The Courier - September 2018

The

COURIER

Feast of the Archangels September 29

September 2018

Official Newspaper of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Winona-Rochester, MN

To My Brothers and Sisters in Christ A Message from Bishop Quinn

�earIn wake Brothers and Sisters in Christ, of the shocking findings of the Harrisburg Grand Jury regarding decades of abuse by clergy, along with recent acknowledgement of the credible abuse by former Cardinal McCarrick, the people and the priests of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester have been in my heart and in my prayers. I have been offering my prayers and Masses for the people and for the priests of the diocese. I pray for wisdom and courage as your bishop, as well as for the victims of such abuse and betrayal.

These are difficult times for the Church. As a bishop, I understand how difficult it must be to hear reports of such abuse done by priests and bishops, because I feel it, too. In a crisis like this, it is important to rely on the strength that comes from the truth of the Gospel. In these moments, when evil and sin are being revealed to us, we are provided an opportunity for clarity and redemption. I am keenly aware of those who have been abused by clergy in our own diocese, and I have met with survivors and continue to work for the resolution of legal claims to bring healing and justice to the victims.

Here in the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, we have worked diligently to establish protocols and systems to prevent abuse and to report abuse immediately to law enforcement. There is also a full-time program manager for the Office of Safe Environment, a Ministerial Standards Review Board composed mainly of lay people, and expanded training for staff and volunteers in the VIRTUS safe environment program. As a diocese, we have also strengthened the formation our seminarians receive in celibacy and human sexuality. However, we must not rest. Improvement must continue in order to evaluate and build on the progress achieved. I take the lead on this effort and recommit myself and my ministry as your bishop to a safe environment for our young people and vulnerable adults. I beg God for forgiveness for the harm suffered by victims, that the Church failed to protect.

Catechism Update: Death Penalty Is Inadmissable

By HANNAH BROCKHAUS

Day of Prayer and Reparation Every parish and Catholic institution in the Diocese of Winona-Rochester is invited to hold, on a date of their choosing, a day of repentance and prayer for all those who were victimized by priests, deacons, religious, bishops or cardinals.

The Church leadership failed to protect them and instead covered up their sinful deeds.

Brothers and Sisters, cont'd on pg. 7

VATICAN CITY., Aug 2, 2018 (CNA/EWTN News) - The Vatican changed on August 2 the Catechism of the Catholic Church's teaching on the permissibility of the death penalty, which the Church had taught was legitimate in limited cases, stating the penalty is inadmissible, and its elimination should be sought.

A new draft of paragraph 2267 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church was issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith Aug. 2, after Pope Francis approved it in May. Quoting Pope Francis’ words in a speech of Oct. 11, 2017, the new paragraph states, in part, that “the Church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, that ‘the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person,’ and she works with determination for its abolition worldwide.”

Reasons for changing the teaching, the paragraph says, include: the increasing effectiveness of detention systems, growing understanding of the unchanging dignity of the person, and leaving open the possibility of conversion.

Until the change, the Church had consistently taught that the state had the authority to use the death penalty, in cases of “absolute necessity,” though with the qualification that the Church considered such situations to be extremely rare.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church had stated: “Assuming that the guilty party’s identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Church does not

Inadmissable, cont'd on pg. 14

INSIDE this issue

To the People of God... page 2

Reaching Out to the Wounded... page 5

Countering Infidelity with Holiness page 13

Articles of Interest

"It Is Christ Who Is Taught ... and Who Teaches"__4

2

Reaching Out to the Wounded...___________5

The Courier Insider

Meet Our New Principals__________________6 The Grooming Process of the Child Abuser__7 Share the Mission__________________________8 Photo Credit: Catholic News Agency

To the People of God

Pope Francis Condemns Sex Abuse in Letter

VATICAN CITY--On August 20, 2018, in the wake of a grand jury report detailing abuse of children at the hands of Pennsylvania clerics over a 70-year period, Pope Francis released a letter responding to the issue of sexual abuse within the Church. The letter appears in its entirety below.

“If one member suffers, all suffer together with it” (1 Cor 12:26). These words of Saint Paul forcefully echo in my heart as I acknowledge once more the suffering endured by many minors due to sexual abuse, the abuse of power and the abuse of conscience perpetrated by a significant number of clerics and consecrated persons. Crimes that inflict deep wounds of pain and powerlessness, primarily among the victims, but also in their family members and in the larger community of believers and nonbelievers alike. Looking back to the past, no effort to beg pardon and to seek to repair the harm done will ever be sufficient. Looking ahead to the future, no effort must be spared to create a culture able to prevent such situations from happening, but also to prevent the possibility of their being covered up and perpetuated. The pain of the victims and their families is also our pain, and so it is urgent that we once more reaffirm our commitment to ensure the protection of minors and of vulnerable adults.

1. If one member suffers…

In recent days, a report was made public which detailed the experiences of at least a thousand survivors, victims of sexual abuse, the abuse of power and of conscience at the hands of priests over a period of approximately seventy years.

Even though it can be said that most of these cases belong to the past, nonetheless as time goes on we have come to know the pain of many of the victims.

We have realized that these wounds never disappear and that they require us forcefully to condemn these atrocities and join forces in uprooting this culture of death; these wounds never go away.

The heart-wrenching pain of these victims, which

The Holy Father's Intention for

September 2018 Young People in Africa That young people in Africa may have access to education and work in their own countries.

September, 2018 w The Courier

cries out to heaven, was long ignored, kept quiet or silenced. But their outcry was more powerful than all the measures meant to silence it, or sought even to resolve it by decisions that increased its gravity by falling into complicity. The Lord heard that cry and once again showed us on which side he stands. Mary’s song is not mistaken and continues quietly to echo throughout history. For the Lord remembers the promise he made to our fathers: “he has scattered the proud in their conceit; he has cast down the mighty from their thrones and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty” (Lk 1:51-53). We feel shame when we realize that our style of life has denied, and continues to deny, the words we recite.

With shame and repentance, we acknowledge as an ecclesial community that we were not where we should have been, that we did not act in a timely manner, realizing the magnitude and the gravity of the damage done to so many lives. We showed no care for the little ones; we abandoned them.

I make my own the words of the then Cardinal Ratzinger when, during the Way of the Cross composed for Good Friday 2005, he identified with the cry of pain of so many victims and exclaimed: “How much filth there is in the Church, and even among those who, in the priesthood, ought to belong entirely to [Christ]! How much pride, how much self-complacency! Christ’s betrayal by his disciples, their unworthy reception of his body and blood, is certainly the greatest suffering endured by the Redeemer; it pierces his heart. We can only call to him from the depths of our hearts: Kyrie eleison – Lord, save us! (cf. Mt 8:25)” (Ninth Station).

2. … all suffer together with it The extent and the gravity of all that has happened requires coming to grips with this reality in a comprehensive and communal way. While it is important and necessary on every journey of conversion to acknowledge the truth of what has happened, in itself this is not enough. Today we are challenged as the People of God to take on the pain of our brothers and sisters wounded in their flesh and in their spirit. If, in the past, the response was one of omission, today we want solidarity, in the deepest and most challenging sense, to become our way of forging present and future history. And this in an environment where conflicts, tensions and above all the victims of every type of abuse can encounter an outstretched hand to protect them and rescue them from their pain (cf. Evangelii Gaudium, 228).

Such solidarity demands that we in turn condemn whatever endangers the integrity of any person.

A solidarity that summons us to fight all forms of

Letter, cont'd on pg. 15

...Seminarian Burse_________________________9 Life, Marriage & Family Headlines________10 How to Start the Nullity Process___________11 Get Prescriptions You Need...___________12 Countering Infidelity with Holiness__________13 Diocesan Headlines________________________14 Diocesan Calendar_________________________16 Officials The Most Rev. John M. Quinn, Bishop of the Diocese of WinonaRochester, announces the following appointments: Clergy Personnel Committee Rev. Msgr. Gerald Kosse: currently Pastor of St. Leo Parish in Pipestone, St. Joseph Parish in Jasper, and St. Martin Parish in Woodstock, and Dean of the Worthington Deanery; in addition to his current assignments, appointed to the Clergy Personnel Committee for the duration of his time serving as Dean, effective July 19, 2018.

Very Rev. Marreddy Pothireddy: currently Pastor of St. Ignatius Parish in Spring Valley, St. Finbarr Parish in Grand Meadow, and St. Patrick Parish in LeRoy, and Dean of the Austin / Albert Lea

Deanery; in addition to his current assignments, appointed to the Clergy Personnel Committee for the duration of his time serving as Dean, effective July 19, 2018.

DOW-R Civil Corporation Mr. Tim McManimon: appointed to the Diocese of WinonaRochester Civil Corporation Board of Directors for a two-year term, effective March 16, 2018.

Loyola Catholic Schools Board of Trustees Ms. Susan Peller: appointed to the Loyola Catholic Schools Board of Trustees for a three-year term, effective July 1, 2018.

Mr. Craig Theuninck: appointed to the Loyola Catholic Schools Board of Trustees for a three-year term, effective July 1, 2018.

Child Abuse Policy Information The Diocese of Winona-Rochester will provide a prompt, appropriate and compassionate response to reporters of sexual abuse of a child by any diocesan agent (employees, volunteers, vendors, religious or clergy). Anyone wishing to make a report of an allegation of sexual abuse should call the Victim Assistance Coordinator at 507454-2270, Extension 255. A caller will be asked to provide his or her name and telephone number. Individuals are also encouraged to take their reports directly to civil authorities. The Diocese of Winona-Rochester is committed to protecting children, young people and other vulnerable people in our schools, parishes and ministries. The diocesan policy is available on the diocesan web site at www.dow. org under the Safe Environment Program. If you have any questions about the Diocese of Winona-Rochester’s implementation of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, please contact Mary Hamann at 507-858-1244, or mhamann@dow.org.

The Courier is the official publication of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester 55 West Sanborn, P.O. Box 588, Winona, MN 55987 Vol 109 - 9

Most Reverend John M. Quinn, Publisher Nick Reller, Associate Editor

Telephone: 507-858-1257 Fax:507-454-8106 E-mail: nreller@dow.org Subscription Rates: $5 per year in the U.S. Parishioners in the diocese subscribe through their parish. Periodicals postage paid at Slayton, MN Postmaster.

Publishing Schedule: Monthly - Deadline for advertising & articles is the 10th of the month prior.

(ISSN 0744-5490)

Pray for Healing ear Friends in Christ,

Prayers for Healing in Our Church

In wake of the shocking findings of the Harrisburg Grand Jury regarding decades of abuse by clergy, along with recent acknowledgement of the credible abuse by former Cardinal McCarrick, the people and the priests of the Diocese of WinonaRochester have been in my heart and in my prayers.

As a bishop, I understand how difficult it must be to hear reports of such abuse done by priests and bishops, because I feel it, too. In these moments, when evil and sin are being revealed to us, we are provided an opportunity for clarity and redemption. I am keenly aware of those who have been abused by clergy in our own diocese, and I have met with

Rejoice in Hope Bishop John M. Quinn Bishop's Calendar

survivors and continue to work for the resolution of legal claims to bring healing and justice to the victims.

Here in the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, we have worked diligently to establish protocols and systems to prevent abuse and to report abuse immediately to law enforcement.

However, we must not rest. We are all called to be holy, to be saints. Please pray that when we fail, God will have mercy and guide us in humble repentance and continued conversion. My letter concerning these shocking revelations is printed on the front page of the Courier.

