St. Anthony Messenger November 2019

Sharing the spirit of St. Francis with the world V O L . 1 2 7 / N O . 6 • NOVEMBER 2019

CHECK IT OUT:

Catholic perspectives on culture

pages 50–53

CELEBRATING LIFE ON THE

DAY OF THE DEAD A MISSION REBORN

NOVEMBER 2019 • $4.99 StAnthonyMessenger.org

NEW WAYS TO GIVE THANKS LESSONS IN HOLY FOOLERY

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The Power of Faith, Beauty & Music in a Broken World

◆ THE HUNDREDFOLD Songs for the Lord

◆ ANNUNCIATION A Call to Faith in a Broken World

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Anthony Esolen

tapestry of hymns, monologues, and short lyrics knit together as one booklength poem in praise of Christ in all his startling humanity. Drawing from the riches of the English poetic tradition—meter, rhyme, music— Esolen considers the mysterious man from Nazareth and the world he came to set on fire with splendor.

Having translated the Italian masters, Dante and Tasso, Esolen now puts on the mantle of such English craftsmen as Donne, Milton, and Hopkins in his f i r s t book of original contemplative poetry. It contains dramatic monologues set in first-century Greece and Palestine, and lyrical meditations on creation, longing, failure, modern emptiness, a n d unshakeable hope. Includes a helpful introduction on English poetic form.

HFOP . . . Sewn Softcover, $17.95

"In an age of ugliness, beauty is an act of mercy, a sanctification of the human experience. This exceptional collection of poetry and song in praise of Jesus Christ offers readers an experience of beauty as life-giving as water in a desert.”

— Most Reverend Charles Chaput, O.F.M. Cap.,

Archbishop of Philadelphia

Sally Read

convert from atheism to Catholicism when her daughter was four years old, Read saw the awareness of “two worlds” for her daughter as she has grown, leading to many doubts about the Faith. Seeing the precarious nature of Faith in a secular world, she presents compelling reasons for holding on to God and Church. Taking the Annunciation as her template, she explores our common experiences of the spiritual life as she meditates on each part of the story in Luke’s Gospel.

Drawing on Scripture, the saints, and the lives of people she has known as a nurse and a poet, Read shows how God is with us always—even in suffering, spiritual dryness, and depression. Though inspired by a mother’s loving response to a daughter, this beautifully rendered work will speak to any believer engaged in a relationship with God. ACFP . . . Sewn Softcover, $15.95

“Read discovers in Mary’s experience the pattern of all believers in miniature. She beautifully weaves into one fabric our doubts, fears, raptures, and vocations with those of Mary, the first to receive within herself the Word of God.” — Al Kresta, Radio Host, Kresta in the Afternoon

◆ THE SOUND OF BEAUTY A Classical Composer on Music in the Spiritual Life Michael Kurek

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hile loved by all, music is a mystery to us. This unique book presents fascinating insights on the psychology of perception of music, and how music speaks to the mind, emotions, and spirit. These concepts have rarely been addressed outside the ivory tower, and even more rarely seen through the lens of Catholic theology.

This is a kind of “layman’s handbook,” a comprehensive theology of all things music, which anyone can understand, written by an internationally respected classical composer and music professor at a top secular university who is also a faithful Catholic. It sheds light on the mysteries of music and furthers the spiritual formation regarding music for Catholics of many ages and walks of life.

SOBP . . . Sewn Softcover, $17.95

“I am overjoyed that The Sound of Beauty is being published. I know of no other book on music that articulates the Catholic aesthetic so masterfully. That makes this volume a precious jewel to be cherished.”

— Joseph Pearce, from the Foreword; Author, Catholic Literary Giants

www.ignatius.com P.O. Box 1339, Ft. Collins, CO 80522

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(800) 651-1531

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VOL. 127 NO. 6

2019 NOVEMBER

COVER STORY

30 Day of the Dead: A Celebration of Life Photography by Amadu Haruna; text by Daniel Imwalle

Each year on the Day of the Dead, the typically somber setting of a cemetery is transformed into a festive and colorful place of honor and remembrance of departed loved ones.

20 A Brief Lesson in Holy Foolery COVER: MSTUDIOIMAGES/ISTOCK; ABOVE: AMADU HARUNA

By Stephen Copeland

Ask yourself these three questions to gain a new perspective on approaching life with joy and contemplation.

25 Two New Movies That Matter:

Harriet & A Hidden Life

By Sister Rose Pacatte, FSP

At first glance they couldn’t be more different. But the subjects of these two new films are united by their heroic devotion to faith and justice.

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COVER: Colorful face paint, lively dances, vibrant music, and traditional food are all key parts of this uniquely Mexican take on the feast of All Souls’ Day.

38 A New Approach to Gratitude

By Kathy Coffey

Do you need to jump-start your attitude toward Thanksgiving? Begin with a new understanding of what gratitude truly means.

44 A Mission Reborn

Story by Jay Copp; photography by Karen Callaway

A team of Franciscans transformed a former parish and school in one of Chicago’s poorest neighborhoods into a thriving mission that has become a blessing to those it serves.

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HALLMARK MOVIE: ©2019 CROWN MEDIA UNITED STATES LLC

Ave Maria Mutual Funds – St. Anthony – Higher Ground 1905

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VOL. 127 NO. 6

“Praised be You, my Lord, through our Sister Bodily Death, from whom no one living can escape.”

2019 NOVEMBER

—St. Francis of Assisi

14 SPIRIT OF ST. FRANCIS

54 POINTS OF VIEW

10 Ask a Franciscan

5

Pedophile Priests Protected

Letters from Readers

12 Franciscan World

17 Editorial

12 St. Anthony Stories

18 Faith Unpacked

13 Followers of St. Francis

19 At Home on Earth

14 Friars Gather in Denver

for Chapter of Mats

54 Faith & Family

360 Friars Minor Meet in Denver

The Greta Effect

In Hot Water

A Leap of Faith

Sister Eileen McKenzie, FSPA

HALLMARK MOVIE: ©2019 CROWN MEDIA UNITED STATES LLC

Your Voice

50 CULTURE

50 Media Reviews

TV | The Interpreters Book | The Second Mountain Book Briefs | Perfectly Human and Boy Mom

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Life’s Connections

The Comfort of Predictability

56 52 Film Reviews

By the Grace of God The Peanut Butter Falcon The Riot Act

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE 4 6 55 55 56

Dear Reader Church in the News Pete & Repeat Lighten Up! Reflection

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dear reader

ST. ANTHONY

MESSENGER

Taking a Stand

T

hroughout history—and still to this day—there are individuals who have been willing to speak out, challenge situations, and try to help make a change.

Sometimes taking that stance meant saying yes to something that would help elicit change. Other times these individuals’ resistance came in the form of saying no to what they saw as an injustice.

They came from different eras and different locations. Nelson Mandela fought in South Africa, Rosa Parks in Alabama, and Sister Dorothy Stang in Brazil. This month, in the article “Two New Movies That Matter: Harriet & A Hidden Life” (page 25), Sister Rose Pacatte, FSP, highlights two current films that tell the stories of Harriet Tubman and Franz Jägerstätter. Both of these individuals put their lives on the line for the greater good. Tubman helped slaves escape to the North via the Underground Railroad. Jägerstätter was a conscientious objector during World War II and was sentenced to death and executed.

During this season of giving thanks, we would do well to express our gratitude for the many people who have stepped up to help make the world a little better. Perhaps one of the best ways to do that is to emulate them. We don’t have to be saints to help change the world. We can make a difference just one act at a time.

PUBLISHER

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

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EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

Susan Hines-Brigger, Executive Editor

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JAY COPP

AMADU HARUNA

A Brief Lesson in Holy Foolery

A Mission Reborn

Day of the Dead: A Celebration of Life

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Stephen Copeland is a storyteller and an Indiana native who now lives in Charlotte, North Carolina. He recently published his first book in his own voice, Where the Colors Blend, about his journey from doubt and despair to a place of faith and hope. Like any good millennial, he juggles multiple jobs, coaching high school golf and pouring beer at a local brewery.

photographer PAGE 30

Jay Copp is a longtime freelance magazine writer and former magazine editor. He lives near Chicago with his wife and three sons and says he feels “privileged to tell people’s stories and how grace blesses their lives.” He enjoys travel, chocolate, nonfiction, basketball, and Notre Dame football.

Amadu Haruna is a filmmaker and graduate of ArtCenter College of Design. He is currently in Los Angeles, working on projects alongside cinematographer Ibrahim Abdulai concerning the African diaspora. He says he loves “telling stories through still images and motion pictures.

I love what I do, especially when I can express myself while doing it.”

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 6, is published monthly 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.

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4 • November 2019 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

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POINTSOFVIEW | YOUR VOICE Finding Some Peace of Mind I’m writing in response to Helen Kane’s letter in St. Anthony Messenger’s September issue about how hard it is to forgive the clergy for the sex-abuse scandal (“Difficult to Forgive, Harder to Forget”).

A few years ago I went to confession and told the priest that I found it very difficult to forgive the bishops for letting the sex-abuse scandal go on year after year. He said to me, “So do I.” That gave me some peace.

We have to follow Jesus and forgive sinners, even though it is difficult. Jesus loves us and forgives us. Jesus loves the bishops and forgives them too.

There have been character assassinations done on him too.

Meanwhile, Cardinal George Pell was denied an appeal. One of the accusers died in Australia, but only one testimony was necessary. The alleged abuse would have had to happen between Cardinal Pell’s visiting the congregation after Mass, taking off his vestments, and locking the doors of the church— approximately 10 minutes.

If you had a large crowd of people from all walks of life seated, and it were requested that all persons never guilty of trying or taking sexual advantage of someone please stand, most likely few would be standing.

Mike Clement Birmingham, Michigan

Patron Saint of Amateur Radio Operators

.S.P.S. TION lished of St. nnati, postffices. thony 0189. bram

call n the Single notice ption-

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a.org/ manun fic-

Frances M. Johnson Denver, Colorado

Lay Down Your Swords

I am writing in response to your article on St. Maximilian Kolbe in the August edition. The story of the origin of his first-class relics was very interesting. While St. Maximilian is the patron saint of addiction and a number of other causes, he is also considered the patron saint of amateur radio (ham) operators since he is the only Catholic saint to have had a radio call sign, which was SP3RN. There are a couple of weekly radio shows that are dedicated to St. Maximilian. Information on these and the history of his radio activity can be found on this website: SaintMaxNet.org.

Dave Swancer Medina, Ohio

More Action Needed in Response to Abuse Crisis I’m writing in regard to Venita Gorneau’s letter, “June Issue a Brave Move,” included in the “Your Voice” column from the August issue. A recent episode of EWTN’s The World Over program pretty well spelled out that Pope Francis knew about former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick from having inquired about him in the past. Then he denied ever having heard about it, but in the same breath said he didn’t recall any conversation about it.

To date, nothing has been done to prosecute McCarrick.

Thus far, nothing has been done to challenge Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò’s strong allegations regarding McCarrick’s behavior.

The “Church in the News” item “Knights of Columbus Get New Look” (in the August issue) noted that, despite a contemporary appearance in the dress for Fourth Degree members of the Knights of Columbus, the men would still carry ceremonial swords.

Swords—ceremonial or otherwise—are perceived by the general public as weapons designed to wound or kill fellow human beings, which of course is antithetical to Christian teaching. A true Christian who is a Fourth Degree member of the Knights of Columbus must ask himself: What would Jesus do? I can’t imagine the Prince of Peace wearing a sword—albeit a ceremonial one— at his side. Can you?

Please, Knights of Columbus, ditch the swords, along with the capes and plumed hats.

Louis H. Pumphrey Shaker Heights, Ohio

Taking the Messenger to Heart I read each month of St. Anthony Messenger from cover to cover. My Franciscan heart appreciates knowing what is going on with the order as well as the Church. I also very much enjoy the fiction stories. I hope you will feature more of them. They give a voice to each author’s creativity.

Thank you again for all the good work you do and for not trying to dodge the horror of the clergy sex-abuse crisis.

Nancy E. Bell Three Rivers, Michigan

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church IN THE NEWS

people | events | trends

By Susan Hines-Brigger

Mercy Sister Aine O’Connor, Marianne Comfort, and Mercy Sister Rita Parks prepare to join the climate change march.

I

However, Pope Francis pointed out that, “while the situation is not good and the planet is suffering, the window of opportunity is still open, despite everything. Let us not let it close. Let us open it with our determination to cultivate integral human development, to ensure a better life for future generations.”

At the beginning of the summit, UN Secretary-General António Guterres told participants: “The climate emergency is a race we are losing, but it is a race we can win. This is not a climate talk summit. We have had enough talk. This is not a climate negotiation summit. You don’t negotiate with nature.

This is a climate action summit.”

n a video message to the 2019 United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York on September 23, Pope Francis thanked participants for addressing “one of the most serious and worrying phenomena of our time: climate change,” reported Vatican News. He added that he wanted “three key words—honesty, courage, and responsibility—to be at the heart of your work today and tomorrow.”

The pope said that, while the 2015 Paris climate agreement raised awareness of the issue, it did not raise awareness of the “need for a collective response.” The commitments made by countries, he said, “are still very weak and are far from achieving the objectives set.”

ROCHESTER DIOCESE FILES FOR BANKRUPTCY

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fter nearly 50 lawsuits were filed following New York’s Child Victims Act taking effect on August 14, the Diocese of Rochester, New York, filed for reorganization on September 12, under Chapter 11 of the US Bankruptcy Code, reported Catholic News Service (CNS). The Child Victims Act opened a one-year window during which child sexual abuse claims could be filed in cases that had previously been barred by a statute of limitations.

In a video and letter to parishes released the day of the filing, Rochester Bishop Salvatore R. Matano said: “After assessing all reasonable possibilities to satisfy the claims, reorganization is considered the best and fairest course of action for the victims and for Rochester Bishop Salvatore R. Matano the well-being of the diocese, its parishes, agencies, and institutions. We believe this is the only way we can provide just compensation for all who suffered the egregious sin of sexual abuse while ensuring the continued commitment of the diocese to the mission of Christ.”

He explained that had the diocese not taken this action, “it would face multiple civil actions, a slow, unpredictable, and costly process that would require years of court involvement, and those claimants who filed suits first would receive all available funds to pay victims. As a result, later claimants would receive nothing. Most importantly, such lengthy proceedings delay justice for the victims and only prolong their pain and suffering.”

