St. Anthony Messenger September 2018

Sharing the spirit of St. Francis with the world V O L . 1 2 6 / N O . 4 • SEPTEMBER 2018

IN THIS ISSUE:

FRANCISCAN

News from around the Catholic world PAGES 6–9

HIGHER EDUCATION

YOUNG, CATHOLIC, AND HISPANIC SEPTEMBER 2018 • $4.99 StAnthonyMessenger.org

RETHINKING THE DATING GAME IN THE SHADOW OF SUICIDE

C HOOSE JOY THAT BRINGS LIGHT & LIFE ◆ THE LIGHT ENTRUSTED TO YOU Keeping the Flame of Faith Alive

John Wood e keep the flame of our faith alive by sharing it with others. John Wood wrote this practical, inspiring primer that explains the Catholic faith in engaging lessons that can be applied to everyday life. He illustrates how Catholicism has the power to form ordinary people into extraordinary Christians - saints. Using life experiences, stories, movies, songs, and sports, he illuminates the wisdom of Catholicism and equips us to share it with others, especially our own children.

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“With engaging clarity, this book offers a refreshing representation of the timeless Catholic faith. In underscoring the daily wrestle with faith, Wood presents a text to help us both live the faith and ensure its transmission to our posterity.”

— Curtis Martin, Founder, FOCUS

◆ DEFYING GRAVITY

How Choosing Joy Lifted My Family from Death to Life

Joe Sikorra powerful, deeply moving story of a family’s hopes and dreams being shattered by a terrible nightmare, and how they responded to it. Told by the father, a popular Catholic radio host and marriage counselor, it shows how he and his wife dealt with the shocking revelation that their two young children had a rare, neurological and vicious fatal disease. He tells how, what seemed to be a story of death and tragedy, was turned into one of hope, love and joy found in the midst of incredible struggle — an outcome that only a loving, merciful God could provide.

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DGRAP . . . Sewn Softcover, $16.95 “Joe Sikorra is a natural-born story teller, a talent that explodes across each page of his book. This powerful, poignant, inspirational account of his own, sometimes deeply painful, experiences of divine providence proves the wisdom of the adage: ‘Let go, and let God.’” — Patrick Madrid, Host, The Patrick Madrid Show

◆ CAUSE OF OUR JOY

Walking Day by Day with Our Lady

Mother Mary Francis, P.C.C. beautiful book of meditations on Our Lady based on the Litany of the Blessed Virgin and on her Magnificat prayer. It also presents reflections for all the major feasts of Mary, as well as poetry centered on the Mother of God. These meditations come from the profound prayer of a holy contemplative Poor Clare nun, inspired by the Holy Spirit. Acclaimed spiritual writer Mother Mary Francis speaks with an intimate familiarity of the Mother of God, and you will feel that same closeness to Mary after reading these soul stirring reflections.

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—Mother Assumpta long, O.P., Superior, Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist

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

1-800- 651-1531

VOL. 126 NO. 4

SEPTEMBER

2018

36 Francis and Clare Go to College

COVER STORY

By Pat McCloskey, OFM

Students, staff, and faculty at 24 Franciscan colleges and universities in the United States are growing through pilgrimages, classes, and community service.

14 Young Hispanics and the US Church

By Susan Klemond

The V Encuentro process aims to reawaken the faith and gifts of Hispanic Catholics in the United States.

20 The Dating Project

By Sister Rose Pacatte, FSP

Young people have forgotten how to date responsibly.

Boston College’s Dr. Kerry Cronin sought to change that. A documentary—and a nationwide conversation—soon followed.

COVER: Sergeant Greg Kahle looks down on Assisi’s San Rufino Cathedral during a veterans’ pilgrimage last May. Above: Students from Marian University enjoy life there.

28 Straight Talk about Suicide

By John Feister

For too long, suicide has been shrouded in darkness.

Father Ronald Rolheiser, OMI, wants to bring this tragedy out of the shadows of shame and into the light of God’s healing love.

44 The Greatest TV Families

By Christopher Heffron

Families look different than they did 50 years ago— and television has reflected those changes.

StAnthonyMessenger.org | September 2018 • 1

VOL. 126 NO. 4

“Servants of God must always apply themselves to prayer or some good work.”

2018 SEPTEMBER

—St. Francis of Assisi

10 SPIRIT OF ST. FRANCIS 10 Ask a Franciscan

26 POINTS OF VIEW 5

Marking the Spot Where Jesus Died

Your Voice

Letters from Readers

12 Franciscan World

26 At Home on Earth

12 St. Anthony Stories

34 Editorial

13 Followers of St. Francis

54 Faith & Family

Holy Name Province

Feeling Homesick

The Baseball ‘Diamond’

Combating Fear with Faith

Chris Schuermann

A Faith Shaken

48 MEDIA MATTERS 48 Reel Time Eighth Grade

50 Channel Surfing The Cool Kids

55

51 Audio File

Calexico | The Thread That Keeps Us

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE 4 Dear Reader

51 Pete & Repeat

35 Poetry

56 Reflection

6 Church in the News

55 In the Kitchen

52 Bookshelf

You Carried Me

StAnthonyMessenger.org | September 2018 • 3

dear reader

ST. ANTHONY

MESSENGER

Favorite TV Families

PUBLISHER

Daniel Kroger, OFM

W

hen you think of families, what comes to mind? Is it what many people see as the traditional one—mom, dad, and kids? Or does it look different? I suspect our answers would vary, based on each person’s experiences.

That wide range of family makeups is often reflected in the shows we watch on television. In this issue, Executive Editor Christopher Heffron—author of our “Channel Surfing” column—takes on that very topic in his article “The Greatest TV Families” (p. 44). When he first started writing it, Chris reached out for input on which shows he should include. As we all offered our various suggestions— which took up the entire whiteboard in Chris’ office—one thing became very clear: Families on television very much reflect the real-life reality that families come in all shapes, sizes, and colors.

Some of the shows he looks at represent that image of the traditional family while others present a different reality—divorced parents, widows, etc. We have to remember, though, that no matter what a family looks like, there is one thing that unites us all and that is our faith. It reminds us that we are all part of one family.

What are some television shows that resonate with you and your family experience? Let us know by sending your suggestions to MagazineEditors@ FranciscanMedia.org.

PRESIDENT

Kelly McCracken EXECUTIVE EDITORS

Christopher Heffron Susan Hines-Brigger

FRANCISCAN EDITOR

Pat McCloskey, OFM ART DIRECTOR

Mary Catherine Kozusko MANAGING EDITOR

Daniel Imwalle

CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

Sandy Howison

EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

Sharon Lape INTERNS

Jessica Coors, Design Erika Glover, Editorial Christopher Heffron, Executive Editor

Susan Hines-Brigger, Executive Editor

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Editorial

Pete & Repeat

PAGE 34

PAGE 51

Young Hispanics and the US Church

writer

illustrator

writer

PAGE 14

Erika Glover is a student at Bowling Green State University (Ohio), where she majors in public relations.

She served as the editorial intern this summer, working closely with St. Anthony Messenger. She finds inspiration in the beauty of the Catholic faith and tying words together to inspire.

Tom Greene is the illustrator behind our popular “Pete & Repeat” cartoon, which he began drawing in 1974.

Greene worked most of his career as a commercial artist but spent the past 17 years teaching illustration and design at the Art Institute of Cincinnati. His wife and kids have often been subjects for his illustrations.

4 • September 2018 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

Susan Klemond, of St. Paul, Minnesota, finds inspiration in all things Catholic and looks for the best words to tell about her discoveries.

Klemond’s articles have appeared in the National Catholic Register, OSV Newsweekly, the Catholic Spirit, St. Cloud Visitor, and other Catholic publications.

ST. ANTHONY MESSENGER (ISSN #0036276X) (U.S.P.S. PUBLICATION #007956 CANADA PUBLICATION #PM40036350) Volume 126, Number 4, 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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POINTSOFVIEW | YOUR VOICE Organ Donation a Merciful Act

Courageous Voices in the Messenger

Thank you for Jerri Donohue’s great article in the July issue of St. Anthony Messenger, “All in the Parish Family: An Organ Donor Story.” If any readers would like more information about living organ donation, LivingDonorsOnline.org is a helpful resource. Their Facebook page—Living Donors Online—is also a good place to read about the experiences (successful and unsuccessful) of living donors and to ask questions, without commitment, about what it is like.

I am a priest who had the pleasure of donating a kidney some 13 years ago, and I know of another dozen priests who have done likewise. It is a beautiful act of mercy, but it has its risks too.

I want to commend Susan Hines-Brigger on her beautifully written “Faith & Family” column from the July issue of St. Anthony Messenger, titled “My Backyard Chapel.” I thoroughly enjoyed reading the column as it was sensitive, meaningful, and thoughtful.

I’m curious about something, though. As you are lucky to still have your dad with you, perhaps you could ask him if the backyard offers him a spiritual experience. Maybe he speaks to his wife (your mom) while he is there. I wonder what thoughts he has when he is with you in your “chapel.”

I want to comment on three pieces from the May issue. The first comes from the “Your Voice” column and the anonymous letter titled “Church Needs to Address Sexism, Violence, and Other Societal Woes.” This letter was a wonderful statement about the need of the Church to address issues and challenges facing society today.

I wish issues such as climate change and our abuse of the natural world for profit would be discussed in church. During the prayer of the faithful, there may occasionally be a prayer for people suffering from natural disasters, but that’s about the extent of it.

Homilies are often merely a repetition of the Scripture readings.

The second piece is the story titled “Trump Looks at Border Wall Prototypes; Bishop Speaks Out,” from Susan Hines-Brigger’s “Church in the News” column. San Diego Bishop Robert W. McElroy called the wall “grotesque” and a symbol of division. Trump calls it “beautiful.” I feel like we are going back in time to the Cold War era and the Berlin Wall.

People build bridges, not walls, to communicate. The words about freedom under the Statue of Liberty are made a mockery. Yet, once again, our pulpits are silent. I believe there is a saying that goes: “Evil flourishes when good people do and say nothing.” I was very proud of this courageous bishop to speak the truth.

The last piece I’d like to comment on is Kyle Kramer’s “At Home on Earth” column from the May issue (“Bouncing Back”), concerning the recovery of wolves in Yellowstone National Park after being hunted nearly to extinction. God created our world with a natural balance in place. Mr. Kramer’s column was a wonderful commentary on stewardship—again, a commonsense topic for the well-being of humans and of all God’s creatures.

Still, I have never heard a word about our responsibility to God’s gifts of creation in Mass. Thank you for your magazine and most especially for printing my letter. Maybe someday more people will find the courage to speak out about these topics.

Bob Rosa Sayville, New York

Marietta Scaltrito Staten Island, New York

Father Pat Sullivan, OFM Cap Okinawa, Japan

Love Is the Only Answer I’m writing in regard to the July feature from Richard Rohr, OFM, “‘The Greatest of These Is Love.’” I beg you, please excerpt and publish more of Father Richard’s book Essential Teachings on Love (Orbis Books), for not every subscriber may buy it. Better still, serialize it entirely!

His message is one of the most important you have ever printed. His writings—and the Gospel of John from which it draws—point to the only solution to today’s evils. Satan ceases to matter wherever love is.

Bill Laudeman Red Bank, Tennessee

What About Dad’s Time in the ‘Chapel’?

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StAnthonyMessenger.org | September 2018 • 5

church IN THE NEWS

people | events | trends

By Susan Hines-Br ig ger

NEW ALLEGATIONS AGAINST CARDINAL McCARRICK

6 • September 2018 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

TOP LEFT: CNS PHOTO/CHIP SOMODEVILLA, POOL VIA EPA; LOWER LEFT: CNS PHOTO/COURTESY TV2000; RIGHT: CNS PHOTO/PAUL HARING

ollowing reports of more abuse allegations against retired a priest of the Archdiocese of New York—was found to be Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, leading Church officials “credible and substantiated.” and organizations have questioned the Church’s handling of In a statement issued July 24, Boston Cardinal Seán the situation, reported Catholic News Service (CNS).

P. O’Malley, head of the Pontifical Commission for the According to a New York Times Protection of Minors, said that “three article published on July 19, Cardinal specific actions” must be taken to McCarrick abused a man identified as address the situation.

James for nearly 20 years. The man asked The first, he said, is that his last name not be used in order “a fair and rapid to protect a sibling. The abuse, James adjudication of these says, began when the cardinal (then a accusations,” followed young priest) was 39 and James was 11. by “an assessment of Cardinal McCarrick was a close friend of the adequacy of our the family and called himself “Uncle Ted.” standards and policies According to James, the abuse continin the Church at every ued after the family moved to California level, and especially and throughout his service in the Navy in the case of bishand his struggles with alcohol and drugs. ops.” The third action, He filed a police report against the carCardinal O’Malley went dinal in the suburban Virginia county of Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley (right), head of the Pontifical Commission for on to say, is “commuWashington, where James now lives. nicating more clearly the Protection of Minors, called for “three specific actions” in response to James told the Times that when he to the Catholic faithful new allegations of sexual abuse against Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, heard the news of Cardinal McCarrick’s retired archbishop of Washington, DC (left). and to all victims the removal from ministry, he got down on process for reporting his knees and “thanked God that I am not alone, and it is allegations against bishops and cardinals.” going to be OK. And I can tell somebody, and someone is Failure to do those three things, he said, will endanger the going to believe me.”

Church’s already weakened moral authority and destroy the Three days earlier, the paper ran a story detailing allegatrust needed for the Church to minister to society. tions that then-Bishop McCarrick had abused two semi“In this moment, there is no greater imperative for the narians in the 1980s, when he was heading the Diocese of Church than to hold itself accountable to address these matMetuchen, New Jersey. ters, which I will bring to my upcoming meetings with the One of the seminarians, Robert Ciolek, told the Times Holy See with great urgency and concern,” he said. that he felt unable to say no, in part because he had been In related news, Bishop Steven R. Biegler of Cheyenne, sexually abused by a teacher in his Catholic high school— Wyoming, has said that he will continue to enforce restricinformation he had shared with Bishop McCarrick. tions placed on the public ministry of retired Bishop Joseph “I trusted him, I confided in him, I admired him,” he H. Hart of Cheyenne in light of the results of a new invesadded. “I couldn’t imagine that he would have anything tigation into previous abuse allegations made against the other than my best interests in mind.” Ciolek left the priestprelate, now 86. hood in 1988 to marry. He received an $80,000 settlement in The accusation is that Bishop Hart sexually abused two 2004 paid by the Archdiocese of Newark and the Dioceses of boys from Wyoming after he became Cheyenne’s bishop Metuchen and Trenton. in 1978. Bishop Hart, who retired as head of the diocese in According to the story, complaints about Cardinal 2001, has always maintained his innocence, “categorically McCarrick were made to American bishops, the papal nunand completely” denying any improper conduct. cio in Washington, and, in 2008, to Pope Benedict XVI. In 2002, police and prosecutors in Cheyenne cleared This past June, Cardinal McCarrick announced that he Bishop Hart of any wrongdoing because they found “no eviwould no longer exercise any public ministry “in obedidence to support the allegations.” The Diocese of Cheyenne ence” to the Vatican after an allegation he abused a teenage said in a statement that it “now questions that conclusion, altar boy in 1971—when Cardinal McCarrick was serving as based upon a recently completed exhaustive investigation.”

TOP AND INSET: CNS PHOTO/BOB ROLLER

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USCCB HEAD: ROE SHOULD NOT BE LITMUS TEST FOR COURT NOMINEES

POPE REMEMBERS CARDINAL WHO ANNOUNCED HIS ELECTION

TOP LEFT: CNS PHOTO/CHIP SOMODEVILLA, POOL VIA EPA; LOWER LEFT: CNS PHOTO/COURTESY TV2000; RIGHT: CNS PHOTO/PAUL HARING

TOP AND INSET: CNS PHOTO/BOB ROLLER

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hree days before President Donald Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court, Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo sent a letter to members of the US Senate, urging members not to use the court case of Roe v. Wade as a litmus test for choosing the new Supreme Court justice.

“If a Supreme Court ruling was wrongly decided, is widely Nominee Brett Kavanaugh rejected as morally flawed and socially harmful, and is seen even by many supporters as having little basis in the Constitution, these are very good reasons not to use it as a litmus test for future judges.

Further, nominees’ faith should not be used as a proxy for their views on Roe. Any religious test for public office is both unjust and unconstitutional,” the cardinal wrote.