I have invited every parish and Catholic institution in the diocese to hold, on a date of their choosing, a day of repentance and prayer for all those who were victimized by priests, deacons, religious, bishops or cardinals.

At the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Winona, I have asked that Friday, September 14, 2018, be set aside as a day of prayer and reparation. Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament will be held all day in the main body of the Church and will end in the late afternoon. All of us are encouraged to voluntarily fast and perform acts of penance and charity on that, or another, day.

Let us continue to hold each other in prayer, trusting in our Triune God to guide and strengthen us during these difficult times.

Rosary Coast to Coast

October 7 is the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, and this year all are invited to join others from across the U.S. in praying the rosary for our country. In the initiative called “Rosary Coast to Coast,” all Americans are encouraged to pray the rosary for a culture of life, marriage, and protection

September 4, Tuesday 8 a.m. - Teach at SMU 11 a.m. - Holy Hour 12 p.m. - Presbyteral Council Meeting - St. Theodore Church, Albert Lea

September 6, Thursday 8 a.m. - Teach at SMU 10 a.m. - St. Paul Street Evangelization - Corner of 8th & Main St., Winona 11:30 a.m. - Lunch with FOCUS Missionaries September 7, Friday 5:15 p.m. - Mass of Renewal of Consecration of the Diocese to the Immaculate Heart of Mary Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, Winona September 8, Saturday 12 p.m. - National Day of Remembrance Prayer Service - St. Mary Cemetery, Memorial of the Unborn 4:30 p.m. - Diocesan Blue Mass - Co-Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, Rochester September 9, Sunday 10 a.m. - Confirmation for the Parishes of St. Mary, Chatfield; St. Patrick, Lanesboro; St. Columban, Preston; Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Harmony; and Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Canton

of religious liberty in the United States. This rosary will be prayed at the same time across the nation, with those in Minnesota (Central Time Zone) praying at 3 p.m.

People are encouraged to pray together with others in parishes or the diocese. Even if you can’t pray at this specific time, you can still pray for the same intentions at a different time. Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us!

Religious Life

Last month I had the honor and privilege of being present for the reception into the novitiate of the Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George, and the final vows of the Religious Sisters of Mercy of Alma, MI. It is encouraging to see young people giving their lives to Christ through vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, in order to follow Christ more closely. As a bishop, it particularly gives me great joy to see people from the Diocese of Winona-Rochester responding to the Lord’s call to enter religious life.

On August 2, the Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George celebrated their reception into the novitiate in Alton, IL. At this celebration, Thao-Vy Tran from the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, who is also a cousin of Fr. Thê Hoàng, entered the novitiate of the religious community, after having been a postulant for the past year. As a novice, she enters her next stage of formation and will now be known as Sr. Peter Marie. During this time, she and the other novices will deepen their knowledge of the Lord and the charism of their particular religious community through prayer and formation.

On August 16, the Religious Sisters of Mercy of Alma, MI, rejoiced at the final vows of several sisters, as they committed

the rest of their lives to living out the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, and to also serving the poor, sick, and ignorant. Here in the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, we are blessed to have the Religious Sisters of Mercy serving in many capacities, and one of the sisters who made final vows, Sr. Mary Juanita Gonsalvez, has previously served in our diocese as the director of faith formation.

Both the Religious Sisters of Mercy and the Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George provide a beautiful witness to the joy that comes from faithfully following Christ in consecrated life. I ask you to please keep them, especially Sr. Peter Marie, FSGM and Sr. Mary Juanita, RSM, in your prayers, that they may be always faithful and steadfast in following the Lord’s call.

National Day of Remembrance for Aborted Children

September 8 marks the sixth annual National Day of Remembrance for Aborted Children; on this occasion, I will be leading a memorial service at St. Mary’s Cemetery in Winona, to remember the more than 50 million victims of abortion, in the United States. I am very thankful for all the people throughout the Diocese of Winona-Rochester who continue to pray for an end to abortion, and for all those affected by this tragedy. We must never tire of courageously speaking out and praying for the life and dignity of the unborn!

Reconsecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

In 2008, Bishop Harrington consecrated the diocese to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Consecration to Our Blessed Mother is a long-standing

September 10 - 12, Monday - Wednesday USCCB Administrative Committee Meetings Washington, D.C.

September 22, Saturday 10 a.m. - Blessing of the Princess Wenonah fountain in Windom Park, Winona

September 13, Thursday 8 a.m. - Teach at SMU 1 p.m. - Holy Hour 2 p.m. - Bishop’s Cabinet Meeting 4 p.m. - Winona Deanery Meeting - Rushford

September 24, Monday 10:30 a.m. - Mass - Benefactors’ Day - St. Bernard Abbey Retreat Center, Cullman, AL

September 15, Saturday 11 a.m. - Consecration to a Life of Virginity for Leandra Hubka - Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, Winona 4 p.m. - Mass & Installation of Pastor, Fr. James Starasinich - St. Joseph Church, Owatonna September 16, Sunday 10:30 a.m. - Confirmation for the Parishes of Good Shepherd, Jackson; St. Luke, Sherburn; St. Joseph, Lakefield; Sacred Heart, Brewster; Sacred Heart, Heron Lake; and St. Francis Xavier, Windom 2 p.m. - Diocesan Marriage Anniversary Mass Good Shepherd Church, Jackson September 17 - 20, Monday - Thursday Diocese of Winona-Rochester Presbyteral Days - Okoboji, IA

September 25, Tuesday 8 a.m. - Teach at SMU 11:30 a.m. - Holy Hour 12:30 p.m. - Deans Meeting - St. Theodore Church, Albert Lea September 26, Wednesday 9:30 a.m. - Holy Hour 10:30 a.m. - College of Consultors Meeting September 27, Thursday 8 a.m. - Teach at SMU 10:25-10:45 a.m. - Guest on Real Presence Radio 1 p.m. - Holy Hour 2 p.m. - Bishop’s Cabinet Meeting September 28, Friday 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. - Individual Meetings with Seminarians - IHM Seminary, Winona

3

practice of our faith tradition, through which one entrusts a person or place to the Blessed Virgin Mary, in order that she may intercede for us and guide us to more perfectly fulfill the will of Christ in our lives.

Mary always wants to bring us closer to her Son, and consecration to her Immaculate Heart allows us to more completely give ourselves to Christ through His mother.

Through this consecration, we imitate Jesus Christ, who entrusted Himself to Our Lady from the moment of His conception in her womb, and we ask her to bestow on us the graces and merits of her Son, and to safely lead us along the path that leads to our heavenly home.

As is our tradition in the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, I will be reconsecrating the diocese to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on the occasion of the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, September 8. This year, the reconsecration will take place at a special Mass on the Vigil of this feast, at 5:15 p.m. on September 7, at the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Winona.

All are welcome to attend, and join in this expression of love and devotion to Our Lady. Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us!

From the Bishop

�

Sincerely in Christ,

Most Rev. John M. Quinn Bishop of Winona-Rochester

September 30, Sunday 10 a.m. - Confirmation for the Parishes of St. Bernard, Stewartville, and St. Bridget, Simpson 2 p.m. - Confirmation for Holy Spirit Parish, Rochester October 2, Tuesday 8 a.m. - Teach at SMU 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. - Individual Meetings with Seminarians - IHM Seminary, Winona October 3, Wednesday 9 a.m. - 6 p.m. - MN Catholic Conference - St. Paul, MN October 4, Thursday 8 a.m. - Teach at SMU 10:30 a.m. - Cathedral Sesquicentennial Mass for Neighboring State and Regional Clergy Diocese of LaCrosse, WI October 5, Friday 10 a.m. - Mass at St. Thomas More Chapel SMU, Winona Campus 2 p.m. - Inauguration Ceremony for SMU President Rev. James Burns - SMU, Winona Campus October 6, Saturday 9:30 a.m. - Diocesan Pastoral Council Meeting St. Francis of Assisi Church, Rochester September, 2018 w The Courier

Lay Formation & RCIA

4

"It Is Christ Who Is Taught ...And Who Teaches" The Church has always considered catechesis one of her primary tasks, for, before Christ ascended to His Father after His resurrection, He gave the apostles a final command - to make disciples of all nations and to teach them to observe all that He had commanded (Matthew 28:19-20).

He thus entrusted them with the mission and power to proclaim to humanity what they had heard, what they had seen with their eyes, what they had looked upon and touched with their hands, concerning the Word of Life (1 John 1:1) ... And He gave them the Spirit to fulfill this mission.

�

-Pope John Paul II, Catechesi Tradendae, #1

his summer, I had the opportunity to attend and participate in the St. John Bosco Conference at Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio. It was my second trip there in the last year, with a first-time visit to the campus last fall.

First, I want to share a few words about my experience of being at Franciscan University…

When I was there last fall, the students were on campus, and it was a very vibrant and lively place. The students were overwhelmingly friendly and hospitable, and just seemed to be very joyful. The campus Masses I participated in were prayerful and reverent, but also lively and Spirit-filled as well. I really enjoyed being in such a genuinely “Catholic” environment where the “joy of the Gospel” (as Pope Francis describes it) was so tangible.

My experience was a bit different this summer as most of the students were gone from the campus, but a number of them were around as conference and campus workers, etc. Again, the ones I encountered were bright and engaging.

I had a wonderful conversation with a young woman staffing the desk in the dorm where I was staying. She is studying business at the university and was about to begin her senior year. She shared that she didn’t have a strong faith commitment coming to Franciscan as a freshman, but within weeks felt her faith begin to flourish amidst her fellow students who were clearly alive in their experience of the Lord and of the Church. She said that their experience of living the

Evangelist’s Corner

with Deb McManimon, St. Paul Street Evangelization What an amazing month it has been with our evangelization teams across the diocese and beyond.

A combination of Winona, Owatonna, and Rochester teams collaborated to evangelize at Thursdays on First, a weekly, all-day event in Rochester with vendors, food and music. This area is very close to the Mayo Clinic, so there were many who stopped by, looking for prayers of comfort and healing.

September, 2018 w The Courier

faith was contagious, and brought about a deepening of her own life of faith and discipleship.

She also shared with me her desire to bring Christ and the witness of her faith into her work through her planned career in business, finance, etc. And, it wasn’t described in a judgmental or heavy way, but rather as a wonderful opportunity for her to live her faith in this secular context.

I had many other wonderful conversations about faith with my fellow conference participants. And, again, the grace of celebrating the Eucharist together with joy and spirit, and a very powerful experience of Eucharistic Adoration, touched my heart very deeply.

I share this as the context for my reflections on one of the workshops I attended. It was titled, “Catechesis: Echoing What God Has Revealed,” and was led by one of the faculty from the Catechetical Institute at Franciscan University.

I went to the conference to study and learn more about RCIA ministry (as I now work in this area for our diocese), and it is one of the tracks offered to participants. Catechesis is an essential part of the RCIA process as those entering the Church come to learn, reflect on, and integrate the teachings of our Church into their minds and hearts – and as they allow these teachings to guide the path of their lives.

The focus for our session was the first section of an Apostolic Exhortation of Pope Saint John Paul II, On Catechesis In Our Time (Catechesi Tradendae). Much could be written about this document, and it merits the careful study and reflection of all those who are involved in the Church’s catechetical ministry. But, I will only be able to offer a couple of points.

