The Catholic Spirit - September 26, 2019

September 26, 2019 • Newspaper of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis

thecatholicspirit.com

Archdiocesan synod Pre-Synod Prayer and Listening Events are underway across the archdiocese.

— Page 5

Farms and faith Founded in 1923, St. Paul-based Catholic Rural Life remains dedicated to farm families and communities.

— Pages 10-11

Climate concerns Leader of Rome-based Global Catholic Climate Movement visits Twin Cities.

— Page 12

Honoring ministry Three priests of the archdiocese talk about their recent retirements, plans for the future.

— Pages 13-14

Archbishop Harry J. Flynn May 2, 1933 – Sept. 22, 2019

Remembering our retired archbishop • Page 8 DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

2 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

SEPTEMBER 26, 2019

PAGETWO

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We give thanks for the time that Cokie Roberts graced this world of ours. We rejoice in her humor, her conviction of faith, and her womanly ability to bring out the best in us — and to insist on nothing less. Thanks be to God for the time that he gave her to us.

Washington Archbishop Wilton Gregory, in his homily for Roberts, a noted broadcast journalist and author, at her funeral Mass Sept. 21 at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington, D.C. Roberts, who had breast cancer, died Sept. 17 in Washington at age 75.

NEWS notes

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The number of parishes, schools and other venues in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis that will be on the tour of the International Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Fatima Oct. 1-22. The tour will feature processions, rosaries, all-night vigils, adoration, speakers and time for personal veneration of the statue. St. Wenceslaus campus of the New Prague Area Catholic Community will have an all-night vigil of reparation Oct. 4 and 5, then the statue will travel to All Saints in Lakeville for First Saturday devotions. The statue also will be at the annual Children’s Rosary Pilgrimage Oct. 7 at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul. Full tour details are listed at bluearmy.com/msptour. The statue has been traveling worldwide since 1947, and last came to the archdiocese in 2016.

36 COURTESY GARRETT FOSCO

HOLY LAND PILGRIMAGE Pilgrims descend into the Grotto of the Nativity in Bethlehem Aug. 28 as part of a journey with Father Joseph Williams, leader of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ Latino Ministry and pastor of St. Stephen in Minneapolis. Forty-seven Latino pilgrims from five archdiocesan parishes participated, traveling to such sites as the Sea of Galilee, the Jordan River, the Dead Sea and Jerusalem.

“I believe those who made this pilgrimage were seeking to walk in Jesus’ footsteps, to weep where he suffered and died and to rejoice where he rose from the dead,” Father Williams said.

The number of months St. Bridget in north Minneapolis has been participating in ecumenical prayer services called Come Together. The events happen monthly at local churches of various denominations, and feature prayer along with opportunities for speakers to share their experiences of violence. A week after each event, people gather at the host church and prayerfully walk the neighborhood. Lutheran, Methodist, non-denominational congregations, seminarians of Luther Seminary and the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet have hosted Come Together events. St. Bridget hosted the first event Sept. 11, 2017.

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The number of days a now-suspended student at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul is accused by federal authorities of making bomb threats to the campus.

Because of the calls, parts or all of the campus were closed April 17, Aug. 20 and Sept. 17. Ray Persaud, 20, of Blaine, was arrested in the case. Julie Sullivan, university president, said if he is found responsible, Persaud will be expelled from the school.

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The number of years Natalie Ramier has served as chief financial officer at BenildeSt. Margaret’s School in St. Louis Park. She has been named a 2019 CFO of the Year by the Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal for her outstanding leadership and contribution to BSM. During her time at the school, she helped lead an $8 million capital campaign during the 2018-19 school year called Imagine. Innovate. Inspire. As a result of the campaign, the school celebrated the opening in January of three state-of-the-art science classrooms and an amphitheater-style performance and collaboration space.

122 COURTESY ADAM HANSON

MAN OF STEEPLE Adam Hanson of Hanson’s Painting and Remodeling in Mayer dons a Superman costume as he scales the steeple at St. Mary in Stillwater Sept. 4. He also wore the superhero outfit when he did work at nearby St. Michael, which is visible in the background, in 2015. Hanson, 40, has been doing steeple repair work since he was 14, and refers to himself as a steeple jack. He started his business in 2000 with his father, David, who had been doing steeple repair work since his teenage years. The two worked together until David’s death in 2014. Adam completed the work at St. Mary Sept. 19, which included installing a new metal roof on the church building and steeple.

CORRECTION Father Michael Joncas’ Focus on Faith column in the Sept. 12 edition was written for the Aug. 22 issue and the Gospel reading of Aug. 25, Luke 13:22-30. The Catholic Spirit apologizes for the error.

The Catholic Spirit is published semi-monthly for The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis Vol. 24 — No. 18 MOST REVEREND BERNARD A. HEBDA, Publisher TOM HALDEN, Associate Publisher MARIA C. WIERING, Editor-in-Chief

The number of days Prolife Across America has rented an iMovie billboard in New York City’s Times Square. The 30 by 60-foot billboard wraps around the side of a building and has been flashing the organization’s pro-life message a minimum of three times an hour since June 1.

Prolife Across America has the billboard through Sept. 30. Mary Ann Kuharski, the founder of Prolife Across America, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary, said it’s the first time her organization has had a billboard in Times Square. She said it was possible due to a discounted price and the help of financial supporters. She was offered the opportunity to do it again from November through January, which she is hoping to accept. She said additional financial help will be needed to do it a second time. Those interested can visit prolifeacrossamerica.org or call 612-781-0410.

175

The number of volunteers from Immaculate Conception in Columbia Heights who packed 2,000 care kits, a portion of which will go to Hurricane Dorian victims in the Bahamas, in a Gather4Good event Sept. 15. Catholic United Financial, a fraternal benefits organization in Roseville, provided a matching grant of $1,000 through its Catholic United Financial Foundation, which provides disaster relief.

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SEPTEMBER 26, 2019

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 3

FROMTHEBISHOP ONLY JESUS | BISHOP ANDREW COZZENS

Canonization of Cardinal John Henry Newman

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n just a few weeks, Pope Francis will canonize Cardinal John Henry Newman, one of the most important Church figures in the last two centuries. Even though he lived in the 19th century (1801-1890), he is often called the absent Father of Vatican II, because his ideas about evangelization, the role of the laity, the place of the university and the gift of conscience became so influential in the council. Many people think he will one day be named a doctor of the Church. Although his homilies are long by our standards, they are inspirational and speak to the modern world. They deal with real struggles of our own walk with Christ, especially how to deal with ideas that undermine our Catholic faith today.

If you begin to read them, you catch the fire of holiness and love that burned in the heart of Cardinal Newman.

They are all online (newmanreader.org).

Cardinal Newman rose quickly in the Anglican Church and was very successful as a scholar and preacher. He served in what many considered the Anglican Church’s most prestigious academic post, the pastor of the Church of St. Mary at Oxford. In the middle of what should have been the high point of his ecclesiastical career he did a very unexpected thing. He resigned his post, and took a small parish where he did some real soul searching. After a period of discernment he did an even more unexpected thing, he left the Anglican Church and became a Catholic priest. He did this, because after an honest study

Canonización del cardenal John Henry Newman

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n pocas semanas, el Papa Francisco canonizará al cardenal John Henry Newman, una de las figuras más importantes de la Iglesia en los últimos dos siglos. A pesar de que vivió en el siglo XIX (1801-1890), a menudo se le llama el Padre ausente del Vaticano II, porque sus ideas sobre la evangelización, el papel de los laicos, el lugar de la universidad y el don de la conciencia se volvieron tan influyentes en el concilio. Muchas personas piensan que algún día será nombrado doctor de la Iglesia. Aunque sus homilías son largas para nuestros estándares, son inspiradoras y hablan al mundo moderno. Se ocupan de las luchas reales de nuestra propia caminata con Cristo, especialmente cómo lidiar con las ideas que socavan nuestra fe católica hoy en día. Si empiezas a leerlos, captas el fuego de la santidad y el amor que ardía en el corazón del cardenal Newman.

Todos están en línea (newmanreader.org).

El cardenal Newman se levantó rápidamente en la Iglesia Anglicana y tuvo mucho éxito como erudito y predicador.

Sirvió en lo que muchos consideraban el puesto académico más prestigioso de la Iglesia Anglicana, el pastor de la Iglesia de Santa María en Oxford. En medio de lo que debería haber sido el punto culminante de su carrera eclesiástica hizo algo muy inesperado. Renunció a su

of the Scriptures and the early Christian writers, he became convinced that Catholicism was true and that it was the Church that Jesus had established. He did it at great personal cost, because in England at that time Catholics were often persecuted, despised and thought to be anti-intellectual.

Cardinal Newman realized that the ideas of the modern world would put a great strain on Christian teaching.

Already in his day he saw people questioning the authority of Scripture based on the modern methods of interpretation. He also realized that Christianity contained the truth that was necessary for salvation. The truth contained in the creeds and the traditions of the Church. He pointed out in one of his most famous works, “On the Development of Christian Doctrine,” that it would not make sense for God to give us in Jesus Christ the truth necessary for salvation and not also give us a way to keep that truth safe from corruption. The ideas present in the seed of divine revelation would surely have to grow and develop as even natural organisms do. But those same ideas could be corrupted and changed if not protected. He knew that Scripture alone could not be this infallible guide. Even though Scripture is the infallible word of God, there is often disagreement about how to interpret Scripture. Rather, there must be a living, infallible, authority that could interpret Scripture and tradition for our needs today. Then he looked around, and realized that only one Church claimed to have such an infallible authority — the Catholic Church. He knew at that moment he had to become a Catholic.

Cardinal Newman did not understand the infallibility of the Church in a simplistic way. He knew it was not only contained in the official infallible statements of the pope (which, by the way, there have only been two in the history of the Church). He understood infallibility was maintained in different ways in the Church through her official councils, through what the Church has always and everywhere taught, and even through the sense of the faithful, which could not be shaken from the truth when false teachings were introduced. He wrote a work that was considered controversial at the time, “On

puesto, y tomó una pequeña parroquia donde hizo una búsqueda real de su alma.

Después de un período de discernimiento hizo algo aún más inesperado, dejó la Iglesia Anglicana y se convirtió en sacerdote católico. Lo hizo, porque después de un estudio honesto de las Escrituras y de los primeros escritores cristianos, se convenció de que el catolicismo era verdadero y de que era la Iglesia que Jesús había establecido. Lo hizo a un gran costo personal, porque en Inglaterra en ese momento los católicos eran a menudo perseguidos, despreciados y pensados como anti-intelectuales.

El cardenal Newman se dio cuenta de que las ideas del mundo moderno pondrían una gran presión sobre la enseñanza cristiana. Ya en su época vio a personas cuestionando la autoridad de las Escrituras basándose en los métodos modernos de interpretación. También se dio cuenta de que el cristianismo contenía la verdad necesaria para la salvación, la verdad contenida en los credos y las tradiciones de la Iglesia. Señaló en una de sus obras más famosas, “Sobre el desarrollo de la doctrina cristiana”, que no tendría sentido que Dios nos diera en Jesucristo la verdad necesaria para la salvación y no nos diera también una manera de mantener esa verdad a salvo de la corrupción. Las ideas presentes en la semilla de la revelación divina seguramente tendrían que crecer y desarrollarse como lo hacen incluso los organismos naturales. Pero esas mismas ideas podrían ser corrompidas y cambiadas si no se protegían. Sabía que la Escritura por sí sola no podía ser esta guía infalible.

Aunque la Escritura es la palabra infalible de Dios, a menudo hay desacuerdo sobre

Consulting the Faithful in Matters of Doctrine.” To Cardinal Newman, the faithful obviously meant those Christians who were fully living as disciples of Jesus, not just anyone who happened to call themselves Catholic.

The sensus fidelium was one of the ways that God used in the history of the Church to protect her teachings when heresies entered in that could corrupt them. He pointed out that when the priest Arius proposed a new understanding of Jesus in the fourth century, most of the bishops bought into this “Arian Heresy,” that Jesus was the first of all creation and not fully divine. It was the laity, who were formed by the Sacred Liturgy and prayed to Jesus Christ as God, who saved the true teaching.

Hence Cardinal Newman believed in the gift of a wellformed laity. To implement this, after he became Catholic, he began a course of study for the laity at the university he started in Dublin. Also at this time, he wrote one of his most important books, “The Idea of a University,” which is still the greatest description of what a modern Catholic university should be.

Although he was made a cardinal by Pope Leo XIII in 1879, Cardinal Newman was not always received well by the Church. And he could see the weaknesses of the Catholic Church, especially in some of its leaders. But this did not shake his faith in the Church, and he never regretted his decision to become a Catholic. He knew that Christ was in the Church and always leading it. As he wrote in “The Idea of a University”: “Trust the Church of God implicitly, even when your natural judgment would take a different course from hers, and would induce you to question her prudence or her correctness.

Recollect what a hard task she has; how she is sure to be criticized and spoken against, whatever she does; — recollect how much she needs your loyal and tender devotion. Recollect, too, how long is the experience gained in eighteen hundred years, and what a right she has to claim your assent to principles which have had so extended and so triumphant a trial. Thank her that she has kept the faith safe for so many generations, and do your part in helping her to transmit it to generations after you.”

cómo interpretar la Escritura. Más bien, debe haber una autoridad viva, infalible y que pueda interpretar la Escritura y la tradición para nuestras necesidades de hoy. Entonces miró a su alrededor, y se dio cuenta de que sólo una Iglesia decía tener esta autoridad infalible, la Iglesia Católica.

Sabía en ese momento que tenía que convertirse en católico.

El cardenal Newman no entendía la infalibilidad de la Iglesia de una manera simplista. Sabía que no sólo estaba contenido en las declaraciones oficiales infalibles del Papa (que, por cierto, sólo ha habido dos en la historia de la Iglesia).

Entendió que la infalibilidad se mantenía de diferentes maneras en la Iglesia a través de sus consejos oficiales, a través de lo que la Iglesia ha enseñado siempre y en todas partes, e incluso a través del sentido de los fieles, que no podía ser sacudido de la verdad cuando es falso enseñanzas.

