The Catholic Spirit - October 14, 2021

October 14, 2021 • Newspaper of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis

Rosary by candlelight Anh Thu Tran of St. Adalbert in St. Paul prays in the twilight as she participates in the annual Candlelight Rosary Procession Oct. 1 in St. Paul from the State Capitol to the Cathedral of St. Paul. Hundreds made the walk, including Auxiliary Bishop Andrew Cozzens, who led prayer and Benediction at the Cathedral, and delivered a homily describing the power and importance of praying the rosary. DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

WHY WORLD MISSION SUNDAY? — Pages 10-11 SYNOD MASS 5 | CATHOLIC POETS 6 | MISCARRIAGE RETREAT 8 FRENCH ABUSE REPORT 9 | LEGAL MARIJUANA RISK 12-13 | NAZARETH HALL 15

2 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

OCTOBER 14, 2021

PAGETWO NEWS notes Providing significant help even in the midst of a pandemic, contributions in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis to the annual appeal for the Retirement Fund for Religious priests, brothers and sisters totaled $420,292 in 2020-2021, and was the fourth largest total in the country. Of the 169 dioceses that participated last year, only the dioceses of Buffalo and Rockville Centre in New York and the Archdiocese of Chicago had more appeal donations. The fund supports retirement needs for religious communities across the country. The 2019-2020 appeal total in the archdiocese was $524,921. Appeal donations are transmitted to the national office at the end of March. The office’s sponsors are the Conference of Major Superiors of Men, the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Hours after an opening night performance of “Frassati” at Open Window Theatre in Inver Grove Heights Oct. 1, a water pipe inside the building broke, leaving an inch of water covering about half of the 9,600-square-foot space. Oct. 2-3 performances were canceled but they resumed Oct. 7 and will continue as scheduled through Nov. 1.

About 35 people praying for life-affirming options to abortion stood for more than an hour along Main Street in Anoka Oct. 2. Organized by St. Stephen in Anoka’s Life Matters group and Knights of Columbus Council 2018, it was the third annual Prayer Chain for Life gathering in that city. John Loes, a retired doctor, St. Stephen parishioner and Knights of Columbus member, said it was heartening to see many passersby respond favorably with thumbs up, applause, friendly honks and waves.

COURTESY FATHER PAUL HEDMAN

MARATHON PRIESTS From left, Fathers Joseph Taphorn, Kyle Kowalczyk, Luke Marquard and Paul Hedman gather in downtown Minneapolis Oct. 3 before the start of the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon. All but Father Taphorn were making their first attempt, and all four finished the 26.2-mile run. The top finisher in the group was Father Marquard, who had a time of 4 hours, 7 minutes, 30 seconds. Other results: Father Taphorn, 4:33:12; Father Kowalczyk, 4:33:34; and Father Hedman, 4:58:40. Three of the priests concelebrated Mass that morning before the race at St. Olaf in downtown Minneapolis.

For those who have cremated remains at home, The Catholic Cemeteries is once again offering an initiative called “Bringing Them Home.” It invites people to have cremated remains interred in a communal crypt in the Chapel Mausoleum at Resurrection Cemetery in Mendota Heights for a fee of $200. The interment will be recorded and the name of the deceased will be displayed in a Book of Remembrance in the mausoleum. Archbishop Bernard Hebda will lead a committal service in the chapel Nov. 2, the feast of All Souls.

Those wishing to inter cremated remains must make an appointment with a family service advisor at Catholic Cemeteries by Oct. 26.

The Center for Mission recognized the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ 50 years of missionary ministry in Venezuela with a celebration Oct. 2 at St. Pascal Regional Catholic School in St. Paul. Archbishop Bernard Hebda celebrated Mass, which was followed by dinner and a program attended by 85 people. Many attendees were priests and religious sisters who had served the mission in the metropolis of Ciudad Guayana.

Father James Peterson of Immaculate Conception in Columbia Heights, who ministered in Venezuela from 2015 to 2018, introduced the event’s program, which began with people sharing stories and memories from Venezuela. Highlights included retired Father Jerry Hackenmueller, who ministered in Venezuela from 1972 to 1983, describing gifts of the mission brought back to Minnesota.

in REMEMBRANCE

Deacon served 14 years in AIDS ministry The Catholic Spirit

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

SURPRISE VISITOR From left, Jackie Craigmile, Katie Skinner and Iryna Beutz greet Archbishop Bernard Hebda at the start of a Synod Small Groups session at St. Hubert in Chanhassen Sept. 30. The archbishop made unannounced visits to several parishes in the archdiocese that were hosting Synod Small Groups, talking to audiences about the Synod and praying a blessing before videos began.

God invites us to enter more fully into his life, sometimes in unexpected ways. In light of this truth, The Catholic Spirit asks, “Please describe a surprising encounter with God in your life.”

Send responses of 200 words or less to CatholicSpirit@archspm.org with “Readers Respond” in the subject line. Your reflection might be included in a future edition of The Catholic Spirit.

CORRECTION In the Sept. 30 edition, a story about the Open Window Theatre play “Frassati” mistakenly referred to its subject, Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, as “saint” and conflated his beatification with canonization. He was beatified in 1990.

The Catholic Spirit is published semi-monthly for The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis Vol. 26 — No. 19 MOST REVEREND BERNARD A. HEBDA, Publisher TOM HALDEN, Associate Publisher MARIA C. WIERING, Editor-in-Chief JOE RUFF, News Editor

Deacon David Huibregtse, 85, who spent all 14 years of his active ministry in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ AIDS ministry, died Oct. 5 after a DEACON DAVID lengthy struggle with Parkinson’s disease. Ordained in HUIBREGTSE 1993, Deacon Huibregtse retired from active ministry in 2007. He had also served as a permanent deacon at Immaculate Heart of Mary in Minnetonka, where he and his wife, Lucia, were parishioners. A funeral Mass was held Oct. 12 at the parish. In addition to his wife, Deacon Huibregtse’s survivors include six children, 15 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.

PRACTICING Catholic On the Oct. 8 “Practicing Catholic” show, host Patrick Conley interviews Archdiocesan Synod “readers” Alejandra Chavez Rivas and Melina Arguello Sotro, who discuss involving young adults in the Synod process.

Also featured are Barb Ernster from the World Apostolate of Fatima, who discusses how to grow in rosary devotions, and Tim Murray from Trinity Sober Homes, who describes the ministry’s new rural retreat center for men in recovery. Listen each week on Fridays at 9 p.m., Saturdays at 1 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. on Relevant Radio 1330 AM. Find interviews after they have aired at practicingcatholicshow.com, soundcloud.com/ practicingcatholic or tinyurl.com/practicingcatholic.

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OCTOBER 14, 2021

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 3

FROMTHEMODERATOROFTHECURIA ONLY JESUS | FATHER CHARLES LACHOWITZER

Looking deeper at ‘mission’

Synod Small Groups readers’ stories inspire

M

y understanding of the word “mission” has changed greatly over the years. As a young child in a Catholic grade school, I collected money (mostly pennies) for the unbaptized babies in the missions. Our teachers told us stories about how we could all help the good sisters and the good brothers and fathers who served the missions, to feed, clothe, shelter and baptize the people they served.

As the kid who was going to be a priest, one too many classmates started to guess what foreign country I’d be sent to after ordination. I remember praying often — of course for the missions — and then adding, “Please, God, please, if I become a priest, don’t send me to the missions!”

Fast-forward a couple of decades and I am a first-year seminarian at The St. Paul Seminary, walking with some other seminarians to St. John Vianney College Seminary.

We passed an elderly priest, and one of my brothers greeted him by name: “Good afternoon, Msgr. Gilligan.”

He smiled and asked if we were seminarians. We nodded and he continued his walk with the words, “Persevere, persevere.”

I would later learn about the work Mgsr. Gilligan did as an advocate for civil rights, decades before the 1960s civil rights movement. What I didn’t know was that Mgsr. Gilligan’s assignment at the time, which he dutifully carried out for 20 years until he was well into his 80s, was director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith.

I was still a young priest when I received a typed thank-you note acknowledging the parish’s collection on World Mission Sunday, signed by Mgsr. Gilligan. Judging from one of the misaligned letters on his typewriter, he individually typed each thank you note. I have heard from other priests that Mgsr. Gilligan would annually type well over 150 of these personalized thank you notes.

As one can imagine, my invitation to parishioners to be generous for World Mission Sunday was greatly

Profundizando en el significado de ‘misión’

M

y comprensión de la palabra “misión” ha cambiado mucho a lo largo de los años.

Cuando era niño en una escuela primaria católica, recogí dinero (en su mayoría centavos) para los bebés no bautizados en las misiones. Nuestros maestros nos contaron historias sobre cómo todos podíamos ayudar a las buenas hermanas y a los buenos hermanos y padres que servían en las misiones, a alimentar, vestir, albergar y bautizar a las personas a las que servían.

Como el niño que iba a ser sacerdote, demasiados compañeros de clase comenzaron a adivinar a qué país extranjero me enviarían después de la ordenación.

Recuerdo orar a menudo, por supuesto por las misiones, y luego agregar: “¡Por favor, Dios, por favor, si me convierto en sacerdote, no me envíes a las misiones!”

Avance rápido un par de décadas y soy un seminarista de primer año en The St. Paul Seminary, y camino con algunos otros seminaristas al St. John Vianney College Seminary. Pasamos junto a un sacerdote anciano, y uno de mis hermanos lo saludó por su nombre: “Buenas tardes, Mons. Gilligan”. Sonrió y preguntó si éramos seminaristas. Asentimos y él continuó su camino con las palabras: “Persevera, persevera”.

Más tarde aprendería sobre el trabajo Mgsr. Gilligan actuó como defensor de los derechos civiles, décadas antes del movimiento de derechos civiles de la década de 1960. Lo que no sabía era que Mgsr. La asignación de Gilligan en ese momento, que cumplió diligentemente durante 20 años hasta que cumplió los 80, fue director de la Sociedad para la Propagación de la Fe.

CNS

Children sing and wave flags before Pope Francis’ meeting with priests, religious and seminarians at the cathedral in Kampala, Uganda, Nov. 28, 2015. Uganda is among countries with projects that benefit from funds raised by the Pontifical Mission Societies, which organizes World Mission Sunday. impacted by Mgsr. Gilligan’s personally typed and signed thank you cards. He went to that much effort because it was important to him, and that encouraged me to learn a lot more about the word “mission.”

World Mission Sunday is highlighted on pages 1011 in this edition. It is worth our time to learn more about this global effort to support the work of so many missions. Yes, we are invited to pray for and financially support the missions, but we are also invited to inform ourselves of this important part of the universal mission of the Catholic Church. It is truly inspiring.

And even though my childhood fears about being sent to the missions never materialized, I owe a debt of gratitude to all the women and men who have worked with the missions in every corner of the earth. By our baptism, we are all called to be “missionary disciples.”

In his letter on World Mission Sunday, Pope Francis wrote: “Let us remember especially all those who resolutely set out, leaving home and family behind, to bring the Gospel to all those places and people athirst for its saving message.”

Todavía era un sacerdote joven cuando recibí una nota de agradecimiento mecanografiada reconociendo la colecta de la parroquia en el Domingo Mundial de las Misiones, firmada por Mons. Gilligan. A juzgar por una de las letras desalineadas en su máquina de escribir, escribió individualmente cada nota de agradecimiento.

Escuché de otros sacerdotes que Mgsr. Gilligan escribía anualmente más de 150 de estas notas de agradecimiento personalizadas.

Como se puede imaginar, mi invitación a los feligreses a ser generosos para el Domingo Mundial de las Misiones fue muy impactada por Mons. Gilligan’s personalmente mecanografió y firmó tarjetas de agradecimiento. Hizo tanto esfuerzo porque era importante para él y eso me animó a aprender mucho más sobre la palabra “misión”.

El Domingo Mundial de las Misiones se destaca en las páginas 10-11 de esta edición de El Espíritu Católico.

Vale la pena dedicar nuestro tiempo a aprender más sobre este esfuerzo global para apoyar el trabajo de tantas misiones. Sí, estamos invitados a orar y apoyar económicamente las misiones, pero también estamos invitados a informarnos de esta parte importante de la misión universal de la Iglesia Católica. Es realmente inspirador.

Y aunque los temores de mi niñez por ser enviados a las misiones nunca se materializaron, tengo una deuda de gratitud con todos los hombres y mujeres que han trabajado con las misiones en todos los rincones de la tierra. Por nuestro bautismo, todos somos llamados a ser “discípulos misioneros”.

En su carta sobre el Domingo Mundial de las Misiones, el Papa Francisco escribió: “Recordemos especialmente a todos aquellos que decididamente partieron, dejando atrás el hogar y la familia, para llevar el Evangelio a todos aquellos lugares sedientos de su mensaje salvador”.

Synod Small Groups continue to meet in parishes in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis through mid-November to consider three focus areas discerned by Archbishop Bernard Hebda: Forming missionary disciples who know Jesus’ love and respond to his call; Forming parishes that are in the service of evangelization; and Forming youth and young adults in and for a Church that is always young. The final two Sessions focus on that third area, with Session 5 on parents as primary educators and helping the young encounter Jesus, and Session 6 on youth ministry and young adult ministry. The Synod Small Group readers who appear in the final Sessions’ videos are young adults with compelling conversion stories. Learn more about them and the other Synod readers on The Catholic Spirit’s social media channels.

Learn more about the Synod Small Groups at archspm. org/synod, and contact your parish to join.

Chad Berg works in banking and is married, with a daughter born this year. A parishioner of St. Mark in St. Paul, he grew up Catholic, and faith was important to his family. “But,” he said, “it wasn’t until college when I came to own my faith.” That came through encountering Communion and Liberation, a Catholic movement founded in Italy in the 1950s by Father Luigi Giussani to help young people come to know Christ. “I realized how intelligent the Catholic faith was, and how it had a lot more depth than I grew up understanding,” Berg said. “I instantly became more attracted to that.” Berg, who by his nature is analytical, felt compelled to read more and more, meanwhile meeting Catholics who were living their faith in serious, authentic and beautiful ways. “It was a way that I wanted for myself,” he said. “They lived intentionally. They lived in a way that emphasized Christ. … I realized that my faith is so rich in intellectual tradition — that there’s thousands of years of writings that explain every facet of life. … It opened me up and changed my mindset and entire trajectory.” Berg is a reader for the English versions of Sessions 5 and 6.

Alejandra Chavez Rivas works in insurance and has a 12-yearold daughter. She was born in Mexico and grew up Catholic, but “there was a lot of brokenness around me” in her family, she said. As a child, she immigrated to Minnesota. But life wasn’t easy, and she questioned how a good God could allow the suffering and misery she saw. “This idea of learning to worship a God who’s all loving and omnipotent, and to worship him and to give my all, was hard,” she said. After high school, she discovered she was pregnant, and the baby’s father didn’t want to be part of their lives. She gave birth and ran away to Arizona. While there, she “hit rock bottom.” Then, she surrendered her life to God. “I realized that I didn’t know what love is, and if I desire to give that to my daughter, I need to learn more.” She returned to Minnesota, attended the University of St. Thomas for Catholic Studies and business, and became an advocate for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). She lives in Monticello and worships at several parishes. “Having faith is just hope in God and knowing of his providence,” she said. “Even though growing up, I didn’t believe that he existed or that he wasn’t around when I needed him the most, I know now, looking back, that he was, and he’s always been there holding me or just guiding me. And so, faith to me is clinging on to his providence and his love and mercy.” Chavez Rivas is a reader for the English versions of Sessions 5 and 6.