The "Heart of Catechesis"

Pope John Paul wishes to stress what he calls the “Christocentricity” of all “authentic catechesis.” This means that Christ must be at the center of all of our teaching about the faith. At the “heart of catechesis,” as he describes it, is found not a concept or a set of ideas.

What we find is “in essence, a Person, the Person of Jesus of Nazareth.” (Catechesi Tradendae, #5) To go back to my encounter with the young woman at Franciscan University, what drew her into a deeper experience of faith was her relationships with her fellow students – and not so much what they said, but how they lived and the witness they shared with her. It

Please lift up in prayer Hope, who is having cancer treatment; Janice and Rosanna, a mother and daughter who need healing and forgiveness in their relationship; Evan, who has a terminal illness; the repose of Mike's soul; Gwen's family; Shari, whose nephew only lived for a short time; and all who stopped for prayer and comfort.

Many also stopped to thank us for being available for prayer. Our Owatonna team was out at the Medford Farmer’s Market and had some incredible Holy-Spirit-filled conversations. One woman came back to our table several times, telling us that we would never know

what a difference we had made in her life that day by our witness and prayer. Our Winona team was out with a priest at Walmart, greeting and praying with those out shopping, and we even had our first street confession!

Wow, God is so good. We are definitely going outside the doors of our churches, to where the people are, as Pope Francis has called us to do. It was a beautiful month of missionary discipleship!

If you are interested in learning more or going out with a team, check out our Midwest Team site at www.streetevangelization.com/mret

Todd Graff

Director of Lay Formation & RCIA tgraff@dow.org

is this living relationship with Christ that is at the heart of catechesis.

Without the “Person” of Christ at its center, the expression of our faith can become distant and impersonal. The Risen Christ is alive, and catechesis seeks to bring us to a deeper encounter of him and of his great and personal love for each one of us. From this encounter will flow a deeper knowledge of who Jesus is, who God is, and how this understanding leads us to a richer and more authentic understanding of who we are and of God’s creation all around us.

Accordingly, the definitive aim of catechesis is to put people not only in touch but in communion, in intimacy, with Jesus Christ; only He can lead us to the love of the Father in the Spirit and make us share in the life of the Holy Trinity. (CT #5) And, to hearken back to my experience at Franciscan University, our experience of Christ in the Eucharist is fundamental to our faith and to our understanding of faith. This is where we encounter the Person of Christ (his “body, blood, soul, and divinity”) in a real and profoundly personal way.

Christ the Teacher

A second point that Pope John Paul offers concerning the “Christocentricity” of catechesis is that our catechesis does not seek to communicate one’s own teaching, or that of another “master,” but rather the “Truth” that Christ “communicates” and, more precisely, the Truth that He “is.”

As our Holy Father expresses it: “We must therefore say that in catechesis it is Christ, the Incarnate Word and Son of God, who is taught – everything else is taught with reference to Him – and it is Christ alone who teaches – anyone else teaches to the extent that he is Christ’s spokesman, enabling Christ to teach with his lips.” (CT #6) And, to echo again, this teaching is focused on the Person of Christ. It is not “a body of abstract truths,” but rather “the communication of the living mystery of God.” (CT #6) This “living mystery of God” is our divine companion, our Lord and Savior, our Redeemer, who is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life” – Jesus Christ.

This was the key to the beautiful experience I had at Franciscan University – being among fellow disciples who carry on this task of catechesis, of sharing the truth and love that is Christ, and who do so joined together in His Body, the Church. Deo Gratias!

Catechesis aims therefore at developing understanding of the mystery of Christ in the light of God's word, so that the whole of a person's humanity is impregnated by that word. Changed by the working of grace into a new creature, the Christian thus sets himself to follow Christ and learns more and more within the Church to think like Him, to judge like Him, to act in conformity with His commandments, and to hope as He invites us to do.

-Pope Francis, Message for World Mission Sunday 2016

Reaching Out to the Wounded The Church as Field Hospital � hat would you do if you knew someone was physically hurt, wounded? Provide first aid? Do CPR? Call an

ambulance?

Now, what would you do if you knew someone was spiritually wounded?

I offer a small challenge to everyone reading this.

Get to a Bible, and open it to the beginning of the Gospel according to Mark. Within the first 13 verses, in short order, the coming of the Lord is prophesied by Isaiah and John the Baptist; Jesus of Nazareth is baptized, the Holy Spirit descends, and a voice from heaven announces he is the Beloved Son of God; and Jesus is then tempted by Satan in the desert for 40 days. Whew.

But what does Jesus do next? He moves into his ministry: he announces the Kingdom is near; repent and believe!, and calls the first disciples. Then, he heals. The rest of the first chapter is healing people. In fact, the majority of that gospel involves Jesus healing people.

This is commonly a surprise to people who see Jesus as Teacher and moral sage. Certainly he is the Great Teacher and rabbi. But the ministerial act he did first was heal. Why? I would hold that, in that gospel, Jesus healed not because it was an attention getting maneuver; he healed people because he loved them, and that event was their path to relationship, especially discipleship. “I want you to be healed,” could really be read, “I want you to be mine.” And, based on that encounter with Christ, his power and love, they became his disciples and his evangelists. So many of these healing narratives end with, “and [he/she] followed him,” or “and [he/she] went and told everyone what Jesus had done.” (Really, read the rest of Mark! It’s short and it’s worth it!)

The reality is this: many of us are spiritually wounded. Living in a fallen world, we suffer at the hands of other people’s sin. We suffer sometimes because of our own sin.

We suffer due to illness, a result of Adam and Eve’s original sin. We’re often wounded in all these three directions, and caught on a battlefield where the Evil One uses that woundedness to tell us God will not do anything about our wounds. Our people, friends, family, ourselves—we are increasingly deadened to our need for the living God, and our woundedness festers and can spiritually kill us.

Ah, but God… Church as Field Hospital

It is the ancient understanding of Jesus Christ as the Divine Physician that undergirds Pope Francis’s frequent admonition for the Church to act

Initiatives Focusing on Christ’s Encounter With the Spiritually Wounded

One of the elements of this office is to offer concrete support in offering a specific discipleship path for those challenged by life realities. In the next year, we are offering various talks, initiatives, and retreats for those who are spiritually wounded: •

•

Catholic in Recovery. Scott Weeman (author of The Twelve Steps and the Sacraments: A Catholic Journey through Recovery) is the founder of the non-profit organization Catholic in Recovery, a relatively new grass roots movement that offers a 12-step program to be engaged in alongside traditional programs like AA, NA, Al-Anon, and more. The difference is that this group comes together for the additional support of understanding the 12 steps of recovery through the riches of the Catholic spiritual tradition.

We are planning for Scott to speak in the diocese in late October or early November this year, and encourage everyone interested in hearing his witness to come and learn more. Anyone who is interested in being on the planning team around this, please contact me at swindley@dow.org .

Practicing and Teaching Forgiveness Retreat.

This is scheduled for January in the West (Shalom Hill Farm retreat cen-

•

•

•

ter, near Windom) and February in the East (Alverna Center in Winona).

Forgiveness is incredibly difficult - in many cases, impossible without God’s help - and most of us were never taught what it means to forgive and how to forgive. This overnight retreat will offer retreatants a quiet and prayerful atmosphere to learn how to practice forgiveness with the help of Jesus Christ, and how to teach others to do the same.

Missionary Discipleship

Susan Windley-Daoust

Director of Missionary Discipleship swindley@dow.org

like a field hospital. There are ways to speak of this physically and socially—and let us thank God and the people who offer the work in Catholic Charities, many Catholic hospitals, and other apostolates and institutions in that regard. They help bring the face of God’s love and substantial help to people in critical need. But our Lord is the doctor of our spiritual lives, and that is clear in the gospels. You cannot teach people to spiritually walk in discipleship when they are so spiritually wounded they cannot listen. And the loving-kindness of God in Jesus wants to encounter and heal first, and then grow in relationship to God. Mentally, we seem to turn it around backwards.

Missionary discipleship—to go deep into relationship with Christ and go out to bring others to his love and mercy—presumes that the baptized people of God are temples of the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is given to us to urge and empower us to go and bring people to a life-saving encounter with Jesus Christ. But it is often an encounter they don’t fully realize they need or want, because of their woundedness. Jesus Christ wants to meet us in our woundedness. One of the best things we can do as Church is create safe and encouraging spaces for people to encounter the living God in that woundedness. As field hospitals, that means pitching our tents where specific wounded people are. It means we are individually called to being medics and bringing people to the Divine Physician.

5

Sacramental Reconciliation Outreach to Fallen-Away Catholics.

The Co-Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in Rochester has for years been inviting Catholics in the Rochester area to receive sacramental reconciliation in a specially created 24-hour window, where there has always been one priest available in the confessional for reconciliation, an outstanding initiative called 24 Hours for the Lord. What would an outreach and special invitation across all of southern Minnesota to receive sacramental reconciliation look like? Especially if we as people of God focused on bringing in and welcoming those who have not been to Mass in years? More to come.

Help for hurting marriages. We are looking to bring a retreat to the diocese that offers concrete support, space, communication skills, and spiritual hope to couples struggling in their marriages.

Unbound Conference. We are planning an Unbound Conference in the late summer of 2019. Captured in a book by Neal Lozano (Unbound: A Practical Guide to Deliverance), this conference offers people healing through an awareness of spiritual blocks, and deliverance prayer over various challenges in their spiritual life. The conference also trains people to pray sensitively with others.

There is, of course, so much more that can be done and must be done. But these initiatives are created opportunities to bring yourself and others to encounter Jesus Christ, his person, his love and his healing. And like so many gospels tell us: when Jesus heals, the response is that people - touched, amazed, grateful - turn to follow him. That is, they become disciples, or become more rooted in their discipleship. We were called to fullness of life, and that is what discipleship is!

Missionary discipleship means doing what the first disciples did: when they encountered wounded people, they brought them to Jesus. This encounter with the Lord must always come first, lest the wounds of our lives become the last word. His healing is often the call of our particular discipleship. Please join us in these initiatives, and bring your friends and family to meet the Divine Physician.

Are You Interested...

...in evangelization? Deeper discipleship? If you would like to be on an email list regarding missionary discipleship opportunities in the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, please contact Susan Windley-Daoust at swindley@dow.org with "Missionary Discipleship email list" in the subject line.

Catholic in Recovery

Catholic in recovery is a 12-step movement that draws upon the riches of 12-step spirituality as well as Catholic sacramental spirituality to aid those in any process of addiction recovery (as well as those who love someone in recovery). If you want more information about this movement and Scott Weeman's coming talks in the diocese, please contact Susan Windley-Daoust at swindley@dow.org.

September, 2018 w The Courier

6

Meet Our New Principals Marsha Stenzel

Catholic Schools

Superintendent of Catholic Schools mstenzel@dow.org

Shawn Kennedy

�

lease join me in welcoming these new additions to our Catholic school administration in the Diocese of Winona-Rochester!

Shawn Kennedy is the new 2018-2019 school administrator at St. Casimir School in Wells.

Shawn is returning to Catholic education and is excited to join the administrative staff serving the DOW-R. He comes with experience in both teaching and administration. He believes Catholic education is where God wants him to serve and is excited for

Rebecca Swedberg

the opportunity to meet the families at St. Casimir, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, and St. John Baptist Church.

Please join us in welcoming Shawn Kennedy to St. Casimir School.

Rebecca Swedberg is the new principal of St. Mary School in Caledonia.