Escribió una obra que se consideró controvertida en ese momento, “Sobre la consulta de los fieles en materia de doctrina”. Para el cardenal Newman, los fieles obviamente se referían a aquellos cristianos que vivían plenamente como discípulos de Jesús, no a cualquiera que se llamara católico. El sensus fidelium fue una de las formas que Dios utilizó en la historia de la Iglesia para proteger sus enseñanzas cuando entraron herejías que podían corromperlas. Señaló que cuando el sacerdote Arius propuso una nueva comprensión de Jesús en el siglo IV, la mayoría de los obispos compraron en a esta “Heresía aria”, que Jesús era la primera de toda la creación y no totalmente divina. Fueron los laicos, que fueron formados por la Sagrada Liturgia y oraron a Jesucristo como Dios, los que salvaron la

verdadera enseñanza. Por lo tanto, el cardenal Newman creía en el don de un laico bien formado. Para implementar esto, después de convertirse en católico, comenzó un curso de estudio para los laicos en la universidad que comenzó en Dublín. También en este momento, escribió uno de sus libros más importantes, “La idea de una universidad”, que sigue siendo la mejor descripción de lo que debería ser una universidad católica moderna.

Aunque fue nombrado cardenal por el Papa León XIII en 1879, el cardenal Newman no siempre fue bien recibido por la Iglesia. Y vio las debilidades de la Iglesia Católica, especialmente en algunos de sus líderes. Pero esto no sacudió su fe en la Iglesia, y nunca lamentó su decisión de convertirse en católico. Sabía que Cristo estaba en la Iglesia y siempre la guiaba.

Como escribió en “La idea de una universidad”: “Confía en la Iglesia de Dios implícitamente, incluso cuando tu juicio natural tomaría un curso diferente al de ella, y te induciría a cuestionar su prudencia o su corrección. Recuerda lo difícil que es la tarea que tiene; cómo está seguro de ser criticada y hablada en contra, haga lo que haga; — recuerda cuánto (la Iglesia) necesita tu leal y tu tierna devoción. Recordemos, también, cuánto tiempo es la experiencia adquirida en dieciochocientos años, y qué derecho tiene para reclamar su consentimiento a los principios que han extendido tanto y tan triunfante una prueba. Agradezca a la iglesia que ha mantenido la fe a salvo durante tantas generaciones, y haga su parte para ayudarla a transmitirla a generaciones posteriores a ustedes.”

4 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

SEPTEMBER 26, 2019

LOCAL

SLICEof LIFE

Powwow at St. Peter

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Ameyloni Samreth, 14, of Minneapolis dances during the 20th annual Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota Tribal Community Powwow at St. Peter in Mendota Sept. 14. The event, which took place Sept. 13-15, started when the former pastor of St. Peter, Father Kevin Clinton, wanted to invite the tribal community to the parish grounds as a way of acknowledging historical injustices against Native Americans and to promote healing. Samreth came to the powwow with her mother, Sasina, who has been coming for the last 10 years. “I really do enjoy the fact that the church (of St. Peter) is so supportive of the Mdewakanton community,” said Sasina, 35, who is a member of the White Earth Ojibwa and also does ceremonial dancing at powwows.

“My grandparents are all Catholic, and so I do feel a connection to the Catholic Church. I myself am not Catholic, but I do really understand the (Church’s) guiding principles of love. And, the support that they give us really means a lot.”

LOCAL

SEPTEMBER 26, 2019

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 5

Program is new step on education Roadmap

By Debbie Musser For The Catholic Spirit As a new fourth-grade teacher at St. John Paul II Catholic School in Minneapolis, Katie Ward said she loves working with the students.

“Each scholar is such a meaningful part of our classroom community, and I am really enjoying getting to know them and the gifts they bring to the class,” she said.

Ward is just getting her bearings, not only at St. John Paul II, but in the profession. And she is sharing that experience with three other instructors new to teaching and to Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

They are part of a program for students getting their master’s degrees at the University of Notre Dame called the Alliance for Catholic Education. Fresh off a summer of intense study at Notre Dame, they are the first from that program to serve in the archdiocese.

Gayle Stoffel, associate director of the Office for the Mission of Catholic Education, said ACE is enriching the archdiocese’s strategic approach to talent management as outlined in its Roadmap for Excellence in Catholic Education.

Announced in January, the Roadmap focuses on talent management, curriculum and metrics, access and sustainability, mission schools and local governance.

“For over 25 years, ACE has excelled in forming aspiring teachers with the aptitude, imagination and zeal to strengthen Catholic education as both professional educators and witnesses of Christ the teacher,” Stoffel said. “We are overjoyed to welcome the ACE teaching fellows and support them in their formation, especially at this time in the life of the archdiocese.”

John Schoenig, senior director of teacher formation and education policy for ACE, said the program takes college graduates and “forms them as Catholic school teachers.”

“They do this over two years, living in small communities with other ACE teachers, taking course work and completing a practicum,

Prayer and listening events are underway in archdiocese

COURTESY ALLIANCE FOR CATHOLIC EDUCATION

Newly-arrived teachers from the University of Notre Dame, from left, Michael Kenney, Katie Ward, Samantha Deitschel and Lucas Masin-Moyer, are part of the university’s Alliance for Catholic Education post-graduate program. that concludes with a fully-funded master’s degree from Notre Dame,” Schoenig said.

The ACE teachers live together in St. Paul. In addition to Ward, Samantha Deitschel is teaching at Hill-Murray and Michael Kenney is at St. Jerome, both in Maplewood.

Lucas Masin-Moyer is teaching at Blessed Trinity in Richfield.

Each has special support from Katie Moran, ACE associate program director. Moran grew up in the Twin Cities, attending Our Lady of Grace School in Edina and Visitation School in Mendota Heights before graduating from Notre Dame. She, too, served as an ACE teaching fellow, instructing middle school students in Indianapolis.

“Those were by far the most challenging and yet formative and fulfilling two years of my life thus far,” Moran said. “As pastoral supervisor, I have had the pleasure of spending time with the teaching fellows on campus this summer and will visit them once per semester during the school year, going to their classrooms and St. Paul home, sharing meals and checking in with each of them one-on-one.”

Schoenig said the majority of teachers come into ACE with relatively little background in education. Yet 70 percent of the

2,000 ACE graduates remain in education.

“Young people today have a real desire to live a life of meaning, and in that regard, teaching stands alone, building a world for a set of kids,” he said. “There’s also a missionary zeal amongst young people, to live a life of adventure, and to be around people they want to be with. ACE offers those opportunities.”

Established in 1994, ACE now places more than 180 college graduates in 130 Catholic schools throughout 31 dioceses/archdioceses in 16 states each year. Schoenig said about half of a typical cohort are UND graduates, and the rest come from universities nationwide.

Tricia Menzhuber, principal at St. John Paul II School in Minneapolis, said she was an ACE teaching fellow, and she enjoys supporting Ward at her school. A graduate of the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Menzhuber served as an ACE teaching fellow at an all-female high school in southeast Los Angeles.

“ACE built a Catholic school champion in me for life,” Menzhuber said. “I am blessed to have a beautiful vocation, and I know that Katie is a part of a community that will challenge her in the best of ways.”

Twenty Pre-Synod Prayer and Listening Events are being held around the archdiocese this fall and winter to advise Archbishop Bernard Hebda on what topics should be addressed in the 2021 Archdiocesan Synod.

With the aid of the Holy Spirit and the faithful across the archdiocese, the archbishop will discern what he hears during the 2021 Synod to formulate a plan for meeting the archdiocese’s pastoral needs in the ensuing five to 10 years.

The three-hour events will include prayer, a presentation by the archbishop, reflection and discussion of two questions: 1) What are you grateful for and what is working well in our parishes and archdiocese? and 2) Which pastoral challenges or opportunities is God calling us to address in our archdiocese?

Archbishop Hebda plans to attend each event, along with members of the synod’s consultative teams.

The written comments of all who attend will be read and processed. Two bilingual events will be held this fall, in English and Spanish at Our Lady of Guadalupe in St. Paul, and in English and Vietnamese at St. Anne-St. Joseph Hien in Minneapolis. The following are the remaining fall events: u Saturday, Sept. 28, 9 a.m.–noon St. Michael 11300 Frankfort Parkway NE, St. Michael u Friday, Oct. 11, 6–9 p.m.

Guardian Angels 8260 Fourth St. N., Oakdale u Saturday, Oct. 12, 9 a.m.–noon Our Lady of Guadalupe 401 Concord St., St. Paul Bilingual (English and Spanish) u Saturday, Oct. 26, 9 a.m.–noon St. Peter 1250 South Shore Drive, Forest Lake u Tuesday, Oct. 29, 6–9 p.m.

Divine Mercy 139 Mercy Drive, Faribault u Thursday, Nov. 7, 6–9 p.m.

St. Wenceslaus 15 Main St. E., New Prague u Friday, Nov. 15, 6–9 p.m.

All Saints 19795 Holyoke Ave., Lakeville u S unday, Nov. 17, 1–4 p.m.

St. Anne-St. Joseph Hien 627 Queen Ave. N., Minneapolis Bilingual (English and Vietnamese) u For a complete list, go to TheCatholicSpirit.com/synod2021

Parish, Knights council to help rebuild church in Haiti

By Joe Ruff The Catholic Spirit A parish that has provided 10 years of pastoral, medical and other assistance to a church in Haiti is branching out with a construction project.

St. Joseph the Worker and Knights of Columbus Council 13359, both in Maple Grove, are holding an Oct. 5 benefit dinner for sister parish St. Catherine d’ Alexandre in Bouzy, Haiti, which in February lost its church to damage from years of earthquakes and hurricanes.

Parishes across the archdiocese have similar sister parish relationships with

congregations in other countries. This effort marks another direction in St. Joseph the Worker’s relationship, said Patrick Farrelly, a parishioner and Knight who is helping organize the event.

The benefit at Edinburgh USA Golf Course in Brooklyn Park will feature Matt Birk, a member of St. Joseph in West St. Paul and former Minnesota Vikings center and Super Bowl winner with the Baltimore Ravens, providing an “Evening of AllPro Wisdom.”

Cost is $150 and a table of eight is $1,200.

Organizers hope to raise $20,000 toward the expected

$400,000 cost of rebuilding the church, Farrelly said.

There is no insurance in Haiti.

The church suffered damage in a 2010 earthquake, and more damage from hurricanes that followed, Farrelly said.

Finally, the roof collapsed, and the crumbling walls had to be torn down, he said.

St. Joseph the Worker’s and the Knights’ decade of service to St. Catherine has included priests and parishioners going twice a year to provide pastoral care and medical supplies and assistance.

Volunteers often say they get more out of the visits than they are able to give, because of the

relationships that are built and the example of faith provided

by St. Catherine parishioners, Farrelly said.

During a visit in late 2017, retired St. Joseph pastor Father Don Piché and four parishioners escaped from their vehicle when it was swamped as their driver tried to cross a creek swollen by heavy rain.

For the first time this fall, St. Joseph the Worker volunteers will not be able to make a trip to Haiti, because of political unrest there, Farrelly said. But volunteers made it there last spring, and the relationship continues, he said.

COURTESY SUZANNE KOENIGS

Dr. Mark Millis, a volunteer with St. Joseph the Worker of Maple Grove’s efforts to help St. Catherine d’ Alexandre parish in Bouzy, Haiti, views the rubble of St. Catherine church April 5.

6 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

LOCAL

SEPTEMBER 26, 2019

Hundreds pack hearing on ‘End-of-Life Options Act’

By Joe Ruff The Catholic Spirit

One person at the hearing, Dr. Brian Callister, traveled from northern Nevada to argue against the proposal. Two patients he worked with from states where doctor-assisted suicide is legal — California and Imam Asad Zaman expressed several concerns about a bill that would allow health care providers to prescribe Oregon — were denied life-saving treatment by medical directors of insurance companies who at the same time lethal drugs to people deemed terminally ill. brought up the option of assisted suicide, Callister said.

Among them is the need to maintain — and not “It’s not legal here,” Callister said he told them. undermine — the basic moral norm of defending life, “Well, it’s legal here,” came the replies. the executive director of the Muslim American Society Callister said he shared the experience with his of Minnesota in St. Paul told a legislative colleagues, who were alarmingly resigned and committee Sept. 11. unsurprised. Doctors are beginning to feel “One institutional safeguard we have defeated, he told the committee. placed as a society across religions, across “We’re going to move toward the cultural norms, across national origins, cheapest treatment,” he said. “And the is to say every life is dignified, every life cheapest treatment will be medicine is important, every life needs to be that will kill you.” defended,” he said.

One opponent to the legislation “I am very worried as a faith quoted the Catechism of the practitioner as to what happens in a Catholic Church’s teaching on society when that door gets opened. suicide: “It is gravely contrary to the And I’m worried about a second just love of self. It likewise offends door being opened, which is we love of neighbor because it unjustly want to interact with doctors on the breaks the ties of solidarity with basis of saving and preserving lives, family, nations, and other human not on the basis of hastening or societies to which we continue to have enabling death.” obligations. It is contrary to love for the Zaman was among nearly two dozen living God.” people who testified Sept. 11 at a threeiSTOCK | The MCC, a member of the Minnesota hour information hearing at the State Office RUNTSCH Alliance for Ethical Healthcare, placed an alert Building in St. Paul on a bill titled the “End-ofto the hearing on its website at mncatholic.org, and Life Options Act.” asked people to tell their legislators to oppose the bill.

More than 200 people packed one room and an The alliance, a coalition of more than 40 organizations overflow room at the hearing before the House Health representing the medical field, people with disabilities, and Human Services Policy Committee. The committee medical ethicists, elder-care workers and faith-based could advance the proposal when the Legislature organizations, also is tracking the issue, and updates can convenes in February. be found at its website, ethicalcaremn.org.

Eight states and the District of Columbia have The MCC also sent an action alert to thousands of approved medically assisted suicide. Rep. Mike Freiberg, laity, religious and clergy members of its Catholic DFL-Golden Valley, is the chief sponsor of the bill.

Advocacy Network. An action alert also is on Page 16 of “These are not people who want to die,” Freiberg told this issue of The Catholic Spirit. the committee. “These are people who are dying.”

The conference has raised several objections to the But advocates for the disabled, people who have experienced consequences of similar legislation in other proposal, saying it would: uEndanger the poor, the elderly, and vulnerable states, and leaders of faith communities including the adults through lack of appropriate safeguards.

Minnesota Catholic Conference, the public policy arm uAllow non-physicians to prescribe death-inducing of the state’s bishops, either testified or offered written drugs. testimony in opposition to the proposal. Many also uNot require patients to be residents of Minnesota, were present at the hearing. which would fuel suicide tourism.

Concerns about the bill include its provision that a uRequire all doctors who assist people with terminal person who wants a lethal prescription must have been conditions to advise the patient that assisted suicide is a given six months to live. It’s impossible to know how treatment option, distorting the role of health care long someone will live, opponents argued. professionals as healers who seek to “do no harm,” and The bill does not require a witness to a death, which undermining the trust between doctor and patient. opens the door to abuse and coercion, and the death certificate wouldn’t list suicide or homicide as the cause uCoerce health care professionals and provider of death, but the underlying illness, which would be organizations to participate in the assisted suicide fraudulent, opponents argued. process.