Kavanaugh is a federal appeals court judge in Washington, DC, and a Catholic who once clerked for retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy. At the press conference announcing his nomination, Kavanaugh said that if chosen to be on the Supreme Court, he will “keep an open mind in every case” and “always strive to preserve the Constitution of the United States and the American rule of law.”

ITALIAN JOURNALIST TO HEAD VATICAN COMMUNICATIONS

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n July, Pope Francis appointed Italian journalist Paolo Ruffini to head the Vatican’s Secretariat for Communication, reported CNS. Ruffini, the first layperson to head such a high-level Vatican dicastery, has decades of experience in print, radio, and television broadcasting.

The Secretariat for Communication was created Italian journalist Paolo Ruffini

by Pope Francis in 2015 in order to streamline and coordinate the Vatican’s many news and communications outlets and make them more effective. The Vatican has since changed its name to Dicastery for Communication.

Pope Francis blesses the casket of French Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran during his funeral Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican July 12. Cardinal Tauran announced the election of Pope Francis in 2013.

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ardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, the French cardinal who led the Vatican’s outreach to other religions and announced to the world the election of Pope Francis five years ago, died on July 5 at the age of 75. The cardinal, who had been living with Parkinson’s disease, passed away while in Hartford, Connecticut, where he had been receiving medical treatment. The pope gave the final blessing at the cardinal’s funeral, sprinkling with holy water and incensing Cardinal Tauran’s casket, upon which was laid an open book of the Gospels.

In a telegram to Cardinal Tauran’s sister, Pope Francis wrote, “I have fond memories of this man of profound faith who courageously served the Church of Christ to the end, despite the weight of disease.”

StAnthonyMessenger.org | September 2018 • 7

church IN THE NEWS

people | events | trends

ANTI-GUN MARCH CLOSES DOWN HIGHWAY

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A new study of the Shroud of Turin, seen here, claims that blood patterns on the shroud are not consistent with those left by a crucified person.

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n expert on the Shroud of Turin, the cloth believed to be the burial shroud of Jesus, has dismissed a recent study that claims the blood patterns on the cloth are not consistent with someone who had been crucified, reported CNS. Emanuela Marinelli, an expert on the Shroud of Turin, said “there was nothing scientific” about the experiments conducted by Matteo Borrini, an Italian forensic scientist, and Luigi Garlaschelli, an Italian chemist. The 2014 study, which was published in the Journal of Forensic Sciences July 10, claimed the blood patterns on the hands are “only consistent with a standing subject with arms at a 45-degree angle,” while the bloodstains emanating from the right side of the chest—believed to be from the lance that pierced Christ—“are totally unrealistic.”

Marinelli asked: “Does it seem like a scientific criterion to take a mannequin— like the ones used to display clothes in a store window—and a sponge soaked in fake blood attached to a piece of wood that is pressed on the right side of a dummy to see where the streams of blood fall? If this is considered science, I guess I’ll just have to take my degree in natural sciences and throw it away.”

8 • September 2018 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

SOUTH CAROLINA CHURCH NOW MINOR BASILICA

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t. Peter’s Church in downtown Columbia, South Carolina, became the Basilica of St. Peter on June 24, making it the first minor basilica in South Carolina and the 85th in the United States. The Very Reverend Gary S. Linsky, rector/pastor of St. Peter’s, said: “We are humbled the Holy See has honored St. Peter’s with the designation of minor basilica. This action acknowledges the parish’s historic beauty, devoutly celebrated liturgies, and growing vitality.”

Minor basilicas are traditionally named because of their antiquity, dignity, historical value, architectural and artistic worth, and significance as centers of worship.

CNS PHOTO/CHAZ MUTH

SHROUD OF TURIN EXPERT CRITICIZES NEW STUDY

TOP LEFT: CNS PHOTO/NATALIE BATTAGLIA, CHICAGO CATHOLIC; MIDDLE LEFT: CNS PHOTO/PAUL HARING; MIDDLE RIGHT: WIKIPEDIA/ABDUCTIVE

Hundreds of protesters took over a major Chicago highway on July 7 demanding that city officials stop gun violence in the city.

hicago priest Father Michael Pfleger and anti-gun activists led hundreds of protesters onto Interstate 94— a major Chicago highway—for about an hour on July 7 to demand that city officials do something to stop gun violence in the city, reported CNS. Following the protest, Father Pfleger told attendees, “Today was the attention-getter, but now comes the action.”

Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich thanked city and state law enforcement officials for allowing the protest to take place and praised the participants, saying: “History has proven many times that nonviolent action and peaceful protest have the power to create change. The change we need in this moment is to end a culture of violence and indifference.

This is a priority we must all embrace and for which we must all work.”

BISHOPS TRAVEL TO BORDER

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Sister Norma Pimentel talks with (left to right) Bishop Joseph C. Bambera, Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo, and Auxiliary Bishop Robert J. Brennan.

CNS PHOTO/CHAZ MUTH

TOP LEFT: CNS PHOTO/NATALIE BATTAGLIA, CHICAGO CATHOLIC; MIDDLE LEFT: CNS PHOTO/PAUL HARING; MIDDLE RIGHT: WIKIPEDIA/ABDUCTIVE

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his past July, a delegation of US bishops from around the country made a two-day visit to the BrownsvilleMcAllen area of Texas, near the US border with Mexico, to meet with and talk to those affected by the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance immigration policy, reported CNS. During a Mass at the start of the visit, Bishop Daniel E. Flores of Brownsville said Christ’s example was to respect the dignity of each person “and to hear their cry to tend to them.

That is the purpose of the Church. We as a Church have to hear where the reality is, we have to be the ones to say, ‘There’s a human face, and that human face always points us to Christ.’ If we don’t say it, who will?”

The group of bishops, led by Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, visited the Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley’s Humanitarian Respite Center, a short-term hospitality center that serves families who have been processed by the Department of Homeland Security with immediate medical assistance, food, clothing, and information about complying with immigration proceedings. During the visit, the bishops met with people staying at the center and talked with them about topics such as why they left home or simply asked the migrants where they were headed and how they were doing.

Bishop Joseph C. Bambera of Scranton, Pennsylvania, said he found hope in hearing the people in the room talk about what’s ahead. He said they didn’t speak of making money, but rather of finding safety for their children, driven by “the most basic instinct to protect your family.” Auxiliary Bishop Robert J. Brennan of Rockville Centre, New York, said the experience helped him think of those he knows in New York “who’ve come on the other side of that journey. This gives me a deeper understanding of the experience that many of our folks went through to get to the point where I’ve come to know and love them on Long Island.”

On the second day of the trip, the bishops met with US government officials and members of the Catholic community as part of a full day of visits with a focus on family unity.

WANT MORE? Visit our newspage:

FranciscanMedia.org/catholic-news

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StAnthonyMessenger.org | September 2018 • 9

SPIRITOFST.FRANCIS | ASK A FRANCISCAN

By Pat McCloskey, OFM

Marking the Spot Where Jesus Died

In John 19:34, we read that a Roman solider thrust a lance into Jesus’ side, “and immediately blood and water flowed out.” This was certainly a significant event and a monumental moment in our religious history. Shouldn’t this spot where Jesus died be marked by a miraculous “glow” as a sacred site having wondrous properties? Why is the spot where Our Lady of Lourdes appeared marked with more precision than the spot where Jesus died?

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

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

At Calvary (Jerusalem), a rock under the altar marks the spot.

As for your desire that this place have a miraculous “glow” and wondrous properties, such a development might suggest that faith in Jesus’ saving passion, death, and resurrection can be replaced by miracles. Nothing in the Gospels suggests that is possible. The apostles were martyred for their faith in Jesus—not for the dirt where he died.

The Seven Unities

Ephesians 4:4–6 speaks of those Christians as needing a unity in body, spirit, hope, Lord, faith, Baptism, and God. A note in the New American Bible identifies these seven unities as the basis, in reverse order, for later creeds. What do these unities mean in a person’s spiritual life?

?

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

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

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

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hey describe what is more and more normal as faith in Jesus Christ deepens among his disciples. Early Christians from a Jewish background, for example, found it very challenging to regard Christians from a gentile background as their sisters and brothers. These unities are the natural and overall effect of God’s grace within a group of Jesus’ followers.

KYOLSHIN/FOTOSEARCH

Father Pat welcomes your questions!

TOP LEFT: MC KOZUSKO/SAM; TOP RIGHT: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS; LOWER: VADIMGUZHVA/FOTOSEARCH

Pat McCloskey, OFM

he presumed spot where Jesus died has indeed been marked at Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which includes Calvary and Jesus’ tomb. A simple shrine to mark the spot was destroyed on orders from the emperor Marcus Aurelius in the second century and replaced with a temple dedicated to Venus, the goddess of love.

When Christianity was legalized in the Roman Empire in the early fourth century, St. Helena, mother of the emperor Constantine, had the original Church of the Holy Sepulchre built. It has been destroyed and rebuilt over the centuries.

Roman authorities considered Jesus guilty of treason. His followers were in no position to erect a magnificent church there for centuries.

In Lourdes, the location of Mary’s apparitions was marked immediately after those events.

s

Quick Questions and Answers

ST. ANTHONY

How should I address St. Pio of Pietrelcina in my daily prayers? “Padre Pio” seems very warm and “St. Pio” seems very cold. I simply want to do the right thing.

Many years ago, a relative was excommunicated from the Church after she divorced her husband, who was deeply involved in a satanic cult. Why the excommunication?

After 1884, there was automatic excommunication for US Catholics who obtained a civil divorce and remarried. The US bishops abolished that in 1977.

In fact, tribunals in most US dioceses or archdioceses require documentation about a civil divorce before they will consider a petition for a declaration of nullity. Excommunication has never been an instruction to God or St. Peter about who should be allowed into heaven. God doesn’t need our help to judge such things.

What does the expression resurrection of the body mean in the Apostles’ Creed?

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:

I am troubled by all the good fortune that I have enjoyed because I think it may be the reward for the good things my ancestors have done and not for anything that I have done.

Is that possible?

KYOLSHIN/FOTOSEARCH

TOP LEFT: MC KOZUSKO/SAM; TOP RIGHT: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS; LOWER: VADIMGUZHVA/FOTOSEARCH

It indicates belief that death does not totally destroy a person; there is a life beyond this one where body and soul are reunited for eternal joy or eternal punishment. Only God knows who deserves which kind of afterlife. Belief in the resurrection of the body is another way of speaking about the communion of saints.

FRANK JASPER, OFM

According to Preface I of the Saints, they “spur us on to victory.” I think you should go with whichever title inspires you more and encourages you to live as someone open to God’s grace. Some people have had a similar question about whether “Mother Teresa of Kolkata” or “St. Teresa of Kolkata” is correct.

Neither title could offend a saint.

BREAD s

We benefit from the good actions and attitudes of our ancestors, but no one gets a free ride. There are plenty of examples of people who have squandered material and other benefits received from their ancestors. Accept what you have received and share those benefits with others as best you can.

StAnthony.org

s

mAil poStAl communicAtionS to:

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

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StAnthonyMessenger.org | September 2018 • 11

SPIRITOFST.FRANCIS “Let us begin again, brothers, for up to now we have done nothing.”

—St. Francis of Assisi

FRANCISCAN WORLD

IN 1224 at Mount La Verna in Tuscany, Francis of Assisi made a special Lent before the feast of St. Michael the Archangel.

Near the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (September 14), Francis experienced an ecstasy after which he discovered that his hands, feet, and side now bore the marks of Christ’s passion.

Knowing how readily people might misinterpret this event, Francis mostly succeeded in keeping it a secret until he died.

—Pat McCloskey, OFM

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

Holy Name Province

T

his Franciscan province was established in 1901, drawing from foundations in the previous century.

In 1855, Pamfilo da Magliano and three other Italian friars came to southwestern New York to establish a college for young men and to minister to local Catholics near Allegany.

A generous gift from Nicholas Devereux made this possible. In 1875, the St. Elizabeth Province in Germany sent friars to New York and New Jersey because Prussia was closing Franciscan and other religious houses there.

As of July 25, 262 solemnly professed friars, 10 simply professed friars, three novices, and six postulants of the Holy Name Province live and work in 12 states. There, they staff parishes, serve at St. Bonaventure University and

Siena College, preach at missions and retreats, serve as chaplains, run a shrine church in Boston and several parishes in Manhattan, minister to homeless people, and operate soup kitchens. Two friars serve in Puerto Rico, one as its archbishop.

One year ago, in Silver Spring, Maryland, this province began hosting an interprovincial postulancy program. Six US provinces help young men discern if they are called to the Order of Friars Minor and if they are ready for the novitiate, the next stage of formation.

Friars of the Holy Name Province have served as missionaries in Brazil, Peru, and China, with many friars joining new Franciscan entities in those countries.

—Pat McCloskey, OFM

ST. ANTHONY STORIES

The Baseball ‘Diamond’

W

hen I was about 7 or 8 years old, I found my mother’s diamond ring on her dresser and, after playing with it, put it in my pocket and went outside. We lived next to a baseball field, and we would go over and play in the park.

Later that night, my mother asked if anyone saw her diamond ring. I told her I put it in my pocket and it was gone. My mother’s patron saint is St. Anthony, and she had a beautiful portrait in the house. My older brother and sister all asked where I was

12 • September 2018 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

during the day, and I said the park. My mom asked everyone to say a prayer to St. Anthony to find her ring. My older brother went to the park at 10:00 at night with a flashlight and looked under a lamppost for her ring among broken pieces of glass. My mother said that if it were there, St. Anthony would help us find it. My brother found her diamond ring, and we thanked St. Anthony. I will be forever grateful. I love St. Anthony.

—Cheryl Gionet

MC KOZUSKO/SAM

Francis’ life was so conformed to that of Christ that the stigmata seemed quite natural.

Friars of the Holy Name Province meet on the campus of Siena College.

TOP LEFT: SAINT FRANCIS RECEIVING THE STIGMATA, PETER PAUL RUBENS (CIRCA 1633) WIKIMEDIACOMMONS; TOP RIGHT: COURTESY OF HOLY NAME PROVINCE; BOTTOM: SPANISHALEX/FOTOSEARCH

ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI

FREE to

FOLLOWERS OF ST. FRANCIS

Helping the ‘Least of Us’ “Franciscan values and vision transcend both place and time, and are only surpassed by the unconditional love they offer to anyone.”

MC KOZUSKO/SAM

B

orn and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, Chris Schuermann has grown up committed to service since the age of 14. As one of 10 children in an Irish Catholic family, she has dedicated her life to giving others that same sense of family.

“When you grow up doing outreach work with your family, this experience becomes a part of your own life,” Chris explains. Aside from that, her regular volunteer work with the homeless began over 20 years ago as the parish coordinator for Interfaith Hospitality Network. She feels blessed to have felt Christ’s hand throughout her personal and professional life.

After graduating college, Chris was offered a job teaching first grade at a Catholic school with a revolving door of teachers. But Chris stuck it out. She was asked to come back the following year and ended up working at the school for a few years. She now works in the world of nonprofits, where she plans to work until retirement.

Currently, Chris serves as the executive director for St. Francis Seraph Ministries in Cincinnati’s Overthe-Rhine (OTR) community. The Franciscan friars have been a presence in this historically low-income community since the 1840s. Today, the poverty level in OTR is lower than in the past, but daily struggles remain for many. St. Francis Seraph Ministries seeks to remedy some of the neighborhood’s woes.

Chris was instrumental in the establishment of one of the ministries’ programs, the St. Anthony Center, when the idea was first discussed in the spring of 2015. Within a matter of weeks, the friars, along with Franciscan Media, which originally occupied

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On the go?

Chris Schuermann

the space, offered St. Francis Seraph Ministries the entire complex, “a gift much bigger than expected,” she says.

Since St. Francis Seraph Ministries “didn’t need all 45,000 square feet, we decided to approach other local nonprofit ministries” to see if they wanted to be a part of this upcoming vision.

A total of seven outreach ministries (St. Francis Seraph Ministries, the Center for Respite Care, Haircuts from the Heart, Mary Magdalen House, the Welcome Home Collaborative, Sweet Cheeks Diaper Bank, and TriHealth Outreach Ministries) share the space and often serve many of the same individuals.

Chris finds herself at the heart of a mission that works to nurture and nourish the urban poor in mind, body, and spirit.

Chris has the opportunity to see all of these ministries in action, each of them working in their own way to respond to the needs of the poor. “The best part of my job,” she says with a smile, “are the miracles I see nearly every day and how providence is ever present in the St. Anthony Center.”