— Maria Wiering

4 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

OCTOBER 14, 2021

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SLICEof LIFE Moms pray, kids play

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

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From left, Elizabeth Deneen, Jennifer (holding Sammy) Adam, Karen Bonick, Leah and Genevieve Cathey, and Andrea Hornecker gather to pray the rosary together with other moms Sept. 30 at Linden Park in Minnetrista. A group of about eight to 12 moms come together weekly for prayer, while their children have fun on nearby playground equipment. Michelle Davis and Bonick of St. Boniface in St. Bonifacius organized the event, which brings together women from several parishes in the area. “I love the fact that we can witness how to pray with others in front of our children,” said Davis, 36, who went to a similar event last summer and worked with Bonick to start a group closer to home in August 2020. “For us to come together as mothers and wives to pray together is really powerful.” Deneen and Adam also are members of St. Boniface, Cathey belongs to Holy Trinity in Winsted, and Hornecker belongs to St. John the Baptist in Excelsior.

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OCTOBER 14, 2021

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 5

Home opening for expectant moms southwest of metro

By Susan Klemond For The Catholic Spirit In the 1970s and 1980s, Dorothy Arockiasamy, 70, cared for expectant mothers in the Twin Cities who weren’t so much homeless as homesick for their native India. Now, the St. Joseph in Waconia parishioner and others are opening a home for pregnant women who really are homeless.

Enkrateia House of Hope is set to open Oct. 20 after a blessing from Arockiasamy’s pastor, Father Stan Mader. Serving the area southwest of Minneapolis, it will be a home for up to four women during their pregnancy and several months after giving birth.

“If we can take one mother off the street, that’s what we want to do,” said Arockiasamy, the home’s executive director and a Kerala, India, native.

Teaching women skills to become confident parents and thriving members of society can help save their families and benefit future generations, she said.

After their research identified a need for services and shelter for women in crisis pregnancies in western suburbs and the small towns beyond, Arockiasamy and a team of volunteers hope the home will reflect their desire to bring Christ’s love to women who may have been abandoned and help them move forward.

To protect the women, Arockiasamy isn’t revealing the home’s location. Though there have been several inquiries, no women have yet moved in.

“Enkrateia” is the Greek word for “temperance,” which reflects the home’s goal of helping women gain self-mastery, she said. Its mission is providing a caring, faith-centered home that stresses a healthy lifestyle.

After retiring from work as a biomedical scientist, Arockiasamy first considered opening her own home to pregnant women, then decided to focus efforts on organizing a whole house dedicated to them and their babies.

Arockiasamy analyzed the services offered by pregnancy centers, health care and counseling, especially southwest of Minneapolis, and discovered that most resources were closer to the centers of Minneapolis and St. Paul. There also was a lack of longer-term shelter for homeless, expectant mothers.

Seeing a need, Arockiasamy sought guidance from similar homes in Minnesota and around the country.

The lack of shelter should be addressed, said Patrick Kirsch, 56, a member of St. Joseph. “I think Christ is really calling us to give these new mothers, especially in crisis situations, hope for themselves and hope to bring this new baby into this world and not look at the other option,” he said.

During summer 2020, Arockiasamy got support

By Maria Wiering The Catholic Spirit

COURTESY BRYAN OLSON

Marilyn Olson, left, Patrick Kirsch and Dorothy Arockiasamy in the home they plan to open Oct. 20 for homeless, pregnant women needing help in an area southwest of Minneapolis. from Father Mader and her parish’s pro-life committee to make her idea a reality. She chose the name “Enkrateia” because she believes the women can chart their own course.

After the home was incorporated, Arockiasamy approached Kirsch, co-owner of several businesses and a pro-life supporter, and he offered to find the house.

He also is helping upgrade it and managing volunteers.

Marilyn Olson, 77, who directs fundraising, said Enkrateia is halfway to its goal of covering its firstyear budget. A retired clinical laboratory scientist and a member of St. Therese in Deephaven, Olson has volunteered at pregnancy resource centers.

The home has gained support from beyond local Catholic parishes, including from members of a Lutheran church near the home. Arockiasamy also is in contact with Wright County.

Enkrateia will accept women, and only the child they are carrying, for 18 months, or possibly longer if the woman is finishing school. Applicants will be carefully screened and asked to identify three life principles to pursue during their stay, Arockiasamy said.

Women must work or attend school daily. They will live with a resident house mother. They will spend regular quiet time, share the evening meal and follow a curfew, she said.

More information about the home can be found at or at 612-508-0217.

enkrateiahouseofhope.org

Priest served for 33 years; recalled as jovial, big-hearted

By Barb Umberger The Catholic Spirit Jovial, compassionate and big-hearted are ways Father Ralph Huar is remembered by those who knew him well. A retired priest of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Father Huar died Oct. 4 trapped beneath a backhoe at a construction site adjacent to his home in Little Falls. Police were investigating the incident.

“He had a quirky sense of humor, very compassionate and bighearted. He always seemed so full of life, so jovial,” said Sara Dore, FATHER parish secretary at St. George in RALPH HUAR Long Lake, where Father Huar, 82, served 11 years before retiring from active ministry in 2014.

Father Huar had a cabin in Little Falls where he lived from spring through fall, Dore said. He spent winters at “a small place” in Florida, she said. He loved gardening, particularly flowers, Dore said, adding that she had talked with him earlier this summer.

Ordained in 1981, Father Huar served the archdiocese for 33 years.

At St. George, Father Huar helped with landscaping

Archbishop Hebda invites Catholics to Oct. 17 Mass to pray for local, Vatican synods

and beautifying the parish cemetery, Dore said. He also brought the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd to the parish for its faith formation program and persuaded a number of people to serve as teachers, she said.

Elaine Schneider, a longtime parishioner of Sacred Heart in Rush City, where Father Huar ministered from 1988 to 2002, said he was a golfer and a gardener, personable, a friend and “a real person.”

The rectory door was always open, she said, and Father Huar welcomed visitors any time, with no appointment needed.

Schneider, 75, said she sought counseling assistance from Father Huar years ago. She and her late husband also welcomed him to their home for dinner. “I could call at the last minute,” she said, and Father Huar would head over.

“He was a good priest,” Schneider said. “A good man.”

Between his time at Sacred Heart and St. George, Father Huar was pastor of St. Joseph in Miesville, St. Mary in New Trier and St. Mathias in Hampton.

He first ministered for two years at St. Pascal Baylon in St. Paul, then four years at St. John the Evangelist in Little Canada. He served at St. Edward in Bloomington before being assigned to Sacred Heart.

A memorial Mass was held Oct. 12 at St. George.

A private burial was held Oct. 8 at German Liberal Cemetery in Medina.

While Catholics in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis are engaged in an Archdiocesan Synod, with Synod Small Groups currently underway, the archdiocese is also beginning its involvement in preparations for a Vatican synod, scheduled for 2023.

Pope Francis opened the Vatican synod with Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica Oct. 10, and he asked bishops around the world to offer Masses for the Vatican synod. Archbishop Bernard Hebda is celebrating a Mass in solidarity with the pope 5 p.m. Oct. 17 at the Cathedral of St. Paul.

The Cathedral Mass will pray for the guidance of the Holy Spirit in the preparations for both the Vatican’s upcoming synod and the continued work of the local Archdiocesan Synod, Archbishop Hebda said. At the Mass, Catholics will have the opportunity to pray together for these important events in the local and universal Church, he said.

A synod is a formal representative assembly that helps a bishop lead the Church. While it’s rooted in the councils of the early Church, its use as a process or event involving the laity has increased since the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s called for its renewal.

From the beginning of the Archdiocesan Synod process in the archdiocese in 2019, Archbishop Hebda has emphasized listening as a key component. Its leaders have organized the Synod to include broad listening through 30 Prayer and Listening Events held throughout the archdiocese in 2019-2020.

From the information gathered at those events, Archbishop Hebda discerned three focus areas around discipleship, evangelization, and youth and young adults in the Church. Now through mid-November, Catholics are meeting in their parishes for six small group sessions to examine, pray about and discuss how our local Church might respond to the needs highlighted by the focus areas.

That information will inform discussions on the deanery levels in January and February, and then the Synod Assembly, a gathering of parish representatives and Church leaders in June. From there, Archbishop Hebda plans to release a pastoral letter on the future of the archdiocese in November 2022, followed by a plan in early 2023.

Some of the information collected for the Archdiocesan Synod will be applicable to what Pope Francis has requested from dioceses ahead of the Vatican synod, Archbishop Hebda said Oct. 6 in an interview for the Practicing Catholic radio show.

The interview is scheduled to air Oct. 15 on Relevant Radio 1330 AM. For the 2023 Synod of Bishops at the Vatican, Pope Francis has chosen the topic: “For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation and Mission,” and the synod has become known as the “Synod on Synodality.”

As he has explained as part of the Archdiocesan Synod process, Archbishop Hebda said “synodality” means “journeying together,” and it takes the form of consultation rooted in prayerful discernment.

“Even though the history of synods stretches all the way back to the beginning of the Church, this discussion about consultation is something that’s extremely relevant in the Church post-Second Vatican Council,” he said, “because at the Second Vatican Council there was so much discussion about what flows from our baptism, this universal call to holiness, and how all people — not just priests, not just bishops, not just religious — all people, in virtue of their baptism, have something to contribute to the Church. Pope Francis’ emphasis on synodality is just a way of calling those gifts forward in a more organized way.”

The Oct. 17 Mass is an opportunity “to be praying for the whole process that the Holy Father has initiated on the universal level, but it’s also a moment for us to pray for a deepening of our efforts for our own Archdiocesan Synod,” the archbishop said.

LOCAL

4 • The Catholic Spirit LOCAL

6 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

OCTOBER 14, 2021

SLICE LIFE at Minneapolis parish Three Catholic poets share anofevening

By Joe Ruff The Catholic Spirit

MIRACLE OF CONNECTION

Editor’s note: Poems are quoted as published.

Maryann Corbett, 71, and Jim Rogers, 68, said they have known each other since they were young parents attending St. Mark in St. Paul. Only later did they connect through poetry. Corbett and Rogers got to know Angela Alaimo O’Donnell through literary and academic circles. O’Donnell’s son Charles attended St. John’s University in Collegeville and now lives in St. Paul. O’Donnell, 61, was in the Twin Cities Oct. 1 to visit her son and his family and attend the baptism of her granddaughter, Cora Louise. Noting the opportunity, Rogers arranged for all three to read their poetry together Oct. 1.

LOCAL March 9, 2017

“He dies, he comes back to life, and he’s a good sport about it,” said poet Angela Alaimo O’Donnell as she introduced her poem, “St. Lazarus.”

With O’Donnell reading, the poem began: “He knit him self up, a cable-stitch of skin. Pushed his left eye in its socket, then his right. Cracked the knuckles in his fingers (now so thin!). Raised him self from the dirt and stood up right.”

4 • The Catholic Spirit And so began an evening of poetry at St. Albert the Great in Minneapolis Oct. 1 centered on saints, JOE RUFF | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT sacraments, prayer and everyday Catholic life from three published poets who are friends, two from Maryann Corbett reads a poem Oct. 1 at St. Albert the Great in St. Paul, one from New York City. The evening was Minneapolis. dubbed “Three Catholic Poets.”

They read from their works in front of the altar. moves so quickly, maybe people aren’t willing to do O’Donnell is a professor of English, creative writing and that. They are busy with families, with their phones.”

American Catholic Studies at Fordham University in Poetry’s power stems from the images it can evoke, New York. Jim Rogers is a retired director of the Center the beauty of rhyme and meter, its concentrated for Irish Studies at the University of St. Thomas in language that puts order to “the chaos of human St. Paul, who pulled the team together. Maryann experience,” said O’Donnell, author of nine books Corbett, a member of the Cathedral of St. Paul in of poetry and a member of the Jesuit-run Fordham St. Paul who is an alto in the parish choir, has a University parish community. O’Donnell, Corbett and doctorate in English and spent nearly 35 years helping Rogers said they write about many topics, but it’s not Minnesota lawmakers write laws in plain English. uncommon for their poems to center on, or be colored More than 50 people — most older than 60 — took by, the tradition, stories, values, humor and richness of in their words for more than an hour, relaxed and the Catholic faith. contemplative. In a hurried world, it was a moment of Father Gillespie said St. Albert is open to hosting peace and community, said Rob Wicker, a member of similar professional, artistic events. It has held religious St. Cecilia in St. Paul who knows St. Albert the Great’s music gatherings, for example, and jazz concerts in the pastor, Dominican Father Joe Gillespie. summer. “A church ought to be used for such things,” “It’s not just a place for people to “Listening to poetry is when you just sit down and let Father Gillespie said.

From condos to castles, come on Sunday.” it roll over you,” Wicker said. “These days everything

‘Angel’ among us

Rogers, who has two published books of poetry and a book on cemeteries and sacred spaces, read the first poem he ever had published, titled “St. Blase.”

The poem imagines the saint saving a boy from a fish bone caught in his throat. “‘A miracle!’ the mother St. Joseph of Carondelet Sister Avis talks with Rose Carter, blubbered, ‘You got here just in time!’Allmaras, Blasecenter, shrugged left, and Irene Eiden at Peace House in and made no remark, though he considered telling south Minneapolis Feb. 27. Sister Avis the mother, You can’t imagine how much goes happens to the center‘just weekly and visits frequent guests like Carter. Eiden, of in time’ — that God, in fact, had stitched this moment St. William in Fridley, is a lay consociate into the knit of events since the heavens were still of the Carondelet Sisters. Peace House is dark. But he said nothing. Saints know miracles are a day shelter for the poor and homeless.

“It’s a real privilege to know these people common as fishbones.” and hear their stories,” Sister Avis said. “I Corbett, author of five books of poetry, reflected on could not survive on the streets like they There are sowhich many gifted prayer in her poem, “On Singing thedo.

Exultet,” ispeople here.” Saidof Carter Sister Avis: “She’s the Easter proclamation of the resurrection theof Lord. an angel. She hides her wings under that “It’s candlelight that makes it possible,” she sweatshirt.

Shebegan. truly is an angel.”

Hrbacek/The “How otherwise could you, with yourDave puny pipes,Catholic Spirit expect to do this? yell to the end of space — where air can’t carry sound — and order theCelebrating nebulae Exult? sisters But here you are: you’re going to dareNational it. Against all Week is Catholic Sisters 8-14.pulpit, An official component of probability, you ascend the steps, up March to the Women’s History Month and clutching your candle, and look intoheadquartered the faces.” at St. Catherine University

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THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 7

Helping teens uncover the past as they live history

By Christina Capecchi For The Catholic Spirit

problems.” I dare say my parents would’ve said the same thing about the television, and their parents about the telephone. I want to be careful not to blame students for technologies they’re sucked into. With that said, we want to make sure that, in the classroom, students are talking to each other, that they are maintaining eye contact.

We’re forming human beings here, in a LaSallian Catholic school.

Martin Marrin, 62, a longtime social studies teacher at DeLaSalle High School in Minneapolis, is one of 10 finalists for the National History Teacher of the Year Award presented by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. He and his wife, Nancy, are empty nesters in Robbinsdale.

Q You like to share a Henry Ford

Q Are you an early riser?

A I wake up about 5:30 a.m. and ease

quote: “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at 20 or 80. Anyone who keeps learning stays young.”

into my day slowly, so I don’t have to leave for an hour and a half. I’ve learned that ritual from Nancy — being intentional and taking it slow.

A As long as I’m a teacher, I’m going

to be a learner, and that helps me stay fresh and relevant. I just figured out something new about what was going on in colonial Virginia in the 1600s, and it’s like, “Ha! I thought I knew so much, but there’s still so much to learn.”