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Archbishop Hebda to oversee investigation of Crookston bishop

By Dave Hrbacek The Catholic Spirit Bishop Michael Hoeppner of Crookston is being investigated for allegedly thwarting a police or canonical investigation of clerical sexual misconduct, under protocols issued this year by Pope Francis, the Catholic News Agency reported Sept. 10.

Archbishop Bernard Hebda of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, as the metropolitan for the province of Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota, will oversee the investigation.

“Law enforcement has been notified of the allegations,” Archbishop Hebda said in a statement to CNA. “The allegations were reported to me under the procedures set out in BISHOP MICHAEL Pope Francis’ recent legislation HOEPPNER addressing bishop accountability, the ‘motu proprio’ (titled) ‘Vos Estis Lux Mundi.’”

Archbishop Hedba said he has “appointed qualified lay persons to assist me in carrying out this investigation, to provide an independent review of its contents, and assist in its examination and analysis. All involved in this investigation have been encouraged to respond to investigators’ requests and provide accurate information so that the truth in this matter may become clear.”

Archbishop Hebda did not go into detail about the allegations. However, Bishop Hoeppner has been accused of pressuring a candidate for the permanent diaconate in his diocese, Ron Vasek, into recanting a statement that he was abused by a priest as a teenager in 1971.

Bishop Hoeppner has denied the allegations brought by Vasek. He also remains in his post.

Archbishop Hebda noted that the investigation “is a preliminary one and not a full canonical process.” He will forward his report to the apostolic nuncio, the pope’s representative in the U.S., and to the Congregation for Bishops in Rome, to determine whether a subsequent process is warranted.

Anyone with information related to the investigation is asked to contact Tim O’Malley, director of Ministerial Standards and Safe Environment for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, at 651-290-1618 or omalleyt@ archspm.org.

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SEPTEMBER 26, 2019

LOCAL

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 7

Institute for Priestly Formation puts spiritual lives of priests front and center

By Joe Ruff The Catholic Spirit For Auxiliary Bishop Andrew Cozzens, there was a before and after in his spiritual life.

And it centered on a highly influential but, aside from those directly involved, little-known institute in Omaha, Nebraska.

The Institute for Priestly Formation, which this year is celebrating its 25th anniversary, offers retreats, spiritual direction and guidance, with a focus on seminarians and diocesan priests. Its offerings include a nine-week summer program on the campus of Creighton University, which this year attracted 177 seminarians from more than 60 U.S. dioceses, including five from the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

The institute also conducts retreats for bishops and seminary theologians, days of reflection for laity, theological forums and other programs.

Bishop Cozzens estimates that about 40 priests of the archdiocese have gone through spiritual direction training at IPF. Others have benefited from retreats and taught summer courses at the institute.

Bishop Cozzens said he first heard about IPF as a priest of the archdiocese in 2006, when he started work in seminary formation. He went on a 30day IPF silent retreat at Creighton in the summer of 2008.

“I would say that the retreat was for

me a very life-changing experience. I joke, sometimes, that for me there’s been two lives, one was before the retreat and one was after the retreat.

And the one after was a whole lot better than the one before.”

That retreat, with silence and time to be alone with God, brought a new way for Bishop Cozzens to view himself and his daily life with the Lord.

“You can’t escape yourself,” he said.

“You have to deal with yourself. And then you learn that that allows you to engage the world in a different way.”

“It gave me a desire to have that be part of my whole life, that I would always live in God’s presence, that I would always try to be with him.”

That focus on spirituality and carving out time to develop it is critically important, Bishop Cozzens said.

Seminaries are busy places where much is accomplished but time is limited, he said.

And as Priesthood Sunday approaches — Sept. 29 this year, a day set aside by Serra International to honor priests and affirm the role of the priesthood in the life of the Church — people might reflect on ways to support the spiritual lives of their pastors and other priests, Bishop Cozzens said.

There are many ways to advance spiritual development, not just IPF, the bishop said. But it could be said that IPF “has had a greater impact on the seminarians and priests in the United States than almost any other organization in the last 25 years, in

COURTESY FORD JACOBSEN

Auxiliary Bishop Andrew Cozzens talks with George Esseff of California, an emeritus member of the Institute for Priestly Formation’s Mission Advisory Council, during IPF’s 25th anniversary celebration in July in Omaha, Nebraska. terms of the depth of their impact helping priests and seminarians appreciate and grow in a life of prayer and in the skills of spiritual direction,” said Bishop Cozzens, who is on IPF’s corporate board as treasurer as well as its bishops and mission advisory councils. Father Joseph Taphorn, a native of Omaha who has been involved as a spiritual director with IPF and in January began serving as rector of The St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity, said it wasn’t the case before, but now the archdiocese is asking its seminarians to attend an IPF summer session as they enter their studies at the graduate level seminary.

“It gives a man an opportunity to have a very intentional and focused relationship with our Lord,” Father Taphorn said of the sessions, which begin with an eight-day silent retreat.

“It’s a chance to say, ‘this is what we’re about this summer.’”

Father Jonathan Kelly, who teaches at the undergraduate St. John Vianney College Seminary in St. Paul, has been on two, 30-day retreats at the institute, in 2007 and 2017. He also has taught at IPF and helped direct the 30-day retreats, which he calls

“transformational.”

“Transformational is the Lord doing the work and speaking to us in a way that we’ll never forget,” Father Kelly said. “The silence of a 30-day retreat and a good spiritual director (guiding the retreat) who stays silent, who might see it but waits for the Lord to say it, that is transformational.”

As priests and seminarians develop their spiritual lives, they can help others grow in similar fashion, Bishop Cozzens said.

“It really helps priests strengthen their own identity as a spiritual father and as a spiritual director as they serve in the priesthood,” Bishop Cozzens said.

“They (IPF) teach people how to bring their real lives into relationship with God, and that affects a man’s preaching, that affects the way a man cares for people in very positive ways,” Bishop Cozzens said. “It’s why we want our seminarians when possible to go through at an early stage, so that they early on begin to recognize that their lives are being brought into this relationship with God. And then they can help others to do that.”

PRIESTHOOD SUNDAY • SEPTEMBER 29 Thank you to all our priests who serve faithfully in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

8 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

LOCAL

SEPTEMBER 26, 2019

Retired Archbishop Flynn stressed prayer, people

By Bob Zyskowski For The Catholic Spirit

I

n the 13 years he led the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Archbishop Harry J. Flynn made time for two things: prayer and people. During his ministry, he was well loved by many for his gentle, personal nature and lauded for his roles in fighting racism, bolstering interfaith relationships and fostering vocations to the priesthood.

The archbishop emeritus of St. Paul and Minneapolis died Sept. 22 at age 86 in his residence at the St. Vincent de Paul rectory in St. Paul. He had battled cancer in recent years.

An all-night prayer vigil and public visitation are set for Sept. 29 at The St. Paul Seminary chapel, followed by public visitation and a funeral Mass Sept. 30 at the Cathedral of St. Paul. After the Mass, the Rite of Committal and burial will be at Resurrection Cemetery in Mendota Heights.

Ordained a priest of the Diocese of Albany, New York, Archbishop Flynn served parishes in his home diocese; was rector of Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland; was bishop of the Diocese of Lafayette in Louisiana and Archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Orphaned at age 12 Harry Joseph Flynn was born May 2, 1933, in Schenectady, New York, to William and Margaret Mahoney Flynn.

His father died when he was 6 years old.

In September of 1945, with older brothers away in military service, 12-year-old Harry was living alone with his widowed mother. When he woke the day after Labor Day to begin his first day of seventh grade at St. Columba School in Schenectady, he found his mother dead.

He was then raised by a pair of maiden aunts, and he often spoke fondly of two Sisters of St. Joseph — Sister William Edmund and Mother Maris Stella — whom he said shepherded him with tender care through the remainder of his elementary and secondary schooling, which led to his fond regard for women religious throughout his life.

He earned both a bachelor of arts and a master’s degree in English from Siena College, a small Franciscan school in nearby Loudonville, New York.

“Two or three classmates were joining the Franciscans at the time I was thinking about the priesthood,” he said in a 1994 interview. “They said, ‘Come with us,’ but I decided I wanted to stay close to home, and I chose diocesan priesthood.”

He studied at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland, where he befriended Oklahoma seminarian Stanley Rother, who would later be martyred in Guatemala and then beatified in 2017. The two were good friends until Father Rother’s death, and Archbishop Flynn often spoke and wrote about him. In a 2017 interview with The Catholic Spirit, he spoke of the priest’s attackers: “They killed a man, but they created a saint.”

Archbishop Flynn was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Albany May 28, 1960. As a young priest, he served pastoral assignments and taught at Central Catholic High School in Troy, New York. After five years, however, he was back in Emmitsburg, appointed dean of Mount St. Mary’s Seminary. He served next as the seminary’s vice rector and then rector from 1970-79.

He recalled being at a crossroads in his life in 1979. He was at the point where he felt he had to decide whether he was going to make a life of seminary administration or other ministry. He chose to go back to his home diocese, returning as Albany’s diocesan director of clergy continuing education. Two years later he was named pastor of St. Ambrose parish in Latham, New York, north of Albany. His time in Latham he termed “five gloriously happy years as pastor.”

“There’s something about being pastor,” Archbishop Flynn told the Catholic Bulletin, predecessor of The Catholic Spirit. “One has the possibility of assisting and forming a community and can experience the direction that a community is taking. You’re with people in pain and sorrow and joy. You become one with them. The most comfortable I’ve ever felt was in my years as pastor.”

Those years, however, were to be few.

In 1986, Pope John Paul II appointed him coadjutor bishop of the Diocese of Lafayette, in south-central Louisiana. Then-Father Flynn didn’t want the job. Happy to be a parish priest, he went to his family’s cabin in the Adirondacks to attempt to dodge the appointment.

Hiding was not possible. Cardinal John O’Connor of New York sent a state trooper to bring him back.

As Archbishop Flynn would tell the story years later, Cardinal O’Connor reminded him that it was the Church that was calling him to serve, and when the Church calls, you say yes.

Lafayette was a diocese in crisis at the time, reeling from one of the first cases of priestly sexual abuse to receive national attention. While Bishop Flynn was hailed at the time for his willingness to listen to victims of abuse and his compassionate style in the diocese, victim-survivors and their family members interviewed in a 2014 Minnesota Public Radio investigation said then-Bishop Flynn never reached out. It also reported that he allowed at least one accused priest to remain in ministry and sought to cover up allegations. Archbishop Flynn never publicly addressed the criticism.

When Bishop Gerald Frey retired in 1989, Bishop Flynn became bishop of Lafayette. He took a strong stance against racism and capital punishment, visited jails and prisons, and made a point to visit every Catholic school in the diocese every year. He led days of recollection for all sorts of groups. He also began to personally encourage young men discerning a vocation by inviting them to dine with him and talk about their dreams, an approach he used in Minnesota as well.

It was in Lafayette that he said he first worked with and came to appreciate a collegial style of leadership and what he called “the welcoming love” of not only Cajun Catholics but also a large African-American community.

Notre Dame Sister Joanna Valoni, then Lafayette’s chancellor, who spoke with The Catholic Spirit before her death in 2002, said person-to-person relationships were very important to him.

Although the bishop was from the East Coast, she said, “he was able to blend in and be one of us. He also accepts all kinds of people in all schools of thought. He sees the person; he doesn’t see the philosophy.”

Witnessing Bishop Flynn in action prompted Archbishop John Roach to place him high on a list of five possible candidates to succeed him as archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis when he requested a coadjutor archbishop.

Archbishop Roach and Bishop Flynn both served on the Administrative Board of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, the leadership body that guides policies of the Church in the United States. Both were also members of the U.S. bishops’ first Ad Hoc Committee on Sexual Abuse by Priests.

In explaining his admiration for Bishop Flynn in a 1994 interview, Archbishop Roach said, “I have seen him operate with the greatest skill, and I know the respect that others have for him. I saw in him some real wisdom and a genuine sense of the sacred character of other people. I saw a tremendous sense of justice.”

Archbishop Flynn later became chairman of the bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee on Sexual Abuse by Priests, and guided it through the challenging days of 2002-2003 as the bishops faced a nationwide scandal, culminating in what would come to be called the Dallas Charter, after the site of the U.S. bishops’ meeting where the charter was approved.

However, in 2013 Minnesota’s statute of limitations on child sex abuse was temporarily lifted, ultimately resulting in accusations from about 450 victim-survivors, including people alleging abuse during Archbishop Flynn’s tenure.

Investigations into the abuse prompted questions about some of the decisions he made. When questioned under oath in May 2014, he said he did not remember how he handled sexual abuse cases while leading the archdiocese.

At home in Minnesota As the seventh archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis, succeeding Archbishop Roach on Sept. 8, 1995, Archbishop Flynn executed his office as much as a pastor as an administrator. He said his top priority was “to make the name of Jesus known and loved.”

“Archbishop Flynn had an incredible pastoral gift,” recalled retired Father Bob Hart, noting that history will remember him as “kind, compassionate.”

Father Charles Lachowitzer, vicar general and moderator of the curia of the archdiocese, noted, “Long before Pope Francis coined the phrase, ‘Joy of the Gospel,’ Archbishop Flynn lived that joy and wanted everyone else to share it, too.”

Thanks to the attraction of his joy and his personal enthusiasm for the priesthood, during most of Archbishop Flynn’s tenure the archdiocese ordained more priests than it lost through death and retirement.

Archbishop Flynn “was a ‘pastor’s pastor,’” Father Lachowitzer said. “The first time the new archbishop called

Funeral arrangements Sept. 29, St. Mary Chapel, The St. Paul Seminary 5:30 p.m., Reception of the body 7 p.m., Evening Prayer 7:30 p.m. — 7 a.m., Public visitation, vigil Sept. 30, St. Mary Chapel; Cathedral of St. Paul 7 a.m., Morning Prayer 7:30 a.m., Transfer of the body to Cathedral of St. Paul 8-11 a.m., Public visitation 11 a.m., Mass of Christian Burial me at the parish to simply ask how I was doing and express his gratitude for my priestly service, I thought I was special. It wasn’t too long after my surprise phone call from the archbishop that I found out he had called several pastors with the same message.”

As archbishop he adopted reform for Church employment practices and continued his firm stance against racial prejudice, writing “In God’s Image: Pastoral Letter on Racism” in 2003.

“We cannot be a Church that is true to the demands of the Gospel if we do not act justly, if we do not act to root out racism in the structures of our society and our Church,” he wrote. “And we cannot achieve personal holiness if we do not love tenderly, if we do not love and respect all human beings, regardless of their race, language or ethnic heritage.”

