as conforming to “Gospel and humanistic values” by more than 400 Catholic clergy and religious order members, about 20 percent of Catalonia’s total, in a late September declaration. The message was sent to Pope Francis, leading to a formal protest by Spain’s ambassador to the Holy See, Gerardo Bugallo.

CARACAS, Venezuela

Defend democracy, vote for governors, say Venezuelan bishops Venezuela’s bishops urged citizens to vote in upcoming gubernatorial elections. “Given the very stormy situation that our country is going through, these elections are a light for those who believe in and defend democracy,” said the statement, released Oct. 6. Venezuelans will elect governors for all 23 states Oct. 15. Divisions remain among government critics regarding the process; many advocated continuing street protests against the government instead of participating in the election. Four months of continual street demonstrations ended in August after the government successfully installed a new assembly to rewrite the country’s constitution and the opposition coalition agreed to participate in elections.

More than 120 people died during the conflicts, and many in the opposition boycotted the election. A high turnout in the gubernatorial election could give an overwhelming victory to the political opposition, but if most of its supporters stay home, the results could be more balanced. The bishops also called on the country’s electoral authority to act fairly.

NAIROBI, Kenya

Kenyan bishops urge politicians to participate in pre-election dialogue Kenya’s bishops called on opposing parties to agree to dialogue to ensure a free and fair presidential election Oct. 26. Kenya’s Supreme Court nullified the Aug. 8 election because of irregularities, and the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission invited the parties to dialogue. The bishops called upon the involved political parties Jubilee of President Uhuru Kenyatta and the National Super Alliance of Raila Odinga to “urgently agree to IEBC’s invitation to dialogue and chart the way forward with the aim of holding free, fair and credible presidential elections.”

In nullifying the election, the Supreme Court said it had not found any deliberate rigging of results, but it did express concern that the IEBC did not open its computer servers to the court. “The dialogue will pre-empt imminent conflict and violence that is being fanned and organized by both Jubilee and NASA politicians,” the bishops said in a statement read at a Sept. 26 news conference. The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has a partnership with the Diocese of Kitui, Kenya.

WASHINGTON

U.S. House passes bill to ban abortion after 20 weeks of gestation The U.S. House Oct. 3 passed the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which bans abortions after 20 weeks of gestation, about the time doctors have determined that an unborn child can feel pain.

Introduced by Rep. Trent Franks, R-Arizona, it would punish doctors who perform an abortion after 20 weeks, except in cases of rape, incest or if the life of the mother is threatened. Physicians could face up to five years in prison. Women seeking abortions would not be penalized under the bill. In a statement Oct. 2, the Trump administration said it strongly supported the bill, H.R. 36, and “applauded the House of Representatives for continuing its efforts to secure critical pro-life protections.” President Donald Trump said he would sign the measure if it reached his desk.

The Senate still must schedule consideration of the bill, but that seemed unlikely.

— Catholic News Service

Enriching the Enriching the mind, heart and soul of mind, heart our students. and soul of Parent Information Night

‘Child Martyrs of Tlaxcala’ to be canonized Oct. 15

By David Agren Catholic News Service Blessed Cristobal was about 12 or 13 when he confronted his father in 1527 over drinking “pulque,” an alcoholic beverage made from fermented sap of the agave plant. He poured out the pulque in the family home and told his father, a local leader called Acxtecatl, to give up idolatry.

His father, according to an account from the Diocese of Tlaxcala, Mexico, locked Blessed Cristobal in his room and repeatedly beat him. The youth, lying on his death bed, told his father, “Oh father, do not think that I am angry, because I am very joyous.

Know that you have honored me in a way much more than all your lands and titles.”

Acxtecatl attacked his son again, killing him, making Blessed Cristobal one of the first martyrs in Mexico and the New World. Blessed Cristobal, along with two other indigenous Tlaxcalteca youths, Blessed Antonio and Blessed Juan, will be canonized Oct. 15 at the Vatican. The latter two were 12 or 13 upon their deaths in 1529.

The trio, known as the Child Martyrs of Tlaxcala, were among the early converts to Christianity in Mexico. They are considered the first martyrs in the Americas, “protomartires,” because they were killed for their faith and will be canonized for that reason.

The three were baptized and trained as evangelizers by the Order of the Friars Minor in what is now Tlaxcala state, just to the east of modern day Mexico City. They later attempted to spread the faith in their own families and elsewhere in Mexico.

Blessed Antonio was the grandson of Xicohtencatl el Grande, one of the main rulers of Tlaxcala. He was joined by Blessed Juan and a third person, Diego, to evangelize nearby Oaxaca state. Both Blessed Antonio and Blessed Juan were killed in what is now Puebla state. The pair collected and smashed idols, bringing a reaction of beatings from locals, which led to their deaths. Diego escaped.

The martyrs were beatified in 1990 by St. John Paul II at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City.

With the canonization, the story of the child martyrs becomes better known and serves as an example for young people, said Father Ruben Rodriguez, an Opus Dei priest who has studied the child martyrs.

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10 • The Catholic Spirit

WORLD MISS

Whe

Indian mission diocese’s basic Christia communities grow in fa and service together

By Susan Klemond For The Catholic Spirit

W

World Mission Sunday is Oct. 22

Catholics pray during a procession in a house constructed for a parishioner with the help of the family’s basic Christian community in this undated photo.

Courtesy the Diocese of Vijayapuram

hen Alphonsa George was living i small plastic-covered shed in the mountains of southern India, the 43-year-old widow dreamed of a safe, wellconstructed home where she could live with two daughters.

But like many of her fellow Catholics in t Diocese of Vijayapuram in the state of Keral India, George lacked the means to make her dream come true — until last year, when fel parishioners helped her build a new home w funding from a Bloomington couple’s nonp “We are happy as if in a dream realized,” George wrote to the benefactors. “Now I am to sleep safely in this house. We have a cow dog.”

George and the Catholics who helped her belong to the Little Flower Family Unit, one the neighborhood-based subgroups of 15 to families called “basic Christian communitie which their parish is divided. These lay Cath pray together, serve each other and learn th faith. They gather with their entire parish at Giri Church for Sunday Mass and parish-wid events.

As Roman Catholics, members of the Littl Flower Family Unit and about 1,000 other B in the Vijayapuram diocese are a minority g within the national Christian minority, and are disregarded by Indian society and government.

India’s caste system, which dates back at l 3,000 years, stratifies Hindus into four hierarchical groups. Among Christians, cast stratification often reflects sect, location and predecessors’ castes.

Catholics as a whole comprise less than 2 percent of the Indian population; of the thr Catholic rites practiced in India, the smalles the Roman rite. The Vijayapuram diocese’s 9 Roman Catholics, many of whom are of low castes and societal standing, are poorer than members of other Roman Catholic dioceses Kerala.

Their faith, however, is strong.

Annual collection’s worldwide reac

Vijayapuram is an example of both the ho and need found in 1,150 mission dioceses th benefit from the annual World Mission Sun collection. This year, it will be taken worldw Oct. 21-22. Collection proceeds are sent to t Pontifical Mission Societies, to which these dioceses can apply for grants.

With more than 33 million inhabitants, K is located on India’s tropical southwestern c along the Arabian Sea. Because some missio organizations consider India to be a develop country, they no longer prioritize helping In states, said Vijayapuram Bishop Sebastian Thekethecheril. However, he said, many Christians there live in poverty and suffer fo faith.

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parishes. Parishes now act as a community of communities where all Catholics participate, said Father Jose Puthenparambil, who coordinates the Vijayapuram diocese’s BCC program and who served as a resident priest at Epiphany in Coon Rapids from 2003 to 2005. Modeled after the communal life of the early Church, BCCs originated in South America and the Philippines with the support of St. John Paul II. BCCs hold meetings for men, women and their general membership in parishioners’ homes.

Members serve in family and formation ministries and perform works of mercy. In Kerala, impoverished Christian families turn to the bishop for assistance. BCC leaders inform their pastor and the bishop’s social service office of member needs.