Working with the Franciscan friars has nurtured a deeply supportive community and has allowed her spirituality to grow as well. “Franciscan values and vision transcend both place and time, and are only surpassed by the unconditional love they offer to anyone,” she says.

“All those who are involved in the mission at the St. Anthony Center are embodying Christ and living out the Gospel message by meeting the needs of those they serve through quiet, innovative leadership.” For more information, visit sfsministries.org.

—Erika Glover

St. Anthony Messenger has a digital edition that is available to all print subscribers.

• Does not change your print subscription • Easy to register at: StAnthonyMessenger.org

Want more inspiration?

Visit the website FranciscanMedia.org for: • Saint of the Day • Minute Meditations • Family resources • Prayer downloads • Information on the seven sacraments

FranciscanMedia.org

StAnthonyMessenger.org | September 2018 • 13

and the US Church The V Encuentro process aims to reawaken the faith and gifts of Hispanic Catholics in the United States.

By Susan Klemond

14 • September 2018 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

J

ulio Beltran knows something about divine providence. Five years ago, the Texas ministry leader drove 250 miles with all his belongings to start a job in the Beaumont Diocese, not knowing where he would stay. Unperturbed, he eventually reached a friend who had a room for him.

Now the diocese’s assistant director of Hispanic ministry, Beltran, 35, again faces uncertainty as he advocates for Catholic youth and young adults in a national Hispanic process convened by the US bishops called V Encuentro, September 20–23, 2018. (V signifies the fifth such process since 1972, and encuentro means “encounter.”)

A “dreamer” who came from Mexico with his parents as a teen and now hopes for US citizenship, Beltran doesn’t know if he’ll have the chance to see youth find their place in the Church. He was granted deferred action from deportation under the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy and has fewer than two years remaining on his work

ALL PHOTOS AND INFOGRAPHICS COURTESY OF THE USCCB

Young Hispanics

Leaders from the Archdiocese of Santa Fe proudly hold their V Encuentro guidebooks in front of an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

permit. Without US government action allowing Beltran and other young adults brought to the United States as children to stay in the country, his status is not secure. But he is trusting God.

ALL PHOTOS AND INFOGRAPHICS COURTESY OF THE USCCB

A NEW GENERATION OF HISPANIC LEADERS

Beltran advocates especially for first- and second-generation Hispanic youth as he helps coordinate the V Encuentro process, which is reaching some of the estimated 30 million US Hispanics who identify as Catholic.

“The Latino community is growing in big numbers, and I think we lack a lot of leadership who know how to work with this bicultural reality of the young people,” says Beltran.

“I really hope that the bishops and other ecclesial leaders support more formation of leadership and others who know how to work with the young people.”

Inspired by Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation “Evangelii Gaudium” (“The Joy of the Gospel”), V Encuentro leaders and participants have sought to discern ways the US Church can better respond to the Hispanic presence and to strengthen their own response to the call for new evangelization as missionary disciples.

Convened in 2013, V Encuentro launched a national dialogue among US Hispanic Catholics that began in parishes, lay ecclesial movements, schools and universities, and other Catholic organizations across the country. Following conversations about their needs, aspirations, and roles in the

Church, participants continued the dialogue at diocesan and regional gatherings.

This month, 3,000 delegates selected at the earlier meetings, as well as many cardinals, bishops, and priests, will attend the V National Encuentro in Grapevine, Texas.

Conclusions and recommendations from the process are being compiled and will be reviewed by the US bishops.

Through the process, V Encuentro leaders hope to identify 20,000 new Church leaders to replace lay ecclesial leaders expected to retire in the next 10 years, according to Alejandro Aguilera-Titus, the V Encuentro national coordinator.

As of June, more than 330,000 Catholics of different ages and backgrounds had participated in parish and diocesan programs across the country. As part of the process, many have learned techniques for evangelizing family, friends, and neighbors.

Some, like Beltran, grapple with immigration issues, but they’ve also expressed the need for a greater sense of community and more faith formation and other programs, especially in Spanish.

Since the last Encuentro process in 2000, more than 20 million Hispanics have immigrated to the United States.

According to the Washington-based Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA), about 70 percent of all Hispanics are Catholic.

“Now we’re coming to the threshold where we’re saying StAnthonyMessenger.org | September 2018 • 15

A wooden cross created for the V Encuentro displays the coat of arms of each diocese in Region 14, composed of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina.

we’ve got so much more and we need to focus and for people to understand the reality of the US Church, the intercultural involvement,” says Deacon Milton Vega, 64, who, with his wife, Elia, 68, lives in St. Johns, Florida.

Hispanic Catholics have made progress, but “there was a need to reawaken with a calling from the pope himself to go and reach out and reawaken the faith in every community,” says Deacon Milton, a V Encuentro participant. “That is one of our goals.”

WELCOMING NEWCOMERS

Though the Vegas are both native Spanish speakers, they sometimes struggled to understand each other when they began dating in 1971.

“We were divided by a common language,” says Deacon Milton, whose Puerto Rican Spanish differs from the Spanish that Elia grew up speaking in Peru.

Their situation reveals the challenge immigrants from 23 predominantly Spanishspeaking countries and territories outside the United States can experience in understanding each other, as well as learning English. By welcoming the newcomers and bridging the communication barrier, parishes can encourage them to become involved, Deacon Milton says. “If we are going to successfully integrate

as a nation, we have to begin at home in the Church,” he says.

The Vegas meet Hispanics from many places in their work as catechists in their parish, Most Holy Redeemer in Jacksonville, Florida, and as they travel through the St. Augustine Diocese. They see a great need for faith formation, especially in Spanish. “We go out to the peripheries as the pope says and go and teach and spread the Gospel out there and try to help with the formation of newcomers to the faith,” he says.

Says Elia: “There are many, many adults who need to get their sacraments. Either the three Sacraments of Initiation or two of them; some were baptized but never got Confirmation and Communion.”

The Vegas themselves returned to the faith later in life. After experiencing conversions on a 2002 retreat, they’ve gradually become more involved in ministry in their parish and diocese. They have two grown sons.

As V Encuentro leaders, they’ve talked with other Hispanic Catholics on the parish, diocesan, and regional levels about the need for formation and the Church’s role in intercultural involvement.

“We can be an outreach to the folks who are now coming into our nation who are members of the Catholic Church,” Deacon Milton says.

Hispanic Catholics of all ages are seeking the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) and faith formation, but many parishes lack Spanish-language RCIA and

Delegates from New Jersey and Pennsylvania participate in the V Encuentro Region 3 gathering. This growing faith formation and new evangelization endeavor draws a great deal of inspiration from Pope Francis’ encyclical “The Joy of the Gospel.”

16 • September 2018 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

formation materials, he says.

“What is happening is separated brethren [Protestant congregations] are providing the facilities for them to go to,” he says. “They’re giving them the books.”

REACHING OUT TO YOUTH AND YOUNG ADULTS

Juan Andres Villa, 21, knows about Hispanic Catholics leaving the Church to join Protestant denominations. Two of his sisters became members of nondenominational churches when they were in their mid-20s. Had his sisters known about the Encuentro process when they were younger, they might have remained Catholic, says Villa, who lives in San Bernardino, California.

Villa fell in love with the Catholic faith as a teen in the high school youth group his mother started five years ago at their parish, Our Lady of Guadalupe.

He now helps lead the group, which is active in faith and social justice.

As an Encuentro participant, he wants to represent the concerns of youth who can’t directly participate because they are minors. In some parishes, youth have struggled to get support and resources to start youth ministry.

“The Church hasn’t been supportive of young people and hasn’t taken time to understand we have a hope that’s awesome,” he says. “One of the things the Church struggles with is pushing down funnels to local parishes. The Church has goals, [but] Pope Francis’ message has to get translated down to have this conversation.”

Villa attends college and works as a youth minister and community activist.

He has been part of V Encuentro planning in his diocese for the past three years and hopes to become one of the V National Encuentro delegates. “In the Encuentro process, what I love so much about it is not [only] doing work inside the walls of the church, [but] also being involved in community,” he says.

Young adults are ready to become Church leaders, but it would help if the Church understood young adult culture, he says.

TOP: Young people participate in a procession during the Region 11 Encuentro gathering in Visalia, California. BOTTOM: Delegates representing California, Nevada, and Hawaii receive Communion.

StAnthonyMessenger.org | September 2018 • 17

Hispanic Catholics Find Their Voice

By the fourth Encuentro in 2000, the US Hispanic population had grown to more than 35 million. IV Encuentro was an opportunity for US Hispanic Catholics to share the Encuentro experience with all the cultures and races represented in the US Church.

Villa says V Encuentro participants learn from listening to each other. “The most important part is making change, a direct change to the way the Catholic Church in the United States is going to be,” he says. “The process makes you excited about being a Catholic.”

Beltran enjoys seeing how the Gospel transforms young people.

But he feels the needs of many young bilingual/bicultural Catholics are being overlooked in the Church. “The young people are bicultural, and I think that in some ways we haven’t appreciated, respected, or promoted these bicultural gifts that they bring,” he says.

He cites a statistic that 73 percent of Catholic young people under 18 in Texas are Hispanics, adding that they could be better represented in Church leadership.

“In the main culture, the message they hear is that they’re not American enough, and, within the Hispanic pastoral juvenil [youth and young adult ministry], they receive the message that they’re not Hispanic enough,” Beltran says, adding that the two cultures could be better integrated.

“I think it’s really a fundamental part to educate, to guide the young people because they are the present and will be the future,” he says, acknowledging that fewer young people are participating in V Encuentro than hoped. “I really believe these young people can bring a lot of gifts to the Church and all society.”

More ministries specifically for youth and young adults can help them use those gifts, he says. “They want a space where they can be active in the community, have their own sense of community, and express themselves without feeling judged or criticized.”

The first national Encuentro of youth ministry in 2006 presented an opportunity to listen to Hispanic youth and discern how to respond to their needs.

FINDING JOY IN SHARING THE FAITH

Youth and young adults participated in a regional Encuentro meeting in Detroit, where delegates from Michigan and Ohio gathered to discuss how best to minister to Hispanic Catholics.

FOR THE PAST 46 YEARS, the National Encuentro processes have given US Hispanic Catholics opportunities to come together to discern how they respond as Church. During that time, their voices have grown more clear and resonant in an increasingly diverse US Church.

Quoted on the V Encuentro website (VEncuentro.org), Detroit Auxiliary Bishop Arturo Cepeda stated that previous Encuentros have been the “backbone” during the growth of Hispanic ministry, providing an opportunity to interpret and project into the future Hispanic identity, presence, and contribution to the Church and US society as a whole.

When US bishops convened the first Encuentro in 1972, an estimated 10 million Hispanics lived in the United States, according to a study by the Pew Research Center. The goal of the first Encuentro process was to enable the baptized Catholics in this population to “come out of the shadows” as they expressed their needs, aspirations, and contributions.

Five years later, the second Encuentro went further, as US Hispanic Catholics identified themselves as a diverse community united in faith, history, and language. During this process, they discerned a way of being Church based in the ecclesiology of communion and a preferential option for those who are estranged or living in poverty.

Eight years later, at the third Encuentro, Hispanic Catholics articulated a clear direction for the Church’s response to the Hispanic presence and their response as Church. The vision was recorded in the “Plan Pastoral Nacional del Ministerio Hispano” (1987), and in an evangelizing, communal, and missionary model of the Church.

During the 18-year gap between the IV Encuentro and the current one, the US Hispanic population grew by almost 20 million. During that time, Church leaders have devoted a great deal of time to assisting new arrivals, according to Encuentro leaders. During the V Encuentro, US Hispanic Catholics have been encouraged to continue their walk as God’s people, raise their voices, and discern pastoral priorities and strategies.

18 • September 2018 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

Lisseth and Maria Garcia reach out to the Hispanic community through their online Christian radio station.

From their home in Peoria, Illinois, the mother and daughter broadcast Spanish-language Christian music, Scripture, and other spiritual messages.

COURTESY OF USCCB/DIANNE TOWALSKI,THE VISITOR

A Brief History of the Encuentro:

COURTESY OF USCCB/DIANNE TOWALSKI,THE VISITOR

But they also evangelize in person through their parish, other ministries, and the V Encuentro process.

Lisseth, 42, attributes her faith to lessons her grandfather taught her while she was growing up in Guatemala. “He said, ‘Wherever you go, whatever you say, whatever you do, God is with you.’”

Last year, Lisseth and Maria, 14, along with others from their parish, St. Mary Immaculate in Plainfield, Illinois, participated in a V Encuentro small group. After praying and studying Pope Francis’ teaching on evangelization, the Garcias and friends brought the Gospel message into their neighborhood, local stores, and a hospital.

“It’s an amazing experience to go away from the church because inside the church we learn, but outside the church we need to put the message in the hearts because a lot of people have a lot of problems,” says Lisseth, who teaches Spanish at a Catholic grade school.

Following their success, Lisseth, Maria, and their friends taught a larger parish group about evangelization and led a discussion where parishioners identified the need for a Spanish-language youth group, a Bible study, and possibilities for further online study about the Catholic faith. The pastor has begun to respond to the requests, Lisseth says.

“If we learn, we have something to give the community,” she says.

Maria also has seen opportunities for Hispanic youth through V Encuentro. “I think we teens should be more involved in the Church because we’re the future, and . . . what we bring to the future is what the next generations are going to have,” she says. “We want the faith in people to grow so they know more about God and so they can put all their faith in him and they won’t be depressed.”

With her hope that V Encuentro will benefit the US Hispanic Catholic community, Lisseth prays for an increase of faith in the Church and in the desire to serve others.

“Now—after the V Encuentro—we open our ears, mouths, and hearts, and go move to find where you can do something for someone,” she says.

Susan Klemond is a freelance writer from St. Paul, Minnesota. She enjoys writing about the Church—both the institution and its members. Her article “One Family, Two Faiths” appeared in the January 2017 issue of St. Anthony Messenger.

TOP: Young adults lead a discussion at a V Encuentro Region 13 gathering in Phoenix, Arizona. BOTTOM: Archbishop José H. Gómez of Los Angeles addresses Region 11 delegates in San Jose, California.

StAnthonyMessenger.org | September 2018 • 19

20 • September 2018 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

FOTOSEARCH IMAGES: PAPER AND PAPER CLIP: SQ BACK; POLAROID FRAME: BARNEYBOOGLES; LOWER RIGHT: COURTESY OF THE DATING PROJECT

FOTOSEARCH IMAGES: BINDER CLIP AND TAPE PIECES: BARNEYBOOGLES, PAPER: ELNAVEGANTE; MIDDLE: COURTESY OF THE DATING PROJECT; BOTTOM: PEXELS

n how to e t t o g r o f e v a h Young people ton College’s s o B . ly ib s n o p date res t to change h g u o s in n o r Dr. Kerry C a nationd n a — y r a t n e m that. A docu oon followed. s — n o ti a s r e v wide con

By Si st er Ro se Pa

FOTOSEARCH IMAGES: PAPER AND PAPER CLIP: SQ BACK; POLAROID FRAME: BARNEYBOOGLES; LOWER RIGHT: COURTESY OF THE DATING PROJECT

FOTOSEARCH IMAGES: BINDER CLIP AND TAPE PIECES: BARNEYBOOGLES, PAPER: ELNAVEGANTE; MIDDLE: COURTESY OF THE DATING PROJECT; BOTTOM: PEXELS

K

erry Cronin, PhD, believes in dating. As a professor of philosophy at Boston College and a fellow at the Center for Student Formation, Cronin has met hundreds of students in her more than 20 years of teaching, counseling, and mentoring at the Jesuit university. When she realized that the young people in her seminars and classes were not dating, but participating in the hook-up culture, she realized that kids didn’t know how to date. It is a lost art that she is trying to reestablish by giving them a dating assignment. Cronin’s experiment is the subject of the recent documentary The Dating Project (TheDatingProjectMovie.com).

There is a deep irony in this story, however. At 52, Cronin is single and only occasionally dates. Her family is amused that she gives this assignment to her students. “I have never been known to be good at dating,” Cronin tells St. Anthony Messenger. “My family laughs about it, but they have always been incredibly supportive. When the film was released, wherever they were across the country, they went to see it, and they love it.”

Cronin decided to assign dating to her students—first for extra credit and then for a grade. The idea was not to marry them off. Instead, she wanted them to experience traditional dating as an alternative to the hook-up culture. Her students acknowledge that talking to someone face-to-face can be harder than having sex in the dark with someone they barely know. So Cronin created the step-by-step assignment for her class and recalled for them her own past relationships.

