St. Anthony Messenger February 2020

Sharing the spirit of St. Francis with the world V O L . 1 2 7 / N O . 9 • FEBRUARY 2020

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:

Sisterhood of Saints page 16

AN INTERVIEW WITH FATHER PIEDRA

SHINING

A LIGHT ON IMMIGRATION

A NEW LOOK AT THE PASSION FEBRUARY 2020 • $4.99 StAnthonyMessenger.org

FOOTBALL, FRANCIS, AND FAITH IN THEIR SISTERS’ FOOTSTEPS

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Help someone in need.

Br. Michael Radomski, OFM, serving in Detroit, MI.

The Franciscan Friars, Province of St. John the Baptist 1615 Vine St., Ste 1 • Cincinnati, OH 45202-6492 franciscan.org • stanthony.org • 513-721-4700, ext. 3219

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VOL. 127 NO. 9

2020 FEBRUARY

22

COVER STORY

22 I Was a Stranger and You Welcomed Me

ABOVE and COVER: Father Ruskin Piedra’s family came to the United States from Cuba.

He knows all too well the uphill battle immigrants face.

Photography by Kyla Milberger

By Peter Feuerherd

Filled with passion and energy, 85-year-old Father Ruskin Piedra works tirelessly to support and defend the immigrant community in his Brooklyn parish.

18 A New Look at the Passion

By Patrick Gallagher

Their voices may appear to be bit parts in the Passion narrative, but Judas, Peter, Caiaphas, and Pilate have much to teach us.

28 Football, Francis, and Faith

By Patricia Montemurri

Football taught Franciscan Sister Rita Clare Yoches teamwork and discipline. Her faith showed her how to put those skills into action to accompany spiritual seekers.

34 A Journey of Faith

Photography by Neil Tucker; text by Susan Hines-Brigger

In the mid-1800s, a group of Sisters of Loretto traveled the Santa Fe Trail on their way to founding missions.

Last July, another group took the same path.

COMING NEXT

MONTH

Lessons from Old Testament prophets on modern problems A reflection on the power of prayer while struggling with dementia StAnthonyMessenger.org | February 2020 • 1

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Great Resources for Lent!

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VOL. 127 NO. 9

2020 FEBRUARY

10

15

SPIRIT OF ST. FRANCIS

POINTS OF VIEW

10 Ask a Franciscan

5

‘Franciscan’ or ‘Roman Catholic’?

Your Voice

Letters from Readers

12 Franciscan World

14 Faith Unpacked

12 St. Anthony Stories

15 At Home on Earth

13 Followers of St. Francis

17 Editorial

San Francesco a Ripa

The Blessing of Sister Thea

Anthony and the Flower Market

Radical Gardening

Sister Damien Hinderer, OSF

Lent with a Shade of Green

46 Faith & Family

42

CULTURE

42 Media Reviews

E-Learning | TED Talk: Pope Francis TV/Streaming | The Crown

6

Welcome to the Neighborhood

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE

44 Film Reviews 4 Dear Reader The Two Popes The Irishman Marriage Story

6 Church in the News 16 Sisterhood of Saints

47 Lighten Up 47 Pete & Repeat 48 Reflection

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dear reader

ST. ANTHONY

MESSENGER

Guides along the Journey

PUBLISHER

I

interviewed Casey Cole, OFM, two years ago about his vocation journey to the Franciscans, which he eloquently wrote about in his book Called: What Happens After Saying Yes to God. I wasn’t completely immune to the various aspects of religious life, as I was taught by priests and nuns throughout my education. But I was especially curious about the sacrifices Casey had to make in order to join the order.

His response startled me. “There’s too much emphasis on what we sacrifice to enter religious life,” he said. “For me, the vows are incredibly freeing. They set clear boundaries in my life so that I can live and love without abandon within those boundaries.”

Point taken. For lay Catholics, perhaps we focus too readily on what our religious give up over what they gain. Three articles in this issue focus on those incredible gains. From Father Ruskin Piedra’s renowned work with immigrants, to Sister Rita Clare Yoches’ transition from professional football player to nun, to the crosscountry pilgrimage of the Sisters of Loretto, this issue celebrates the freedoms that religious women and men experience in their vocations.

This issue is a humble homage to those who chose a different path of God and to God. You are our guides along that path.

Daniel Kroger, OFM PRESIDENT

Kelly McCracken EXECUTIVE EDITORS

Christopher Heffron Susan Hines-Brigger

FRANCISCAN EDITOR

Pat McCloskey, OFM ART DIRECTOR

Mary Catherine Kozusko MANAGING EDITOR

Daniel Imwalle

CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

Sandy Howison

EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

Sharon Lape

Christopher Heffron, Executive Editor

DIRECTOR OF SALES, MARKETING, AND DEVELOPMENT

Ray Taylor

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PETER FEUERHERD

NEIL TUCKER

A New Look at the Passion

I Was a Stranger and You Welcome Me

A Journey of Faith

PAGE 18

PAGE 22

writer

Patrick Gallagher began lectoring at his parish almost 20 years ago to battle his discomfort with public speaking. That encounter with Scripture fed his explorations into Catholic history, culture, and teachings that were rebooted by his children’s Catholic school education and his experience working at the school.

writer

Peter Feuerherd is news editor of the National Catholic Reporter and author of two books, including the recently released The Radical Gospel of Bishop Thomas Gumbleton (Orbis). He is also an adjunct professor of journalism at St. John’s University in Queens, New York.

photographer PAGE 34

Neil Tucker has been a videographer, editor, and producer for over 30 years and is in the process of becoming a comember within the Loretto Community. “Still photography has been an avocation,” he says, “and when Sister Eleanor twisted my arm to take photos along the way, I decided to give it a shot, so to speak.”

To subscribe, write to the above address or call 866-543-6870. Yearly subscription price: $39.00 in the United States; $69.00 in Canada and other countries. Single copy price: $4.99. For change of address, four weeks’ notice is necessary. See FranciscanMedia.org/subscriptionservices for information on your digital edition.

Writer’s guidelines can be found at FranciscanMedia.org/ writers-guide. The publishers are not responsible for manuscripts or photos lost or damaged in transit. Names in fiction do not refer to living or dead persons.

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ST. ANTHONY MESSENGER (ISSN #0036276X) (U.S.P.S. PUBLICATION #007956 CANADA PUBLICATION #PM40036350) Volume 127, Number 9, is published 10 times per year for $39.00 a year by the Franciscan Friars of St. John the Baptist Province, 28 W. Liberty Street, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202-6498. Phone 513-241-5615.

Periodicals postage paid at Cincinnati, Ohio, and additional entry offices. US POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: St. Anthony Messenger, PO Box 189, Congers, NY 10920-0189. CANADA RETURN ADDRESS: c/o AIM, 7289 Torbram Rd., Mississauga, ON, Canada L4T 1G8.

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POINTSOFVIEW | YOUR VOICE Speaking Truth to Power I absolutely love when people speak truth to power. I truly admire and respect Susan Hines-Brigger, who was criticized in a letter

by Harold Wiese (“The Real Reason for the Alamo”) that appeared in the “Your Voice” column in the December issue of St. Anthony Messenger. Mr. Wiese was displeased with her for having “chewed out” retired Pope Benedict XVI in her June editorial, “No More Excuses, Please.” She had been justifiably annoyed with the retired pope’s disappointing comments in his lengthy essay about the clergy sexual abuse crisis.

Both Pope Benedict and his predecessor, St. John Paul II, are on the record for turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to survivors of sexual abuse by priests, and they therefore are guilty of at least tacitly supporting the evildoing pedophiles. How egregiously shameful, especially since such a posture is antithetical to Christ’s teachings, which always favor the vulnerable, disadvantaged, and marginalized among us over people abusing their power.

We should be appalled by all insensitive responses to the aggrieved survivors.

Louis H. Pumphrey, Shaker Heights, Ohio

When Good Men Do Nothing

.S.P.S. TION ed 10 Friars Street, 5615. addiddress ngers, AIM, 8.

call n the Single notice ption-

a.org/ manun fic-

I am writing in response to Mike Clement’s letter in the November “Your Voice” column, regarding forgiving the clergy in the sex abuse scandal (“Finding Some Peace of Mind”). Mr. Clement seems to be a very honorable man, and I truly believe that all good priests must be sick at heart over this crisis.

However, it is easier to forgive bishops for letting the scandal go on year after year when you or your children have not had their souls damaged by such abuse.

The shame is that the hierarchy has not protected the innocent or the Church.

Edmund Burke once wrote, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” I cannot sign this letter because it is not my right to disclose the last name of someone abused who cannot bear such exposure.

PHOTO CREDIT HERE

Name withheld upon request

Response Found to Be Lacking In the October issue of St. Anthony Messenger, I read with interest the “Ask a Franciscan”

column, by Father Pat McCloskey, OFM. Unfortunately, I found one of his responses to a question to be disappointing. The question was: “If I go to heaven when I die (hopefully), how can I be truly happy if someone whom I have loved does not go to heaven but instead is in everlasting torment?” The answer Father Pat gave was: “All those in heaven are in God’s presence forever. Could they really complain that someone else isn’t?”

That answer does not feel compassionate or loving to me. God is so loving and wants all in heaven to be the same way, with no sorrow or disappointment. Somehow, God must take that longing for others away from the people in heaven. I trust in our loving God. I am not a theologian, but I know I could not be happy knowing that someone I loved was not there—especially family members.

Kathleen Buck, Vader, Washington

Book Review Sparks a Memory I’m writing in regard to Elizabeth Pilgrim’s review of the book Symbol or Substance,

by Peter Kreeft, which appeared in the September issue of St. Anthony Messenger. I found her perspective on the book to be quite interesting and enlightening.

There was a TV series from 1977 to 1981 hosted by the late Steve Allen called Meeting of Minds. It featured debates among various historical characters, including Plato, Martin Luther, and Francis Bacon. The book reviewer and readers of this magazine might find this show to be thought-provoking and fun to watch.

John Wagner, Springfield, Massachusetts

The Chores Can Wait I just love St. Anthony Messenger, and I can’t wait for my issue to show up in my mailbox. I stop whatever I am doing to start reading it. I can honestly say that I neglect my household chores to spend time reading your magazine.

I also enjoyed the Fall 2019 Franciscan Spirit journal. I feel I understand and appreciate my Catholic faith so much more since I started reading this journal. I read all the articles over and over, and I’m inspired more each time. Thank you, Franciscan Media. I appreciate any and all literature I receive from your organization. I will keep you in my prayers.

Margaret Medina, Upland, California

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church IN THE NEWS

people | events | trends

By Susan Hines-Brigger

POPE FRANCIS MARKS 50 YEARS AS A PRIEST

BEATIFICATION FOR ARCHBISHOP SHEEN POSTPONED

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Two postage stamps were issued by the Vatican as Pope Francis celebrates 50 years in the priesthood. The stamp on the left depicts a young Jorge Bergoglio in Buenos Aires, while the stamp on the right shows the pope’s current likeness.

his past December, Pope Francis marked the 50th anniversary of his priestly ordination by celebrating Mass and donating a multivolume collection of writings by his longtime spiritual director, the late Jesuit Father Miguel Angel Fiorito, reported CNS. The morning of December 13, the pope celebrated Mass with cardinals in the chapel of his residence. That evening, he presented the Spanish-language collection, “Escritos” (“Writings”), at a conference at the Jesuit headquarters.

Pope Francis wrote an introduction to the collection, saying the publication is “a consolation for those of us who, for many years, were nourished by his teachings. These writings will be a great good for the whole Church.”

The pope said that presenting the writings at the Jesuit headquarters “is a way for me to express my gratitude for all that the Society of Jesus has given me and has done for me,” and it is a way to encourage all the men and women around the world who offer spiritual direction to others following the teachings of St. Ignatius of Loyola.

To mark the event, the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano printed a message from Cardinal Angelo Sodano, dean of the College of Cardinals.

“On this happy occasion of your 50th anniversary of priesthood, in the name of all my brother cardinals, I wish you all the best with the deepest thanks for your generous daily service to the holy Church of God,”Cardinal Sodano said.

Prior to the anniversary, Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gómez, president of the USCCB, sent a letter to bishops across the country asking them to encourage parishioners to honor the jubilee with special prayers and Mass petitions.

He encouraged bishops to share the prayers with parishes, schools, and other diocesan ministries.

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CNS PHOTOS: LEFT: PAUL HARING; RIGHT: SHANNON STAPLETON/REUTERS (2)

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CNS PHOTOS: LEFT: CNS FILE PHOTO SHEEN ARCHIVES; RIGHT: COURTESY VATICAN PHILATELIC AND NUMISMATIC OFFICE

ess than one month after receiving news that Archbishop Fulton Sheen would be beatified in late December, the Vatican informed the Diocese of Peoria that the process would be put on hold “at the request of a few members” of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), reported Catholic News Service (CNS). The concerns were over Archbishop Sheen’s involvement in Archbishop Sheen is pictured with an NBC priests’ assignments.

Radio microphone in an undated photo.

In a December 3 news release, the Diocese of Peoria stated that Bishop Daniel Jenky, CSC, was “deeply saddened” by the decision, but is “firmly convinced of the great holiness of the Venerable Servant of God and remains confident that Sheen will be beatified.” The Diocese of Rochester, New York, released a statement on December 5, saying it—along with other dioceses—had “expressed concern about advancing the cause for the beatification of Archbishop Sheen at this time without a further review of his role in priests’ assignments.”