Q That must put you to bed pretty early.

A I try for 9 p.m. There’s a great book

by Matthew Walker called “Why We Sleep.” I shared a huge presentation with my students. They have to be in charge of learning, but they also have to be in charge of knowing how their brain works. We talk about developing neuropathways. Sleep is a critical part of forming those neuropathways.

Q That sounds like a healthy

conversation! How do you help your students create more balance?

A I try to remind them: Don’t

let school get in the way of your education. For example, if students can give up a week of school to participate in the Minnesota Page Program, that’s worthwhile. In response to the murder of George Floyd, many have marched and demonstrated, and this civic engagement is critical for them.

Q How does De’s LaSallian heritage inspire you?

A I think of Jean-Baptiste de La Salle in

France, reaching out to the marginalized.

From my view, I’m looking out onto downtown Minneapolis, and I can’t help but think we’re in the middle of the city and we must reach out to all.

It’s one thing to say in words, but it’s another to let go of some of my biases and acknowledge my privilege and be really intentional about offering quality education for all. I’m always reminded that, in 15 years, the young

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

people in front of me will be pulling the strings of society, and I want to make sure they’re ethically and morally and intellectually equipped to make a difference.

by the New Deal Home Owners Loan Corporation. They were the premise for redlining in the Twin Cities. It shows students how decisions made 50, 60 years ago still have an impact today.

Q What first cultivated your love of

Q What have your students taught

history?

A Probably listening to family stories

around the dinner table. And then the Sinsinawa Dominican sisters at Holy Rosary (in Minneapolis) carried it forward. Sister Janine, my fifth-grade teacher, had us make these really cool timelines. I can still remember it — it was like a Roman scroll. In seventh and eighth grade, Sister Marie Therese had us listen to primary sources. She played conversations from the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Q How do you make history come alive for your students?

A History doesn’t happen out there

— if we look carefully, we can see it right here. Here’s an assignment I gave this past week: I want the students to walk through their neighborhood and chronicle the changes they see in architecture. From their notes, we’re going to look at some maps created

in REMEMBRANCE

Former retreat director in Buffalo dies at age 77

By Barb Umberger The Catholic Spirit Father James Deegan, 77, a Missionary Oblate of Mary Immaculate who served 23 years at Christ the King Retreat Center in Buffalo, died Sept. 20.

A native of Richfield, Father Deegan was ordained a priest in 1970 at St. Casimir in St. Paul. His ministries included serving as a chaplain at thenSt. Paul Ramsey and then-Divine Redeemer hospitals in St. Paul, as vocation director and provincial at the Oblates’ Provincial House in St. Paul, as parochial vicar at St. Casimir and in several positions at the retreat center.

In addition to serving as the retreat

center’s director from 1994 to 2003, and again from 2011 to 2020, he was a staff member and on the Oblate preaching team. He also served as an assistant pastor FATHER in Wisconsin, a JAMES DEEGAN hospital chaplain in Brainerd, and an associate director and director of Oblate novices in Illinois.

Father Deegan is survived by four brothers and their families. A funeral Mass was held Sept. 24 at St. Francis Xavier in Buffalo. Father Deegan is interred at St. Henry’s Oblate Cemetery in Belleville, Illinois.

you?

A They’ve taught me to be patient.

Their questions help me think about the world in a broader, deeper context.

Q How do you ignite curiosity in teens?

A Part of it is helping them ask better

I read lots of newspapers online.

And I read lots of books — lots and lots of mysteries. British mysteries, Scandinavian and Swedish mysteries.

Good stories.

Q How does one distinguish Swedish mysteries from, say, British?

A The Swedish mysteries are a little

darker, a little grittier. Sometimes it’s escapism. They’re entertaining, but they’re also well written — novelists like Henning Mankell, who weaves in politics and human rights.

Q What do you do for fun on a Saturday?

questions about the past. I’m always reminding them that history isn’t just what happened in the past; it’s created by people in the present asking questions. I share my thoughts about events, but I try not to tell them my answer or my perspective. I make sure we’re bringing in voices they might not hear because of social media platforms or the little information silos we tend to group ourselves in these days.

A During COVID, I got together with

Q Is TikTok working against

A We are always in the holy presence

teachers?

A It’s easy for us old folks to say,

“Social media is causing all sorts of

some of my old high school buddies and we’ve been playing catch and doing batting practice. Each of us has our own unique ailments. But it’s been fun to reconnect around an old familiar activity like throwing the ball around.

It comes back to you.

Q Do you have a go-to prayer? of God. Wherever I am, there goes the grace of God. There’s beauty in whatever situation we’re in. Sometimes that’s my prayer.

Find out.

Theology Day events 2021-2022 Theology Day is a chance for people in our communities who are seeking a deeper understanding of their faith and its place in their everyday lives to learn from and interact with the theologians of Saint John’s School of Theology and Seminary.

Emmaus Hall events are synchronous. Webinar events are live. Participation is FREE, but registration is required. Go online to CollegevilleMN.com/Theologyday or call 320-363-3560.

Theologies of Disability and Aging: Becoming a Vulnerable Communion

by Audrey Seah, Ph.D.

Audrey will discuss the growing field of disability theology and how God, church and society can be reimagined when the experiences of people with disabilities become a locus for theologiccal development on:

Saturday, October 30 - 9:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.

Webinar

October/November 2021

Truth-telling, Testimony, and Prophecy: Hearing and Bearing Witness to God’s Active Presence in Our Lives in a Secular Age

by Fr. Dale Launderville, Ph.D.

Fr. Dale will discuss testifying about God’s presence in our lives and facts we can bring forward to support our faith claims on: Friday, November 5 - 9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Emmaus Hall, Saint John’s University

Panentheism: A Way of Seeing God’s Presence in the World

by Noreen Herzfeld, Ph. D.

Noreen will discuss panentheism and what a panentheistic God would imply for salvation, creation, and God’s agency in the World on: Thursday, November 11 - 6:30 - 9:00 p.m.

Saint Joseph the Worker, Maple Grove

LOCAL

8 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

OCTOBER 14, 2021

Miscarriage retreat brings healing to mothers who lost unborn babies

By Barb Umberger The Catholic Spirit Christine Kellett-Hunt has lost seven babies to miscarriages — and her brother, Peter, whom she called “Petey,” died when he was 6. So, whenever she envisions heaven, she pictures Petey “leading all these little babies to me.”

“It brings me comfort,” Kellett-Hunt said. “And I want to live my life in a way that makes them proud.”

Kellett-Hunt, 28, a parishioner of St. Patrick in Oak Grove, found comfort and healing when she participated with 11 other mothers in a miscarriage retreat held in 2019 at Epiphany in Coon Rapids. The retreat included talks on healing and grieving, small group discussion, Mass and time for adoration and confession.

“With every miscarriage, it felt as though a bomb went off in my heart,” Kellett-Hunt said. She tried to pick up the pieces and put herself back together, but each time, the pieces became smaller and harder to salvage.

During the retreat, Kellett-Hunt realized that Jesus is never indifferent to her pain, but always working to rebuild her.

Bernadette Gockowski, a parishioner of St. Agnes in St. Paul, organized and led the retreat. COVID-19 delayed a second retreat until this year, now scheduled for Nov. 20 at St. John the Baptist in New Brighton.

Gockowski lost her first baby after four months of marriage. She remembers the words she heard at her first ultrasound: “Oh, there’s no heartbeat.”

“I was just absolutely floored,” she said.

Seeking support, she found online groups but no day-long, comprehensive retreat for loss of an unborn child, except Rachel’s Vineyard, which offers healing related to abortion.

Gockowski wanted to organize a retreat, but after giving birth to two children, postponed plans. “But then I lost two more and it immediately came back that I must do this,” she said.

Gockowski had studied with the Institute for Priestly Formation, based in Omaha, Nebraska, and developed retreat content based on the institute’s way of prayer. She also spoke with Auxiliary Bishop Andrew Cozzens about her plan, and he encouraged her to proceed.

Wendee Foley of St. John the Baptist in New Brighton also benefited from the retreat. She and her husband, Donovan, have four children, ages 4, 6, 8 and 10 — and six children who died before their birth, including four during the second trimester.

She said pregnancy loss groups exist in the Twin Cities, but they’re not all faith-based. Finding a Catholic retreat was important to her, with the Church affirming the value and dignity of life from conception.

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Wendee Foley lights a candle with her daughter Gloria in their Mounds View home. Foley uses candles to honor each of her six children who died before birth.

While it is heartbreaking to explain pregnancy loss to a child, Foley said her children want to honor the babies. They say their names and light a candle for u “Known by God, a Retreat for Mothers Grieving the them on the babies’ birthdays.

Loss of a Miscarried or Stillborn Child,” 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

It can be isolating to experience a pregnancy loss, Nov. 20 at St. John the Baptist in New Brighton. she said, because it’s difficult for families and friends to understand the depth of that kind of loss. That u Preregister online ($40, lunch provided) at stjohnnb.com. shows the need to find people with that shared u Contact Jill Fink at 651-633-1540, ext. 1280, or experience, she said. finkj@stjohnnyb.org.

Kellett-Hunt said the retreat team offered “a beautiful balance” of fully acknowledging the pain and helping participants turn their focus beyond the suffering to resurrection.

“But while you’re grieving, your faith is so “It’s so easy to feel worthless, guilty and broken,” challenged,” Foley said. “But this was a little more she said. “This retreat reminded me of my dignity as a affirming because our faith acknowledges that our mother to these children for all eternity.” child has a unique soul, and I think that actually The miracle Kellett-Hunt prays for today isn’t so deepened my faith.” much to have different circumstances or to avoid After their positive experience two years ago, suffering, but to have the strength to trust in God’s Kellett-Hunt and Foley plan to assist Gockowski with love amid “the gut-wrenching moments of life.” the Nov. 20 retreat.

She left the retreat feeling “so incredibly seen, Foley said simply sharing one’s story out loud at known and loved.” the retreat and saying the baby’s name is affirming.

“It affirms that life mattered, that it was real, it wasn’t “Through the grace of God, I can carry this cross,” 1 6/30/21 10:5 something to be disposed of. CathSpMM-July-Sept-2021.qxp_Layout It was good,” she said.

Kellett-Hunt said. “I never carry it alone.”

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THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 9

NATION+WORLD Commission issues report on abuse in French Church Catholic News Service An independent report on sexual abuse in the French Catholic Church estimates 330,000 children have been abused since the 1950s.

In the report released Oct. 5, the 21-member Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church described itself as “witnesses of witnesses.”

Through interviews and research, the commission identified about 7,500 victims. Most of the victims were pre-adolescent boys of all social backgrounds, and more than a third of the assaults were committed by laypeople. Some of those sexually assaulted were nuns or seminarians. The commission said it used sociological research to estimate, based on its findings, that the number of children abused by

clergy, monks and nuns in France is between 165,000 and 270,000, and with the addition of Catholic laypeople with Church roles who abused children, that number could be as high as 330,000.

“The picture thus drawn reveals that the phenomenon of sexual violence in the Catholic Church from 1950 to the present day is massive; that it has decreased over time but is still present; that it is based on numerous clearly identified traits of a systemic nature. The trauma suffered by the victims is compounded by the perpetrator’s standing,” said an English summary of the 2,500-page report.

Archbishop Michel Aupetit of Paris said the French bishops and religious orders commissioned the investigation “in order to get

the truth, because we absolutely owe it to the victims and to all the faithful.”

Vatican News noted that JeanMarc Sauvé, who led the French investigation, “expressed the hope that from now on, in cases of abuse, canonical practice will make possible fairer trials and that the victims will be informed about the progress of the trials themselves.”

At his general audience Oct. 6, Pope Francis said, “I wish to express to the victims my sadness, my grief, for the traumas they have endured, and also my shame” for “the too lengthy inability of the Church to put (victims) at the center of its concerns.” The pope made his remarks in the presence of a group of bishops and a cardinal from France in Rome for their “ad limina” visit.

HEADLINES u Appeals court temporarily reinstates Texas abortion law. A U.S. court of appeals temporarily stayed a recent injunction on a Texas abortion law while it reviews the state’s request to reinstate the ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. The ruling was issued the evening of Oct. 8 in a one-page order by a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. This newest order was issued just two days after a U.S. District Court judge had temporarily blocked Texas from enforcing the abortion law. u It’s ‘wrong’ to let Title X cover abortion, says USCCB’s pro-life chairman. The Biden administration “is wrong” to allow Title X family planning funds to be used for abortion, said the chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities. “Abortion is not family planning.

Abortion takes the life of an already-conceived and growing child,” said Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, Oct. 7. “The violence of abortion wounds countless women physically, spiritually and emotionally.” The administration announced late Oct. 4 that it had officially reversed the Trump-era “Protect Life Rule” enforcing Title X’s ban on taxpayer funds from being used to promote or provide elective abortions. u U.S. nuncio says he’ll postpone retirement to prepare for Vatican synod, Biden-pope meeting.

Archbishop Christophe Pierre, the 75-year-old apostolic nuncio to the United States, said when he met Pope Francis at the Vatican Sept. 6, the pope asked him to remain in his post instead of retiring. “He asked me to stay, so I stay as long as he wants. And I am happy to do so,” the archbishop told Catholic News Service. At the top of the nuncio’s to-do list is helping the Holy See prepare for President Joe Biden’s first presidential visit to the Vatican, while the president is in Rome for an Oct. 30-31 summit of leading rich and developed nations. The archbishop confirmed the Biden-pope meeting indirectly: “It would be an anomaly if he did not meet the pope while in Rome,” especially since Biden is the first Catholic president in 58 years. Despite a “tense situation because of the agenda of the Democratic Party on abortion,” Archbishop Pierre said he believes it will be a good meeting. Onlookers must think beyond institutions to the people themselves, he said: “These are two human beings with huge responsibilities trying to meet each other. They are not wooden figures. And behind them is a big machine — and the world.” So problematic matters will not be solved quickly, the diplomat said. u Pope blesses nun held captive nearly five years by insurgents in Mali. The day after authorities announced her release from kidnappers in Mali, Colombian Sister Gloria Cecilia Narváez Argoti was at the Vatican for a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica and was greeted by Pope Francis. The pope greeted Sister Narváez before and blessed her after the Mass Oct. 10, which formally opened the process leading up to the assembly of the Synod of Bishops in 2023. Sister Narváez, a member of the Franciscan Sisters of Mary Immaculate, had been taken by a group of armed men who broke into the parish in Karangasso village near the Burkina Faso border in February 2017. According to Sister Carmen Isabel Valencia, Sister Narváez offered herself in place of two younger nuns the kidnappers were preparing to take. u Indiana Catholic, a former U.S. senator, is Vatican ambassador nominee. President Joe Biden will nominate Catholic lawyer Joseph Donnelly of Indiana, a former member of the U.S. House and Senate, to be the next U.S. ambassador to the Vatican. The White House announced Biden’s pick for the ambassador post Oct. 8. The nomination must be confirmed by the Senate. Donnelly, 66, a pro-life Democrat, served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2007 to 2013, representing Indiana’s 2nd Congressional District, and was a U.S. senator from 2013 to 2019. Since Ambassador Callista Gingrich’s tenure ended in mid-January, the post has been temporarily filled by American diplomat Patrick Connell, who is chargé d’affaires ad interim. u Pope meets Pelosi; both speak at legislators’ pre-COP26 meeting. Pope Francis met privately at the Vatican Oct. 9 with U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was in Rome to speak at a meeting of legislators from around the world in preparation for the U.N. climate summit. The Vatican released photos of Pelosi’s meeting with the pope, but provided no details of the encounter, which took place before Pope Francis addressed the Pre-COP26 Parliamentary Meeting. Pelosi, a Catholic, supports legalized abortion. In September, her archbishop, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco, asked “all Catholics and others of goodwill” to join a prayer and fasting campaign for Pelosi’s conversion. In her keynote address to fellow legislators from around the world meeting in Rome Oct. 8, Pelosi said world governments must take bold action in their own countries and when they meet for COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, in November.