“They are guided by God to do what is necessary to work on the problems,” Father Puthenparambil told The Catholic Spirit in August, while he and Bishop Thekethecheril were visiting the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Building houses, improving lives The Vijayapuram diocese has facilitated construction of 246 homes in the past three years, some with funding from the non-profit We Share Program started by David and Kathy Rennie, parishioners of Holy Family in St. Louis Park.

Hundreds of other families in the diocese still need sturdy shelter.

“The pastoral aim is always to meet the basic needs of people, not just the spiritual needs,” Bishop Thekethecheril said. “We find some money here and there, some support we give.”

With funding from the We Share Program, the diocese and personal savings, a family and its BCC build the house.

“They take this as a project of that family unit for all of the parish, all of the diocese,” Father Puthenparambil said.

Incorporated in 1999 to aid the Vijayapuram diocese, the We Share Program finds donors who sponsor home construction, as well as entire families and seminarians.

Its founders, the Rennies, have a longstanding friendship with Bishop Thekethecheril. Their connection to the diocese began in the 1970s, when Kathy’s mother sponsored Bishop Thekethecheril while he was a seminarian. In the 1980s, the couple adopted two Indian children from an area near the diocese.

We Share fund recipients may not know of this friendship, but they show appreciation through letters posted on the nonprofit’s website, www.weshareprogram.net.

“I would think that they would see how God is providing through other people because of the way they express their gratitude,” said Kathy Rennie, 72.

BCC participation fosters a sense of belonging.

Encounter Catholic life in India You can experience the “little flock” of basic Christian communities as they serve the poor and disenfranchised in the mission Diocese of Vijayapuram. Join a delegation from the Center for Mission in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and travel to India in January 2019.

Organizers promise an amazing and inspiring experience. Your interest this early will reserve a space on the delegation, which will be organized next spring. For more information, contact Eric Simon at 651-291-4446 or simone@archspm.org.

“They see the base of the BCC is the mystery of the Holy Trinity, where each person is respected, where they are innately loved and where they are doing the works of God,” Father Puthenparambil said.

The Roman Catholics’ humble status in Kerala stems in part from their evangelization. The Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, an eastern-rite Catholic Church in communion with the pope, is more dominant in Kerala, where it is based.

Another eastern-rite Catholic Church, the Syro-Malankara Church, is also based in Kerala, but it is significantly smaller than the Syro-Malabar Church. Both trace their roots to St. Thomas the Apostle, who, according to tradition, brought Christianity to India in the first century.

St. Thomas evangelized mainly higher caste Indians, who didn’t share the faith with lower caste people, Father Puthenparambil said. In the 16th century, St. Francis Xavier, a Roman Catholic, brought Christianity to Indian fishermen and other people in lower castes.

Roman Catholics in Kerala call themselves “Latin-rite Catholics” to distinguish themselves from the Syro-Malabar and Syro-Malankara Churches. The line, however, is not steadfast; some priests have permission to celebrate the sacraments in two or more rites.

Deepening Christian experience Because of their generally lower societal status and religion, many Roman Catholics in Kerala are ineligible to receive government benefits, including those for education, or be hired for jobs.

“There are so many problems these people face because they became Christian,” Bishop Thekethecheril said.

Despite their own challenges, Vijayapuram Catholics evangelize and serve others. Many of the Roman Catholics in the diocese are lower class or Dalit, people who are excluded from the caste system and who were once considered “untouchable.” They assist other Dalit and tribal people, also from lower castes, many of whom struggle with alcoholism.

Meanwhile, people see the Church as a place of comfort. Each week, a St. Anthony shrine at one of the diocese’s parishes draws more than 35,000 people, almost half of whom are not Christian, Father Puthenparambil said. They come for healing prayer services, Mass, confessions and Divine Mercy devotions.

“They are gathering for a God experience,” he said.

Last year, the Vijayapuram diocese received a $30,000 subsidy for diocesan operations from the Pontifical Mission Societies. From this grant, the BCCs have received funding to train and monitor their leaders.

BCC members themselves contribute to the collection, Bishop Thekethecheril said. “Though the people are poor, they give money and we every year increase the giving to Rome.”

He said he hopes the BCCs will continue to grow in the generosity, faith and service that characterized the early Church.

“What the Church expects from all the faithful is this kind of lifestyle of the early Church, not only in India but all over the world,” Bishop Thekethecheril said. “The expectation is when this is fully implemented, people will feel they are really Christian and their Christian life fulfills Christian obligations. They are in the process.”

October 12, 2017 • 11

Mission at the heart of Christian faith Being the Church of the little flock of Jesus

By Deacon Mickey Friesen Anyone who has ever traveled or studied abroad knows something of what it is like to be in the minority. It can be difficult to navigate the differences of language, culture and customs. What is normal at home all of a sudden becomes abnormal. You become the one who looks and acts different from all the others. Being in the minority can make you seem strange to the majority.

This experience must also be true for those who live as a religious minority. Living in a country where Christianity is still the majority, I can take certain things for granted. When you are part of a religious minority, you must find ways to carve out your religious life in the midst of the predominant culture.

Christianity began as a minority.

It might be good to remember how Jesus sent the apostles to the Deacon Mickey nations to proclaim the Gospel.

They went into foreign lands FRIESEN proclaiming the kingdom of God, but always lived in the minority. Jesus called them the “little flock” and said, “Fear not, little flock, it is your Father’s pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Lk 12:32).

The first missionaries were sent forth as a minority to give witness to the Gospel by their words and deeds and placing their trust in God to guide them.

Like the early Church, there are Christians today who live out their faith as the minority. The only power they have is that of their living witness to Jesus’ way.

There are those in the little flock today who suffer discrimination or violence for their faith like the early martyrs. They know that there are consequences for practicing Christianity. They know the cost of discipleship and what it means to carry the cross each day.

On World Mission Sunday, we celebrate the missionary impulse of the Church and support the little flocks of Jesus today. Pope Francis, in his World Mission Day message, said, “The Church is missionary by nature; if it were not, it would no longer be the Church of Christ, but an association of many others that would soon end with the end of its purpose and disappear.” Like those early disciples who encountered Jesus and responded to his call to the ends of the earth with trust and hope, mission churches living in the minority give us a glimpse into the dynamism of faith that can inspire all of us who follow Christ.

For example, consider the mission church in a place like the Diocese of Vijayapuram in southern India. It is a little flock on many levels. Christians make up a very small minority in India. They rarely can affect political and cultural life. Catholics can face discrimination and even violence from the majority. In Vijayapuram, Roman Catholics live as a minority among the Christians living there. Their members primarily come from the lowest caste of Indian society called “Dalits” or “tribals” or “untouchables.” As a minority church, they are growing faith and encouraging each other by forming small Christian communities in neighborhoods and villages, a little flock within the church of the minority.

Pope Francis is calling all of us to adopt the missionary spirit of the little flock. He says, “The Church’s mission is enlivened by a spirituality of constant exodus. We are challenged to go forth from our own comfort zone in order to reach all the peripheries in need of the light of the Gospel.” The Lord is pleased to hand over the mission of his kingdom to us. Let us not be afraid to enter the mission of the minority — the little flock — ready to give and to follow where the Lord leads and to trust in his care for us. May God’s mission be the heart of our faith.

Deacon Friesen is director of the Center for Mission in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

12 • The Catholic Spirit

FAITH & CULTURE

October 12, 2017

Big priest on campus Catholic high school chaplains inspire, guide students

By Matthew Davis The Catholic Spirit

A

fter the Sept. 26 death of two 2017 graduates of Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in a car accident, Jesuit Father John Paul made himself available to pray and talk to the Minneapolis school’s students and staff.

“Their death really had a profound impact on so many,” said Father Paul, Cristo Rey’s director of Jesuit mission and identity.

Although he serves in an administrative role, providing pastoral care to the community following the deaths of Chris Buñay and Diana Rojas-Martinez fit his work as the school’s unofficial chaplain.

He helped to lead a prayer service for the community and spent extra time with students. He said it gives them hope to “know that somebody cares about them” and is “interested in how they’re dealing with all of this.”

Besides helping a community face tragedy, Father Paul does the everyday work of a school chaplain, too: building relationships with the students, offering the sacraments and fostering the faith of those at the school.

A number of priests in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis serve as Catholic high school chaplains.

They consider it a crucial ministry to serve students in their struggles and joys.