According to the US Courts’ website, Chapter 11 is a voluntary action taken by organizations to settle claims on which they owe while remaining intact.

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CNS PHOTOS: LEFT: JONATHAN ERNST/REUTERS; TOP RIGHT: RANDY SAGER/ABC PHOTO ARCHIVES; LOWER RIGHT: HEIDI GUTMAN/COURTESY ABC

UN Secretary-General António Guterres speaks during the opening of the 2019 United Nations Climate Action Summit.

CNS PHOTOS: TOP LEFT: CARLO ALLEGRI/REUTERS; TOP RIGHT: CAROL ZIMMERMANN; LOWER RIGHT: JEFF WITHEROW/CATHOLIC COURIER

POPE ADDRESSES UNITED NATIONS CLIMATE ACTION SUMMIT

2,246 ABORTED FETUSES DISCOVERED

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fter 2,246 medically preserved fetal remains were found in the home of a doctor, Indiana has launched an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the discovery, reported CNS. The remains were found at the home of Dr. Ulrich Klopfer, after a lawyer for Klopfer’s family notified authorities that they had discovered the remains in the former Indiana abortion doctor’s Crete, Illinois, home.

Before his medical license was indefinitely suspended in 2016, Dr. Klopfer, who died this past September, performed thousands of abortions in his three Indiana clinics.

At the press conference announcing the investigation, Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill said, “It’s very important to bring these babies back home. . . . We will take the time necessary to ensure that.”

CNS PHOTOS: LEFT: JONATHAN ERNST/REUTERS; TOP RIGHT: RANDY SAGER/ABC PHOTO ARCHIVES; LOWER RIGHT: HEIDI GUTMAN/COURTESY ABC

CNS PHOTOS: TOP LEFT: CARLO ALLEGRI/REUTERS; TOP RIGHT: CAROL ZIMMERMANN; LOWER RIGHT: JEFF WITHEROW/CATHOLIC COURIER

TRUMP CALLS FOR END TO RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION

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t the Global Call to Protect Religious Freedom event at UN headquarters in New York City on September 23, US President Donald Trump called for an end to religious persecution around the globe, reported CNS. The event, which was hosted by Trump, was held on the opening day of the UN General Assembly. Other speakers included UN Secretary-General António Guterres, US Vice President Mike Pence, and a woman whose Uighur father has been imprisoned in China.

“America stands with believers in every country who ask only for the freedom to live according to the faith that is within their own hearts,” Trump told participants. The founding fathers, he said, “understood that no right is more fundamental to a peaceful, prosperous, and virtuous society than the right to follow one’s religious convictions.

Regrettably, the religious freedom enjoyed by American citizens is rare in the world.”

President Trump also announced that his administration will be committing an additional $25 million to protect religious freedom and religious sites and relics around the world.

JOURNALIST COKIE ROBERTS, LIFELONG CATHOLIC, REMEMBERED AT FUNERAL

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roadcast journalist and political commentator Cokie Roberts was remembered as a cultural icon and woman devoted to her faith and family at her funeral on September 21 at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington, DC, reported CNS. Roberts, who had breast cancer, died September 17 at the age of 75.

Roberts worked for ABC News Cokie Roberts was a longtime for three decades, where she was journalist for ABC News. a political commentator, chief congressional analyst, and coanchor with Sam Donaldson of the news program This Week from 1996 to 2002.

In his homily, Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory said: “We rejoice in her humor, her conviction of faith, and her womanly ability to bring out the best in us—and to insist on nothing less. Thanks be to God for the time that he gave her to us.”

Speaking of her faith, the archbishop said: “We grieve this day and will grieve for a great many days to come because a woman of faith who has touched us, loved us, and taught us has been taken from us. . . . She was for so many—a wise woman of faith. She called us to be our better selves, and she was quick to point out when we behaved as our lesser selves.”

After Communion, Roberts’ husband, Steven, said that Roberts was a true Christian who treated people, especially those who were not wealthy or famous, with respect. “Even as she climbed the ladder of success, she always reached behind her to help others,” he said, adding, “What a beautiful smile. What a beautiful spirit. What a beautiful life.”

Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington, DC, after Cokie Roberts’ funeral StAnthonyMessenger.org | November 2019 • 7

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his past June, Pope Francis gifted a bronze reliquary containing fragments of nine of St. Peter’s bones to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, head of the Greek Orthodox Church. The gift, the pope said, was meant to be a reminder and encouragement of the journey toward Christian unity, reported CNS. Pope Francis presented the gift to Archbishop Job of Telmessos, the patriarch’s representative, at the Vatican on June 29, the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul. The text of the accompanying letter was released by the Vatican on September 13. In the letter, Pope Francis wrote, “This gesture is intended to be a confirmation of the journey that our Churches have made in drawing closer to one another: a journey at times demanding and difficult, yet one accompanied by evident signs of God’s grace.”

Patriarch Bartholomew said he was “deeply moved” by the pope’s gesture and described this “brave and bold initiative of Pope Francis” as a “grand, fraternal, and historic gesture.”

The fragments came from a funerary niche discovered in 1952 under the high altar in St. Peter’s Basilica. While bones remain in the niche, St. Paul VI had nine fragments removed and placed in a special reliquary that was kept in his private chapel in the papal apartments. The only time the reliquary had been displayed publicly was in November 2013.

BLUE MASSES SAID FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT, FIRST RESPONDERS

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hroughout the country during the month of September, Blue Masses were held to honor those in the public safety field, such as police officers, firefighters, and EMTs, according to CNS. During a Blue Mass in Atlanta on September 11, Bishop Joel M. Konzen, an Atlanta auxiliary and current administrator of the archdiocese, talked about the common ground between first responders and men and women religious.

“You in the response professions and we in the faith professions have something in common. We are championing a life for the general public that is rooted in mutual Blue Masses to honor those in the public safety field were celebrated throughout the country this past September, respect, regard for life,” he including Rochester, New York (top and bottom left), and Portland, Maine (right).

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CNS PHOTO: JEFF WITHEROW/CATHOLIC COURIER

Nine bone fragments believed to belong to St. Peter lie inside a reliquary as it is venerated by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople in Istanbul, Turkey.

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CNS PHOTOS: TOP LEFT AND MIDDLE LEFT: VATICAN MEDIA (2); TOP RIGHT: COURTESY ECUMENICAL PATRIARCHATE OF CONSTANTINOPLE; LOWER LEFT: JEFF WITHEROW/CATHOLIC COURIER (2); LOWER RIGHT: COURTESY DIOCESE OF PORTLAND

church IN THE NEWS

POPE GIVES GIFT TO HEAD OF GREEK ORTHODOX CHURCH

said. “Our hope comes from the constancy that propels us, the reality that we will not be defeated by the sins that threaten life, and the prospect of goodness and well-being.”

The Blue Mass tradition in the United States started in September 1934, when Father Thomas Dade of the Archdiocese of Baltimore formed the Catholic Police and Firemen’s Society. That year, the first Blue Mass was celebrated for police officers and firefighters. The name comes from the traditional uniform color associated with law enforcement.

The tradition is celebrated in many dioceses across the country, often tied to the anniversary of 9/11 to honor first responders who risked their lives and died in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks.

VATICAN MAY TRY PRIESTS ON CHARGES RELATED TO SEX ABUSE AT PRE-SEMINARY

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CNS PHOTO: JEFF WITHEROW/CATHOLIC COURIER

CNS PHOTOS: TOP LEFT AND MIDDLE LEFT: VATICAN MEDIA (2); TOP RIGHT: COURTESY ECUMENICAL PATRIARCHATE OF CONSTANTINOPLE; LOWER LEFT: JEFF WITHEROW/CATHOLIC COURIER (2); LOWER RIGHT: COURTESY DIOCESE OF PORTLAND

A memorial recognizing fallen officers is displayed at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Rochester, New York, during the annual Blue Mass on September 8, 2019.

his past September, the Vatican City State’s prosecuting attorney requested the indictment of two priests on charges related to the sexual abuse of boys at a minor seminary located at the Vatican, according to the Vatican Press Office.

The prosecuting attorney asked that Father Gabriele Martinelli be tried on charges of sexual abuse that would have occurred in the Saint Pius X Pre-Seminary in years prior to 2012, and Father Enrico Radice, rector of the preseminary at the time of the alleged events, on charges of aiding and abetting.

At the time the crimes allegedly occurred, Vatican law required the victim himself to make the accusation within one year of the crime’s occurrence. Because of that, the request for indictment “was made possible by virtue of a specific provision made by the Holy Father.”

The pre-seminary is run by the Diocese of Como, Italy, but located inside the Vatican. Boys in middle school and high school live there, serve Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, and attend a Catholic school in Rome while considering applying to a seminary when they are older.

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

Y

es, the Catholic Church has often failed to treat such abuse and crimes with the seriousness they require. For many years, such abuse was regarded by Church authorities as a sin but was not also acknowledged and treated as a civil crime.

Since your e-mail was sent, one US cardinal has been laicized/ defrocked (McCarrick); one Australian cardinal has been convicted of sexual abuse and imprisoned (Pell); the worldwide Church now holds bishops, archbishops, and cardinals to the same standards as those applied to priests; several canonical inquiries have been initiated; and bishops can open canonical cases against retired or even deceased bishops or major superiors. Bishops continue to alert civil authorities when new reports are made. Also, the Catholic Church can prosecute abuses that are beyond civil law’s statute of limitations.

Several years ago, the state of California opened a one-year window for prosecution of child sexual abuse, no matter how long ago it occurred. The state of New York has done the same recently, and other states are considering such a legal change.

Especially since 2002, when the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People was adopted by the US bishops, my colleagues and I have written articles, editorials, and columns about this abuse. My October 2018 editorial (available online) has chronicled those efforts.

Most recently, our June 2019 issue included four articles and another editorial on this subject.

The US bishops later extended their 2002 charter to cover vulnerable adults.

Have all of these wiped out the scourge and crime of clerical sexual abuse? No. Nothing done now can erase a past act of abuse, but the Catholic Church is no longer treating reports of clergy sexual abuse as it once did. This scourge seems so enormous and pervasive because clerical sexual abuse was not admitted or addressed effectively for many years.

This is also a scourge that is being taken more seriously by other sectors of US and world society.

Believe me, I understand your temptation to leave the Catholic Church over this abuse and crime. But can you guarantee that in your new group this is absolutely unknown?

“Poor people, poor God,” the late Father Leonard Foley, OFM, an editor and longtime contributor to this publication, used to say. Our task now is to admit the truth and take the effective action needed.

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SDI PRODUCTIONS/ISTOCK

Father Pat welcomes your questions!

My wife and I do not feel comfortable discussing this with our parish priest and hope you can provide some guidance. As cradle Catholics, we find it very difficult to continue in our Catholic faith because of repeated reports of abuse of children by pedophile priests.

Despite these reports, there is no definitive action—mostly lip service. Pope Francis should declare these behaviors unacceptable and inconsistent with Christ’s teachings. Civil authorities should be allowed to prosecute these offenders. Any bishop or cardinal who covers up these crimes should be defrocked.

We are seriously considering leaving the Catholic Church due to this horrible stain. I have resigned as a lector at our parish because I no longer feel comfortable in a leadership position within a Church that by its actions tolerates these behaviors.

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Pat McCloskey, OFM

By Pat McCloskey, OFM

A Nephew’s ‘Coming Out’ I am the only practicing Catholic in my family of birth and my husband’s. My only nephew may soon “come out” to our overseas family about his homosexuality and same-sex relationship. We will be visiting his family soon. How do I respond if my nephew asks me directly how I feel about his sexual orientation and same-sex marriage? I want to be true to my faith and still be a loving aunt without appearing to condone his lifestyle.

H

e will always be your nephew, a man created and loved by God. His “coming out” does not change that.

It also does not oblige you to accept as equivalent to heterosexual marriage a same-sex civil union or a marriage blessed in another Church. This is not an easy family situation for anyone. Your instincts as a loving aunt should help you find an honest response about which you can be proud.

Quick Questions and Answers

First, students at law schools in some Catholic universities have participated in “innocence projects” that have led courts to release certain prisoners who did not commit the crime for which they have been found guilty and imprisoned. Some parishes have prison ministry groups.

Second, other Catholics write to those imprisoned or else assist them in readjusting when they have served their sentence. For our March 2018 issue, Jim Auer wrote “I Was in Prison and You Wrote to Me” about his 12 years of writing to many prisoners. That article included the URLs of groups that can link prisoners and writers outside. Anyone willing to write a prisoner but who lacks computer access can contact Inside Out Letter Ministry at PO Box 11, Cherryville, NC 28021.

in memory of a loved one, or for your special intention.

When you light a candle on StAnthony.org, it will burn for three days at the National Shrine of St. Anthony in Cincinnati, Ohio.

The Franciscan friars are ready to light a candle for you!

Visit StAnthony.org

Many of my friends ask me: “If Jesus has already died for my sins and paid for them, why can’t I sin now?”

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Do Catholics take seriously the corporal work of mercy to visit those in prison? Do Catholic parishes and colleges or universities have this on their radar?

Light a candle

I’m afraid this solution to dealing with temptation is too simple to be true.

If Jesus died for the sins of the world, would it be OK if I robbed your home? Every attempted shortcut around God’s ways turns out to be a dead end. In the long run, we become whatever we choose consistently. May Jesus help all of us to grow in his grace and love.

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

www.StAnthony.org 513-721-4700 ext. 3219

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SPIRITOFST.FRANCIS “Mary of the Passion gave herself with an intuitive and bold readiness to the universal mission of the Church.”

—Pope John Paul II, beatification homily

FRANCISCAN WORLD

By Pat McCloskey, OFM

360 Friars Minor Meet in Denver

BORN IN Nantes, France, in 1839, Hélène-Marie-Philippine de Chappotin joined the Poor Clares but left because of poor health. She joined the Sisters of Mary Reparatrix, taking the name Mary of the Passion.

After 11 years of service in India, she and other sisters began a new congregation, eventually known as the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary.

She once said, “I wish I had two lives: one with which I could always pray, the other with which to perform all the duties God imposes on me.”

She was beatified in 2002; her feast is November 15.

—Pat McCloskey, OFM

?