“Dating made me begin to think about how to make someone else’s journey my own and how to share with someone else,” she says.

Released earlier this year, The Dating Project features Cronin as well as five young adults—from college students to career professionals—as they navigate the dating experience.

It came about when coproducers Megan Harrington and Catherine Fowler Sample went out with friends one night and realized that most of them were unmarried and not dating. This intrigued them, so they started doing research for a documentary and discovered Cronin’s dating assignment.

ca tt e, FS P

Harrington says that this turned into “a film about being human, about self-worth, and questioning what we are being sold by the popular culture.”

The idea behind the film was fascinating—as equally fascinating as the woman who created the assignment.

CATHOLIC ROOTS

Cronin was born in Hartford, Connecticut, the fifth of six children and the only girl. She went to St. Justin’s Elementary School and Northwest Catholic High School. From there, she studied philosophy at Boston College. Cronin describes herself as a peacemaker, someone who is always trying to smooth things out. “I am not confrontational. I am loyal and

Kerry C ronin, PhD , is a prof of philoso es phy and t he subjec sor document t of the ary “The Dating Pr oject.”

StAnthonyMessenger.org | September 2018 • 21

a good listener,” she says. These And that has informed Your a traits serve her well as a professor Cronin’s teaching. Around ssignm ent is actual and mentor to young adults at 2010, she started talking to to go d a t e Boston College. her students about dating o , n a real an that m date, Her family has deep and relationships, as she ight f a date all into of “old Catholic roots. Three of her explains in The Dating Project. t -fashi he cat uncles, now deceased, were She recognized that the term oned” egory as you descr priests. Her paternal uncle hooking up is vague: It could ’ve he ibed i n ancie ard was Father James J. Cronin, mean kissing, touching, or going nt lore a pastor in the Hartford Archdiocese, even further. Students often gain . who was a great supporter of Catholic schools and status among their peers by bragknown for his ability to foster active and dynamic participaging about their sexual exploits. tion in his parishes. One of her maternal uncles was Father Cronin set about changing that. She asked the James Flanagan, founder of the Society of Our Lady of the students to go on a date that first year—which none of them Most Holy Trinity. The other was Father Joseph Flanagan, did because they had no idea how. Film and television rarely SJ, a professor at Boston College. He had the most influence show kids about traditional dating, and parents don’t often on Cronin’s intellectual and working life. Looking back at share their own dating experiences. Young adults are stressed her family, she says that in their home, if you waited around about being rejected. The whole model for dating was gone. long enough, a Mass would be celebrated because one of her “Dating is a social script that is no longer being supuncles was visiting. “Some very good things were modeled ported by our culture,” Cronin says. She confronted her for us growing up in our family,” she says. students with a question: Is it really easier to hook up with

Assignment RULES:

1. Ask IN PERSON

No text messages, no Facebook, no Snapchat, no Instagram

2. Within THREE DAYS

Waiting longer creates unnecessary anxiety and invites drama.

3. A Romantic INTEREST

7. Make a PLAN

No “So . . . what do you want to do?”

Take initiative to plan the date. Show you respect his or her time.

8. You ASK, You PAY

Make it clear: This person is worth the money, and you’re worth the investment too.

Pick someone who catches your eye.

9. But ONLY $10

This should not be a date with a person whom you’ve dated before.

10. No TOUCHY

While you do not have to use the word “date,” make sure you’re clear this is a date.

11. Tell THREE PEOPLE

4. Somebody NEW

5. Be OPEN & HONEST

6. Only 45–90 MINS

Leave ’em wanting more—and give yourself a hard out if you don’t find yourself wanting more.

22 • September 2018 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

You’re not a spendthrift, but you’re not royalty either.

How far is too far? An “A-frame” hug at the end of the date is far enough.

Getting cold feet happens, but it’s less likely if you’ve got support.

12. Go ALONE

You’ve got support, but no wingman, best friend, or group dates.

N

someone rather than ask them out for a cup of coffee? After lengthy discussion, her students realized that dating is, in fact, easier.

“They want a way out of the hook-up culture, but no one had offered it to them. Hence, the dating assignment,” she says.

When Cronin gave her students the assignment, she told them they had to ask someone face-to-face out on a date— no texting. The assignment was a way to step outside of the pressure of the dominant social script of the hook-up culture on college campuses. The assignment turned out to be a seamless expression of Cronin’s philosophical studies about moral reasoning, self-awareness, responsibility, and ongoing student formation in the Jesuit tradition of the college.

O W O N D V D

HIGHER LEARNING

Cronin breaks down the dating experience into three levels.

Level one means you can be going for coffee with several different people. By level two, if a kiss is involved, it implies exclusivity, and the attraction between both parties should be acknowledged. Real relationship work begins with level three, when you ask yourself, Can I lean on this person emotionally? Is this person going to become one of the primary emotional relationships in my life?

Cronin reassures her students that they shouldn’t get to level three too early, and certainly not by the second date.

One problem she sees for students is that they start having level-three conversations when they are only at level one— too much, too soon.

When approaching the assignment, Cronin’s students feared rejection. They had a compassionate mentor to help guide them. “Originally, when I gave this dating assignment, most of the students would say it was something they wanted to do. I was willing to talk to them about their fears and their awkwardness. This helped them. I am always ready to laugh about dating and encourage them not to take themselves too seriously,” Cronin says.

“After a couple of years, students had already heard about it, so they knew it was coming. In some cases, they took the class specifically so they would get this assignment.”

But not everyone thinks Cronin’s dating assignment is a good idea. One student simply did not want to do it. Another identified as asexual and, therefore, did not wish to participate. Cronin says she is always happy to receive feedback and is supportive of their self-knowledge.

“I would not push anyone who didn’t want to do the assignment. But, developmentally, so much is going on in college students,” she says. “It is a productive time for good questions, so I respond by asking them to consider why or why not they will fulfill the assignment.”

SOUND ADVICE

Cronin bemoans the fact that there are so few books for parents to help their kids date in a healthy way. Cronin loves the spiritual memoir Girl Meets God: On the Path to the Spiritual

IT’S TIME TO DATE DIFFERENTLY

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Love & Dating in ‘Reel Time’

Life, by Lauren F. Winner. The author talks insightfully about how Christians view sex in healthy and unhealthy ways. “I am in support of right relationships according to Church teaching,” Cronin says.

She cautions that purity language on the part of parents can make moral choices seem overly rigid— more emphasis on rules than on love and fidelity.

“Going back to the moral imagination that is so important in my own life, I would advise young adults, when they are trying to figure out how to be a good person and to treat their own bodies and feelings with respect, to come to terms with their own desires and fears. It is not helpful for them to overemphasize or underemphasize their romantic ideas.”

As for dating apps, Cronin says it’s a high-stakes game. “It’s a very fast education because some people want to hook up. Or they want to keep you on a leash and then just disappear. These apps do give a person a sense of the people who are out there looking for a relationship, but there are a lot of creeps out there too.”

What’s most important for Cronin is that her students are asking questions and seeking answers—to the joy of their professor.

“I have to say, I am gifted with a very easily delighted temperament, so most of life delights me,” Cronin says. “Every class has its own dynamic.

Last year’s class had the most genuine questions ever. This feedback really meant something to them because they had a genuine interest in what we were talking about. When a question comes from a place of real curiosity, it just delights me.”

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 “Reel Time” column. She recently received her doctorate of ministry with a concentration in film and pastoral communication.

24 • September 2018 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

THE WEDDING PLAN (2016)

“It is a film about a young woman who has faith that God will send her a husband. The main character does take a spiritually active role in making that happen, but it raises romantic and theological questions. I am constantly raising the issue in my classes about the supposition that many of us have: If it’s meant to happen, it will. This is preposterous to me—as if you don’t have to do anything about it. I don’t subscribe to this theology that all we have to do is sit around until God drops someone into our laps. I think of our relationship with God as much more participatory.”

THE PROPOSAL (2009)

“What I love about this film is the interesting way young adults close themselves off from romance and relationships.

Sandra Bullock’s character does a great job of communicating why we shut off our emotions. The Ryan Reynolds character proposes at the end of the film. When she asks why, he says, ‘I want to date you.’ In other words, ‘I want to get to know you better.’ This is a fantastic scene that supports the dating assignment very well.”

NICK & NORAH’S INFINITE PLAYLIST (2008)

“This film has a great plot because the characters are getting out of bad situations with unhealthy people. It shows how to get over an ex: that staying with the wrong people is not healthy, that allowing a new connection to happen is a good thing, that having great friends who tell you what you need to hear is a gift. Nick and Norah spend a night getting into crazy mishaps. It’s wonderful in its portrayal of how we talk to each other—and don’t talk to each other—as we get to know each other.”

TOP LEFT: COURTESY PHOTO CREDIT HERE OF THE DATING PROJECT/KERRY CRONIN/CAITLIN CUNNINGHAM; FOTOSEARCH IMAGES: PAPER BACKGROUND: PICS FIVE

Some of Dr. Cronin’s student s take her class specifically for the dating assignment, which alw ays generates lively discussion s.

“The Dating Project” is a relevant documentary that offers insight for teens, parents, clergy, youth ministers, and, of course, college professors. When viewers see the students eagerly taking notes during Kerry Cronin’s classes, they see that the film addresses a great need. But as a film reviewer, I had to ask Dr. Cronin if she ever uses mainstream movies in her classes. She doesn’t, though she likes the idea. She is a romantic film buff herself and provides three films that could easily integrate into her classes as examples of dating in cinema.

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POINTSOFVIEW | AT HOME ON EARTH

f o y

By Kyle Kramer

Feeling Homesick

T

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

26 • September 2018 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

A

T a c (V in v p in p y

TIPS 1

2

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LEFT AND TOP RIGHT: PHOTOS COURTESY OF KYLE KRAMER; LOWER RIGHT: OOCOSKUN/FOTOSEARCH

Kyle Kramer

his fall marks four years since my family true home in this world might just be the best and I sold our 27-acre organic farm and way to prepare for the next. the house we had designed and built ourselves—the place my wife and I thought we’d call home our entire lives. The grief of leaving that place and that life still runs deep in me. I often find myself thinking, I should be over it by now.

Our new home on 8 rugged acres is beautiful, and my wife and children love it; everyone is happy here. I have put in a garden and taken on the satisfying workaday tasks of home repair and maintenance. But it still doesn’t feel like home. In fact, all of us have a sense that we won’t be staying here for the long term.

I know I had an unhealthy attachment to our last place. In fact, one might say I had an The Kramer family left their 27-acre farm for this smaller home. idolatrous attachment to it. Only in God, as the psalmist wrote, is my soul at rest; everything else is a passing shadow. And yet, there is something that feels good and right about HELPFUL investing so much in a place that it breaks Putting Heart your heart to leave it. Even though our into Your Home Christian tradition may focus on heaven, it’s also deeply sacramental: The people and places of this world really do matter. They Take some time to reflect on what it bear God’s imprint and are worthy of our means for you to pray that God’s will be love, care, and tears. done “on earth as it is in heaven.”

What do we do about this paradox at the One of the hallmarks of a home is to heart of our faith—this strange combination of otherworldliness and incarnation? How do open it to others. Make a plan to extend hospitality and welcome to friends and family we invest ourselves fully in our small corner into your home. of God’s creation, even as we know we will leave it behind, perhaps for another place in Home should be a place of safety and this life, and certainly for a place in the next? belonging. Think about what relationAs faithful discipleship often requires of us, ships may need healing for that to be more I think the only way to answer such paradoxifully true in your home. cal questions is simply to lean as deeply as possible into the mystery of them: to live as if we’re not just passing through, but as if we would be here forever—even as we know that we won’t. How different is that from taking the risk of loving another person, even though we know time and eventually death will inflict their wounds?

There is no safety in this path; it promises heartbreak and suffering, even as it also brings joy and gladness. But I suspect that making a

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Straight Talk about Suicide

For too long, suicide has been shrouded in d a r k n e s s . F a t h e r R o n a l d R o l h e i s e r, O M I , wants to bring this tragedy out of the shadows of shame and into the light of God’s healing love.

By John Feister

28 • September 2018 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

KESU/FOTOSEARCH (ALTERED)

PHOTO CREDITCOMPOSITE FOTOSEARCH HERE IMAGES (ALTERED): ANTONPRADO, FOCALPOINT

I

t’s the 10th overall leading cause of death in the United States. Yet few of us know much about it, and fewer of us talk about it. Author and spiritual leader Ronald Rolheiser, OMI, has been speaking and preaching about suicide for decades. In an effort to get us talking and to provide a resource for families in crisis, he recently wrote a book, Bruised and Wounded: Struggling to Understand Suicide (Paraclete Press). He talked to St. Anthony Messenger about an issue he considers one of the “deepest taboos in human experience.”

According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, 45,000 people take their lives each year in the United States, 123 per day. That would be five people during the next hour, on average. In addition, there are a whopping 25 times as many attempted suicides each year. Victims of successful suicide are mostly middle-aged white men (70 percent in 2016). Sadly, the rate of suicide has been on the rise since 2007. Slightly more American soldiers—close to 5,000—have killed themselves after coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan than have been killed in service in those wars.

One would think that something so widespread would get a lot of attention.

But, says Father Rolheiser: “It’s something we don’t understand. If someone in our family or a loved one uses suicide, there’s a hush, almost a shame about it.” You

StAnthonyMessenger.org | September 2018 • 29

KESU/FOTOSEARCH (ALTERED)

PHOTO CREDITCOMPOSITE FOTOSEARCH HERE IMAGES (ALTERED): ANTONPRADO, FOCALPOINT

never see it mentioned in an obituary, he observes. “They died ‘suddenly,’ ‘tragically,’ ‘sadly.’ It’s like we even struggle to mention the word.”

UNDERSTANDING SUICIDE

There is no out-of-the-box solution that would quickly reduce or eliminate suicide. We finally are starting to recognize it as the final stage of various types of mental illness.

“The impulse for life is the strongest impulse inside of a human being, and suicide goes against that,” observes Father Rolheiser. “Thus, in all religions, it was seen as the ultimate act of despair.” We may not talk about suicide when it hits close to home. Yet, he says: “I don’t think anything devastates a family, spouse, or friends as much as a suicide. It wreaks horrible psychological havoc.”

Father Rolheiser says we need to think of the physiological causes behind suicide, to get beyond talking in hushed tones about this consequence of mental illness. “We have to begin to understand mental health the same as we understand physical health,” he insists. We need to switch our thinking to terminal illness. “When people die of cancer or they die of heart attacks or diabetes or pneumonia, we say, ‘There’s nothing this person could do.’”

We don’t say that, though, with suicide. “We don’t understand that mental health is like physical health. People die against their will, whether it’s through cancer or a stroke or whatever. Suicide, in the vast majority of cases, is the equivalent to an emotional heart attack or an emotional cancer.”

Sometimes suicide can come without warning, like a heart attack. “Other times suicide is like a terminal illness. Individuals have been depressed and struggling their whole lives and eventually they succumb.” In those cases, Father Rolheiser says, “It’s almost inevitable. Unless something changes, this person is eventually going to succumb to this.”

Depression can often be treated with medical care.

30 • September 2018 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

GOD’S MER CY

When you dig a bit, a proclamation in the Apostles’ Creed sheds light on God’s mercy to victims of suicide and their families. “‘He descended into hell,’” says Father Rolheiser, “is the most consoling doctrine in all of religion.” It has a “catechetical iconography” of undoing the fall of Adam and Eve; that is, it stands as a compelling image of God’s saving action and stirs our faith. “It teaches us something about God.” But there is another dimension, he adds. “Great theologians, like Gregory of Nyssa through to Julian of Norwich, to Hans Urs von Balthasar, would say that what that doctrine means is that, precisely, Christ can go through locked doors.”

That speaks loudly in the case of suicide. “Some suicidal people I’ve known were wonderful, sensitive people, but they got themselves into a private emotional hell into which no psychiatry, human being, or love could ever penetrate. And they killed themselves. You can be sure on the other side, Jesus wasn’t inside their huddle of fear.” Father Rolheiser recalls the image in the Gospel of John of the disciples behind locked doors (Jn 20:19–23). “Notice Jesus doesn’t knock on the door. He comes right through the locked doors, right in the center of their fears, and breathes out peace.”