“I have a profound respect for adolescence,” said Father John Forliti, chaplain emeritus of Cretin-Derham Hall High School in St. Paul. “It’s a time of human growth when they need adults who care for them.”

While chaplains serve similar needs among students from school to school, their availability and duties vary.

Totino-Grace High School in Fridley has two part-time chaplains who each minister four hours per week. HillMurray School in Maplewood welcomed Father Kevin Manthey this fall as the school’s first full-time chaplain in decades.

Father Forliti, a retired priest and Cretin alumnus, has served at CDH since 2004. He spends one day each week on campus now that Father Patrick Kennedy is the school’s main chaplain.

Regardless of availability, chaplains say building relationships with students is essential.

Like other chaplains interviewed, Father Forliti, 81, said he makes time to visit with students in the halls between classes. The priests also visit classrooms and occasionally teach a class. Father Forliti speaks in biology classes on evolution through the lens of Church teaching. He also talks with the freshman classes about growing up Catholic in the 1940s and 50s, and encourages students to connect with their grandparents.

Father James Stiles, center, and Father Paul Shovelain, chaplains at Totino-Grace High School in Fridley, talk with student Nick Long in the school commons May 30. Long is a junior this year. Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit

“I have a profound respect for adolescence. It’s a time of human growth when they need adults who care for them.”

Father John Forliti

Opportunities for growth Providing the sacraments on campus is a regular part of a chaplain’s role. At Hill-Murray, Father Manthey celebrates an optional daily Mass at the school in addition to the monthly school Mass. At Totino-Grace, Father Paul Shovelain and Father James Stiles alternate as presiders for the monthly school Mass. They also offer a Tuesday morning Mass, which a few students and staff attend.

At CDH, Father Forliti said the annual reconciliation services in Advent and Lent play a significant role in his work.

“Those are powerful experiences,” he said. “The confessors who help out like myself are really impressed with the honesty and the sincerity.”

Father Manthey plans to offer confession regularly at Hill-Murray, adding that a confessional will soon be constructed on campus.

Besides Mass and reconciliation, Father Paul leads the Ignatian practice of the examen daily with the students and staff. The examen helps a person reflect on how God is working in his or her life and how he or she is cooperating with his grace.

Campus ministry involvement also plays an important role for chaplains at their respective schools. Father Manthey said he particularly serves the peer ministers, approximately 40 students who help with retreats, liturgies and share their faith testimonies.

“It’s been really powerful and really beautiful to see them blossoming in

that way — sharing their love of the Lord and their love of the Church,” he said.

Connecting through sports Father Manthey frequently attends Hill-Murray’s sporting and fine arts events to build relationships with the families at the school. It’s important for people to see that priests have fun, too, he said.

At Totino-Grace, Father Shovelain runs with the cross country teams to connect with the student athletes. He also occasionally attends meets.

Father Forliti coaches in CDH’s girls lacrosse program. He considers coaching “an important ministry” and a way to help students grow morally and spiritually.

“I’m pretty sure I’m the oldest [lacrosse] coach in Minnesota,” Father Forliti said.

Father Forliti, Father Manthey and Father Shovelain also serve as their schools’ football chaplains.

Whether on the field or in the school building, chaplains hope their work will foster vocations to the priesthood and religious life. Father Paul said 14 Cristo Rey students visited the Jesuit novitiate in St. Paul last year to learn more about religious life.

Chances for chaplains to serve nonCatholic students also arise. Father Manthey takes time to explain the basics of the faith to non-Catholics. He said he wants the “Catholic faith to be known and loved by those at HillMurray” and “to show them the beauty

of the Lord’s love.”

Sometimes that Catholic witness inspires converts. Father Shovelain helped 2017 Totino-Grace graduate Brady Bertram join the Church in 2015.

“That was a great blessing — being able to walk with him, getting him connected with a parish and also helping him to receive the sacraments,” Father Shovelain said.

Like Father Paul, chaplains also help students through times of tragedy and loss that affect the school community.

“There’s been more of that than I thought,” said Father Manthey, who has ministered to his school community following the death of a staff member.

Father Forliti said how he helps the students in difficult times varies by situation. At times, it has included hospital visits, he said.

Totino-Grace has relied on professional counselors to work with the student body following the deaths’ of students in the past few years; Father Shovelain said he hopes to provide more pastoral care in the future.

Overall, there’s room for growth in priest chaplaincy at Catholic high schools. Hill-Murray has the only fulltime priest chaplain. However, all Catholic high schools in the archdiocese have chaplains or enlist pastors or nearby priests to help meet their students’ spiritual needs. The archdiocese can place chaplains at a school’s request, but availability of priests also plays a role in placement.

Father Manthey has a long-term vision of how chaplains can benefit the students years beyond graduation. It could help alumni stay involved in the Church, he said.

Father Forliti knows the investment pays off. He has seen its value — first, as a Cretin student, then as a priest with years of involvement in Catholic education.

“It’s really a necessary thing,” he said.

FAITH & CULTURE

October 12, 2017

The Catholic Spirit • 13

Newly incardinated priest likes formation role at seminary

By Dave Hrbacek The Catholic Spirit

F

ather Allen Kuss was planning the next phase of his priestly ministry in 2011. A priest of the Diocese of Bismarck, North Dakota, at the time, he was just finishing 20 years on assignment as a military chaplain.

He knew he wanted a change of scenery, but coming to the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis was not something he was contemplating.

“It was not my plan to come here to the [St. Paul] Seminary or to the archdiocese,” said Father Kuss, 60. “My original plan was to take a year sabbatical, and I was going to do some traveling in various parts of the world.”

A conversation with Msgr. Aloysius Callaghan, rector of the seminary, in August 2011 changed all that. Father Kuss visited the seminary to ask a question about a different topic, and in the course of the conversation, Msgr.

Callaghan asked if he would like to serve at the seminary.

Liking the idea of being in an urban area after growing up on a farm in North Dakota and serving in a rural diocese, Father Kuss quickly said yes.

That eventially led to the process of incardination, or an official transferral into the jurisdiction of a bishop and his diocese. For a priest already serving in a diocese, it requires excardination, or release from the jurisdiction in which he is serving. Both incardination and excardination require a letter from the

bishop granting excardination, and a letter granting incardination from the bishop where the priest hopes to go.

Father Kuss began his work at the seminary within a month of that conversation with Msgr. Callaghan in 2011. He began the incardination process in 2016. He was officially incardinated into the archdiocese in April.

One of the first things he noticed — and liked — after arriving in the archdiocese were the people, both priests and lay members of parishes where he has helped out with Masses and confession.

“The presbyterate was very welcoming and supportive,” he said. “I simply enjoy the fraternity; I just enjoy them.”

Same goes for the people in the pews.

“By helping out on weekends and even during the week for Mass, confessions and various other things, I’ve come to know the people, and the people are wonderful,” he said.

He finds it valuable to have contact with people in parishes, as it translates into his role as director of pastoral formation and the teaching parish program, a position he has held since coming to the seminary.

“It’s my responsibility, with Dr. Charlotte Berres, to make sure that when a man is ordained a deacon and then a priest, that he is as ready as possible to perform the duties and tasks of a Catholic priest,” Father Kuss said.

“I enjoy it a great deal. I liken it to preparing Marines to be warriors. ... It’s a

Father Allen Kuss is director of pastoral formation and the teaching parish program at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity in St. Paul. Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit challenge, but it’s also very rewarding to see how a man comes in, and four years later, is ready ... for ministry for the next 40 to 60 years.”

He doesn’t have to go far to see good examples of priests who have served for that length of time. The Leo C. Byrne Residence for retired priests is next door to the seminary, and Father Kuss has taken notice of the retired priests who stay active in ministry.

“There are priests in the archdiocese who are well into their 80s and are generous with their time and their wisdom and the charisms that they have been given, and they just keep plugging away,” he said.

With that in mind, Father Kuss plans to do likewise. He was ordained a priest

in Bismarck in 1984, so he isn’t far away from the 40-year mark. Though close to retirement age, he is not thinking about it or planning for it. Rather, he wants to continue in his current ministry, which included celebrating Masses and hearing confessions at 32 parishes between July 2016 and July 2017. He thinks he has visited 40 or 50 since 2011.