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

ST. ANTHONY STORIES

In Hot Water

O

n a recent family vacation to Pennsylvania, I suggested to my daughter and her husband that we visit the hotel’s pool and spa. While the three of us were relaxing in the hot tub, my daughter put her wedding ring on the edge of the tub so that it wouldn’t get damaged by any of the chemicals in the water. The next morning, my daughter called me, crying hysterically.

She had forgotten her ring in the pool area.

Her husband and I searched the area thoroughly but couldn’t find it, and no one had turned the ring in to the front desk.

I went back to the pool one more time to look for it. While standing in the hall outside the pool area, I asked St. Anthony to please help me find her ring, and I also said a Hail Mary.

Within 30 seconds, a young woman came out of her room and asked if I was looking for something. When I told her what happened, she said she had found it the night before. I called my daughter and told her that her ring was found, and she was ecstatic. Thank you, St. Anthony, for once again coming to the rescue for my family!

—Carl Battista, West Babylon, New York

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PHOTO COURTESY OF FRANCISCAN SISTERS OF PERPETUAL ADORATION

Her vocational journey led her from France to India and a congregation serving worldwide.

B

efore you read this column, please check out the lively photo on pages 14 and 15. I promise you: This column will make much more sense once you do that!

The Denver meeting included large group sessions, two rounds of 23 interest-group sessions, table discussions (with a new configuration each day), shared meals, uplifting prayer, socials, and other ways of showing their common brotherhood. The interest groups, which had been working previously, addressed issues such as immigration, African American Tito Serrano (left) and John Boissy (right) ministry, foreign missions, for- Mark Gehret was one of the musicians. mation of guardians, elder care, and many more.

Interspersed through the sessions, two friars from each province gave witness talks about what this multiyear “renewal and revitalization” conversation has meant to them. One friar from each province humorously described the reputation his province has.

On August 1, 11 men representing all six provinces were formally received into the yearlong novitiate, which is located at Mission Santa Barbara in California.

LEFT: WIKIMEDIA/PUBLIC DOMAIN; TOP RIGHT: FATHER FRANK JASPER (2); LOWER RIGHT: SLAVA296/FOTOSEARCH

MARY OF THE PASSION

s

FOLLOWERS OF ST. FRANCIS

ST. ANTHONY

‘Franciscanism Found Me’ “God continuously takes you where you never dreamed you would go and is present with you the whole time.”

PHOTO COURTESY OF FRANCISCAN SISTERS OF PERPETUAL ADORATION

LEFT: WIKIMEDIA/PUBLIC DOMAIN; TOP RIGHT: FATHER FRANK JASPER (2); LOWER RIGHT: SLAVA296/FOTOSEARCH

ight)

and families abroad. At 25, Eileen was commissioned to serve in Cameroon.

There, “I had a really intense experience of seeing what religious life in action looked like,” she recalls. Advised to avoid making drastic life decisions while abroad, she came home to discern her next move.

Then came the pivotal trip to LaCrosse. Eileen entered the order in 1999 and took her final vows in 2002. It wasn’t until novitiate that Sister Eileen began to deepen her understanding of what it means to be a Franciscan.

“Franciscanism found me,” she recalls.

“I didn’t find it.”

Over time, she felt a “continual awakening” to Franciscan values of “minority and humility, and being on the margins and that’s where we encounter God.” Those values drew Sister Eileen to a new direction in health care. During her time in Cameroon, “I started to recognize that our high-tech, high-intervention system works in some cases but doesn’t really address healing,” she says.

Sister Eileen studied traditional Asian medicine and became an acupuncturist. Realizing that many people could not afford treatment, she helped found FSPA Community Acupuncture, which is part of Integrative Therapies in LaCrosse. “All of our practitioners resonate with our Franciscan values,” says Sister Eileen. Practitioners earn a living wage and keep overhead low, allowing them to serve patients on fixed or lower incomes.

As they look ahead, the sisters also are inspired by Pope Francis and his Franciscan heart, she says. “He’s telling us to go to the peripheries, to get out of your convents and go.”

—Patricia Mish

FRANK JASPER, OFM

E

ileen McKenzie never imagined she would find her calling in a Midwestern town in Wisconsin. The young nurse had followed her missionary heart from southern California to Cameroon as a lay volunteer, where she taught nursing for three and a half years. She returned stateside to discern a call to religious life, picturing herself serving in Central America or Africa.

She had been accepted into the Medical Mission Sisters when she was invited to travel to LaCrosse, Wisconsin, to share her experiences in Cameroon with the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration (FSPA).

“The liveliness of the congregation was an immediate attraction,” recalls Sister Eileen of the detour that would change her life’s direction. The prayerfulness of the community sealed the deal. More of God’s surprises would be in store for Sister Eileen as she worked first as a nurse, and later as an acupuncturist providing affordable holistic health care.

In 2018, her life “pivoted” again with her election as president of the order.

“God continuously takes you where you never dreamed you would go and is present with you the whole time,” she says. Sister Eileen fell in love with biology in high school, and went on to study nursing. She recalls a sense of “itinerancy” that drew her to the field.

“I realized nursing has this diverse way of being practiced,” she says. “You can do it all across the spectrum and any place in the world. I knew that God was calling me in that direction.”

After graduation, she worked with HIV patients and later as a trauma nurse. Active in her parish, she learned about the Lay Mission-Helpers Association, which sent singles, couples,

Sister Eileen McKenzie, FSPA

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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SPIRITOFST.FRANCIS | FRANCISCAN WORLD

By Pat McCloskey, OFM

Friars Gather in Denver for Chapter of Mats

L

ast July 29, friars came from Alaska, Florida, California, Connecticut, and 22 states in between, plus Jamaica, the Philippines, Italy, and Washington, DC, to deepen their bonds of brotherhood, meet old friends, and make new ones. By August 1, they had done all that and much more.

The US OFM provinces of St. Barbara, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Sacred Heart, Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. John the Baptist, and Most Holy Name of Jesus had been in formal conversation since the summer of 2014 about the possibility of becoming a single province. The friars at their regular or extraordinary provincial chapters on May 30, 2018, voted to petition their general council in Rome to move forward on this. The start date may be in 2023.

Immaculate Conception Province (headquartered in lower Manhattan) was initially part of this conversation but withdrew from it in 2016.

Some friars from different provinces had done their initial formation together, served with one another inside or outside the United States, studied together, worked with one another on interprovincial projects, or had very recently joined the friars. All were welcome.

They prayed together in Spanish, Vietnamese, Creole, and English, listening to the word of God and pondering how God is now calling them to their Gospel life. The organizing committee (one friar from each province) received thunderous applause at the end because of their careful work and light touch that only made everything look easy.

This gathering was called a “chapter” because the friars borrowed that term from Benedictine monks, who held meetings that began with reading a chapter from the Rule of St. Benedict. Francis of Assisi gathered all his friars annually outside Assisi until the numbers made that impossible. They lived in temporary huts made of reeds (mats). More photos, videos, and interviews are available at flickr.com/photos/usfranciscans.

PHOTO COURTESY OF HIP PHOTOGRAPHY

MANY CONNECTIONS

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“Wherever the friars are, let them show themselves members of the same family.”

s

—St. Francis of Assisi

Gathering friars for a group photo can be like herding cats—but it can be done! Those coming into the novitiate (like a yearlong boot camp but with less physical exercise) received their Franciscan habits on October 15. This gathering included two Conventual Franciscans (gray habits) as guests.

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www.eocatholic.com • 1-800-247-0017 x217 16 • November 2019 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

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POINTSOFVIEW | EDITORIAL

The Greta Effect

T

his past September 23, millions of people around the world walked out of their schools and workplaces to demand urgent action on climate change. The protests were scheduled prior to the opening of the United Nations General Assembly and the Climate Action Summit in New York City.

At the heart of the strike was a 16-year-old girl from Sweden with Asperger’s syndrome, a developmental disorder that causes individuals to view things as either black or white. At times that can be a detriment. For Greta Thunberg, it’s an asset, one from which we all benefit.

In August 2018, Thunberg began skipping school in her native Sweden to protest inaction on climate change. Before long, she was joined by other students engaged in similar protests in their own communities, and the Fridays for Future organization was born. Since then, that organization has grown, culminating in what happened on September 23.

In her speech at the United Nations, Thunberg spoke in her usual blunt manner, scolding those gathered. “I shouldn’t be up here,” she said. “I should be back at school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you! You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words.”

It is not the first time this young woman has taken adults in positions of power to task over the issue. She has repeatedly chastised them for their inaction, pointing out that their words on the issue ring hollow.

When during a meeting with a cross-party group of British MPs in April of this year, Thunberg, who felt she wasn’t being listened to, asked, “Did you hear me? Is my English OK? Because I’m beginning to wonder.”

CNS PHOTO/YARA NARDI, REUTERS

WHEN WILL WE LISTEN?

If you don’t want to listen to a 16-year-old, though, perhaps you will listen to Pope Francis. He certainly has addressed the issue of the environment. In fact, he devoted an entire encyclical, “Laudato Si’,” to the topic in 2015.

In the encyclical, the pope cites St. Francis’ “Canticle of Creation,” which likens the earth to our sister.

“This sister now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her,” the pope wrote.

“We have come to see ourselves as her lords and masters, entitled to plunder her at will.”

Many others in the Catholic Church have also spoken out about the crisis. Prior to Pope Francis, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI pointed out that “young people had come to realize that something is wrong in our relationship with nature, that matter is not just raw material for us to shape at will, but that the earth has a dignity of its own and that we must follow its directives.”

Pope Francis greets Greta Thunberg during his general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. She has become a leading voice on climate change.

In 1981—and many times since—the US bishops have addressed the issue. Before that, St. John Paul II sounded the alarm in 1979, the first year of his pontificate. And before him, St. Pope Paul VI spoke of “the urgent need for a radical change in the conduct of humanity” regarding the environment.

TIME FOR ACTION

While speaking out is an important first step, Greta Thunberg reminds us that it is only the first step. Now is the time for action. The clock is ticking.

“The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us, I say: We will never forgive you.”

—Greta Thunberg

One such step is the US bishops’ Catholic Climate Covenant, which was established in 2006 to help US Catholics respond to the Church’s call to care for creation and care for the poor. The organization points out that “loving God’s creation and God’s most vulnerable is at the heart of who we are as Catholics. Catholics do care about climate change, and they’re working hard to create solutions.”

And while organizations such as this are important, if we each don’t take the next step and put the words and suggested solutions into action, they are useless.

Obviously, this is not a new issue. People have been sounding the alarm for quite some time. It is getting louder each day. Up until now, many of those across the world in positions to make structural changes haven’t been able— or perhaps willing—to find a solution or take immediate action. Perhaps, then, it’s time we started listening to the younger generation, our Catholic leaders, and people like Greta Thunberg.

As Pope Francis said in his encyclical, “All is not lost.

Human beings, while capable of the worst, are also capable of rising above themselves, choosing again what is good, and making a new start.”

—Susan Hines-Brigger StAnthonyMessenger.org | November 2019 • 17

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POINTSOFVIEW | FAITH UNPACKED A Leap of Faith

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.

A FAMILIAR FEELING

Buying a house is a risk. It is a decision that affects every aspect of your life and your relationships. It fills you with excitement, and it wakes you up at night from the enormity of it all.

It reminded me a lot of how I came to faith.

When you make a commitment to buy a home, all you have really seen is how the space has been lived in by somebody else. There is no way you can really know how it might feel to inhabit that space yourself. You can only imagine the possibilities.

More than this, to actually make the leap from imagining to buying, you have to become wildly optimistic. Your mind emphasizes all the beautiful things that will come from taking this huge next step.

But buying a home also puts you under intense scrutiny. For us, it meant that the

bank looked at every aspect of our financial life. Our successes were offset by our mistakes.

My wife and I had many honest conversations about what was realistic and possible based on our assets, savings, and likely earnings.

I recall that when I first became a follower of Christ, I subjected my past to a similar type of scrutiny. I came to terms with mistakes I had made in the past, and I figured out ways to move forward. As is the case with our family finances, being dishonest was not an option. If the dirt was there, it would be found out. The key was to find a way to move forward in hope.

EMBRACING THE UNCERTAINTY

I was not raised in a Christian home. What I knew of faith came mostly from watching other people be faithful. It was like spending half hours here and there in other folks’ homes, imagining what it might be like to live there myself.

As we embark on this new adventure as first-time home buyers, we are imagining how we will feel 10, 20, and 30 years from now. I know that not all of it will be perfect.

Thirty years into my faith, I can be honest about the good and the bad. Sometimes the floors creak and the roof leaks. Things often need repair.

We can never know. We can only imagine what will come—and live into what comes— as honestly as we can, with hope and love, together.

18 • November 2019 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

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LEFT: RDONAR/FOTOSEARCH; RIGHT: COURTESY OF KYLE KRAMER

David Dault, PhD

ave you ever made a decision based on very little information that will surely affect the rest of your life—as well as the lives of everyone in your family—and which has no assurance of success? At the end of this past summer, my wife and I made a decision like that. We bought a house.

It felt like a crazy whirlwind. Over the span of a couple years, we had been visiting open houses. We had a pretty good sense of the neighborhood and the state of the housing market. We had run some honest numbers and knew our price range. So, in one sense, we were making sober and deliberate decisions in a calculated way.

Even so, the first step of buying a home felt insane. We attended an open house and spent about half an hour walking around the space.

Based on that half hour, the next day we sat in our Realtor’s office and drew up papers to make an offer that involved not only more money than I had ever dealt with in my entire life, but more money than I could realistically imagine.

My wife and I were basing a significant portion of our future income for the next 30 years on the gut feelings we had from a couple dozen minutes of walking around in what, at the time, was someone else’s home.

TOP LEFT: PHOTO COURTESY OF CHICAGO SUNDAY EVENING CLUB/KHIEM TRAN; TOP RIGHT: CSP ZIMMYTWS/FOTOSEARCH

H

POINTSOFVIEW | AT HOME ON EARTH Life’s Connections

ver the years, I’ve thought and written a lot about the idea of interconnection. I think it’s one of the most brilliant conclusions of modern science, from biology to physics to sociology. It echoes the insights of our religious traditions—spanning the doctrine of the Trinity to the revelations of the mystics to the thoughtful words of Pope Francis in his encyclical “Laudato Si’.” That all things are in some way related to all other things seems to be a basic operating principle of God’s creation.