During his tenure, he greatly expanded the availability of the Mass in Spanish, launched an evangelization initiative in 2004, and worked to advance the Catholic Church’s relationships with local Protestant, Jewish and Muslim communities.

He also approved the name change of the diocesan newspaper from the Catholic Bulletin to The Catholic Spirit. The archbishop wrote a column for each issue, praised the newspaper staff for the ideological balance the publication presented, and, as publisher, often mentioned The Catholic Spirit in his speaking engagements as a way to encourage readership.

He retired to archbishop emeritus status May 2, 2008, after serving as archbishop in the Twin Cities and surrounding counties for 13 years, but he continued to assist in the archdiocese with confirmations and liturgies.

In his last interview with The Catholic Spirit before he retired, he was asked if he had a parting message.

“Love the Church. Love the Church. Love the Church,” he said. “And remember that the Church is the presence of Jesus Christ in our world.”

Father Lachowitzer recalled Archbishop Flynn as “sharpwitted, big-hearted and a devoted disciple of Jesus Christ.

“It was one of his special gifts to be in a parish and leave everyone feeling affirmed and appreciated,” he said. “I remember the first time I heard him open the penitential rite with an invitation to the people to close their eyes and imagine how much God loved them and how pleased God was with them. He invited the people to imagine God smiling upon them. People cried.”

In settings large or small, Archbishop Flynn was at home sharing stories with his profound insight into peoples’ lives, often with his self-effacing sense of humor and an Irish twinkle in his eyes.

Father John Ubel, rector of the Cathedral of St. Paul, called Archbishop Flynn “the most human man I have ever known.”

“Archbishop Flynn could read you like a book because he took the time to become familiar with the pages,” Father Ubel said. “He got to know us as priests, but first as people. We were men who came from families, who lived with parents and siblings, and who bore all the marks of those familial relationships. He will be truly missed, but often remembered with a smile and a story.”

Maria Wiering, editor-in-chief of The Catholic Spirit, contributed to this report.

Look for more coverage of Archbishop Flynn’s legacy in our Oct. 10 issue.

SEPTEMBER 26, 2019

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 9

NATION+WORLD HEADLINES u V Encuentro report goes to pope, Vatican. A delegation of U.S. bishops and laypeople visited Rome Sept. 13-18 to share with Pope Francis and Vatican officials the experiences and recommendations that came out of last year’s Fifth National Encuentro. Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles, vice president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, was part of the delegation, which offered a summary of challenges and opportunities in missionary discipleship and pastoral care of U.S. Hispanic and Latino communities. The national gathering in September 2018 of V Encuentro in Grapevine, Texas, brought together thousands of Hispanic/Latino leaders in ministries from across the United States. The bishops estimated more than 1 million Catholics participated in parish, diocesan and regional encuentros prior to the Grapevine meeting. Such gatherings were held in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, and Estela Villagran Manancero, director of the Office of Latino Ministry in the archdiocese, joined more than 20 others from the archdiocese at the Texas gathering. u Indiana launches investigation after discovery of aborted fetal remains. The state of Indiana, where late abortion doctor Ulrich Klopfer once operated three abortion clinics, is investigating how 2,246 aborted fetal remains from those clinics came to be found at Klopfer’s home in Illinois. Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill, at a news conference in Indianapolis Sept. 20, referred to Klopfer as “one of the most notorious abortionists in the history of Indiana.” Klopfer’s abortion centers in the northern Indiana cities of Fort Wayne, South Bend and Gary were abandoned after his medical license was suspended indefinitely in 2016 “as a result of a whole host of violations, including record-keeping,” Hill said.

The remains were found Sept. 13, 10 days after Klopfer’s death, and the attorney general summarized the investigation as “trying to determine how this happened, who was involved and what, if anything, we can do about it, and what we can do going forward to prevent this from happening in the future.”

u Court: Christian artists can refuse to make invites for samesex wedding. Arizona’s Catholic bishops praised the state Supreme Court’s Sept. 16 decision upholding the refusal by two Christian artists to create custom wedding invitations for same-sex couples based on their religious belief in marriage as being between one man and one woman. “We are grateful that the importance of religious liberty was recognized today by the Arizona Supreme Court,” the bishops said in a statement. “Today’s ruling striking down a Phoenix law that had threatened their ability to do so by potential government coercion is, therefore, a positive development for religious liberty.” The artists lost their case in front of a trial judge and the state Court of Appeals, so the Supreme Court heard their case and they won in a 4-3 ruling. u Polls show big support for conscience protections for health care workers. An overwhelming majority of Americans — 83% — said they support conscience protection rights for health care professionals because they should not be forced to perform procedures against their moral beliefs. Ninety-one percent of faith-based health care professionals said they need conscience protections and would rather stop practicing medicine altogether than be forced to violate their conscience. These responses came in two polls conducted in July and were released Sept. 18 along with several other findings by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ committees on pro-life activities, religious liberty, domestic policy and social development, and their subcommittee on promotion/defense of marriage, and the Christian Medical and Dental Associations, the largest faith-based organization for health care professionals. u Pope wanted apostles’ relics united to encourage Christian unity. Pope Francis said giving fragments of St. Peter’s bones to the head of the church founded by Peter’s brother, St. Andrew, was meant to be a reminder and encouragement of the journey toward Christian unity. In a letter to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, Pope Francis explained in detail the reasons he sent him a bronze reliquary containing nine bone fragments in late June. The unexpected

gift had been presented to Archbishop Job of Telmessos, the patriarch’s representative, at the Vatican June 29, the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul. The apostles Peter and Andrew are the respective patron saints of the churches of Rome and Constantinople, and Pope Francis said he felt “it would be highly significant” for some fragments of the relics of the Apostle Peter to be placed beside the relics of the Apostle Andrew. u Cardinal Pell appeals abuse convictions to Australian High Court. Cardinal George Pell, the most senior Catholic cleric to be convicted of child sexual abuse offenses, has lodged an application with Australia’s High Court to appeal his guilty verdict. The application is Cardinal Pell’s last avenue of appeal and comes 27 days after the Supreme Court of the Australian state of Victoria decided, in a 2-1 decision, not to overturn his conviction on one count of child rape and four counts of indecently assaulting minors. The cases involved two 13-yearold boys, in 1986 and 1987. u Maine voters won’t get chance to veto suicide, abortion laws at ballot box. Bishop Robert Deeley of Portland said he was “saddened to learn” that physician-assisted suicide and taxpayer-funded abortions will not face a statewide vote “despite the great opposition” to both laws. Opponents of the law allowing assisted suicide and another requiring Medicaid and private insurers to cover abortions did not collect the required 63,067 valid signatures for each petition by a Sept. 18 deadline. Maine became the eighth state legalizing physicianassisted suicide June 12 after Democratic Gov. Janet Mills signed legislation passed by the state House 73-72 and by the state Senate 19-16. The next day, Mills signed into law a measure forcing all public and private insurance companies in the state to cover abortions as part of prenatal care. That bill passed the House 82-59 and the Senate 19-16.

– Catholic News Service

More national, world news at TheCatholicSpirit.com.

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10 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

ENVIRONMENTSUSTAINABILITY

The quiet, urgent work of

Catholic Rural Life plows ahead

“T

By Christina Capecchi • For The Catholic Spirit

here is something almost sacramental about the life of the rural family.”

Those were the words uttered by a North Dakota bishop on a November day back in 1923, when a small group of priests and lay people gathered in St. Louis to found the National Catholic Rural Life Conference.

They were inspired by a farm boy from Minnesota: Father Edwin O’Hara, the firstgeneration son of Irish immigrants who had fled the potato famine and settled in Lanesboro. The youngest of eight, he had a deep faith and a keen eye for the underdog.

Serving as a chaplain during World War I had revealed a glaring need in the Church: better catechesis for the soldiers from rural communities. Father O’Hara considered it part of a pattern of neglect in which Church leaders overlooked the social, spiritual and economic struggles of rural Catholics. And when he returned to the U.S., he set about founding an organization to remedy that.

The National Catholic Rural Life Conference published a manifesto to articulate its core principles and affirm the farmer. “The special adaptability of the farm home for nurturing strong and wholesome Christian family life is the primary reason why the Catholic Church is so deeply concerned with rural problems,” it stated.

Based in Des Moines, Iowa, it began to establish a network of diocesan rural life directors.

Nearly a century later, this nonprofit is now called Catholic Rural Life and it is headquartered on the campus of the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. Its work is more urgent than ever, as a number of forces converge in the countryside: a drop in the number of farmers, crippling tariffs in an ongoing trade war, a newfound interest in food production and an escalating concern for the earth, as laid out by Pope Francis in his groundbreaking ecological encyclical “Laudato Si’.”

These political fault lines crisscross with personal concerns that keep rural Catholics up at night: how to pass on the faith and the farm.

All the while Catholic Rural Life’s fourperson staff quietly plugs along, supporting 20 chapters and focusing on its mission to apply the teachings of Jesus Christ for the betterment of rural America.

“It is overwhelming,” said Executive Director Jim Ennis of Roseville. “That’s what brings you to your knees.”

The organization aims to provide equal parts education and inspiration. Specifically, the staff has identified three central charges: to advocate for a more sustainable food system from the farm to the table, to promote stewardship of creation and to revitalize rural communities.

Outreach The latter is an area of ongoing effort — outreach in many forms, spiritual nourishment to sustain farmers on the long days.

One of Ennis’ early initiatives was aimed at building up lay leaders to do some of the work that rural pastors simply cannot, stretched thin by covering a cluster of parishes. “Life In Christ” trains lay Catholics to lead small groups through a dynamic discussion of Scripture, the Catechism and papal encyclicals.

Some 300 Catholics have participated.

Ennis also leads seminars in rural communities to illuminate Catholic spirituality.

The impact of CRL’s outreach is powerful, said Board President Bishop Brendan Cahill of Victoria, Texas.

“It encourages people and it connects people,” he said.

That’s exactly what Brenda Rudolph craves as a 30-something Catholic in the country.

“Raising children on a dairy farm can be isolating,” said Rudolph, who contributes to CRL’s blog and belongs to St. Stanislaus Kostka in the tiny Minnesota town of Bowlus. “There are few moms that I can relate to.”

A text from a neighbor or a surprise delivery of cookies tucked in the mailbox “means the world” — especially when God’s plan seems to diverge from hers and she is struggling to trust him, she said.

Fostering that same sense of connection among rural priests is CRL’s next area of focus.

“We very rarely socialize,” said Father Gregory Mastey, pastor of a parish cluster in central Minnesota called Two Rivers Catholic Community. Father Mastey needs a pickup truck with all-wheel drive in order to celebrate Mass at all three of his parishes each weekend.

He’s logged more than 750,000 miles in 24 years of priesthood.

When the young priest at a neighboring cluster expressed his loneliness, Father Mastey invited him to move into the rectory. The effect was almost immediate: “He says he’s been praying better, he’s been eating better, he’s been sleeping better. Just having somebody to talk to or throw some ideas off of. It’s good for me, too. We do night prayer together.”

This October Father Mastey is coordinating his second annual Holy Hunting for local priests to hunt together, an idea he borrowed from Texas priests he met through CRL.

Helping priests thrive Their insights and best practices will be shared through “Thriving In Rural Ministry,” which launched last fall with a $1 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc., an Indianabased foundation that supports religious organizations. The new program will serve

Brenda and Nathan Rudolph own and operate a small farm that has been in Nathan as they raise their two children, Vivian and Everett, near Little Falls. Brenda support Catholic Rural Life, which aims to strengthen the Catholic faith among farm families communities across the United States. pastors in rural areas by offering a series of retreats and forging a network among their country peers. The priests will also be trained to do self-assessments and set up cohorts to tackle their challenges together.

“There’s a real need to strengthen our pastors,” Ennis said.

He began the program with great care, first conducting a survey of rural priests through The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University. Their feedback focused on several shared challenges: being under-resourced, overextended and isolated.

That feedback will inform the content of their first retreat, to be held this November at Christ the King Retreat Center in Buffalo.

“Catholic Rural Life has given me hope,” Father Mastey said. “As a rural priest, I am trying whatever I can do to keep these parishes alive, but I know that I’m not doing it alone.”

Teaching seminarians about farmers is part of the equation, and CRL’s growing Rural Ministry Practicum invites rural priests into the classroom and then brings the young men out to a farm each summer. Ten dioceses participated in the practicum this year,

including the Archdioc Minneapolis, and staff expand.

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SEPTEMBER 26, 2019 • 11

‘Faithful every day’ How Jim Ennis transformed Catholic Rural Life

By Christina Capecchi For The Catholic Spirit

W

Father Gregory Mastey takes his pickup truck and his trademark hat wherever he goes on the rural roads of the Diocese of St. Cloud.

PHOTOS BY DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

movement since its beginning, Ennis said, and founded a program called “Why Eating Is a Moral Act” in the late 1990s.

But something new is at play. Ennis sees it when he speaks about sustainability at college campuses. So the staff is updating its materials and creating a study guide to appeal to a new generation of Catholics who are concerned about where their food comes from and how it is grown.

At crowded college lectures, Ennis and Thompson explore the encyclical’s concept of “integral ecology,” the belief that everything is interrelated. It sparks discussion on quality of human life and lack of affordable housing, among other modern concerns.

The two men have expressed their hope that “Laudato Si’” can be a vehicle for the new evangelization because it’s not merely an academic document but a clarion call for a sustainable lifestyle. Young people are leading the way. Their sensitivity is an expression of their spirituality.

“The Church has so much guidance to offer in these timely matters,” said CRL member Jane Shey, an Iowa native who works in

Washington, D.C., as an agricultural consultant. There is an urgency to address climate change as well as food production issues, she said. “The work of Catholic Rural Life is more important now than ever.”

The organization has a presence in 80 dioceses today — down from 102 in the early 2000s, before the recession and the latest wave of clergy sex-abuse scandals.

Adapting to the future has meant being attuned to the many city-dwelling Catholics who share rural values, Ennis said. Forty-five percent of CRL’s members now live in urban areas. Some grew up on farms. Others simply espouse the values fostered there.

In nearly a century, the organization has adapted to new challenges and supported many farm communities, Thompson said.

Its outlook — as first articulated by Father Edwin O’Hara and now advanced by Ennis — is inherently positive: “Catholic Rural Life has a fundamental optimism that is rooted in their confidence that Christ is at the center of all creation and that faithfully attending to the work of the Lord on this earth is the surest path to a happy, healthy farm family.”

hen Jim Ennis became executive director of Catholic Rural Life, his youngest child was a first grader. Today that boy is 18, and the father of five finds himself on the cusp of an empty nest.

