NAT IONA L CAT HOL IC R EGIST ER , J U LY 31, 2022
4
WORLD
St. Devasahayam Defamed
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When the Catholic Church conferred sainthood on popular Hindu convert lay martyr Devasahayam, it was unpalatable for Hindu fundamentalist networks that thrive on demonizing Christianity. With the mid-May canonization, they were upset that St. Devasahayam — son of a Hindu temple priest and trusted solider of a Hindu king — had led hundreds to Christ during the seven years he was Christian and many more after his martyrdom in 1752. As the local Church in the southern state of Tamil Nadu rejoiced over the long-awaited canonization, secular national dailies like Indian Express published laudatory features. But this flurry of news headlines over the canonization of the convert prompted a leading Hindu nationalist portal, Bharata Bharati (“Mother India”), to publish a defamatory article against the canonization of the lay martyr, who was secretly shot dead at the age of 40 for professing his new faith. The claims of the article, which branded St. Devasahayam a “thief and spy” who was deservedly executed for his crimes, are rooted in the “Travancore Manual” authored by Nagam Aiya in 1906 for the then-ruler of the Hindu kingdom of Travancore, which had begun with King Marthanda Varma, who had ordered Devasahayam’s execution. Born in 1712 as a son of a Hindu temple priest, Neelakandan Pillai had been a trusted lieutenant of the Hindu king when he embraced the Christian faith in 1745 and became a martyr in 1752, as profiled by the Register. “This [allegation] is a baseless lie, initiated by Nagam Aiya,” Father John Kulandai, vice postulator for the canonization process for Devasahayam and one of the most knowledgeable authorities on the life of the lay martyr, told the Register June 30. Nagam Aiya, commissioned to write the history of Travancore by its contemporary king, stated that his book had one important duty, “to prove the praiseworthy tolerance of the native government from remote age.” Quoting Aiya himself, Father Kulandai noted this fact in his latest book, A Saint for Our Times: Martyr St. Devasahayam — a Comprehensive Historical Research. The book was released at the June 5 grand celebration and thanksgiving Mass near the saint’s martyrdom spot at Kattadimalai, attended by hundreds of thousands of people, including three dozen bishops. “It is in this background that we should understand what Aiya says about the [cause] of the execution of Devasahayam,” Father Kulandai said. This concocted account, the priest added, is contradicted by G.T. Mackenzie, a British national living in the kingdom who had been asked by Aiya himself to write about its Christian history. Mackenzie’s Christianity in Travancore, published in 1901, stated
PROPAGANDA CAMPAIGN. Hindu fundamentalist attacks on India’s convert-saint follow those against another beloved saint, Mother Teresa. At left, devotees of St. Devasahayam pray June 5 at the spot where the Indian saint is said to have knelt down and prayed before his execution. Above, Mother Teresa’s body is shown transported Sept. 13, 1997, in the gun carriage that was used for Mahatma Gandhi’s funeral. Anto Akkara photos
unequivocally that Devasahayam “was imprisoned because of his change of religion, and after three years of imprisonment he was shot in 1752 by the order of the Raja [King].” Father Kulandai noted further that “even Hindu scholars and historians contradict Aiya’s contention.” After the grand celebration of the canonization at St. Devasahayam’s martyrdom site of Kattadimalai, which generated major favorable coverage in the state of Kerala, the Bharata Bharati article was modified and published in Kerala’s mother tongue of Malayalam. Kerala is known to have a large Christian minority. The article’s publication provoked immediate condemnations from local Church organizations, including the Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council. Earlier, when the Vatican announced Devasahayam’s canonization last November, another Hindu nationalist website called the “World Dialogue Center” had appealed to the Vatican to hold off on the canonization, on the basis of the same claims. And, in 2012, a different nationalist website called “Vijayvaani” (Messenger of Victory) had published a similar article, titled “Encashment of Virtuous Tamil Hindu Psyche: Sainthood of
Devasahayam Pillai.” It was republished in 2022 by Bharata Bharati.
Attacks on Mother Teresa Bharata Bharati had carried a similarly calumnious article, titled “Tainted Teresa — Hypocrisy” when Mother Teresa was canonized in 2016. “Maligning the Christian community and its icons has been always part of the core strategy of the Hindu nationalists,” John Dayal, a Catholic activist and former journalist, told the Register from New Delhi. “It was clear in the numerous canards they used against Mother Teresa. When the secular Indian society and the world hailed her as ‘saint of the gutters’ for serving the poorest and the dying, they claimed her motive was ‘conversion only,’” said Dayal, the former president of All India Catholic Union. When Mother Teresa joined a protest of Dalit Christians in 1995, Hindu fundamentalists took out a march to the venue with placards with the words “wolf in sheep’s clothes.” And Hindu nationalists protested when India’s national government rushed the gun carriage used in 1948 for the funeral procession of Mahatma Gandhi, who is revered as India’s “Father of the Nation,” to Calcutta for the funeral of Mother Teresa on Sept. 13, 1997. They have also
repeatedly demanded that the nation’s highest honor, Bharat Ratna (Jewel of India), which was conferred on Mother Teresa in 1980 after she was awarded with Nobel Peace Prize, be revoked. Furthermore, Dayal said, whenever Hindu nationalist anti-Christian violence erupts, as in the notorious burning alive of Australian Baptist missionary Graham Stuart Staines and his two young sons in 1999 and the orchestrated violence directed against Christians in Kandhamal in 2008, “they try to put the blame on the Christians.” Another example occurred last year following the death in custody of 84-year-old Jesuit social activist Father Stan Swarmy, who had been arrested following accusations of “terrorism.” In the wake of widespread international criticism, Hindu nationalist students networks responded with a protest campaign against a Catholic college’s plans to commemorate the late priest. On the positive side, Dayal said: “Though the denigrations go on endlessly, it has not yielded much benefit to the Hindu nationalists, as the minority Christian community has not responded with violent protests to the provocations.” However, he warned, insufficient efforts to push back verbally “against the demonizing propaganda, due to the timidity of the Christian leadership, results in falsehoods being perpetrated as truth in the long run.” Anto Akkara writes from Bangalore, India.