That liberating breath of Jesus, the Holy Spirit, is not just for suicide victims, of course, adds this priest.

“Sometimes we can keep woundedness, bitterness, where nobody can touch it anymore this side of eternity.” We may not be able to get there, but “our great Christian doctrine is that Jesus can. That is the ultimate part of the doctrine of grace.”

LEFT BEHIND

After the person who commits suicide is gone, survivors are often plagued with guilt: What did I do wrong?

What could I have done to prevent this? Why wasn’t I more attentive? In truth, says Father Rolheiser, survivors of a suicide victim had long ago been placed outside the loop. “The anatomy of suicide is precisely to do it

WHAT ABOUT JUDAS?

when you’re not there,” says Father Rolheiser. “It’s part of the sickness, that as it builds up, suicidal persons begin to isolate themselves.” They become secretive; then they seal off their intentions. “So you aren’t there precisely for the reason that they’re planning that you’re not going to be there. That’s part of the anatomy of the disease.”

A feeling of relief might come after a suicide—the problem is finally completed, gone. That can cause waves of guilt.

Perhaps a family feared suicide for years or months, keeping an eye out, calling, worrying. “As much as they grieved, they thought, Well, he’s finally at peace, and finally we’re at peace.”

It’s like keeping vigil—like watching a terminal patient die.

“You could feel real guilty about it; it’s a natural reaction,” says Father Rolheiser. “But you could do nothing to stop it.”

Perhaps one of the biggest struggles for those closest to a suicide victim, one that can go on for years or even a lifetime, is the hush and shame of having a suicide in the family or among close friends. “We automatically see the person’s life through the prism of their death,” observes Father Rolheiser.

The antidote is refusing to do that.

He speaks of his good friend Virgilio Elizondo, a pioneering priest of international reputation who committed suicide in 2016. At age 80, Elizondo was plagued by health issues, and faced, from a year earlier, an accusation of sexual abuse that was never substantiated, even after his death (though the sexual abuse victim clearly had been abused by another priest). “Had [Elizondo] died of cancer, it doesn’t change his work, the person he was. Yet his suicide clouds his legacy.

We need to see suicide victims’ lives and their achievements and fruitfulness in the same way as you see everybody else’s,” Father Rolheiser insists. What led to the suicide is an illness.

“It doesn’t take away from the fact that he was a magnificent man and did all this great work.”

ASK A CATHOLIC about suicide, and you’re likely to hear the fate of Judas Iscariot, the apostle who betrayed Jesus for money, then despaired and took his own life. It has captivated Christian minds since the beginning. For one thing, the Scripture story tells us something about betrayal and loyalty, to Jesus and to each other—a dynamic that touches each of us. But we also read something about suicide in Judas.

When Father Rolheiser reads, “It would be better for that man if he had never been born” (Mt 26:24), he is aware that the story was recorded some 40 years after the death of Jesus, “by some people who were pretty angry at Judas.” We really don’t know how God ultimately judged Judas, Father Rolheiser reminds us. Perhaps he was so stricken by grief and guilt that he wasn’t thinking straight, wasn’t making a free choice. That’s the nature of suicide.

A famous European psychologist and Scripture scholar, Antoine Vergote, was one of Father Rolheiser’s professors years ago at Louvain, in Belgium. “Vergote said: ‘You know the difference between Judas and Peter? Peter also betrayed, three times, but he wept and came back.’” Perhaps Peter was stronger emotionally, offers Father Rolheiser. That’s conjecture, of course, but it makes a point: We really don’t know what was going on in Judas’ personality. Judas may not be some archetype for rejection and damnation, but rather a sad, emotionally impaired individual.

HELP IN COMMUNIT Y

LEFT: SANCHAIRAT/FOTOSEARCH; RIGHT: PIXELRZ

Parishes could be a key to helping families victimized by suicide, says Father Rolheiser. Indeed, that’s a reason he wrote his new book: as a resource for people suddenly coping with

“Maybe Judas just snapped in the same way you die of a heart attack or a stroke,” speculates Father Rolheiser. We simply can’t know what’s going on in the minds of those who commit suicide. In that sense—and this would be a difficult statement for many—maybe Judas, rather than being a model of disloyalty, greed, then despair, tells us more about a sickness. “Maybe he’s in heaven,” suggests Father Rolheiser. “We don’t judge for God. God judges for God.”

StAnthonyMessenger.org | September 2018 • 31

suicide. That coping, at its best, could be communitywide. “Parishes could have adult education around suicide,” he suggests. This often happens in schools where there’s a suicide: Administrators bring in counselors to help students process the tragedy.

Talking about suicide in a healthier way is the key for Father Rolheiser. Although his work is generally well received, he consistently gets some pushback. Some people—comparatively few—say: “‘You’re making suicide an option. By removing the taboo and saying the person isn’t going to hell, you’re abetting suicide.’ They might say, ‘If you start having classes on suicide, you’re going to have a lot of people saying once you take the ultimate stigma away, then more people will commit suicide.’”

Nothing could be further from the truth, he insists.

Removing the stigma, talking openly about suicide, honoring the victim’s life—all would be a tremendous service to the parish.

Truly, it would go much further than that. Father Rolheiser is committed to changing attitudes everywhere.

“As a young priest, one of the first funerals I had to do was a suicide of a 36-year-old man with kids,” he relates.

“I just thought, I have to address this. I can’t just give a nice, safe homily that we believe in the Resurrection and so on.” During his homily, he put the suicide into a healthier perspective, acknowledging the illness.

That made the difference for that devastated community. And Father Rolheiser has been working to make that difference ever since.

John Feister served in various editorial roles for this publication for 29 years before his 2018 retirement. He now is an assistant editor for Glenmary Challenge magazine. He holds master’s degrees in humanities and theology from Xavier University, Cincinnati, Ohio. Father Ronald Rolheiser’s new book on suicide, Bruised and Wounded: Struggling to Understand Suicide, is available in bookstores or from ParacletePress.com.

DEATH BY DOCTOR? Physician-assisted suicide is a different matter altogether from suicide. “Probably we shouldn’t even use the word suicide there,” says Ronald Rolheiser, OMI. A willful act, “physician-assisted suicide violates our understanding of the paschal mystery, our understanding of life and death in Christ,” he says. “Jesus did more for us in that last day when he couldn’t do anything, undergoing excruciating pain, than in the three years when he did everything.”

That’s something our society doesn’t get. We consider someone dying as no longer useful. Yet the dynamic of “fruitfulness,” as he calls it, can be present in all of us. “So many people on their deathbeds can reconcile their family and do things they can’t do when they were active.”

Our hour of death, known to God alone, is meant to be a sacred time. As noted in the Catechism of the Catholic Church:: “We should not despair of the eternal salvation of persons who have taken their own lives. By ways known to him alone, God can provide the opportunity for salutary repentance. The Church prays for persons who have taken their own lives” (#2283).

RESOURCES • Loving Outreach to Survivors of Suicide, or LOSS, an entity of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago: www.CatholicCharities.net/ GetHelp/OurServices/Counseling/Loss.aspx.

GetHelp/OurServices/Counseling/Loss.aspx • National Catholic Partnership on Disability and its Council on Mental Illness: www.ncpd.org.

• American Association of Suicidology: www.Suicidology.org. www.Suicidology.org • American Foundation for Suicide Prevention: www.afsp.org www.afsp.org.

• Suicide Awareness Voices of Education: www.Save.org www.Save.org.

32 • September 2018 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

• National Suicide Prevention Hotline: www.SuicidePreventionLifeline.org 1-800-273-8255 (available 24 hours a day).

• National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention: ActionAllianceforSuicidePrevention.org.

ActionAllianceforSuicidePrevention.org —Source: Catholic News Service and National Suicide Prevention Hotline

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July 25th-August 2nd or August 8th- 16, 2020 Only offered ONCE every 10 Years!

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Having been spared the ravages of the Black Plague, the residents of Oberammergau, Germany vowed they would present the life of Christ every ten years. The first presentation was given in 1634. The year 2020 marks the 42nd time the play has been produced.

The seven hour production includes a meal served during intermission.

PRICE for Pilgrimage: $2500+ Airfare (+$350 for Single Room) Space for this Pilgrimage is limited and is alalready filling up. If you are interested and would like to reserve your spot, email kimfpp@thefranciscans.net or call 414-427-0570.

For More Information Visit Our Website at FranciscanPilgrimages.com StAnthonyMessenger.org | September 2018 • 33

POINTSOFVIEW | EDITORIAL

Combating Fear with Faith Living in a world where the beauty of life has little value demands a boost of awareness and the courage to live a bit more joyfully.

W

e’ve reached a point in history where meaningful human interaction is beginning to seem like a résumé skill. We live in a time when young people see, with alarming frequency, peers and loved ones ending their own lives because of forces that convinced them that their lives weren’t worth living. In fact, as of 2018, suicide is the 10th overall leading cause of death in our country. But, fortunately, there’s a catch: Life is very much worth living.

The secular culture doesn’t help young people understand this. We are not taught to deal with suffering or grief in a healthy way. The wildly popular show Thirteen Reasons Why, which sanitizes suicide, is marketed predominantly to teenagers. It doesn’t help when a young person who is a visual learner, and is struggling with bullying, low self-confidence, depression, or issues of sexual assault at high school, watches a show that justifies that this is enough of a reason to feel as if she or he no longer needs to live, followed by specifically how to “end” these problems.

Social media doesn’t help kids to be any better-off, either.

Following the carefully selected, highly edited moments of other people’s lives—with all of the sad times and struggles purposely left out—doesn’t exactly help an ordinary teen living an ordinary life feel as if his or her beautifully ordinary life is worth living. It diminishes joy and establishes deep roots of unworthiness upon comparison.

We all go through rough times when we lose people we love, miss out on something, or see our plans get derailed.

Sometimes this punches us in the gut, and we really just want clarity, but instead we get confusion, pain, and suffering. These are all scary feelings that often don’t make any sense. But as Father Mike Schmitz says in his video with Ascension Press, there are two ways of looking at life: “that everything is worth it, or that nothing is worth it at all.” It is the job of the individual to allow suffering to take place, but also to understand that there is a power and a purpose to the suffering he or she endures.

BE NOT AFRAID

We were born to live bravely. “Do not fear,” God said both to Joshua (Jos 1:9) and to Abraham (Gn 15:1). Jacob was afraid (Gn 31:31; 32:8), and so were Moses (Ex 2:14), Peter (Mt 26:69), and the apostles (Mk 4:38–40). Jesus himself experienced fear and suffering (Mt 26:37; Lk 22:44). Pope Francis posed this thought in a March 2015 address: “Ask yourselves: What upsets me, what do I fear most in this specific moment of my life today? What blocks me and prevents me from moving forward? Why do I lack the courage to make the 34 • September 2018 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

important choices I need to make? Do not be afraid to face your fears honestly, to recognize them for what they are, and to come to terms with them.”

Every day if we decide to trust that what is happening to us is intentional and embrace it fully with joy and wholeheartedly put our all into loving as Jesus did to each person we meet, can you imagine what joy and meaning we could bring to our peers? We were born to be disciples of Jesus’ joyful message.

The Bible talks about this idea in James 1:2–3, that when our faith gets tested, it gives us an opportunity to grow: “Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.” You could also say that if we want our faith to get stronger, we need to experience and make it out of some challenging places.

FINDING JOY

Life is not meant to be overwhelming at all times. It also isn’t supposed to just be survived. It is meant to be lived joyfully.

Pope Francis writes, “Proclaiming Christ means showing that to believe in and to follow him is not only something right and true, but also something beautiful, capable of filling life with new splendor and profound joy, even in the midst of difficulties” (“Joy of the Gospel,” 167). There will certainly be times, though, when the storms are going to toss you around and you’ll be out of breath, but that’s when you start treading water until the sun starts shining again. That is when you smile because there’s a rainbow, and you finally make it to shore. This is your life, the one that is worth living. Do with it what you please, but you only get one, so I recommend letting go of fear and finding joy in Christ.

Some of you who are reading this may be struggling with depression, anxiety, or other mental health challenges. You may be feeling broken, tired, and sad more often than not.

You may be even contemplating suicide because you feel that things cannot possibly get better. Silence solves nothing.

September is National Suicide Prevention and Awareness Month. One conversation can change a life. Be not afraid to ask for help.

If you think you or a friend is struggling with suicidal thoughts, ask for help from someone you can trust, or call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 (available 24 hours a day). For Catholic counseling, contact your parish priest, diocese, or local branch of Catholic Charities.

—Erika Glover

POETRY

just when I think autumn is here red and violent gold wind and cool spring crawls on the sidewalk scooped into a plastic cup then hoping against hope: the chrysalis bursts and ever so slowly opens brilliant wings into fall

KLEMENTIEV/FOTOSEARCH

—Sister Lou Ella Hickman, IWBS

FRANCIS AND CLARE GO TO

W

hether it’s veterans readjusting to civilian life, business students exploring ethical issues, graduates serving in ministries with friars or the Franciscan sisters who sponsor their university, or Protestants who want to grow in their faith, students at Franciscan colleges and universities are allowing the vision of Sts. Francis and Clare of Assisi to take deeper root in their lives.

St. Anthony Messenger spoke with five of the many schools that showcased programs during the June 5–7 symposium of the Association of Franciscan Colleges and Universities (AFCU), held at the University of St. Francis in Joliet, Illinois. For a description 36 • September 2018 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

of four more AFCU programs, go to blog.

FranciscanMedia.org/sam/other-afcuprograms.

In addition, the 10-month Padua Program, designed to help Franciscan educational and other ministries deepen their Franciscan values, begins with a four-day conference at St. Bonaventure University (Allegany, New York) next month.

Of the 24 AFCU schools, 17 began as internal schools for women’s congregations, especially to train teachers and nurses. Those schools later accepted other women students and eventually became coed. The other seven began as men’s schools and later became coed.

COURTESY OF: TOP LEFT TO RIGHT: UNIVERSITY OF ST. FRANCIS: JOLIET, ILLINOIS; LOURDES UNIVERSITY

Students, staff, and faculty at 24 Franciscan colleges and universities in the United States are growing through pilgrimages, classes, and community service.

COURTESY OF: LEFT TO RIGHT: MARIAN UNIVERSITY; ST. BONAVENTURE UNIVERSITY; NEUMANN UNIVERSITY, ANDREA CIPRIANI-MECCHI

By Pat McCloskey, OFM

Alvernia University | Alverno College | Briar Cliff University | Cardinal Stritch University | Felician University Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady University | Franciscan School of Theology | Franciscan University of Steubenville Hilbert College | Lourdes University | Madonna University | Marian University | Neumann University Quincy University | Saint Francis University | Siena College | Silver Lake College of the Holy Family St. Bonaventure University | St. Francis College | St. John’s College | University of Saint Francis: Fort Wayne, Indiana

ST. BONAVENTURE UNIVERSITY and VITERBO UNIVERSITY ‘REDISCOVERING THEIR SOULS’ COURTESY OF: TOP LEFT TO RIGHT: UNIVERSITY OF ST. FRANCIS: JOLIET, ILLINOIS; LOURDES UNIVERSITY

COURTESY OF: LEFT TO RIGHT: MARIAN UNIVERSITY; ST. BONAVENTURE UNIVERSITY; NEUMANN UNIVERSITY, ANDREA CIPRIANI-MECCHI

University of St. Francis: Joliet, Illinois | Villa Maria College | Viterbo University

When Richard Trietley, who served in the US Army for 22 years—including two planning missions and a combat deployment in Afghanistan in 2003—participated in the 2014 Veterans’ Franciscan Pilgrimage to Assisi and Rome, he did not expect to return “with a sense of peace and optimism for life after my military career. To spend such quality time with my brothers and sisters in arms was an experience that I will never forget.”

He notes that the pilgrimage encourages many veterans to open up with their peers about very difficult experiences. That sharing continued back at St. Bonaventure University (SBU) through regular meetings with other veterans who had made this pilgrimage, faculty/staff members, and nonmilitary students.

A holder of a graduate degree in education from Webster University and an undergradu-

ate education degree from SBU, Trietley later served as Army ROTC commander there, director of safety and security, and finally vice president of student affairs. In July 2017, he began serving in the same capacity at Viterbo University in LaCrosse, Wisconsin. He introduced this veterans’ pilgrimage at SBU and continues promoting it at Viterbo.