It’s one thing to believe that all things are connected. It’s another thing entirely for that idea to become real in your life, to drop down from an intellectual belief in your head to a felt reality in your heart and a lived behavior in your everyday dealings. Certainly, with today’s angry, polarized politics and its sinfully obscene levels of income inequality, most

HELPFUL Interconnectedness

TIPS

in Action

1

LEFT: RDONAR/FOTOSEARCH; RIGHT: COURTESY OF KYLE KRAMER

TOP LEFT: PHOTO COURTESY OF CHICAGO SUNDAY EVENING CLUB/KHIEM TRAN; TOP RIGHT: CSP ZIMMYTWS/FOTOSEARCH

O

Here’s a thought experiment in interconnection: Think of everything you spend money on in a given month and consider all the people who provided you those goods and services.

Then imagine trying to do or make all those things for yourself. Consider saying a prayer of gratitude not just for your meals, but for everything that flows into your life.

2

In addition to considering how you can be of service, reflect on how you might allow others to help you. For inspiration, learn more about Jean Vanier and his L’Arche intentional communities.

By Kyle Kramer of us don’t act as if we need each other— much less as if we need the natural world of healthy farms, forests, grasslands, and oceans.

One reason we fool ourselves into thinking we can be independent is because recognizing our need for others means coming to grips with our vulnerability. For most of us, particularly us men, this is no easy task since it goes against the grain of rugged individualism, which is the warp and weft of our cultural fabric.

A PAINFUL REMINDER

Kyle Kramer

This past summer, I had an experience that brought vulnerability home to me in a powerful way. In a freak diving accident, I tore off my patellar (kneecap) tendon and needed surgery to put my knee back together. These months of my recovery have been ones of painful disability and an utter dependence on the kindness of others who have helped me hobble around, done the chores I couldn’t do, and generally made it possible for me to manage.

There has been a certain degree of humiliation in all of this: I’ve had to swallow my stubborn male pride and just allow myself to be helped. On the other hand, this period has been wonderful. When you realize that people are there for you, with their love, help, and prayers, vulnerability becomes an amazing gift and a great relief. Like all good humiliations, it returns you to the fundamental ground of your being, which is your deep, irrevocable, and beautiful belonging.

After doing it such grievous harm in recent centuries, I believe we are finally beginning to realize that even our tough old earth is vulnerable. Through our technology and our sheer human numbers, we can (and have) upset the delicate balance of its many interconnected systems. At the same time, however, amid our injuries to the earth there is also a great opportunity: the chance to make real in our hearts, and in our individual and collective behavior, that both we and creation belong together, wonderfully and inescapably.

In its beauty, in its wildness, in its generosity and woundedness and resilience and diversity, this blue-green planet is our one, common, God-given home.

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

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WANT MORE? Visit our website: StAnthonyMessenger.org

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By Stephen Copeland

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AVDEEV007/ISTOCK

S

tanding in the middle of the lawn on campus at St. Bonaventure University was a smiling man in brown Franciscan garb, alone with his camera, in no particular hurry to go anywhere, yet noticing everything—a true Franciscan.

I recognized the smiling man. He had made an interesting comment in a seminar we had both attended—a comment about “holy foolery,” a phrase I had never heard before. But something about those words enticed me.

It was the final day of the first academic conference I had ever attended, during which I had spent much of my energy overthinking every interaction, debating in my head whether I should say this or that, and overall questioning my worth and sufficiency in that hyperintellectualized space. I was convinced that I was the dumbest person in attendance, which perhaps freed me to live as if there was nothing to lose, a true Franciscan for a second, which in this case simply meant surrendering to the energy that was pulling me toward a stranger. We all take our own kinds of risks.

The smiling man ultimately started the conversation, relieving me of my social angst, and told me his name was Dan Riley. He was in his 70s but had an engaging, youthful demeanor. His overall jolliness—his sparkling eyes and boisterous laugh, sometimes transforming into a mighty cough—created a comfortable space for me to open up.

I had a lot on my mind. The conference had been a keen encounter with my own self-consciousness, something that had somehow become heightened over time.

After intently listening to my ramblings about my frustrations with self-consciousness, Father Dan somehow didn’t go running for the hills.

He eventually said to me, “The contemplative and the clown can be held in the same hand.”

Easy enough.

He explained to me the idea of “holy foolery,” the lightheartedness that contemplation births because, in seeing things as they are—who you already are in Christ and what the world can be once its ploys are unmasked—you react less and laugh at yourself a bit more. Holy foolery, as I see it, is remembering who you are and where you are, freeing you to live a life that is animated by radical joy.

The contemplative can zoom in and do the hard, internal work but can also zoom out and see that he or she is a mere character in the comedy of life. The day I met Father Dan, I could feel my inner clown—the holy fool within me—longing to break free once again.

It’s fitting to interview Father Dan Riley for this article, the person who introduced me to holy foolery and who is one of the most joyful people I know. These are three questions I’m trying to ask myself—based on this interview and the many conversations we’ve had since meeting that day on the university lawn—that are helping me to take myself less seriously and allow the clown to pull me deeper into contemplative living.

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inviting us to change our disposition or attitude, in the middle of the circus of life. Clowns capture our fancy, our imaginations come alive—this is comparable to being a contemplative.

“Clowns have a pathos about them. And they are singular beings. Suddenly solitude and silence are dancing with each other in the person of the clown. There are so many aspects of being a contemplative we are inclined to practice separately—you do this, and you do that—but in the clown, they are together already. And they are lifted up in delight. Clowns don’t take themselves too seriously, yet clowns are taking the world seriously; they invite it to change, and hand it back to us, with simple gestures by sweeping a light under the rug.”

This is an inner movement. The chaos of the world and the havoc of the day are opportunities for the inner clown to emerge, and when the spotlight is shining brightly, beaming down on the clown with intensity, it is an opportunity for play—to take out a broom and make a joke out of the spotlight.

Whenever my ego clings to something and refuses to let it go, aiming the spotlight on something that is lacking—in my life or within myself—I sometimes pose the question, “Where is your broom?” With my broom in hand, it is time to put the spotlight in its place and sweep it under a rug like a silly fool. Everyone knows you can’t sweep light under a rug, but that’s the whole point—the spotlight is an illusion anyway!

With my broom in hand, I remember who I am: loved

by God and undefined by the focus of the spotlight. I invite laughter into the intensity of the glaring beam. I invite levity into the seriousness of my obsession. I invite comedy into anxiety. The spotlight then becomes an opportunity to live out my own holy foolery that flows from my inherent belovedness.

ISTOCK PHOTOS: LEFT: AJMA PL; RIGHT: IAGODINA

ost people I know take themselves too seriously in their own way. Maybe that’s normal in our performance-driven Western world, with all its pressures and demands, where perception is currency. Much of my own anxiety and self-consciousness ultimately seem to stem from a disposition where I metaphorically aim the intensity of a glaring spotlight onto certain aspects in my life or vulnerable spaces in my soul. I become hyperfocused on one specific thing—often something that is lacking—which leads to irrationally thinking that my failures, insecurities, struggles, or inner mysteries and frustrations are a bigger deal than they actually are.

Aiming the spotlight is an inner posture. If the subject of the spotlight is the problem, the spotlight itself is the heart or the mind. It is natural and normal to become hyperfocused on what is lacking in our lives or within ourselves, but it ultimately results in drowning out the bigger world around us, warping our reality. It is a metaphor for tunnel vision, perfectionism, obsessiveness, or compulsiveness.

None are bad, but all have to be managed. When the spotlight has been activated, our vision of reality is not holistic— it’s narrow.

Father Dan takes this metaphor to a whole other level. As a child, he remembers attending circuses in Rochester, New York, and being mesmerized by the theatrics of the wellknown hobo-dressed clown, Emmett Kelly. What he remembers most about Kelly is how, amid the havoc and chaos of the circus the ring would be cleared, Kelly would emerge, and he alone would grip the audience as he foolishly tried to sweep a spotlight under a rug with his broom.

“The metaphor is that the world is crazy and nuts, but then the clown centers it for me, and he centers it in silence,” Father Dan says. “Clowns normally don’t speak—they don’t use words—yet they are in conversation with you and me,

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TOP: AJT/FOTOSEARCH; BOTTOM: TALAJ/ISTOCK

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TOP: AJT/FOTOSEARCH; BOTTOM: TALAJ/ISTOCK

ISTOCK PHOTOS: LEFT: AJMA PL; RIGHT: IAGODINA

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n the 2017 blockbuster hit The Greatest Showman— inspired by the story of P. T. Barnum, founder of the Barnum & Bailey Circus—we witness Barnum’s relentless pursuit of a success that is never enough and then his journey back to himself. Barnum’s story begins with an endearing foolishness rising out of his innocence (the birth of the circus), then moves into the development of his ego where he gets lost in accolades and madness (the birth of his fame), and concludes with him coming back home again to love, joy, and playfulness (the rebirth of his true self).

Barnum remembers who he is. He remembers what the circus is. He remembers where he is—in the beautiful circus of life! There’s a song that Father Dan introduced me to called “Circus Song” by Don McLean that has this beautiful line: “But to me my life is a three-ring circus, And I can see it for free.”

Just as photographs taken from the Hubble Space Telescope were displayed in the Seinfeld writers’ room to remind them of how small they were and where they were, the same is true here. By the way, isn’t it interesting that even the writers of one of the most hilarious shows of the ’90s had to zoom out and guard themselves from taking the craft of their comedy too seriously? The Hubble Space photographs were reminders of their smallness. And smallness has a way of ushering in the freedom of comedy. We have a front-row seat to our own three-ring circus, and it would be a shame if we just sat there, lost in our heads, blind to the beauty of reality and all of the opportunities we have to joyfully laugh—at both the world and ourselves.

“Francis called himself the jongleur de dieu, the juggler of God,” Father Dan says. “The juggler is close to the clown. The juggler is in the court of

the king. So what do you do whenever you’re taking yourself too seriously? You start juggling. You get over yourself. You realize where you are. You’re really here, and you’re really here with God, in the court of the King. And I think the fool and the clown are a transition for us into union with God. “Francis really was a fool for Christ. Julien Green wrote a beautiful book on Francis called God’s Fool—an image that was somewhat regular about Francis. And it sets you free.

I know when I’m taking myself too seriously. But it’s like slipping on a banana. And the great thing is that the clown is already doing that for us and in front of us. They do crazy things. They open up an umbrella and it goes backwards. All these silly things, and we all laugh, and we realize: Life didn’t fall apart; the umbrella did.

“This radical sense of perspective—that is a contemplative’s walk. True contemplatives know that if they aren’t smiling 90 percent of the time, they probably aren’t a contemplative. And what are they smiling about? They are smiling about the fact that God would take us and hold us in his own hand, and not laugh at us, but laugh with us. We are liberated by laughter.”

Whenever I forget where I am—in the circus of life, in the court of the King, in a beautiful world beneath a million stars—I sometimes ask myself, Where is your telescope? Whereas the first question inspires an inner movement, this question inspires an outer movement for me—a zooming out. Whereas the first question helps me to remember who I am, remembering where I am can also re-center my soul in profound and transformative ways.

By looking through the proverbial telescope at the bigger universe enveloping my life, I capture images that invite mystery and wonder back into my consciousness. I remember how small I am. I remember how big God is. My focus begins to shift, radical perspective is gained, and wonder gives birth to joy.

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academic conferences, told me that whenever he attended lizabeth Gilbert shares a story in her book Big Magic: these types of things, he wore a pair of goofy socks each Creative Living Beyond Fear about a young artist (whom day, as a constant reminder not to take himself too serishe names Little Brother) who strikes up a conversation in ously in a space where people felt pressured to flex their a Paris café with a group of people who turn out to be arisintellect. Though he had a difficult time one day explaining tocrats. They invite him to an elaborate masquerade ball the to a Trappist monk what exactly the “Pikachu” was on his next weekend, which would be attended by some of Paris’ sock—that cute, yellow, animated mouse in the Pokémon most prominent people. world that farts out electricity—his simple wardrobe routine Little Brother, excited for this opportunity, spends the always stuck with me. whole week preparing his cos-tume.

Whenever I wake up thinking When he arrives at the party, about all there is to do, whenever I however, he realizes his mistake: go to sleep replaying a scene in my It is a medieval-themed costume head from the day, or from my past, party, and he is dressed as a lobster! that haunts me, whenever I give my all Horrified, he considers turning back and it’s time to surrender, I often and leaving the party, but instead, he ask myself, “Where are your enters in.

Pokémon socks?”

Gilbert writes: “As he moved into the To me, this is an integracrowd of aristocrats, a silence fell. The tive move. My roommate dancing stopped. The orchestra stutunderstood his own tentered to a stop. . . . Finally someone dency to shine the spotlight asked him what on earth he was. on parts of himself for judgLittle Brother bowed deeply and ment. He understood his tendency to announced, ‘I am the court lobster.’ perhaps forget that there was a much Then: laughter. Not ridicule—just larger world beyond the conference. Yet joy. They loved him . . . his sweetness, in an academic setting that was all about the his weirdness, his giant red claws, his mind, my roommate stood firm on the earth skinny ass in his bright spandex tights. in his ridiculous socks. He remembered who He was the trickster among them, and so he was and where he was, which freed him to he made the party.” act like a holy fool!

In his book Eager to Love: The “It’s radical conversion, and for Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi, you and me, it’s our senses that need Richard Rohr calls this kind of Holy foolery, as I see it, is conversion—how we see and hear and posture toward life a “lightness of remembering who you are touch and feel and perceive,” Father heart and firmness of foot.” Rohr and where you are, freeing Dan says. “We move right into our writes: “By this I mean that they do you to live a life that is minds, but it’s all the other ways in not take themselves so seriously, as animated by radical joy. which we know the world we are in.” upward-bound men often do; yet Maybe the spotlight is an opporthey do what they do with quiet tunity for the clown to emerge with a conviction and full purpose as broom. mature women often do. I see this Maybe frustrations are tickets to the front-row circus synthesis of both lightness and firmness as a more ‘feminine’ seats of life. approach to spirituality, and I surely see it beautifully exemMaybe it’s time to put on a pair of Pokémon socks. plified in both Clare and Francis in different ways.”