Pope Francis opens Vatican synod process Catholic News Service A synod calls on everyone to become experts in “the art of encounter” in a way that is uplifting and transformative, Pope Francis said, formally opening the process CNS leading up to the assembly of the Synod of Bishops in 2023. “Celebrating a synod means walking on the same road, together” just like Jesus did — encountering, listening and discerning with all who one meets, the pope said in his homily at the Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica Oct. 10. Some 3,000 people attended the Mass, including 270 people invited to a day of reflection in the Vatican Synod Hall Oct. 9.

The weekend of events began the “synodal journey,” which will explore the theme, “For a synodal Church: communion, participation and mission.” Bishops around the world were to open the process in their dioceses Oct. 17. (See related story on page 5.)

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10 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

World Mission Sunday: Compelled to share Christ’s love

By Debbie Musser For The Catholic Spirit

T

he Center for Mission helps unite individuals, parishes and the entire Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis to the universal mission of the Church, which is carrying Jesus’ saving message of love and healing to all corners of the world.

That’s a summary statement from Deacon Mickey Friesen, director.

“I like to say our mission is around the world and around the corner,” Deacon Friesen said as the center prepares for the annual World Mission Sunday Oct. 23-24, when parishioners will have an opportunity to support local, national and international mission activity though a parish collection.

“The only geography that truly The only geography matters is the geography of the that truly matters is heart.” the geography of “We celebrate that every Catholic is a the heart. missionary by his or Deacon Mickey Friesen her own baptism, and is called to participate in God’s mission through their own lifestyle and ministry,” Deacon Friesen said. “Parishioners will have the opportunity to pray and give financially to support the growth of the mission churches around the world.”

In his World Mission Sunday message Jan. 6, Pope Francis drew from the Apostles’ response to Christ’s presence in their lives in Acts 4:20: “We cannot but speak about what we have seen and heard.” The pope went on to say that this calling is a “summons to each of us to ‘own’ and to bring to others what we bear in our hearts.”

The Center for Mission provides opportunities for sharing Christ’s love and his call to service through mission trips, partnerships, school and parish projects and annual appeals. It helps coordinate the archdiocese’s partnership with the Diocese of Kitui in Kenya, the Maronite Archeparchy of Damascus, Syria, and the Diocese of Ciudad Guayana in Venezuela.

The center’s connections to people compelled to help others include Sister Rose Hang Vu of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd in New Brighton, whose Friends of the Poor ministry in Vietnam aims to alleviate poverty and suffering in her home country. Sister Rose shared her story and appealed for support recently at St. Patrick/ St. Catherine in Jordan, St. Patrick in Edina, St. Bridget of Sweden in Lindstrom and St. John the Baptist in Excelsior.

Her talks were part of the Center for Mission’s Missionary Cooperation Plan with parishes.

“I’ve been inspired by Sister Rose’s faithfulness to God’s call in her life; she has been so humble, but brave and resourceful to serve those God has placed in her heart,” said Deacon Friesen.

The Center for Mission also supports missionaries in the field through its Mustard Seed Mission Grant program.

Deacon Friesen said grants given to missionaries from the archdiocese, including Jason and Inge Becker, who are serving with their five children in Costa Rica, help cover things like health insurance, family and mission support.

(Read their stories at right.)

WORLD MISSION SUNDAY Pope Pius XI instituted World Mission Sunday in 1926, with its first annual collection taking place the following year. The funds aid the Pontifical Mission Societies’ support of 1,150 mission dioceses worldwide. To donate, use the enclosed envelope in this edition of The Catholic Spirit, give to World Mission Sunday at your parish Oct. 23-24, or donate at centerformission.org.

— The Catholic Spirit

COURTESY SISTER CHAU TRAN

In addition to bringing rice and noodles to a parish in Ca Mau province of South Vietnam in 2019, Sister Rose Hang Vu, right, gave 300 people, including these two women, red envelopes with $5.

Sister Vu helps save souls by aiding her homeland, Vietnam

By Debbie Musser For The Catholic Spirit

F

ollowing the official end of the Vietnam War April 30, 1975, more than 750,000 refugees from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos resettled in the United States.

Minnesota was among a handful of states receiving the largest number of Southeast Asian refugees.

Among them was Sister Rose Hang Vu, who arrived in St. Paul in August 1975 at age 25.

“A week before the fall of Vietnam, the Sisters of the Good Shepherd were told that they had to leave the country,” said Sister Rose, a member of the order. “The sisters told me, ‘If you want to continue your vocation, you will have to leave; if you stay behind, you will no longer be a sister.’”

Sister Rose made a very difficult decision. “I had to leave my family behind, my parents and seven brothers and sisters, knowing I may never see them again,” she said. “I prayed to the Lord, our Father, that wherever I go, I will serve.”

“When I made the decision to leave Vietnam, our mother foundress told me that I should embrace the whole new world with courage, and go forth to save souls,” said Sister Rose, now 71.

That dedication to serving others, highlighted in the Sisters of the Good Shepherd’s charism of affirming the dignity and value of all people, has guided Sister Rose’s work over her lifetime, in particular her support for the people of Vietnam, her homeland.

Her Friends of the Poor nonprofit organization, which is supported by the Center for Mission in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, is devoted to helping people in Vietnam become selfsufficient so they can have a brighter future. The nonprofit provides financial assistance to educate children and unwed mothers who

want to keep their newborns, as well as aiding people living with poverty, malnutrition, lack of basic health care and access to safe water.

Following her relocation to St. Paul, Sister Rose embarked on years of education and service. She enrolled in international Montessori training at St. Joseph Academy in St. Paul, and went on to earn degrees in human services at Metro State University in St. Paul, pastoral study at Loyola University in Chicago, and doctoral ministry at the Graduate Theological Foundation, originally founded in Indiana and now located in Oklahoma City.

Her lifetime of service includes working with unwed mothers in Korea, helping with a battered women’s program in Chicago and opening day cares in poor villages in Thailand.

But it was her return to Vietnam in the summer of 1988 that triggered Sister Rose’s passion to “save souls.”

“I saw the horrible conditions . . . people waiting for rain for drinking water, which they got from the very dirty river,” she said. “My father had been an army officer, and after the fall of Vietnam, they took our house.

People were living in bamboo houses in the jungle with no water or electricity. My parents and sister were so sick.”

“They allowed 21 of my family members to come to the U.S. They’ve been here since 1989, healthy and safe with religious freedom,” Sister Rose said. “But my heart was aching and my soul was restless . . . What would happen to all the people left behind? The children who can’t go to school, the elderly who can’t get needed medications?”

While working at a women’s homeless shelter on Grand Avenue in St. Paul, Sister Rose began collecting aluminum cans to raise money to help those in need in Vietnam.

“I did that for a long time, earning

the nickname ‘Sister Can,’ before establishing Friends of the Poor as a nonprofit in 2010,” Sister Rose said.

With funds from Friends of the Poor, Sister Rose travels to Vietnam every year, visiting parishes and villages, giving money to families to buy rice and noodles, paying teacher salaries and purchasing books for students, helping to build water systems and chapels, and more.

“Everything we do is because of God. He sends the benefactors to us, because I can’t do enough with just the cans,” said Sister Rose.

She lives in a senior apartment next to St. John the Baptist in New Brighton, where she can walk to Mass and experience community.

“They live the faith, and I have met many benefactors who help me a lot,” she said. “Now with COVID I can’t travel to Vietnam, but I can send money over there as the needs are greater than ever right now.”

Sister Rose recently spoke about her ministry at four parishes in the archdiocese — St. Patrick/ St. Catherine in Jordan, St. Patrick in Edina, St. Bridget of Sweden in Lindstrom and St. John the Baptist in Excelsior — as part of the Center for Mission’s Missionary Cooperation Plan with parishes.

“I have an accent, so I always pray to the Holy Spirit that people can understand what I say,” she said.

“I’m so grateful, and God has shown me he’s present through the benefactors.”

“One time I did a presentation at St. John Neumann in Eagan and met a wonderful man who continues to help me,” she said. “He told me, ‘You know, Sister, I only go to church once or twice a year, but I was there when you did the mission appeal. God is calling me to journey with you.’”

“That’s very powerful,” she said, “and I am thankful that the Lord has shown me a way to help my people who are suffering, to speak the voice of the voiceless.”

OCTOBER 14, 2021 • 11

GUEST COMMENTARY | DEACON MICKEY FRIESEN

‘We cannot remain silent’

S

COURTESY GEMMA BECKER

Jason and Inge Becker with neighborhood children in Coopevega, Costa Rica, during a family home visit in spring 2021.

South St. Paul family’s Costa Rica ministry models Catholic life

By Debbie Musser For The Catholic Spirit

H

eading into missionary work in a foreign country takes strong faith and a desire to serve.

Taking on the role of foreign missionaries as a married couple — with five children — requires a special call and a tremendous trust in God. Jason and Inge Becker, both 43, joined Family Missions Company in September 2018, spending their first year in Peru and the past two years in Costa Rica. Joining in their service are their five children: Isaac, 16; Gemma, 15; Augustine, 12; Bridget, 9, and Aviana, 6.

“Family Missions Company is a lay, Catholic organization that trains and equips Catholic families and singles to proclaim the Gospel and serve the poor,” Jason said. “We felt drawn to the organization’s way of life and felt prompted to make a radical change in our life.”

The Center for Mission in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has aided the family with a yearly Mustard Seed Mission Grant of $2,000.

“When we left, we went all in; we sold our house and vehicles, quit our jobs and got rid of our things in order to be debt free and unattached from things,” Jason said. “We fully rely on the generosity of our sponsors to meet our personal and ministry needs, and we are always blessed when new sponsors step up to support our life and missionary work.”

Jason and Inge first met at the Catholic Newman Center at Winona State University in Winona. Her background is in elementary education; Jason is a licensed marriage and family therapist.

Both were raised as Catholics in Minnesota, Jason on a dairy farm south of Staples and Inge in

Hopkins. Inge spent a year in foreign ministry in Kenya (199899), and as a newly married couple, they served as missionaries in south Texas and Belize for three years (2005-2008).

Before heading into their current mission, the Becker family lived in South St. Paul. They are members of St. Joseph in West St. Paul and are part of Community of Christ the Redeemer, a lay Catholic covenant community.

In January 2020, the family began its current ministry in Coopevega, a rural farming community in northern Costa Rica about 10 miles from Nicaragua. The community’s main sources of income are harvesting sugar cane, working at lumber mills and raising cattle.

“Our primary ministry from the bishop is to be a witness of authentic, Catholic family life for the people to see,” Inge said. “We recognize that relational ministry is the gateway to all other ministries; we strive to form and build relationships with those around us through frequent home visits and having a welcoming presence for those who come to our door.”

Some of the highlights of the Beckers’ ministry include encountering Jesus in the face of the poor when they knock on their door daily, having neighbors join in their family time for prayer, and witnessing couples respond to their invitation to get married in the Church.

“We have a passion to build up the domestic Church, and do so by going into homes and teaching the importance of prayer, as well as encouraging people to get their sacraments, especially to be baptized and to get married,” Inge said.

“We pray over people, listen to people’s struggles, and provide encouragement and hope,” she

said. “Our children also do this by joining us on home visits and through the Wednesday children’s ministry we offer at our house, where we invite the neighborhood kids to do crafts, play chess and yard games.”

There have been challenges in Costa Rica for the Beckers. They include “learning the language, apathy among many regarding the faith and feeling overwhelmed with all the material needs being requested and knowing how to help,” Jason said. “A large population of those we serve are Nicaraguan refugees, and a majority of them come here without any official papers, making it very difficult to get work and health care to provide for their families.”

“Making friends has been a challenge. We spend periods of time with other missionary families and then they leave, and many of our neighbors have come and gone,” he added.

Despite the hardships, the Beckers see blessings for their family in this path they’ve chosen.

“The biggest blessing is that our children have each other, and our life here has really allowed us to build a good rhythm of family prayer,” Jason said. “We are so blessed to spend half an hour every morning in prayer, we pray a Divine Mercy Chaplet during the 3 o’clock hour and have daily night prayer as well.”

Each year, Jason and Inge take a discernment retreat, asking God if they should commit to another year of mission.

“This past April, we discerned that God was asking us to come back for another year,” Jason said.

“It has been humbling and a blessing in surrender to rely 100 percent on the gifts of others,” he said. “God has taught us a lot about trusting in him to survive. He hasn’t let us down.”

ometimes in life we have to speak up and act. We feel compelled to respond to someone in need or we cannot remain silent to a situation of injustice. Our hearts become restless for something more or something new, and we have to listen. These moments can move us beyond our comfort zones and even beyond our normal understanding of good sense. We just know there is something we have to do and cannot ignore it any longer.

This is the story of the Church and her mission. It is a story of believers awakening to Christ’s love and the Spirit’s tug that will not leave them alone. The Gospel compels them to respond. The early Apostles of Jesus felt compelled by the Spirit to go and share the Gospel of love in spite of the risks and uncertainties that followed.

They said, “We cannot remain silent to what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20). St. Paul felt compelled to preach the Gospel: “I cannot boast, since I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel!” (I Cor 9:16). It became a necessity of life, like the air we breathe.

On this World Mission Sunday, we affirm that Christ’s love continues to compel us to go and bear witness.

Pope Francis has invited us to think about our lives as being in a permanent state of mission. This means that the missionary impulse to go and witness becomes the source and focus of our Christian life. It is no longer enough for a few to represent the Church as missionaries. We all have a role and a stake in making Christ known and loved in the world.

Consider your own state in life. Are you married or single? Are you a priest or a religious sister or brother?

Are you a parent or grandparent? Where do you live?

What is your work? Are you retired? Are you a student?

Do you have an expertise or a passion to share? All of these speak about one’s state in life. Even those who are sick or who suffer in faith have a witness to give. God calls us just as we are, with our own unique life circumstances, to serve God’s purposes.

A woman who embodied this missionary spirit is Pauline Jaricot, the founder of the worldwide Society for the Propagation of the Faith. Pauline lived in 19th century France, where she worked in a factory and cared for her family. When her brother went off to serve missions in China, she began to receive letters from him describing their efforts to share the Gospel. These stories compelled Pauline to act in her life. She gathered with women from the factory to share these letters, pray for missions and commit to give what they had to support the missionary efforts. Eventually, these “mission circles” spread to other parts of France and became a worldwide movement of people sharing faith, praying and acting for the sake of mission.

Her mission movement inspired Catholics to fall in love with Christ and allow that love to permeate everything they said and did. She encouraged followers to deepen their sense of the Church around the world and to stay close to the poor and marginalized in their area. This movement inspires our annual World Mission Sunday celebration. It is the feast day for living a missionary life with a missionary spirit.

We cannot remain silent to the Gospel we have seen and heard. Whether we go or stay to serve God’s mission, we need the same courage to respond to God’s call for us. This is what it means to live in a permanent state of mission. God takes our lives seriously and calls us out of our lives to give witness to Christ in our lives.

We can also encourage and cooperate with others who serve in mission around the world. This is how we go forth to love and serve together in Christ’s mission.