Rebecca writes: My name is Rebecca Swedberg. My husband, Zach, and I are blessed with two beautiful children, Aria (3) and Thea (1). I had the pleasure

of teaching in a Catholic school for 3 years and I am excited to embark on a new journey as principal. I feel extremely blessed to serve as the principal of St. Mary’s School in Caledonia.

I am honored for the opportunity to work with so many dedicated teachers, staff, parents, and students.

As principal, it is important to me that everyone who steps through the doors of St. Mary’s School be excited to be here. It is my hope that I can create an atmosphere of positive energy. An environment in which students and staff can continue to grow spiritually, academically, and socially to become the best person they can be.

All of us at St. Mary’s School are excited for the new school year. We look forward to serving the families of St. Mary’s School. My door is always open and I welcome input. Please feel free to contact us anytime with questions about our school: 507-725-3355 or rswedberg@stmaryschoolcal.org.

Thank you, Shawn Kennedy and Rebecca Swedberg, for your commitment to our Catholic schools. We are so happy to have you!

St. Casimir School ROCKs Submitted by JULIE BRUEGGER

�ith a new school

year comes energy, excitement and enthusiasm! Here at St. Casimir’s School, we have chosen ROCK: Revival Of Catholic Kids, as our theme for the 201819 school year because we want our students and staff to have a focal point that centers around our faith.

With declining enrollment in Catholic education, and not as many families attending Mass on a consistent basis, our goal is to revive and re-spark our Catholic faith back in the students, their families, our school and our communities. Our theme will grow throughout the year as we introduce our revival in many ways, including our school’s logo combined with the Shield of Faith, a theme song, special Bible verses and more! ROCK will also be integrated into the classroom throughout the year, teaching our students that God is our fortress and protector, but He needs us to be willing and faithful.

We are eager to see the Holy Spirit at work through the year at SCS because we ROCK! Julie Bruegger is a secretary at St. Casimir School in Wells.

September, 2018 w The Courier

type of relationship the molester seeks. Grooming can take months or years, depending on the victim, and it occurs in a variety of ways simultaneously. An abuser Mary Hamann Safe Environment Program Manager could be grooming more than one child at a time.

There are three main classifications of grooming. mhamann@dow.org

A large portion of this article is reprinted from a guide called The Grooming Matrix, by Virtus Online, a program and service of the National Catholic Risk Retention Group, Inc.

� facilitate many Virtus Protecting God’s Children for

Adults training sessions. I am always so impressed by the audience’s commitment to the children in our diocese and applaud their willingness to be part of the solution of preventing child sexual abuse.

Virtus Protecting God’s Children for Adults is a two-hour live training. Participants watch two DVDs. The first, A Time to Protect All Children, interviews actual child abusers and actors simulating true stories of how child sexual abuse has affected their lives. The second, A Plan to Protect All Children, walks participants through the five warning signs of child sexual abuse. Participants can take this knowledge to their churches, jobs, or communities - anywhere they go where there are children.

For many child molesters, the process of grooming can be time consuming, as the molester may patiently groom a child for the

Brothers and Sisters, cont'd from pg. 1 At the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Winona, I have asked that Friday, September 14, 2018, be set aside as a day of special prayer and reparation.

Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament will be held all day in the main body of the Church and will end in the late afternoon. All of us are encouraged to voluntarily fast and also to perform acts of penance and charity on that, or another, day.

September 14 is the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross and this day seems particularly fitting as a day to beg forgiveness for these sins and to pray for victims harmed and broken by those who were supposed to protect them.

Physical grooming involves a physical progression of touches from a normal, acceptable touch, such as a pat on the shoulder, to a more aggressive and intimate one. This grooming may be so subtle that the child does not realize what is happening, particularly depending on the age of the youth.

Physical grooming is done for two reasons, to desensitize the child to more aggressive touches and to confuse the youth about his or her personal boundaries.

Psychological grooming, also known as emotional grooming, is equally subtle and also progressive. It includes actions that make a youth feel dependent on an adult, often involving an aspect of emotional attachment. The molester may shower the child with gifts, or provide the youth with drugs or alcohol to make the child feel complicit. The abuser will often act as a confidant, mentor or friend, giving plenty of attention and a listening ear. The abuser may even coerce the youth by threatening the child or a loved one, or telling the youth that no one will believe them. It is psychological grooming that is performed to make the child feel conflicted or helpless, which bonds the youth more resolutely to the abuser.

As your bishop, I am deeply grateful for your faith.

I am also grateful for our priests’ faithful service and dedication to their vocation and the people in their care. I am grateful for the employees, volunteers, parents and teachers who work faithfully to create a nurturing, inspiring and safe environment for everyone within our diocese.

We must rely on the love of God who calls us, who inspires us, and for the guidance of the Holy Spirit who strengthens us. We are all called to be holy, to be saints.

Please pray that when we fail, God will have mercy and guide us in humble repentance and continued conversion. My prayers go out to those who have experienced sexual abuse, who have been abused, and who have suffered. I stand committed to providing support and

Community grooming provides the abuser with the environment needed to accomplish goals of abuse. Within a community setting, the abuser will be to the community what the community needs. The abuser will work to ingratiate themselves into the community, developing trusting relationships with adults and children for greater access to youth, which in turn makes it less likely that others would suspect the person of any suspicious behavior. If the abuser is ever accused, the community may respond negatively to the victim since it is inconceivable that someone they trust and admire could perpetrate abuse.

7 Safe Environment

The Grooming Process Of the Child Abuser

The complicated ways child molesters can subtly camouflage their actions and trick both adults and children are disturbing. It is important to note that just because someone may be performing one or more of the grooming techniques, it does not mean that they are an abuser—but they could be grooming, and the caring adult should appropriately communicate their concerns.

To attend a Virtus Protecting God’s Children for Adults live training or learn more about the program, please visit www. virtusonline.org.

healing to those who have been tragically abused by clergy, and I encourage anyone who has been abused recently, or in the past, to come forward and report the abuse to civil authorities.

Let us continue to hold each other in prayer, trusting in our Triune God to guide and strengthen us during these difficult times.

Sincerely in Christ,

Most Rev. John M. Quinn Bishop of Winona-Rochester

September, 2018 w The Courier

8

Share the Mission � recently concluded a five-week

Vocations

summer portion of a degree program, during which time I completed three classes. It is basically a semester of three classes jammed into five weeks. It is an intense time but very rewarding.

For the conclusion of a class on St. Paul’s letters in the New Testament, I chose to write my paper on how St. Paul formed and equipped St. Timothy to carry out the mission of preaching, teaching, and evangelizing in the early Church. It is clear that Paul and Timothy traveled together and corresponded both via letter and in person. It is also evident that Paul had a deep affection for Timothy and had a very close relationship with him until Paul died. Paul not only shared with Timothy the Gospel of God but also shared his very self (1 Thess 2:8). Paul equipped Timothy by sharing in his very life, modeling the art of living as a disciple, and then forming him for the mission.

People often ask me how they can better promote vocations to the priesthood, and my response is largely the same: vocations are borne of discipleship relationships both in the family and in the parish. When young men or women see what is possible and how to live as disciples, and then are themselves given tools to live that way, they strive more eagerly to do God’s will in their lives. How can a young person who has no conception of a relationship with Christ seek to follow His will?

This fall, let's continue to strive to invest in those God entrusts to us as our faith formation programs pick up and we see the needs of all our students. Remember to keep Christ at the center and continue to talk to people about Jesus even while you intentionally invest in a discipleship relationship with those God is calling you to walk with and form to reach others.

Timothy was told by Paul to entrust to other people what has been entrusted to him: “what you have heard from me before many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also (2 Tim 2:2).” Paul is encouraging Timothy to teach others who have the gift of teaching so that they can be the ones to reach the next wave of people. We can’t do it all! We need coworkers who share our vision and mission just as Paul did. My encouragement to you this fall would be to reflect on the following questions: • Who are you investing in to walk with and to help grow closer to Christ?

• Where does the person you are walking with see himself/herself in the discipleship journey? As a beginner? As committed and growing? As a faithful disciple? As ready to be sent out?

St. Paul Ordains Timothy as Bishop of Ephesus. Ludwig Glötzle, 1891 September, 2018 w The Courier

Rev. Jason Kern Director of Vocations jkern@dow.org

• What sacrifices can this person be invited to make in order to grow deeper in faith?

• Is he or she willing to make those sacrifices?

Discipleship should be costly. As our culture’s pressures continue to mount, we need to be clear that living as a committed disciple invites a lifestyle that often contradicts the world and its pleasures. Invite disciples to make a deeper commitment to Christ this year in small ways as you continue to walk with them and encourage them much like Paul accompanied and encouraged Timothy in his mission.

Pray for These Men

9

And Support the Bishop Emeritus Bernard J. Harrington Seminarian Burse

Catholic Foundation

Monica Herman

Executive Director Catholic Foundation of Southern Minnesota mherman@catholicfsmn.org

�

he Diocese of Winona-Rochester has been blessed this year with an outstanding number of young men studying to become priests. Bishop Quinn commented that the faithful and fervent prayers, as well as an increased focus on high quality youth ministry and faith formation programs, have helped more men hear God’s call to the priesthood.

With this great blessing comes the necessity of helping these young men afford the education that they will need to become priests. Following the trend of most other higher education facilities, the cost of educating and forming the seminarians from our diocese has increased as well.

For this reason, the Bishop Emeritus Bernard J. Harrington Seminarian Burse was formed. The Seminarian Burse was started in 2006 by Bishop Emeritus Harrington to ensure that we could provide the best possible priestly formation for the future priests of our diocese. The campaign established a restricted endowment to help meet the cost of providing for our current and future seminarians.

This endowment is often mistaken for other campaigns aimed to assist seminarians, such as the Hearts on Fire Appeal held by the Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary (IHMS). These two appeals differ in several ways, including who they assist and what the money goes toward.

CFSM Awarded Grant from MN Lake Farmer MINNESOTA LAKE--Local farmer Joseph Bach directed a $2,500 donation to the Catholic Foundation of Southern Minnesota, toward that CMA 2018 goal of St. John the Baptist Parish in Minnesota Lake, as part of the America's Farmers Grow Communities program, sponsored by the Monsanto Fund. Bach is a 2017 grant winner.

As part of their mission, the Catholic Foundation of Southern Minnesota will use the funds to provide ministries to the Catholic faithful in Minnesota's 20 southernmost counties.

A Monsanto representative said, "Since the program began in 2010, the Grow Communities program has partnered with farmers to support nonprofit organizations important to them in their local communities. The program has given more than $29 million to farming communities since its inception, including more than $3 million in 2018. Each year, farmers enter for a chance to direct a $2,500 donation to a nonprofit they care about in their community. The organizations reflect the makeup and character of rural America, including emergency response organizations, schools, youth agriculture programs, food banks and many others."

September, 2018 w The Courier

Fr. Brian Mulligan (L), Fr. Thê Hoàng (R) and Deacon Matthew Wagner (2nd from L) were all ordained by Bishop Quinn (3rd from L) in June this year.

While the Seminarian Burse specifically helps seminarians from the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, the Hearts on Fire Appeal benefits all seminarians attending IHMS, as the funds support the organization's operating budget.

The journey toward priesthood typically takes at least eight years to complete and includes attending both a minor and major seminary. Including the seminarians at both institutions, the cost for the diocese is approaching $200,000 annually.