Last May, five male and female veterans from St. Bonaventure University and 14 others (some retired) made the veterans’ pilgrimage. The Franciscan Pilgrimage Programs hosts “pilgrimage weekends” in Scottsdale (Arizona), Oceanside (California), and Tiffin (Ohio). Father Conrad Targonski, OFM, a retired Navy chaplain and now a campus minister at Viterbo University, was part of the team for that group—as he had been in 2013 for Trietley’s group. Father Conrad has

TOP, LEFT TO RIGHT: These students come from Marian University (page 41), St. Bonaventure University (this page), Neumann University (page 40), University of St. Francis (Joliet, page 39), and Lourdes University (back cover).

Those from Neumann were part of the Franciscan Volunteer Ministry.

StAnthonyMessenger.org | September 2018 • 37

PHOTOS COURTESY OF UNIVERSITY OF ST. FRANCIS, JOLIET, ILLINOIS

viterbo.edu, sbu.edu, and Franciscan Pilgrimages.com TOP, LEFT TO RIGHT: Pilgrims listen to a friar’s wisdom; Rob Petruccello made the pilgrimage; Greg Kahle (middle) and friends prepare for his last jump in the military.

LEFT TO RIGHT: Emily Knitter, Robert Petruccello, Greg Kahle, Melinda Anick, and Lawrence MacDonald rest on the St. Francis monument outside St. John Lateran in Rome. When viewed from behind, Francis seems to be holding up that church, as he did in Pope Innocent III’s dream.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF ST. BONAVENTURE UNIVERSITY

now assisted with eight other veterans’ pilgrimages to Rome and Assisi.

He says that often the most moving events during the pilgrimage are the visit to the old cathedral, where Francis stripped off his clothes and returned them to his father, and the visit to Poggio Bustone, where Francis felt deeply forgiven.

“Some therapists,” says Father Conrad, “feel that post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD] involves our bodies coming home before our souls do. This pilgrimage helps veterans rediscover their souls.”

Many veterans have been deeply moved by the parallels between Francis of Assisi’s military experiences and their own (for example, illness and PTSD). Encouraged by what Francis accomplished after his military service, they now see new possibilities for themselves. Trietley says, “It is now my goal to provide as many student veterans as possible with this life-changing opportunity.”

Dr. Bill Reese, a Vietnam veteran, Purple Heart recipient, and recently retired theology teacher at Viterbo, and Dr. Greg Masiello, a licensed psychotherapist, helped to lead the May 2018 pilgrimage. Dr. Paula Scraba, OSF, who is from a military family, works with student veterans at SBU.

MM-18-2079 St Anthony Messenger Ad

2.75"w x 4.7875"h

UNIVERSITY ST. FRANCIS Joliet, Illinois BUSINESS AS A VOCATION

Dr. Anthony Zordan, a professor of accounting at the University of St. Francis in Joliet, Illinois, takes time during one accounting course to introduce students to the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace’s 2012 document “Vocation of the Business Leader: A Reflection” Dr. Anthony Zordan (VBL). He references it in four other courses.

His own introduction to this dimension of accounting came through a conference at the University of Notre Dame and Michael Naughton and Robert Kennedy’s book, The Good That Business Does. Ironically, as the AFCU symposium was being held last June, Pope Francis was speaking with leaders of major oil companies about our shared moral responsibilities regarding climate change.

Jill Wagner, who took one of Dr. Zordan’s courses, says that she enjoyed reading VBL in class and discussing it with classmates. “This encouraged me always to be an honest, hardworking, and good employee and student.” Isabella Valentin adds that this document reminded her to stay true to her foundations and beliefs.

Amy Wegrzyn explains: “Using VBL was a nice way to see that even business has a part in God’s plan for us. I think it is important for future business students like myself to remember that our job in business is not only about making money but also providing our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ with useful goods and services to make their lives easier. Seeing our jobs as a vocation helps us see our purpose in life, which is to serve God and others through our unique talents and knowledge. In my case, that happens to be through the world of business.”

Fifteenth-century Franciscan Luca Pacioli probably could not agree more.

Considered the father of accounting and the popularizer of double-entry bookkeeping, he advised accountants to begin their entries with “For the glory of God.” www.stfrancis.edu

Students at the University of St. Francis in Joliet, Illinois, benefit from its Franciscan perspective while they are on or off campus. The friendships and values reinforced here will last many years.

The University of San Diego sets the standard for an engaged, contemporary Catholic university where innovative Changemakers confront humanity’s urgent challenges. www.sandiego.edu

THE PADUA PROGRAM

ENROLL NOW! Designed for leaders and mission officers of Franciscan institutions and organizations, The Padua Program is a professional development program for your unique mission integration ministries!

• LEARN HOW TO APPLY FRANCISCAN VALUES TO TODAY’S WORKPLACE CHALLENGES

• ACQUIRE SKILLS TO APPLY FRANCISCAN ETHICAL

PHOTOS COURTESY OF UNIVERSITY OF ST. FRANCIS, JOLIET, ILLINOIS

PHOTOS COURTESY OF ST. BONAVENTURE UNIVERSITY

PERSPECTIVES IN DECISION-MAKING

• DEEPEN YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF

FRANCISCAN

TRADITION AND VALUES

Learn more at: www.sbu.edu/padua-program

The Padua Program is a partnership of the Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities and St. Bonaventure University

StAnthonyMessenger.org | September 2018 • 39

NEUMANN UNIVERSITY

In 2017–18, Franciscan Volunteer Ministry (FVM) offered six young people an opportunity to minister for 11 months with the Franciscan friars of Holy Name Province at St. Francis Inn and Ministries (Philadelphia) and St. Camillus Parish (Silver Spring, Maryland). A new site in Durham, North Carolina, has been added to the 2018–19 volunteer year.

St. Francis Inn serves breakfast three days a week and a sit-down meal 365 days a year for 200 to 400 people. Volunteers assist with cooking, preparing, serving, and, in some cases, delivering meals for those who cannot come to the inn.

FVM participants also pick up donations, schedule daylong and weeklong volunteers, and coordinate all programming for children. Women volunteers assist at the inn’s women’s day center. The inn also has a clothing distribution center.

At St. Camillus Parish, FVM members assist at St. Francis International School. For the parish, they teach English as a second language, join in its youth ministry program, participate in local advocacy efforts, and help with the Meals on Wheels program.

The three core values of FVM members are intentional community, direct ministry, and expressed prayer. Volunteers are encouraged to eat together, pray together, and have fun

together at least once a week. Each site has a friar supervisor.

For 10 months in 2017–18, FVM’s No Risk, No Gain program had three people working with the Franciscan Sisters of Philadelphia at Aquinas Center in that city, the Family Counseling Center of St. Paul’s in Wilmington, Delaware, and Red Hill Farm in Aston, Pennsylvania.

The No Risk, No Gain program, founded by the sisters in 2015, works with Franciscan Volunteer Ministry in presenting workshops at AFCU schools. The workshop can prepare for short-term service during spring break or a longerterm commitment. The AFCU’s June symposium in Joliet prompted several schools to request that workshop. Previous participants offered these comments: “The way that discernment was explained and discussed was extremely helpful, deliberate, but still very lighthearted.”

“Franciscan service isn’t just about equality and justice.”

“It provides a moment of liberation, serving, and being served.”

“I appreciated being aware of what and why we are doing what we are doing—and the idea of equality vs. justice vs. liberation.”

“I appreciated talking about breaking down walls and seeing everyone as equals.” fvmedir@gmail.com and osfphila.org/FranciscanVolunteers

Students involved in the Franciscan Volunteer Ministry and the No Risk, No Gain programs serve and play. They also interact with Franciscan mentors.

PHOTOS COURTESY MARIAN UNIVERSITY

’A MOMENT OF LIBERATION’

PHOTOS COURTESY NEUMANN UNIVERSITY; TOP ROW, RIGHT: PHOTO COURTESY NEUMANN UNIVERSITY/ANDREA CIPRIANI-MECCHI

Franciscan Volunteer Ministry and the ‘No Risk, No Gain’ Program

MARIAN UNIVERSITY

PHOTOS COURTESY MARIAN UNIVERSITY

PHOTOS COURTESY NEUMANN UNIVERSITY; TOP ROW, RIGHT: PHOTO COURTESY NEUMANN UNIVERSITY/ANDREA CIPRIANI-MECCHI

Indianapolis, Indiana

In Indianapolis, Indiana, Marian University students, faculty, and staff grow in knowledge, faith, and friendship. Having companions on one’s faith journey is always a blessing.

‘TAKING MY RELATIONSHIP WITH CHRIST SERIOUSLY’

Only 39 percent of undergraduate students at Marian University in Indianapolis self-reported last September as Roman Catholic. To meet the needs of the remaining 61 percent, campus ministry there has created the Covenant Minister program that in the 2017–18 school year brought six volunteer ministers from local Christian churches to participate in ECHO (a Sunday evening worship service led by students and ministers), build relationships with students, and lead small-group discussion, and other spiritual activities. Non-Christian and unchurched students sometimes participate in other campus programs in which student leaders have been trained to welcome them where they are.

According to the Covenant Minister’s Code of Ethics, “Our major concern will be to aid the students in making informed choices concerning their religious lives, not to exclusively promote our own congregation, beliefs, or program.”

Student Willis Overton says: “The Covenant Minister program has had a huge impact on me in only the year that I have known them. The Covenant Ministers allowed me to feel comfortable to pursue my faith on campus. Whether meeting with Covenant Ministers individually or hearing

them speak at ECHO, they have challenged and encouraged me to take my relationship with Christ seriously and make him the most important part of my life.”

Grace Neathery recalls: “I appreciate how the faith community at Marian recognized the need for reaching and supporting non-Catholic students. The people in ministry really care about the needs of the students. Even though my community of support wasn’t large, and I had to grow up a lot in my personal faith to be able to stand through some lonelier times, I always knew that I had people I could reach out to for help and support if I needed it. God worked in amazing ways in my life during my four years. I’m not the same Christian I was when I came, and I will always be thankful for the faithfulness of God and the people he brought into my life to continually support me.”

In summarizing his experience, Kessler Fisher says, “I was accepted just as I am and led to a faithful life where I have met God’s grace.”

Campus minister Theresa Roberts explains, “It brings me joy to know that, in addition to our Catholic worship and activities, students are being supported and strengthened in their Christian faith.” www.marian.edu

StAnthonyMessenger.org | September 2018 • 41

AFCU

OVERVIEW

PADUA PROGRAM St. Bonaventure, New York

Saint Francis University in Loretto, Pennsylvania, is the oldest of the AFCU schools.

THE ASSOCIATION of Franciscan Colleges and Universities (AFCU) formally began on February 4, 1997, when 10 college presidents met at Washington Theological Union; its membership has since grown to 24 schools.

The AFCU supports Franciscan values in member institutions, provides a forum for dialogue, and fosters educational collaboration among its members.

Presidents of member schools meet annually, prior to the meeting of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities. The AFCU holds a three-day symposium in even-numbered years at a member school.

The AFCU also offers four online courses on Franciscan themes for faculty and staff at member schools. Many faculty and students have participated in Franciscan Pilgrimage Programs’ pilgrimages to Assisi, Rome, and other Franciscan sites.

When there were many Franciscan sisters, brothers, or priests working in a ministry, no one held the title mission integration officer or something similar. With the increasing popularity of the Franciscan vision and fewer vowed religious on ministry staffs, Franciscan religious communities have seen the need for a more formalized sharing of that vision with the laypeople who carry on those ministries with a dedication equal to that of those who founded them.

Between October 9 and 12 at St. Bonaventure University in New York, the 10-month Padua Program will begin with a conference to benefit those working to guarantee the Franciscan character of a particular ministry or those who may soon have that responsibility. Approximately eight online seminars will be offered before the concluding conference on the same campus (July 22–26, 2019). Individual mentors will work with participants and advise them on their project for this program. The Padua Program is a partnership between the Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities and SBU’s Franciscan Institute.

Sister Margaret Carney, OSF, STD, president emerita of SBU, coordinates the program and is one of its resident presenters. The other two are Dr. Pauline Albert, PhD, and Father David Couturier, OFM Cap, PhD, DMin. The program will include several offsite speakers.

Jeff Papia, of Hilbert College, has assisted in the design of this program and will coordinate its seminars and the mentors’ activities. Sister Norise Kaiser, OSF, represented the Neumann community in designing this program.

While she was teaching business and management at St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas, Pauline Albert completed her doctorate in human and organizational systems (Fielding Graduate University) with a dissertation on the leadership of Sts. Francis and Clare of Assisi. She says: “I have long believed that the power of the Franciscan legacy can transform institutions if leaders are willing to engage in its powerful message and spirit. The Padua Program will allow us to help many leaders enter into that same conviction and

42 • September 2018 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

Sister Margaret Carney, OSF

Pauline Albert, PhD

Jeff Papia

Sister Norise Kaiser, OSF

the practices that flow from it.”

Sister Margaret explains: “The Padua Program is a response to an increasing need to provide consistent professional development that grounds our administrative leaders in the Franciscan inheritance of their institutions. It can also serve as the seedbed of a national network of committed laypeople whose daily work is dedicated to Franciscan principles but who have as yet no structural connections beyond their own sponsoring groups.”

Presentations at the October conference are organized around three themes: • Francis and Clare: Overview and Relevance Today; • The Franciscan Family and the Catholic Church; • The Mission Officer’s Role, Responsibilities, and Challenges. stbonavenue.com/events/certificate-program-formission-officers

The Padua Program and the five others described here show that Franciscan values are alive and well at Franciscan colleges and universities in the United States.

Father Pat McCloskey, OFM, is Franciscan editor of this publication and executive secretary of the English-Speaking Conference of the Order of Friars Minor.

?

WANT MORE? In addition to the five programs featured in this article, another four are described at blog.FranciscanMedia.org/sam/other-afcuprograms.

SISTER MARGARET CARNEY, OSF, AND SISTER NORISE, OSF: COURTESY OF ST. FRANCIS HEALTHCARE SYSTEM OF HAWAII; ALL OTHER PHOTOS ARE COURTESY OF THEIR RESPECTIVE SCHOOLS

DEEPENING FRANCISCAN IDENTITY

SISTER MARGARET CARNEY, OSF, AND SISTER NORISE, OSF: COURTESY OF ST. FRANCIS HEALTHCARE SYSTEM OF HAWAII; ALL OTHER PHOTOS ARE COURTESY OF THEIR RESPECTIVE SCHOOLS

AFCU SCHOOLS

Most schools offer at least undergrad and graduate degrees. Although each is coed, most students at Alverno College are women.

NAME

LOCATION

STUDENT POPULATION

WEBSITE

Alvernia University

Reading, Pennsylvania

1,600

www.alvernia.edu

Alverno College

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

2,000

www.alverno.edu

Briar Cliff University

Sioux City, Iowa

1,300

www.briarcliff.edu

Cardinal Stritch University*

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

2,400

www.stritch.edu

Felician University*

Lodi, New Jersey

2,100

www.felician.edu

Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady University

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

1,400

www.ololcollege.edu

Franciscan School of Theology

Oceanside, California

40 graduate students

www.fst.edu

Franciscan University of Steubenville

Steubenville, Ohio

2,400

www.franciscan.edu

Hilbert College

Hamburg, New York

870

www.hilbert.edu

Lourdes University

Sylvania, Ohio

1,350

www.lourdes.edu

Madonna University*

Livonia, Michigan

4,500

www.madonna.edu

Marian University

Indianapolis, Indiana

2,000

www.marian.edu

Neumann University

Aston, Pennsylvania

2,200

www.neumann.edu

Quincy University

Quincy, Illinois

1,200

www.quincy.edu

Saint Francis University

Loretto, Pennsylvania

2,600

www.francis.edu

Siena College

Loudonville, New York

2,700 undergrads

www.siena.edu

Silver Lake College of the Holy Family*

Manitowoc, Wisconsin

429 undergrads

www.sl.edu

St. Bonaventure University

St. Bonaventure, New York

2,500

www.sbu.edu

St. Francis College

Brooklyn, New York

2,600

www.sfc.org

St. John’s College

Springfield, Illinois

140

www.sjcs.edu

University of Saint Francis*

Fort Wayne, Indiana

2,200

www.sf.edu

University of St. Francis*

Joliet, Illinois

1,000 main campus 3,000 at satellite locations

www.stfrancis.edu

Villa Maria College

Buffalo, New York

600 undergrads

www.villa.edu

Viterbo University

LaCrosse, Wisconsin

3,000

www.viterbo.edu

*COLLEGE OR UNIVERSITY HAS MULTIPLE CAMPUSES AND/OR SATELLITE LOCATIONS. SEE THE SCHOOL’S WEBSITE FOR MORE DETAILS.