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

12 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

OCTOBER 14, 2021

FAITH+CULTURE MCC urges people to consider dangers of recreational marijuana

By Joe Ruff The Catholic Spirit

W

hen the Minnesota House passed HF 600 on a vote of 72-61 to legalize recreational marijuana May 13, it brought the state one step closer to joining 19 other states, including Michigan and South Dakota, as well as the District of Columbia.

With Gov. Tim Walz in favor of the legalization, only the Minnesota Senate stands in the way as lawmakers prepare to open the second year of the biennial session Jan. 31.

It is a step the Minnesota Catholic Conference, representing the public policy interests of the Catholic Church in the state, does not want Minnesota to take.

“Our direction on this issue comes from the pope himself,” said Ryan Hamilton, MCC’s government relations associate, in an email exchange with The Catholic Spirit. “In his 2014 address to the International Drug Conference in Rome, Pope Francis said, ‘Attempts, however limited, to legalize so-called ‘recreational drugs’ are not only highly questionable from a legislative standpoint, but they fail to produce the desired effects.”’

House Majority Leader Ryan Winkler, DFLGolden Valley, the legislation’s sponsor, has argued for legalizing With recreational and medical recreational marijuana legal in states across the marijuana in part country, and the Minnesota Legislature because he considering a regulatory framework for believes law production, sale and possession of the enforcement drug for recreational use, The Catholic efforts against the Spirit begins a four-part series to look drug have failed. at some of the issues involved from a The drug is Catholic perspective. readily available across the state, and Blacks are disproportionately arrested and penalized for marijuana possession compared with whites, a racial injustice, Winkler told The Catholic Spirit.

“In all my conversations, and I have had a lot of conversations on this issue, I have not had anyone say that the current system we use is much benefit to anyone,” Winkler said.

In addition, many states have legalized recreational use of marijuana, and he thinks Minnesota should step up now to create a regulatory structure that can address legitimate concerns about youth access, health and road safety.

“The change is coming,” Winkler said. “As states around us legalize recreational marijuana, it will not be viable for Minnesota to be an island.”

Winkler held 15 town hall meetings in communities across the state on recreational marijuana before introducing his bill in February. He consulted with Walz and 13 state agencies, held 250 meetings with individuals and groups, and the bill made its way through a dozen House committees before getting to the floor.

But the Republican-controlled Senate did not allow a hearing. HF 600’s companion bill, SF 757, has languished. Then-Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka of East Gull Lake has stepped down from his leadership position to mount a campaign for governor. Republican Sen. Jeremy Miller of Winona is the new majority leader.

“Jeremy Miller may have a different outlook and be more willing to put it up for discussion,” Winkler said of the marijuana bill. The legislation does have bipartisan support, he said, citing the fact that six Republicans joined Democrats to pass HF 600.

MCC’s Hamilton said he doesn’t think the Senate will pass SF 757 in 2022, but the push to legalize marijuana will not go away. Miller might open the door to debate on the Senate side this session, Hamilton said.

“He has said only that he has ‘concerns’ about legalizing recreational cannabis,” Hamilton said. “He has not provided the type of clear and firm statements of opposition that we received from Sen. Gazelka.”

NEW SERIES

Marijuana and Church teaching

Some cannabis concentrates sold in Colorado, Oregon and other states with legalized recreational marijuana have potency rates of 60% to 80%.

Racial inequity found in marijuana enforcement is a Colorado and Washington first legalized concern, Hamilton said, but it can be addressed in recreational marijuana in 2012. separate legislation. There is no need to set up a forSince then, 17 other states, with profit industry that can take advantage of the Connecticut the latest, June 22, vulnerable, he said. and the District of Columbia, “Our view is that the House legalization bill misleads Guam and the Northern Mariana Minnesotans of color by perpetuating the myth that the Islands have followed suit, only solution to disparate enforcement of current according to the National marijuana laws is full legalization and Conference of State Legislatures. commercialization,” said Hamilton, who is Black. “Even Others are: Alaska, Arizona, though Black and white people use marijuana at similar California, Illinois, Maine, rates, a Black person is almost four times as likely to be Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, arrested for marijuana possession than a white person.

New Mexico, New York, Oregon, South Dakota (tied up in court Meanwhile, the facts reveal that African-Americans are challenge), Vermont and Virginia. twice as likely to be arrested for marijuana in Colorado Thirty-six states, including Minnesota since 2014, as well as the and Washington, both states that have legalized District of Columbia and three U.S. territories allow for medical recreational use and sales. use of cannabis products. In November 2020, voters in “As an omnibus bill, HF 600 conflates credible Mississippi passed a ballot initiative to allow for medical use, demands for social justice and criminal justice reform but it was overturned by the state Supreme Court. with the profit motives of a small group of privileged — Joe Ruff investors,” he said. “Social and criminal justice reforms related to marijuana can be implemented as stand-alone policy measures without necessitating the legalization of And while Winkler is running for Hennepin County recreational marijuana use and enabling a for-profit Attorney in November 2022, he said he intends to industry to prey on the poor and vulnerable.” remain majority leader through this legislative session.

Dr. Vic Vines, a former Midwest regional medical The fact 2022 is an election year could impact the director in Center City for the Hazelden Betty Ford attention given to legalizing recreational marijuana, Foundation’s addiction and mental health services, said Hamilton said. “We (MCC staff) imagine the attention recreational marijuana is problematic because while on legalizing marijuana will take the form of cannabis doesn’t have a reputation for being addictive, proponents pressuring the Senate to act on the Winkler it can lead some people into dependency. bill and blaming any lack of movement toward “Addiction is not dependent on the particular legalization on their political opponents,” he said. characteristics of a substance, but on that substance’s Winkler’s bill would allow adults 21 and older to impact on a given person,” Vines said. “Some people possess in public up to 2 ounces of cannabis and up to can occasionally use heroin and not become addicted.

10 pounds in their homes, and cultivate up to eight But most people can’t.

Some people can use moderate or plants, four of which could be mature. even heavier amounts of alcohol and not become Among other things, it also would focus on addicted, but depending on a person’s genetic makeup, developing micro-businesses and a craft market, in an others will become addicted.” effort to keep large companies from taking “The issue concerning me is that when over. To address racial inequities in Addiction is we make something available previous law enforcement actions against we give some (credence to not dependent on recreationally, marijuana, the bill would expunge most the) idea it is not a problem. But in some, cannabis convictions, Winkler said. The (marijuana) can lead to dependency, the particular bill would fund public health awareness mental illness and learning disabilities,” campaigns, youth access prevention and characteristics of Vines said. “Especially young people.” substance abuse treatment. It would legalized medical marijuana a substance, but in Minnesota provide grants, loans, technical assistance 2014. Until this year, it was one of the and training for small businesses in the on that substance’s strictest programs in the country because it trade, require testing and labeling of required all products to be in liquid, oil products, and restrict packaging for dried impact on a given and pill forms. It also was relatively cannabis and infused products based on expensive. That changed May 18 with person. dosage size. passage of a bill that beginning March 1 While some argue that the black market Dr. Vic Vines — or until appropriate testing is in place will undercut a legal market every time, for dried raw cannabis used as medicine Winkler said HF 600 is not set up as a state revenue — will allow patients to smoke the dried plant, a less engine through its tax structure of marijuana businesses expensive product. The state’s medical marijuana and transactions. manufacturers are LeafLine Labs and Vireo Health.

“The goal of our bill is not revenue,” Winkler said, MCC has been neutral on medical marijuana, arguing and that should keep costs down. that whether it is an “effective therapeutic is a question Hamilton said the bill’s regulatory structure fails in of some debate, and one best left between doctors and the area that matters most: potency limits on THC, individual patients,” Hamilton said. tetrahydrocannabinol, the main psychoactive “That said, the Legislature’s decision this year to allow compound in cannabis. smokeable medical marijuana seems incredibly “Recreational marijuana products tend to be imprudent and will have to be well monitored to extremely potent,” Hamilton said, with some prevent it from turning into the backdoor legalization of concentrated oils, waxes and edibles at up to 90% TCH. recreational cannabis,” he said.

“This is not the low potency ‘grass’ of yesteryear, The U.S. Food and Drug Administration “has not making it more dangerous. The truth is, the average found smoked marijuana to be either safe or effective as potency of marijuana has skyrocketed since the 1970s, medicine for any condition, let alone anxiety or PTSD and research demonstrates it is associated with (post-traumatic stress disorder),” Hamilton said. substance abuse disorders, drugged driving crashes, The federal government considers marijuana an illegal lower IQ and other negative consequences.” drug but has largely left enforcement to states.

The primary difference between medical and A study published in Biological Psychiatry in 2016, recreational marijuana is the prescription required by a “Changes in Cannabis Potency over the Last Two doctor, Hamilton said. Conditions currently allowed for Decades (1995-2014) — Analysis of Current Data in the treatment by medical marijuana in Minnesota include United States,” backs Hamilton’s claim, finding that cancer, glaucoma, HIV/AIDS, seizures, post-traumatic potency of illicit cannabis plant material alone had stress disorders, chronic pain, and autism. increased from about 4% in 1995 to 12% in 2014. “This increase in potency poses higher risk of cannabis use, particularly among adolescents,” the report concluded.

MARIJUANA CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

LEGALIZING MARIJUANA

OCTOBER 14, 2021

FAITH+CULTURE

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 13

Prudence dictates Church stance against legalizing recreational marijuana

By Joe Ruff The Catholic Spirit

M

arijuana in itself is not evil, but people can easily abuse it, so prudence, or good judgment, dictates it not be legalized for recreational use.

That is the basic teaching of the Catholic Church when it comes to making pot legal. It comes into play particularly now in Minnesota because last May the Democratic-controlled House voted 72-61 to pass HF 600, which among other things sets up a regulatory framework for people 21 and older to buy and sell weed. The second of this session’s two years opens Jan. 31, leaving plenty of time for the Republican-controlled Senate to hold hearings, debate and vote on the bill.

The legislation does not have the support of the Minnesota Catholic Conference, which represents the public policy interests of the state’s bishops. The conference has argued that legalizing marijuana will widen its use, make it more available to people under 21 and increase dangers on the road from drivers impaired by the drug.

“HF 600 is a bad bill,” Ryan Hamilton, MCC’s government relations associate, told the House Commerce, Finance and Policy Committee Feb. 17. “This bill is bad for adolescents, bad for our brothers and sisters with substance abuse problems, bad for those that use our highways, and bad for the common good.”

Msgr. Steven Rohlfs, a spiritual director at The Seminaries of St. Paul in St. Paul and a moral theologian with a specialty in medical ethics, told The Catholic Spirit Sept. 16 that marijuana is not “intrinsically disordered,” or something that by its very nature is not right with God, such as the acts of abortion, euthanasia and contraception. But “for most people, most of the time,” using marijuana is not a good idea, Msgr. Rohlfs said.

With the best interests of individuals and society in mind, the Church opposes its recreational use. That can be said for many drugs, including alcohol and prescription medicines, he said.

“No drug out there is always and everywhere wrong, as a substance,” Msgr. Rohlfs said. “It’s part of God’s creation.

It has some good to it. The Church is opposed to recreational drugs as a prudential decision. For most people, most of the time, it is not a good idea. Whatever drug ‘X’ is, you can always give me a case it would be good for this person at this particular time. The problem is generalizing that.”

Pope Francis has spoken strongly against recreational use of marijuana or other drugs, including a 2014 address to an International Drug Enforcement Conference in Rome and 2013 World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro.

“Let me state this in the clearest terms possible: The problem with drug use is not solved with drugs,” the pope said at the drug enforcement conference. “Drug addiction is an evil, and with evil there can be no

MARIJUANA CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE But it’s important to note that studies show the “average medical marijuana user is a 32-year-old white male with a history of cocaine and alcohol abuse and no history of life-threatening illness,” Hamilton said. “In states with medical marijuana, less than 5% of users have cancer, HIV, glaucoma or terminal illness, which are among the most commonly cited reasons for medical marijuana use,” he said.

Statistics from the medical cannabis program in Minnesota, kept by the Department of Health’s Office of Medical Cannabis, show that as of Dec. 31, 2020, about 7% of patients in the program were suffering from cancer, 1% had HIV/AIDS, 1% had glaucoma and 1% had a terminal illness.

About 63% of patients reported having intractable or chronic pain, 25% had PTSD and 11% had severe and persistent muscle spasms.

About 24,724 patients in the program, or 86.7%, were white, the office reported. About 6% were Black, 3.4% American Indian, 3.2% Hispanic, 1.3% Asian, and 2.4% Hawaiian/Pacific Islander or “other.”

Some proponents of recreational marijuana also use medical conditions as arguments for legalizing recreational use, such as suggesting that Minnesota’s medical marijuana system was overly restrictive and doses were too expensive. Winkler said recreational marijuana

yielding or compromise.”

Nor does legalization work on a practical level, the pope said.

“Attempts, however limited, to legalize so-called ‘recreational drugs,’ are not only highly questionable from a legislative standpoint, but they fail to produce the desired effects,” Pope Francis said.

At World Youth Day, the pope proclaimed to the crowd that “the scourge of drug trafficking, that favors violence and sows the seeds of suffering and death, requires society as a whole to act with courage,” adding that legalization would not yield “a reduction in the spread and influence of drug addiction.”

The Catechism of the Catholic Church addresses drug use as well, stating “The use of drugs inflicts very grave damage on human health and life. Their use, except on strictly therapeutic grounds, is a grave offense.

Clandestine production of and trafficking in drugs are scandalous practices. They constitute direct co-operation in evil, since they encourage people to practices gravely contrary to the moral law” (2291). The Catechism also demands protection by the political community of the family against such threats to security and health as drugs, pornography and alcoholism (2211).

Father Chris Collins, vice president of mission at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul and a systematic theologian, or one who seeks to arrange religious truths in a consistent whole, emphasized the dignity of each human person and God’s plan for human flourishing.

“Any abuse of a substance is not good for the person,” Father Collins said. “Every person should be weighing those considerations. Is this helping me be fully alive?”

Social considerations include protecting the mental health of young people, including concerns about a sense of isolation and lack of desire to do meaningful work that recreational drugs can bring, he said.

Father Collins acknowledged the need to discuss the issue of marijuana, and the changing landscape as medical use of marijuana has come into play.

“Medical marijuana has been seen as a potential good,” he said. “But the next step is recreational use? That is definitely more problematic.”

Even as MCC speaks out strongly against recreational marijuana, the conference has been neutral on medical use of the drug, which has been legal in Minnesota since 2014. Not taking a stand one way or another is a nuanced position, Msgr. Rohlfs said.

“People who oppose it (medical marijuana) will say this is a slippery slope. Which is right,” he said. “And if you deny it (medical marijuana), people will say, ‘You want this person to suffer.’ It just depends. It is a prudential decision. Would use of this medical marijuana be a prudent decision at this time? And the Church doesn’t want to get into how you regulate that.” could be a form of self-medication, but one that could be carried out under the care of a doctor. Even as selfmedication, marijuana carries low risks of harm compared to other alternatives, Winkler said. Hamilton and MCC have criticized those arguments.

“Allowing recreational use as a means of selfmedicating is a bandage, not a solution,” Hamilton said.

“It seems that reform of the medical marijuana system would be the logical step.”

MCC will continue to oppose efforts to legalize recreational marijuana because Catholics must help lawmakers understand the principled reasons for opposing legalization of a recreational cannabis industry, Hamilton said. Odds are good that if the effort to legalize fails this session, similar bills will be introduced in 2023, he said.