“I go by first come, first served,” he said, noting that he tries to say yes to every parish that asks him to serve. “I have been as far south as Faribault, Kilkenny, Shieldsville, Le Sueur. I’ve been as far north as Rogers, St. Michael. And, I’ve helped out in Wisconsin.”

In working with the seminarians in formation, one important quality he tries to develop in the men is “a shepherd’s heart.” He believes that is valuable and adds to the theological background seminarians receive in their formation.

He tries to encourage future priests “to accept people for who they are and love them with the same compassion as Jesus Christ.”

Father Kuss also tries to practice what he preaches both in the seminary and at parishes, while tapping into 30-plus years of priestly ministry.

“In my life, I have dealt with so many different groups, types of people in so many different situations,” he said. “I don’t have a particular congregation that I attend to [now], so I am much freer and I think I have a wider breadth of experience. I just see where people are at, and I can see ... the needs.”

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14 • The Catholic Spirit

FAITH & CULTURE

October 12, 2017

Pioneering spirit Minnesota United player Kallman coaching alongside friend, fellow parishioner

By Matthew Davis The Catholic Spirit

H

ill-Murray School boys soccer Head Coach Jeff Zupfer turned to the big leagues to fill an open assistant coaching spot this year.

Zupfer brought Minnesota United FC soccer player Brent Kallman, 27, on board this spring to help the Pioneers’ soccer program at the Maplewood Catholic high school. Kallman, who plays center back for Minnesota’s new Major League Soccer team, was glad to help his longtime family friend.

“He sold me on it right away,” Kallman said. “He talked about really trying to build a culture there, and that’s something I really want to be a part of — a healthy, winning culture.”

Both parishioners of St. Ambrose of Woodbury in Woodbury, Zupfer and Kallman share a relationship that goes back more than a decade. Zupfer coached all three of Kallman’s sisters in club soccer. Kallman’s mother, Laura, currently nannies Zupfer’s son.

“I’ve known Brent since he was probably 10, 11 years old,” said Zupfer, who took the head job at HillMurray in 2016 and guided the Pioneers to an 8-10-1 record. The team allowed 2.1 goals per game.

Kallman’s defensive expertise has helped the Pioneers (6-9-1) improve on the back line, as the team has allowed 1.5 goals per game this season. He gives them tips from his MLS playing experience.

“He’s always coming up with good insight and always willing to help players out,” said senior midfielder Troy Tischler.

Senior Andrew Moon, who plays center back like Kallman, said Kallman’s guidance has helped him improve, particularly with positioning. Moon also said Kallman’s approach makes a difference.

“Instead of yelling at you from the field, he would take you off [the field], talk to you and put you back on,” Moon said.

Players and Zupfer alike noted Kallman’s example as a leader in the program. That includes small things such as joining the team to pray a Hail Mary before the game, a tradition for all Pioneers athletic teams.

“He jumps into that,” Zupfer said.

In deciding to join Zupfer at Hill-Murray, the school’s Catholic identity played a role for Kallman.

“That was one of the things Jeff sold me on,”

RIGHT Brent Kallman, second from right, joins in prayer before Hill-Murray’s game against Simley. At right is Hill-Murray Head Coach Jeff Zupfer. Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit Kallman said. “I come from a Catholic family, too.

Some of the values that we try to implement as a program, that we’ve done a good job of, they’re similar values to what I was raised with.”

Kallman has been assisting the Pioneers during the biggest stretch of the Minnesota United’s season, which runs through October. As a Woodbury native, he said membership in Minnesota’s first MLS club has a special feel.

He has been playing for the club since 2013, when it played in the North American Soccer League before joining MLS this year. He considers the first home MLS win against Real Salt Lake to be one of his best memories from the season.

“That was a really cool moment for everybody involved — the players and coaches, front office and fans,” Kallman said. “It’s kind of an indication of everything we’ve done here over the years and a good sign that we’re going to have some success going forward.”

Before the pros, Kallman played NCAA Division I collegiate soccer at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, after a strong prep career at Woodbury High School.

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FAITH & CULTURE

October 12, 2017

Help on wheels Mobile clinic relies on power of ultrasounds to save lives

By Jessica Weinberger For The Catholic Spirit

I

n a bustling Target parking lot in Shakopee, it’s difficult for busy shoppers to miss the large 31-foot RV parked prominently in the back with a sign listing a menu of free services, including pregnancy tests, ultrasounds and other resources. And that’s exactly what Alpha Women’s Center Executive Director Anne Fredrickson hopes.

“Sometimes we have walk-on clients who see us and maybe they’re not the client who would have looked up a pregnancy center, but then they see us and something speaks to their heart ... [and] they knock on the door and come on board,” said Fredrickson, who has served as executive director since February.

Alpha Women’s Center began in Prior Lake in 1982 as a home for pregnant women, designed to offer emotional support along with essentials like diapers and clothing. Decades later, the organization decided to shift its focus and reach women where they are, aiming to walk with them through whatever circumstances they face. They sold the home and invested the funds into the mobile pregnancy care unit under the direction of the pro-life ministry Image Clear Ultrasound (ICU) Mobile in 2013.

The organization, based in Akron, Ohio, has launched nearly 50 mobile pregnancy resource centers nationwide. Its Minnesota unit is the only one of its kind in the state, concentrating on the underserved Scott, Le Seuer and Carver counties in the southwest metro, which previously had only one non-medical pregnancy clinic.

From left, Anne Fredrickson and Julie Welch stand in front of a mobile pregnancy care center that serves the southwest metro.

The mobile unit, run by the ministry Image Clear Ultrasound Mobile, is part of Alpha Women’s Center in Prior Lake, where Fredrickson serves as executive director and Welch serves as a volunteer client advocate. Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit The organization largely focuses on providing abortion-vulnerable women with ultrasounds, which Fredrickson called a “powerful tool.”

“Four out of five women will choose life once they see that baby on the ultrasound, because they see the truth.

It’s such a powerful thing and a gift to give a woman to see that,” said Fredrickson, a member of St. Nicholas in Elko New Market.

The RV, driven by trained volunteers, travels to different locations three times per week. Rooted in the Christian faith, the ministry serves women of all backgrounds, inviting patients to bring their own faith and values into their situation. When possible, they ask to pray with the women, calling for guidance, safety and, ultimately, a chance at life.

While ecumenical, the organization has a large Catholic contingency among the board and volunteers.

For the last three years, Julie Welch has volunteered two

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The Catholic Spirit • 15 days per month as a client advocate, commandeering the RV and assisting clients with paperwork once aboard.

“I’m one of the first faces that they see and encounter,” said Welch, who attends Sts. Joachim and Anne in Shakopee. “It’s so important to be friendly and welcoming. Nobody wants to feel judged when they’re going into a situation.”

Welch often watches as people drive by the mobile unit slowly, puzzled by the large structure. Some stop and jot down the organization’s name, while others timidly knock on the door, convinced that the mobile pregnancy clinic was a sign to give their baby life.

“I feel like I was a strong person of faith before I started doing this, but I’ve seen the Holy Spirit. When you call on him, he does respond in his way and in his timing,” she said.

Funding for the ministry comes from many individuals and 60 churches in the southwest metro.

Bethesda Church, an evangelical Christian church in Prior Lake, donates office space and allows ICU Mobile to park in its lot for free. Volunteers take care of the RV’s maintenance, from filling tires to winterization.

Fredrickson searches for each location, looking for highly trafficked areas, a younger demographic and a visible place that’s potentially near a food shelf or community service agency. And of course, an easy place to pull in and park. She seeks written approval at each location with self-described “holy boldness,” hoping the managers of grocery stores and retail establishments will let them put their RV in park and serve women in need.

As the outreach grows, Fredrickson hopes to offer additional hours and locations and expand services to include prenatal care, life coaching and more. They experienced a 60 percent increase in client visits from 2015 to 2016, with another 10 percent increase so far in 2017, but the numbers only tell one part of the story.

It’s all about reaching the one woman who needs them, Fredrickson explained.