It seems that the true artist, the true contemplative, is a Stephen Copeland is an author and storyteller. He is a former staff writer lobster—a clown and a trickster at a party! They’re not consumed with perception. They do not second-guess their genand columnist at Sports Spectrum magazine and has also been published in uine efforts. As Thomas Merton wrote in his Asian Journal, Christianity Today. Stephen blogs regularly for Franciscan Media and has con“In other words, the monk is someone who says, in one way tributed to St. Anthony Messenger’s “Bookshelf” and “Followers of St. Francis” or another, that the claims of the world are fraudulent.” columns. His most recent book is titled Where the Colors Blend: An Authentic At the academic conference where I met Father Dan, one Journey through Spiritual Doubt and Despair . . . and a Beautiful Arrival at Hope of my roommates, a brilliant guy who had been to many (Morgan James Publishing).

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TWO NEW MOVIES THAT MATTER:

Harriet & A Hidden Life At first glance they could hardly be more different.

But the subjects of these two new films are united by their heroic devotion to faith and justice.

arriet Tubman and Franz Jägerstätter share seemingly insignificant, humble backgrounds. They were people who in the course of ordinary events would have lived and died without notice.

But they responded to that divine spark of conscience that led them to resist powerful social and political oppression and the dearth of authentic Christian teaching of their times to make a difference.

American abolitionist Harriet Tubman (ca. 1820–1913) and Austrian conscientious objector Franz Jägerstätter (1907–1943) were born in different centuries and lived on two different continents, yet their lives actually overlapped by six years. These two people were from countries with shameful pasts: Tubman lived in the Civil Warera United States during slavery; Jägerstätter lived in Austria when it

TOP: GLEN WILSON/FOCUS FEATURES; BOTTOM: PHOTO COURTESY OF IRIS PRODUCTIONS

By Sister Rose Pacatte, FSP

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was willingly annexed by Nazi Germany before World War II. Both were connected to the land, one by enforced labor and the other as a simple farmer. Both of these heroic people lived by their consciences, with courage and faith, for family and country. Both ask and were asked: Can one person make a difference by the choices she or he makes?

MOSES IN THE 19TH CENTURY

Harriett Tubman was born Araminta Ross in Dorchester County, Maryland. Her father, Ben, was a skilled woodsman who managed timber work on a plantation; her mother, Rit, was a slave of the Brodess family. Her eight siblings and other slaves called Harriett “Minty.” One day, as a young teenager working in the fields, she was struck in the head by either a piece of iron or a rock thrown by an overseer aiming at someone else. She suffered a concussion that caused her to develop epilepsy. She bore scars from this attack and other beatings for the rest of her life.

It is said that Tubman learned resistance from her mother.

After losing three daughters when the master sold them south, Rit hid her youngest son, Moses, for a month to prevent his being sold away from the family. When Brodess and a buyer from Georgia approached Rit looking for the boy, she swore she would split open the head of any man who took her child. Brodess backed off.

Tubman never learned to read or write, but her mother taught her stories from the Bible. She was a Christian but rejected interpretations of New Testament teaching that urged slaves to obey their masters. She was inspired by tales of deliverance from the Old Testament, especially that of Moses leading his people out of bondage in Egypt. Tubman led a strong prayer life and enjoyed a close relationship with God. Later, when she escaped bondage and returned to lead

others to freedom, she would fall into a prayerful state in which she heard the word of God. In the film she says, “God spoke to me, but it was my feet that did the walking.” Did epilepsy have anything to do with her visions or mystical encounters with God? We will never know for sure. But it is a fact that Tubman was inspired and lived by the convictions of her faith in God. In 1844, Harriet married John Tubman, a free black man.

It was not unusual to have such mixed marriages at the time.

When her owner died, it seemed Harriet would be sold to pay his debts. In late 1849, Harriet escaped using an organized route that would become known as the Underground Railroad.

With Philadelphia as her base, she returned to Maryland’s eastern shore several times and brought at least 77 slaves to freedom. After leading the first seven slaves to freedom, Harriet was made a conductor on the Underground Railroad. She sang spirituals as a secret code to let slaves know she was in the area.

Tubman believed that God spoke to her, and she knew her calling was to make a difference. She bore the mantle of an Old Testament prophet. To the slaves she was a deliverer, and to slave owners and hunters she was a phantom. They called her Moses.

HARRIET: THE MOVIE

In Harriet, the cinematic team of writer-producer Gregory Allen Howard (Remember the Titans) and director Kasi Lemmons (Eve’s Bayou) takes us back almost 200 years to a plantation in Maryland. The film focuses on Tubman’s escape from slavery in 1849 and the journeys she made to bring others to freedom. Her journeys were incredibly physical and dangerous, taking her back and forth from Maryland

PHOTOS COURTESY FOCUS FEATURES/GLEN WILSON (2)

LEFT TO RIGHT: Director Kasi Lemmons confers with actors Zackary Momoh, Cynthia Erivo, and Vanessa Bell Calloway on the set of the film Harriet.

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to Philadelphia, New York, and Canada.

The movie enfleshes the basic framework of the events of Tubman’s life, dramatized in a way that makes her come alive as a small but mighty woman of love, passion, faith, and courage.

The cast, led by Cynthia Erivo as Harriet, includes Vondie Curtis-Hall as the Reverend Green, who preaches obedience to slaves, but this is a clever ruse. Janelle Monáe plays a free black woman, Marie, who gives Harriet a home and finds her paid employment for the first time; and Leslie Odom Jr. is William Still, who runs the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society and the clandestine Underground Railroad.

According to writer-producer Howard, a Catholic, Tubman’s faith in God was intense. He says: “She was a radical because she rejected the oppressive preaching she heard growing up. She believed in God as a higher power. That she became known as Moses is no accident. She delivered her people to freedom.

film shoot in Virginia was very challenging, “but miracles kept happening.” One of these miracles occurred when they were shooting the scene where Tubman crosses over the line to freedom.

“It was cloudy and rainy, and the crew had carried in all this equipment,” Lundberg recounts. “We had just about given up catching the sunrise for the clouds, but just in time, the clouds parted and we got the amazing shot you will see in the film. Everyone was very moved because God seemed to be watching over us.”

Erivo, who plays Harriet, told the online magazine Deadline of the emotions and faith she drew on for the role: “The loss that she [Tubman] felt, she could have used to completely back off and go the other direction, but she used it as a force. She used it to help more people. Because she was so deeply connected to God, it didn’t make sense that God would bring her to this place and then she leaves with nothing. She knew it had to be for a reason.”

PHOTOS COURTESY FOCUS FEATURES/GLEN WILSON (2)

Cynthia Erivo stars as Harriet Tubman and Vondie Curtis-Hall as Reverend Green in Harriet, a film about courage, faith, and conscience.

“With Harriet I wanted to write a story about a woman of faith, a kind of superhero of her times who is still relevant today,” Howard continues. “To do this authentically, you have to treat her faith in an organic way. This isn’t a film with a message, because I don’t like movies that do that. This is a historic drama about a woman, a mythic character whose very being was imbued with faith.”

Two of the film’s other producers are Catholic as well: Debra Martin Chase (The Princess Diaries) and Daniela Taplin Lundberg (Beasts of No Nation). For Chase, this film became possible because Hollywood began to change with the #MeToo movement. Studios wanted to tell stories about women who made a difference.

Lundberg, who went to St. Martin of Tours School and Marymount High School in Los Angeles, says the six-week

FOLLOWING HIS CONSCIENCE

Franz Jägerstätter, too, knew that doing the right thing was the only choice he could make. As a Catholic and member of the Secular Franciscan Order, he chose nonviolence. Like St. Thomas More centuries before him, Jägerstätter quietly chose to follow Jesus’ teachings and his own conscience even if no one else ever knew.

Jägerstätter was born in Sankt Radegund, Austria, to a single mother, Rosalia Huber, on May 20, 1907. He was initially raised by his maternal grandmother. His father was killed in the First World War. Meanwhile, Rosalia married a well-off farmer, Heinrich Jägerstätter, who adopted young Franz.

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ABOVE: Franz Jägerstätter (August Diehl) listens to advice from Judge Lueben (Bruno Ganz) in A Hidden Life. BELOW: Valerie Pachner (right) plays Franziska Jägerstätter, Franz’s wife and the mother of their three young daughters.

lage to vote against it. Fearing reprisals, the village authorities changed his vote so that there would be no opposition from the village.

When he was called to military duty in early 1943, Jägerstätter had already asked his parish priest and bishop for counsel. The priest encouraged him to serve his country; the bishop told him that “the Church tells us we have a duty to the fatherland.” Indeed, not one bishop of Germany or Austria ever renounced Hitler’s wars or proclaimed them unjust.

He and Fani prayed about his decision not to take the oath of allegiance to Hitler, knowing that this would most certainly mean his death. Jägerstätter could not see any other way to live his faith and commitment to nonviolence. He

PHOTOS COURTESY OF IRIS PRODUCTIONS/REINER BAJO (2)

the wild side. In 1933, he fathered a daughter out of wedlock, whom he supported until his death. That same year he inherited his adoptive father’s farm and began to work the land in earnest.

In 1936, he met and married Franziska (“Fani”) Schwaninger. She was deeply religious and certainly had an influence on Jägerstätter. He began to study the Bible and read the lives of the saints, and he volunteered as a sexton at his parish church. Instead of a wedding banquet, the newly married couple went on pilgrimage to Rome, solidifying their faith as the mainstay of their marriage and family. By 1943, the couple had three daughters, all under the age of 6.

In 1938, the Austrian people voted to allow Germany to annex their country, and Franz was the only one in his vil-

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reported for training in March but refused to take the oath to Hitler. He was arrested, sent to Berlin, and imprisoned in solitary confinement. While in prison he was known to share his food and was often seen praying the rosary. Not long after his imprisonment, on August 9, 1943, Franz Jägerstätter was beheaded.

In June 2007, Pope Benedict XVI proclaimed him a martyr, and that October he was beatified at the New Cathedral in Linz in the presence of his wife, daughters, and descendants.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF IRIS PRODUCTIONS/REINER BAJO (2)

A HIDDEN LIFE REVEALED

Filmmaker Terrence Malick’s A Hidden Life premiered at the Cannes International Film Festival in May to a seven-minute standing ovation. With this film, Malick not only takes a deep dive into the short life of this Austrian martyr, but also asks us to accompany the young man on his inner journey as he contemplates and discerns his fateful decision to resist Hitler in 1943.

A Hidden Life does not tell the story of a saint, but that of a faithful man of principle and courage, an authentic Christian. Malick, the grandson of Christian emigrants from Syria, attended an Episcopal boarding school in Austin, Texas, and now makes films that are marked by a deeply Christian vision and that ask probing and personal questions about the meaning of life.

Film reviewers have often criticized Malick’s contemplative style and the length of his films. Others take issue with his freewheeling editorial style that can seem unfocused.

But with A Hidden Life, Malick not only has kept his poetic, pastoral style, but also offers a rather straightforward biopic about a man whose legacy and relevance endure more than 75 years after his death. The filmmaker highlights the couple’s marriage, family, spirituality, and desire to do God’s will despite the growing dread of what is to come.

The film also contains shots of the interior of the Jägerstätter farmhouse, with the same clock on the wall that marks the time of Franz’s martyrdom. The bedroom looks as it did during Franz’s lifetime, with Fani’s embroidery still hanging on the walls.

The lighting proved a challenge to the filmmakers, but Malick wanted the natural light to blend organically with Jägerstätter’s inner journey.

In a heartbreaking scene in the film, Franz Jägerstätter (August Diehl) is visited by his wife (Valerie Pachner) and the parish priest. Franz insists, “I can’t do what I believe is wrong; I have to stand up to evil.” When his lawyer and military officers encourage him to recant and take the oath of allegiance so he can be free from prison, he answers, “But I am already free.”

The title of the film comes from a quote from George Eliot (author Mary Ann Evans’ pen name) in her novel Middlemarch: “For the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been is half owing to

the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.”

MESSAGES FOR TODAY

Although they are historical dramas, both Harriet and A Hidden Life are films for our times, when political division and lack of moral clarity cloud pastoral life and public discourse. Tubman and Jägerstätter lived the courage of their convictions and show us how we, too, even if we believe ourselves to be insignificant, can be the change we want to see in the world.

Harriet demonstrates how, throughout her life, Tubman was a witness to the great evil of slavery and a model to every person to work to change the world for the better.

Films such as A Hidden Life help Catholics and people of goodwill have a clearer understanding about the morality of war, weapons, violence, and the inviolability of conscience.

Their inspiring stories, viewed through the power and grace of cinema, show us how to make a difference, make sacrifices, and do the right thing, even when we think no one is looking.

Sister Rose Pacatte, FSP, is the founding director of the Pauline Center for Media Studies in Los Angeles and the award-winning film critic of St. Anthony Messenger’s “Films” column. She recently received a doctorate of ministry with a concentration in film and pastoral communication.

Sister Rose Goes to Cannes LAST MAY, I HAD THE HONOR to serve on the Ecumenical Jury at the Cannes International Film Festival. We were three Catholics (nominated by SIGNIS.net) and three Protestants (nominated

by INTER-FILM.org) from France, Germany, Greece, Italy, and the United States, who watched 22 films and took part in three ecumenical events sponsored by the Catholic and Protestant communities in Cannes. Ecumenism and dialogue have been part of the festival since 1974.

This is the sixth time I have had the privilege of serving on ecumenical or Catholic juries. I dress in regular clothes for the festival so as not to attract attention to myself, but rather to let the films speak for themselves. Festivals are a way to let filmmakers’ efforts shine even if they do not receive awards. Indeed, while most did not meet our criteria, we had several that did.

OUR CRITERIA FOR GIVING THE ECUMENICAL PRIZE: • high artistic quality, • religious perspective, • how the film deals with our responsibility as Christians in the modern world, • the film’s universal appeal and influence, • and how well the film lends itself to dialogue on the local level, through film clubs and retreats, for example.

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Day OF THE

DEAD A celebration of Life Photography by Amadu Haruna Text by Daniel Imwalle 30 • November 2019 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

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Each year on the Day of the Dead, the typically somber setting of a cemetery is transformed into a festive and colorful place of honor and remembrance of departed loved ones.

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tradition steeped in history that stretches deep into Mexico’s past, Día de los Muertos (the Day of the Dead) is a colorful and joyous celebration of the lives of loved ones who have died. It traditionally begins on October 31 and culminates on November 2, All Souls’ Day. With over 30 million Mexican Americans in the United States, plus another 11 million immigrants from Mexico, the custom has been kept alive by Mexican Catholic faithful across the country.