Archbishop Sheen was bishop of Rochester from October 1966 until his retirement in October 1969.

The diocese stated that “there are no complaints against Archbishop Sheen engaging in any personal inappropriate conduct nor were any insinuations made in this regard.”

Prior to the Vatican announcement that Pope Francis approved the beatification, the Diocese of Rochester had provided documentation expressing its concerns to both the Diocese of Peoria and the Congregation for Saints’ Causes via the apostolic nunciature in Washington.

“The Diocese of Rochester did its due diligence in this matter and believed that, while not casting suspicion, it was prudent that Archbishop Sheen’s cause receive further study and deliberation while also acknowledging the competency of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to render its decision. The Holy See ultimately decided to postpone the beatification,” the statement continued.

Bishop Jenky said that he has “every confidence that any additional examination will only further prove Fulton Sheen’s worthiness of beatification and canonization.”

POPE MAKES CHANGES TO ABUSE POLICIES

THOUSANDS ATTEND FUNERAL MASS FOR SLAIN NEW JERSEY POLICE OFFICER

CNS PHOTOS: LEFT: PAUL HARING; RIGHT: SHANNON STAPLETON/REUTERS (2)

CNS PHOTOS: LEFT: CNS FILE PHOTO SHEEN ARCHIVES; RIGHT: COURTESY VATICAN PHILATELIC AND NUMISMATIC OFFICE

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n December 17, Pope Francis lifted the obligation of secrecy that was established in 1974 for those who report having been sexually abused by a priest and for those who testify in a Church trial or process having to do with clerical sexual abuse, reported CNS. The new “Instruction on the Confidentiality of Legal Proceedings” states, “The person who files the report, the person who alleges to have been harmed, and the witnesses shall not be bound by any obligation of silence with regard to matters involving the case.”

According to Catholic News Agency, “The pontifical secret, also sometimes called ‘papal secrecy,’ is a rule of confidentiality, protecting sensitive information regarding the governance of the universal Church. It is similar to the ‘classified’ or ‘confidential’ status common in companies or civil governments.”

The “secrecy of the office” still applies to Vatican officials and others involved in an investigation or trial of a cleric accused of abuse or of a bishop or religious superior accused of a cover-up. Except for sharing information with civil authorities, the basic professional secrecy serves, as the new law says, to protect “the good name, image, and privacy of all persons involved.”

Pope Francis also changed the definition of child pornography in “Sacramentorum Sanctitatis Tutela” (“Safeguarding the Sanctity of the Sacraments”), the 2001 document issued

by St. John Paul II. Previously, the subject was a person under the age of 14. The new description of the crime is: “The acquisition, possession, or distribution by a cleric of pornographic images of minors under the age of 18, for purposes of sexual gratification, by whatever means or using whatever technology.”

The requirement that the legal representative of the accused be a priest has also been revised. The law now reads: “The role of advocate or procurator is carried out by a member of the faithful possessing a doctorate in canon law, who is approved by the presiding judge of the college.”

The family of Jersey City Police Detective Jospeh Seals watches as his casket is carried from St. Aedan’s Church on December 17, 2019.

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etective Joseph Seals was remembered during his December 17 funeral Mass as a hero, a committed police officer, and a devoted family man, reported CNS. Detective Seals was fatally shot December 10 at a cemetery in Jersey City just prior to a deadly attack at a kosher grocery store in the neighborhood.

The funeral for Seals was held at St. Aedan’s Catholic Church, with Newark Cardinal Joseph Tobin presiding.

Seals, a 15-year police veteran, leaves behind a wife and five children.

According to NorthJersey.com, a USA Today affiliate, Cardinal Tobin told those gathered that “faith is not something we can repeat and take away the pain,” but faith offers comfort in the troubling aftermath of last week’s mass shooting.

The news outlet, one of the few permitted to attend the funeral service, reported that, during the Mass, Seals’ 15-year-old son, Adrian Junco-Seals, eulogized his stepfather, who he said was “a great man in and out of work.”

“He will forever be remembered as an American hero,” Junco-Seals said, as the congregation stood and applauded.

Later that day, the cardinal released a statement saying: “Over the past week, we all have been conscious of the power of darkness, which has tried to overshadow us and strangle our hearts. We also are aware of the difference that light makes in triumphing over darkness. Today, we come together as a community and reflect a light so bright that no darkness can vanquish it.”

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church IN THE NEWS

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WEST VIRGINIA BISHOP, VATICAN OFFICIAL DISCUSS PREDECESSOR’S AMENDS

GALLUP POLL: MOST AMERICANS SUPPORT LIFE IN PRISON OVER DEATH PENALTY

Pope Francis greets Bishop Mark E. Brennan during a meeting with US bishops making their ad limina visits to the Vatican on December 3, 2019.

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or the first time in 34 years, a recent Gallup poll shows that more Americans support life in prison over the death penalty.

The poll, based on results from telephone interviews conducted October 14–31 with a random sample of 1,526 adults in the United States, showed 60 percent prefer that convicted murderers receive a sentence of life imprisonment, while 36 percent said capital punishment would be better.

These latest results mark a shift in American opinion over the past two decades. In the 1980s and 1990s, the majority opinion leaned toward the death penalty. The survey is also just the second time that more people said they thought life in prison was a better punishment than the death penalty; in 2007, they did so by 1 percentage point, with 48 percent favoring life in prison and 47 percent favoring the death penalty.

CNS reported that the American Values Survey by the Public Religion Research Institute, conducted five years ago, revealed religious divides on the issue and showed that Catholics, Jews, members of other non-Christian religions, and the religiously unaffiliated preferred life without parole as a punishment over the death penalty. Only white evangelicals (59 percent) and white mainline Protestants (52 percent) expressed majority support for the death penalty.

Catholics in the 2014 survey were sharply divided by race: Among white Catholics, 45 percent favored the death penalty and 50 percent favored life in prison. In contrast, only 29 percent of Hispanic Catholics favored the death penalty, while 62 percent said convicted murderers should be given life sentences.

ishop Mark E. Brennan, head of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, West Virginia, met with a Vatican official in December to discuss ways his predecessor should make amends for abuses, including gross financial misconduct, reported CNS. While in Rome for a regularly scheduled series of meetings in early December with the pope and Vatican offices as part of the US bishops’ ad limina visits, Bishop Brennan said he “was able to at least get a good meeting with the cardinal prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, Cardinal Marc Ouellet.”

Bishop Brennan told CNS that “the pope had asked me, told me, to be involved” in drawing up ways his predecessor might “go about making amends” for his misdeeds.

Bishop Michael J. Bransfield, 76, left his position in September 2018 under a cloud of allegations of sexual and financial misconduct. He had led the diocese for 13 years.

Pope Francis accepted Bishop Bransfield’s resignation after determining allegations of sexual abuse and excessive financial expenditures were credible and substantiated. The pope subsequently restricted Bishop Bransfield from presiding or participating in public celebrations of Mass as a priest or bishop and ordered that he not live in the diocese.

In a November 26 letter to the people of the diocese, Bishop Brennan announced a nine-point “plan of amends” for Bishop Bransfield. In the plan, Bishop Brennan asked the former bishop to pay back more than $792,000 to cover the “inappropriate expenditure of diocesan funds to support a luxurious lifestyle” as well as to apologize to the people he is alleged to have sexually abused, to the faithful of the diocese for “the grievous harm he caused,” and to diocesan employees “who suffered from a culture of intimidation and retribution, which the former bishop created.”

The plan also covers several other measures, including a reduction in his diocesan pension, the loss of certain aspects of health care coverage, and denial of burial in the diocese.

CNS PHOTOS: LEFT: ANDREW CULLEN; RIGHT: VATICAN MEDIA

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SPIRITOFST.FRANCIS | ASK A FRANCISCAN

By Pat McCloskey, OFM

‘Franciscan’ or ‘Roman Catholic’?

I like what I read in St. Anthony Messenger and enjoy other products from Franciscan Media.

One question keeps coming back to me: Are you Franciscan or Roman Catholic?

I ask this because these days I feel much closer to the Franciscans than to the Roman Catholic Church in which I was baptized and yet is plagued by many terrible scandals.

O

ONLINE: StAnthonyMessenger.org E-MAIL: Ask@FranciscanMedia.org MAIL: Ask a Franciscan 28 W. Liberty St. Cincinnati, OH 45202

All questions sent by mail need to include a self-addressed stamped envelope.

?

Why Israel?

WANT MORE? Visit our website: StAnthonyMessenger.org

WE HAVE A DIGITAL archive of Q & As, going back to March 2013.

Just click: • the Ask link and then • the Archive link.

Material is grouped thematically under headings such as forgiveness, Jesus, moral issues, prayer, saints, redemption, sacraments, Scripture—and many more!

Our Bible study group is reading the prophet Hosea. Someone asked, “Why did God choose Israel to be the chosen people?”

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oses answers that question for God in Deuteronomy 7:6–8: “For you are a people holy to the Lord, your God; the Lord, your God, has chosen you from all the peoples on the face of the earth to be a people specially his own. It was not because you are more numerous than all the peoples that the Lord set his heart on you and chose you; for you are really the smallest of all peoples. It was because the Lord loved you and because of his fidelity to the oath he had sworn to your ancestors, that the Lord brought you out with a strong hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.”

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Father Pat welcomes your questions!

TOP LEFT: MC KOZUSKO/SAM; TOP RIGHT: MC KOZUSKO/SAM; LOWER LEFT: SORSILLO/FOTOSEARCH

Pat McCloskey, OFM

ur magazine and wider ministries are Roman Catholic first and Franciscan second. They are also catholic, an English word coming from the Greek term for “universal.” Francis of Assisi rightly has a wide ecumenical and interfaith appeal.

Yes, many people feel more at home with Francis of Assisi than with other past or present members of the Roman Catholic Church.

Three years before he died, St. Francis wrote, “The Rule and life of the Lesser Brothers is this: to observe the holy Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ by living in obedience, without anything of one’s own, and in chastity.”

Similar statements open the foundational documents of all Franciscan groups officially recognized by the Roman Catholic Church.

St. Francis was perceptive enough to see that he—and the Roman Catholic Church—could sometimes be a counterwitness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The painful scandals in the Church should motivate individual and collective conversion.

St. Francis didn’t invent that Gospel but rather received it from generations of believers who, unfortunately, divided East (Orthodox churches) and West (Roman Catholic Church) in AD 1054.

There were plenty of people in Francis’ day with similar ideas, but no one incarnated Gospel living the way that he did.

St. Francis is occasionally used as a blank screen onto which people project some favored image or agenda that he would not recognize or endorse. Trying to separate Francis from the Roman Catholic Church is a bit like trying to separate Jesus from the cross: Both always go together.

Divine plans are not rewards for human actions. The same was true of the earlier covenant with Abraham and Sarah. If God has chosen the largest, richest, and most politically powerful group to be the chosen people, all people since then would be justified in projecting their definitions of success onto God. God, however, acts solely out of love and has a different definition of success.

Quick Questions and Answers

Why did God permit Jacob to trick Isaac into giving him Esau’s birthright?

Your question assumes that God acts in human time (past/present/ future). God is not bound by such a limitation; all time is equally present to God. The Book of Genesis tells us that the choice of Jacob over Esau was intended all along. The Jacob/Esau story challenges the common assumption in patriarchal societies that God favors the oldest son. Other biblical stories such as the choice of David, Jesse’s youngest son, convey the same message. Similarly, Jacob chose Rebecca over her older sister, Leah.

My autistic son has chosen not to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation because he thinks he might join another religious group later.

I suggest that you not force the issue because you may well later regret doing so. His present faith level is probably the best that he can do now. Keep praying that his faith will grow.

Yes, according to Father Jack Wintz, OFM, my fellow friar and longtime writer and editor for this publication. Paraclete Press published his book based on your question. If we think of heaven as exclusively where morally good conduct is rewarded, then animals are excluded because they are incapable of genuinely morally good or evil conduct. But if heaven is the culmination of God’s creation, how could animals, sunsets, and butterflies be excluded? The blessing of pets on or near the feast of St. Francis supports the heaven-as-the-culmination-of-God’s-creation approach.

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Reflects Your Values

Leave a legacy of mercy, compassion, and care for the poor through a bequest to our friars.

For more information about including a gift in your will, call 513-721-4700 ext. 3219.

You are the heart of our ministry.

What caused the split among Christians in AD 1054?

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TOP LEFT: MC KOZUSKO/SAM; TOP RIGHT: MC KOZUSKO/SAM; LOWER LEFT: SORSILLO/FOTOSEARCH

Will I see my dog in heaven?

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The mutual excommunications of the pope and the patriarch centered on the role of the bishop of Rome within the worldwide Church. Tensions had been simmering for centuries. For example, the Church in the East never accepted the West’s changing of the Nicene Creed to say that the Holy Spirit proceeds from God the Father and God the Son. Those excommunications were formally rescinded by St. Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras on December 7, 1965. Relations between their successors have improved greatly since then.

The Franciscan Friars, Province of St. John the Baptist 1615 Vine St, Ste 1 Cincinnati, OH 45202-6492 friarworks@franciscan.org

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SPIRITOFST.FRANCIS Francis of Assisi said that the friars owe the world a good example. If they fail to provide this, “the world will withdraw its hand in a just censure.”

FRANCISCAN WORLD

San Francesco a Ripa

By Pat McCloskey, OFM

W

AT THE AGE of 31, Sebastian (1502–1600) came to Mexico and became an agricultural worker. Later he spent 10 years building a road between Mexico City and Zacatecas, carefully negotiating with indigenous peoples for the right-of-way.