“It’s amazing to see the change in a woman when she sees that baby on a screen,” she said. “For most women, that reality is so innate, so built into our hearts that the love a mom has for a baby is stronger than fear.”

16 • The Catholic Spirit

FOCUS ON FAITH

SUNDAY SCRIPTURES

Deacon Stephen Najarian

To have Mass, we need to foster priestly vocations Jesus used many parables to describe the kingdom of heaven. It’s like a mustard seed, a treasure buried in a field, a pearl of great price, and, as we hear this Sunday, like a wedding feast. The Book of Revelation describes heaven as the eternal wedding feast of the Lamb: Jesus the bridegroom, celebrating the union with his bride, the Church, in one huge banquet for all eternity.

October 12, 2017

In the Mass, we have a foretaste of that eternal union through sacramental union with Christ. But in order to have the Mass, we need to have priests. And we’re all aware that over the last 40 years, there’s been a dramatic drop in the number of priestly vocations, even though here and elsewhere there are signs of hope. Let’s look at just three possible causes for the decline.

First, priests come from families, and the family in western culture is in trouble. Fifty percent of marriages end in divorce. And so, asking our young men to make stable, life-long commitments is a problem when they haven’t learned the meaning of this at home.

A second cause for the shortage is that we have been seduced by the consumerism of our culture. When kids get used to having lots of stuff with little effort on their part and having many of their wants — not just their needs — satisfied, it’s harder to consider a priestly lifestyle of simplicity, self-denial and the freedom of being able to pack up and go where the need is.

A third cause is the confusion in teaching the faith that has been so widespread in schools, sermons and even some seminaries. Young people have a great spirit of adventure, but are not willing to commit their lives to a question mark and to ambiguity, but rather to

truths on which it’s worthwhile to base one’s life.

What about some solutions, recognizing that none are quick or easy, or will produce results overnight?

The first is prayer. It’s easy to criticize priests for the defects and faults they have, as they, too, struggle with original sin. But it is far more fruitful to pray for them, for a greater cooperation with their grace of ordination and deeper union with Christ, and also to honor them as the icon of Christ among us.

Next, we need to give to our young men the example of our love for the Church and, especially, our love for Jesus present in the Eucharist, which we would not have without the priesthood. We need to share this love, talk about it, live it and then invite young men to consider a joy-filled life of service to the Church as priests. God will always generously provide for his Church, but all of us clearly have our part to play.

Deacon Najarian was ordained for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis in 2003 and has served at St. Charles Borromeo in St. Anthony since then. He also teaches pastoral theology, the sacrament of marriage and biomedical ethics at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity in St. Paul.

DAILY Scriptures Sunday, Oct. 15 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time Is 25:6-10a Phil 4:12-14, 19-20 Mt 22:1-14 Monday, Oct. 16 Rom 1:1-7 Lk 11:29-32 Tuesday, Oct. 17 St. Ignatius of Antioch, bishop and martyr Rom 1:16-25 Lk 11:37-41

Wednesday, Oct. 18 St. Luke, evangelist 2 Tm 4:10-17b Lk 10:1-9 Thursday, Oct. 19 Sts. John de Brébeuf and Isaac Jogues, priests and companions, martyrs Rom 3:21-30 Lk 11:47-54 Friday, Oct. 20 Rom 4:1-8 Lk 12:1-7

SEEKING ANSWERS

Father Michael Schmitz

How can I pray better instead of just rambling?

Q. I know that prayer needs to be a part of my life, but I never know what to say. I find myself either daydreaming or just rambling to God. How can I pray better?

A. First, this is possibly the most important question that any follower of Christ can pursue. Well, maybe the question isn’t the most important, but actually praying certainly is.

A friend of mine once pointed out how many of us view praying. He noted, “As Catholics, we were rarely taught how to pray; we were often merely taught how to repeat.” I think he had a great point. We “learn our prayers,” which typically means that we memorized the Our Father and the Hail Mary or a couple dozen other prayers. If we learned (memorized) these prayers, then we “knew” how to pray.

And let’s not snub those memorized prayers. I mean, the Our Father comes from the very lips of Jesus as his response to the disciples asking him to teach them how to pray. So I need to be very careful if I am going to offer any kind of criticism regarding reciting the very prayers Jesus — or his Church — have given us.

But praying is meant to be more than merely “saying the right words” and needs to reach the place where we

Saturday, Oct. 21 Rom 4:13, 16-18 Lk 12:8-12

Tuesday, Oct. 24 Rom 5:12, 15b, 17-19, 20b-21 Lk 12:35-38

Sunday, Oct. 22 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time Is 45:1, 4-6 1 Thes 1:1-5b Mt 22:15-21

Wednesday, Oct. 25 Rom 6:12-18 Lk 12:39-48

Monday, Oct. 23 Rom 4:20-25 Lk 12:13-21

Thursday, Oct. 26 Rom 6:19-23 Lk 12:49-53

Saturday, Oct. 28 Sts. Simon and Jude, apostles Eph 2:19-22 Lk 6:12-16 Sunday, Oct. 29 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time Ex 22:20-26 1 Thes 1:5c-10 Mt 22:34-40

Friday, Oct. 27 Rom 7:18-25a Lk 12:54-59

come into contact with the true and living God. The good news for every Christian is that you have the Holy Spirit dwelling within you. And the “Spirit comes to our aid because we do not know how to pray as we ought” (Rom 8:26). So we are not left to try to figure it out on our own. In addition, prayer is not a matter of “technique” or “steps,” but there are certain habits or dispositions we can learn and engage when we pray.

The particular habit I would like to encourage you to cultivate is something called the “Pirate Prayer,” because it involves four “habits” that follow the letters “ARRR”: acknowledge, relate, receive and resolve. These aren’t “steps” as much as they are meant to be reminders of the dispositions we ought to have when we pray.

So, how does one pray this way?

First, acknowledge. The person entering into prayer first acknowledges the thoughts, feelings and desires of their heart. It is really as simple as noticing what thoughts have been occupying one’s mind, which feelings are present in one’s heart and the desires that a person is experiencing.

An important practice in this habit is to avoid the temptation to judge or evaluate what we find in our hearts. Too often, if we find desires or thoughts that embarrass us or are inappropriate, we will try to ignore the fact that they exist. (Not only do they exist, they exist within you!) People will keep their conversation shallow because they falsely believe that they can only bring “holy thoughts” to God, and all the while they will ignore what is calling out for attention.

Next, the person relates. They tell God about what they have found. This is an incredibly important step. I often talk to people who argue that they shouldn’t have to tell God about their life “because God knows all of it already.” Of course he does. But you who are parents know that there is a difference between knowing what your child did at school all day and your child actually telling you what they did all day.

When we tell God something about our heart or about our day that he already knows, it is an act of

trusting the Father. “Relating” our heart and thoughts to God like this is transformative because it is what creates and deepens actual relationship. I remember someone asking the question, “If all Jesus knew about you was what you told him in prayer, how well would he know you?” Every time we relate our experiences and feelings to God, something powerful happens.

Third, we receive from the Lord. This might sound like the most abstract, but I always accompany this movement with one question: “How is God loving me right now?” This isn’t limited to that particular prayer moment, but involves the whole of one’s life. In response to this question, you might recognize that God is loving you by allowing you to rest a moment that day, by giving you a peaceful drive to work, through a phone call with a friend or family member, in having given you two eyes that work, etc.

After recognizing what is in one’s heart, sharing that with God and being attentive to his love, the praying person makes some sort of resolution. Resolution can involve anything from making the decision to write down one thing from that prayer time that you want to remember, to a certain action that it is clear God is asking you to take after that prayer time. It doesn’t have to be momentous or incredibly challenging; it is just a response to the conversation.

Think of it in terms of our human relationships: You’ve had a conversation with your spouse where you’ve revealed your heart, and they have revealed their heart. What would be a natural consequence of that conversation? You would probably make some small (or large) change in some area of your life. Do the same with God. Putting these habits into practice in your life throughout your day will absolutely transform your relationship with God. You will cease “saying your prayers” and truly begin to pray.

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

Reach him at fathermikeschmitz@gmail.com.