“We want to make sure legislators, and their constituents, are hearing from more than industry proponents who only give one side of the story,” he said.

“MCC’s opposition moving forward will be based on standing up against an industry that has proven to do more harm than good to the poor and vulnerable and the common good,” Hamilton said. “Specifically, this means we will be working with our partners to dispel myths about legalization, expose false binary (dual) choices which proponents so often portray as the only way, and share empirical evidence of the harmful effects of legalization.”

BISHOP COZZENS: TAKE ACTION On April 15, Auxiliary Bishop Andrew Cozzens spoke at the MCC’s Catholics at the Capitol event about the dangers of HF 600, which would legalize and regulate recreational marijuana for general use by anyone 21 or older. While the Minnesota Senate did not pass the bill, the House did, and the bill remains active for the second half of the biennial session, set to begin Jan. 31. His address follows.

This issue, about marijuana, is one of the very important issues where the Catholic voice needs to be heard at the Capitol, because we believe that we’re introducing another vice into our society that’s going to lower public morality and really harm our people, most especially our young people. The legislators at the Capitol need to hear about the damaging effects of this potential bill.

The bill is called HF 600, and those who are proposing the bill argue that we need to lower arrest records, especially among minority populations, and relieve criminal records among minority populations, and in order to do that we need to legalize marijuana.

Now, we could have a very good policy discussion about that particular issue. Because that is an important issue to pay attention to. But the fact is in the states where they have legalized marijuana, arrest records among African Americans have doubled, and in general, marijuanarelated arrests have tripled. And so, the policy promises that they are making don’t hold true.

We need to actually begin to think about the reality of what happens if we pass this bill. Which is not simply a bill that’s dealing with a small or narrow policy issue, but which in fact is seeking to legalize marijuana for our whole society.

The key is this, if this bill passes in Minnesota, more people will be smoking marijuana, and that’s not good for Minnesotans.

I want to read you a quote from Pope Francis, who actually did address this issue in a conference at the Vatican on the problem of drugs nationally and internationally. The Holy Father said this: “Attempts, however limited, to legalize so-called recreational drugs are not only highly questionable from a legislative standpoint, but they fail to produce the desired effects.” That is, when we legalize these drugs, it doesn’t regulate them in the way that we would hope. It actually increases their use.

It’s very interesting, because we all know the problems we have in our society with smoking and vaping, and especially how prominent that is among young people.

And what drives it? Well, we know, it’s the money that comes from big tobacco companies. And we’re looking now at introducing another for-profit industry that drives smoking and vaping of marijuana, and we’re somehow pretending it’s not going to affect our young people.

That, of course, is a kind of moral blindness. For we know that whenever marijuana becomes legal in a state, it becomes more readily accessible to young people, even though the law says you have to be 21 to have it. And, there are many other negative effects. For example, in states like Colorado and Washington, almost 20% of auto accidents involve some form of marijuana use. It affects the culture negatively in general.

The final point I want to make today is that our young people are struggling. Our young people are living in a very difficult world, and the COVID-19 crisis has simply made that worse. We all know that loneliness, anxiety and depression are on the rise among our young people. And the studies show that marijuana use increases the risk of suicide and depression among young people. And so, here we are, with a real crisis on our hands with how we really do care for young people in our society, and we’re about to introduce a mind-altering drug into our society that we know is addictive and will harm them.

My brothers and sisters, we can have a good conversation about criminal justice reform and having just sentences for those who are caught possessing marijuana. But if we legalize marijuana, we’re going to be introducing a whole problem, driven by corporations, that will in fact be seeking to spread the use of this drug for profit. That’s not the way Minnesota should go. So, I hope that you speak clearly about this with your legislators when you have the chance. Thank you, and God bless you.

14 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

OCTOBER 14, 2021

FOCUSONFAITH SUNDAY SCRIPTURES | FATHER MICHAEL CREAGAN

True leadership A few weeks ago, the mortal remains of Father Emil Kapaun were placed inside the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Wichita, Kansas. He had served as an Army chaplain during the Korean War. Thousands gathered to watch as a military honor guard complete with horses solemnly accompanied the flag-draped remains of this priest to his final resting place. He was entombed inside the Cathedral.

Father Emil Kaupaun is an extraordinary example of a leader who sacrificed all for those whom he served. Pope St. John Paul II recognized him as a Servant of God, and his canonization process has been opened. The United States government posthumously awarded him with the Congressional Medal of Honor, recognizing his heroic bravery in battle.

Father Kapaun was a priest of the Diocese of Wichita. He was born on a farm in 1916, and he died in a North Korean POW camp in 1951. Father Kapaun distinguished himself in battle as he risked his own life to help over 40 wounded soldiers. He was noted for carrying the sacraments to the soldiers and he celebrated Mass using a jeep as his altar. In 1950, his unit was surrounded by 20,000 Chinese forces on Nov. 1 during the battle of Unsan.

Rather than evacuate, he chose to stay with the 800 men of his

battalion, a number of whom were wounded. He was eventually taken as a prisoner of war. While in the POW camp, fellow inmates remember him for his courage and lifting minds and hearts to Jesus. He died of dysentery in 1951. His remains were later returned through an agreement with the North Koreans, and they were recently identified through DNA. Father Kapaun is a shining example of a servant leader. He stands in stark contrast to James and John in this Sunday’s Gospel.

We find these two Apostles jostling for the positions of honor. The other 10 Apostles are understandably upset by their ambition.

James and John had a mistaken idea that Jesus’ kingdom would be an earthly one. Maybe they were thinking of the riches enjoyed by kings of their day and wanted to enjoy that position of leadership filled with many perks. Jesus corrects them and uses it as an opportunity to explain true leadership according to God’s plan. It is not for the leader to benefit and enjoy comforts.

Jesus shows us that the leader is actually the greatest servant. The Lord shows us what servant leadership looks like as he accepts crucifixion (a death for the lower class). He suffers, dies and rises again, bringing each of us forgiveness and eternal life.

We will all find ourselves in leadership positions. Some will be leaders by vocation, career or many situations in life. A true leader must be ready to sacrifice for those whom he or she serves. That leader must be strong in the virtues of humility and prudence.

The true leader must first and foremost trust in God’s plan and his grace. Jesus, give us the grace to serve as leaders in your image!

Father Creagan is pastor of St. Joseph in West St. Paul.

FAITH FUNDAMENTALS | FATHER MICHAEL VAN SLOUN

Married love is patient and kind

If you are married, do you remember the Scripture texts that you chose for your wedding?

Married or not, what Scripture text do you think is most popular for weddings? I am not aware of any studies on the topic, but in my experience, the hands down winner is 1 Corinthians 13.

It has the famous and easily recognizable line, “Love is patient, love is kind” (1 Cor 13:4). Well over half of my engaged couples have chosen this text for their marriage liturgy.

Chapter 13 of First Corinthians is variously called the “Way of Love,” the “Hymn to Love” or “St. Paul’s Ode to Love.” St. Paul knew that Jesus had given a new commandment, “Love one another” (Jn 13:34), and he was aware of Jesus’ Great Commandment, “Love God and love your neighbor as yourself” (see Mt 22:37, 39).

Even though St. Paul never listened to Jesus speak in person, he understood the priority that Jesus placed on love, and he took it upon himself to describe key aspects of true love.

This text is like the mission statement for a married couple.

A mission statement contains the most important values and practices for an organization as a whole and the members or employees individually. Many companies have their employees review the mission statement periodically to keep them on course and true to their ideals. A few have their workers recite it together each day before their shift.

St. Paul put together a list of the key aspects of love, ways to implement Jesus’ Law of Love. They provide the values, practices and ideals that will keep a wife and husband on course. As a mission statement, it should not be read on their wedding day and forgotten, but it should be reviewed periodically. My sister and brother-in-law have the text on display in their home as a constant reminder. One of the most frequent sins that husbands and wives confess is impatience or unkindness toward their spouse. As a penance, I will frequently invite the penitent to prayerfully reread 1 Corinthians Chapter 13 to review and recommit to their original mission statement.

Love does not rejoice over wrongdoing; it is honest and trustworthy, orderly and law-abiding.

It rejoices with the truth, it seeks the truth, speaks the truth, and upholds the truth. Love is everfaithful, and it leads to authentic joy and freedom. iSTOCK PHOTO | VLADYSLAV SENCHENKO

The highest priority items are at the top of the list: patience and kindness. They are both traits of God’s love. God is patient with sinners, gives the benefit of the doubt, does not lose his temper, does not say mean things, is not quick to punish, offers second chances and is willing to wait. Spouses invariably offend each other. If they will be patient with each other as God is patient with them, their love will not only survive, it will flourish.

God is also kind. God always cares, wants only the best, is generous, benevolent, gentle and empowering. Love is never mean, sarcastic, rough or controlling. Rather, it is thoughtful, considerate, helpful and compassionate.

St. Paul continues with his list. Love is not jealous; it rejoices in the unique characteristics and special material blessings of others.

It is not pompous or inflated; it is humble, modest and respectful.

It is not rude; it is polite and well-mannered.

Love does not seek its own interest; it puts others and their well-being ahead of self. It is not quick-tempered; it is calm, cool and collected, and exercises healthy self-control and self-restraint.

It does not brood over injury, it does not hold grudges, try to get even or seek to retaliate.

Love does not rejoice over wrongdoing; it is honest and trustworthy, orderly and law-abiding. It rejoices with the truth, it seeks the truth, speaks the truth, and upholds the truth. Love is ever-faithful, and it leads to authentic joy and freedom.

Father Van Sloun recently retired as pastor of St. Bartholomew in Wayzata. This column is one in a series on the sacrament of marriage.

Previous series on the Eucharist and confirmation can be found at TheCatholicSpirit.com.

KNOW the SAINTS ST. JOHN DE BRÉBEUF (1593-1649) born in Normandy in 1593, John entered the Jesuits in 1617 and was ordained in 1622. Despite having tuberculosis, he went as a missionary to new France (Canada) in 1625. He had little success among the Huron Indians, and returned briefly to France when Canada became English. But in 1633, he undertook a second mission and lived with the Hurons for 15 years, producing the first Huron dictionary. In 1649, he and Jesuit father Gabriel Lalemant were captured in a raid by Iroquois warriors. After indescribable tortures, John died March 16 and Gabriel March 17. They are among the eight Jesuit North American martyrs, the patron saints of Canada and North America whose joint U.S. feast is Oct. 19.

— Catholic News Service

DAILY Scriptures Sunday, Oct. 17 Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time Is 53:10-11 Heb 4:14-16 Mk 10:35-45 Monday, Oct. 18 St. Luke, evangelist 2 Tm 4:10-17b Lk 10:1-9 Tuesday, Oct. 19 Sts. John de Brébeuf and Isaac Jogues, priests, and companions, martyrs Rom 5:12, 15b, 17-19, 20b-21 Lk 12:35-38 Wednesday, Oct. 20 Rom 6:12-18 Lk 12:39-48 Thursday, Oct. 21 Rom 6:19-23 Lk 12:49-53 Friday, Oct. 22 Rom 7:18-25a Lk 12:54-59 Saturday, Oct. 23 Rom 8:1-11 Lk 13:1-9 Sunday, Oct. 24 Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time Jer 31:7-9 Heb 5:1-6 Mk 10:46-52 Monday, Oct. 25 Rom 8:12-17 Lk 13:10-17 Tuesday, Oct. 26 Rom 8:18-25 Lk 13:18-21 Wednesday, Oct. 27 Rom 8:26-30 Lk 13:22-30 Thursday, Oct. 28 Sts. Simon and Jude, Apostles Eph 2:19-22 Lk 6:12-16 Friday, Oct. 29 Rom 9:1-5 Lk 14:1-6 Saturday, Oct. 30 Rom 11:1-2a, 11-12, 25-29 Lk 14:1, 7-11 Sunday, Oct. 31 Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time Dt 6:2-6 Heb 7:23-28 Mk 12:28b-34

FOCUSONFAITH

OCTOBER 14, 2021

ECHOES OF CATHOLIC MINNESOTA | REBA LUIKEN

Storied Catholic seminary building still stands

Surrounded by a secluded wooded campus on the shores of Lake Johanna, the 300 young men at Nazareth Hall in Arden Hills arose at the sound of the 6:05 a.m. bell and readied themselves quickly. By 6:30 a.m. they were gathered on their knees in the chapel when the bell rang the Angelus, ready for Mass and Communion before breakfast. For these teenage seminarians, classes in Latin, Gregorian chant and religion, alongside the sciences, math and social studies, followed on a warm day in May of 1960.

Beginning in 1923, Nazareth Hall was the minor seminary of the Archdiocese of St. Paul. Following a plan laid out by the American bishops and the Vatican, young men were to follow a 12-year plan of priestly preparations. For six years, they would attend the minor seminary, Nazareth Hall, completing four years of high school and two collegiate years. After their time at Nazareth Hall, students would move to the major seminary, St. Paul Seminary, for six more years of study.

Across the country, there were more than 270 minor seminaries by the early 1960s. Some of their students would become priests; many would take their religious training into other vocations. Over the decades, seminary leadership became more aware of this and made the curriculum rigorous and broad enough to also prepare students for life outside the priesthood.

For six years, a student at Nazareth Hall studied, lived

WHY DO CATHOLICS DO THAT? FATHER JOHN PAUL ERICKSON

Exorcism and the healing power of Christ Q What is exorcism?

Does it still happen?

A One of the initial

ministries of Jesus was the casting out of demons. This wasn’t a peripheral activity for the Messiah. It is listed in the Gospels right next to healings and the preaching of the Kingdom of God when the Lord’s earthly ministry is described. And because the Church is the continuation of Christ’s presence on earth, it only makes sense that the Church would continue this central act of Jesus.

We call this casting out an “exorcism,” though it needs to be stated clearly at the outset that the most common forms of exorcisms, and indeed the most powerful, are the sacraments of the Church themselves, especially the sacraments of baptism and reconciliation. Blessings, too, are powerful exorcism prayers, when celebrated and received with faith and reverence. But in some very particular cases, almighty God allows the devil and his legion to root in the life of someone in dramatic and sinister ways.

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 15

and prayed between marble floors and vaulted ceilings.

The chapel was naturally the most opulent, featuring walls with rust-red marble imported from North Africa and white marble columns. Its stained-glass windows illustrated biblical themes about boyhood. Elsewhere, statues represented Christ in his teenage years. Together, the seminary’s director explained in 1960, the student experience was designed “to prepare the young man spiritually, intellectually and socially so he can make a mature decision about his future.”

Big changes came to the seminary in 1968, when collegiate seminarians were moved to the newly opened St. John Vianney Seminary at St. Thomas College.

At the time, young men preparing for the priesthood would spend four years at Nazareth, four years at St. John Vianney, and four years at the St. Paul Seminary to complete their training. The same year, enrollment in the high school program fell dramatically from 148 to 105 boys, but Archbishop Leo Byrne insisted that the minor seminary would continue. Meanwhile, minor seminaries across the country were closing due to declining enrollment. Young men seemed less inclined to pursue a vocation that was in flux, and their parents were less likely to believe that age 14 was an appropriate time to choose a lifelong career.

By the following school year, Archbishop Byrne had changed his mind, moving to close the school and pivot to a guidance program for vocations that spanned all of the Catholic high schools in the archdiocese. The property was sold in 1970 to Northwestern College (now University of Northwestern), which repurposed the campus for Christian college students who now study and worship in the same historic building. Many of the uniquely Catholic and sacred elements of the two chapels on campus were removed before its sale. Today, the altar from the chapel can be seen at St. Michael church in St. Michael.