Sebastian eventually became a wealthy farmer and rancher.

At the age of 72, he distributed his goods to poor people and joined the Friars Minor.

For the next 25 years, he begged for the friars in Puebla and was nicknamed the “Angel of Mexico” because of his generosity.

He was beatified in 1787; his feast is February 25.

—Pat McCloskey, OFM

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WANT MORE? Learn about your saints and blesseds by going to: SaintoftheDay.org

ST. ANTHONY STORIES

Anthony and the Flower Market

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usually arrange the flowers for the altar at my parish. For this reason, with my parish’s approval, I purchased a special permit for the local flower market where florists buy flowers and other supplies for their shops.

One morning, I had gone to my favorite stall and made my purchase. I went to the café for some coffee before returning to my car. At the parking lot exit, I realized that my badge was missing. I went back to the stall where I made my purchases and the café, but no one had seen my permit. I started walking back to my car, feeling very dejected. Thinking of all the inconveniences that the lost badge would create, I decided to pray to St. Anthony as I walked back to the exit.

I had barely finished my prayer when a market employee came running after me with my badge. I couldn’t believe it; I was shocked but happy at the same time. I immediately prayed the Our Father and Hail Mary three times each to thank St. Anthony for his help.

—Angelo Wong, San Francisco, California

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PHOTO BY JENNIFER SCROGGINS

Born in Spain, he is most famous for building roads in Mexico and working 25 years as a friar beggar.

FAR LEFT: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS; TOP LEFT: LPLT/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS; LOWER RIGHT: CANDY BOX IMAGES/FOTOSEARCH

SEBASTIAN OF APARICIO

hen Francis visited Rome, he stayed in the Trastevere neighborhood. Lady Jacoba de Settesoli, a wealthy widow and benefactor of Francis, helped him obtain a small place on the grounds of its Hospital of St. Blaise.

By 1517, the hospital had closed, and the friars built a church and friary. The latter would become a headquarters of the Riformati friars, the branch of the Franciscan family that sent the first Austrian friar to Cincinnati in 1844.

Twice in the 19th century, the View of San Francesco a Ripa Church in Trastevere, Rome friars were forced out of their house there. In the church, which became a parish in 1906, are buried Blessed Louise Albertoni (a Secular Franciscan who died in 1533) and St. Charles of Sezze (a friar who died in 1670). Lady Jacoba, a Secular Franciscan whom Francis called “Brother Jacoba,” is buried in the crypt of Assisi’s Basilica of St. Francis.

This church is a reminder of Francis’ commitment to serving the poorest of God’s children.

s

FOLLOWERS OF ST. FRANCIS

ST. ANTHONY

82 Gallons and Counting

“If you’ve got something someone else needs, you give. As a Franciscan, I don’t feel like I own anything. It belongs to me to use, but anybody can have what they need. That’s how I feel about my blood too.”

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PHOTO BY JENNIFER SCROGGINS

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simple yes to a one-time good deed transformed into a lifelong ministry for Sister Damien Hinderer, OSF. As a novice in the early 1960s, Sister Damien was asked to give blood to help another sister with a bleeding ulcer. Now 77, Sister Damien has donated more than 82 gallons of blood in her lifetime to become one of the leading donors in the history of Cincinnati’s Hoxworth Blood Center.

And she’ll continue making the two-hour round trip from her home in Oldenburg, Indiana, every two months for as long as there are people who need blood. “I look at what Francis did,” Sister Damien explains. “When they didn’t have food to feed the friars, they fed the poor. I have something somebody needs; I feel like I should share it. Even if I don’t know who it’s for, it’s for someone who needs blood.”

Sister Damien can recall the time many years ago when her father was ill and needed blood while hospitalized. What would have happened, she wonders, if there hadn’t been enough donors? That’s the question she wishes more people would ask when considering whether to donate blood.

She also wants to make clear that blood donation is nothing to be feared.

While she donates, she’s able to read a book and relax, and the donation center generally provides a drink or snack afterward. The technicians watch new donors closely to make sure they’re doing well, and they’ve even offered to arrange rides home if a donor is unable to drive. “They make it as easy as they possibly can,” Sister Damien says.

She doesn’t love the attention she’s received in the past year since she passed the 80-gallon mark—her milestone was met with a celebration and local media coverage—but she’s willing

to be in the spotlight if it helps raise awareness of the need for more donors.

“Blood is what we live with. We have to have it,” she says. “We don’t have artificial blood. Blood has to come from another human being, and it has to be someone who’s willing to get stuck by that needle and sit in that chair. What greater gift can you give somebody? It’s life!”

Over the years, Sister Damien has inspired family members, friends, and other sisters to become donors. She herself has been inspired by Francis as well as by her parents. Her parents, she says, were unfailingly generous, and her dad had a penchant for bringing home stray and injured animals. One of six children, Sister Damien says a spirit of giving was ingrained in her upbringing and has simply carried on throughout her adult life.

“You give,” she says. “If you’ve got something someone else needs, you give. As a Franciscan, I don’t feel like I own anything. It belongs to me to use, but anybody can have what they need.

That’s how I feel about my blood too.

That’s just the way we were raised.”

Sister Damien also was profoundly influenced by a book she read about Father Damien during a high school retreat. Father Damien, a Belgian priest, was canonized in 1995 for his work caring for a leper colony in Hawaii—which ultimately cost him his life.

Sister Damien, given the name Judith at birth, took her hero’s name when she joined her order. “I so admired Father Damien for what he did,” she says. “He took care of these people whose skin was falling off. If he can do that, the least I can do is give people something they need.”

—Jennifer Scroggins

FRANK JASPER, OFM

A

Sister Damien Hinderer, OSF

BREAD s The National Shrine of St. Anthony is located in Cincinnati, Ohio. Consecrated in 1889, it includes a first-class relic of St. Anthony and serves as a center for daily prayer and contemplation.

The Franciscan friars minister from the shrine. To help them in their work among the poor, you may send a monetary offering called St. Anthony Bread. Make checks or money orders payable to “Franciscans” and mail to the address below.

Every Tuesday, a Mass is offered for benefactors and petitioners at the shrine. To seek St. Anthony’s intercession, mail your petition to the address below. Petitions are taken to the shrine each week. viSit our webSite to:

StAnthony.org

s

mAil poStAl communicAtionS to:

St. Anthony Bread 1615 Vine St. Cincinnati, OH 45202-6498

s

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POINTSOFVIEW | FAITH UNPACKED The Blessing of Sister Thea

By David Dault, PhD

David hosts the weekly radio show Things Not Seen: Conversations about Culture and Faith.

He also cohosts The Francis Effect podcast with Father Dan Horan, OFM. He lives with his family on the South Side of Chicago.

Want a certain topic covered? Send us your request.

E-MAIL:

FaithUnpacked@ FranciscanMedia.org MAIL:

Faith Unpacked 28 W. Liberty St. Cincinnati, OH 45202 PODCAST:

The Francis Effect podcast can be streamed live at FrancisFXPod.com.

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LEFT: ZHEKOS/FOTOSEARCH (2); RIGHT: COURTESY OF KYLE KRAMER

David Dault, PhD

s we embark on Black History Month, I a video of a speech she gave to the US have been thinking a good deal about an Conference of Catholic Bishops in 1990, shortly amazing woman who did much for the cause before her death at age 52. Though her body of African American Catholicism and indeed was wracked with cancer, her voice was afire for the Church as a whole. That woman is with energy and passion.

Sister Thea Bowman.

Her speech focused on economic justice.

Born in Yazoo City, Mississippi, in the dead More than this, it focused on the way that povof winter in 1937, Bowman was the granderty and racism intertwine to become systemic daughter of slaves. Her father was a physician, injustices. and her mother was a schoolteacher. The fam“For so many of us,” she said to the bishops, ily was Methodist, but the “being black and Catholic young Thea (then Bertha) means having come to the Bowman felt an early call Church because education to the Catholic Church. opened the door to evangeliAt age 9, with her parents’ zation.” permission, she converted to She praised the priests Catholicism. and laywomen in Mississippi Her conversion was who refused to be limited inspired by her teachers, by the bigotry of their time who were Franciscan Sisters and offered Bowman and her of Perpetual Adoration and classmates the opportunity to the Missionary Servants of learn and grow as children of the Most Holy Trinity. At the God, rather than as secondage of 15, Thea discerned a class citizens. call to religious life. With the Holding up a photo of support of her parents and Sister Thea Bowman, Walsh University, 1989 a group of bishops, she her teachers, she joined the reminded the gathering that Franciscan sisters and took the name Mary “to be black and Catholic means to be intensely Thea. The first name was in honor of Our aware of the changing complexion of the Blessed Mother and the second in honor of College of Cardinals. In the world Church, a Bowman’s father, Theon. lotta folks look like me!”

After receiving her MA and PhD in English, Sister Thea spent nearly two decades A NEW PERSPECTIVE teaching at several Catholic colleges before This is the blessing of Sister Thea. The story of the bishop of Jackson, Mississippi, invited her life has opened for me the rich and varied her to become a consultant on intercultural world of the Church. Her work illuminated issues for his diocese. Sister Thea took on the the extraordinary variety to be found in global new role and, over time, the scope of her work Catholicism and the many ways to mix rich spread across the Americas (from the Virgin cultural heritages with robust faith.

Islands to Hawaii and Canada) and overseas At her funeral Mass, Cardinal Bernard Law (in Nigeria and Kenya). of Boston remarked: “She challenged us to own Sister Thea opened space for African our individuality, yet pleaded for us to be one American voices within Catholicism, espein Christ. This was her song, and no one sang it cially in the realm of music. Her influence was more eloquently than Sister Thea Bowman.” central in the publication in 1987 of a new Her case for canonization has been brought Catholic hymnal, Lead Me, Guide Me: The forward, and in 2018 the US bishops’ conferAfrican American Catholic Hymnal, the first ence unanimously approved the advancement such work directed to the black community. of her cause. She has been designated a Servant of God as a first step in that process.

A POWERFUL INTRODUCTION Sister Thea Bowman, inspire us and pray for us, this and every month!

I was first drawn to Sister Thea through

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POINTSOFVIEW | AT HOME ON EARTH

By Kyle Kramer

Radical Gardening

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n December, the darkest part of the year, we celebrate the birth of Jesus, who came into the world with the promise of bringing light to the darkness. In January and February, another related ritual occurs: The garden seed catalogs start arriving. Just when we (at least in the Midwest) are hunkered down in the coldest, snowiest time of the year, we begin to dream audaciously of the promise of spring, imagining how lush and beautiful our gardens might be in just a few short months.

Many millions of Americans tend gardens.

But few of us take it as seriously as we did, for example, in World War II, when backyard “victory gardens” were a staple of patriotism and equaled commercial farms for fruit and vegetable production. I’d like to see a similar number of us return to gardening with the same level of urgency and enthusiasm as happened back in the 1940s.

Why? Well, gardens bring a number of tangible benefits. On a personal level, gardens help you get exercise, provide you with fresh, local produce, and save you money on your grocery bill. In terms of ecological benefit, well-tended gardens build up the soil, reduce erosion, and can be far more productive and resource-efficient than commercial farms (though they require more human labor).

And as our population increases, gardens can help provide an important measure of local self-sufficiency and food security— especially if our fossil-fuel-powered industrial agriculture system falters. Gardens can help us live more lightly on our strained and stressed planet.

Beyond hard-nosed practicalities, however, tending a garden returns us to deep, powerful elements of our common human vocation. We didn’t evolve to be isolated specialists, locked up inside climatecontrolled office buildings, factories, or universities.

Our genes are still fundamentally hardwired

GO FORTH WITH LIGHT

I often hear that we’re living in dark times. As the saying goes, it’s far better to light a candle than to curse the darkness, and I believe that planting a garden is a way to light one of those candles.

It may seem inconsequential, but I prefer to think of it as radical, which means rooted.

It’s rooted literally in a particular piece of land. It’s rooted in our common vocation to tend the Earth and help increase its bounty and beauty. Most importantly, it’s rooted in the truth that it is almost always the small, seemingly insignificant acts of love and care that illumine this present darkness.

HELPFUL

TIPS

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MANY BENEFITS

for us to be connected to the land and to our own amazingly capable bodies. We’re made to be connected to each other, working together and sharing our garden’s bounty with others.

Most importantly, our Church teaches that God made our hearts capable of encountering the Holy Spirit in all of creation. Of course, those trips to the Grand Canyon and other natural wonders are fantastic, but such sacramental revelations can also happen on a daily basis right in our own backyard, in the lush loveliness of a garden and the delicious delight of every ripe strawberry or tomato.

You Can Do This

1

Small-scale intensive garden methods can feed a family of four with all the calories they need, on less than half an acre of land. For more on this type of gardening, visit GrowBioIntensive.org.

2

The key to a healthy garden is to build up the soil with organic matter and avoid the unnecessary use of synthetic chemicals whenever possible.

Kyle Kramer

Kyle is the executive director of the Passionist Earth & Spirit Center, which offers interfaith educational programming in meditation, ecology, and social compassion.

He serves as a Catholic climate ambassador for the US Conference of Catholic Bishopssponsored Catholic Climate Covenant and is the author of A Time to Plant: Life Lessons in Work, Prayer, and Dirt (Ave Maria Press, 2010).

He speaks across the country on issues of ecology and spirituality.

He and his family spent 15 years as organic farmers and homesteaders in Spencer County, Indiana.