Men from the Diocese of Winona-Rochester start this process by enrolling at Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary in Winona, where they work toward discovering what God has planned for them. and toward receiving a Bachelor of Arts in a specifically designed philosophy major from St. Mary’s University of Minnesota. Currently, there are seven seminarians attending IHM Seminary from the Diocese of Winona-Rochester.

The diocese, through the Seminarian Burse, has taken up the cost of their room and board while they study at IHMS, which amounts to around $8,000 a year for each seminarian. While attending

IHMS, the seminarians are responsible for paying their own tuition, though they receive a partial scholarship from St. Mary’s University.

Once the men have finished their time at IHMS, they attend Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, MI, where the men truly hone in on forming themselves to be priests. We currently have six seminarians from the diocese studying at Sacred Heart Major Seminary. In addition to those at IHM and Sacred Heart, we also have a seminarian who is taking a pastoral year at the St. Adrian cluster parishes.

The Seminarian Burse covers all expenses related to the seminarians' education while they attend Sacred Heart. This cost runs approximately $40,000 per seminarian each year.

The people of the diocese are always very supportive of educating and taking care of its seminarians. We are tremendously blessed to have so many men journeying toward the priesthood in the Diocese of Winona-Rochester. Please continue to pray for these men and, as always, for an increase in vocations.

Congratulations!

Since our last printing, the following parishes have met their goals for the 2018 Catholic Ministries Appeal:

St. John the Baptist de La Salle, Dodge Center St. Joseph, Good Thunder St. Mary, Lake Wilson

Life, Marriage & Family

U.S. Bishops Welcome Catechism Change Calling 10 for Abolition of Death Penalty WASHINGTON (Aug 3, 2018.

USCCB)—Following the publication of the revised section of the Catechism of the Catholic Church regarding the death penalty, Bishop Frank J. Dewane of Venice, FL, Chairman of the USCCB's Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, welcomed the change and echoed the call to end the death penalty in the United States.

The full statement follows:

Today, we welcome the Holy Father's decision to revise the Catechism and its explanation of the Church's teaching on the death penalty. All human beings are created in the image and likeness of God, and the dignity bestowed on them by the Creator cannot be extinguished, even by grave sin, such that all persons, from conception until natural death possess inalienable dignity and value that points to their origin as sons and daughters of God. The new section in the Catechism is consistent with the statements of Pope Francis' teaching on the death penalty, including his 2015 address to the U.S. Congress, as well as the statements of his predecessors. Pope Benedict the XVI urged 'the attention of society's leaders to the need to make every effort to eliminate the death penalty,' and Pope St. John Paul II observed that "Not even a murderer loses his personal dignity, and God himself pledges to guarantee this."

For decades the U.S. Conference of

September, 2018 w The Courier

Catholic Bishops has called for the end of the death penalty in the United States. As the revised Catechism states, 'more effective systems of detention…which ensure the due protection of citizens' exist, ones that also maintain the human dignity of all. It is our hope that today's announcement will bring new attention to this critical issue, and speed along the end of this practice, which, as Pope Francis has said in the light of the Gospel, is "inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person."

[Editor's Note: Number 2267 of the Catechism now reads as follows: Recourse to the death penalty on the part of legitimate authority, following a fair trial, was long considered an appropriate response to the gravity of certain crimes and an acceptable, albeit extreme, means of safeguarding the common good.

Today, however, there is an increasing awareness that the dignity of the person is not lost even after the commission of very serious crimes. In addition, a new understanding has emerged of the significance of penal sanctions imposed by the state. Lastly, more effective systems of detention have been developed, which ensure the due protection of citizens but, at the same time, do not definitively deprive the guilty of the possibility of redemption.

Consequently, the Church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, that “the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person”,[1] and she works with determination for its abolition worldwide.]

Peter Martin

Director of Faith Formation and Life, Marriage & Family pmartin@dow.org

How to Start Jenna Cooper

Tribunal Coordinator & Judge jcooper@dow.org

�

ne of the most frequent questions I’m asked in my day-to-day work in the Tribunal is how someone actually starts applying for a declaration of nullity. While I’m always happy to talk to people who call the Tribunal with questions, here are some basic points of reference for anyone wondering how to start the marriage nullity process:

Ask a Canon Lawyer

The Nullity Process

11

Before You Apply

•

•

•

The first thing anyone considering the nullity process should do is prayerfully consider whether this step is actually the right thing for them. When someone applies for a declaration of nullity, that person (called the “Petitioner”) is essentially making an argument before the Tribunal that there were problems present from the very beginning of their marriage which were so serious that it prevented a true marriage from occurring—a Petitioner’s “job” is to convince the Tribunal of this.

So if a divorced Catholic deep down still believes that his or her failed marriage was nevertheless a valid one, it might be difficult to participate in the nullity process with a serene conscience and clear intentions.

Strictly speaking, although all Catholics are called to life of chastity according to their state in life, nobody is ever obligated to apply for an annulment. Many divorced Catholics live a joyful life of faith in conformity with the Church’s teaching without seeking to remarry.

For Catholics seeking a declaration of nullity, another good preliminary step is to talk to one’s pastor or parish priest. Although most parish priests aren’t canon lawyers, they can help answer some of the more basic questions about the process. But more importantly, pastors can serve as a helpful spiritual support and source of encouragement as a Petitioner goes through the steps of a marriage nullity trial.

A Petitioner (as well as the other party in a nullity case, called the “Respondent”) can also request the assistance of an Advocate. An Advocate is a trained canon lawyer who functions somewhat like a personal attorney in the course of a nullity process. That is, an Advocate can help a Petitioner (or a Respondent) put together the strongest case possible by assisting in the completion of the initial paperwork, brainstorming the best witnesses to call or other possible forms of evidence to submit, and by writing a persuasive argument for the Judges to read before they convene for the trial.

Here in the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, we are blessed to be able to offer the services of qualified Advocates free of charge to anyone who requests it. To request an Advocate, all a potential Petitioner needs to do is contact the Tribunal to ask for one.

Application Submitted!

Now What?

Getting (Officially) Started •

•

•

•

If a Petitioner has discerned that they are ready to begin the nullity process, the first official step is filling out an application form, technically called a “libellus.” The libellus form for use in the Tribunal of Winona-Rochester is readily available on our website: www.dow.org

•

Once the libellus form lands on our desk at the Tribunal, the Judges will read through it carefully and recommend which grounds (“ground” = specific reason why a marriage might be null) to try the case on. Although the Judges makes the final decision about which grounds to use, Petitioners are still encouraged to give their suggestions and input.

The libellus will ask for some basic information about the Petitioner, the Respondent, and the • When a libellus is accepted, a crucial early step of historical details of the marriage (e.g., about how the process is informing the Respondent. Although long did the engagement last? Where did the often a Respondent will choose not to participate, it is important that both parties be given the wedding occur?). But the most subsame chance to tell their side of the story. stantial part of filling out a libellus Do y This is not only for the sake of the fairo u que is writing a personal narrative hav sti ness of the trial, but also because e c o a anon n essay, in which the Petitioner hearing from the Respondent can a bou you law describes how the marriage t help the Judges arrive at the most t w h o a to s came about, what causes accurate picture of the truth. ee u l d l i k e t her answ the marriage to break • As the process continues, j c o o e ? E m ered down, and why specificalthere are several points when p w i t h er@dow a i l the parties involved can actively ly the Petitioner thinks the .org " participate or are invited to offer C marriage may not be valid. o que their comments. Petitioners and stio u r i e r n" Certain documents will the Respondents are notified by mail in s u bjec of each individual step as it takes also need to be submitted line t place. But on the other hand, there to the Tribunal along with the . are also a number of rather techlibellus paperwork, namely: a nical steps the Tribunal staff need to copy of the marriage certificate, carry out “behind the scenes.” That is, just a copy of the divorce decree, and bapbecause the process may seem quiet at points, tismal records for each party in the case who was this doesn’t mean that a case isn’t still moving forward. baptized.

• Over all, the nullity process can take some time, Although our Tribunal does not ask for names of generally at least a year at minimum. Since every potential witnesses right when the libellus is first case is unique, it’s impossible to guess how long submitted, generally the period of working on a a particular case will take once we first accept libellus is a good time to start thinking about this. it, although in most cases the process goes much more quickly if the parties involved are organized The purposes of naming witnesses is, in everyand respond to the Tribunal promptly when asked day terms, to help back up a Petitioner’s (or a to participate.

Respondent’s) story about the marriage and the issues that may have made it invalid. A good witness is typically anyone who had first-hand knowledge of what the Petitioner’s and Respondent’s relationship was like around the time of their wedding.

Although the process can seem slow, it’s good to keep in mind the careful consideration and individual attention given by the Tribunal to each and every case. This conscientiousness is necessary in order for the Church to carry out its ministry of justice for all concerned.

September, 2018 w The Courier

Catholic Charities

Get Prescriptions You Need 12 But Otherwise Can't Afford �f

you or family members or friends have a hard time paying for needed prescription medications, Catholic Charities’ Medication Application Service (MediAppS) may be able to help. MediAppS has been helping folks for many years get help with the high cost of prescription medications.

Many drug companies offer free medications to qualified applicants, but each company has its own forms and criteria.

Successfully navigating the process on your own can be a daunting assignment, especially if you need several medications. That’s where MediAppS can help.

The MediAppS Caseworker at Catholic Charities has the technical knowledge and expertise to complete the correct application(s), secure the required signatures, and successfully file the applications so that you can get a 90-days supply of the medications you need at no cost. When it’s time to refill your prescriptions, MediAppS will help you do that too.

September, 2018 w The Courier

Here’s a quick example of how MediAppS can help.

Mary (not her real name) was caught in the “donut hole” of her Medicare Part D prescription drug insurance plan. (The “donut hole” describes the costs borne by the insured after insurance pays a fixed amount for prescriptions and before insurance begins to pay again. It is a common feature of Medicare Part D plans.)

The cost of two inhalers was going to be over $600 for the next 30-days supply. The MediAppS caseworker helped Mary apply for and receive the inhalers. She is now receiving her inhalers directly from the pharmaceutical company at no cost; a situation that will remain until the end of the year, when her situation will again be assessed.

Sara Brandon

MediAppS Caseworker Catholic Charities of Southern Minnesota

High prescriptions costs can be a struggle for people like Mary who have high co-pay costs or high deductibles. MediAppS also helps people who do not have insurance for any reason, whether the cost is too high or their employer does not offer it.

If you know anyone struggling to pay the cost of prescription medications, contact the MediAppS caseworker at 507-454-2270 extension 245 or on the web at www.ccsomn.org.

Click on the MediAppS photo.

MediAppS, which charges no fees, serves all people regardless of race, ethnicity, age, sex, or faith tradition. If you wish to donate to MediAppS, please contact us at 507-454-2270 or visit us on the web at www. ccsomn.org and click on “donate” at the bottom of the page.

Countering Infidelity Jason Adkins

Executive Director Minnesota Catholic Conference

�he latest round of revelations related to cleri-

cal corruption, abuse, and sin are yet another inexcusable abomination that soils the garments of the Church. They severely compromise the integrity of our Gospel witness as heralds of Jesus Christ and His kingdom. Even more, they undermine our moral witness in the public arena, and our ability to serve as a voice of conscience in political life.

Confronted with this grim reality, we can despair at the potential for a generation of lost souls, and lament the continued, unchecked disintegration of a social order that needs the Church more than ever.