So much has happened in more than a decade of leadership. His impact on the organization has been “transformative,” expanding its reach and resources, according to Christopher Thompson, a former board member and close collaborator who serves as dean of The St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity in St. Paul.

Looking back, Ennis can see how God prepared him for this position: corporate work that introduced him to food service along with nonprofit management, a strong Catholic faith and an MBA, roots in California’s San Joaquin Valley coupled with Minnesota ties.

The result has been a series of unforgettable moments: 70-something farmers urging Ennis to broadcast his insights on JIM ENNIS Catholic tradition and rural life, Cardinal Peter Turkson in Rome asking him to pen a document on the vocation of the agricultural leader, Pope Francis enthusiastically receiving that document in a 45-minute audience.

“God leads and opens doors,” said Ennis, a member of Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in St. Paul. “Our job is to walk through them and say yes, to be faithful every day.”

Affirming farmers in their sacred, sweaty work has taken Ennis across the country.

“His drive to affirm rural life is a powerful force,” said Bishop Brendan Cahill, president of the CRL board and head of the Victoria, Texas, diocese.

The highlights of Ennis’ travels are the times he has helped someone unlock riches of the Catholic faith, like the Guatemalan immigrants in rural South Dakota who had grown up with the rosary but didn’t really know how to pray it until Ennis introduced them to St. John Paul II’s 2003 apostolic letter on the rosary.

“This letter just opened up their eyes,” he said.

Running Catholic Rural Life for 11 years has changed Ennis. He has made a habit of digging into the Church’s modern letters, a source of intellectual stimulation and poetry. He has parented differently, making a point to demonstrate that faith is not to be hidden or compartmentalized. And he has developed a keen appreciation for the communion of saints.

There is an interconnectedness to it all, stitched together like delicate lace — his work has made that clear.

And so, Ennis tends to his quarter-acre lot in Roseville with reverence, growing a garden and raising chickens there.

His faith propels him to meet every challenge, Thompson said. “His zeal to serve the Lord with gladness is palpable. There’s hardly an occasion where Jim doesn’t bring a spirit of prayer to his work. You can count on him to have arisen at dawn that day, and with his Bible close at hand, he will have brought his concerns to prayer. He rarely takes credit for any success without first acknowledging that it is the Lord who is leading the work of Catholic Rural Life.”

Ennis’ focus remains there — even if Catholic Rural Life isn’t high profile, even though funding is limited. He was reminded of this on a recent trip to Sequoia National Park, where he backpacked with his 18-year-old son.

“It was stunning to see these wildflowers up at 9,000 feet,” he said. “They’re just blooming. They’re just being who they are. It seems small and insignificant, yet it’s beautiful.”

12 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

ENVIRONMENTSUSTAINABILITY

SEPTEMBER 26, 2019

Here’s to ‘Laudato Si’’: Climate activist touts pope’s message in Twin Cities

By Dave Hrbacek The Catholic Spirit Tomás Insua took a trip to the Philippines in 2014 that changed his life.

The 32-year-old native of Buenos Aires, Argentina, was deeply troubled by what he saw in the poverty-stricken country in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan, which devastated the region in 2013, killing at least 6,300. Insua visited areas hard hit by the typhoon, considered one of the strongest tropical cyclones on record, and he came home resolved to do something about it.

In 2015, he founded an organization called Global Catholic Climate Movement, which has nearly 900 member organizations in countries around the world, including the United States. Firm in his belief that the increase in weather-related events like hurricanes, tornadoes and floods is connected to climate change caused by human actions like the burning of fossil fuels, Insua hopes to increase awareness of the issue and rally people to change behaviors individually and collectively to better care for the environment.

To that end, he visited the U.S. this month and made a stop in the Twin Cities. He met with the staff of the Catholic Community Foundation of Minnesota Sept. 17, having been invited to Minnesota by its president, Anne Cullen Miller, who had met him in 2018 and wanted her staff to hear him speak about GCCM. Earlier that day, Insua met with faculty, staff, students and President Julie Sullivan at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. UST became a member of GCCM last month and just released a comprehensive sustainability strategic plan expressing its commitment to the ideas espoused by GCCM and by Pope Francis in his encyclical, “Laudato Si’,” which is the driving force behind all that GCCM does.

“Our mission is to bring ‘Laudato Si’’ to life,” Insua explained in his presentation to CCF at its St. Paul headquarters. It is his hope “that this beautiful document from the pope doesn’t remain just a document, but we really live it.”

Pope Francis visited the Philippines in January 2015 and released “Laudato

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

From left, Anne Cullen Miller, president of Catholic Community Foundation of Minnesota, talks with Tomás Insua, founder of Global Catholic Climate Movement, during Insua’s visit of CCF’s headquarters in St. Paul Sept. 17.

Si’” later that year. Insua said he thinks the pope’s trip may have inspired and informed the encyclical, which was published in June 2015.

“Laudato Si’” marks the “first time ever in two millennia that the Church has an encyclical letter on ecology,” Insua noted. “That illustrates the level of importance that our pope gives to the issue.”

The effects of global climate change have reached the level of a crisis, and now is the time to act, Insua said.

The University of St. Thomas has stepped up its efforts at sustainability, which goes hand in hand with the tenets of GCCM, said Amir Nadav, assistant director of Campus Sustainability, who came to Insua’s presentation along with Chris Thompson of The St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity, who teaches about ecology at the seminary and wrote a book integrating “Laudato Si’” with 10 years of his research on ecology.

Nadav came to St. Thomas in 2017 and was asked to help develop a comprehensive system of sustainability, or using but not depleting resources.

The project involved talking with students, faculty and staff to hear their ideas on what sustainability means and how to achieve it.

Among the actions taken at St. Thomas is what Nadav calls “the collection of organics,” or composting.

This summer, the St. Paul campus installed bins for compostable materials next to every trash or recycling bin. The idea is to divert as much waste material from landfills as possible. UST’s goal is to increase its current diversion rate from 55 percent to 80 percent.

“That’s something that our students have been very excited about,” Nadav said. “We’re trying to support the circular economy and move to a system where there really is no waste — whatever we throw away can be recycled or reused.”

Nadav said he sees joining GCCM “as being aligned with the steps we plan to take over the next few years.” UST also has been working to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, and signed The American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment in 2008.

Looking ahead, UST’s membership in GCCM opens the door to further collaboration with other organizations to address the issue of global climate change, said Cara Anthony, associate professor of theology at St. Thomas, who attended Insua’s presentation.

“It calls (on) universities to be

resources for their diocese,” Anthony said. “And, I think that’s an exciting prospect of collaboration between St. Thomas as a Catholic university and the (arch)diocese (of St. Paul and Minneapolis).”

“We’ve done this kind of collaboration between classrooms and local city governments,” she said. “And, the same model could work very well for parishes. Having said that, classes that I teach have visited and interacted with the local parishes, mostly around having climate conversations and sharing understandings of how caring for creation and the common good is deeply rooted in Catholic tradition.”

The Catholic Community Foundation, a nonprofit that stewards the financial resources of Catholic individuals, families, parishes and institutions, hopes that Insua’s visit will continue to raise awareness of the importance of caring for the environment. Miller said she envisions focusing on this topic at a future CCF Giving Insights forum series, in which panelists are assembled to share knowledge and interact with people attending.

Having visited with UST and CCF, Insua said he would consider offering the opportunity for the archdiocese to participate in a pilot program, in which GCCM would offer resources to help the archdiocese be carbon neutral by 2030 or 2035.

“I think the conditions are there for making something happen (here),” he said.

After Insua returns to Rome following his U.S. tour, he will set his sights on furthering the work of GCCM worldwide. “‘Laudato Si’,’ despite being very rooted in the tragic reality of the ecological crisis, (Pope Francis) still emphasizes a lot the room for hope,” Insua said, “which is in our Christian DNA. We know that death is followed by resurrection, is followed by life. The cross is followed by resurrection. We know that things can change, as the pope likes to say.”

GCCM offers resources to organizations and individuals, though only organizations can become members. For more information on GCCM and membership, which is free, visit catholicclimatemovement.global.

SEPTEMBER 26, 2019

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 13

RETIREMENTPLANNING Years of ministry Retirement advice: Be a volunteer

By Dave Hrbacek The Catholic Spirit Kathleen Groh calls herself a “heart hunter,” a matchmaker of sorts. As regional director of the Ignatian Volunteer Corps in the Twin Cities, she helps people find volunteer opportunities with local nonprofits that serve the poor and vulnerable.

Most of the volunteers are 50 or older, with many in their retirement years. Groh said volunteering is a great way to find meaning and purpose after a person’s career ends.

“For many, even when it is planned, retirement can be a shock to their identity that is wrapped up in their work and profession,” Groh explained. “The rhythm of fixed schedules and expected outcomes KATHLEEN GROH disappears and the transition can be difficult. In my lighter moments, I refer to IVC as a ‘redeemable retirement plan.’”

The “plan” at Ignatian Volunteer Corps is simple.

People interested in volunteering meet with IVC staff, who try to match their interests and skills with a local nonprofit. They serve two days a week and gather once a month with other volunteers to exchange stories, develop friendships and deepen their faith as they learn and practice Ignatian spirituality.

“It is a win-win situation,” said Groh, a member of St. Jude of the Lake in Mahtomedi. “The IVC volunteer experiences making a difference and, in turn, they experience a difference in their life as well.”

There is an ever-expanding number of people entering their retirement years, as baby boomers continue to reach the age of 65. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there were 49.2 million people 65 and older in the U.S. in 2016, with an increasing number of women.

Groh calls this demographic group “the healthiest and best educated cohort in American history.”

When it comes to figuring out what type of volunteer work to do, Groh has been asked whether people should pursue something related to their career field or try something new.

“I believe they should find something that lights their fire,” she said. “This may be in their field or they may want to try something completely different. I interviewed a teacher, and he said he would do anything but write another lesson plan.”

She also recommends planning before retirement to find volunteer opportunities. She acknowledged that “it is a unique challenge to discover where these years will lead them,” but said retirement years can be a “golden encore.

In recent months, three priests of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis retired: Father Cletus Basekala, Father Kevin Clinton and Father Patrick Kennedy. Each has served in the priesthood for more than 40 years. To mark their years of service, the Catholic Spirit interviewed the three priests about some of their experiences and plans for the near future. Portraits by Catholic Spirit photographer Dave Hrbacek.

— The Catholic Spirit

By Joe Ruff The Catholic Spirit

F

ather Patrick Kennedy carries into retirement memories of people he served and who, in his view, did much more for him than he did for them.

“I’m a better priest, a better Christian through their families and example,” he said recently.

“They encouraged me by the way they believed and lived, and tried to live.”

Many of those moments of faith and intimacy in prayer came at profound times in people’s lives, including the confessional and at people’s bedsides when they were sick or dying.

“I always found those moments to be very sacred,” Father Kennedy said.

A native of St. Paul who grew up half a block from thenSt. Luke parish (now St. Thomas More), Father Kennedy, 69, was influenced at an early age by the faith of his late parents, Al and Ginny, seven sisters and a brother. He served at Masses and admired priests of the parish, who often were in and out of the Kennedy house. He graduated from then-St. Luke School (now St. Thomas More) and Cretin High School (now Cretin-Derham Hall) in St. Paul in 1969.

He carried those childhood memories with him into one year of college at Winona State in Winona before deciding to attend St. John Vianney College Seminary in St. Paul. He was ordained in 1977.

Father Kennedy served 42 years

Fa th er Pa tr ick Ken n ed y of active ministry, including at 10 different parishes in Minneapolis, Eden Prairie, Coon Rapids, Fridley, Edina, St. Paul and South St. Paul. He was assistant director and director of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ Office of Vocations, a teacher at the seminary and the chaplain at Cretin-Derham.

Now, he is ready to take it a little slower.

“I’m trying to discern what my new normal is going to be,” he said. He enjoys swimming, traveling, reading and writing.

But soon after retiring from active ministry in June, Father Kennedy did travel to McAllen,

Texas, and spent more than a month helping at a respite center for immigrants, mopping the floor, cleaning restrooms, making sandwiches.

“I wanted to volunteer someplace,” he said. “I’m usually the one giving orders. This was quite a different experience for me. That’s what I did to kind of clear my head, get out of town for awhile.”

Father Kennedy said he also is helping at Cretin-Derham, presiding at some of the morning and all-school Masses.

“It’s part of my wanting to give back to them what I received,” he said.

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14 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

RETIREMENTPLANNING

Fat h e r Kevi n C l i n t o n

By Dave Hrbacek The Catholic Spirit

W

hen Father Kevin Clinton retired in June, he knew just what to do.

After his last day as pastor of New Prague Area Catholic Community (formerly St. Wenceslaus), he went back to the farm where he grew up, about 30 miles southwest of New Prague.

“It was actually my great grandfather’s farm, an Irish immigrant who purchased the farm in 1856 — that’s (two) years before Minnesota became a state,” said Father Clinton, 70.

“This is my childhood playground. This is a sacred space, in many respects, that spoke to me from early childhood, and still does.”

He has restored 70 of the property’s 160 acres to native prairie grasses and flowers. He invites groups to soak in the beauty, and see a living example of Pope Francis’ encyclical on care for the environment, “Laudato Si.’” He also has taken students from the parish school to roam his prairie and experience the natural world he passionately works to develop and protect.

“We took the fifth-, sixth-, seventhand eighth-graders out,” said Father

Clinton, who came to St. Wenceslaus in 2005. “They had a wonderful time.”

Father Clinton brought the prairie to the St. Wenceslaus campus when he initiated a project to renovate the church parking lot, planting native flowers and grasses and commissioning a metal sign with the words “Laudato Si’” on top.

Another part of his ministry was leading an effort to combine five rural parishes, including St. Wenceslaus, into one faith community: the New Prague Area Catholic Community, with three of the campuses still being used — St. Wenceslaus, St. Scholastica in Heidelberg and St. John the Evangelist in Union Hill.

Before coming to St. Wenceslaus, Father Clinton, who was ordained a priest at his home parish of Immaculate Conception in Marysburg in 1974, was pastor of St. Peter in Mendota for 17 years. He oversaw building a new $6.9 million worship space and social hall, which was completed in 2005. Also during his time at St. Peter, Faithful Shepherd Catholic School in Eagan opened in 2000. St. Peter supports the school, along with St. John Neumann and St. Thomas Becket, both in Eagan.

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SEPTEMBER 26, 2019

Fa t h er Cletu s Ba s ekela

By Dave Hrbacek The Catholic Spirit

A

s a young boy in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Father Cletus Basekela wanted to pursue a career in medicine.

