October 11, 2018 • Newspaper of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis
The pope and the martyr
Hipster and Catholic Convert to the Church leaves behind a life he calls “spiritual, but not religious” and writes a book about his journey.
New saints offer youths a road map to holiness
— Page 13
By Junno Arocho Esteves Catholic News Service
Neighbor to Angels
T
Next to Academy of Holy Angels, St. Peter, Richfield, celebrates 75 years in a suburb now considered one of the most ethnically diverse in Minnesota. — Page 5
Filled with faith With the Synod of Bishops on young adults underway at the Vatican, local Catholics under age 31 explain why they love the Church. — Pages 10-11
Why SPO works Gordy DeMarais offers thoughts on why the outreach he founded more than 40 years ago continues to be effective in evangelizing college students. — Page 14
Lessons from refugees College freshman reflects on spending two months in Malaysia serving at a school for Rohingya children. — Page 15
Lighting the way for Mary DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT
John Dufner, right, and his sister, Katie, of Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Maplewood pray the rosary as they walk in a light rain down John Ireland Boulevard on their way to the Cathedral of St. Paul during the annual Candlelight Rosary Procession Oct. 5. Hundreds made the walk from the State Capitol to the Cathedral, including Archbishop Bernard Hebda, who led a prayer service at the Cathedral after the procession. Earlier that day, students from Catholic schools in the archdiocese gathered at the Cathedral for the annual Children’s Rosary Pilgrimage.
‘A refugee camp right here in our city’ Homeless, volunteers say recognizing dignity key to helping encampment residents By Maria Wiering The Catholic Spirit
“W
ould you like a sandwich? Do you want water, too?” Emaly Torres crouched down to pass a ham and cheese sandwich through a tent’s low opening. Torres, 18, and other members of her young adult group at Holy Rosary in Minneapolis were handing out food and bottled water to people living at the large homeless encampment at Franklin and Hiawatha Avenues in Minneapolis. The camp is two blocks from their church. It was after sunset, and most of the camp’s residents had retreated to their tents for the night. Those outside were talking quietly; some huddled near a fire that burned along a sidewalk, the camp’s main thoroughfare. The air smelled like woodsmoke and dry leaves as the Holy Rosary group walked from one end of the camp to the other, the downtown skyline visible beyond them. Laura Carpio, 29, said that she was used to seeing homeless encampments like that when she lived in Costa Rica. When she immigrated four years ago, she didn’t expect to see that kind of poverty in the United States. But, she said, interacting with the people there gives her hope that things can change for them. The homeless encampment began as a cluster of a few tents in July, and it has grown to more than 150, with an estimated
DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT
Oscar Luna of Holy Rosary in Minneapolis hands out food at an encampment for homeless people two blocks from the church Oct. 2. He was part of a group of eight young adults from the parish who came to give food and water to people living there. 300-plus residents — perhaps the largest of its kind ever in Minnesota. What to do about the site — and its people, including children — has been a vexing question for community leaders, as the city faces shortages in temporary shelters and lowincome housing. Shawn Phillips, the pastoral minister of Gichitwaa Kateri parish, which is home to the Native American ministry of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, said he goes down to the camp nearly every day, sometimes to help serve a meal, sometimes to talk with residents for hours. The camp grew as people heard that organizations were offering services there, and that there were efforts underway to find PLEASE TURN TO HOMELESS CAMP ON PAGE 7
he Catholic Church has its share of young saints who gave witness through their lives that holiness can be attained even at a young age. Others, like Blesseds Paul VI and Oscar Romero, show that the path to holiness begins early. The two will be declared saints Oct. 14 during the Synod of Bishops on young people and discernment. Although Pope Paul VI is best remembered for seeing the Second Vatican Council through to its end and helping implement its farreaching reforms, his journey toward holiness began much earlier in life, said Father Claudio Zanardini, rector of the Basilica di Santa Maria delle Grazie in the northern Italian province of Brescia, where Blessed Paul VI celebrated his first Mass May 30, 1920. “We here in Brescia are trying — at Pope Francis’ request — to make Paul VI’s younger years more known. That is, how he lived his time of vocational discernment and his formation so that he can become a model for young people who are on their own path of formation,” Father Zanardini told Catholic News Service Sept. 27. Born Giovanni Battista Montini in 1897, the future pope and his brothers would attend youth meetings organized by the Oratory of St. Philip Neri in Brescia. Father Zanardini said that those gatherings were a time of “spiritual and human formation” for Blessed Paul, where he built friendships and adopted the local priests’ charism of ministering to young people. Blessed Paul’s relationship with his family as well as a “deep sense of prayerfulness and an acute involvement in the social issues of his time were one of the legacies of his parents and brothers,” Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila told CNS Sept. 25. “The family atmosphere centered on faith and the common good prepared him to be a discerning person: listening to God’s word and the world; being at home in the solitude of prayer, which gave him the most profound experience of communion and the decisiveness to pursue a discerned choice,” Cardinal Tagle said. PLEASE TURN TO CANONIZATION ON PAGE 8