Or, we can remember that the best argument for the good news and claims of the Church is not Her clergy, but Her saints. In times of great crisis, the Lord in His faithfulness raises up a new generation of saints for His name's sake. Infidelity must always be countered by deeper fidelity.

Truly, we have all the means of holiness available to us. As St. Paul reminds us, nothing can separate us from the love of Christ (Rom. 8:39).

The Infidelity of Today

In 1873, upon the opening of a new seminary in Birmingham, England, Blessed John Henry Newman delivered an eerily prescient address entitled “The Infidelity of the Future,” cautioning that even one instance of clerical infidelity would have tremendously harmful effects on the witness of the Church.

An increasingly widespread dissemination of the news would make the examples of clerical infidelity known to the masses. And modern, secular persons, he says, nurtured in a mode of thought in which faith is understood to be both inherently irrational and corrupting of the work of reason, would be looking, quite naturally, for more reasons to disbelieve, or to push religion further into the private sphere.

Coupled with an immense store of malicious curiosity directed at Catholics, Newman asserts that “[i]f there ever was a time when one priest will be a spectacle to men and angels it is in the age now open upon us.”

This reality is inescapably more evident today in the age of social media and fake news, filled as it is with curiosity, pride, and gossip. That’s not

Faith in the Public Arena

With Holiness

13

to say that the news or those reporting it are bad.

They are not. In general, we should be grateful to the media, bloggers, and law enforcement when they put a spotlight on corruption and crime from which bishops have failed to protect the faithful.

But Newman’s caution speaks to the reality that the Church makes bold truth claims and has the audacity to proclaim Christ crucified and risen. Unfaithful clergy undermine the credibility of the proposition—the good news—and in fact make the often-spurious claims of the Church’s opponents more reasonable to the masses, particularly in the public arena.

As Pope Benedict XVI noted on his voyage to Fatima, “. . . the greatest persecution of the Church comes not from her enemies but arises from sin within the Church.”

virtues. This is our response, we are realists in expecting that evil always attacks, attacks from within and without, yet that the forces of good are also ever present and that, in the end, the Lord is more powerful than evil, and Our Lady is for us the visible, motherly guarantee of God’s goodness, which is always the last word in history.”

The times are challenging, but we know that when sin abounds, grace abounds even more. We must counter infidelity with greater fidelity, and be credible witnesses of the Gospel, especially when others fail.

As Christians today, the abuse, scandals, and sins of others can make trying to live out the countercultural good news seem like an impossible calling, precisely for the reasons Newman identified.

We can look like fools in the eyes of the world.

Unfortunately, some will find the failures of clergy to be their excuse not to sacrifice this life for the sake of the kingdom. They ask themselves: If bishops won’t engage the spiritual combat, master themselves, and wage constant war against sin in the clergy and among their flock, then why should the people in the pew take up their own cross?

On his Fatima voyage, Pope Benedict offered this response: “The Church . . . has a deep need to relearn penance, to accept purification, to learn forgiveness on the one hand, but also the need for justice. Forgiveness does not replace justice. In a word, we need to relearn precisely this essential: conversion, prayer, penance and the theological

Join Catholics across the United States for nine weeks of prayer, fasting, and education from Friday, August 3, to Friday, September 28. This “Call to Prayer” initiative of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops leads up to the start of the next Supreme Court session (the first Monday in October). The focus is on prayer and fasting for an end to abortion while educating the public about how the Roe V. Wade decision is not health care, is bad law, and fails women.

You can register today by visiting www. usccb.org/pray to receive a weekly email or text reminder to pray and fast along with a fact about Roe to share with others, including your two U.S. senators.

No Excuses

September, 2018 w The Courier

14

Obituaries

In the Diocese

Sister Yvette Kaiser, 96, a Franciscan Sister of the Congregation of Our Lady of Lourdes, Rochester, died at Assisi Heights August 4, 2018.

Leona Marie Kaiser was born September 1, 1921, in Janesville to Martin and Theresa (Amberg) Kaiser. She entered the Sisters of St. Francis in 1939 from St. Mary Parish in rural Waseca County. Sister Yvette made first vows in 1942 and perpetual vows in 1945. She received a degree in business and English from the College of St. Teresa in Winona and master’s degrees in education from the Catholic University, Washington, D.C., and in theology from the University of San Francisco.

She also received counselor education from Winona State University in Winona.

Sister Yvette was a teacher and administrator of elementary and secondary schools in Minnesota, Illinois and Ohio. At the College of St. Teresa in Winona, she served as teacher, dean of students and director of alumni. She served the Franciscan Congregation as school supervisor and directress of postulants and novices for several years. She was the director of religious education at St. Theodore Parish in Albert Lea and served as a counselor with Birthright of Rochester.

Sister Yvette is survived by her Franciscan Sisters, with whom she shared life for 79 years; two sisters-inlaw, Aster Kaiser and Belvy Kaiser; and several nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents; ten brothers: Clement, William, Linus, Mark, Leo, Cletus, Robert, Richard, Henry and Ken; and four sisters: Bernice Bilben, Barbara Dibble, Mary J. Lynch and Henrietta Peters.

The Funeral Mass was Tuesday, August 14, 2018, in Lourdes Chapel. Burial was at Calvary Cemetery, Rochester.

Sister Mary Jo Tombley (M. Sylvester), SSND, 87, professed in 1952, died August 11, 2018, at Good Counsel in Mankato.

A native of St. Paul, she entered the School Sisters of Notre Dame in 1949 and professed first vows in 1952. She served as a Catholic school intermediate and upper grade teacher until 1978, which included three years of service in Patzún, Guatemala. In the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, she taught at St. Peter, Hokah (1974-76) and Loyola/ Fitzgerald, Mankato (1976-78). Beginning in 1978, she became the liaison for the province treasurer to the maintenance staff on Good Counsel Hill. She earned her engineer’s license and was able to service the boilers on the Hill.

When a local window installer mentioned that the roof of St. Joseph Hall would be a good location for a repeater radio to aid in time of disaster, she allowed this to happen - and joined the Civil Air Patrol as a communications officer as a result. She was also a pioneer in the audio-visual department at Good Counsel and was instrumental in the installation of video cameras in the chapel and conference center.

Sister Mary Jo is survived by her brother John (Arlene); her sister, Marlene (Dawayne) Novak; her sister-in-law, Mary Trombley; her nieces and nephews and their families; her friends, colleagues and former students; and her sisters in community, the School Sisters of Notre Dame and SSND Associates. She was preceded in death by her parents, Lester and Lillian (LaRock) Trombley; and her brother Lester.

The funeral liturgy, with Father Eugene Stenzel as presider, was held Friday, August 17, in Our Lady of Good Counsel Chapel, followed by burial of her cremains in the Good Counsel cemetery.

Sister Nicholine Mertz, 95, a Franciscan Sister of the Congregation of Our Lady of Lourdes, Rochester, died at Assisi Heights August 21, 2018.

Geraldine Anne Mertz was born February 4, 1923, in Sleepy Eye to Nicholas and Anna (Seikora) Mertz. She entered the Sisters of St. Francis in 1940 from St. Mary Parish in Sleepy Eye. Sister Nicholine made

first vows in 1943 and perpetual vows in 1946. She received a Bachelor of Science in education from the College of St. Teresa, Winona, in 1957 and a master’s degree in human and religious studies from St. Mary’s College, Winona, in 1978.

Sister Nicholine taught elementary education beginning in 1944 at St. Priscilla School in Chicago, after which she taught in various Catholic schools in the Diocese of Winona-Rochester: Austin, Iona, Winona, Waseca and Owatonna, as well as three years in Watertown, SD. From 1965 to 1985, she served in religious education in several parishes in Minnesota: St. Patrick’s, Edina; Sacred Heart, Hayfield; St. Mary’s, Chatfield; St. Mary’s, Sleepy Eye; and Japanese Martyrs, Leavenworth. She served as the religion department chair at St. Mary’s School in Sleepy Eye (1985-95) until her retirement to Assisi Heights.

Sister Nicholine is survived by her Franciscan Sisters, with whom she shared life for 78 years; a sister, Mary Jane Baechler of Edina; and nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents; a brother, Nicholas Mertz, Jr.; and two sisters, Dolores Regimbal and Inez Mertz.

The Funeral Mass was Thursday, August 30, in Lourdes Chapel. Burial was at Calvary Cemetery, Rochester.

Sister Clarus Strouth, 98, a Franciscan Sister of the Congregation of Our Lady of Lourdes, Rochester, died at Assisi Heights August 26, 2018.

Laura Barbara Strouth was born September 26, 1919, in Faribault to Michael and Clare (Eschweiler) Strouth. She entered the Sisters of St. Francis in 1942 from St. Lawrence Parish in Faribault.

Sister Clarus made first vows in 1945 and perpetual vows in 1948. She received a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics from the College of St. Teresa, Winona, 1942, a master’s degree in chemistry from the University of Minnesota, 1951, and a Ph.D. in chemistry in 1962 from Michigan State University in East Lansing, MI. Sister Clarus taught mathematics at St.

Real Presence Radio Has Inadmissable, New Banquet Locations cont'd from pg. 1 � Submitted by LISA DURKIN

his October, Real Presence Radio is bringing their annual fundraising banquets to two new locations!

On Tuesday, October 23, a banquet will be held in Sioux Falls, SD, at the Best Western Plus Ramkota Hotel, and on Thursday, October 25, there will be a banquet at the Mayo Civic Center in Rochester, MN. Teresa Tomeo, host of EWTN’s Catholic Connection, will be the keynote speaker in both locations.

In addition to being a radio host, Teresa manages her own communications company and is also a bestselling author and print, radio, and television journalist with more than 30 years of experience in media. When Teresa reverted to the Catholic faith, her broadcasting experience came with her, and she now uses these skills to advance the mission of Christ.

For more information about the events, or to become a sponsor, host a table of eight, or register to attend as a guest, please visit yourcatholicradiostation.com, call (877) 795-0122 or email jessica@yourcatholicradiostation.com!

Lisa Durkin is an executive assistant for Real Teresa Tomeo Presence Radio.

September, 2018 w The Courier

exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor.”

The new teaching will be included in all the editions of the Catechism going forward, a Vatican communique stated August 2.

The full text of the new draft of paragraph 2267 states, in full:

Recourse to the death penalty on the part of legitimate authority, following a fair trial, was long considered an appropriate response to the gravity of certain crimes and an acceptable, albeit extreme, means of safeguarding the common good.

Today, however, there is an increasing awareness that the dignity of the person is not lost even after the commission of very serious crimes. In addition, a new understanding has emerged of the significance of penal sanctions imposed by the state. Lastly, more effective systems of detention have been developed, which ensure the due protection of citizens but, at the same time, do not definitively deprive the guilty of the possibility of redemption.

Mary High School in Portsmouth, OH, for three years before beginning studies leading to a master’s in chemistry. She taught in the chemistry department at the College of St. Teresa for 21 years, during which time she obtained a Ph.D. in chemistry. In 1976, Sister Clarus completed the licensed practical nurse program at St. Mary’s School of Nursing, Rochester. She worked as a LPN at St. Marys Hospital and Methodist Hospital in Rochester and at St. Anne’s Hospice in Winona. On retiring from nursing, she volunteered as secretarial support to various offices at Assisi Heights and provided child care and house sitting in the Rochester area until 2005.

Sister Clarus is survived by her Franciscan Sisters, with whom she shared life for 76 years; a sister-in-law, Barbara Strouth of Boise, ID; and several nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by her parents; four brothers: Ralph, Vincent, Joseph and Bernard; and a sister, Marion Strouth Rose.