It was a natural choice. His father was a nurse, and medical professionals were needed in his country.

“I grew up dreaming of becoming a doctor,” said Father Basekela, 74, who retired in June from active ministry in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

A priest at his home parish in Kamponde, the city where he grew up, found out about Father Basekela’s interest and talked to Father Basekela’s mother. She, in turn, talked to her son and offered some advice about considering either the religious life or medicine, which later turned into a priestly vocation and his ordination in 1971 for the Archdiocese of Kananga.

He came to the U.S. in 1999 and has served in the archdiocese since arriving.

His final assignment before retiring was at St. Jerome in Maplewood.

Father Basekela recalled sitting down with his mother when he was 12 to talk

about his future. She said this: “There are two ways of being a doctor. You can be a doctor of physical bodies. You can also be a doctor for souls. And, it is the same.”

After taking a few weeks to ponder her words, he decided to try to become a doctor of souls. He left for a high school minor seminary when he was 13, then continued his seminary formation all the way to ordination. He served in the Archdiocese of Kananga until he chose to take a sabbatical in 1999. Someone he had met while in seminary, Father Sebastian Bakatu, was serving in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, so Father Basekela decided to come here.

His first stop was at St. Mark in St. Paul. He took classes at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul for a year while on sabbatical, then began serving at St. Mark in 2000. From 20012007 he served at Mary, Mother of the Church in Burnsville, then became pastor at St. Jerome in 2007.

“I enjoyed it every day,” he said of his time in the Twin Cities. Father Basekela also said he plans to remain in the archdiocese. He plans to visit the Holy Land in October.

SEPTEMBER 26, 2019

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 15

FOCUSONFAITH SUNDAY SCRIPTURES | MSGR. JEFFREY STEENSON

rich (6:24). It is a theme found in Mary’s Magnificat (1:52).

2) The opportunity to repent ends at death. “Between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us” (v. 25). Even after death, the arrogance of the rich man continues.

He calls for Lazarus to bring cool water to comfort him. He still In the unsettling parable of Lazarus and the doesn’t get it. All Lazarus meant to him was rich man in Luke 16:19-31, Jesus someone to call upon to serve his needs. Even in speaks of the fate of a rich man hell, the rich man’s self-centeredness endures. who enjoyed everything that money could buy yet insulated When Jesus says that “a great chasm has been himself from the needs of the fixed” (v. 26), this means that the very purpose of poor. While he feasted the gulf between heaven and hell is to keep people sumptuously every day, dressed from passing to and fro. This is one of the hardest in the finest clothes, he ignored the poor man teachings of the Gospel, one which modern ears who sat in pathetic misery outside his door, stubbornly refuse to hear. St. John Chrysostom, hungry and covered with sores that the dogs who preached at least seven sermons on this licked. Early Christian commentators saw those parable, kept emphasizing this unbridgeable abyss dogs as more merciful than the rich man. to his congregation: “do not neglect the time of After both men died, they woke up in the next our earthly life, given to us by God’s kindness, for life and found that their circumstances had this is the opportunity for our salvation.” changed dramatically. Lazarus, the poor man, was 3) Sin blinds a man to the truth. The rich man carried by the angels to “Abraham’s bosom,” asks Abraham if Lazarus could be sent to his five heavenward. The rich man, on the other hand, brothers, to warn them to change their ways, lest found himself in Hades. His existence on earth they should also fall into hell when they die. But had been full of comforts, but now he Abraham refuses: “They have Moses and the experienced torment, in the form of scorching prophets. Let them hear them.” If a man cannot fire. Whereas on earth everyone would have be compassionate with the Scriptures in hand known the rich man’s name but not the poor and a destitute man on his doorstep, nothing — man’s, in the afterlife it is just the opposite: we neither a visitor from another world nor a are told Lazarus’ name but not the rich man’s. We revelation of the horrors of hell — will reach him call him Dives (Latin for rich), but his name was otherwise. not recorded in the book of life.

The early Christian poet Prudentius summed it iSTOCK PHOTO | SEDMAK The rich man looks up from the flames and far up this way: off he sees Lazarus with Abraham. He begs for the But until the perishable body mercy he never showed to Lazarus on earth. “Father Abraham,” he You will raise up, O God, and refashion, cries out, “Have mercy upon me, and send Lazarus to dip the end What mansion of rest is made ready of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in anguish in For the soul that is pure and unsullied? this flame” (v. 24). Abraham replies to his plea with three points It shall rest in the patriarch’s bosom of great significance: As did Lazarus, hedged round with flowers, 1) The way we live has everlasting consequences. “Son, Whom Dives beheld from a distance remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and While he burned in the fires everlasting.

Lazarus in like manner evil things, but now he is comforted here, (Hymn for Every Day 10.149–56) and you are in anguish” (v. 25). He was like another rich man in the Gospels who had come to Jesus asking him what he must do to be saved. He had kept all the commandments, and yet he went Msgr. Steenson is ordinary emeritus of the Personal Ordinariate of away sorrowful, for he could not grasp that it was the love of the Chair of St. Peter, created by Pope Benedict XVI for those coming wealth which stood between him and the Lord. In Luke’s version from the Anglican tradition to full communion in the Catholic Church. of the Beatitudes, the poor are blessed (6:20), but woes await the He now serves as vice president of the Coming Home Network.

Lazarus and who?

FAITH FUNDAMENTALS | FATHER MICHAEL VAN SLOUN

Eucharistic devotions

Eucharistic devotions are spiritual practices outside of the Mass that give honor to Jesus present in the Blessed Sacrament, as well as opportunities to pray to Jesus in an intensified and personal way in his very presence. These devotions offer Jesus respect and reverence, express praise and thanks, make petition and offer contrition, and strengthen one’s personal relationship with Jesus. Eucharistic devotions do not replace the Mass, but instead help a person place a greater value on the Mass and lead a person back to the Mass.

The exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and Benediction is a longstanding, traditional devotion to the Eucharist. It begins when a priest or deacon places the Blessed Sacrament, a consecrated host, in a monstrance, a large ornate receptacle with an opening in the middle, and places it upon the altar or an elevated throne for all to see. Once exposed, it is common to sing a eucharistic hymn, followed by an extended period of prayer which may include a Scripture reading or another spiritual text, a homily or a brief exhortation, hymns or instrumental music, and silent prayer. It concludes with Benediction, which begins with a eucharistic hymn, then a prayer, incensing, the blessing of the assembly with the Blessed Sacrament in the monstrance, the “Benediction,” followed by the recitation of the Divine Praises, the reposition of the Blessed Sacrament in the tabernacle, and a closing hymn.

Eucharistic adoration is to pray before the Blessed Sacrament, usually exposed in a monstrance but also possibly in a ciborium, in a church or an adoration chapel. It is customary to make a “holy hour,” to pray for a full hour based upon Jesus’ question, “So

you could not keep watch with me for one hour?” (Mt 26:40), but there is no definite time requirement and it is acceptable to make a shorter or more extended visit. Some locations have perpetual adoration, where the Blessed Sacrament is exposed all day, every day, whereas others have designated days and times.

The Forty Hours devotion is celebrated at certain parishes, often annually, as an opportunity for renewal and prayer. It may be 40 continuous hours over two days, or more commonly, for portions of three consecutive days, with the Eucharist reposed overnight.

Forty was chosen to commemorate the amount of time that Jesus spent in the tomb from Good Friday until Easter Sunday morning.

While the entire parish or community is encouraged to participate, at least one person is in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament at all times. Forty Hours has a solemn closing, usually consisting of a procession and Benediction.

Eucharistic processions offer the participants an opportunity to witness their faith before others while expressing their devotion to Jesus in the Eucharist. The two most common occasions are Corpus Christi and Holy Thursday. It is customary for a priest or deacon to carry a monstrance beneath a canopy, led by the clergy and altar servers with lit candles and a smoking censor, followed by the faithful in prayer and song, and observed by others either inside the church from their places or outside along the route. For outdoor processions it is customary to make a series of stops, possibly at local churches, in districts or neighborhoods of large cities, in adjoining villages in rural areas, or at designated stations, both to pray and receive a blessing.

Other devotions to the Eucharist include visits to the church with prayer before the tabernacle, the Litany of the Holy Eucharist, all night prayer vigils, and the nine First Fridays.

Father Van Sloun is pastor of St. Bartholomew in Wayzata. This column is part of an ongoing series on the Eucharist. Read more of his writing at CatholicHotdish.com.

DAILY Scriptures Sunday, September 29 Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time Am 6:1a, 4-7 1 Tm 6:11-16 Lk 16:19-31 Monday, September 30 St. Jerome, priest and doctor of the Church Zec 8:1-8 Lk 9:46-50 Tuesday, October 1 St. Therese of the Child Jesus, virgin and doctor of the Church Zec 8:20-23 Lk 9:51-56 Wednesday, October 2 Holy Guardian Angels Neh 2:1-8 Mt 18:1-5, 10 Thursday, October 3 Neh 8:1-4a, 5-6, 7b-12 Lk 10:1-12 Friday, October 4 St. Francis of Assisi Bar 1:15-22 Lk 10:13-16 Saturday, October 5 Bar 4:5-12, 27-29 Lk 10:17-24 Sunday, October 6 Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time Hab 1:2-3; 2:2-4 2 Tm 1:6-8, 13-14 Lk 17:5-10 Monday, October 7 Our Lady of the Rosary Jon 1:1–2:1-2, 11 Lk 10:25-37 Tuesday, October 8 Jon 3:1-10 Lk 10:38-42 Wednesday, October 9 Jon 4:1-11 Lk 11:1-4 Thursday, October 10 Mal 3:13-20b Lk 11:5-13 Friday, October 11 Jl 1:13-15, 2:1-2 Lk 11:15-26 Saturday, October 12 Jl 4:12-21 Lk 11:27-28 Sunday, October 13 Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time 2 Kgs 5:14-17 2 Tm 2:8-13 Lk 17:11-19

16 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

SEPTEMBER 26, 2019

COMMENTARY FAITH IN THE PUBLIC ARENA | JASON ADKINS

In politics, we can all be like ‘The Lord of the Rings’’ Frodo Baggins The “Lord of the Rings” trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien is a beautiful work showing the important role even the smallest and seemingly most insignificant people have in the drama of history. In the trilogy, it is Frodo Baggins, the little hobbit, who embarks on a perilous adventure to destroy the ring of power at Mount Doom and save Middle Earth from the power of the evil Sauron.

Frodo is like each of us: just another person who, when met with a perilous challenge, took up his cross and carried it to his own Calvary. He left all that was comfortable — the Shire, with its strawberries and cream, good cheer and plenty of beer — to follow his calling.

“Even the smallest person can change the course of history.” – Lady Galadriel In this life, and especially in the public realm, each one of us as Christians will have the opportunity to be like Frodo. But often, we will be full of doubt. Who are we but seemingly insignificant spectators in a great drama that seems out of our control? Like little hobbits, we can do nothing and should just get back to tending our serene garden, minding our business.

That is a lie Satan tells us. When in fact, we can do something. As Gandalf the wizard tells Frodo, “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”

“It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.” – Bilbo Baggins Frodo came to mind following the recent court victory of Carl and Angel Larsen, the St. Cloud

YOUR HEART, HIS HOME | LIZ KELLY

She held Jesus in her palm: Meet Blessed Benedetta

On Sept. 14, an extraordinary young Italian woman was beatified: Blessed Benedetta Bianchi Porro. Truly a saint for our time, especially for young people who suffer from chronic or progressively debilitating illnesses and all those who care for them, specifically doctors, you will not regret getting to know her.

Benedetta was born in Forli, Italy, on Aug. 8, 1936.

When she was very young she contracted polio, which left her crippled. An intelligent and happy child, she began keeping a diary at the age of 5. At age 7 she wrote, “The universe is enchanting! It is great to be alive.” As a teenager, she began to go deaf, but despite this, she entered medical school where she excelled, taking oral exams by reading the lips of her professors. She had an ardent desire to become a doctor, but she struggled with grave illness, losing her hearing and other senses over years of time. After five

videographers who are challenging the State of Minnesota’s prosecution of wedding vendors who will not do business related to same-sex weddings.

Carl and Angel are inspiring people and joyful Christians. Their home is a model of Christian hospitality, including to people who experience samesex attraction. They walk the walk and are just like others who sit in the pew on Sunday.

But Carl and Angel didn’t just sit there. They walked out the door of their own comfortable hobbit hole and embarked on the great adventure of standing up for civil rights — free speech and free exercise of religion.

Undoubtedly, they couldn’t imagine what this nationally significant case had in store for them. But they went out their door, and they are winning.

“Folk seem to have been just landed in [adventures], usually — their paths were laid that way. But I expect they had lots of chances, like us, of turning back, only they didn’t. And if they had, we shouldn’t know, because they’d have been forgotten.” – Samwise Gamgee Carl and Angel had many chances to turn back: a loss at the district court level with a sneering opinion by a judge who dismissed their case; media scrutiny and hate mail; discouragement and criticism from other Christians who do not believe that using the courts to protect the spread of the Gospel is appropriate. Yet, they have persevered.

Their case is a microcosm of work in the public arena generally, which is characterized by setbacks and advances.

Sometimes positive developments are hard to see, but history shows that the Gospel does advance, beauty and order can be brought into the world, and souls do come to know the Lord. All this can unfold through our daily labors of tilling the soil, sowing the seed, and playing our part so that others may reap the harvest.

“It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succor of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule.” – Gandalf We might view Carl and Angel’s lawsuit as something more significant that only they could do.

Again, this would be a mistake.

Each one of us has the opportunity to turn the tide in small ways — with a word of grace and truth here,

years of medical training, just one year short of completing her degree, she was forced to end her studies after diagnosing herself with Von Recklinghausen’s disease, a diagnosis her professors later confirmed. This cruel disease attacks the nerve centers of the body, forming tumors on them, and eventually causing deafness, blindness and paralysis.

As Benedetta’s world shrank, she demonstrated extraordinary courage and holiness and was visited by many who sought her counsel and intercession. She was able to communicate when her family would sign the Italian alphabet into her left palm, one of the areas of her body that remained functional. Instead of a medical doctor, she became a kind of doctor to the soul to all who visited. In this way, she became no less a healer than she had ever hoped to be. On a trip to Lourdes, she reported an interior healing, saying, “I am aware more than ever of the richness of my condition and I don’t desire anything but to continue in it.”