Luiken is a Catholic and a historian with a Ph.D. from the COURTESY ARCHDIOCESAN ARCHIVES University of Minnesota. She loves exploring and sharing An undated, historical photo of the front of Nazareth Hall in St. Paul. the hidden histories that touch our lives every day.

I say God allows it, but this terrible situation is ultimately caused most often by someone freely choosing to invite the Enemy into his or her life in some deliberate way, especially through habitual, unrepented mortal sin. In these cases, the Church has in fact prescribed prayers and rituals that directly confront the occupying demonic forces and commands them to leave.

Because of the gravity of this situation, and the danger of sensationalism, the Church mandates that the priest responsible for these exorcisms be specially delegated by his bishop, and should be a man known for his personal holiness, pastoral prudence and the capacity to distinguish mental illness from true demonic possession.

Because of movies and TV shows, exorcisms are sometimes understood to be a kind of battle between a priest and a satanic force. True enough. But we must also always remember that in the fight between Jesus and Satan, Jesus ALWAYS wins. Provided there is a desire to be freed of the Enemy’s clutches, there is always hope and assurance of the power of God to save even the most hardened of sinners.

Like everything of the Church, exorcisms are profound experiences and yes, celebrations of God’s mercy and love. Make sure Linda Blair knows that. And let her know I know a good chiropractor.

Father Erickson is pastor of Transfiguration in Oakdale. Send your questions to CatholicSpirit@archspm.org with “Why Do Catholics Do That?” in the subject line.

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16 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

OCTOBER 14 , 2021

COMMENTARY TWENTY SOMETHING | CHRISTINA CAPECCHI

Bedtime stories of saints: comfort and companionship

We never really outgrow the desire for a bedtime story. It just takes different forms when we’re older: Netflix, the evening news, Instagram Stories.

But the original cannot be improved upon, the bare-bones version told in the dark. When it doesn’t come with special effects, it flips on more lights in the listener’s imagination.

Claire Ellendson understood this, in a fundamental way, when she was serving on NET Ministries, an evangelization team for Catholic young adults. After an exhausting, exhilarating day of talking to teens about Jesus, she and a teammate would collapse in the house of a kind stranger — a spare couch in the basement, parallel twin beds in a corner bedroom. Her teammate would ask a simple question, a Catholic twist on that universal childhood request: “Tell me a story about a saint.”

She knew there was a deep reservoir of saint stories in Claire, a cradle Catholic from Faribault and the third of 10 children.

“We are naturally drawn to a good story,” said Claire, now 25, who is a member of St. Mark in St. Paul and works as a nanny. “The power of storytelling is a gift from God, and it’s innately human.”

Claire’s bedtime stories gave rise to late-night conversations about zeal for the Gospel and love of Christ and holding onto truth in the midst of trial.

Eventually, the stories turned into a weekly podcast she titled “Dead Friend,” which is how Claire sees the saints: like older sisters and wiser friends in heaven.

Each podcast features one saint and results from considerable research and prayer. Claire records the podcast in her pajamas, nestled in her apartment in the Uptown neighborhood of Minneapolis.

“Maybe it’s to get into the spirit of bedtime stories,” she said, laughing. “I’m chilling.”

SIMPLE HOLINESS | KATE SOUCHERAY

Are we living in a new Apostolic Era?

What difference would it make if we were living in a new Apostolic Era? What if the Christendom era really is over, and we have entered a new phase of humanity? For Christians, we may meet these questions with little curiosity because we are so busy with our everyday lives that we have no time to ponder such things. And yet, our responses will make all the difference.

The early followers of Christ, the Risen Lord, had choices to make, too. In those first decades after Jesus’ death and resurrection, the period was referred to as the Apostolic Era, as his followers experienced the Holy Spirit within them. Jesus’ Spirit led this fledgling group and gave them confidence to engage courageously, boldly and with conviction in the world where they lived. His Spirit was referred to as “the Indwelling Spirit,” which lives in each of us in this era of humanity, as well.

Following the roughly 300 hundred years of the Apostolic Era, Christianity was legalized. But, to follow

God will use everything!

He wants to make us a more vivid version of ourselves.

COURTESY CLAIRE ELLENDSON

Claire Ellendson

The goal was to fill an unmet niche: conversational podcasts — not academic — that highlight the humanity of the saints. Her voice is unpretentious. She’s both eloquent and unafraid to use young-adult speak, describing when a saint “wasn’t down with” something or didn’t “vibe” with someone.

It appears to be working. Since her inaugural episode last August, she’s garnered more than 10,000 downloads — some from far-flung cities across the globe.

Claire marked the podcast’s one-year anniversary by bringing on a special guest: her local bishop, Archbishop Bernard Hebda, who discussed his love for St. Joseph.

The list of saints she’s covered is lengthy: St. Maximilian Kolbe, St. Jane de Chantal, Blessed Chiara Badano, St. Lidwina of Schiedam, St. Gemma Galgani, Venerable Emilie Engel and so on. But she’s got countless to go, and she now fields requests.

“To share the podcast has been so great because it’s simply: ‘Wow, this is how the Lord worked in their lives!’

And that builds up my faith so much. It gives me a weekly

reminder of all the heavy lifting the Lord has done.”

In the process of studying these saints, she’s felt a shift. The saints are not there simply to inspire her, but to accompany her.

As All Saints Day nears, she urges Catholics to pick a saint to study. “See if they can be a new dead friend of yours!”

Claire tries to live simply like St. Francis and St. Clare of Assisi and purges her closet every three months.

Soon she’ll be selling her furniture, preparing to leave her apartment and live in a friend’s home to attend a program for radiation therapy.

“I’m going to downsize my life,” she said. “I’m craving simplicity.”

The saints help her trust in God as she makes her next step. “God will use everything! He wants to make us a more vivid version of ourselves.”

the faith during the Apostolic Era was dangerous and risky and could cost a follower his or her life. The Christendom Era required the mere recitation of a Creed and the admission that one was a Christian. Little was asked of these followers because the rules of abiding by the faith sufficed for their lack of a depth of conviction.

This is no longer true, and many researchers of our times contend we are now living in a new Apostolic Era, in which being a Christian is once again dangerous and risky. We can be “canceled” for our beliefs and become as if we never existed, professionally or socially. We can be scrutinized for our admission in the belief in this Indwelling Spirit that leads us and speaks wisdom to us.

We can be ridiculed for participating in the Eucharist, in which we eat the flesh and drink the blood of our leader. Some would say we are a strange and sinister lot.

These ideas may be too much for the busyness of our season of life. We have kids to raise or adult children to encourage. We have jobs and responsibilities. We have households and budgets. Who has time to think about a new Apostolic Era? We may ask ourselves, why can’t we just go back to the Christendom Era, which provided the rules for living a good life, and all we had to do was follow them faithfully? Wasn’t that enough?

Actually, the answer would be a simple ‘no.’ It isn’t enough in this secular, misguided, ungodly culture in which we are living. We may not think we are up to the task of transforming our world, but we have to be. If we are not willing to stand firmly for what we believe, and choose instead to cave to the pressure of the culture, we may be tempted to commit apostasy, which was

ACTION STRATEGY

Capecchi is a freelance writer from Inver Grove Heights.

u Decide whether you are part of the new Apostolic Era and are willing to stand up to this culture and be transformative. Choose to be hot or cold, but not lukewarm. uLook for simple ways to live true to your faith each day.

prevalent during the first Apostolic Era. It has been said that “the blood of the martyrs was the seed of Christianity.” We must ask ourselves if we are willing to live as true Christians in this new era. Are we willing to help transform the world or will we give in to the pressure of the culture and swim with the current?

This is a decision we must each make. As the Book of Revelation states, “I know your works; I know that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth” (3:15-16). We are now living in a time when it is no longer acceptable to be lukewarm. We must all choose and that choice will have consequences.

Soucheray is a licensed marriage and family therapist emeritus and a member of St. Ambrose of Woodbury.

She holds a master’s degree in theology from The St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity in St. Paul and a doctorate in educational leadership from St. Mary’s University of Minnesota.

OCTOBER 14, 2021

COMMENTARY

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 17

ALREADY/NOT YET | JONATHAN LIEDL

Meditation on a magazine cover

I recently subscribed to The Lamp magazine, which is basically a Catholic version of The New Yorker. The artwork on the cover is usually a black and white sketch of some amusing scene of what I call “Catholic Americana,” such as a cigarette-smoking nun on a riding lawn mower or a cocktail party of smiling clerics and laity.

But my favorite Lamp cover of all is from its Saint Anselm 2021 issue. It uses the same artistic style as the rest but features a very different kind of content.

The sketch depicts a mass of businessmen, moving to and fro, some absorbed by the screens of their phones, one smoking a stogie, all looking purposeful and professional in their suits and kempt hairdos. But in the midst of them all, initially almost undetectable, stands a camel-hair clothed John the Baptist, hand raised, mouth open, beard wild and unruly.

The symbolism is clear. John originally preached “as a voice crying out in the wilderness” of Judea circa 1 A.D., but his message of the coming of the Savior, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, is as relevant in the wilderness of American life today. Also, like the Baptist’s audience of yesteryear, Americans of today have all kinds of distractions and pursuits that allow them to avoid the Gospel, a message that clashes sharply with the predominant values and priorities of the ambient culture.

The image was attractive and provocative enough for me to put the cover on my wall. It serves as a daily reminder to “prepare the way of the Lord” amid all my apparently mundane activities — my work, studies and social life.

But the scene struck me in a new way one evening while praying my rosary in an armchair across from it. Because the room was dimly lit, certain features of the drawing stood out even more than they do with the lights on. For one, the figure of John, with his darkly drawn clothing and beard, was far more noticeable, and was more evidently the focal point of the whole work. In fact, the other characters, basically just black lines on a white backdrop at this point, seemed to recede into the background.

What can be drawn from this experience? For one, John the Baptist — and ultimately the One to whom he points — is more real, more substantial, more meaningful than the merely practical horizon represented by the businessmen, what German philosopher Josef Pieper calls “the work-a-day world.”

It’s not that work and business aren’t good and important things. But what’s true is that they can only have any ultimate value if they are connected to and ordered vertically toward God, the foundation of all reality and the guarantor of our worth and

ERIC HANSON, COURTESY THE LAMP

Cover art for the Saint Anselm 2021 issue of The Lamp magazine, a bi-monthly publication that bills itself as offering an orthodox Catholic perspective on the problems of modern life. The magazine offers views on literature, science, the fine arts and other topics.

It’s not that work and business aren’t good and important things.

But what’s true is that they can only have any ultimate value if they are connected to and ordered vertically toward God, the foundation of all reality and the guarantor of our worth and meaning. meaning. The fact that this insight only came when the lights were dimmed and my bodily senses were effectively dulled also points to the primacy of the spiritual reality that undergirds the visible, and the absolute importance of prayer in being able to see things truly.

Furthermore, the “weight” of John in the drawing flows directly from his humility: He is drawn so darkly — and therefore stands out so much — precisely because he is wearing such rough and coarse clothing, and because his beard grows so wildly. In other words, he stands out because he is poor.

John’s poverty doesn’t make him empty. Instead, it allows him to be completely filled with his love for the Lord. As the late Cardinal Jean Danielou pointed out, and as I’ve written about before, John’s entire

mission of radical renunciation only makes sense as “a man set apart for this one great joy” — the joy of first knowing Jesus in the womb of his aunt, Mary, and then of anticipating meeting Christ once more.

John is filled with this joy, he is filled with Jesus, and thus he stands apart from the crowd as more real and more substantial.

This is not a new idea. In “The Great Divorce,” C.S. Lewis depicts the Spirits of heaven as more “solid” than the shadowy Damned who come to visit them, for whom the grass feels as “hard as diamonds.” Underlying Lewis’ approach seems to be the theology of St. Augustine, who taught that evil is merely a “deprecation of the good” — it is not real in and of itself, but is only the absence of reality, of what should actually be there. Those who love the Lord completely, like the Spirits of heaven and St. John the Baptist, are more real because they are more fully what they were created to be: sons and daughters of God and partakers in the Divine Life.

As St. Irenaeus of Lyons, our newest doctor of the Church, once declared, Christ is “calling men anew to communion with God, that by communion with Him we may partake of incorruption.” John the Baptist extended this invitation 2,000 years ago, and it’s offered to each of us today, as plain and factual as his weighty presence at the heart of that magazine cover.

Sometimes, though, we just need our man-made lights to go down to see it all more clearly.

Liedl writes from the Twin Cities.

LETTERS Unnecessary information

May God be merciful to John Bussmann. May he rest in peace. Nothing more needs to be said.

I question the wisdom of The Catholic Spirit staff in publishing the article on John Bussmann’s passing (“John Bussmann, disgraced priest, dies,” Sept. 30), complete with a list of crimes and wrongdoings that occurred during his time as an active priest. I am aware that The Catholic Spirit’s article was but a brief synopsis of Mr. Bussmann’s “official” obituary that appeared in the local secular newspaper. But again, what was the author of his obituary trying to accomplish by including such a detailed list of his failings? If you were a friend of Mr. Bussmann, it is likely that you were already aware of his transgressions. If you didn’t know Mr. Bussmann, in my opinion, it’s no one’s business what issues tormented his life. Publishing a chronological list of his misdeeds only serves to disparage the deceased.

Jerome Wilczyk Assumption, St. Paul

Race or immigration issue?

Good news. The racial disparities cited by Joe Ruff in the Sept. 30 issue are really disparities of a different kind (“New restorative justice initiative explores racial injustice”). Since 1990 people of color have grown in Minnesota by 430%. Since 2000 that population has more than doubled. Few of these people came with money. Few came with a college education. Many came with English as a second language. Do you really expect a flood of English-as-a-second-language speakers to get the same marks in education as those who have spoken English from birth and who have

parents who have spoken English from birth? Do you expect a flood of indigents to suddenly acquire the wealth that longtime residents in a stable economy have acquired? In the accompanying article, Father Griffith said, “It includes the fact that our brothers and sisters of color experience harm in our society.”

That harm was done in Somalia and Central America, not in Minnesota. If you can’t identify the problem, you won’t find the answer.

Mike Ebnet Our Lady of Grace, Edina Share your perspective by emailing TheCatholicSpirit @archspm.org. Please limit your letter to the editor to 150 words and include your parish and phone number.

The Commentary pages do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Catholic Spirit.

18 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

OCTOBER 14, 2021

Why I am Catholic

By Dave Ronning

I

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

am Catholic because it is the true Church founded by Jesus Christ. This is quite the

bold statement, one that I would have strongly

disagreed with 10 years ago. So what changed?

I grew up Protestant. My family regularly attended

church, and I attended a private Christian school until

high school. There I learned about the Protestant faith, the

wasn’t even sure Catholics were Christians. However, she was different. She seemed to really know her faith, and we agreed on many of the same common beliefs. She made me really want to learn more about the Catholic faith.

This desire began an almost two-year journey to the Catholic Church. This journey was not a fun one. It was the most challenging journey of my life. But what I found

Bible and the importance of having a personal relationship

was the beautiful faith of the Catholic Church. I learned

with Jesus Christ. This foundation set me up well in college,

how the pope is the successor of St. Peter, the first pope.

where I was able to make the faith my own, not just

I learned about the writings of the early Church Fathers

something my parents forced on me. I went to a church by

and learned how they believe the same thing the Catholic

campus and was involved with a couple faith-based groups

Church teaches today. I also learned the true teachings of the

at the university I attended. My Protestant background has

Catholic Church. I learned I already agreed with many of the

made me into the man I am today, and I am extremely

beliefs of the Church. On those I disagreed with, I was able to

thankful for it.

learn the reasoning behind them and, through study, become

However, one question always bothered me. The Protestant

convinced that they were true. The journey ended with me

church has over 45,000 denominations — each claiming

joining the Church on Easter Vigil in 2013. A few months

it has the true interpretation of the Bible. However, all

after joining the Catholic Church, I married the girl who

were founded by some person in the last 500 years. What

started it all. We have now been married for eight years and

happened between Jesus and the 1500s? What did the early

have three kids.