Though the largest celebrations occur in the Southwest, the Day of the Dead is becoming well known throughout the United States as Mexican Americans and immigrants put roots down in other regions.

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Since 2014, the Catholic Cemeteries and Mortuaries of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles have hosted Day of the Dead celebrations that, according to an archdiocesan press release, “offer a unique opportunity for our parish families to celebrate a Catholic tradition that unites faith, prayer, and cultural heritage to commemorate All Souls’ Day.” For the first two years, the event took place at Calvary Cemetery in East Los Angeles but has since expanded to include the Santa Clara Cemetery in Oxnard.

The celebrations are free and open to the public and include a presentation on the symbolism and historical significance of the Day of the Dead. A blessing of the altars (ofrendas) honors the memories of the departed, and traditional dance, music, and arts and crafts are on full display.

OPPOSITE PAGE (UPPER RIGHT): Images of Sts. Mother Teresa and Oscar Romero make up part of a display on an ofrenda (altar). Typically, altars have multiple tiers, with food and drink on lower levels and images of holy people and crucifixes placed toward the top.

Water—as seen in the chalice in the photo—is a crucial element of the ofrenda, there to quench the thirst of the departed loved one and to serve as a symbol of purification and cleansing.

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Quoted in the archdiocese’s press release, Brian McMahon, director of administrative services of the Catholic Cemeteries Department, said of the celebration: “We have found that this spiritual and cultural event allows our patrons the ability to share and honor the stories of their loved ones’ earthly lives. . . . Over these past few years, we have seen how it brings families together. Rather than sadness, there is a sense of joy and happiness.”

In his homily during the 2017 event’s Mass on All Souls’ Day, Los Angeles Archbishop José Gómez reminded those in attendance that the Day of the Dead is a testament to the solidarity between the living and the dead.

“And as we remember the dead today, we are also asking them to pray for us,” the archbishop said. “And we pray for the living—that we might grow in holiness and love so that one day we will be reunited with them and rejoice forever in the banquet of the heavenly table.”

OPPOSITE PAGE (TOP): Two men guide a painting of St. Juan Diego—to whom the Virgin Mary appeared in 1531 at Tepeyac Hill in Mexico—through the procession to the cemetery.

BOTTOM LEFT: Archbishop José Gómez, pastoral staff in his left hand and palm frond in his right, blesses the crowd with holy water during the procession.

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The usually somber cemeteries are temporarily transformed into places full of colorful calaveras (painted skulls crafted from either sugar or clay) and festive music, and the families of the departed mingle with each other and share stories of their loved ones.

It’s a powerful reminder of the importance of family, faith, and the belief that death is a bridge to reunification with our loved ones and with God. In his homily on the Day of the Dead in 2017, Archbishop Gómez said: “Praying in this place today, we feel close to the dead, especially to our beloved ones in our own families. We know that death can never keep us apart—that nothing can separate us from the love of God.” Amadu Haruna is a filmmaker and graduate of ArtCenter College of Design. He is currently in Los Angeles, working on projects alongside cinematographer Ibrahim Abdulai concerning the African diaspora.

He previously provided photography for the article “Welcome Home: Life after Prison” in our February 2019 issue.

Daniel Imwalle is the managing editor of St. Anthony Messenger magazine.

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LENTEN

PILGRIMAGES

A Brief History LIKE MANY TRADITIONS in Latin America, the roots of the Day of the Dead can be traced back to indigenous customs that predate the arrival of the Spanish in Mexico in the 1500s. In fact, some historians estimate that the honoring of ancestors through ritual and celebration goes as far back as 3,000 years. By the time the Aztecs rose to power in the 1300s, a monthlong festival took place that honored a goddess known as the “Lady of the Dead.” This goddess would later be depicted as one of the most famous icons of the Day of the Dead, La Calavera Catrina, a female skeleton wearing an ornate hat.

After the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs and the spread of Christianity throughout the land, the indigenous festival devoted to celebrating ancestors eventually became linked to the triduum known as Allhallowtide—which starts on All Saints’ Eve (Halloween) and ends on November 2, All Souls’ Day—and the Day of the Dead was born. Originally observed in central and southern Mexico, the tradition later expanded across the whole country and is now a national holiday. In 2008, UNESCO added the tradition to its List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

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With many Mexican Americans invested in keeping their cultural identity alive, combined with the large population of Mexican immigrants, the Day of the Dead is fast becoming a popular tradition in the United States. Celebrations in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California are among the largest, but Day of the Dead festivities are popping up from coast to coast as the population of those with Mexican heritage continues to grow. A testament to the growing popularity of the tradition, the hit Disney Pixar film Coco (2017), which tells the story of a little boy’s adventure to meet his ancestors during Day of the Dead festivities, drew critical acclaim and won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

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A NEW APPROACH TO

GRATITUDE

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ADENE SANCHEZ/ISTOCK

PHOTO CREDIT HERE

By Kathy Coffey

Do you need to jump-start your attitude toward Thanksgiving? Begin with a new understanding of what gratitude truly means.

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re you tired of the construction-paper turkeys, or even the gravy and mashed potatoes? Do you sometimes find it hard to define your own

attitude toward gratitude? As Thanksgiving approaches, you may find yourself wondering what gratitude really means.

A century ago, German sociologist Georg Simmel called gratitude “the moral memory of humankind.” But North Americans were raised on a steady diet of self-reliance. Our motto is: “We worked hard; we earned it; we deserve it.” We don’t like to feel indebted or dependent. Unfortunately, this entitled attitude backfires when good people face tragedy. We all know that important factors such as the health and safety of our loved ones are beyond our control. Now the science of gratitude demonstrates how to appreciate that we’re often given more than we deserve. Recognizing gifts from outside ourselves—including our very life from God—is

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the antidote to entitlement.

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Robert Emmons, PhD, is a leading scientific expert on gratitude at the Greater Good Science Center at the University of California in Berkeley. He became an “accidental expert” when he stumbled into a field where there’d been little scientific research. His groundbreaking 2007 book, Thanks!, alerted readers to the multiple benefits of gratitude, which he defines as “a feeling of reverence for what is given.” That attitude accepts both good and bad as potential gifts. It can focus the lens through which we view life on evidence of abundance, not scarcity. Unsurprisingly, that “positivity bias” in turn gives an increased sense of personal worth, which can offset anxiety and depression.

Dr. Emmons characterizes gratitude not as a Pollyannaish “superficial happiology,” or mere politeness, but as an ongoing perspective with transformative power. A classic example of reframing by looking for the positive in a negative experience is Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran pastor imprisoned and later murdered by the Nazis. His focus on the good was so strong he could write from jail that “gratitude changes pangs of memory into grateful joy.” St. Paul and Martin Luther King Jr. also turned obstacles into opportunities, doing some of their best writing in prison.

Before Emmons, Brother David Steindl-Rast explored the more spiritual side of the subject in 1984 with Gratefulness, the Heart of Prayer. Born in Austria in 1926, he was drafted into the Nazi army as a boy but escaped and was hidden by his mother until the war’s end—for which he must have been enormously grateful. During her On Being podcast, Krista Tippett asked Steindl-Rast what he was grateful for in dark times. He responded instantly: “The next breath!”

Gratitude gives the extraordinary ability to

take whatever comes and appreciate it. Brother David, a Benedictine monk, cofounded A Network for Grateful Living (gratefulness.org), whose website is rich in articles, reflection questions, and practices of gratitude. Joy, he says, is “a happiness that doesn’t depend on what happens.” He notes succinctly, “When I am grateful, I am neither rushing nor slouching through my day—I’m dancing.”

BENEFITS OF BEING GRATEFUL

For most people, circumstances won’t be as dramatic as being imprisoned. But at the end of life, do we want to be bitterly cursing the incompetent nurse or grateful that we have medical care and a warm bed? Those attitudes are sown and practiced early, not simply popping up on the deathbed.

Humans are remarkably adaptive, even to good things, so we need to cultivate the habit of looking for, and naming, our blessings.

Some who are aging resent the body’s natural decline. Others appreciate the splendid ride the body has had, fondly remembering runs, hugs, meals, deep sleeps, caring touches, long hikes, swims, and dances. Guess which attitude will neutralize the negative diminishment of age and lead to a less crotchety, more forgiving person?

Amplifying and appreciating the good counteracts a normal human response psychologists call “habituation.” That means that pleasure wanes when repeated. The first hot fudge sundae: delicious! Thirty in a row?

Ugh. While that example may be extreme, think how the thrill of a new car or sweater eventually wears off. Unfortunately, this can occur in relationships too: Humans start taking for granted even the best spouse, sibling, boss, parent, teacher, coworker, or child. We can counteract habituation by giving ourselves a “booster shot”—deliberately affirming the other person’s goodness—especially in specific ways: washing my favorite jeans before a big event, taking out the trash when I was tired, buying the cereal I like best, even warning me when I sound cocky.

Emmons experimented with two groups of students recording either five hassles or five things they were grateful for once a week over 10 weeks. The control group recorded events that were neither positive nor negative. At the end of this brief time, he found the “grateful group” 25 percent happier, exercising more, and with fewer health problems. Like oil and water, gratitude and unhappiness don’t mix.

A study of adults with neuromuscular disorders showed that those keeping a regular gratitude journal self-reported more positive emotions and optimism and got better sleep. The findings were verified by their spouses, who also reported more outward happiness. Other health benefits of gratitude are less stress-related illness and lower blood pressure. Overall, positive emotions like gratitude may add years to one’s life span.

LEFT: COOMPIA77/ISTOCK; RIGHT: MILKOS/ISTOCK

THE SCIENCE OF GRATITUDE

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LEFT: COOMPIA77/ISTOCK; RIGHT: MILKOS/ISTOCK

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Jesus once said, “Give, and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap” (Lk 6:38). Science proves the generous measure used for giving will return to us in chemical bodily responses, perpetuating the cycle of gratitude. The Greater Good Science Center is now expanding its research into gratitude in the workplace, teaching gratitude to children, couples, and school staffs.

PRACTICING GRATITUDE

When the benefits are so clear, the next step is finding a practice that suits one’s personality and available time.

Researchers recommend a gratitude journal, a notebook where we list specifics we appreciate (“fresh oranges or blueberries at breakfast,” “text message from my daughter,” “a friend’s compliment on my new shirt,” “not getting a parking ticket,” “cloudscapes”). Taking time to write these down regularly in a special place acts like a magnifying glass to enlarge the good in life.

Emmons offers several tips on keeping a gratitude journal: Focus on surprises, which can draw forth more gratitude because they’re unexpected. Go for depth, lots of detail rather than rote listing. Avoid generalities (“my family”). List specifics (“Dad’s lopsided grin”). Write down a vow to practice gratitude and post it in a visible place. Most religious traditions have prayers of gratitude to explore. Read the story of the 10 lepers where only one returns to thank Jesus for his cure (Lk 17:11–19) or the simple advice in Colossians 3:15: “And be thankful.”

Measuring our own gratitude may be subjective, but the Greater Good website (GreaterGood.berkeley.edu) allows us to assess it objectively by taking quizzes such as “Are you truly grateful?” and “Does your organization elicit

It’s often helpful to stimulate gratitude by thinking what life would be like without a certain blessing. In terms of the past: If meeting this person, getting that job, moving to this city, going to that school, etc., hadn’t happened, how might life be different now? Looking forward, poet E.E. Cummings reminds us that “it may not always be so.” We won’t always hop so easily into our cars or onto our bikes to run errands.

The spouse or child who chews with annoying noises at breakfast won’t always be sitting across the table. That faithful friend may not always be around to thank. The freedom, health, and relationships we take for granted can grind to a painful halt—but why wait until we lose them to appreciate them?

The process of reframing our focus involves changing our internal dialogue from complaint to enlightenment. Instead of saying, “Grr, I’ve got to clean the bathrooms!” try “With all the people who are homeless, I’m grateful for a house to clean.” Or change “I’ve got so much to do today! How will I ever fit it all in?” to “You’ve got money to spend on food and gas, friends to meet, good dental care, and children to pick up—and you’re complaining?”

Feeling gratitude but not expressing it is like wrapping a package but not giving it. So another practice is expressing thanks regularly through calls, e-mails, texts, or letters to those who have done us good. Widen the circle beyond immediate family to bus drivers, cleaners, crossing guards, waitresses and ticket agents who remain calm in chaos, grocery clerks who are cheerful even after 10 hours on their feet, caregivers or police who do a good job. Why not leave a note or sign in a conspicuous place thanking the people who clean your office building, probably late at night, month after month? Some people place change or bills into a gratitude jar every time they feel grateful, then when the jar is full, donate the money to charity.

gratitude—or make people feel taken for granted?” The site also recommends a “Savoring Walk,” strolling for 20 minutes without a phone, senses sharply attuned to the myriad shades of green, a silver strand of spiderweb, the sounds of voices, distant music or rain, the scents of autumn leaves or spring buds, the touch of sun or wind on skin.

It’s easy to savor good memories, sometimes appreciating them more afterwards than in the immediacy of the experience. Although it’s harder, look back on a negative experience (illness, divorce, job loss, death of a dear one). Brother David writes: “‘How can I be grateful for something like this?’ we may howl in the midst of a sudden calamity. And why? Because we are not aware of the real gift in this . . . situation: opportunity.” From a distance, see how thoughts or reactions at the time may have changed over the intervening years. Is it possible in retrospect to see any benefits: perhaps in the people who helped or the growth or learning that came from the ordeal?

A key cognitive process can sometimes turn disaster into a stepping-stone. Where we place our attention gives the subject importance. If we focus on the day’s irritations, they’ll multiply or grate even more. Focus on what’s good and another brain channel opens. This can be strengthened by repeated visits, building our psychological immune sys-

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BEING GRATEFUL IN TIMES OF TROUBLE

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tem to cushion failures and disappointments. Imagine a path through forest or field, how repeated footsteps keep it clear. Similarly, when we de-emphasize the negative, we give it less power.

Visualize an overgrown path through the jungle, almost impassable because no one uses it much. This gives new meaning to the canticle of Zechariah, which asks the Lord “to guide our feet into the path of peace” (Lk 1:79).

Even if we can’t see hidden blessings right now, the contrast between a bad experience and the current situation can make us grateful for the present.