In a letter to a young man who suffered similarly, she wrote: “Because I’m deaf and blind, things have become complicated for me. ...Nevertheless, in my Calvary, I do not lack hope. I know that at the end of the road, Jesus is waiting for me. First in my armchair, and now in my bed where I now stay, I have found a wisdom greater than that of men — I have discovered that God exists, that He is love, faithfulness, joy, certitude, to the end of the ages. ... My days are not easy. They are hard. But sweet because Jesus is with me, with my sufferings, and He gives me His sweetness in my

Tell legislators: Oppose assisted suicide Tell your legislators that assisted suicide is wrong for Minnesotans.

On Wednesday, Sept. 11, the Minnesota Health and Human Services Policy Committee held an informational hearing on a bill (HF 2152) that would legalize assisted suicide in Minnesota and coerce all doctors and health care providers into offering it as a treatment option as part of the standard of care. While no legislative action (no vote) was taken during this hearing, it is still extremely important that your legislators hear from you regarding this dangerous bill.

People come to Minnesota from around the world to receive hope and true care; we should not instead be undermining that world-renowned care by sending patients home with a vial of pills to take their lives. As Catholics, we are called to protect life at every stage and most particularly the lives of the poor and vulnerable.

Send a message to your legislators now asking them to stand against assisted suicide and to stand firmly on the side of every Minnesotan because we all deserve true care throughout life’s journey.

Go to MNCatholic.org and click on the “Speak out against assisted suicide” banner to send a message to your legislators. with a letter to the editor there. Oftentimes, politics, especially at the local level, is just about walking out the door and showing up.

What we can do may seem insignificant, but collectively, it can change the culture, though we might not live to see it. Like little Frodo, we must step forward to do our part.

Adkins is executive director of the Minnesota Catholic Conference.

“

Because I’m deaf and blind, things have become complicated for me. ...Nevertheless, in my Calvary, I do not lack hope. I know that at the end of the road, Jesus is waiting for me.

Benedetta Bianchi Porro loneliness and light in the darkness. He smiles at me and accepts my collaboration.”

Benedetta passed away Jan. 23, 1964. She was venerated Dec. 23, 1993, by Pope John Paul II, and beatified Sept. 14 by Pope Francis.

Blessed Benedetta, your world became as small as a Communion wafer. You were immobilized, deaf and blind and yet you were a powerful witness to the love of God and the Blessed Mother. Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is hidden and small, too, silent, immobilized, and even weak — and still all powerful.

Please pray for me, Benedetta, that I will collaborate, as you did, with Jesus in whatever way he wishes to use me. May I be granted the grace to allow the almighty Father to speak through my littleness and loneliness, too. Amen.

Kelly is the author of six books, including “Jesus Approaches” and the “Jesus Approaches Take-Home Retreat.” To learn more about Blessed Benedetta, visit lizk.org/speaking-events.

SEPTEMBER 26, 2019

THE LOCAL CHURCH | SUSANNA PARENT

Faith-filled quiet in busy places

If you happen to be in the city known for Fenway Park, the Freedom Trail and a marathon that draws people from around the world, you might consider visiting a lesser-known but even more inspiring site.

Inside the bustling shopping center of Boston’s 52-floor Prudential Center, tucked away next to a Dunkin’ Donuts, is the St. Francis Chapel, run by the Oblates of the Virgin Mary.

The chapel’s mission is to provide a place of worship where people often find themselves, especially those who work or shop in the historic Back Bay of Boston. It is a place to find peace in the middle of a busy day, in a busy world.

Last year, I had the opportunity to visit, pray and attend Mass in the chapel.

Not only was I spiritually renewed through the graces that flow through the Blessed Sacrament, but I was encouraged to see the chapel quickly fill up for morning Mass. It was a joy to be surrounded by people who were putting Christ at the forefront of their day and taking a pause before the rest of the day’s activities.

The St. Francis Chapel also provides an opportunity to venerate the first class relics of three saints and ask for their intercession.

The chapel’s “Saints of Mercy” relics include a bone of St. Faustina as well as pieces of St. John Paul II’s and St. Maximilian Kolbe’s hair. This place of worship offers three daily Masses, 10 weekend Masses, more than four hours of reconciliation opportunities every

CATHOLIC WATCHMEN | VINCENZO RANDAZZO

Striking a chord with online videos

I think it’s fair to ask: Can an online video be an effective tool for evangelization?

To help answer that, let me tell you about Zeke.

I met Zeke, a young adult and new parishioner at my church, a few months ago after Mass, and we struck up a conversation that turned to some of our favorite Catholics on YouTube. We both knew all of the online-Catholic-talking heads.

Bishop Barron, Father Schmitz, Matt Fradd, Dr. Taylor Marshall and others.

We chatted for a while about the saints, the Mass, virtue — very Catholic things. With all of the Catholic knowledge Zeke had, I assumed he was raised Catholic. It wasn’t until I learned of his excitement for his confirmation coming up this Easter that I understood he was a recent convert. I said, “You mean, you know all of this stuff but you’re not Catholic yet?” “I have been learning about the Church online for years!” he said.

Which brings me to the Catholic Watchmen, and our hope and expectations for our fourth annual release of seven videos, each released the first of the month from September through April at thecatholicwatchmen.com. (We take a December break.)

This year’s series consists of testimony or teaching on the threefold office of Christ — priest, prophet and king — and how these same roles should be lived by Catholic men.

We have seven awesome speakers, including Father Mike Schmitz, Jeff Cavins, Matt Birk and Auxiliary Bishop Andrew Cozzens.

COMMENTARY

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 17

day, and eucharistic adoration hours But in the midst of a full day, in throughout the week. the middle of St. Paul, I recently paid a lunch-break visit to This oasis of calm in a city St. Louis for the sacrament center has counterparts in of reconciliation. other cities — including Minneapolis-St. Paul.

I arrived right at the Downtown start of confession Minneapolis is time and already home to St. Olaf, there were 10 with a mission people in line that includes ahead of me, serving “as a and about half living sign of of them were Christ’s saving young adults. presence in the By the time I heart of the made it through city.” the line and left That simple afternoon experience left me St. Olaf offers the chapel, at 17 Masses every least five more deeply grateful for the opportunity to dive into week, is easily people were in accessible and the graces of the Catholic Church and arrive line behind me, connected to the including a coback in my office within an hour. skyway system. Mass worker. is celebrated at 7 a.m.

That simple afternoon and noon Monday experience left me deeply through Friday, with the grateful for the opportunity to sacrament of reconciliation iSTOCK PHOTO | BRIANS101 dive into the graces of the offered after each morning Mass Catholic Church and arrive back in my and after the noon Mass on Tuesdays, office within an hour.

Thursdays, and Saturdays.

The next time you find yourself in one of our If you’re in St. Paul, consider visiting the Church of restless city centers, look for one of these refuges.

St. Louis, King of France, which has been downtown for more than 125 years. The parish offers Masses As St. Francis de Sales said, “Every one of us needs Monday through Friday at 6:45 a.m. and 12:10 p.m., half an hour of prayer a day, except when we are busy and daily confessions before Mass at 6:15 a.m. and — then we need an hour.”

11:15 a.m.

Where will you find space for your time of prayer?

Certainly, every parish around the world offers Parent, a member of St. Mark in St. Paul, is a Masses, reconciliation — all the sacraments in our freelance writer and an evangelization manager in the sacramental Church — as well as eucharistic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ Office of adoration, faith formation, opportunities to advance social justice and form community.

Evangelization.

But again, are online videos an effective way to evangelize? I think they can be more effective than we realize. And unfolding Zeke’s story illustrates the point.

That day after Mass, Zeke started telling me of his conversion from evangelicalism, to indifference, and back again to embracing faith, but this time as a Catholic. His story involved many chapters, mission trips in Africa, prayer in Central America, debates with Lutherans in Europe, and discussions with his evangelical friends at university. He spoke of a difficult break-up, of difficulties in his family, forgiveness, redemption.

The common thread in his story, however, was that he would often listen to podcasts or YouTube videos from different online evangelists to inspire him in his faith. He would listen to debates about religion while doing the dishes, or an inspiring talk while exercising.

He would watch them to relax after work, getting them from friends who wanted his opinion.

He told a great story, and he concluded with — “and thanks to the Holy Spirit, here I am.”

But when was the decision point to become Catholic? When I asked him, he stopped and thought.

Then he said, unemotionally and matter-of-factly, that after listening to many Catholics online for many years, eventually, after watching a Father Schmitz video titled “The hour that will change your life,” he just knew he had to join the Church.

God spoke to Zeke in a consistent whisper, through the content Zeke was listening to. At first, it was many different Christian online creators, but as time went on he was listening to Catholics more and more.

So, one might say, Zeke joined the Church because of some YouTube videos. It’s kind of funny, but it’s appropriate, isn’t it? After further thought, I recognized how profoundly the New Evangelization is affecting people via new media. God is indeed using the internet. People are becoming curious about our faith, convinced by arguments, and in some cases, joining the Church. This might be the greatest benefit of the information age!

We certainly need to limit our exposure to new media — all things in moderation. But I encourage all

VIDEO SERIES The Catholic Watchmen is releasing seven online videos this year of testimony or teaching on the threefold office of Christ — priest, prophet and king — and living those roles as Catholic men. The videos will be released at thecatholicwatchmen.com on the first day of seven months: September: Auxiliary Bishop Andrew Cozzens, introduction to the threefold office of Christ October: Father Rocky Hoffman, Man as Priest, The Common Priesthood of the Faithful November: Jeff Cavins, Man as Prophet, Prophecy in Scripture December: Break January: Father Michael Schmitz, Man as King, Being a King in Daily Life February: Mark Houck, Man as Priest, the Priest of your Family March: Ryan O’Hara, Man as Prophet, the Gift of Prophecy April: Matt Birk, Man as King, Testimony of Kingship in the Family Catholics to take the example of Zeke. Watch some good Catholic content. Check out some of the short videos produced by The Catholic Watchmen.

This year’s videos are bound to help us understand our calling as men of Christ, and they are good tools to use to evangelize others. Watch them, and send them to people you know who need to listen to something positive. And perhaps, like Zeke, they will eventually make that decision to become holier, perhaps without really knowing it themselves.

Randazzo, a member of All Saints in Minneapolis, is an evangelization manager in the Office of Evangelization.

He can be reached at randazzov@archspm.org. Learn about the archdiocese’s Catholic Watchmen initiative at thecatholicwatchmen.com.

COMMENTARY

18 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

COMMENTARY | FATHER EUGENE HEMRICK

Humility: The mother of all virtues Every time we visited relatives, my mother would admonish us, “Know your place!” adding, “Don’t be a showoff, practice humility!”

St. Gregory the Great and St. Augustine considered humility the pivotal virtue upon which all other virtues depend.

In the book “Sacred Signs,” Father Romano Guardini points us to the ultimate place humility should possess in our hearts: “When a man feels

proud, he stands erect, draws himself to his full height, throws back his head and shoulders and says with every part of his body, I am bigger and more important than you.

“But when he is humble, he feels his littleness, and lowers his head and shrinks into himself. He abases himself. ... But when does our littleness so come home to us as when we stand in God’s presence? He is the great God who is today and yesterday. ...

“To appear less presumptuous, to be little and low as we feel, we sink to our knees and thus sacrifice half our height, and to satisfy our hearts still further we bow our heads and our diminished stature speaks to God and says, Thou art the great God, I am nothing.”

Simply put, we know our place in acknowledging that without God we are nothing.

Humility is at the very heart of docility: an essential quality of prudence.

Philosopher Josef Pieper observes in the book “The Four Cardinal Virtues”: “No man is altogether self-

SEPTEMBER 26, 2019 sufficient in matters of prudence; without ‘docililtas’ there is no perfect prudence. ... (‘Docilitas’) recognizes the true variety of things and situations to be experienced and does not cage itself in any presumption of deceptive knowledge.

“What is meant is the ability to take advice, sprung not from any vague ‘modesty,’ but simply from the desire for real understanding (which, however, necessarily includes genuine humility).”

Simply put, we are to be humble seekers of the truth and avoid being know-it-alls.

The mottos, “One nation under God” and “In God we trust,” echo through our U.S. Capitol, reminding us that humble faith in God is at the basis of being a great nation.

Simply put, humility is knowing God’s place in our success.

Father Hemrick writes for the Catholic News Service column “The Human Side.”

Pope: God’s projects will endure

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service The Catholic Church will endure, despite the frailty and sins of its members, because it is God’s project, Pope Francis said.

Continuing his series of audience talks about the Acts of the Apostles and the early Christian community Sept. 18, Pope Francis looked at the story of Gamaliel, a Pharisee who tried to teach members of the Sanhedrin a key aspect of “discernment,” which is not to rush to judgment, but rather to allow time for something to show itself as worthy or not.

As recounted in Acts 5, Gamaliel told the Sanhedrin not to execute the apostles for preaching Christ, “for if this endeavor or this activity is of human origin, it will destroy itself. But if it comes from God, you will not be

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able to destroy them; you may even find yourselves fighting against God.” “Every human project can initially drum up consensus, but then go down in flames,” the pope said. But “everything that comes from on high and bears God’s signature is destined to endure.”

“Human projects always fail, they have a (limited) time, like we do,” he said. “Think of the great empires.

Think of the dictatorships of the past century; they thought they were so powerful and dominated the world, and then they all crumbled.”

The most powerful governments and forces today also “will crumble if God is not with them because the strength human beings have on their own is not lasting,” the pope said.

“Only the strength of God endures.”

The history of Christianity and of the Catholic Church, even “with so

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many sins and so many scandals, with so many ugly things,” illustrates the same point, the pope said.

“Why hasn’t it crumbled? Because God is there,” Pope Francis said. “We are sinners and often, often, we give scandal,” but “the Lord always saves.

The strength is God with us.”

The story also shows just how much courage the presence of the Holy Spirit brings, the pope said. When Jesus was arrested, the disciples “all ran away, they fled,” but after the Resurrection, when he sent the Spirit upon them, they became courageous.

Pointing to the 21 Coptic Orthodox beheaded on a beach in Libya in 2015, Pope Francis said the same courage is still seen today in martyrs, who continued to repeat the name of Jesus even as their fate became clear. “They did not sell out their faith because the Holy Spirit was with them.”

LETTER One-sided I was surprised that your newspaper published only one side of the “immigration detention” story in its Sept.

12 edition, namely “the inhumanity of separating migrant children from their parents.”

Highlighting the side supported by many U.S. Catholic leaders, the article from Catholic News Service by Rhina Guidos leaves the impression that this is “the Catholic position” on this complex and controversial issue. I think “the Catholic position” on this issue is much more nuanced and would appreciate reading both sides of this issue, including the ways in which U.S. Catholic leaders are challenging both sides to compromise and arrive at a truth which respects both sides, something that I would call “the Catholic position.”