THIS CATHOLIC LIFE • COMMENTARY

October 12, 2017

The Catholic Spirit • 17

FAITH AT HOME Laura Kelly Fanucci

In every moment, we are beholding God — if only we keep our eyes open. Vision is this ordinary and this extraordinary.

Be thou my vision, but what do I see?

We cuddle together in the dark after the last book has been read. His 5-year-old limbs squirm as I whisper that it’s time for sleep.

“Can you sing me one more song?” he pleads.

I can’t resist. I’m a middle child, too. I know that in a family of many, you need to guard a few treasures for yourself. So we start to sing his lullaby, the one I sing only to him.

“Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart. Naught be all else to me, save that thou art. Thou my best thought by day or by night, waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.”

Does he have any idea what these words mean?

Do I? “Be thou my vision.” Saints saw apparitions.

Mystics were enraptured by encounters with the divine. What would it mean to see such a vision?

Could you ever return to regular life?

My life is not mystical. Work, kids, home, errands.

The visions of my days are ordinary: I see my spouse, my children, my office, my kitchen. I glimpse God here and there, on the edges and in the corners. But how would it feel to have full senses flooded with a blinding vision of God? My son’s kicking distracts my dreaming. I kiss his forehead in the grainy dark and tiptoe out of the bedroom. But driving kids to school the next morning, I keep thinking about the hymn.

“Be thou my vision.”

The ancient Irish words capture what I want for myself and my children: to keep the vision of God at the center of our lives. But how? Some days it feels helpless and hard enough to cling to my own faith,

TWENTY SOMETHING

Christina Capecchi

Hurricane Harvey and the kayaking priest Hurricane Harvey stranded Father David Bergeron in his pick-up the night it ripped through Houston.

The 38-year-old priest had been visiting his brother and had to pull over on an overpass 3 miles from his home in the flood-ravaged southeast side.

He couldn’t make it any farther or go back, so he curled up in his truck and tried to sleep as thunder and sirens alternated — rain pounding, wind howling, his beloved city churning in despair.

The next morning was eerily quiet.

Father David’s kayak was in the back of the truck — he’d used it just the day before — and he felt compelled to venture out in search of wine so he could celebrate Mass with some families stranded in a nearby apartment building.

It made quite the sight: a red kayak slithering through the gray flood waters, a handsome man in a red baseball cap pulled over his dark, curly hair. There had been no sun for three days, and here was a smiling priest rowing down South Loop.

iStock/RomoloTavani let alone foster theirs.

And if I don’t have a clear vision of God — if my focus gets distracted or my eyes get clouded — can I hope to raise my children to believe, too?

But as I keep driving with the hymn rolling through my head, I realize what I’ve forgotten. Vision has two meanings: what we see and how we see it. The image we behold and the eyes we use to see.

Suddenly everything becomes clearer. Only God is both: the vision by which we see and the vision that we witness. The beauty of the hymn captures both, too. God, be the vision I hold before me. God, guide the eyes by which I see.

As I pull away from the school drop-off lane, my son turns back. He is the only one who ever waves, the child who has to lock eyes with me through the car window and smile one more time before he goes.

This is the vision we share each morning. Ordinary, tender, fleeting.

Only then do I realize that this is how God sees me, too. Move one comma and everything changes:

“You need to be who you are.

For me, I am a priest who kayaks — and the Lord used that for his great purpose, something I could not have planned or staged.”

Father David Bergeron

“It was a surprise to see a kayak in the street,” Father David told me. “It brought a smile to people — not only outwardly, but in their hearts as well.”

The closest gas station refused his request for wine; Texas law forbids the sale of liquor before noon on Sundays. The priest bought some food and headed back out. He spotted a man trying to cross a fastmoving current and escorted him.

Then came the newsman from ABC13 reporting from the wet overpass. He squatted beside the kayak and held up a microphone.

Father David identified himself and chronicled his morning. The iPhone in his life vest began pinging.

He knew what that meant.

Here was his chance.

“I guess we’re live,” Father David said, “and the Lord is alive, and the Lord is always with us.”

Before long the interview wrapped, and Father David rowed off. He helped rescue a frail older priest from a hotel. He celebrated Mass. And he ministered to dozens of stranded Texans in his midst — greeting

“Be thou, my vision.” Be yourself. Be who I created you to be. Be the vision I have for you.

The hymn sings both ways.

This is God’s dream for every child: to be seen, to be cherished, to be beloved. This is love’s endless exchange: to keep seeing each other, back and forth as we grow.

Nurturing faith in a family tries to sink this truth into our stubborn bones. In every moment, we are beholding God — if only we keep our eyes open.

Vision is this ordinary and this extraordinary.

“Heart of my own heart,” we sing again that night, and I start to see how true it is. “Whatever befall, still be my vision, O ruler of all.”

Fanucci, a parishioner of St. Joseph the Worker in Maple Grove, is a mother, writer and director of a project on vocations at the Collegeville Institute in Collegeville.

She is the author of several books, including “Everyday Sacrament: The Messy Grace of Parenting,” and blogs at www.motheringspirit.com. children, leading prayer and listening to their harrowing tales. He had just preached about Our Lady, Star of the Sea, an ancient title that resonated with him, and he found himself calling on the Blessed Mother as he waded through the waters, fearing snakes.

The story of the kayaking priest went viral, and Father David gave 17 interviews in the following 24 hours. The chapel at his residence, the Catholic Charismatic Center, which managed to avoid flooding, became his operating base. He rose early for a BBC interview, slipping out of the chapel to speak, then returning to prayer.

It was a dizzying chain of events, but the priest felt sustained by grace. “This is not something you can prepare for,” he said, “but if the Lord calls, he will equip.”

The parallel was not lost on him, he told reporters: “The New World was evangelized through the waters, crossing from Europe to America, and then using canoes.”

Father David is still busy helping victims of Harvey and reflecting on the experience.

“My greatest pulpit was the kayak,” he said.

“Evangelization is just being present to the Lord — sometimes with words, sometimes with attitudes, wherever we are. You need to be who you are. For me, I am a priest who kayaks — and the Lord used that for his great purpose, something I could not have planned or staged.”

The key, he says, is to be attentive — rooted in prayer and open to others. “The Gospels were written 2,000 years ago, but they’re still being written by us today, saying ‘yes’ to the Lord as best as we can.”

Capecchi is a freelance writer from Inver Grove Heights.

18 • The Catholic Spirit

THIS CATHOLIC LIFE • COMMENTARY

WORD ON FIRE

Bishop Robert Barron

‘Mother!’ and the God of the Bible Darren Aronofsky’s latest film, “Mother!,” has certainly stirred up a storm — and no wonder. It features murder, point-blank executions, incinerations, and the killing and devouring of a child. I know: a pleasant evening at the movies. “Mother!” will seem just deeply weird unless you see it as a fairly straightforward allegory. Once you crack the code, it will make a certain sense, though the message it is trying to convey is, at best, pretty ambiguous.

The film opens with a couple, played by Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem, living in isolation and security in a beautiful country home that they are in the process of renovating. There seems to be a symbiotic connection between Lawrence’s character and the house itself: Pressing her hands against a wall, she senses the presence of a beating heart within.

Their bucolic serenity is suddenly interrupted by the arrival of another couple — played by Ed Harris and Michelle Pfeiffer — who are seeking a place to stay.

Though Bardem’s character is more than open to their staying, his wife is deeply suspicious. In time, the intruding pair become more and more disturbing and annoying, upsetting the rhythm and peace of the house. Then, to the infinite surprise of Lawrence’s character, their two grown sons arrive and commence immediately to quarrel. In short order, their fight turns murderous, as the older brother kills the younger. In his angst, the murderer cuts himself on the forehead with a shard of glass and staggers away from the house.

Filled with sympathy, Bardem’s character’s invites friends and family of the troubled couple to come to the home and mourn. Quickly, things turn chaotic, as more and more people invade the private rooms of the house.

The husband finally loses patience when the original visitors break a precious heirloom in his room, and, in a thundering voice, he expels them from the place.

So the allegory is fairly clear: Bardem’s character is the God of the Old Testament, his wife — ­ and by extension, the house — is Mother Nature, the mysterious visitors are Adam and Eve, and their warring sons are Cain (who bears a mark on his forehead) and Abel. The message — at this point, biblical enough — seems to be that sin has produced not only a conflict among human beings, but also a conflict between human beings and the natural world. In their selfishness and violence, sinful people indeed ride roughshod over nature, ruining her beauty and offending her integrity.