NeumaNN uNiversity NO LIMITS TO YOUR SUCCESS

Aston, Pennsylvania www.neumann.edu | 610-558-5616

StAnthonyMessenger.org | September 2018 • 43 PASKILL STAPLETON & LORD Date:

7.16.18

Client:

Neumann University

The

Greatest TV

Families O

n the evening of January 23, 1977, two wildly dissimilar events conspired to create a pop-culture milestone.

The premiere of the miniseries Roots aired on ABC; and a snowstorm blanketed more than a third of the country, all but forcing Americans to watch it. The debut episode wrangled 28 million viewers for the network. But word of mouth quickly spread. The finale garnered 100 million—numbers seldom seen today—and remains one of the most-watched episodes in television history.

Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Alex Haley, Roots told the story of Kunta Kinte, a West African teenager kidnapped by slave traders in 1767 and brought to the United States by way of the Middle Passage. The series 44 • September 2018 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

chronicled the man’s brutal life on two plantations—and the toils of his descendants, enslaved or freed.

Roots shook American audiences. Winner of the prestigious Peabody Award and nine Emmys, the miniseries forever changed the landscape of American television for illuminating perhaps the darkest chapter in our history. More than 40 years later, it’s still a relevant, visceral experience, but at its heart, it was a focused look at the roots of an American family.

With a crop of new programs starting this month—some of which involve families—we decided to look back on some of the best shows that represent the ever-changing family dynamic.

COMPOSITE FOTOSEARCH IMAGES: TV: JGROUP, TV CONTROL KNOBS: SCANRAIL

Families look different than they did 50 years ago—and television has reflected those changes.

TOP TO BOTTOM: CBS TELEVISION NETWORK; PARAMOUNT DOMESTIC TELEVISION; CBS PHOTO ARCHIVES

By Christopher Heffron

The

Greatest TV

Families

By Christopher Heffron

Family Affair (1966–1971) CBS

Family Affair may look like a Hallmark card brought to life—and oftentimes it felt like one. But it was also mildly revolutionary for its treatment of adoption and single fatherhood. Brian Keith played a New York City bachelor whose life is upended—and enriched—after adopting his deceased brother’s three children: Cissy, Jody, and Buffy. Manipulative fluff? Without question. But ’60s audiences needed a little sugar to swallow this deceptively dark premise.

The Brady Bunch (1969–1974) CBS

Anissa Jones and Johnny Whitaker played twins raised by their wealthy bachelor uncle in the series Family Affair.

Easily the most unrealistic series on this list (Bathrooms without toilets? A maid who works for nothing?), The Brady Bunch still stands as a favorite among Gen Xers for its unbridled campiness—and the decades of syndication haven’t withered its wacky appeal. But if viewers take a closer look, they’ll see a syrupy-sweet, blended family who navigate the world together, even if that world in no way resembles the real one.

TOP TO BOTTOM: CBS TELEVISION NETWORK; PARAMOUNT DOMESTIC TELEVISION; CBS PHOTO ARCHIVES

COMPOSITE FOTOSEARCH IMAGES: TV: JGROUP, TV CONTROL KNOBS: SCANRAIL

Good Times

Here’s the story: The Brady Bunch was about a blended family who tackled hot-button issues such as eyewear and laryngitis in this camp classic.

(1974–1979) CBS

An African American family of five scraping by in Chicago’s ganglands is hardly the recipe for comedy. But under the helm of Norman Lear—and anchored by powerhouse combo Esther Rolle and John Amos—Good Times managed to be gritty, subtly political, and deeply funny. Strip away the slapstick distractions of costar Jimmie Walker, and you have an honest look at how the family unit can be a shield from life’s cruel winds.

One Day at a Time (1975–1984) CBS

Credit to Netflix for reviving the series with a CubanAmerican family, but respect should be paid to its predecessor. Starring Bonnie Franklin as a single mother raising two teenage daughters, it was the first prime-time sitcom to

Good Times, thanks in part to its stars Esther Rolle and John Amos, managed to be topical and irreverent at the same time.

StAnthonyMessenger.org | September 2018 • 45

feature a divorced woman. While not all the ingredients in the show’s recipe worked (the Schneider character was a #MeToo nightmare), One Day at a Time showed viewers that the nuclear family isn’t always possible—or even desirable.

Family Ties (1982–1989) NBC

Bonnie Franklin played a newly divorced mother of two teenage daughters in the groundbreaking One Day at a Time.

This ’80s classic may have served as a launching pad for Michael J. Fox, but Family Ties was far greater than the sum of its parts. Benefiting from strong writing, topical subjects (who could forget Tom Hanks’ guest turn as a visiting uncle with a drinking problem?), and a solid ensemble of actors, the series centered on two ex-hippies raising their four children in the suburbs of Columbus, Ohio. Family Ties eschewed the formula of its day and favored teaching over preaching. The result was a funny, fresh-for-itstime look at a middle-class family in Middle America.

The Wonder Years (1988–1993) ABC

(1989–PRESENT) FOX

Is it the greatest comedy in history? Possibly—though it is more than a decade past its prime. At its peak, though, this animated landmark was a heavenly blend of pitch-perfect writing and tour de force vocal performances. But what has made The Simpsons such an enduring classic is that creator Matt Groening and his stable of writers have always kept as the show’s central focus the five family members: flawed, ferociously funny, but somehow wholly relatable.

Creator Matt Groening’s animated milestone, The Simpsons, is the longestrunning American sitcom.

46 • September 2018 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

TOP TO BOTTOM: HOME BOX OFFICE (HBO); DISNEY/ABC DOMESTIC TELEVISION; HBO

The Simpsons

TOP TO BOTTOM: CBS TELEVISION NETWORK; PARAMOUNT DOMESTIC TELEVISION; 20TH TELEVISION

Michael Gross and Meredith Baxter played Midwestern parents in the beautifully scripted Family Ties.

Too weighty to be a sitcom and too funny to be a drama, The Wonder Years is hard to categorize—and that was its strength. The series focused on Kevin Arnold (played to perfection by Fred Savage), but it was really about life during the tumultuous 1960s: war, civil unrest, social mores, strained but loving families, and the everyday traumas of burgeoning adolescence.

The

Greatest TV

Families

By Christopher Heffron

Six Feet Under (2001–2005) HBO

The Sopranos may have absorbed the lion’s share of press coverage and awards during its run (see sidebar), but, for this critic, Six Feet Under was a more digestible examination of an American family. Centering on the Fishers, proprietors of an independent funeral home in California, Alan Ball’s darkly comic masterpiece juggled life and death issues with equal assurance—all told through the damaged lives of its members. Perhaps no other series on television addressed this life and the next in such a thoughtful way.

Balancing life and death issues, Six Feet Under benefited from a stellar cast and resonant story lines.

Black-ish

(2014–PRESENT) ABC

What makes this impeccable comedy-drama still watchable after five seasons is how deftly the writers juggle heaviness and levity. Peripheral story lines tend to drag the narrative down: Black-ish, indeed, works best when the stories center on the five Johnsons. And there is perhaps no better liveaction sitcom currently that delves into race in America quite as this one does. The cast is spectacular, particularly Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross, the best parental force on television today.

Christopher Heffron is the coexecutive editor of St. Anthony Messenger and the author of its “Channel Surfing” column.

Perhaps the best live-action family sitcom on television today, Black-ish stars Tracee Ellis Ross and Anthony Anderson.

TOP TO BOTTOM: HOME BOX OFFICE (HBO); DISNEY/ABC DOMESTIC TELEVISION; HBO

TOP TO BOTTOM: CBS TELEVISION NETWORK; PARAMOUNT DOMESTIC TELEVISION; 20TH TELEVISION

Fallen Family: The Sopranos LET’S ADDRESS THE OBVIOUS: HBO’s hardened look at a New Jersey mobster could be grueling to watch. There wasn’t a sin that Tony Soprano (the late, great James Gandolfini) didn’t commit daily. But what made this Emmy-winning series redeemable was its exploration of Tony’s moral desolation—his own psychic scarring. He was so mired in an existential quandary, in fact, that he underwent psychotherapy for years to address it.

As a portrait of an American family, The Sopranos is worth revisiting.

Two families dominated the series: Tony’s family at home and the organized crime family he ran. Both provided emotional gravitas for viewers to savor. And though his actions cannot be explained away, his devotion to both families was, from an angle, exemplary. That dichotomy made The Sopranos irresistible viewing—a plunge not only into the decay of a man’s soul, but of a family man who traded his soul in for sin.

StAnthonyMessenger.org | September 2018 • 47

media MATTERS

REEL TIME | CHANNEL SURFING | AUDIO FILE | BOOKSHELF

By Sister Rose Pacatte, FSP

Sister Rose Pacatte, FSP

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.

FAVORITE Superhero

MOVIES X-Men (2000) Hellboy (2004) Spider-Man 2 (2004) The Dark Knight Trilogy (2005, 2008, 2012) Wonder Woman (2017) Black Panther (2018)

I

n a summer with several films about fathers and daughters, Eighth Grade is in a class all its own. Angst-ridden Kayla (Elsie Fisher) lives with her dad, Mark (Josh Hamilton), and embarks on her last week of middle school.

Kayla makes self-help videos for her YouTube channel and exhibits a self-confidence that she herself lacks. Kayla is awkward at school and struggles to make friends. She goes to a pool party and tries to talk to a boy but ends up calling her dad to pick her up.

When the students retrieve the time capsule boxes they made at the beginning of sixth grade, Kayla is dismayed and asks her dad to help her burn it. He persists in being an optimistic father who cares about his daugh-

48 • September 2018 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

Not yet rated, R • Brief language and non-explicit sexual references.

ANT-MAN AND THE WASP: MARVEL STUDIOS; UNBROKEN: PATH TO REDEMPTION: EPKTV/WTA GROUP/UNIVERSAL 1440 ENTERTAINMENT

Sister Rose’s

ter even though she rebuffs and baffles him.

After Kayla meets Olivia (Emily Robinson), a high school senior whom she shadowed for a day, she asks her dad if she can meet up with Olivia and her friends at the mall. One of the boys makes a move on Kayla, and though she is curious about boys and sex, she rejects him soundly.

Eighth Grade is by first-time writer and director Bo Burnham, a former YouTube star.

At 28, he is close enough to adolescence to understand and evoke the perpetual embarrassment of eighth grade. Hamilton’s performance as the single dad, who is as awkward as his daughter, is warm and positive. Fisher is a revelation and plays her role painfully well.

This is a film about hope, kindness, family, and not giving up. Young people should remember: Middle school and high school are not forever. I did wonder, at the end, if African American, Latino, and Asian kids have the same experience as Caucasian kids in middle school. These are stories yet to be told.

LEFT: SISTER NANCY USSELMANN; EIGHTH GRADE; EPKTV/COURTESY OF A24/LINDA KALLERUS; INSET; COURTESY OF A24/ETHAN JOHNSON

EIGHTH GRADE

UNBROKEN: PATH TO REDEMPTION

A

ANT-MAN AND THE WASP

ANT-MAN AND THE WASP: MARVEL STUDIOS; UNBROKEN: PATH TO REDEMPTION: EPKTV/WTA GROUP/UNIVERSAL 1440 ENTERTAINMENT

LEFT: SISTER NANCY USSELMANN; EIGHTH GRADE; EPKTV/COURTESY OF A24/LINDA KALLERUS; INSET; COURTESY OF A24/ETHAN JOHNSON

S

cott Lang/Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), is on house arrest after a violation involving his ant suit while helping Captain America. His daughter, Cassie (Abby Ryder Fortson), spends time with her dad, who has built a rudimentary sci-fi theme-park ride in their house. We learn in a flashback that Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), the original Ant-Man, lost his wife, Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer), the original Wasp, a superhero, 30 years previously when she and Hank were visiting the quantum realm.

Scott thinks he has connected with Janet. He visits Hank and his daughter, Hope (Evangeline Lilly), who has grown into the Wasp. Though they are all estranged over the loss of Pym’s Ant-Man suit, they work together, along with Hank’s old partner, Dr. Bill Foster (Laurence Fishburne), and Scott’s security company crew, headed

by Luis (Michael Peña), to retrieve Janet. To complicate matters, Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), who is under the protection of Foster, seeks the

same quantum device to reenergize her dying body that the team needs to bring Janet back.

Ant-Man and the Wasp is overscripted by its five writers, including Rudd, but is consistently charming, due to the performances by Rudd, Peña, and Randall Park, who plays an FBI agent. The father-daughter relationships are nicely presented. With a touch of romance and the promise of more sequels, the film is a superhero treat for ordinary mortals.

A-3, PG-13 • Science fiction violence.

Not yet rated, PG-13 • War and domestic violence.

Catholic News Service Media Review Office gives these ratings.

A-1 General patronage

A-2 Adults and adolescents

fter years of torture in a Japanese internment camp during World War II, the former Olympic runner Louis Zamperini (Samuel Hunt), returns to California and to his family.

Zamperini suffers from PTSD, and his commanding officer grants him leave, where he meets Cynthia (Merritt Patterson). They soon marry and make their home in Los Angeles, but Zamperini’s depression is worsened by his alcoholism. He is haunted by memories of his tormentor, Watanabe “The Bird” (David Sakurai). Cynthia threatens to take their daughter and leave unless Louis goes to hear Billy Graham (Will Graham) at a crusade.

Unbroken: Path to Redemption completes the true story told in Angelina Jolie’s 2014 film Unbroken that ended shortly after Zamperini and the other prisoners of war were liberated. Both films are based on Laura Hildebrand’s biography. This inspiring film, directed

by Harold Cronk, is replete with themes of forgiveness, family, and faith.

Will Graham plays his grandfather, Billy Graham, but he needs to polish his acting skills.

A-3 Adults

L Limited adult audience

O Morally offensive

Source: USCCB.org/movies

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StAnthonyMessenger.org | September 2018 • 49

media MATTERS

REEL TIME | CHANNEL SURFING | AUDIO FILE | BOOKSHELF

By Christopher Heffron

stream UP CLOSE

Picnic at Hanging Rock

W

hat made NBC’s The Golden Girls so revolutionary for its time (and even today) was that the axis of the show rested on four women of a certain age. In our youth-infatuated culture—and especially on television—it seems we haven’t much use for the elderly. The Golden Girls showed how four women could be fierce beyond 50: They were vibrant, funny, flawed, and entirely three-dimensional. Not many shows of today can make that claim. Enter The Cool Kids.

FOX’s freshman series stars David Alan Grier, Vicki Lawrence, Leslie Jordan, and Martin Mull as retirement community residents who band together to combat the adversities associated with old age—the least of which is boredom. A comedic powerhouse since his days on In Living Color, Grier is the leader of this ragtag band of friends and is perpetually and humorously angry. Lawrence is the new kid with enough sass to go toe-to-toe with Grier. Jordan (the show’s strongest player) is a colorful nebbish, while Mull beautifully underplays his role as a habitual liar who weaves tales just to elicit reactions from those around him.

The pilot sets the scene nicely. Grier, Jordan, and Mull are mourning the death of resident and friend Jerry. Lawrence, new to the community and a casual usurper in the group, adds vitality to the predictable lives of the three remaining friends. The comedic tension between Grier and Lawrence is fun to watch—and the writing is crisp. The burgeoning star of the show, however, is the diminutive Jordan, who has an unmatched flair for physical comedy.

Sensitive channel surfers might be offended by the crass language and adult themes therein, but they’d be wise to put those aside and take a closer look. What The Cool Kids addresses, without ever explicitly saying it, is how underutilized (read: overlooked) the aged are in this country. They have wisdom, history, and vivacity to share with the rest of us. We seem programmed to ignore them. We do so at our own peril.

50 • September 2018 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

FLEET FOXES: PHIL EK/BELLA UNION/SUB POP; CALEXICO: ANTI RECORDS & CITY SLANG; PETE & REPEAT: TOM GREENE

FOX, Premieres September 28

A

THE COOL KIDS: FOX BROADCASTING CO./PATRICK MCELHENNEY; PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK: EPK.TV/AMAZON PRIME VIDEO/GIOVANNI RUFINO

The Cool Kids

Amazon Prime uthor Joan Lindsey published her stunning novel, Picnic at Hanging Rock, in 1967. Director Peter Weir’s dreamy, eerie 1975 adaptation is a minor masterpiece for those who haven’t seen it. Now Amazon Prime is bringing it back to life in a thrilling, six-episode series.