EarthandSpiritCenter.org

3

If you live in an apartment or don’t have appropriate space for a garden, inquire whether your municipality has community garden plots. If not, petition your local government to make vacant lots available.

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sisterhood of saints St. Josephine Bakhita

J

osephine Bakhita’s life started like many other children amid a loving family in the southern Sudan’s Darfur region.

But before she reached the age of 10, she was kidnapped by slave traders. The experience frightened her so badly that she forgot her name. She became known as Bakhita, which sounds like a cruel joke since the word means “fortunate.”

She was traded time and time again to a series of men, including one who had her tattooed everywhere but her face.

Most beat her; all whipped her. Then came the Italian consul in Khartoum, who was kinder than the others and who passed her on to a friend in Italy. There, she attended the Canossian Sisters’ Institute of Catechumens in Venice as the caregiver of the man’s young daughter. She liked to sit and contemplate the crucifix; Jesus’ wounds and sufferings did not seem unlike her own. Ultimately, Josephine regained her freedom with the help of the Canossians and the Venetian patriarch.

It’s easy to understand why Josephine eventually became a Canossian sister. What is more challenging to understand— and so inspirational—is that she forgave the slave traders who had abused her and robbed her of so much, including

By Melanie Rigney

Circa 1869–February 8, 1947

the family she never saw again. Indeed, she said she was grateful to them and recognized that her kidnappers had, inadvertently, brought her to her Christian faith.

Our life journeys take us to some painful places—the loss of loved ones, illness, physical violence, betrayal. And yet God is there with us every step of the way, offering his healing balm if we have faith and trust enough to accept it—and to share his love and forgiveness with others, even those who reject him and us.

INSPIRATION

“The Lord has loved me so much: we must love everyone . . . we must be compassionate!”—St. Josephine Bakhita CHALLENGE

An icon of St. Josephine Bakhita created by Franciscan iconographer Brother Robert Lentz, OFM

Each time you are tempted to complain today, stop yourself and offer up a prayer of thanksgiving for how God has helped you through the trials of life. Pray for the faith to believe he will see you through your current struggles as well.

Melanie Rigney is a freelance religion writer who also works as a marketing writer for the federal government. She is the coauthor of When They Come Home: Ways to Welcome Returning Catholics and a contributor to Living Faith magazine and Your Daily Tripod, a Catholic blog. She is a member of the National Council of Catholic Women and the Catholic Writers’ Guild, and is active in the Cursillo movement.

WANT MORE? Visit our Sisterhood of Saints page:

info.FranciscanMedia.org/sisterhood-of-saints

Visit our online store to order: Shop.FranciscanMedia.org St. Josephine Bakhita was born in the Darfur region of what is now Sudan. Her feast day is February 8.

For 20% off, use code: SAMSisterhood2020

LEFT: CNS PHOTO/L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO VIA REUTERS; RIGHT: CNS PHOTO/OCTAVIO DURAN

This article is an excerpt from Sisterhood of Saints: Daily Guidance and Inspiration, by Melanie Rigney (Franciscan Media).

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POINTSOFVIEW | EDITORIAL

Lent with a Shade of Green “We need to care for the earth so that it may continue, as God willed, to be a source of life for the entire human family.”

—from @Pontifex, Pope Francis’ official Twitter account, April 21, 2015

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pher , OFM

e humans tend to compartmentalize just about every aspect of our lives, from what we do in mundane daily rituals to how we engage with entire holy seasons. There’s comfort in routine, to be certain. The cycle of holidays, holy days, and commemorative months provides us with a kind of rhythm in an often offbeat world. This month, for example, we mark the beginning of Lent with Ash Wednesday on February 26, we celebrate love in all its forms on Valentine’s Day, and we honor the contributions and legacy of African Americans all month long.

The middle of winter might not seem like the logical time to reflect on the health of the environment. After all, we’ve likely already compartmentalized that issue, marking it on our calendars for Earth Day and the beginning of spring.

But what if we considered incorporating ecological awareness and stewardship into our Lenten journeys? Doing so connects strongly with our faith’s call to care for God’s creation and could very well surprise us with new ways to grow in our spiritual lives during this season of sacrifice and repentance. Recent developments in the Church and renewed calls for ecological conversion shed light on the importance of care for creation and point to its relevance during Lent.

LEFT: CNS PHOTO/L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO VIA REUTERS; RIGHT: CNS PHOTO/OCTAVIO DURAN

OUR EARTH CRIES OUT

Taking care of the earth is not new to Catholic social teaching. In a 1971 apostolic letter, Pope Paul VI wrote, “Man is suddenly becoming aware that by an ill-considered exploitation of nature he risks destroying it and becoming in his turn the victim of this degradation” (“Octogesima Adveniens,” 21).

St. John Paul II and Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI furthered the cause for ecological preservation in their papacies, and the primary focus of Pope Francis’ second encyclical (“Laudato Si’”) is our moral obligation to care for creation and respond to climate change.

Perhaps nowhere is the evidence of humankind’s abuse of the environment more apparent than the Amazon rain forest. Often referred to as “the earth’s lungs,” this vibrant and diverse ecosystem is facing an epic crisis. By 2018, after decades of deforestation, about 17 percent of the rain forest had been destroyed, primarily to make way for lucrative cattle ranches. The “slash-and-burn” method of deforesting has led to ongoing wildfires in the region. Following the discovery of fossil fuel reservoirs in the 1970s, it has been an uphill battle for many indigenous groups to keep oil companies from entering the Amazon and destroying more forest by building roads and setting up drill sites.

The Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon Region that met last October made a strong link between poverty of people and poverty of the earth. Part of the final document of the synod reads, “Listening to the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor and of the peoples of the Amazon with whom we walk, calls us to a true integral conversion, to a simple and modest style of life, all nourished by a mystical spirituality in the style of St. Francis of Assisi, a model of integral conversion lived with Christian happiness and joy” (17).

Caring for creation doesn’t have an impact only on those living in poverty who work the land; it’s intertwined with the ongoing conversions that are a part of all of our faith journeys. If we allow ourselves to be moved by the “cry of the earth” this Lent, we may find our faith transformed come Easter Sunday and our appreciation for the environment deepened 10 days later on Earth Day (April 22).

PRACTICING WHAT WE PREACH

The immense problems facing the environment are on a global scale, and, considering the size and complexity of the crisis, we might be tempted to simply give up before even trying. We need to be patient with ourselves—and with others—as we find out what’s within our sphere of influence.

Starting small is always OK. Lent is a long holy season, so it’s helpful to break it down into manageable chunks.

Set recurring reminders on your phone to offer up a quick prayer for our earth. It could be a prayer of gratitude, for solidarity with the 700 million people struggling with water scarcity, or a few lines from St. Francis’ “Canticle of the Sun.” With a calendar at hand, try making some weekly goals that you hope to reach by the six Sundays that fall within Lent. For example, if you already recycle, why not take the next step and start composting? By spring, you might have enough compost to use in a garden or flower bed.

Money holds many of us back from happiness and holiness. Letting go of some in the form of a donation is a very Lenten exercise. Organizations such as the Catholic Climate Covenant (CatholicClimateCovenant.org) and Poverty USA (PovertyUSA.org) are great educational resources that also make donating easy.

Pope Francis wrote in “Laudato Si’” about the environmental crisis, “A great cultural, spiritual, and educational challenge stands before us, and it will demand that we set out on the long path of renewal” (202). Taking to heart the pope’s words, what better time to take up that journey than the solemn, soul-searching season of Lent?

—Daniel Imwalle StAnthonyMessenger.org | February 2020 • 17

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A NEW LOOK AT THE

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PASSION

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Their voices may appear to be bit parts in the Passion narrative, but Judas, Peter, Caiaphas, and Pilate have much to teach us.

By Patrick Gallagher

ISTOCK PHOTOS: LEFT: NITO100; RIGHT: PAOLO GAETANO

O

nce when I was scheduled to lector on Palm Sunday, I read from Isaiah, “The Lord God has given me a welltrained tongue, that I might know how to speak to the weary a word that will rouse them” (Is 50:4). I think I’m a fairly good reader. I’m not overly dramatic, and I employ pacing and inflections that I hope rouse the congregation.

When I came to Mass that day, I was looking forward to being the narrator in the reading of the Passion, but another lector told me I would instead be doing the “Voice”—a handful of lines spoken by the few individual characters other than Jesus. I was a little put off having to cede the most microphone time to someone I didn’t think orates as well as I. It turned out that by taking this smaller part, I better comprehended the narrative and, in a way, got what I deserved.

Over half the Passion narrative concerns people other than Jesus, the great Scripture scholar Father Raymond Brown, SS, noted in a lecture. “There’s a very strong participatory element in the Passion narratives,” he added. “It really is drawing the reader into the narrative.”

Even though I read some Scripture every day in a kind of perfunctory lectio divina (divine reading), on that Palm Sunday, I found myself uncomfortably drawn in, discovering disconcertingly familiar situations in what I read. And it happened in front of hundreds of people. They don’t tell you about this in lector training.

While I stood at the temporary lectern waiting for my turn to speak, I looked ahead to my approaching lines and recognized that the words of these supporting characters who had failed Jesus struck a little close to home. The voices tend to be those of Judas, Peter, Caiaphas, and Pilate, who betrayed, denied, accused, and executed Jesus. These four antagonists of Jesus, bound together by their self-interest and pride, sinned directly against him. Our offenses against him may not be face-to-face, but we still offend him in ways similar to these men. In whatsoever we do to our neighbor, we do it to him again.

The “Seven Last Words”—seven statements Jesus made from the cross—have provided spiritual sustenance for centuries and inspired liturgical services and worship guides.

In his 2016 book Seven Last Words, Father James Martin, SJ, writes, “The devotion makes us realize that we have a God who knows what we go through.” On the other hand, the voice parts in the Passion narrative remind us that we are like them—Judas, Peter, Caiaphas, and Pilate.

JUDAS: ‘THE MAN I SHALL KISS IS THE ONE; ARREST HIM’ (MT 26:48).

You can almost hear the treacherous kiss in Judas’ unctuous use of the honorific Rabbi—a foreshadowing of the Romans’ mocking “King of the Jews” the next day. During the Last Supper, he asks the same as the other apostles when Jesus reveals his pending betrayal. “Surely it is not I, Rabbi?” he implores with saccharine dismay. Probing Judas’ motivations has become a fascinating literary project, but those efforts and Scripture seem generally to agree that, at bottom, he somehow thought he knew better than Jesus. In some ways, he shares that arrogance with each voice here.

Today, we may not think of ourselves as knowing better than Jesus, simply knowing what he really meant. We create him in our own image, interpreting his teachings to justify what we want to believe and do. For example, I might rationalize hard sayings—such as “love your enemies” or “lend expecting nothing back”(Lk 6:35)—as merely lofty stretch goals that he doesn’t really expect us to achieve. This betrays him too. Certainly, occasionally, we’re also guilty of putting before Jesus such pursuits as wealth, material possessions, and political creeds, indulging our radical individual liberty to obtain personal fulfillment.

Like that of each actor here, Judas’ is a bold action, resulting in someone’s death. I can’t imagine doing that, but betraying someone I love or someone who loves me, that’s more accessible: withholding emotion, concealing information, allowing a loved one to operate under a false impression, sharing with others something told to me in confidence. How do I betray thee? Let me count the ways.

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It’s still easy to overlook the humanity affected by our everyday decisions, such as how people across town or across the globe might be harmed.

CAIAPHAS: ‘WHAT FURTHER NEED HAVE WE OF WITNESSES?’ (MK 14:63)

Caiaphas, the high priest, accuses and, within the limits of his authority, condemns Jesus. Apprehensive about the nation’s survival and perhaps his own position if the people were to raise Jesus as king and antagonize Rome—and certain of his own righteousness—he convinces the Sanhedrin of a viciously practical math: It’s better for one man to die than a whole nation.

Suspicious, fearful, envious, he misunderstands Jesus’ message as being about temporal power. Clearly he believed he knew what Jesus meant and the risks he believed it entailed. The risks of Jesus remain. The demands of his teachings can get in the way of what we want, and it’s tempting to recast him.

When I cherry-pick his teachings to make him, perhaps, more charitable or more holy, I also accuse him, in essence, of not being enough of either—or at least not as much as I think I am.

“Stop judging, that you may not be judged,” Jesus said (Mt 7:1), following with the admonition about the splinter in my brother’s eye versus the beam in mine. While Caiaphas has reason to fear for his nation, he brooks no dissent and drives the Sanhedrin to judge without all the facts, without respecting or seeing the dignity of the accused. It’s still easy to overlook the humanity affected by our everyday decisions, such as how people across town or across the globe might be harmed.

Judgmental, too, I sometimes look down on those with different skills and intelligence. I can easily disregard people whose viewpoints—political, religious, or otherwise—differ from mine. I evaluate their worth to me. Such dismissals of humanity are all too tempting in a world of 7.7 billion people. Our daily exercises of personal liberty, corporate quests for profit, or national pursuits of interest may not accuse our global brothers and sisters, but they can condemn them.

Who is my neighbor, indeed?

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ISTOCK PHOTOS: LEFT: GARRETT ANDREW CHONG; RIGHT: NITO100

The impulsive chief apostle, maybe unaware of the risk of imminent conflict, finds it easy to boldly reject Jesus’ prediction that he would deny him. A short time later, Peter’s bravado failing him, he swears to people in the courtyard that he doesn’t know Jesus. It’s easy to be brave when things seem safe, but the threat of arrest, torture, and death would test anyone.