Think of the first day at a school, in a relationship, on a new job, or lost in an unfamiliar city. A few years later, that experience is probably wrapped in a much friendlier familiarity.

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APPRECIATION FOR A LIFETIME

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Imagine a family who does “appreciations” before their evening meal.

A daughter (age 3) begins: “I ‘appreciation’ Daddy taking me to school, Danny [her brother] for sharing his game with me, and Mommy for making our dinner.” Then Danny, who’s 5, continues: “I’m grateful we got popsicles for snack!” Dad adds: “I appreciate Danny letting me drop him off at school in the car line, because I didn’t have time to park and walk him in today.” Mom concludes: “As you all know, I felt crummy earlier this week with the flu. But now I feel so much better and have energy again—I’m grateful for healing!” It doesn’t take more than five minutes, but what a lovely way to end the day on a positive note and instill a lifelong habit.

Last Thanksgiving, when my family named blessings before the meal, my 2-year-old granddaughter contributed, “I am thank you for the marshmallows!” At the time, I was simply delighted. Now I know what a rich treasure her gratitude can become.

Kathy Coffey is the author of 13 award-winning books and many articles in this magazine. She has also had work published in America, U.S. Catholic, and National Catholic Reporter. Her website is KathyJCoffey.com.

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Above (from left): Sisters de Lourdes Okoniewski and Florence Kruczek, OSF. Photo: Jim Judkis ©2019 United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Washington, DC. All rights reserved.

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MISSION R

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These 10 Franciscans’ passion for service is helping to transform a Chicago neighborhood: (From left) Sisters Laura Soppet, Laura Toth, Stephanie Baliga, Brother Matt DeAngelis, Sister Alicia Torres, Father Bob Lombardo, and Sisters Theresa Torres, Jess Lambert, Jaime Mitchell, and Kate O’Leary.

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N REBORN Story By Jay Copp | Photography by Karen Callaway

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A team of Franciscans transformed a former parish and school in one of Chicago’s poorest neighborhoods into a thriving mission that has become a blessing to those it serves.

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ment at having to use a pantry. “I love it here,” she says. “It’s a beautiful place. It’s so friendly.”

Sister Stephanie hurries about, attending to needs, answering questions, and offering encouragement and prayers. A star runner in college, she is only 31. “I just adore her—all the sisters. She radiates such positive energy,” says volunteer Mariah Zingale, another college student from Wisconsin who is staying at the mission for four days along with nearly a dozen classmates.

Open on Tuesday mornings, the spacious pantry of the Mission of Our Lady of the Angels is located inside a shuttered Catholic school. The pantry is one of the mission’s many social services, and the former school is one part of the mission complex. The church, formerly Our Lady of the Angels Parish, is used for Mass and prayer services; its basement is used for community dinners. The mission also offers clothing, tutoring for youth, exercise sessions and computer classes for seniors, and after-school and summer camps for children.

The glitzy skyscrapers of downtown Chicago are visible three miles to the east. But this is gritty, impoverished West Humboldt Park, where the nerve-rattling pop-pop of gunshots and the wail of sirens rend the night hours. “It’s unbelievable. We’re so close to the gazillion-dollar megalopolis,” says volunteer Bob Rooney, a suburbanite in his early 60s.

DRONE IMAGE: RUTH DURKIN PHOTOGRAPHY

earing sandals, clad in a plain brown robe, and full of youthful zest, Sister Stephanie Baliga raises a small bullhorn. She stands near the doorway of a food pantry in Chicago, set to open in minutes. “Let’s pray,” she tells dozens of hushed volunteers, some in college and others retired.

They loudly recite the Our Father. “Our Lady of the Angels— pray for us,” several sisters and volunteers conclude.

Then a conga line of people, who had been sipping coffee and eating pastries in another room, weaves through the pantry. Most push two-wheeled carts, but some have sturdy grocery-store carts while others pull large suitcases.

Stationed throughout the rows of metal shelves bulging with food, volunteers hand out pantry staples such as rice and pasta. They also pass out artisanal bread, fudge walnut pie, frozen strawberries, and cans of Wolfgang Puck organic soup, courtesy of the corporate support given to the pantry from Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, and other high-end stores.

The volunteers greet the patrons warmly. “Hi. How are you?” asks volunteer Emma Wills, a college student from Wisconsin here on spring break. “I’m blessed,” replies an elderly woman.

Most of the patrons are not Catholic. But they feel at home here. Clementine Tardy comes to the pantry “to support my family, to pay the bills.” She saves money and gains a sense of her own worthiness, not a feeling of diminish-

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LEFT: Sister Alicia Torres receives a congratulatory hug after winning on an episode of the Food Network’s Chopped series. TOP RIGHT: Patrons line up to shop at the pantry, where they find friendly faces in addition to pantry staples and a variety of healthy foods, including artisanal breads donated by area stores.

“People are so poor here. This is like the Third World.”

The mission is an unusual place, full of unusual stories.

Catholic institutions often struggle to attract younger people, but the mission hosts throngs of young volunteers, eager to serve. Its eight Franciscan sisters are 41 or younger. The Franciscan priest who began the mission in 2005 once was on the fast track to success as a Price Waterhouse professional.

The Mission of Our Lady of the Angels is a story of transformation, even resurrection. It’s a place of solace and hope for neighbors. The religious have found a calling and a community here. And a school and parish that were the site of one of the worst tragedies in Chicago’s history have been reborn as a sign of God’s love in a neglected, blighted neighborhood.

AN OASIS FOR THE POOR

Julie Keefe, 56, has driven more than an hour from the suburbs to work at the food pantry. She’s a 2.5-year veteran, and she plans to keep coming indefinitely. “This is a very attractive place to volunteer. The nuns are filled with the spirit of generosity, gratitude, and kindness,” she says. “Some of the people have issues—addiction and mental illness. But there is zero judgment. They treat everyone with respect, honor, and kindness.”

In filling stomachs the mission feeds the soul too. “We provide a witness of Christ’s love for the poor. We draw people closer to him,” says Sister Stephanie. “Our goal is to bring Jesus to people, to allow Jesus to be present to them.”

The mission in some respects is a throwback to the past— when nuns were young and schools and parishes exuded pride, energy, and optimism. “The first time I was here a

friend dropped me off and I was expecting 80-something nuns,” recalls Keefe. “Here comes Sister Stephanie bursting out of the building.”

Sister Stephanie’s energy is no exaggeration: She was the sixth-fastest freshman runner in the nation when she competed for the University of Illinois. The other sisters share pasts rooted in secular lifestyles and ambitions. Sister Laura Soppet, 29, was set to be a teacher before working as a maternity counselor for Catholic Charities and then discerning a call to religious life. Sister Jaime Mitchell, 41, once worked in the hospitality field. Sister Alicia Torres, 34, a whiz in the convent kitchen (her flourless chocolate cake is heavenly), was the Chopped champion on the Food Network’s reality TV cooking show in 2015. (She donated the $10,000 winnings for food for the mission.)

Ten Franciscans serve here: the founding priest, a brother, and the sisters. Father Bob Lombardo, a Franciscan Friar of the Renewal, began the mission after the late Cardinal Francis George asked him to keep a Catholic presence in the neighborhood. The first sisters who joined the mission had come here as volunteers and then sought out a religious community. They realized the mission was where they wanted to serve, and Father Bob received permission to begin the Franciscans of the Eucharist of Chicago in 2010.

Converting the former parish and school into a viable mission has been a daunting task. Our Lady of the Angels Parish had closed in 1990; the school stayed open until 1999 when declining enrollment led to its closure. When the mission started, the school and church were strewn with garbage and damaged by water that seeped in from leaky roofing.

Father Bob spearheaded a massive renovation. The church needed repairs that would have cost as much as $2.5 million.

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LEFT: Sister Jaime sweeps the sidewalk with little helpers from the neighborhood. RIGHT: Sister Stephanie, a star runner in college, races in the Chicago Marathon. Each year she organizes a team that has raised nearly a half million dollars for Our Lady of the Angels Mission.

But volunteers provided labor, and donors came forward with supplies. Electricians did the wiring. Roofers donated materials and labor. The sisters and others sanded the pews and performed a slew of demanding manual chores.

Two other sites at the mission are significant in its story. A cross adorns the outside of Kelly Hall, a functioning YMCA with a basketball court and exercise equipment. Kelly Hall became a part of the mission because of a chance—some might say providential—conversation Father Bob had with the passenger next to him on an airplane. The two got to talking, resulting in an ingenious partnership between the Archdiocese of Chicago, the YMCA, and the Greater Chicago Food Depository.

“God is behind all of this,” says Father Bob. “He doesn’t come down to do it himself, but he provides the talents, the resources, and the people to get it done. This is all about unleashing the abilities God gave us.”

The second notable site is a memorial that juts up from a small, ordinary patch of grass outside the church and school.

“This is hallowed ground, where the bodies were laid,” says Sister Stephanie.

On December 1, 1958, a fire, whose cause was never determined, crept up a basement stairwell, grew in strength and fury, and quickly engulfed the crowded school in flames.

Ninety-two children and three nuns died.

Today, amid the assemblage of buildings, there are no ghosts, only the Spirit.

DIVERSE SPIRITUAL JOURNEYS

Father Bob was a resident advisor at Notre Dame when a student was stricken with spinal meningitis. The ill student was taken to the infirmary and then to the hospital. “I was with him when he died,” he recalls. The tragedy “got me thinking. I thought it was a phase. But it stayed with me.”

The inner nudge remained with him while he worked at Price Waterhouse in the 1980s. He left the corporate world to become a Franciscan priest and did missionary work in Bolivia and helped orphaned street children in Honduras before working with the homeless and troubled youths in Manhattan and the Bronx. His love for the poor caught the attention of Cardinal George, who asked him to set up a mission outreach in Chicago.

Father Bob didn’t presume to know what people in West Humboldt Park needed and wanted. He walked in the neighborhood, met his new neighbors, and learned their concerns.

Over time, he succeeded in attracting ample volunteers and donations of time, talents, and treasures. But he minimizes his own role in the growth and success of the mission. “I don’t draw anyone. God draws people here,” he insists.

It’s not a neighborhood typically visited by people of means. West Humboldt Park is one of Chicago’s poorest neighborhoods, with a per capita annual income of $11,000.

The unemployment rate is more than 40 percent. About 97 percent of the area children qualify for free lunches. Violent crime is a daily reality.

The sisters see beyond race and poverty, beyond the superficial barriers that normally separate people. “I love being here. God gives us the gifts we need,” says Sister Laura.

“I love being with our neighbors and getting to know them.

Some people here struggle with drug abuse or mental illness.

I see Jesus in them.”

Diverse spiritual journeys led each of the sisters to the mission, where they have turned away from common hallmarks of success such as a good job and bountiful possessions in favor of serving the poor as Franciscans.

Sister Stephanie won 18 conference championships while in high school and continued at the University of Illinois.

Then suddenly she went from training as much as 70 hours

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a week to hobbling around campus on crutches. She broke a bone on Valentine’s Day in 2009, which turned out to be the greatest break of her life. That event cracked open her love of God. She started to attend Mass. She took part in a retreat that included eucharistic adoration, and it was as if a light turned on. “I was aware of the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.

That was more real than anything else in life,” she says.

A priest at the university told her about Father Bob and the mission. When she volunteered she knew she belonged there. “I was drawn to the spirituality of the Franciscans, their love for the Eucharist, their love for the poor,” she says.

Running is still part of her life, but now she runs for the mission. Last year she completed the Chicago Marathon in an impressive 3:14:51. She and other runners for the mission raised nearly half a million dollars in pledges from individuals and corporations.

The energy of the sisters draws the admiration of the mission’s regular volunteers. “They have such vigor. They attack the day. They are so gung ho,” says Rooney. The sisters’ passion for service led a volunteer to amusingly describe them to a Chicago Tribune columnist as “a bunch of young, funny, hard-charging nuns kicking ass.”

GETTING AND GIVING

Today, as usual, the pantry line has formed early. Patrons sometimes gather as early as 5:30 a.m. There are socks, toothbrushes, and LED light bulbs in addition to the plentiful food. As always, fresh vegetables are especially prized. Evelyn Colon, a regular patron, has nine people in her household to feed, and her food stamps are nearly gone as the end of the month nears. The mission is “a blessing,” she says.

Even as it serves those in material need, the pantry serves its volunteers by feeding their spirits. Volunteer Keefe shakes her head in wonder at the effect the mission has on her. Once an older man using the pantry, obviously carrying burdens, smiled warmly at her when she asked him how he was.

“Never had a bad day” was his chipper answer. “Never had a bad day? Who hasn’t?” says Keefe. “I get so much more than I give here.”

For more on the mission’s inspiring work to serve those in need, visit their website: missionola.com.

Jay Copp is a writer and editor at DePaul University in Chicago and a former associate editor of The New World, Chicago’s archdiocesan newspaper. He has a graduate degree from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and has contributed articles to numerous national Catholic publications.

LEFT: Sister Kate walks the community’s dogs in the neighborhood of West Humboldt Park, one of the poorest in Chicago.

RIGHT: Father Bob Lombardo minimizes his role in building the Mission of Our Lady of the Angels. “God draws people here,” he says.

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CULTURE

TV

The Interpreters

NOVEMBER 11, INDEPENDENT LENS ON PBS

Interpreter “Phillip Morris” (second from left) with Paul Braun (second from right) and others stand outside an airport.

Phillip (left) and American serviceman Paul Braun

—Christopher Heffron

THE INTERPRETERS: LEFT: SAMEER SAADI; RIGHT: SOFIAN KHAN

S

ince the start of the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars, over 50,000 local interpreters have aided US military and coalition forces in their efforts to stabilize an unstable environment. Doing so is dangerous business. For interpreters, any affiliation with enemy forces is a death sentence.

Independent Lens’ electrifying documentary The Interpreters introduces us to two of them.

“Phillip Morris” is a husband, father, and chain-smoking Iraqi civilian who risked his life assisting US soldiers in Basra, Iraq, as an interpreter. But he did much more than translate languages. He was a cultural touchstone between US forces and local nationals. Phillip found a friend and advocate in US serviceman Paul Braun, a bear of a man who worked tirelessly after his tour ended to help his friend and his family acquire Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs) to come into the United States legally. According to the State Department, up to 50 SIVs are given annually—and the bureaucratic red tape is agonizing for those trying to escape war zones.