Set in 1900 Australia at a boarding school, the story follows the lives of the schoolgirls, the staff, and the intimidating headmistress, Mrs. Appleyard (played to perfection by Natalie Dormer). On Valentine’s Day, the students and staff embark on a picnic at Hanging Rock, where three students and a teacher disappear. The mystery deepens, the school and its leadership are called into question, and long-buried secrets threaten to surface.

Gluttons for mystery and scandal have a banquet to feast on with the series, which addresses themes of personal freedom set against a quasi-fascist regime. Beautifully photographed and acted with assurance by a predominantly female cast, Picnic at Hanging Rock is a sumptuous dive into the complicated lives of women at the dawn of an oppressive century.

REEL TIME | CHANNEL SURFING | AUDIO FILE | BOOKSHELF

Editor’s Pick

By Daniel Imwalle

CALEXICO | THE THREAD THAT KEEPS US

Retro-spective FLEET FOXES | FLEET FOXES

FLEET FOXES: PHIL EK/BELLA UNION/SUB POP; CALEXICO: ANTI RECORDS & CITY SLANG; PETE & REPEAT: TOM GREENE

or the past 20 years, Calexico has developed a sound that has become known as “desert noir.” This label has much to do with the fact that their music is deeply informed by the desert borderland that they hail from—Tucson, Arizona. In their ninth studio album, The Thread That Keeps Us, the band continues their exploration of the musical melting pot that exists along the US-Mexico border. In doing so, they relate stories of the plight of immigrants living in the shadows of our society, love in a time of profound division, and hope in the face of bitter cynicism—all themes strongly connected to the Catholic conscience and imagination.

“End of the World with You” kicks the album off and sets the tone for the rest of the record, placing the listener squarely in the precarious present time we live in. Front man Joey Burns sings: “Love in the age of extremes/There’s nothing better that I’d rather do/Than to scatter all the myths/And walk to the start of the end of the world with you.” Burns seems to be suggesting that love is the only true force that can balance us and bring us together from whatever extremes (political, religious, and so on) that keep us separate. Songs such as “The Town and Miss Lorraine” and the interlude “Unconditional Waltz” bring levity and provide listeners space to digest some of the album’s weightier material.

One of the highlights of the album is the song “Under the Wheels,” with its musical style informed as much by mariachi music as it is by reggae. The upbeat tempo and punchy brass parts help temper the dark territory the song starts off in: “Under the wheels/Of the war machine/Always someone else’s scheme.”

Ultimately, though, Burns makes a callout for us to look eye-to-eye at each other, recognizing the other as brother or sister: “Show me a sign/When the world falls apart/Coming together from all of the corners tonight/From the core to the seams/ From the threads that we keep.” “Under the Wheels” is as close to a title track as can be found on the album, referring to the same “threads” that appear in the album title—our shared humanity.

PETE&REPEAT

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 BOOK

Great fun for puzzlers of all ages!

Go online to order: Shop.FranciscanMedia.org For ONLY $3.99 Use Code: SAMPETE ANSWERS to PETE & REPEAT:1) There are buttons on the back of the teacher’s shirt. 2) Streaks are on the window. 3) The pencil has a pink eraser cap. 4) Pete has written in his notebook. 5) In the portrait, George Washington now has a collar. 6) The belt on the teacher’s skirt is wider. 7) There are more windows. 8) Pete’s shirt now has a white stripe.

THE COOL KIDS: FOX BROADCASTING CO./PATRICK MCELHENNEY; PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK: EPK.TV/AMAZON PRIME VIDEO/GIOVANNI RUFINO

S

eattle has enjoyed a long and rich musical history (from being the birthplace of Jimi Hendrix to grunge in the early ’90s). Continuing the flow of great music from the region, Fleet Foxes’ eponymous 2008 album surprised many mainstream critics, but, by the end of the year, it topped a number of lists as album of the year.

Released by the legendary Sub Pop record label, Fleet Foxes was a musical breath of fresh air—the sonic equivalent of a quiet, misty morning on Puget Sound. The album is characterized by the wide-open sound of acoustic guitars, warm organs, and stunning vocal harmonies, spearheaded by lead singer-songwriter Robin Pecknold.

Songs such as “White Winter Hymnal” and “Blue Ridge Mountains” are driven by the power of memory and infused with the energy of the Pacific Northwest’s natural majesty.

Fleet Foxes is an ideal album to listen to when the seasons change, as God’s presence is just a touch more noticeable than usual in the charged air.

F

StAnthonyMessenger.org | September 2018 • 51

media MATTERS

reel time | channel surfing | audio file | bookshelf

By Julie Traubert

Abortion Survivor’s Journey of Faith “Slowly, with God’s grace, I was able to turn my gaze from my inward pain and look anew on the world around me.”

YOU CARRIED ME

BY MELISSA OHDEN

Plough Publishing House

M

elissa Ohden had me at page one.

In her absorbing memoir, she wastes no time getting to the questions that drove her through darkness and, ultimately, to the light of faith and forgiveness. She asks questions about her identity and why she was given up for adoption, as any adoptee might. But she also asks questions much graver:

Why would anyone try to abort her, and how had she survived?

Questions propel this fast-moving memoir and create a mystery of sorts.

At age 14, Ohden learns she survived a saline infusion abortion; at age 38, she meets her birth mother, who had not known her baby survived. That meeting caps an exhaustive search that encompasses birth, death, adoption, abortion, love, and family. It’s a journey that both breaks hearts and heals them.

A prominent figure in the prolife movement, Ohden founded the Abortion Survivors Network. She holds a master’s degree in social work, having worked in the areas of substance abuse, mental health, domestic violence, and child welfare. Ohden’s memoir chronicles the difficulties and triumphs that led to her work as a voice for the voice-

less as well as a voice of forgiveness to people affected by abortion.

While not always literary, the writing is honest, courageous, and insightful. Ohden includes accounts of the painstaking research needed to document her story—important because she faced so many people who didn’t want to hear or believe it. Ultimately, her memoir is about forgiveness and transcending tragedy, about a person who finds the grace to open herself to the good God can bring from bad, even when she doesn’t get answers to all of her questions.

Reviewed by Angie Mimms, who writes and reads in Florence, Kentucky. A former reporter and communications director, she focused on creative nonfiction while earning an MFA in writing.

An Inspiring Read “Adoption imbues belonging with elasticity—we know there is always room for more at the table and more in the family.”

A

dopted. For some, it’s a scary word. For Kelley Nikondeha, it’s a sacrament. She reminds us that Jesus was adopted, and that, according to St. Paul, we are all adopted.

This inspiring work operates on three levels. The author brings new insights into the theology of the Incarnation and redemption.

By sharing her journey as an adopted child and an adoptive parent of two African children, she reminds us to embrace and celebrate our differences. Most important, she offers hope for a spiritual reunion with our adopted brothers and sisters in a world without walls—literally and metaphorically speaking.

According to adoption theology, God relinquishes Jesus into the world.

He is received by Mary and his adoptive father, Joseph, into his human family. He is recognized by his real father at his baptism in the Jordan. This divine adoption, as with all adoptions, brings about redemption. The only-begotten son gathers together his adoptive siblings.

Adoption resolves the fundamental question of belonging. The author shows how the Batswa-Hutu-Tutsi conflict of her husband’s Burundi responds to the application of ubuntu, best defined by Archbishop Desmond Tutu: “A person is a person through other persons.”

52 • September 2018 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

ADOPTED

BY KELLEY NIKONDEHA William B. Eerdmans

While the integrity of the global adoptive family is in crisis—including fractured biological families at the US border with Mexico—the healing effect of adoption becomes particularly cogent.

Reviewed by Tom Manning, a teacher, actor, and adoptive father.

MENDING THE HEART

FOREVER

BY LISA DUFFY

BY JACKIE FRANCOIS ANGEL AND BOBBY ANGEL

Our Sunday Visitor

THREE SECRETS TO HOLINESS IN MARRIAGE

BY DAN AND AMBER DEMATTE

Pauline Books & Media

Ave Maria Press

“Despite all the heartbreak of losing your marriage, God wants to heal you.”

“Allow our love to always reach outward and not to remain within ourselves. Amen.”

“Is your family fully alive? Is your marriage dedicated to pursuing holiness and happiness?”

H

U

S

ow many of us know someone who is going through a divorce?

Maybe you are divorced and wonder how you got to this point or how you are viewed by the Church. Through this pain and confusion, Lisa Duffy offers a gentle, helping hand, sharing personal insights from her own unwanted divorce and guiding individuals through the Catholic annulment process.

Duffy is thorough, laying out the step-by-step process of annulment and including a chapter on the issues faced by divorced and civilly remarried Catholics. Ultimately, she emphasizes the path of healing and renewal provided by annulment and the fact that God will love you unconditionally.

sing the vision of St. John Paul II’s “Theology of the Body,” Jackie and Bobby Angel guide couples through a six-week devotional, focusing on God’s great love for us and our need to love and be loved. Probing questions begin each of the six sections, including “Why Am I Here?” and “How Can Our Love Last?” Using Scripture and personal stories, the Angels have an approachable style that leads couples to reflect and discuss the daily chapter challenges, which include tips for prayer and actions for spiritual growth.

While focusing on married couples, the book’s insights are beneficial for dating and engaged couples too.

Catholic Best Sellers from Amazon.com

Joy to the World: How Christ’s Coming Changed Everything (and Still Does), by Scott Hahn The Heart’s Invisible Furies: A Novel, by John Boyne

ome married couples have little time to spare to go on a retreat. Luckily, authors Dan and Amber DeMatte, married for 11 years, have brought this opportunity to you. Their book is a 33-day self-guided retreat that is structured around three virtues in marriage: chastity, poverty, and obedience.

Each of the 33 chapters seeks to open couples’ eyes to the holiness in marriage, emphasizing that holiness isn’t necessarily about doing but about how we do things—with extraordinary love. Engaging questions and a prayer round out each chapter, and an appendix details how to create a family mission statement.

KIDS’ THE POPE’S CAT

SPOT T

BY JON M. SWEENEY ILLUSTRATED BY ROY DELEON

his is the first in a series starring Margaret, a stray cat who gets adopted by the pope when he takes an early morning walk in Rome. Through Margaret’s explorations of her new home, children will learn about the duties of the pope and life in the Vatican.

Catholic Book of Bible Stories, by Laurie Lazzaro Knowlton and Doris Ettlinger

Books featured in this section can be ordered from:

Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives, by Pope Benedict XVI

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

I Heard That Song Before: A Novel, by Mary Higgins Clark

St. Mary’s Bookstore & Church Supply web: www.stmarysbookstore.com e-mail: stmarysbookstore@gmail.com

StAnthonyMessenger.org | September 2018 • 53

POINTSOFVIEW | FAITH & FAMILY

A Faith Shaken

By Susan Hines-Brigger

Susan has worked at St. Anthony Messenger for 24 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.

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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TOP RIGHT: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS; BOTTOM: BHOFACK2/FOTOSEARCH

Susan Hines-Brigger

have trust issues. Not with everyone. a local all-boys Catholic high school. He has No, my trust issues are with the Catholic also been laicized.

Church. I know that may seem odd considering that I work for a Catholic organization, THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES but let me explain.

To compound my experience, I have spent I am a cradle Catholic. I’ve belonged to the the past 24 years writing the news column for same parish my entire life. And that’s where this magazine. Since 2002, when the clergy the trust issues started. For the whole story, sex-abuse crisis erupted, I have followed this we have to go all the way back to grade school. story. I have read, listened to, and written I attended our parish stories on the situation. In fact, school—the same school that there have been some months all four of my own kids curwhen I have had to search long rently attend or have attended. and hard to find news items to For the most part, it was a great include in my column that did experience. I do, however, have not relate in some way to clergy one very strong memory from sex abuse. that time that weighs on me. I To be fair, some of the storemember coming home and ries I report are on the progress complaining to my parents that has been made by the that our pastor would show up Church to address the situation on the playground, but never and try to prevent it from hapacknowledge or interact with pening in the future. But there the girls. I couldn’t understand are still ones that stop us from Cardinal Theodore McCarrick why he was ignoring us and moving forward or even drag found it maddening. us backward. Those are the Over time, rumors began to circulate about ones that weigh on my mind. our pastor and how much time he spent with For instance, there was the recent story of the boys. But they stayed just that—rumors. all the bishops of Chile offering their resigA few years later, though, parishioners nations to Pope Francis over their horrible mishandling of abuse cases in their country. received word that our pastor was going to But even that one didn’t completely undo me. be leaving the parish. The announcement Maybe it was because it felt distant. I didn’t and his departure were swift. The reasoning given was that he was going to receive “treatknow them. I didn’t know the abuse survivors.

The one that brought all my distrust rushment.” A new pastor arrived and parish life ing back, though, was a headline that read: went on as usual.

Or at least we thought it would. Over time, “Abuse Allegation against Cardinal Theodore McCarrick Found Credible.” According to it came to light that, in positions our previnews reports, now-retired Cardinal McCarrick ous pastor held over the years, he had abused more than 25 young men. Some of the abuse of Washington, DC, sexually abused a teenager took place at our parish. To this day, I wonder 47 years ago. The allegation has been determined credible and substantiated. if some of them were my classmates. In fact, the question hangs in the air at every reunion When I was a young reporter, Cardinal McCarrick was a big player in the bishops’ we have. conference. At meetings, I would watch him In addition to our pastor, one of the other priests serving our parish at that time was discuss tough issues in a gentle yet determined way. He encouraged cooperation. To me, he accused of sexually abusing a young male parishioner. Both priests have since been had been a strong example of ministry and laicized. A third priest, who also served at our leadership. I had come to respect him, to admire him, and to trust him. parish around the same time, faced allegations of sexual abuse from when he taught at Now do you see why I have trust issues?

LEFT: MC KOZUSKO/SAM; RIGHT: CNS PHOTO/PAUL HARING

I

in the kitchen

with Amy Heyd

St. Notburga’s Twice-Baked Sweet Potatoes Yield: 6 servings • prep time: 25 minutes, cook time: 1 hour and 10 minutes

Ingredients: 5

sweet potatoes

1 tbl.

butter

1

Granny Smith apple, skinned and chopped into ½-inch cubes

1 tbl.

cinnamon sugar

2 tbls.

melted butter

¼ cup

quick oats

¼ cup

flour

¼ cup

brown sugar

¼ cup

chopped pecans (optional)

¼ cup

honey

¼ tsp.

cinnamon

scant ¼ tsp. allspice

Instructions: Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Wash potatoes and pierce with a fork. Bake for 35–40 minutes. You will know the potatoes are ready when you can easily pierce them with a fork or knife.

While the potatoes are cooking, take a medium saucepan and cook the butter, apple, and cinnamon sugar over medium heat for

5–10 minutes. Make sure to stir regularly so the apples do not burn. The apples will be soft, but still firm when they are ready.

Remove the apples from the heat and set aside until the potatoes are ready.

In a medium bowl, mix melted butter, oats, flour, brown sugar, and pecans with a fork.

Make sure to fully mix all of the ingredients together. It will be somewhat moist, but crumbly when ready. Set aside for later use.

When the potatoes have finished cooking, let them cool for 5 minutes. Cut the potatoes in half lengthwise. Gently scoop the potato from the skin. Try to leave a ¼ inch of potato next to the skin to make a nice cup for the potato mixture. Don’t worry if you rip some; you will only need 6 or 8 good potato cups. In a large bowl combine the meat of the potato with the apple mixture, honey, cinnamon, and allspice. Evenly scoop this mixture into the potato cups you reserved. Top each of the potatoes with the oat mixture. Press it in a little so it doesn’t all roll off.

Place the potatoes in a 9-by-13-inch baking dish. Bake for 30 minutes.

St. Notburga (1265–1313)

There is a wonderful legend told of St. Notburga. One beautiful Sunday morning during the harvest, the church bells rang, calling people in for Mass.

Notburga got up from the fields and headed for the church. The farmer yelled to her to come back. There were only a few good days to harvest, and he needed every extra hand on such a gorgeous day. She was not deterred. She argued with the farmer and threw a sickle in the air yelling, “Let this decide.” The sickle hung in the air like the first-quarter moon, a sign of a good harvest.

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reflection “The greatest legacy one can pass on to one’s children and grandchildren is not money or other material things accumulated in one’s life, but rather a legacy of character and faith.”

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