In Jesus Christ Superstar, Mary Magdalen sings to Peter after his denial: “Peter, don’t you know what you have said?

You’ve gone and cut him dead.” The British slang “cut him dead” essentially means “to ignore,” especially someone you know; that choice must derive from the idea of acting as though the person were dead. Our denials of Jesus may be minor. Sometimes I’m embarrassed to practice my faith openly (isn’t that denial enough?). I say grace silently before almost all meals but rarely make a sign of the cross outside my home.

When I’m listening to religious audiobooks in my car and pull up beside someone at a light, I turn down the volume and roll up the window. I doubt I’m the only one who catches himself taking all credit for my successes, perhaps not actively denying, but nonetheless overlooking God’s role.

It’s not hard to deny other people, to pretend not to know someone, to pretend they don’t exist. I’m practiced with the blank stare or the faux something-caught-my-attention look away when I see someone I don’t want to talk to. Less childish and more significant, the dynamics of our various social orders—communities, workplaces, families—sometimes reward us for denying others: not crediting someone for his or her work or taking credit for it, blaming another for a problem or error, not admitting other people’s contributions to our accomplishments, belittling or not recognizing another’s achievement (here, a few paragraphs above, I casually dismissed another lector’s ability). The culture or environment may encourage such denials, but the ego makes the decision.

UTAH778/ISTOCK

PETER: ‘WOMAN, I DO NOT KNOW HIM’ (LK 22:57).

ISTOCK PHOTOS: LEFT: GARRETT ANDREW CHONG; RIGHT: NITO100

UTAH778/ISTOCK

PILATE: ‘TAKE HIM YOURSELVES AND CRUCIFY HIM. I FIND NO GUILT IN HIM’ (JN 19:6).

Pontius Pilate sends Jesus to his death. Either a weak, craven coward swayed by peer pressure or a disinterested bureaucrat more concerned about his report back to Rome and his imperial future, Pilate has the power to spare Jesus, but not, apparently, the incentive or the courage. Despite the “truth” question he self-importantly begs, it’s self-interest that drives him. While Caiaphas may have had his nation’s welfare at heart, Pilate has only his own concerns in mind, maintaining order and reputation. Perhaps the quintessential organization man seeking status and advancement, Pilate submerges his identity and his personal agency in the empire.

Universal responsibility asserts that every sin I commit adds another lash, another nail strike, to the execution of Jesus. Maybe sometimes our shallow best intentions cause harm too. When I substitute the formality of prayer for attempting to truly follow Jesus, when my rote prayers process in the background while my mind entertains petty distractions, when my life is at best a faint reflection of the Sermon on the Mount, I’m helping to crucify Jesus.

Following the crowd or covering one’s backside—either view of Pilate’s motivations describes a modern, everyday temptation. He did what the crowd wanted because doing the right thing was hard, and then he blamed the crowd.

Pilate plaintively declares Jesus innocent yet, as though it were out of his hands, still executes him.

In the end, mocking the mercy of Jesus, he has the gall to absolve himself in Matthew’s Gospel by washing his hands of Jesus’ fate. His ace in the hole, self-absolution, is also recognizable—it’s not my job, it wasn’t my fault, or I was only doing my job. A modern temptation, too, it’s also a splinter we often see only in others.

A VOICE CONTRITE YET HOPEFUL

That Palm Sunday, while reading each voice, I was amused by the irony that my wounded pride was reflected in what I was reading. My demotion was only part of the story, however.

Further reflection on these characters revealed the demand of humility no matter how certain I am of my righteousness—and especially if I’m certain. Their plights connect to my own vulnerability to pride. Their voices are what I sometimes hear in my head.

Fortunately, the soul-searching here leads me back to the second voice, the only one to return to the story and to Jesus. After his bold rejection of Jesus’ prediction of denial, a chastened Peter, on the beach after the resurrection, declares his love for Jesus and his mission three times, once for each denial. He repents in the full sense of the word, resetting his life for the kingdom of God. Mercy is there if we pursue it, says Peter, but pride is an obstacle: “All of you, clothe yourselves with humility in your dealings with one another, for: ‘God opposes the proud but bestows favor on the humble.’ So humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time.

Cast all your worries upon him because he cares for you” (1 Pt 5:5b–7). Speaking from experience, this contrite voice offers a way: “Above all, let your love for one another be intense, because love covers a multitude of sins” (1 Pt 4:8). I don’t think I’ve ever read those words as a lector, but I hope someday they are the mirror Scripture offers me.

Patrick Gallagher and his wife have four grown children. He lives and writes in Aberdeen, South Dakota, where he works for a community development nonprofit organization. A graduate of the University of Notre Dame, he has previously been published in St. Anthony Messenger, America, South Dakota Magazine, and Notre Dame Magazine.

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I Was a Stranger and You Welcomed Me

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Filled with passion and energy, 85-year-old Father Ruskin Piedra works tirelessly to support and defend the immigrant community in his Brooklyn parish.

Story by Peter Feuerherd | Photography by Kyla Milberger

I

f there is glamour in being an immigration rights lawyer, it’s not evident in an eighth-floor waiting room in Lower Manhattan for those seeking authorization to stay in the United States. The nondescript room is set aside for immigrants from Brooklyn. It is half empty, with only a few dozen people waiting to be called this particular winter morning. Amid the conversational sounds of Chinese, Russian, and Spanish, the television set blares a speech from the president of the United States presented the night before, blaming immigrants for murders, rapes, and drug dealing.

“The president tries to paint the immigrants as vicious, violent criminals,” says a commentator on New York One, an all-news station.

Among this tiny composite of New York immigrants, no one appears to share the outrage, to be insulted, or, for that matter, to be paying much attention.

A priest strides in, dressed in full collar, accompanied by a Mexican couple and their college-age daughter.

The priest, Redemptorist Father Ruskin Piedra, a wiry, diminutive octogenarian not much more than 5 feet tall, brings the family to the proper line. They get their ticket, and they wait. Father

Piedra knows where to go. At the age of 85, he’s been doing this for decades, navigating the labyrinth of immigration bureaucracy for immigrants in Brooklyn as an officially recognized lawyer in the system.

“He is amazing,” says Eduardo, a Mexican immigrant who has been in Brooklyn for more than 20 years, and the husband/father of the family Father Piedra is accompanying this morning.

“He’s working hard for the community.

He is very friendly and responsive.”

Eduardo is a member of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in the Sunset Park neighborhood. It is a place spared much of the turmoil of Brooklyn gentrification, which has displaced tenants in favor of wealthy newcomers throughout the borough. The neighborhood remains in large part what it has always been, an immigrant enclave.

Eduardo is looking for a way to regularize his situation. His daughter Caroline, born in the United States and an American citizen, is a student at Brooklyn College. She is sponsoring her family, which includes Eduardo, her mother, and a younger brother.

The waiting room has the apparent urgency of a motor vehicle office.

There is a studied blasé attitude among the clients and their advocates, many of

whom have been here before. But for Eduardo, it could prove to be the most important interview of his life.

“What does this mean?” he is asked.

“Everything,” he says. He came to the United States when he was 18. He is now 46. Getting legal authorization would allow him to see his family in Mexico. A full generation has come and gone, and he can only communicate electronically. He would like to see his mother and father before they die.

Time is not a friend.

A STALWART OF SUPPORT

In his way, Eduardo stands in a long Brooklyn Catholic tradition. For 126 years, Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish has served them all: Irish, Germans, even Norwegians, and, in the past few decades, a growing group of Chinese. Mass at the parish is now celebrated in English, Spanish, and Chinese. Since the 1990s, Father Piedra, in his tiny office at what is called the St. Juan Neumann Center overlooking the parochial school gym, has been advocating for immigrants.

He formally established the center in 2003.

While not a full-fledged lawyer, he has credentials, earned via classes on immigration law and the federal

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The future priest (far right) swims with friends in Eastside, New York.

LEFT: At his ordination, Father Piedra gives his first blessings to his mother and brother. The family came to the United States from Cuba in 1918; four of his siblings were born there and three in the United States.

LEFT: Cardinal Francis Spellman of New York ordains Father Ruskin Piedra in 1960. ABOVE: For two decades, Father Piedra attended the Redemptorist Mission at San José Church in Cuba.

Father Piedra gathers with his novitiate class at St. Mary’s in Ilchester, Maryland, in 1955. He is in the second row, second from left.

system, to advocate in court for those seeking legal status. In much of the outside world, the status of priest may have lost much of its social impact, but Father Piedra says the Church connection is a help to his cases.

“They pay a lot of attention to Church-related evidence,” says the priest about those charged with carrying out the nation’s immigration laws. “This is a Church with a history.

We didn’t just put up a sign.”

Church documents, such as baptismal and marriage certificates, can be used as evidence of an immigrant’s residence in the country. They can all be helpful, even in this era of a crackdown on entering the country. The US Citizenship and Immigration Service’s official mission statement once described its role as fulfilling the ideal of America’s position as “a nation of immigrants.” It no longer uses that language—now it’s about enforcing the law.

ROOTED IN SERVICE

It’s another series of obstacles for Father Piedra, who speaks in the characteristic gravelly tone of a native New Yorker.

Born in what was then called Spanish Harlem, now East Harlem, he has lived the immigrant experience. He speaks little about himself, and much about his immigrant clients.

But when he talks, he offers hints about how this passion developed.

His family came to New York from Cuba in 1918, to a nation less prosperous but more open to newcomers. (Laws severely restricting immigration would be enacted six years later during another wave of anti-immigrant sentiment that swept the country.) His Spanish first name is Sabino, and his parents, new to the country, picked out Ruskin from a newspaper article, thinking it sounded authoritatively American, he says. He is one of eight siblings, half, like him, born in the United States, the other half in Cuba.

As a result, he speaks fluent Spanish and has an innate awareness of Latino culture, particularly that from the Caribbean. He was an altar boy at St. Cecilia Church in Manhattan and was inspired to enter the seminary when, on a family visit to Cuba, he observed a large priest leading a congregation in the rosary, bundled up in wool vestments and sweating in the tropical heat. “Wow, what a sacrifice,” the future priest thought. He wanted to share in that kind of dedication.

Father Piedra’s vocation, therefore, grew out of his personal experience, both growing up in immigrant Spanish Harlem with his Cuban family, and later through his early priesthood work in missions in Puerto Rico and Florida.

Since 1962, he has been working with immigrants, first assisting those fleeing Castro’s Cuba, and years later earning his advocate credentials in 1998.

Five years later, he established the St. Juan Neumann Center, named for the Redemptorist founder and bishop from Bohemia in central Europe, John Neumann, who came to the United States in 1833 as a seminarian versed in

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Father Piedra leaves the St. Juan Neumann Center and enters the rectory. His days are filled with paperwork needed to untangle government bureaucracy for immigrants.

11 languages and ready to minister to a burgeoning immigrant Catholic population in the New World. The story goes that Neumann learned his final language, Spanish, from a Mexican boat worker he met on the ship over to the United States. He later became the archbishop of Philadelphia.

Neumann’s immigrant legacy earned him accolades and, eventually, canonization. But Father Piedra, who follows that legacy, knows that immigration has emerged as a volatile issue, even among those Catholics who count themselves as descendants of the immigrants served by the first US Redemptorists.

“You can’t let everyone in,” Father Piedra hears from his network of friends outside the immigrant community, nurtured through his years as a retreat master and parish mission director. His response: “How about treating them as children of God?” He remains bound by the charism of his religious community “to work for the poor and the most abandoned souls.” In today’s United States, he says, it is clear that migrants are the best fit for the category of poor and abandoned.

That Redemptorist charism follows closely the line articulated by Pope Francis. It is a religious community dedicated to reaching the marginalized and the poor. As the pope has pointed out frequently, few on the periphery are in greater need of the Church’s care and concern than undocumented immigrants, both in Europe and in the United States.

TIRELESS CRUSADER

“Immigrants are the ones. That’s why we are in this work,”

Father Piedra says during a break from the unceasing cascade of immigrant appointments.

He works from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on immigration, with Friday his day off. The modest office includes Father Piedra and three coworkers. At night, he joins with his fellow Redemptorist priests in ministering to the parish. Those are long days and nights for a man more than a decade beyond the normal priest retirement age.

“I am not a person who wants to sit here and twiddle his thumbs,” he says about his hectic schedule and his reluctance to retire. There is little time for thumb twiddling.

Some of his time is spent in community meetings, offering immigrants an opportunity to learn their legal options.

A few days a week he takes the subway to Lower Manhattan to advocate in court as well as in meetings with immigration workers. To cover all these services, he raises funds via the Redemptorist network.

Much of his time is spent amid the grind of government forms, evidence, and proof—a daunting obstacle of red tape and regulations even for those familiar with American culture and the English language. At the side of his desk are old-fashioned paper files with volumes of documentation on pending cases: stories wrapped in notes about rent receipts, birth certificates, and utility bills—all intended to prove an immigrant’s whereabouts through the years. For his clients, his services are absolutely essential. Almost everyone lives at poverty levels, so his services are free. When a case is won, sometimes a grateful immigrant will provide a donation of gratitude.

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“You can’t let everyone in,” Father Piedra hears from his network of friends outside the immigrant community. His response: “How about treating them as children of God?”

offers funeral services for immigrant family members who died in Latin America. They are unable to travel to their home countries, permanently separated from loved ones.