After the intruders have all been dismissed from the house, a period of peace prevails. Lawrence’s character becomes pregnant and Bardem’s character finds his muse and recommences his writing career. As the child gestates in his mother’s womb, a work of literature emerges through the energies of the father. When the book is finished, it is met with immediate and universal acclaim. Soon, armies of admirers descend upon the lovely house, once again muddying it, then doing damage to it. They want to commune with the author, to take a piece of his life home with them, and in the process they overwhelm the place that he and his wife have striven to restore. They cover the walls with images of their hero; they chant and mark themselves in ritual ceremonies. They eventually come in such numbers and with such fervor that conflicts break out, and these escalate into outright war. All hell then breaks loose: gunshots, missile attacks, fires, executions. Though the woman shrieks in horror, Bardem’s character only revels in the attention he is receiving.

If the first part of the story allegorizes the Old Testament, this second part allegorizes the New. The husband emerges here as a sort of Christ-figure, and his devotees are exhibiting all of the fanaticism, conflict and violence that have sometimes dogged Christianity across the ages. Then things get truly weird. During a lull in the chaos, the woman gives birth to a beautiful baby boy, and she holds him tight, refusing to allow his father even to hold him. But while she sleeps, the Bardem character steals the child and shows him to the crowds who then take him, kill him, rip him to pieces and proceed to eat his body. Beside herself with rage, the mother retreats to the basement and sets off an

October 12, 2017

Though it rather clearly reflects the anti-scriptural prejudice of the cultural elite today, “Mother!” might actually serve to prompt a re-examination of the deeply ecological themes that run right through the biblical narrative and the great theological tradition. explosion that brings the whole place down.

The filmmaker seems to be gesturing toward the sacrificial death of Jesus and the sacrament of the Eucharist. Now if the Old Testament associations were at least in the ballpark, these are just off the farm. First, the true God does not need the adulation of his followers and does not remain indifferent to their moral outrages.

Moreover, Jesus is not taken and sacrificed by the people in the manner of a pagan offering; rather, he gives himself away as a free act of love. Finally, the dying and rising of Jesus is construed by the New Testament as not simply beneficial to human beings, but indeed as the salvation of nature itself, as a healing of the wounds of creation. Thus, to set the Bardem character and the sacrificed child over and against the good of mother earth is just not biblical.

Though it rather clearly reflects the anti-scriptural prejudice of the cultural elite today, “Mother!” might actually serve to prompt a re-examination of the deeply ecological themes that run right through the biblical narrative and the great theological tradition. The God of the Bible does love the human race and does act as an indulgent father in the face of humanity’s sins. But at the same time, the God of the Bible loves Mother Earth.

As the book of Genesis tells us, he found everything he had made very good. In the minds of the Scripture writers, there is no tension between these two loves.

Bishop Barron is an auxiliary bishop of Los Angeles and the founder of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries.

LETTER

Transgender article marginalizing My heart broke reading “Switching sexes: Transgender ideology and the Church” (Sept. 28). Tragically, your paper published this article the same week that Ally Steinfeld, a transgender teenager in Missouri, was tortured and murdered, becoming the 21st

transgender person killed in 2017.

Despite what the Minnesota Catholic Conference would like us to believe, it is empirically true that transgender individuals are a persecuted minority.

In light of the real physical danger that trans people face, it’s hard to see validity in the “fear” and “confusion” of Catholics in the article. The torture endured by Ally is not comparable to

the discomfort experienced by Emily Zinos and her family. Any Church that calls itself “pro-life” should do everything in its power to protect the sacred lives of transgender people.

Publishing an anti-transgender article full of marginal psychology is decidedly not pro-life. This rhetoric fuels an ostracization of trans people that has repeatedly proven to be lethal.

Joe Kruse Minneapolis Catholic Worker Share your perspective by emailing CatholicSpirit@archspm.org. Please limit your letter to the editor to 150 words and include your parish and phone number. The Commentary page does not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Catholic Spirit. Letters may be edited for length or clarity.

CatholicHotdish.com

CALENDAR

October 12, 2017 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.

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

If the Catholic connection is not clear, please emphasize it in your submission.

ITEMS MUST INCLUDE the following to be considered for publication: • Time and date of event • Full street address of event • Description of event • C ontact information in case of questions

Carry-out booya — Oct. 22: 6 a.m. at St. Jerome, 380 E. Roselawn Ave., Maplewood. Bring your own non-glass container. www.stjerome-church.org.

Teens — Oct. 14: 1–4 p.m. at Loyola Spirituality Center, 389 Oxford St. N., St. Paul. www.loyolaspiritualitycenter.org.

WomenSource Breakfast — Oct. 22: 8:30 a.m.– 12:30 p.m. at St. Vincent de Paul, Education Center, 9100 93rd Ave N., Brooklyn Park. Hosted by Knights of Columbus. Free-will offering will benefit WomenSource, which offers pregnancy resources to women and families in the northwest metro. www.saintvdp.org.

Divine Will Three-Day Conference — Oct. 20-22: 7–9 p.m. at Mary Mother of the Church, 3333 Cliff Road E., Burnsville. Featuring Father Robert Young. $50. www.divinewillsaintpaul@gmail.com.

Awards St. John Paul II Champions for Life Awards Luncheon — Oct. 27: 11:30 a.m.–1:30 p.m., St. Peter, 1405 Hwy. 13, Mendota. Honorees recognized for their work to respect life. Special guest Bishop Andrew Cozzens and keynote speaker Maddie Schulte. $35 per person; $280 for table of eight.

Register at www.archspm.org/C4L.

ONLINE: www.thecatholicspirit.com/ calendarsubmissions

FAX: 651-291-4460

Retreats

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

Festivals: thecatholicspirit.com/festivals

Parish events St. Boniface 28th annual German dinner — Oct. 15: 10 a.m.–2 p.m. at St. Boniface, 629 2nd St. N.E., Minneapolis. 10 a.m. polka Mass with Rod Cerar Orchestra. Dinner and dancing 11 a.m.–2 p.m. in church hall. $12 adults; $5 ages 12 and under. Takeout available. 612-379-2761.

Mary’s Meals lasagna dinner fundraiser— Oct. 21: 6:30 p.m. at Cathedral of St. Paul, 239 Selby Ave., St. Paul. Catered by Yarusso Bros.

Italian Restaurant. Speaker, silent auction and door prizes. www.cathedralsaintpaul.org.

Holiday wreath fundraiser — Oct. 21-22, 28-29: 8:45 a.m.–6 p.m. Cathedral of St. Paul, 239 Selby Ave., St. Paul. Cathedral Knights of Columbus will be taking orders following weekend Masses. Items available for pick-up Nov. 18-19. Benefits Abria Pregnancy Resources. Order via phone at 651-772-2458. www.facebook.com/cathedralknights.

The Catholic Spirit • 19

Living God’s Love: The Sacrament of Marriage ­— Oct. 14: 9 a.m.–3 p.m. at University of St. Thomas, O’Shaughnessy Education Center, 2115 Summit Ave., St. Paul. Refresher course for married couples. $60 per couple. www.archspm.org/events.

Men’s Silent Weekend Retreat — Oct. 20-22: at Franciscan Retreat and Spirituality Center, 16385 St. Francis Lane, Prior Lake. www.franciscanretreats.net/mens_retreats.aspx.

2017 North Shore couples retreat weekend — Oct. 26-29: at Cascade Lodge/Cascade Park, 3719 W. Highway 61, Lutsen. Into the Deep retreat. www.idretreats.org.

Discernment: The Fruit of Lectio Divina — Oct. 27-29: at The Benedictine Center at St. Paul’s Monastery, 2675 Benet Road, Maplewood.

651-777-7251 or www.stpaulsmonastery.org.

Spirituality in the Second Half of Life — Oct. 28: 8:30 a.m.–3 p.m. at Loyola Spirituality Center, 389 Oxford St. N., St. Paul. www.loyolaspiritualitycenter.org.