Afghan interpreter “Malik,” however, hasn’t fared so well. SIVs should take no more than nine months to process, but it often takes years for them to be granted. Malik and his family found life in their home country too unstable. En route to Greece by way of Istanbul, the boat his family journeyed on capsized. Only Malik and his son survived—his wife and daughters were lost to the sea. Now, father and son are in a sort of hellish limbo, seeking asylum in any country that can offer them a safe haven. Needless to say, his story tears at the heart.

What makes The Interpreters such an effective piece of work is how it distills something as intricate and layered as a war into smaller, digestible parts. Human lives on both sides of the conflict are on the line in any war. The interpreters, labeled traitors to their country and their religion for their work, were invaluable to US troops. Without saying it directly, the film proposes, rightly, that we owe them a country to call their own.

The film also serves as a reminder—especially in this season of gratitude—to be grateful for what we have and to offer up something of consequence to those who have less.

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BOOK REVIEW

BOOK BRIEFS

By Julie Traubert

Living a Committed Life “Every time you make a commitment to something big, you are making a transformational choice.”

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THE INTERPRETERS: LEFT: SAMEER SAADI; RIGHT: SOFIAN KHAN

vice-

wo months to the day before he was assassinated, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “Drum Major Instinct” sermon. In this sermon he intoned that he did THE SECOND not want to be remembered for all the awards and accoMOUNTAIN lades he had received; rather, he wanted to be remembered

BY DAVID BROOKS as someone who had “lived a committed life.”

Random House New York Times best-selling author David Brooks has written a superb analysis that explores at its depth just what King meant by living a committed life. Brooks frames this within the context of being committed to something larger than ourselves—be it our faith, our philosophy, our vocation, or our marriage.

Many readers will be pleased with Brooks’ approach to living a life where in giving, even into our thought process, one receives. On these pages you will find the names of many people familiar to spiritual seekers: St. Augustine, Dorothy Day, Father Richard Rohr, Thomas Merton, Cynthia Bourgeault, and Henri Nouwen. For Brooks, all of the aforementioned have sought in their own unique way to find purpose and meaning through their lives.

Not unlike Rohr, Brooks focuses on the second half of life, the time we begin assessing who we are, where we have come from, and where we are headed. He even riffs off of Merton’s famous “Louisville Epiphany,” without even mentioning it, writing about a similar experience he had in New York City’s Penn Station.

Brooks proves a master of telling his own story of his rise in journalistic circles, his many successes, and then the collapse of his life by virtue of his divorce, forcing him to confront the deeper layers of himself. This is no pity party; rather, it’s an empathetic view of what all humans encounter at some level during their earthly journey.

Even though Brooks is Jewish, he finds many connections and insights from a plethora of faiths. With regard to our relationship to God, Brooks asserts: “We are commanded to cocreate the world. We are commanded to finish what God has begun.”

Readers who are serious about their own faith/life journey will find David Brooks a stellar companion along the way.

Reviewed by James A. Percoco, a nationally recognized history educator with over 35 years of teaching experience.

Looking for Catholic books?

St. Mary’s Bookstore & Church Supply

1909 West End Avenue • Nashville, TN 37203 • (800)233-3604

web: www.stmarysbookstore.com e-mail: stmarysbookstore@gmail.com

PERFECTLY HUMAN

BY SARAH C. WILLIAMS Plough Publishing House

S

arah Williams was told her growing baby had a fatal condition and would not survive birth. This is the moving story of the nine months of her pregnancy with her daughter, Cerian— Welsh for “loved one.” It is a powerful autobiography, asking us to reflect on what it truly means to be human.

BOY MOM

BY MONICA SWANSON WaterBrook

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ased on personal experience and research, popular blogger Monica Swanson, a mother of four boys, provides a thorough how-to guide on raising physically and emotionally healthy boys. Addressing the concerns and questions all parents have, she gives valuable insight into “what your son needs most from you.”

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CULTURE

FILMS

By Sister Rose Pacatte, FSP

Sister Rose Pacatte, FSP

FAVORITE

THANKSGIVING

FILMS Pieces of April (2003) What’s Cooking? (2000) Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987) You’ve Got Mail (1998) The Blind Side (2009)

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he latest film about the worldwide clergy sexual abuse crisis is a fairly accurate narrative about recent revelations and developments in France. The film begins in 2014 when Alexandre (Melvil Poupaud), a husband and proud father of five, learns that the priest who sexually abused him when he was young, Father Bernard Preynat (Bernard Verley), is still working with children. Alexandre is from Lyon but lives in Paris with his family, who are devout Catholics. Knowing he must take action, Alexandre first contacts the Archdiocese of Lyon in efforts to meet with Cardinal Barbarin (François Marthouret). He meets a psychologist, who listens to him with kindness but whose mandate is to reconcile victims with their aggressors rather than making sure priests no longer have contact with children.

Alexandre reaches out to other survivors of Preynat’s abuse, François (Denis Ménochet) and Emmanuel (Swann Arlaud). François is divorced and in a tumultuous relationship with another woman. He has a difficult time staying employed and shows signs of PTSD. His mother, who did not believe him at the time, steps up to support him and the organization. Emmanuel is married with children but no longer believes. The three men join together to begin an organization of survivors

of Preynat’s abuse. They start a website and begin to put pressure on Cardinal Barbarin to stop covering up for Preynat and to remove him from ministry.

Director François Ozon, who wrote the script based on actual newspaper coverage of events, draws emotional power and depth from the performances of the three men.

While there is nothing explicitly visual in the film, the pathos with which the men tell their stories is heartbreaking. It is not an easy film to watch.

The film’s title comes from Cardinal Barbarin’s own words, who said at a press conference in Lourdes in 2016, “By the grace of God, most of the facts of sexual abuse by priests against children fall outside the statute of limitations.” The courageous victims still pursued a private prosecution, allowed by French law. The cardinal’s words revealed the prevailing problem of the hierarchy protecting the institution over children. By the Grace of God is in French with English subtitles.

Not yet rated • Verbal descriptions of clergy sexual abuse.

52 • November 2019 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

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THE PEANUT BUTTER FALCON: CNS PHOTO/ROADSIDE ATTRACTIONS AND ARMORY FILMS; THE RIOT ACT: HANOVER HOUSE

Sister Rose’s

BY THE GRACE OF GOD

LEFT: COURTESY SISTER ROSE PACATTE, FSP/MIKE BLAKE/REUTERS; BY THE GRACE OF GOD: PHOTOS COURTESY OF MUSIC BOX FILMS (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.

THE PEANUT BUTTER FALCON

THE PEANUT BUTTER FALCON: CNS PHOTO/ROADSIDE ATTRACTIONS AND ARMORY FILMS; THE RIOT ACT: HANOVER HOUSE

LEFT: COURTESY SISTER ROSE PACATTE, FSP/MIKE BLAKE/REUTERS; BY THE GRACE OF GOD: PHOTOS COURTESY OF MUSIC BOX FILMS (2)

Z

ak (Zack Gottsagen) is a 22-year-old man with Down syndrome. His family has abandoned him at a retirement home in North Carolina’s low country, where he is cared for by Eleanor (Dakota Johnson). He shares a room with Carl (Bruce Dern), who is determined to help Zak escape and live his dream of becoming a professional wrestler—like the Salt Water Redneck (Thomas Haden Church), whom he watches over and over in an old video. Eleanor, however, scolds Carl for encouraging Zak, but the old man still wants to help him.

Zak escapes in his underwear and stows away on a fishing boat that Tyler (Shia LaBeouf) steals as he flees from two men who accuse him of interfering with their crabbing business. Tyler is dealing with guilt over his brother’s death and is making bad decisions. However, he is taken with Zak and, over a few days, they become a team. He digs into his backpack for clothes and boots for the young man, and teaches him to swim. Tyler promises to bring Zak to train with the Salt Water Redneck and encourages him to take a wrestler’s name—thus, the Peanut Butter Falcon.

Meanwhile, Eleanor is on a desperate search to find Zak, whom she believes cannot fend for himself. Zak and Tyler get religion from a blind preacher who gives them the means to build a raft. And they set sail. Eleanor and the two young men finally meet up and arrive at the home of the Salt Water Redneck, only to find the training camp closed.

The Peanut Butter Falcon is a charming movie, filled with humanity and heart, even if it doesn’t always make narrative sense. Writer/directors Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz have created a film that affirms human kindness without being sappy. Gottsagen’s performance is anchored in reality and demonstrates the dignity of every human person. LaBeouf is excellent and shows just how attractively one’s generosity of spirit can be portrayed in cinema. I loved the film for its warmth and lack of cynicism.

A-3, PG-13 • Fighting, wrestling violence.

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

THE RIOT ACT

I

n a small Alabama town in 1901, the wealthy owner of an opera house, Dr. Pearrow (Brett Cullen), is angry when the married lead singer (Brace Harris) wants to run away with the doctor’s daughter, Allye (Lauren Sweetser).

Pearrow tells the singer that he better be on the train leaving town that night.

But Pearrow later shoots and kills the singer and thinks he has killed his daughter, too, because she disappears.

This ends the opera-house culture of the town. But over the next two years, a helpful, ambitious August (Conner Price) hires a vaudeville troupe to come and entertain the town.

Meanwhile, a ghost has been tormenting Dr. Pearrow, and things get even worse once the vaudevillians arrive with a young woman who resembles Allye.

This independent film is an atmospheric, historic drama/ghost story that deals with themes of human weakness, guilt, power, and vengeance. It is a strong first feature from writer/director Devon Parks, even if it is a little slow going and too smart for itself.

Not yet rated, PG-13 • Gun violence, revenge. Available to rent or purchase on iTunes.

Source: USCCB.org/movies

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POINTSOFVIEW | FAITH & FAMILY The Comfort of Predictability

By Susan Hines-Brigger

C

Susan welcomes your comments and suggestions!

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

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f there is anything I have learned as a parent, it is that the only thing you can be certain about is that your life with your kids will be filled with uncertainty. Given that fact, my husband, Mark, and I really shouldn’t have been surprised when our oldest daughter, Maddie, called us a few months ago and asked, “Can I move back home?”

Of course, we said yes, but it was a question we certainly weren’t planning to hear. In fact, at the time, we were smack-dab in the middle of reconfiguring the house to take advantage of the extra space we had gained when she moved out. And now we found ourselves reconfiguring once again. Stop and redirect—it’s a parent’s way of life.

And even though I have learned to embrace the uncertainty that comes with being a parent, I’d be lying if I said it didn’t unnerve me sometimes. I like order. I like certainty. I’m the type of person who looks up the ending of movies before I go to see them because I don’t want to be blindsided by what happens.

ESCAPE TO MY COMFORT ZONE

That need for certainty and structure is why most nights, when I’m not running around to the kids’ activities, if you’re looking for me, chances are you will find me in my bedroom watching TV. More specifically, I will be in my bed watching a movie on one of the Hallmark channels.

And now that the holiday season is here, the chances of that scenario are even greater thanks to the channel’s nonstop “Countdown to Christmas” schedule. It is my guilty pleasure and comfort zone.

Every once in a while, you will find my youngest daughter, Kacey, by my side. You will not, however, find Mark or my other three kids in the room with me. They don’t understand—and often mock—my attraction to movies they find “so predictable.”

As I repeatedly explain to them, though, that’s what I love about the movies—they are predictable. You see, when I am immersed on a daily basis in the chaos and uncertainty of life, it’s nice to have something that I know is going to turn out OK in the end.

It’s nice to know that at the beginning of those two hours, there is going to be something that unexpectedly thrusts a person out of his or her comfort zone. He or she is then going to end up in a small town, often one that goes all out for Christmas. While there, the lead character will find a connection with someone—often an old boy/girlfriend.

At around the hour and 45-minute mark in the movie there is going to be some sort of a misunderstanding or conflict that will threaten to tear the couple apart. In the end, though, all will be well, and holiday love and happiness will be assured.

A LITTLE BIT OF BOTH

Would I change the uncertainty of the life with my kids? Absolutely not. But sometimes it is nice to know that everything is going to turn out exactly how it should. Predictability isn’t always a bad thing, especially when uncertainty is the world in which you live most of the time.

Now, if you will excuse me, there is a new Christmas movie on Hallmark that I need to go watch.

54 • November 2019 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

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TOP RIGHT: KOTLIARIVA/FOTOSEARCH; PETE & REPEAT: TOM GREENE

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 MIDDLE AND RIGHT: ©2019 CROWN MEDIA UNITED STATES LLC

Susan Hines-Brigger

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LIGHTENUp!

brainteasers | games | challenges

COLOR to CELEBRATE the DAY of the DEAD

TRIVIA QUESTIONS 1: On which feast day is the Day of the Dead celebrated?

2: What is the name of the Disney Pixar film that takes place during Day of the Dead festivities?

3: In which Chicago neighborhood does the Mission of Our Lady of the Angels serve?

4: What was Mary of the Passion’s birth name?

5: Who is the director of the film A Hidden Life?

TOP RIGHT: KOTLIARIVA/FOTOSEARCH; PETE & REPEAT: TOM GREENE

PETE&REPEAT

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

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

These scenes may seem alike to you, But there are changes in the two.

So look and see if you can name Eight ways in which they’re not the same.

(Answers below)

GET THE FUN FOR BOOK

ALL AGES!

Go online to order: Shop.FranciscanMedia.org For ONLY $3.99 Use Code: SAMPETE ANSWERS to PETE & REPEAT: 1) The collar of Dad’s sweater is lower. 2) There is a pink rim around Pete’s plate. 3) Mom has a white band in her hair. 4) One turkey leg is shorter.

5) The arm of Mom’s glasses is thicker. 6) Sis’ right sleeve is shorter. 7) There is another brussels sprout. 8) The salt and pepper shakers have moved to the left.

TOP LEFT: MC KOZUSKO/SAM; TOP MIDDLE AND RIGHT: ©2019 CROWN MEDIA UNITED STATES LLC

6: To which television channel does co-executive editor Susan HinesBrigger tune in for Christmas movie marathons?

StAnthonyMessenger.org | November 2019 • 55

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reflection “If you really want to make a friend, go to someone’s house and eat with him. The people who give you their food give you their heart.”

D-KEINE/ISTOCK

—Cesar Chavez

56 • November 2019 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

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