Most of his clients are Latinos. But one of the first cases in the Neumann office involved an Irishman seeking a work permit. There is the occasional Chinese immigrant seeking assistance, as well as Gypsies from Romania, perhaps the most persecuted group in Europe through the centuries, seeking political asylum. They were persecuted by the Nazis and other regimes. A judge in the system was inclined to support Gypsy claims.

“She retired, much to my chagrin,” says Father Piedra, lamenting how slight shifts in the system can have such an impact on people’s lives.

There are success stories too. Father Piedra is proud that he was able to assist a woman from Ecuador. She was married to a police officer who beat her up and chained her to a bedpost, forcing her to serve the prostitutes he would bring home. After one failed escape attempt, her husband’s beating resulted in the death of her unborn child. Being married to an abusive police officer, she had no legal recourse in Ecuador and fled. She was able to win asylum. However, such cases, borne out of domestic violence situations, are now officially not considered in asylum requests.

All in all, the system is getting more callous, in the eyes of Father Piedra. There are more bureaucratic tangles. A woman who applied for citizenship, thinking it was going to happen, had her green card expire. Now she is in legal limbo. Food stamps for the families of immigrants used to be granted as a way to feed children, who are often American citizens. But that is now being routinely denied. A Brazilian

woman applying for citizenship had her visa stamp scrutinized. It took months to authenticate it.

About 80 percent of asylum requests are now being denied. One client from El Salvador testified to the murder of his sister, the girlfriend of a gang member. When he was told he was next, he fled. His case for asylum is under consideration, but the odds are increasing that it will be denied.

Immigrants fear the 4 a.m. knock on the door from ICE officials more than ever, says Father Piedra, as the government increases its enforcement of immigration laws, even for those whose only legal offense is having come to the country in the first place. Sometimes a main suspect, who might be a prime subject for deportation because of previous convictions, is caught, along with others who were in the vicinity and would never have been a target otherwise.

‘A WISDOM FIGURE’

Through these obstacles, Father Piedra’s fellow Redemptorist priests who work with him at Our Lady of Perpetual Help admire his steadfastness and determination. Father James Gilmour, the pastor, has known Father Piedra for the past two decades in Brooklyn. “He is very loved,” says Father Gilmour about his fellow priest. “He is very venerated in the community.”

At Our Lady of Perpetual Help, which looms over the neighborhood of apartments, storefronts, and subdivided homes, Father Piedra’s work flows seamlessly from the mission of the parish. There are about 1,500 registered families, but more than 3,000 attend weekend liturgies. As in many immigrant communities, there is a reluctance to register, for fear that proof of their presence can be held against them.

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Father Piedra offers a consoling figure in a frightened community.

Every morning, Father Piedra finds time for private prayer. Perhaps from that source, he has been able to replenish his work with immigrants, often a long slog, and sometimes comes up against insurmountable obstacles.

“He is a very calm, tranquil, compassionate, and understanding person. He advocates. But he won’t be shouting into a bullhorn,” says Father Francis Mulvaney, the rector of the Redemptorist community at Our Lady of Perpetual Help. Father Piedra “is a wisdom figure” in the Sunset Park immigrant community, adds Father Mulvaney.

Occasionally, Father Piedra will take to the streets in immigrant demonstrations. At one, quoted in the Brooklyn Tablet, the diocesan newspaper, Father Piedra made no apologies for helping the most peripheral people, those without documents. “I haven’t met one single criminal,” he told the Tablet about the thousands of immigrants who have come to his office seeking help. “I’m not saying they don’t exist, I’m not saying they don’t sneak in, I’m saying I’m not aware of them.”

The president of the United States might disagree, but Father Piedra, the man with experience in the field, argues that those who come to him in Brooklyn “are decent, honest, loving family people wanting a better life and fleeing persecution.” They are God’s children, he will argue, and deserve the love and consideration owed to any other person on the planet. It is a radical idea at the heart of Christian dogma—backed up by the Gospels and the pope—that Father Piedra, fighting this battle into his 80s, is not giving up on, even when it is not glamorous, popular, or even ultimately successful.

“That, to me, is Christianity,” he says, looking around his office. “The people here are children of God.” Peter Feuerherd writes from Queens, New York, where he is a professor of communications and journalism at St. John’s University and a news editor for the National Catholic Reporter.

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WOMEN OF FAITH

FOOTBALL, FRANCIS,

FOOTBALL: SISTER RITA CLARE YOCHES‘ FAMILY ARCHIVES

Football taught Franciscan Sister Rita Clare Yoches teamwork and discipline. Her faith showed her how to put those skills into action to accompany spiritual seekers.

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WOMEN OF FAITH

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FAITH Story by Patricia Montemurri | Photography by Diane Weiss

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WOMEN OF FAITH

B

efore they met Sister Rita Clare Yoches, most Florida State University (FSU) students had never seen or talked to a Catholic woman religious before, let alone made time to hang out with a nun. Now, it’s not unusual for them to stop Sister Rita Clare as she strides through the Tallahassee campus, share lunch with her in a fast-food restaurant, or seek her out for friendly conversation and straight-talk spiritual guidance. “I call what I do a ministry of presence,” she says, “and it’s to be seen.”

And also to be heard. While she stands out in the bluish-gray habit and white veil of the Franciscan Sisters TOR of Penance of the Sorrowful Mother, there’s no ignoring her bighearted laugh and megawatt smile.

“It’s a little countercultural on our campus to see a nun walking around,” says FSU student Monica Kan. “I heard the sound of her laughter, and she struck me as a woman who was joyful and really loves her life. That’s what stood out and made me want to have a conversation with her.”

“I heard the sound of her laughter, and she struck me as a woman who was joyful and really loves her life. That’s what stood out and made me want to have a conversation with her.”

—Monica Kan, FSU student

SISTER RITA CLARE YOCHES‘ FAMILY ARCHIVES

‘THE FRANCHISE’

Anne Yoches was a starting point guard for four years at the University of Detroit-Mercy.

She was also team captain for two years at the Division I school, which she attended from 1997 to 2001 on a full athletic scholarship.

Anne Yoches grew up in suburban Detroit and was a standout Catholic high school and collegiate basketball player. But when she took her final vows in June 2018, she says, “It was the best day of my life.”

It also made headlines. That’s because before Anne heard God’s calling, she took her signals from quarterbacks for the Detroit Demolition, a team in the now-defunct Women’s Football League. “This ex-Detroit football player is vowing to become a nun,” proclaimed her hometown paper, the Detroit Free Press.

Anne was a fullback, a punishing blocker who could bulldoze opponents to clear yardage for the Demolition running back carrying the ball. She was merciless, she admits: “The blindside hit was my favorite.” Now a dozen years out of the sport, she relishes the memories. “Yeah, I loved to hit,” she acknowledges.

“That’s one thing I still miss.”

Of her gridiron career, Sister Rita Clare says, “It’s not the first thing I tell people.” She finds that it can be a conversation starter but clarifies, “It doesn’t define me.” Indeed, on her congregation’s website, there’s a page featuring fun facts about the sisters. After four years on

a female full-contact football team, what does Sister Rita Clare include on the congregation’s Meet the Sisters webpage? “One time I was stranded in London by myself because I failed to notice that my passport expired while I was there!”

Still, what she learned in sports has helped her succeed in her calling. Her ministry, she says, is strengthened by “discipline, coming together with a bunch of like-minded women to conquer the enemy,” and being surrounded by “people who are going to make you better.”

Anne’s life before entering the convent was studded with athletic and academic accomplishments. She grew up in the middle of three siblings in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn Heights. Her father, Robert, was often her coach in several youth sports. At Dearborn Divine Child High School, she was a starter on two state championship basketball squads. She went to the University of DetroitMercy on a full basketball scholarship and was a starting point guard for the Division I Lady Titans for four years and captain for two. After graduation, she worked as a strength and conditioning coach at the University of Notre Dame and also started a fitness and training center in a Detroit suburb. She joined the Detroit Demolition in 2003 and stayed with the team as it won four national titles.

Her Demolition coach, Tony Blankenship, described Anne in a 2018 Detroit Free Press article as “hard-nosed, physical,” and “someone who will hit you in the mouth, go right at you. Very tough. Still very athletic, and just really, really skilled.” Because she was such a dominating fullback, Blankenship nicknamed her “The Franchise.”

Aisha Thomas, a Detroit Demolition teammate, told the Free Press that Anne’s physical grit “was kind of a contradiction to her laughter and her smile,” but added that “on the field, there was nothing friendly about it.”

A QUESTION ANSWERED

In young adulthood, Sister Rita Clare says, she was too fond of parties and the taste of beer.

But there were signs of another path.

On a trip to Italy when she was 24, Anne visited Assisi with her mother, Mary. She had had doubts about the Catholic traditions around saints, thinking “it was kind of

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WOMEN OF FAITH

kooky.” But after they toured San Damiano, the church where St. Francis of Assisi heard the voice of the Lord, Anne experienced a startling moment as she saw a group of Poor Clare sisters.

“I heard the Lord say, ‘You could do this.

You should do this.’” And, as she recounts it now, she talked back: “Are you crazy? Do you know who I am? You’ve got the wrong person.” The conversation in her head and heart ebbed and flowed over the next several years.

Although her family was actively Catholic, Anne admits that for many years her church attendance was just a rote practice. That changed when her maternal grandmother, Rita O’Hara, became ill with bone cancer and died in 2003. Inspired by how her grandmother had attended Mass every day, Anne began to do the same. The family’s parish priest advised her to visit some congregations.

She remembers going to confession during a retreat after a long time away from the Sacrament of Penance. She expected fire and brimstone, but the priest directed her to listen to a Catholic radio station for her penance.

On her commute to work, she did. “I loved it, craved it, and felt at peace when I listened,” she says.

She also began to visit St. Bonaventure Monastery in Detroit, the location of the tomb of Blessed Solanus Casey, a Franciscan Capuchin friar who was known during his lifetime for healing wonders and was beatified

in November 2017.

She credits her last boyfriend for helping her arrest her hard partying. They dated, even as she told him she was considering religious life. But he relished his Catholic faith, and sometimes their dates took them to celebrations of the faith, including a Festival of Praise in Steubenville, Ohio, her first experience with charismatic prayer.

Her prayer that day asked, “Lord, am I supposed to marry you or my boyfriend?”

She knew the answer when others prayed over her and read to her from Isaiah 62:1–5: “For Zion’s sake I will not be silent, for Jerusalem’s sake I will not keep still, until her vindication shines forth like the dawn and her salvation like a burning torch. Nations shall behold your vindication, and all kings your glory; you shall be called by a new name bestowed by the mouth of the Lord.

“You shall be a glorious crown in the hand of the Lord, a royal diadem in the hand of your God. No more shall you be called ‘Forsaken,’ nor your land called ‘Desolate,’ but you shall be called ‘My Delight is in her,’ and your land ‘Espoused.’ For the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be espoused. For as a young man marries a virgin, your Builder shall marry you; and as a bridegroom rejoices in his bride so shall your God rejoice in you.”

Not long after, she broke up with her boyfriend, who told her, “I think you’ll make a great and funny nun.”

“For as a young man marries a virgin, your Builder shall marry you; and as a bridegroom rejoices in his bride so shall your God rejoice in you.”

Isaiah 62:1–5

Sister Rita Clare helps a client fill his cart at Focus: HOPE, a social services nonprofit in her hometown of Detroit. She accompanied Florida State University student volunteers to Detroit in March 2019 for a week devoted to helping local charities.

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WOMEN OF FAITH

Sister Rita Clare stands outside the Co-Cathedral of St. Thomas More in Tallahassee. She ministers across the street at Florida State University, a school of 40,000 students, many of whom have never had a face-toface conversation with a Catholic woman religious.

Anne was drawn to contemplative/active orders. She asked God for a sign: “Show me the color of the veil,” she prayed. That same night, she turned on EWTN to see its Life on the Rock show, and an episode showcased a small congregation founded out of Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio. “He didn’t just show me the color of the veil,” she says.

“He showed me the order.”

In 2009, after several years running a sports training center in suburban Detroit, Anne Yoches entered their convent to become Sister Rita Clare.

‘NOT YOUR TYPICAL NUN’

The Steubenville congregation was founded in August 1988, and has 32 professed members, two novices, and one postulant. Mother Mary Ann Kessler says the order blends contemplative prayer with external ministries. Members work on college campuses, with the poor, and with those in nursing homes and prisons.

Having a star athlete as a member, says Mother Mary Ann, is “a real team builder for

us.” She says Sister Rita Clare “calls you out, encourages you, says you can do it.” Mother Mary Ann calls it “coaching for the Lord.”

Now Sister Rita Clare, 40, is in her third year at the Catholic Student Union at the Co-Cathedral of St. Thomas More, just across the street from FSU, where she strives to bring students “closer to the Lord through teaching them how to live and pray.”

Sister Rita Clare considers it one of her job duties to take a daily walk through the campus, where some 40,000 students are enrolled.

She and two other Franciscan sisters—last school year it was Sister Mary Rose Bratlien and Sister Della Marie Doyle—are the only Catholic women religious in Tallahassee, the state’s capital. This makes them novelties who are regularly approached by folks who ask— and comment—on what they do and what they don’t do as nuns.

Sister Rita Clare acts as a spiritual advisor for Catholic students and helps run weeknight get-togethers for conversation and prayer. In March, she led a group of FSU students to her

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WOMEN OF FAITH

hometown of Detroit for an alternative spring break week devoted to helping local charities.