Church Fathers believe? I was given answers from Protestant friends and family, but none were convincing. Other answers came in a way I didn’t expect.

It started with a girl that I liked in college. She was wonderful in so many ways. However, she was Catholic.

I grew up with many of the common misconceptions Protestants have about Catholics. These included that Catholics worshipped Mary and statues, the pope is completely infallible, they believed they were saved by works they do and not faith in Jesus, etc. At the time I met her, I

Ronning, 32, his wife, Valentina, and their three children — Theresa, 3, Peter, 1, and Maria, 3 months — are parishioners of Transfiguration in Oakdale. Ronning works as an actuary and currently serves as grand knight of Columbus Council 4374.

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

OCTOBER 14, 2021

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 19

CALENDAR PARISH EVENTS Our Lady of Peace Pumpkin Patch — Oct. 12-31: 11 a.m.–7 p.m. at Our Lady of Peace, 5426 12th Ave. S., Minneapolis. More than 2,000 pumpkins for sale. olpmn.org/pumpkin-patch St. Pascal Baylon Booya — Oct. 17: 10 a.m. at 1757 Conway St., St. Paul. Church parking lot. Drivethru only. No dine-in or personal containers. A 48 oz. container of booya is $18. Cash, check or credit card.

Proceeds support school physical education program and other school and parish needs. Sponsored by St. Pascal Men’s Group. stpascals.org Guardian Angels K of C pancake breakfast — Oct. 17: 8 a.m.–noon at 217 W. Second St., Chaska, in the school gym. Sponsored by the GA Knights of Columbus. Pancakes, French toast, sausage, scrambled eggs, coffee, juice and milk. $10 ages 13 and up; $5 ages 5-12; free under 5. gachaska.org Sacred Heart’s “Treasure Hunt” — Oct. 21-23 at 4087 W. Broadway Ave., Robbinsdale. Rummage sale pre-sale 2–6 p.m. Oct. 21: $5 at door, children free.

Sale 9 a.m.–6 p.m. Oct. 22 and 9 a.m.–noon Oct. 23 ($5 bag day). shrmn.org St. Mary of the Lake Rummage Sale — Oct. 2223 at The Armory, 2228 Fourth St., White Bear Lake.

5–9 p.m. Oct. 22; 8 a.m.–3 p.m. Oct 23 ($5 bag day).

Proceeds support pro-life and justice organizations. stmarys-wbl.org St. Albert KC Respect Life Family Dinner — Oct. 23: 6 p.m. at 11400 57th St. NE, Albertville.

Catered chicken dinner with a speaker and children’s entertainment. KC4174.org

PRAYER+WORSHIP Women With Spirit Bible Study — Fridays thru April 8: 1 p.m. at Pax Christi, 12100 Pioneer Trail, Eden Prairie. Began Oct. 1 with 21 weeks of prerecorded lectures on Matthew, minor prophets and Bible compilation by university-based biblical scholars. Optional Zoom small group discussion.

Tuition $100. paxchristi.com/eventregistration Vatican Synod Mass — Oct. 17: 5 p.m. at the Cathedral of St. Paul, St. Paul. Celebrate this Mass in communion with Pope Francis and dioceses throughout the world to liturgically mark the beginning of the Vatican synod and pray for the local Archdiocesan Synod. cathedralsaintpaul.org Annual White Mass for Health Care Professionals — Oct. 23: 5:15 p.m. at the Cathedral of St. Paul, St. Paul. Health care workers, along with their spouses and their families, are invited to

this special Mass in honor of their patron St. Luke.

Reception will follow in Hayden Hall (Cathedral, lower level). For more information, contact Sonya Flomo at 651-291-4488 or flomos@archspm.org.

RETREATS Men’s Silent Retreat Weekend — Oct. 22-24 at Franciscan Retreats and Spirituality Center, 16385 St. Francis Lane, Prior Lake. Four conference talks and a refreshing blend of scheduled time and open time.

Confession, anointing, Mass, Holy Hour and prayer sessions. Silence observed to remove distractions. franciscanretreats.net Archbishop’s Discernment Retreat — Oct. 29-31 at Christ the King Retreat Center, 621 First Ave. S., Buffalo. Annual retreat for men who are juniors in high school through age 24 who do not have a college degree and are interested in the priesthood. The weekend retreat is led by Archbishop Bernard Hebda and Father David Blume. For further information and to register, visit 10000vocations.org.

Friends of Francis Retreat — Oct. 29-31 at Franciscan Retreats and Spirituality Center, 16385 St. Francis Lane, Prior Lake. Franciscan priest Father Paul Schloemer, OFM Conv., presents this year’s Friends of Francis retreat, “Blessed Are We,” on the Beatitudes in the context of hope. Open to anyone with an interest in St. Francis and Franciscan Spirituality. franciscanretreats.net Discernment Day with Bishop Cozzens — Oct. 30: 8:30 a.m.–7 p.m. at The St. Paul Seminary Aspirancy House, 1976 Dayton Ave., St. Paul. Thinking Priesthood? This daylong retreat, led by Bishop Andrew Cozzens, is for men who have a college degree and are considering priesthood. For further information and to register, visit 10000vocations.org.

Serenity Retreat — Dec. 3-5 at Franciscan Retreats and Spirituality Center, 16385 St. Francis Lane, Prior Lake. Our Serenity Retreat is a chance for those in recovery from addictions to experience an inspiring presenter in a setting conducive to healing and growth. franciscanretreats.net Men’s Retreat Weekend — Dec. 10-12 at Franciscan Retreats and Spirituality Center, 16385 St. Francis Lane, Prior Lake. Four conference talks and a refreshing blend of scheduled time and open time.

Confession, anointing, Mass, Holy Hour and prayer sessions. Silence observed to remove distractions. franciscanretreats.net Ignatian men’s silent retreat — Thursday to Sunday most weeks at Demontreville Jesuit Retreat

SMALL GROUPS UNDERWAY Archbishop Bernard Hebda has asked all parishes in the archdiocese to host Synod Small Groups this fall for Catholics to learn, pray and share ideas on three focus areas ahead of the 2022 Archdiocesan Synod. Focus areas are: Forming parishes that are in the service of evangelization, forming missionary disciples who know Jesus’ love and respond to his call, and forming youth and young adults in and for a Church that is always young. Small groups will meet for six 2-hour sessions through midNovember. Watch for communications from your parish about how to participate in a small group there.

House, 8243 Demontreville Trail N., Lake Elmo.

Free-will donation. demontrevilleretreat.com

CALENDAR submissions DEADLINE: Noon Thursday, 14 days

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

LISTINGS: Accepted are brief no­tices

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

ITEMS MUST INCLUDE the following

OTHER EVENTS PACIM Annual Soup Fest — Oct. 24: 11 a.m.–5 p.m. at St. John Paul II School, Kolbe Hall,1630 Fourth St. NE, Minneapolis. PACIM (Polish American Cultural Institute of Minnesota) hosts its annual Soup Tasting Festival. $10 for adults; $5 for children under 10.

Quarts of soup for takeout are available. ourholycross.org Franciscan International Award Dinner — Nov. 11: 6–9 p.m. at 3151 Wilds Ridge, Prior Lake. For 62 years, the Franciscan International Award Dinner has been an opportunity to gather and support the Franciscan Retreat House and honor an organization that embodies the spirit of St. Francis of Assisi.

2021 Recipient: Bolder Options, a youth mentoring organization. Former University of Minnesota football player Darrell Thompson, Bolder Options’ president, will accept the award. franciscanretreats.net “Magic and Miracles”: SouthWest Options for Women — Nov. 13: 7–9:30 p.m. at Our Lady of Grace’s Cassidy Hall, 5071 Eden Ave., Edina. Holiday musical benefit to support SouthWest Options for Women. olgparish.org

MUSIC “An Evening with Mirandola: Sacred Works of the Flemish Renaissance” — Oct. 23: 8 p.m. at Holy Cross, 1621 University Ave., Minneapolis. The Mirandola Ensemble, under the direction of Nick Chalmers, will perform in the stunning acoustics of Holy Cross Church. The concert will feature sacred choral works of the Flemish Renaissance by composers Orlando di Lasso, Jacques Ockeghem and Josquin des Prez. ourholycross.org/musical-events

to be considered for publication: uTime and date of event uFull street address of event uDescription of event

uContact information in case of questions

ONLINE: TheCatholicSpirit.com/calendarsubmissions “Ars Moriendi: A ‘Spook-Tacular’ Concert with a Theological Message” — Oct. 30: 7–8 p.m. at Holy Cross, 1621 University Ave., Minneapolis. Come out on the Eve of All Hallows Eve for fun “spooktacular” thrills and a genuine theological message on life, death and life after death. The program will feature works of poetry, visual art, and music of Bach, Schubert, Ireland, Backman, Vierne and Bunk.

Costumes encouraged. ourholycross.org/musical-events

SPEAKERS MCCL Fall Tour pro-life gathering — Oct. 18: 7–8 p.m. at St. Peter, 1250 S. Shore Drive, Forest Lake. Join others for a pro-life educational presentation and learn about the challenges and ways to make a difference in protecting life. This free one-hour presentation is given by Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life (MCCL). mccl.org/falltour MCCL Fall Tour pro-life gathering — Oct 19: 7–8 p.m. at Maternity of Mary, 1414 Dale St. N., St. Paul. mccl.org/falltour

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20 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

OCTOBER 14, 2021

THELASTWORD

Dante Alighieri: 700 years of searching for ‘Paradiso’

By Peter Finney Jr. Catholic News Service

S

ept. 14 marked the 700th anniversary of the 1321 death of Florentine poet Dante Alighieri, whose epic poem, “The Divine Comedy,” continues to resonate today with its perceptive reflections on the human condition and on humanity’s seemingly endless search for God. For Jesuit High School alumnus Daniel Fitzpatrick, who as a teenager first read the poetic travelogue of a man wandering through hell, purgatory and heaven, the date also will mark a significant professional achievement.

Fitzpatrick, 30, recently finished a massive undertaking — translating all 14,000 lines of Dante’s work. His literary efforts will supplement 100 bronze sculptures by Canadian sculptor Timothy Schmalz — one for each canto in the poem — which were on display Sept. 14, in Florence, Italy.

The irony, Fitzpatrick notes, is that the city of Dante’s birth is the same city that also cast the esteemed writer into exile for the last 20 years of his life, the result of his being on the wrong side of a bitter feud between two warring political factions: those who sided with papal authority in governmental affairs versus those who favored imperial authority.

“Dante was more in favor of imperial authority, and because of his political views, he was exiled in 1301,” Fitzpatrick

CNS

Daniel Fitzpatrick’s new translation of Dante Alighieri’s epic poem, “The Divine Comedy,” is available in three volumes along with illustrations of 100 bronze sculptures — one for each canto in the poem — produced by Canadian sculptor Timothy Schmalz.

An oil painting entitled “Allegorical Portrait of Dante, late 16th century” is seen in this undated photo. Dante’s “Divine Comedy” is perhaps the most powerful depiction of the transcendent in Western literature.

SAMUEL H. KRESS COLLECTION VIA NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART | CNS

said. “He was basically told, ‘All your land, all your property is confiscated. You are never to come back to Florence, and if you come back, you will be burned alive.’”

Not quite paradiso.

There’s even a 21st century battle for Dante’s remains, Fitzpatrick said.

Dante was buried in Ravenna, 65 miles

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away, which has rebuffed recent efforts

by Florence to reclaim its native son’s remains.

Fitzpatrick, who is teaching this year at Jesuit High in Tampa, Florida, said Dante’s bitter exile provided an inescapable backdrop for his poem, which asks questions about humankind’s ultimate home.

“He writes about the pain of tasting another man’s bread, the pain of walking up and down on another man’s stairs,” Fitzpatrick said. “For the last 20 years of his life, he was wandering around Italy.”

Wandering such as Dante experienced, Fitzpatrick said, produces a pain “of not quite being in the place where we ultimately belong.”

There are about eight major translations of Dante’s Italian poem — written in a three-line (“terza rima”) style with an A-B-A rhyme scheme. Fitzpatrick, himself a poet, decided to do his own translation after reading a suggestion from Ezra Pound that one of the ways to improve as a poet was to translate a great poetic work from a different language.

Since he had studied Italian at the University of Dallas and also had a chance to meet Robert and Jean Hollander, who had produced an excellent translation of “The Divine Comedy,” Fitzpatrick felt it was “kind of an easy choice.”

Through a philosophy professor at Holy Apostles College and Seminary in Cromwell, Connecticut, he connected with Schmalz, the Canadian sculptor, who on his own was crafting the 100 bronze “Divine Comedy” sculptures.

The result of their collaboration is a three-volume book based on the three themes of Dante’s poem — The Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso — which includes pictures of the 100 sculptures.

The online version is also available at helpdantehelpitaly.com, with proceeds going to help with Italy’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The sculptures also can be viewed at dantesculpture.com.

Schmalz is internationally known for “Angels Unawares,” a Vatican sculpture with a traveling cast that was on display in August at the Basilica of St. Mary in

‘INTEGRAL PART’ OF CULTURE The life and works of the famed Italian poet Dante Alighieri remain a lasting treasure that embodies the virtue of hope so desperately needed in today’s world, Pope Francis said. In an apostolic letter commemorating the 700th anniversary of Dante’s death, the pope said he appreciated the Catholic poet’s work for the “enduring warnings and insights it contains for humanity as a whole, not simply believers.

Dante’s work is an integral part of our culture, taking us back to the Christian roots of Europe and the West,” he said in the letter. “It embodies that patrimony of ideals and values that the church and civil society continue to propose as the basis of a humane social order in which all can and must see others as brothers and sisters.” The apostolic letter was published by the Vatican March 25 to coincide with Italy’s celebration of Dante Day. According to the Italian news agency ANSA, scholars believed that on that date, the Italian poet began his allegorical journey through hell, purgatory and heaven, chronicled in the “Divine Comedy.”

Born in Florence, Italy, in 1265, Dante played an essential role in Italian literature by writing in the vernacular, not Latin, making literature more accessible to the wider public.

— CNS

Minneapolis; “Homeless Jesus,” a statue with casts installed worldwide, including at the Basilica; and a statue of St. Thomas Aquinas, commissioned by and recently installed at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul.

Schmalz’s “Divine Comedy” sculptures are approximately 18-by-18 inches, and Fitzpatrick said there are hopes to create Dante sculpture gardens in different cities around the world.

In the end, Fitzpatrick said, the poem uses simple conversations to discuss humans’ “fear, uncertainty and desire for ultimate rest in the contemplation of God.” “It’s very easy to see ourselves in Dante, to see all of our brokenness and also the whole trajectory of where we aspire to be as Catholics,” he said. “Along with that, Dante has a very stable vision of what human beings should be. All the suffering of Dante as the lost pilgrim at the start of the poem comes from a sense of knowing that there’s something better that we’re meant for — a sense of heaven.

“Even if people don’t articulate that, it’s really easy to identify with. From our own experience, we want to be happy, but then there is our sinfulness and anxieties, he said. The poem is such a powerful vehicle for conversion and for constant renewal and for our striving for holiness.”