Roland J. Mayer Church of the Epiphany, Coon Rapids

SEPTEMBER 26, 2019

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 19

CALENDAR Music St. Richard Music Series — Sept. 27: 7–8:30 p.m. at St. Richard’s Catholic Church, 7540 Penn Ave. S., Richfield.

Pianist Peter Arnstein. strichards.com.

Eric Genuis Live — Oct. 9: 5:30–8:30 p.m. at Hopkins Center for the Arts, 1111 Mainstreet, Hopkins. Begins with social hour at Chesterton Academy, 1320 Mainstreet, Hopkins. www.chestertonacademy.org.

Organ concert — Oct. 10: 7:30–9 p.m. at Cathedral of St. Paul, 239 Selby Ave., St. Paul. Organist Adam J. Brakel.

Presented by The Cathedral Heritage Foundation. cathedralheritagefoundation.org.

Dining Out Steak and Chicken Cook-out and Silent Auction — Sept. 27: 5–8:30 p.m. at St. Patrick’s Church, 24425 Old Highway 13 Blvd., Jordan. Sponsored by First Catholic Slovak Ladies Association.

St. Boniface German Dinner and Silent Auction — Oct. 13: 11 a.m.–2 p.m. at St. Boniface, 629 Second St. NE, Minneapolis. 10 a.m. Polka Mass preceding. 612-379-2761. stbonifacempls.org.

Parish events Holy Name rummage sale — Sept. 26-28 at 3637 11th Ave. S., Minneapolis. 612-724-5465. churchoftheholyname.org.

Twin Cities Prison Ministry Fundraiser — Sept. 28: 6:30–10 p.m. at St. Joseph, 13900 Biscayne Ave. W., Rosemount. Star Watch party with Mike Lynch, meteorologist at WCCO Radio. Music by Gemstone Revival. tcprisonministry.com.

Children’s Clothing and Toy Sale — Sept. 28-29 at St. Joseph the Worker, 7180 Hemlock Lane, Maple Grove. sjtw.net.

A Night of Swing — Sept. 29: 7–10 p.m. at St. Mark, 2001 Dayton Ave., St. Paul. Swing dancing with live music by the NorthStar Big Band. onestrongfamily.org.

Follow Me: Meeting Jesus in the Gospel of John — Tuesdays Oct. 1-Nov. 19: 7–8:30 p.m. at St. Mark’s Church, 2001 Dayton Ave., St. Paul. Eight-session Bible study with theologian Edward Sri. onestrongfamily.org.

St. Thomas Women’s Club garage sale — Oct. 2-4 at St. Thomas the Apostle, 20000 County Road 10, Corcoran. saintsppta.org.

St. Gabriel’s rummage sale — Oct. 3-5 at 1310 Mainstreet, Hopkins. stgabrielhopkins.org.

Hope for Bouzy benefit — Oct. 5: 6 p.m. at Edinburgh USA Golf Course, 8700 Edinbrook Crossing, Brooklyn Park.

Proceeds to St. Catherine’s Church in Bouzy, Haiti. Co-hosted

by St. Joseph the Worker in Maple Grove and Knights of Columbus. Patrick Farrelly at pfmaplegrove@aol.com. hopeforbouzy.com.

For our comprehensive parish festival guide

TheCatholicSpirit.com/festivals

Blessing of Animals in Honor of St. Francis of Assisi — Oct. 6: 1 p.m. at St. Richard’s Catholic Church, 7540 Penn Ave. S., Richfield. strichards.com.

School Choices: How Do I Educate My Child? — Oct. 10: 6–9 p.m. at St. Mark, St. Paul. Come hear a panel discussion as three women speak to the joys and sacrifices of the option each one has chosen: Catholic school, public school and homeschooling. Women of all creeds and convictions are warmly welcomed. Dinner at 6 p.m., program 6:45–9 p.m. Tickets: $15 at the door, or purchase early for a discount at schoolchoice_acw.eventbrite.com.

Prayer/worship Practice-based spiritual formation group — Second Tuesdays through Dec. 10: 7–9 p.m. at St. Paul’s Monastery, 2675 Benet Road, Maplewood. benedictinecenter.org.

Taize prayer — Third Fridays: 7–9 p.m. at St. Paul’s Monastery, 2675 Benet Road, Maplewood. Simple chants based on Scriptures and periods of silence. Refreshments following. benedictinecenter.org.

Taize prayer — First Fridays: 7:30 p.m. at St. Richard’s Catholic Church, 7540 Penn Ave. S., Richfield. Moving prayer centering on sung psalms and periods of holy silence. strichards.com.

Healing Mass with Father Jim Livingston — Oct. 5: 10 a.m. at St. Pascal Baylon, 1757 Conway St., St. Paul.

Sponsored by the Calix Society of the Twin Cities. Soup following. Kathy at 651-330-3387. www.calixsociety.org.

Retreats Serenity 12-Step Retreat — Sept. 27-29 at Christ the King Retreat Center, 621 First Ave. S., Buffalo. “Trudging the Road of Recovery.” Presenter Bob Martin. kingshouse.com.

Archdiocesan Women’s Retreat — Sept. 28: 8:30 a.m.–3 p.m. at Church of the Epiphany, 1900 111th Ave. NW, Coon Rapids. Susanna Parent at parents@ archspm.org or 651-291-4411. archspm.org.

Women’s mid-week retreat — Oct. 1-3 at Franciscan Retreats and Spirituality Center, 16390 St. Francis Lane, Prior Lake. “Rejoice and be Glad: Our Call to Holiness Today.” franciscanretreats.net.

The Great Conversation Series — Oct. 3: 9 a.m.–1 p.m at St. Paul’s Monastery, 2675 Benet Road, Maplewood.

“How Do We Tell Our Most Life-Giving Story.” benedictinecenter.org.

Retrouvaille Marriage Retreat — Oct. 4-6 at Dakota Ridge Best Western Hotel, 3450 Washington Drive, Eagan. tcr-mn.org.

Women’s weekend retreat — Oct. 4-6 at Franciscan Retreats and Spirituality Center, 16390 St. Francis Lane, Prior Lake. “Rejoice and be Glad: Our Call to Holiness Today.” franciscanretreats.net.

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.

Conferences/workshops Order Franciscans Secular (OFS) — Third Sundays: 1 p.m. at Catholic Charities, 1200 Second Ave. S., Minneapolis. Learn about this lay group of Catholic men and women, following the example of St. Francis. 952-922-5523.

Sidewalk Counseling Training — Oct. 3: 7–9 p.m at Sacred Heart Church, 4087 W. Broadway Ave., Robbinsdale.

Learn how to save these babies by peacefully reaching out in love to those entering abortion centers. Presented by Pro-Life Action Ministries. Registration requested. debra. braun@plam.org or call 651-797-6364. plam.org.

Behold 8-week series for women — Thursdays Oct. 3-Nov. 21: 6:45–8:30 p.m. at Our Lady of Grace, 5071 Eden Ave., Edina. archspm.org.

Missionary Discipleship Series — Tuesdays or Thursdays Oct.-May: 7-8:30 p.m. at two locations: Church of the Epiphany, 1900 111th Ave. N.W., Coon Rapids, or St. Joseph, 41st E. First St., Waconia. Register at archspm.org.

Susanna Parent at parents@archspm.org or 651-291-4411.

Schools Totino-Grace Open House — Oct. 8: 6:30 p.m. at 1350 Gardena Ave. NE, Fridley. totinograce.org.

St. Helena’s PreK - 8 Open House — Oct. 10 and Nov. 14: 1:30–5:30 p.m. at 3200 E. 44th St., Minneapolis. sainthelenaschool.us.

Speakers Suicide Awareness Symposium — Sept. 2 8:30 a.m.–3:30 p.m. at Bethlehem Lutheran Church, 4100 Lyndale Ave. S., Minneapolis.

Father Mark Dosh Speaker Series: Where Knowledge Leads to Love — Oct. 3: 6–9 p.m. at St. John the Baptist, 680 Mill St., Excelsior. stjohns-excelsior.org.

On Eagle’s Wings: A Journey through Illness toward Healing — Oct. 3: 7 p.m. at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, 13505 Excelsior Blvd., Minnetonka. With composer Father Michael Joncas. ihm-cc.org.

Saturday Morning Coffee — Oct. 5: 9–11 a.m. at Church of the Risen Savior, 1501 E. County Road 42, Burnsville.

Speaker Kathryn Kueppers, Miss Minnesota 2019. “My Faith Journey.” RSVP to Pat at 612-201-8341.

In Our Own Voice speaker series — Oct. 10: 7–8:30 p.m. at St. Richard’s Catholic Church, 7540 Penn Ave. S., Richfield. The Depression Support Coalition informs, educates, supports and cultivates a community of spiritual hope for those affected by depression depressionsupportcoalition.org.

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

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

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

Michael Dennis Browne Poetry Reading — Oct. 10: 7–8:30 p.m. at St. Paul’s Monastery, 2675 Benet Road, Maplewood. benedictinecenter.org.

Raising Our Kids and Living Our Faith with Humor and Prayer in a Secular World — Oct. 11: 7 p.m. at Church of St. Michael, 22120 Denmark Ave. Farmington. Speaker Mary Ann Kuharski.

Other events Knights of Columbus bingo — Wednesdays: 6–9 p.m. at Solanus Casey Council Hall, 1910 S. Greeley St., Stillwater.

Cathedral FestivalNOTICE of Lights Gala — Oct. 3: 6–9 p.m. at the Cathedral of St. Paul, 239 Selby Avenue, St. Paul.

Look for The Catholic Spirit Hosted by KSTP TV reporter Tom Hauser. Proceeds from the event will help restore the historic Cathedral Sacristy. cathedralheritagefoundation.org.

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in all copies of this i

Strides For CJD Walk/Run — Oct. 5: 9 a.m.–noon at Lake Elmo Park Reserve, 1515 Keats Ave. N., Lake Elmo. www.strides4cjd.com.

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CEMETERY LOTS Resurrection Cemetery: 2 lots in Section 62, Block 16, Lot 6, Graves 1 & 2. Market Value $1,775.00 each. Best offer. Marie 612-371-1331 M-F 8-4:30.

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20 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

SEPTEMBER 26, 2019

THELASTWORD

Answering

GOD’S

radical call

After serving in the military, Jeremiah Kraker joined a ministry in the Philippines called Pure Heart. He helps form youth and young adults in Church teaching on love and sexuality.

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

West St. Paul native leaves the Marines to serve the poor in the Philippines

By Susan Klemond For The Catholic Spirit

W

hen Jeremiah Kraker was in the Marine Corps, he liked being pushed to his limit, even through sleep deprivation, cold and living in the mud.

But two years ago while he was serving in Force Reconnaissance, a special operations-capable force, the West St. Paul native heard an equally radical call from God: to give his life in service to the poor.

Kraker, 24, responded by ending his four-year military career last year and moving to the Philippines, where he ministers to youth, prostitutes and the poor.

“It doesn’t surprise me when Jeremiah Kraker does something,” said Gene Messing, a leader of Kraker’s high school youth group in the Community of Christ the Redeemer, a West St. Paul-based Catholic charismatic covenant community.

“He didn’t just join the military, he joined the Marines,” said Messing, who attends St. Charles Borromeo. “He didn’t just join the Marines, he went into special operations. He didn’t do one training, he did a lot of training.”

With his all-in determination, Kraker has intercepted passes for the St. Thomas Academy football team, led SWAT-like training for foreign military units and now prays and serves in Asia. After traveling the world and finding renewal in God, his next move might be the priesthood.

The second of four children, Kraker attended the parish and school of St. Michael in West St. Paul and graduated from St. Thomas Academy in Mendota Heights in 2013.

Though involved in the youth group, Kraker said he was apathetic about his faith in high school. But he was

excited about joining the Marine Corps.

“I really just wanted to fight against evil,” he said. “I wanted to protect the world against those people who are trying to harm others.”

He enlisted after graduation and trained intensely, completing among other courses the Army Ranger School, a rigorous 61-day program that develops combat and leadership skills by testing physical and mental stamina. Through training, Kraker formed his will and ability to handle adversity.

Kraker and his team members trained other soldiers and military units in other countries to fight drug cartels and terrorism, but he never lost his desire to serve in a combat zone. As a result, he considered switching to the Army, but decided against that change.

Kraker was restless — a sign God was working in him, he now believes.

At the same time, friends in the military challenged him about his faith, motivating him to do research and decide what he believed.

But even as Kraker learned more about Catholicism, he was frustrated that his abilities weren’t enough to help friends he was working with who were struggling with depression and suicidal thoughts.

“I was very knowledgeable about my faith, but I had absolutely no relationship with Jesus,” he said. “I knew I should. I did stuff that was dangerous like jumping out of planes and I would pray once in a while. I went to Mass every Sunday.”

While serving in the Marine Corps in Japan, Kraker decided to volunteer during his 2017 Christmas break.

His sister connected him with a religious community in Cebu City, Philippines. As he prayed and served street children through the Community of St. John, he encountered God and the poor.

“For me to really give myself to the Lord, (he) had to humble me,” Kraker said, including his struggles to help his friends. “I had to see how unbelievably weak and sinful I am for me to turn to God in my weakness and in my sense of hopelessness and brokenness.”

Kraker’s experience convinced him to finish his military service and move into a household of men with the Community of St. John in the Philippines in 2018.

His training helped him adapt to the country’s heat and humidity.

“I want to serve God and I want to serve these people who have nothing because God blessed me in so many ways,” he said.

Kraker now helps with retreats and other programs in the Philippines as part of Pure Heart, a ministry rooted in the Corazon Puro program founded in New York City by the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal. The ministry forms youth and young adults in Church teaching on love and sexuality.

A former linebacker with a booming voice, he sometimes intimidates the much shorter youth, but they quickly warm up to him, Kraker said.

One night a week Kraker joins another religious community, Servants of the Plan of God of Lima, Peru, to minister to local prostitutes.

“God has placed in my heart a special place for these women,” he said. “If I can give them hope, if I can give them just a little joy for a day, for me that’s enough.”

As Kraker considers a priestly or religious vocation, he hopes to continue serving the poor.

Kraker loves the poor, Filipinos and what’s radical, said Father Andrew Brinkman, pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe in St. Paul, where Kraker attends Mass when he is in town, as he was in July, visiting family.

“He’s ready to do something bold,” said Father Brinkman, noting Kraker’s joy, gentleness and care for his family.

Kraker’s military career was bold but he’s not sure if it was God’s will. He does believe the Lord used his experiences to help him grow.

There may be more extreme assignments, but for now Kraker finds joy in faith and the poor.

God’s “love and mercy are so incomprehensible,” he said, “that through any personal or cultural struggle or sin, we can hope in the fact that Jesus has won already.”