“She’s definitely not your typical nun. She’s rough around the edges, but in a way you feel love through it,” says Paula Hegedus, who was posted to Tallahassee through the group St. Paul’s Outreach, which promotes the Catholic faith on campuses. Hegedus says Sister Rita Clare practices “tough love” on students who seek her guidance, but “tells people to be yourself and love Jesus.”

Leah Dombrowski, an FSU student from Tampa, says she’d never spoken to a nun in-depth until she met Sister Rita Clare. The former football player’s experience “speaks to a lot of young Catholics today,” says Dombrowski. “Most of them have one foot in the Church and another in worldly desires.

“I think her story is really relatable,” Dombrowski continues. “It took her a few years to come to terms with what God was calling her to be. I don’t think that’s unique, and God continues to reach out to you and chases you.”

With all of life’s busyness and distractions, how will women know they have a calling to religious life?

“They will know because they will hear it, feel it,” says Sister Rita Clare. “But you must stay docile and give yourself silence and prayer time to continue to talk to the Lord about what you heard and felt. If it keeps coming back, well then, you know what you need to do.

“Leave everything and follow him.”

FSU students help Sister Rita Clare load groceries for low-income senior citizens in Detroit. They traveled from their Florida campus to Michigan during a spring break volunteer experience. INSET: Sister Rita Clare and two students pray with a client.

Patricia Montemurri is a freelance journalist who wrote for the Detroit Free Press for 36 years. She’s written about a wide range of subjects, including the Catholic Church, politics, women’s issues, and breaking news.

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A JOURNEY OF FAITH In the mid-1800s, a group of Sisters of Loretto traveled the Santa Fe Trail on their way to founding missions.

Last July, another group took the same path.

Photography by Neil Tucker Text by Susan Hines-Brigger

P

icture this scene: It’s 1852, and six Sisters of Loretto are getting ready to embark on a harrowing journey along the Santa Fe Trail. Their destination is the New Mexico Territory, where they have been invited by Santa Fe Bishop Jean Baptiste Lamy to open mission schools for the local children.

Along the way, the sisters—Magdalen Hayden, Catherine Mahoney, Rosanna Dant, Roberta Brown, Matilda Mills, and Monica Bailey—encounter many obstacles, including bad weather, rough trails, hostile territories, and disease. Mother Matilda Mills dies of cholera in Independence, Missouri, before reaching the official start of the Santa Fe Trail, and Sisters Monica Bailey and Magdalen Hayden also contract cholera. Though Sister Monica survives, she is unable to make the journey.

Finally, after a long and rugged trip, the sisters arrive in Santa Fe on September 26, 1852.

Fast-forward 166 years to July 2019, when 10 Loretto women bypassed the covered wagons—though they did take along a small replica—and gathered in cars and vans at the Sisters of Loretto Motherhouse in central Kentucky, the point of origin for the sisters in 1852. Their plan was to retrace the footsteps of those pioneering sisters back in the 1800s.

And so, beginning July 4, the group spent two weeks on a journey of history and faith, stopping at significant Loretto locations along the way.

Sister Eleanor Craig organized the trip “to acquaint our newer members with this history and to inspire all of us with the early sisters’ courage and enthusiasm.” She personally has traveled along the old trail many times with groups of teenagers, many of whom are blind or visually impaired, but was eager to visit the trail again and to show it to and share it with other Loretto members.

“The wagon-train trips by Sisters of Loretto in the period 1852–1870 have been an important part of Loretto’s shared legacy,” says Sister Eleanor. “We call ourselves ‘pioneers’ in part because our sisters went west with the wagon trains.”

In yet another detour from the original sisters’ experience, this group documented their entire journey via the Loretto Heritage Center’s Facebook page and blog (LorettoCommunity.org/tag/loretto). This is the story of their journey.

Neil Tucker is a videographer, editor, and photographer residing in Kansas City, Missouri.

Susan Hines-Brigger is the coexecutive editor of this publication.

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WOMEN OF FAITH

Thank You, Matilda (Memorial song for Mother Matilda Mills, Sister of Loretto—born 1818, died July 16, 1852)

Strong, with life here, we honor Matilda, a woman of vision like many to come.

No stranger to risk, with heart for adventure, here, though not planned, is her home.

Refrain: Thank you, Matilda, remember us. Thank you, Matilda, remember us.

Here, far from Kentucky and far from her wished-for sunny Southwest, Missouri has claimed her, and filled with her spirit here where she lies, we are blessed.

This land a new charted pathway, where others have carried her purpose along the way.

Memories and challenge more than she dreamed.

Undying courage belong. Now it’s onward we travel, journeys of hope leading into the dawn. Eyes toward horizons yet ready for change, your loyal Lorettos press on.

Refrain: Thank you, Matilda, remember us. Thank you, Matilda, remember us.

OPPOSITE PAGE: The steeple of the Chapel of Our Lady of Light stands as a reminder of the service of Loretto women in Santa Fe from 1852 to the present.

ABOVE: On one of the first days of the trip, the group visited Minor Park in southwestern Kansas City, where they walked through 8-foot-deep ruts from the Santa Fe-bound wagons. They eventually made their way to the grave of Mother Matilda Mills, who died of cholera on the steamboat carrying the 1852 group from St. Louis to Independence. While at the site, the group held a brief ceremony in her honor—despite a hard rain—where they sang “Thank You, Matilda” (lyrics on the left side of this page) of this pioneering sister.

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WOMEN OF FAITH

RIGHT: On July 6, the group visited the Shawnee Mission, which was established in 1834 by the Methodists. The mission sits just west of the 1820 border between Missouri and Native American territory. The Sisters of Loretto operated a school at the same time at Osage Mission.

MIDDLE: The following day, they traveled to Fort Larned, where troops were once stationed to guard the caravans on the trail.

In 1867, soldiers accompanied Bishop Lamy and the sisters, unfortunately bringing cholera with them, which sickened and killed several of the travelers, including 18-year-old Sister Alphonsa.

BOTTOM RIGHT: Near today’s Pierceville, along the trail in western Kansas, the wagon train was repeatedly attacked by Native Americans in retaliation for the massacre of their women and children in unprovoked militia attacks. The Native Americans encircled Lamy’s train; several sisters and other women were hidden in the wagons. At the end of the attack, 18-year-old Sister Alphonsa Thompson was discovered seriously ill. She died the next day and was buried where she died. The modern Lorettos, like many before them, stopped to remember her courage. Sister Maria Visse played the flute.

art_Hines-Brigger 0220.indd 36

PHOTO CREDIT HERE

BOTTOM LEFT: Pawnee Rock marks the halfway point on the Santa Fe Trail and is one of the most prominent landmarks on the long journey. A famous natural feature of the Kansas prairie, the site was often mentioned in journals and diaries of the Santa Fe travelers, including the Loretto sisters.

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WOMEN OF FAITH

TOP: Bent’s Old Fort in south central Colorado sits on the mountain route of the Santa Fe Trail. The fort was a major trading post and offered an opportunity for travelers to fix wagons and prepare for the last stretch of the trail to Santa Fe. MIDDLE: As the group traveled the last leg of their trip from Taos to Santa Fe, they were accompanied by the beauty of the Rio Grande. By 1863, the Sisters of Loretto had schools in both towns and traveled this “road” between the schools, often walking to relieve the wagon weight and avoid toppling down the hillsides.

PHOTO CREDIT HERE

BOTTOM: In the town of Taos, the group visited the Taos Pueblo, one of several traditional villages of the Pueblo peoples, which have stood unmoved against many invasions. Loretto sisters taught catechism in the pueblo from 1863 to the mid-1900s.

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WOMEN OF FAITH

THIS PAGE: The Taos Pueblo peoples yielded to the Spanish missionaries’ imposition of the Catholic faith. They’ve maintained the faith and their historic church to the present.

Spanish settlers established the town of Taos, near the pueblo.

When the Sisters of Loretto arrived to establish a school in 1863, the old Catholic church was the focal point of many clashes between Spanish and Anglo faithful. Today, the church cherishes its Spanish American traditions and community, which Loretto women served from 1863 to 2004.

OPPOSITE PAGE: The 2019-era Santa Fe travelers arrived amid great fanfare, just like the 1852 travelers, whose arrival was marked by singing, processions, and many arches of flowers.

The modern Inn and Spa at Loretto was built on the grounds of the Sisters of Loretto academy, convent, and chapel. Some of the original adobe wall surrounding the Loretto grounds remains, as do the chapel and two adobe structures currently being used for administrative offices.

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WOMEN OF FAITH

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COLORADO KANSAS

Old Fort Bent Las Animas

OF FAITH

Pawnee Rock

Santa Fe Trail Museum Pierceville

Fort Larned National Historic Site

Shawnee Kansas Mission City Council Grove

KANSAS MISSOURI

WOMEN

Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site

Minor Park

Cimarron River

Trinidad COLORADO NEW MEXICO

Raton Pass

Cimarron

Taos

Chimayo

Inn & Spa at Loretto

Santa Fe

Museum of Spanish Colonial Art New Mexico Museum of History and Art

El Rancho de las Golondrinas

At the end of their journey, the Loretto travelers gathered for a photo at St. Joseph Parish in Taos, New Mexico. The group was amazed to learn that the convent in Taos had just been reopened by a group of Benedictine monks, who intend to create a community of prayer and presence in Taos. The men were delighted to have a visit from “real Lorettos,” who could help them identify objects and rooms as they were once used by the Loretto community.

OPPOSITE PAGE: The final stop for the group was the Loretto Chapel in Santa Fe, New Mexico—some even say the Santa Fe Trail ends at the adobe wall of Loretto! The chapel, which was completed in 1878, was modeled after Sainte Chapelle in Paris, a favorite of Bishop Jean Baptiste Lamy.

UPPER LEFT: Inside the chapel stands the famous Loretto staircase. The staircase is a source of many mysteries, such as the identity of its builder, the type of wood used, and the physics of its construction. When the chapel was completed, there was no access to the choir loft, which was 22 feet above the chapel floor. After consulting with numerous carpenters, the sisters were told that the only remedy was to use a ladder because a staircase would interfere with the chapel’s interior.

In search of a better solution, the sisters began a nine-day novena to St. Joseph. On the final day of the novena, a man showed up with his tools and a donkey in search of work.

Months later, the staircase was completed and the man disappeared without being paid or receiving thanks. Many believe that the man was St. Joseph himself, in answer to the sisters’ prayers.

The staircase is also a wonder of engineering, with two 360degree turns and no visible means of support. In fact, some of the design considerations still perplex experts today.

Over the years, the famous staircase has been the subject of many articles, TV shows (including Unsolved Mysteries), and the full-length movie titled The Staircase, staring William Petersen and Barbara Hershey.

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Arrow Rock

WOMEN OF FAITH

St. Rose Philippine Duchesne

Florissant

Independence

St. Ferdinand

ansas ity

Minor Park

St. Louis School Sisters of Notre Dame

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CULTURE

E-LEARNING

By Daniel Imwalle

A Future for Everyone TED TALK

“The future is made of ‘yous,’ it is made of encounters, because life flows through our relations with others.”

— Pope Francis

ICONS

music

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books

podcast tv & streaming

film

video

e-learning

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LEFT: COURTESY OF NETFLIX/ROBERT VIGLASKY; RIGHT: COURTESY OF NETFLIX/SOPHIE MUTEVELIAN

riginally held as an annual conference among Silicon Valley innovators, TED Conferences, LLC, is now a media organization with an immensely popular platform for sharing the ideas of thought leaders with millions of people, known as TED Talks. TED stands for “technology, entertainment, and design,” but the topics covered include a wide range of perspectives on politics, media, and culture. In a surprise TED Talk at the 2017 annual conference held in Vancouver, Canada, Pope Francis, in a prerecorded video, delivered a talk titled “Why the Only Future Worth Building Includes Everyone.” The talk, which received a standing ovation, was a highlight of that year’s conference and filled to the brim with quotable takeaways.

At first glance, Pope Francis might not seem a likely candidate for delivering a TED Talk. On numerous occasions, he’s warned of the danger of using science and technology as means to create weapons of increasingly destructive capacity. He’s also commented on how social media can be a divisive tool that fans the flames of hate. With that said, the pope spent some time studying chemistry before entering the seminary, and he also has an active Twitter account with over 18 million followers. Instead of being anti-technology, Pope Francis is more cautionary about its misuse, a perspective he incorporated into his TED Talk.

The talk opens with the pope commenting on how much he likes the theme of the conference, “The Future You.” “The future is made of ‘yous,’ it is made of encounters, because life flows through our relations with others,” he says. Right from the start, he’s hinting at the overarching point he wants to get across: that the human race is deeply interconnected. “I would love it,” he later remarks, “if this meeting could help to remind us that we all need each other, none of us is an island, an autonomous and independent ‘I.’” In the times we live in, with so many battle lines drawn with seemingly indelible ink, this is a message worth letting sink in.

In technology, the pope sees the potential for humanity to amplify goodness and increase equality, if we would only choose to use it for those aims. “How wonderful would it be if the growth of scientific and technological innovation would come along with more equality and social inclusion?” he muses. “How wonderful would it be, while we discover faraway planets, to rediscover the needs of the brothers and sisters orbiting around us?”

Whether the pope will return for another TED Talk is unclear at this point. But the fact that he took the time to deliver this powerful message of hope speaks to his awareness of the influence this platform has. It certainly lives up to the organization’s motto, “Ideas Worth Spreading.” For more information and to access Pope Francis’ TED Talk, visit: ted.com/speakers/pope_francis.