Conferences/workshops Nurturing Spiritual Development in Children and

For Church leaders: Nurturing a Sense of Calling in Congregational Life — Oct. 26: 9 a.m.–1 p.m. at The Benedictine Center at St. Paul’s Monastery, 2675 Benet Road, Maplewood. 651-777-7251 or www.stpaulsmonastery.org.

End-of-Life Care Symposium with Dr. Gianna Emanuela Molla — Oct. 28: 8–11:30 a.m. at St. Mary’s Chapel, St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity, 2260 Summit Ave., St. Paul. Featuring daughter of St. Gianna. www.giannahomes.org/2017symposium.

Training for Early Catholic Family Life program — Oct. 28: 9 a.m.–4 p.m. Annunciation Catholic School, 525 54th St. W., Minneapolis. $200. Alan or Joanne Foley at 612-704-7306 or alanfol@gmail.com.

Speakers Men’s Club Morning of Reflection — Oct. 14: 8 a.m. at Guardian Angels, 8260 4th St. N., Oakdale.

Featuring Ken Hensley. www.guardian-angels.org.

Fall Ireland Memorial Library Lecture — Oct. 16: 7:30-9 p.m. at the University of St. Thomas, 2115 Summit Ave., St. Paul, 3M Auditorium, Owens Science Hall. Presented by Sister Katarina Schuth. www.stthomas.edu/spssod/about/events.

Paying Attention: How Do I Put Soul Back Into My Leadership? — Oct. 19: 9 a.m.–1 p.m. at Benedictine Center, 2675 Benet Rd., St. Paul.

Featuring Barbara Sutton. www.benedictinecenter.org.

Theology Uncorked — Oct. 23: 6:30–8 p.m. at Old World Pizza, 5660 Bishop Ave., Inver Grove Heights. Featuring Father Peter Hughes and Father Bob Hart.

Living and Sharing — Oct. 24: 7–8:30 p.m. at St. Patrick, 6820 St. Patrick’s Lane, Edina. Featuring Anna Scally on living faith and sharing it with kids.

$5 suggested donation. www.stpatrick-edina.org.

Pro-life gathering — Oct. 24: 7–8 p.m. at Maternity of Mary, 1414 Dale St. N., St. Paul.

Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life education presentation. www.mccl.org.

Nativity Grandparents Apostolate — Oct. 25: 8:45–10:30 a.m. at Nativity of Our Lord, Steiner Hall, 1900 Wellesley Ave., St. Paul. Mass followed

by Father James Stiles on “Fatima, a Message for the Childlike of Heart.” www.nativity-mn.org.

Celebration of Catholicism’s beauty — Oct. 29: 7 p.m. at St. Mark, 2001 Dayton Ave., St. Paul.

Sacred choral concert followed by speaker and social. Free. www.saintmark-mn.org.

Young adults False spiritualities by Father Andrew Jaspers — Oct. 18: 6:30–8 p.m., at the Cathedral of St. Paul, 239 Selby Ave., St Paul. www.facebook.com/groups/joincya.

Dining out KC Pro-Life Dinner — Oct. 28: 6–9 p.m. at St. Albert, Parish Center, 11400 57th St. N.E., Albertville. Social at 6 p.m., chicken dinner at 6:30 p.m. followed by speaker Brian Gibson. For reservations, call 763-497-3909. www.kc4174.org.

Music National Lutheran Choir presents “Holy Spirit Mass” — Oct. 27 and Oct. 29: 8 p.m. Oct. 27 at Basilica of St. Mary, 88 17th St. N., Minneapolis; 4 p.m. Oct. 29 at Ordway Concert Hall, 345 Washington St., St. Paul. www.nlca.com/events/dc.

Music My Soul Cries Out concert — Oct. 28: 8 p.m. at Basilica of St. Mary, 1600 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis. Free. www.mary.org.

Prayer/worship The Practice of Sustained Lectio Divina — Oct. 27: 7–9 p.m. at The Benedictine Center at St. Paul’s Monastery, 2675 Benet Road, Maplewood. 651-777-7251 or www.stpaulsmonastery.org.

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20 • The Catholic Spirit

THE LAST WORD

October 12, 2017

Double

blessings

Two sets of second-grade twins baptized at Columbia Heights school Story and photos by Dave Hrbacek The Catholic Spirit

J

oe Sturdevant’s sleep was cut short the morning of Sept. 28. But the abrupt awakening courtesy of his second-grade daughter, Ava, was easily forgiven.

Her excitement over a life-changing event that would take place that day at Immaculate Conception in Columbia Heights was contagious.

“At 5 in the morning, she woke me up and said, ‘I get to get baptized today,’” he said. “Not every child can say that to their parents. So, it was kind of neat.”

Joining Ava in receiving the sacrament were her “This is part of twin brother, Joseph, and another set of second-grade what we do in twins at Immaculate Conception School, John terms of and Gianna Chiodo. In both cases, the students evangelizing. have Catholic fathers and non-Catholic mothers.

We really The entire student body attended the Mass to watch believe that we the pastor of Immaculate Conception parish, Father are raising John Mitchell, baptize the four students. disciples of “It’s a real honor to have the baptism today of these Christ, that four children,” Father we’re bringing Mitchell said. “It’s a real privilege to baptize them, people into the especially in the presence of the school community faith.” and all their classmates and schoolmates. I think it’s a Jane Bona very memorable experience for them and for everyone in the school.”

Emotions ran high as Father Mitchell called the two families to the baptismal font near the front of the church, one at a time, to baptize the four children.

ABOVE Father John Mitchell baptizes Gianna Chiodo during a Mass Sept. 28 at Immaculate Conception in Columbia Heights.

Awaiting his turn is her twin brother, John, right. In the background are the twins’ parents, John, left, and Gwen, right.

RIGHT Father Mitchell prays a blessing over two sets of second-grade twins he baptized during Mass: Joseph, front left, and Ava Sturdevant, and John and Gianna Chiodo. In the back row are their parents, from left, Joe and Melissa Sturdevant, and Gwen and John Chiodo.

Sitting near the front was school principal Jane Bona, who couldn’t help but feel pride and joy as she witnessed the children entering the Church.

“I was teary-eyed throughout the whole thing,” Bona said. “It was hard to not get choked up. It was very emotional for us. We think it was awesome for all the children to see this, too, because they’re baptized as babies and, of course, they have no memory of it, except in a photo. So, for them to experience watching classmates [be baptized] was just really awesome.”

Second grade is often a time parents start thinking about their children receiving the sacraments, Bona said, because it’s a year in which Catholic children receive both their first reconciliation and first Communion.

However, the process started earlier for the Chiodo and Sturdevant families. They began talking with Bona about baptism last year, and she encouraged them to talk to Father Mitchell and the parish faith formation director.

But, the parents weren’t the only ones who began inquiring.

“Our daughter Ava has been asking for about nine months to be baptized,” Melissa Sturdevant said. “For me, it just hits home that she wants to follow in the faith and it’s important to her.”

And that, in turn, could have a domino effect. “I’m nondenominational,” Melissa said, but, “I would entertain the thought of learning more about the Catholic faith.”

Bona said that at least one other member of the

school’s second-grade class is considering baptism, as are the child’s mother and two siblings.

“That would be so awesome to celebrate another four baptisms, one adult and three kids,” she said.

As remarkable as having two sets of twins baptized on the same day is, Bona considers it just a normal part of spreading the Catholic faith, a mission about which she is passionate.

“This is part of what we do in terms of evangelizing,” she said. “We really believe that we are raising disciples of Christ, that we’re bringing people into the faith.”

And, it isn’t just that the family is joining the Church.

It’s the other way around, too, John Chiodo noted.

“Our family got bigger with the Church [now added to it],” he said. Now, the children “have got somebody that’s there for them,” he added.

For the Sturdevants, the baptisms also are a continuation of a family legacy at Immaculate Conception.

“My parents were married in this church,” Joe Sturdevant said. “I was baptized in this church, confirmed and ... went to religious ed classes. Our children are [now] baptized in the church. That’s a neat thing to carry that on. I didn’t really understand [the importance of] baptism. Now I know how essential it is.

We needed to do that sooner than we did.”

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