The Funeral Mass was Tuesday, September 4, in Lourdes Chapel. Burial was at Calvary Cemetery, Rochester.

Sister Kathleen Lonergan (Sister Nuala), 87, a Franciscan Sister of the Congregation of Our Lady of Lourdes, Rochester, died at Assisi Heights August 28, 2018.

Kathleen Joan Lonergan was born July 2, 1931, in Geneva to Malcolm and Luella (Harty) Lonergan. She entered the Sisters of St. Francis in 1950 from St. John Parish in Rochester. Sister Kathleen made first vows in 1953 and perpetual vows in 1956.

She received a BSN in nursing from the College of St. Teresa, Winona, in 1957.

Sister Kathleen served as a nurse at St. Marys Hospital from 1957-74. Following her years of nursing, she lived at Assisi Heights and provided child care and babysitting in private homes in Rochester until her retirement in 2000.

Sister Kathleen is survived by her Franciscan Sisters, with whom she shared life for 68 years; a sister, Elaine Suilmann of Wabasha; and several cousins. She was preceded in death by her parents; two brothers, Robert and William Lonergan; and a sister, Dorothy Heggeland.

The Funeral Mass was Thursday, September 6, in Lourdes Chapel. Burial was at Calvary Cemetery, Rochester.

Consequently, the Church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, that ‘the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person,’ [1] and she works with determination for its abolition worldwide.

In a letter to bishops Aug. 2, Cardinal Luis Ladaria, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, gave a brief overview of developments to the Church's teaching on the death penalty over the last decades, and the perspective of the three most recent popes.

He noted, in particular, Pope St. John Paul II's teachings in Evangelium Vitae, which were subsequently added to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, presenting the death penalty as not a proportionate penalty for the gravity of certain crimes, though justifiable if "the only practicable way to defend the lives of human beings effectively..."

"The new revision... situates itself in continuity with the preceding Magisterium while bringing forth a coherent development of Catholic doctrine," Ladaria wrote.

"The new formulation of number 2267 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church desires to give energy to a movement towards a decisive commitment to favor a mentality that recognizes the dignity of every human life," he said.

"And, in respectful dialogue with civil authorities, to encourage the creation of conditions that allow for the elimination of the death penalty where it is still in effect."

Letter, cont'd from pg. 2 corruption, especially spiritual corruption. The latter is “a comfortable and self-satisfied form of blindness.

Everything then appears acceptable: deception, slander, egotism and other subtle forms of self-centeredness, for ‘even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light’ (2 Cor 11:14)” (Gaudete et Exsultate, 165). Saint Paul’s exhortation to suffer with those who suffer is the best antidote against all our attempts to repeat the words of Cain: “Am I my brother's keeper?” (Gen 4:9).

I am conscious of the effort and work being carried out in various parts of the world to come up with the necessary means to ensure the safety and protection of the integrity of children and of vulnerable adults, as well as implementing zero tolerance and ways of making all those who perpetrate or cover up these crimes accountable. We have delayed in applying these actions and sanctions that are so necessary, yet I am confident that they will help to guarantee a greater culture of care in the present and future.

Together with those efforts, every one of the baptized should feel involved in the ecclesial and social change that we so greatly need. This change calls for a personal and communal conversion that makes us see things as the Lord does. For as Saint John Paul II liked to say: “If we have truly started out anew from the contemplation of Christ, we must learn to see him especially in the faces of those with whom he wished to be identified” (Novo Millennio Ineunte, 49). To see things as the Lord does, to be where the Lord wants us to be, to experience a conversion of heart in his presence. To do so, prayer and penance will help. I invite the entire holy faithful People of God to a penitential exercise of prayer and fasting, following the Lord’s command.[1] This can awaken our conscience and arouse our solidarity and commitment to a culture of care that says “never again” to every form of abuse.

It is impossible to think of a conversion of our activity as a Church that does not include the active participation of all the members of God’s People. Indeed, whenever

we have tried to replace, or silence, or ignore, or reduce the People of God to small elites, we end up creating communities, projects, theological approaches, spiritualities and structures without roots, without memory, without faces, without bodies and ultimately, without lives.[2] This is clearly seen in a peculiar way of understanding the Church’s authority, one common in many communities where sexual abuse and the abuse of power and conscience have occurred. Such is the case with clericalism, an approach that “not only nullifies the character of Christians, but also tends to diminish and undervalue the baptismal grace that the Holy Spirit has placed in the heart of our people”.[3] Clericalism, whether fostered by priests themselves or by lay persons, leads to an excision in the ecclesial body that supports and helps to perpetuate many of the evils that we are condemning today. To say “no” to abuse is to say an emphatic “no” to all forms of clericalism.

It is always helpful to remember that “in salvation history, the Lord saved one people. We are never completely ourselves unless we belong to a people. That is why no one is saved alone, as an isolated individual.

Rather, God draws us to himself, taking into account the complex fabric of interpersonal relationships present in the human community. God wanted to enter into the life and history of a people” (Gaudete et Exsultate, 6).

Consequently, the only way that we have to respond to this evil that has darkened so many lives is to experience it as a task regarding all of us as the People of God. This awareness of being part of a people and a shared history will enable us to acknowledge our past sins and mistakes with a penitential openness that can allow us to be renewed from within. Without the active participation of all the Church’s members, everything being done to uproot the culture of abuse in our communities will not be successful in generating the necessary dynamics for sound and realistic change. The penitential dimension of fasting and prayer will help us as God’s People to come before the Lord and our wounded brothers and sisters as sinners imploring forgiveness and the grace of shame and conversion. In this way, we will come up with actions that can generate resources attuned to the Gospel. For “whenever we make the effort to return to the source and to recover the original freshness of the Gospel, new avenues arise, new paths of creativity open up, with different forms of expression, more eloquent signs and words with new meaning for today’s world” (Evangelii Gaudium, 11).

It is essential that we, as a Church, be able to acknowledge and condemn, with sorrow and shame, the atrocities perpetrated by consecrated persons, clerics, and all those entrusted with the mission of watching over and caring for those most vulnerable. Let us beg forgiveness for our own sins and the sins of others. An awareness of sin helps us to acknowledge the errors, the crimes and the wounds caused in the past and allows us, in the present, to be more open and committed along a journey of renewed conversion.

Likewise, penance and prayer will help us to open our eyes and our hearts to other people’s sufferings and to overcome the thirst for power and possessions that are so often the root of those evils. May fasting and prayer open our ears to the hushed pain felt by children, young people and the disabled. A fasting that can make us hunger and thirst for justice and impel us to walk in the truth, supporting all the judicial measures that may be necessary. A fasting that shakes us up and leads us to be committed in truth and charity with all men and women of good will, and with society in general, to combatting all forms of the abuse of power, sexual abuse and the abuse of conscience.

In this way, we can show clearly our calling to be “a sign and instrument of communion with God and of the unity of the entire human race” (Lumen Gentium, 1).

“If one member suffers, all suffer together with it”, said Saint Paul. By an attitude of prayer and penance, we will become attuned as individuals and as a community to this exhortation, so that we may grow in the gift of compassion, in justice, prevention and reparation.

Mary chose to stand at the foot of her Son’s cross. She did so unhesitatingly, standing firmly by Jesus’ side. In this way, she reveals the way she lived her entire life. When we experience the desolation caused by these ecclesial wounds, we will do well, with Mary, “to insist more upon prayer”, seeking to grow all the more in love and fidelity to the Church (St. Ignatius of Loyola, Spiritual Exercises, 319). She, the first of the disciples, teaches all of us as disciples how we are to halt before the sufferings of the innocent, without excuses or cowardice. To look to Mary is to discover the model of a true follower of Christ.

May the Holy Spirit grant us the grace of conversion and the interior anointing needed to express before these crimes of abuse our compunction and our resolve courageously to combat them.

15

September, 2018 w The Courier

SUBMISSION to the calendar Please note: submission deadline is the 10th of the month prior to the month of publication.

All submissions must be sent electronically to nreller@dow.org by the deadline to assure receipt and possible inclusion in the events calendar.

Thank you for understanding that, due to space limitations, not all events nor story submissions will fit; however, we strive to include as many as possible.

A current list of events is also available at www.dow.org.

Regular Prayer Mass for Life & Marriage is held at St. Mary Church in Winona the first Thursday each month at 8:30 a.m.

Holy Hour of Prayer for Life, Marriage & Religious Liberty is held first Saturday each month 8:30-9:30 a.m. (after Mass for Life & Marriage) in the Cathedral's Adoration Chapel, 360 Main Street, Winona. The Blessed Sacrament is exposed and a rosary offered. All welcome.

Prayer Vigil & Public Witness Against Abortion is held 3-4 p.m. Tuesdays in front of Semcac Clinic (delegate of Planned Parenthood) at 76 W 3rd Street in Winona. Contact: Patty 507-429-4636 Masses of Reparation for Sins in the Diocese are held daily in parishes throughout the diocese. Info: cb@wabashaemail.com Cor Jesu is held at the Cathedral in Winona, 7-9 p.m. the first Friday each month, September through May. Cor Jesu is an evening of Eucharistic Adoration, Confessions, and music in honor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. All are welcome to attend! For more details, search for Winona Cor Jesu on Facebook, visit cascwinona.org/prayer/corJesu, or call Kristopher Kaufman (859-7601619) or Steven Lehn (507-312-9041).

Traditional Latin Mass Chatfield, St. Mary, 1st & 3rd Sun. 1 pm Mankato, Ss. Peter & Paul, Sundays 4:15 pm Wabasha, St. Felix, Saturdays 9 am

The Televised Mass

Other Events Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, Currie September 9, Sunday Annual Fall Dinner served 11-1.

Turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes & gravy, vegetable, salad and pie. Crafts & country store.

St. Anthony Church, Lismore September 9, Sunday St. Anthony Parish Bazaar & Craft Auction.

Dinner served 11-1. Turkey dressing, mashed potatoes, glazed carrots, tea rolls, coleslaw, assorted desserts and beverages. Live auction starts 1:45, with Big Ticket drawing during auction.

Auction features homemade crafts, home decor items, unprocessed hogs, pork and beef bundles and more.

Baked goods at Country Store. Games for adults and kids from 11-1.

St. John Church, Johnsburg September 9, Sunday Fall Dinner served 3:30-6:30. Turkey/ Ham menu.

St. Mary of the Lake Church, Lake City September 9, Sunday Chicken BBQ Dinner with all trimmings, served 11-2. 419 W Lyon Ave in Lake City.

St. Mary Church, Houston September 9, Sunday Fall Chicken-Q served 11-1. Carry-outs available. 1/2 chicken, potato salad, beans, bun, pie, bars, coffee & milk. $10.

Raffle tickets also available for cash & hand-crafted item. Need not be present to win. 202 S Sheridan St. in Houston.

Offered as a service for the homebound every Sunday on the following stations: KTTC, Channel 10 (Rochester) at 9 a.m.; KEYC, Channel 12 (Mankato) at 7:30 a.m; & KEYC-DT2, Digital Channel 12.2 or Charter Channel 19 (Mankato) at 9:30 a.m.

Donations for the continuation of this program may be sent to: Diocese of Winona-Rochester, Attn: TV Mass, PO Box 588, Winona MN 55987.