CNS PHOTO/TED.COM

O

TV/STREAMING

alle

TV/STREAMING

By Christopher Heffron

The Crown NETFLIX

Editor’s Picks:

W

ith a pithy 10 episodes per season, The Crown was born to rule a streaming service like Netflix.

Binge away—but pay close attention to these three episodes.

SEASON 1: “ASSASSINS”

Netflix’s The Crown boasts an impressive cast, led by Claire Foy (left) as Queen Elizabeth in seasons 1 and 2; and Academy Award-winner Olivia Colman (right) as the older, wiser sovereign in season 3.

ng

LEFT: COURTESY OF NETFLIX/ROBERT VIGLASKY; RIGHT: COURTESY OF NETFLIX/SOPHIE MUTEVELIAN

CNS PHOTO/TED.COM

T

he royal family has been a kind of gilded enigma to Americans since Henry VIII initiated the English Reformation in the 16th century. Nearly 500 years later, interest hasn’t weakened. From Edward VII’s abdication of the throne to Prince Harry’s marriage to American Meghan Markle, royal news is big news. What makes Netflix’s series The Crown so innately watchable is that it’s far less concerned with the what than it is with the why.

Seasons 1 and 2 introduce viewers to a young Elizabeth (played to steely perfection by Claire Foy) and examine her marriage to Prince Philip, her coronation, and the initial years of her reign. Season 3, in which Oscar winner Olivia Colman takes over as an edging-toward-middle-aged Elizabeth, finds the sovereign more acclimated to her role, though no less tortured by its challenges.

It would be remiss of this reviewer to neglect the production values that go into The Crown: The set and costume designers bring a kind of luminosity to every frame. But what gives the series its thunderous heartbeat are the actors, writers, and directors who shed layers to reveal the woman behind the title.

Foy flawlessly captures Elizabeth’s stone-faced naïveté as the newly minted queen in seasons 1 and 2; Colman, who gives a performance of startling power, has a bit more to work with in season 3—her Elizabeth is wiser, more hardened by her duties. Both actors illuminate a brilliant, complex woman who must quietly bury facets of her humanity because her role demands it. And they are amply supported by Matt Smith and Tobias Menzies as the younger and older Prince Philip; and Vanessa Kirby and Helena Bonham Carter register strongly as Princess Margaret—sister to the queen, harddrinking socialite, and damaged royal. Special mention goes to John Lithgow, who plays Winston Churchill in seasons 1 and 2 as a snarling pit bull of a man. His embodiment of the prime minister is a show unto itself.

But the central message of The Crown is something to which we all can relate: When the current threatens to pull us under, family is there to keep our heads above water—even heads weighed down by a heavy crown.

WHILE ELIZABETH spends time engaging in her true passion, horses, Winston Churchill wages a battle of wits with the abstract artist chosen to paint the prime minister’s final portrait. “Assassins” is a look at our winless war against aging. It’s perfection.

SEASON 2: “DEAR MRS. KENNEDY” AFTER AN INTIMIDATING visit from President John F. Kennedy and his glamorous wife, Jacqueline, Elizabeth reconsiders her starchy image and ups her political gamesmanship to fortify her kingdom. This is Claire Foy at her best.

SEASON 3: “ABERFAN” IN THE WAKE of the Aberfan colliery spoil tip disaster in 1966 that killed 144, Queen Elizabeth begrudgingly visits the Welsh village to save political face. But in the hands of Olivia Colman, the queen’s own erosion from hard-hearted monarch to devastated mourner is acting at its finest.

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StAnthonyMessenger.org | February 2020 • 43

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CULTURE

FILMS

By Sister Rose Pacatte, FSP

Sister Rose Pacatte, FSP

AND

DVD STREAMING Harriet Where’d You Go, Bernadette The Peanut Butter Falcon The Farewell

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T

his engaging drama, from director Fernando Meirelles and screenwriter Anthony McCarten, imagines the papacy of the Roman Catholic Church as never before.

The film opens with a conclave following the death of Pope John Paul II in 2005.

Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio (Jonathan Pryce) receives some votes, which makes Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (Anthony Hopkins) nervous. It becomes obvious that he does not like Bergoglio. Ratzinger is elected and takes the name Benedict XVI. Bergoglio goes home with a sigh of relief.

Fast-forward to 2013. Bergoglio writes a letter of resignation as archbishop of Buenos Aires to the pope, who does not reply. He buys a ticket to Rome and arrives at Castel Gandolfo after a long flight. Benedict makes him wait, so he visits with the gardener.

Benedict greets the Latin American cardinal and invites him to talk as they walk in the garden, but he is brusque. Bergoglio is confused and tries to give Benedict his resignation letter, but Benedict refuses to take it.

That evening, they meet in the living room and talk soccer, the piano, and the tango.

Benedict coldly tells Bergoglio, “I don’t like what you think, say, or do.” The next day, Benedict is called to Rome and they continue their conversation in the Sistine Chapel. As

the day wears on, they talk about their earlier lives and one confesses to the other, who then gives absolution. They share a pizza together, and Benedict tells Bergoglio he is going to resign.

The magic of this mostly fictional film from Netflix is that it imagines an example of authentic listening and dialogue. We learn tolerance from a German pope and an Argentinian cardinal as each one comes to understand the views of the other. They give, take, push, and pull. In the end, they not only tolerate the other’s theological and pastoral perspectives, but also respect them. Based on the play and book The Pope: Francis, Benedict, and the Decision that Shook the World, the film is a vehicle for the brilliant Pryce and Hopkins to become their characters and show us how to get along in a chaotic world. The Two Popes is award worthy.

A-3, PG-13 • References to clergy sex abuse.

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THE IRISHMAN: EPK.TV/NETLFIX US, LLC (2); THE MARRIAGE STORY: COURTESY OF NETFLIX.COM

New On

THE TWO POPES (NETFLIX)

LEFT: COURTESY SISTER ROSE PACATTE, FSP/MIKE BLAKE/REUTERS; TWO POPES: EPK.TV (2)

Sister Rose is a Daughter of St. Paul and the founding director of the Pauline Center for Media Studies. She has been the award-winning film columnist for St. Anthony Messenger since 2003 and is the author of several books on Scripture and film, as well as media literacy education.

MARRIAGE STORY (NETFLIX) THE IRISHMAN (NETFLIX)

THE IRISHMAN: EPK.TV/NETLFIX US, LLC (2); THE MARRIAGE STORY: COURTESY OF NETFLIX.COM

LEFT: COURTESY SISTER ROSE PACATTE, FSP/MIKE BLAKE/REUTERS; TWO POPES: EPK.TV (2)

M

artin Scorsese returns to one of his preferred genres with The Irishman, based on the true story of Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro), a Philadelphia truck driver who becomes a hitman for the Bufalino crime family in the mid-1950s.

He steals and sells merchandise from the truck and is arrested. A lawyer for the teamsters’ union, Bill Bufalino (Ray Romano), gets him off and introduces him to Russell Bufalino (Joe Pesci).

Sheeran begins to do jobs—including murders—for the mob, and Russell introduces him to trade unionist Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino). He has business ties to the Bufalino family and is in a tight place. The federal government is on to Hoffa’s activities, and a younger member of the teamsters’ union, Anthony Provenzano (Stephen Graham), is threatening his position.

Hoffa, who cannot stand Robert F. Kennedy (Jack Huston), the attorney general under John F. Kennedy, ends up in prison for jury tampering. When he gets out of jail, Hoffa seeks to regain his position with the union. Frank continues to act friendly with Hoffa, but things soon change.

The only thing I appreciated about Scorsese’s three-and-a-half-hour film is the ending. The priest (Jonathan Morris) is endlessly patient as he leads the aging Frank to repentance after serving 13 years for fraudulent business practices and a life of crime. Based on Charles Brandt’s book I Heard You Paint Houses, Stephen Zaillian’s script tells a mob story we’ve seen many times before. Repentance is the key theme here. It is never too late.

L, R • Violence, pervasive language.

Catholic News Service Media Review Office gives these ratings.

A-1 General patronage

A-2 Adults and adolescents

A-3 Adults

L Limited adult audience

O Morally offensive

W

riter/director Noah Baumbach returns to familiar territory with this film about a couple, Nicole (Scarlett Johansson) and Charlie (Adam Driver), who decide to divorce.

Charlie is a busy theater director in Manhattan, and Nicole is an actress starring in one of his plays. The film opens with the two listing the good qualities of the other during a counselling session, but this cannot overcome Nicole’s inability to forgive Charlie’s infidelity. They decide on an amicable divorce, and Nicole takes their son, Henry (Azhy Robertson), with her to California, where she is starring in a television pilot. When expensive lawyers get involved (Laura Dern, Alan Alda, and Ray Liotta), things become acrimonious over child custody.

Marriage Story is a bleak and sad tale of the death of a marriage. What is so startling is Nicole and Charlie’s lack of depth about their lives. Yes, they mourn the end of their marriage, but Baumbach’s script offers no emotional or spiritual rationale for their sorrow.

It is unclear if they knew why they married in the first place. They give up so easily.

Not yet rated, R • Domestic arguments, brief reference to an extramarital affair.

Source: USCCB.org/movies

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POINTSOFVIEW | FAITH & FAMILY

By Susan Hines-Brigger

Welcome to the Neighborhood

Susan welcomes your comments and suggestions!

E-MAIL: CatholicFamily@ FranciscanMedia.org MAIL: Faith & Family 28 W. Liberty St. Cincinnati, OH 45202

Hello, neighbor.”

When’s the last time you said that in real life? Probably not often for most of us. We hunker down with our lives, staying laserfocused on what lies right ahead—work, kids, projects, and a myriad of other things.

Thanks to the movie It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood about Mister Rogers, though, we’re being reintroduced to that phrase and the message behind it. It’s a message that seems long overdue in this tumultuous time, when we spend more time arguing with each other than greeting each other.

When I grew up in the ’70s and ’80s, one of the constant companions of my childhood was this man with a soft voice and a red cardigan sweater. The show was a staple on our family’s television set in the days before cable and YouTube. I remember Mister Rogers making me feel special and safe and telling me, “There’s no person in the whole world like you, and I like you just the way you are.”

His message was a living example of Psalm 139:14: “I praise you, because I am wonderfully made; wonderful are your works! My very self you know.”

At some point, though, I outgrew his show.

I suddenly saw it as corny and somewhat infantile with its dated-looking puppets and simplistic songs.

A RENEWED PERSPECTIVE

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Then I became a parent. And through the subsequent years, I kept finding myself bumping into Mister Rogers and his wisdom time and again. Sometimes it was one of his quotes. Other times it was an article about how progressive his show and its messages

WE ARE ALL SPECIAL

Currently, it seems as if we are all living in a constant state of anger, angst, and turmoil.

We struggle with the basic human interactions that once seemed instinctive. We speak of others in a way that we would not accept from our own children. We have forgotten that each of us is special, and, in the midst of difficult situations and times that we may face, we can get through them—together—if we want to.

To do that, though, we need to see each other through the eyes of this wise man.

There is a reason his legacy, words, and messages have endured. It’s because they’re true.

Each of us is special, and it’s time we started treating each other like that. Our children are watching. Take a moment to think about that.

I’ll watch the time.

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Susan has worked at St. Anthony Messenger for 25 years and is an executive editor. She and her husband, Mark, are the proud parents of four kids—Maddie, Alex, Riley, and Kacey. Aside from her family, her loves are Disney, traveling, and sports.

TOP LEFT: MC KOZUSKO/SAM; TOP: COURTESY LYNN JOHNSON COLLECTION/OHIO UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Susan Hines-Brigger

truly were for the time. He took hot-button issues like race relations, illness and death, divorce, nuclear war, and many others and addressed them in a way that only the kids he was talking to would understand. He did it all in his characteristic soft way because that’s the best way to introduce things to kids.

What we didn’t realize—what I didn’t realize—was that his message was one we all could stand to hear and learn from—especially now. In 1997, when he was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Emmy Awards, Mister Rogers took the stage and delivered a speech that didn’t tout his achievements but rather reinforced the message he had been trying for so many years to teach us: Each of us is special, and we should cherish that.

Mister Rogers told the audience, “All of us have special ones who have loved us into being. Would you just take, along with me, 10 seconds to think of the people who have helped you become who you are—10 seconds of silence.”

And then he lifted his wrist, and looked at the audience, and looked at his watch, and said softly, “I’ll watch the time.” At first, his request was met with some awkward laughter.

But once the crowd realized his sincerity, they quickly obliged. This was, after all, Mister Rogers.

B

LIGHTENUp!

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DONOR

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TRIVIA QUESTIONS 1: Who wrote the book Seven Last Words?

2: Where did Father Piedra’s family emigrate from?

3: Which football team did Sister Rita Clare Yoches play for?

THE CROWN

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VALENTINE

HINT: All answers can be found in the pages of this issue.

ANSWERS AND CAPTIONS: E-mail your answers and captions to: MagazineEditors@FranciscanMedia.org, or mail to: St. Anthony Messenger, 28 W. Liberty St., Cincinnati, OH 45202

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Go online to order: Shop.FranciscanMedia.org For ONLY $3.99 Use Code: SAMPETE ANSWERS to PETE & REPEAT: 1) There is snow on the grass outside. 2) Another fold is in the curtain. 3) A white heart is inside one of Pete’s cards. 4) The curtain rod is showing.

5) A line has been added to the address on Pete’s envelope. 6) Sis’ card has multiple hearts. 7) The stripe on Pete’s right arm is wider. 8) The flap on the envelope is larger.

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“Since love grows within you, so beauty grows. For love is the beauty of the soul.”

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reflection

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