Hispanic Priests / Sacerdotes Hispanos Padre José Morales Capellán en la Mayo Clinic, Rochester Tel. 507-266-7275

Padre Miguel Eduardo Proaños Vicario Parroquial de St. James, St James frmiguel2005@yahoo.com Tel. 507-375-3542

Padre Luis Alfonso Vargas Vicario Parroquial de St. Francis of Assisi, Rochester frluisvargasdw@gmail.com Tel. 507-288-7313

Padre Ubaldo Roque Vicario Parroquial de St. Mary’s, Worthington el_hermano_roque@hotmail.com Tel. 507-440-9735

Padre Javier Ibarra IVE Párroco de SS. Peter and Paul, Mankato Tel. 507-388-2995 ext. 103

Padre Raul Silva Vicario de la Pastoral Hispana en la diócesis de Winona Y Párroco de Queen of Angels, Austin PadreRaulSilva@gmail.com Tel. 507-433-1888

Spanish Mass Schedule Albert Lea, St. Theodore Mankato, Ss. Peter & Paul St. Charles, St. Charles Borromeo 11 am Sun. 1 pm Sun. 7 pm Sat. Austin, Queen of Angels Owatonna, Sacred Heart St. James, St. James 11 am Sun.; 5:15 pm Fri. 11:45 am Sun. 12 pm Sun. Windom,St.FrancisXavier Lake City, St. Mary Pipestone, St. Leo 11:30 am Sun. 6:30 pm each 3rd Sat. 2:30 pm Sun. (bilingual) Worthington, St. Mary Madelia, St. Mary Rochester, St. Francis 7 pm Sat.; 11 am Sun.; 10 am Sun. Noon Sun. & 7 pm Thurs. 6:30 pm Tues. & Fri.

September 2018 Queen of Angels Church, Austin September 10, Monday Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life educational gathering at 7 p.m.

Info: www.mccl.org or 612-825-6831.

Holy Spirit Church, Rochester September 11, Tuesday Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life educational gathering at 7 p.m.

Info: www.mccl.org or 612-825-6831.

Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, Winona September 12, Wednesday Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life educational gathering at 7 p.m.

Info: www.mccl.org or 612-825-6831.

Baymont Inn, Kasson September 14-16, Friday-Sunday Worldwide Marriage Encounter.

Revitalize your marriage! Info: SouthMNWWME.org or 507-227-8229.

Sacred Heart Church, Waseca September 14-16, Friday-Sunday Annual Fall Festival. On 9/14, fish fry 5-7 & live auction 6:30. On 9/15, super bingo 2:00, burger fry 4:30-7, Polka Mass 5:15, street dance 6:30-10 & outdoor movie 7:00. On 9/16, Regular Mass 8 & 10 a.m., pork commercial dinner 11- 1 & Big Ticket drawing at 3. Outdoor games and activities all weekend. Info: www.sacredheartwaseca.org.

Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, Winona September 15, Saturday Consecration of a Virgin. All invited.

Bishop Quinn will consecrate Leandra Hubka at 10:30 a.m. Mass.

Schoenstatt Shrine & Center, Sleepy Eye September 15, Saturday Jubilee Family Shrine Founding Day Celebration 10-4. 50th anniversary of Fr. Kentenich's death. Presentations, Mass, German lunch, witness sharing, covenant renewal, refreshments.

RSVP to 507-794-7727 by 9/8.

Good Shepherd Church, Jackson September 16, Sunday Marriage Anniversary Mass 2 p.m.

All couples, regardless of anniversary milestone, and their family & friends invited! Register at www.dow.org.

Holy Redeemer Church, Eyota September 16, Sunday Fall Festival 10-1. 10 a.m. Mass followed by bbq chicken dinner ($8/ person or $30/family). Big ticket & arm's length raffles, bake sale, farmer's market, bake-off challenge, kids' games, music, garage sale. All proceeds benefit youth education.

St. Adrian Church, Adrian September 16, Sunday Fall Dinner served 4-7 p.m.

St. Felix School, Wabasha September 16, Sunday St. Felix Parish and School Annual Fall Festival 9-5 in auditorium & school grounds. Mini doughnuts, grilled chicken dinners, the farm store, general & specialty auctions, bingo, bounce house, minnow races, kids' games, tootsie roll booth, raffles, prizes & more. Proceeds go to St. Felix School. Info: 651-565-4446.

St. Ignatius Church, Spring Valley September 16, Sunday 43rd Annual Fall Festival & BBQ Chicken Dinner 11-1. Baked potato, cole slaw, roll, coffee, lemonade, homemade pie. $11 half chicken meal. $8 quarter chicken meal. Silent auction 11-1:30 and raffle for prizes, including 1/4 beef and 1/2 hog. General store with garden produce & baked goods. Kids' games.

Ss. Peter & Paul Church, Mazeppa September 16, Sunday Fall Bazaar with ham & turkey dinner 11-1:30. $12 adults. $5 kids 5-10. $1 4 & under. Bingo, raffle, country store, kids' games.

St. Joseph Church, Owatonna September 22, Saturday Catholic Charities Immigration advocacy training & town hall forum. 9:30 registration. 10:00 morning session on immigration & Catholic Social Teaching.

Noon lunch ($10). 1-3 p.m. town hall meeting with candidates for US Senate and House. RSVP to Tom Parlin by 9/14: tparlin@ccsomn.org or 507-452-2270 ext. 246. Besides lunch, event is free.

St. John Baptist de la Salle Church, Dodge Center September 23, Sunday 26th Annual Turkey Dinner served 11-1, following 10 a.m. Mass. Raffle, silent auction, bake sale, kids' games, quilt raffle, bingo. $10 adults. $5 kids 6-10. Preschool free. Take-outs available. All tickets sold at the door.

Handicap accessible facility. 20 2nd St. NE in Dodge Center.

St. John Vianney Church, Fairmont September 23, Sunday Fall Festival with turkey dinner served 11 a.m. Heavenly Baskets Silent Auction, Cookies by the Pail, Ultimate Frisbee for teens, kids' games. For discounted pre-sale tickets, call parish office (507-235-5535). Tickets at the door $12 adults, $6 kids 4-10.

St. Joseph the Worker Church, Mankato September 23, Sunday Annual Fall Festival 11:30-2:30 in auditorium & parking lot, following 10:30 Mass. Variety of food, including hot beef commercials, walking tacos, brats, pies. Big Ticket Raffle with cash prizes, silent auction, kids' games by Jack McGowan, Granny's Corner with homemade food & other items, live entertainment, sports tent to watch the Vikings, and more for all ages.

Lanesboro September 28-29, Friday-Saturday 5th Annual Married Couples Retreat at beautiful hideaway outside Lanesboro. Info & registration at www.dow.org/event-details/496.

Resurrection Church, Rochester September 29, Saturday 5th Annual Friends of the Poor Walk & Pancake Breakfast 9 a.m. (8:30 registration). Free-will donations to serve friends in need through Society of St. Vincent de Paul. 1600 11th Ave SE in Rochester. Info and registration: www.svdp-rochmn.org/fop-walk or martycormack@svdp-rochmn.org.

St. Pius X Church, Rochester September 29-30, Saturday-Sunday 2-Day Fall Festival. Saturday: rummage sale, beer & brats after 4 p.m. Mass, polka music, karaoke, bean bag tournament, outdoor movie (Coco). Sunday: Taste of St. Pius, local food vendors, bingo, kids' games, obstacle course, silent auction, raffles. Info: 507-288-8238.

St. Francis Xavier Church, Windom September 30, Sunday Annual Fall Festival 8-10 a.m. Turkey dinner with trimmings & homemade pie; Heavenly Bake Shop; white elephant sale; farmer's market; big ticket raffle; Bingo.

Christ the King Church, Byron October 7, Sunday 9th Annual Fall Dinner 11-1, following 10:30 Mass. Home-style ham & turkey.

Raffle & silent auction 1:15 p.m.

Immaculate Conception Church, Kellogg October 7, Sunday Annual Fall Dinner served family-style 11-2, following 10:30 Mass. Chicken & ham. Big Ticket, grocery cart & basket raffles; bake sale, garden produce. Takeouts available. Handicap accessible.

• The Courier

St. Ann Church, Slayton October 7, Sunday Annual Pit BBQ Chicken Dinner & Bazaar 11-1 in St. Ann's Hall. $9 adults. $7 kids.

BBQ chicken, baked potato, coleslaw, homemade pies, beverages and all trimmings. 2837 Maple Ave in Slayton.

Carry-outs available at the school.

St. Mary Church, Ellsworth October 7, Sunday Final Mass at St. Mary Church 10:30 a.m. Bishop Quinn will confirm the parish confirmation class. All invited to this final Mass.

St. Matthew Church, Vernon Center October 7, Sunday Annual turkey dinner with trimmings & homemade pie, served family style 4-7. $10 adults. $6 kids (free under 4).

Sacred Heart Church, Owatonna October 13, Saturday Diocesan Women's Conference 9-3.

Info: pmartin@dow.org St. Mary Church, Minneiska October 14, Sunday Texas-style French toast breakfast 9:3012, following 8:30 Mass. French toast; sausage; apple sauce; and coffee, milk or juice. Adults $7. Kids 6 & under $3.

Bake sale & ticket drawing at noon.

St. Mary Church, Winona October 14, Sunday River City Festival 11-4. Chicken-Q ($10) and hot dog meals ($3) served 11 til gone. Kids' carnival 11-2. Big ticket raffle (55 items!). $10 raffle for pair of Vikings tickets (11/25 home game against the Packers!). Ping pong pull 11:30-1:30 (multiple prizes per round, including quilts!). Basket silent auction, jewelry & knick-knacks, bake sale, country market. Popcorn, slushies, desserts and treats all day.

Pax Christi Church, Rochester October 25, Thursday The 177 Project is a tour bringing an evening of music and eucharistic adoration to every US diocese this fall.

6:45 p.m. Rosary. 7 p.m. Adoration.

8:15 Concert. Music by Dave Moore and John Tibbs. Free tickets at www. itickets.com/events/403779 St. John the Baptist Church, Minnesota Lake October 28, Sunday Annual Turkey Supper 4-7. Turkey, dressing, potatoes & gravy, salad, desserts. Take-outs available. $12 adults. Kids under 5 free. Tickets sold at door. Handicap accessible. 100 Park St. N in MN Lake.

St. Mary School, Caledonia October 28, Sunday St. Mary Parish 52nd Annual Holiday Bazaar 11-5. Roast beef family dinner 11-1. Lunch (sloppy joes, hot dogs, walking tacos) 11-gone. Auction at 3. Gift shop, stage and gun raffles, pull taps, tip boards, bake shop, chance booth, kids' booth, sweet shop, kids' games.

Christ the King Church, Byron November 10, Saturday 10th Annual Fall Expo 9-2. 30+ arts & crafts and home-based businesses. Cash & carry items for purchase from most vendors. Pampered Chef, Avon, Watkins, Scentsy, Tastefully Simple, Tupperware, Thrive, Monat, fine jewelry, decorative & functional home items, holiday decorations, skin care & cosmetics, hand-crafted soaps, baskets, appliqued towels & aprons, candles, purses, toys, and more. Baked goods, beverages & lunch available. First 50 customers at 9 and first 50 after noon receive gift bags! 202 4th St. NW in Byron.

Shalom Hill Farm, Windom November 16-18, Friday-Sunday Worldwide Marriage Encounter.

Revitalize your marriage! Info: SouthMNWWME.org or 507-227-8229.