Fire Destroys Half of Lourdes’ Chapels of Light $1.5 Million-Plus In Damages
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Half of the Chapels of Light at Our Lady of Lourdes shrine in France were destroyed by a fire during the night of July 10-11. The fire was quickly brought under control. “Another hard blow for the Shrine at Lourdes, which didn’t need it,” tweeted Father Olivier Ribadeau Dumas, rector of the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes, lamenting the destruction. “But the main thing is that there were no injuries and that pilgrims can continue to pray in the chapels that remain and continue to light candles,” he wrote. In a statement, the shrine estimated damages to be a little more than $1.5 million. Located since 2018 on the bank opposite the place where the shrine’s baths are located, the Chapels of Light are one of the
FIRE’S AFTERMATH. A panoramic view of the burned area is seen at the Lourdes shrine in France on July 11. Also damaged was the statue of Our Lady situated next to the river facing the Chapels of Light. Sanctuaire ND de Lourdes / Vincent Pierre
quietest places for recollection, next to the grotto of the apparitions. The four out of eight chapels that were destroyed are located farther down the river that runs through the grounds of the shrine. The last two chapels are the ones that have been used so far to place the heaviest and largest candles. Also damaged was the statue of Our Lady situated next to the river facing the Chapels of Light. Many pilgrims confidently leave their rosaries in the hands of the statue. Each year, 380 metric tons of candles are used in these chapels. Although the activity of the Lourdes shrine has gradually picked up since the pandemic, it has barely recovered half the number of regular visitors it had before 2020. While diocesan pilgrimages of the sick from all over the world have slowly begun to return to the shrine, they have been smaller in number as a precaution.
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BOOKS & EDUCATION
The Virtues Is John Garvey’s Last Word as Catholic University of America’s President wrong, but people have an easier time forgiving themselves and getting back on the right path if they think, “Yeah, that was out of character; that’s not where I’m trying to go. Let me reset and re-center.” It focuses on a bigger picture, rather than just individual mistakes and missteps. So this approach is a really nice way of getting people to think about what kind of lives they want to live.
BY P E T E R J E S S E R E R S M I T H
For 12 years at the helm of The Catholic University of America, John Garvey has aimed to help students put virtue into practice and free them to pursue fully the intellectual life. As CUA’s administrator, Garvey oversaw the return of single-sex dormitories at CUA, and in the classroom as a professor, he made use of the powerful stories told on television and cinema to highlight the role of virtue or vice in a character’s story. At CUA’s commencement exercises for the past 12 years, Garvey focused on speaking about a particular virtue and encouraging graduates to put it into practice. In this June 28 interview with the Register, the former CUA president, who retired June 30, discusses the need to cultivate virtue in society and in the university, along with his new book, The Virtues, that invites readers into a conversation about the virtues and the crown of a virtuous life: wisdom. First of all, what is virtue? And why does a healthy society need to cultivate virtue in people? The standard way of teaching moral philosophy and moral theology since I was a boy was to focus on rules and problems: “Was it right or wrong to bomb Hiroshima?” “Should people be allowed to have sex before they’re married or is there something wrong with that?” “Is abortion right or wrong?” That’s how we tend to think about moral questions. There is another older tradition that has come back into vogue — “vogue” may be too strong a word — but for the last 50 years or so, people like Alasdair MacIntyre and Elizabeth Anscombe have revived a way of looking at moral theology that Aristotle was familiar with. And the question they begin by asking is “What makes human beings happy? What kind of life
THE VIRTUES By John H. Garvey The Catholic University of America Press 200 pages, $27.97 To order: CUAPress.org or amazon.com
should we lead that makes us happy?” Happiness doesn’t just mean being jolly or have a good meal, but to be really happy in the most meaningful way that human beings can be happy. And that requires us to ask what people are like. Aristotle answers the question by saying, “Living a virtuous life is itself the happiness that we’re seeking.” People are by nature motivated to seek certain kinds of excellences. I’m getting too philosophical about this. But the virtues, to answer your question, are our [good] habits, things that we do habitually that become second nature, as Aristotle says. When we behave in these ways for a long enough time, we form what we call character in a certain way. So the virtues are these traits of character that people formed by acting habitually. And I should say, vices are their opposite. I teach a course called “The Virtues” to freshmen in the Honors Program. So how do you invite college students to think about and cultivate virtue? I love teaching about virtue as a
John Garvey’s new book The Virtues is a timely reflection on the virtues that draws from commencement addresses he gave to graduates at The Catholic University of America. Courtesy of CUA
way of appealing to college students about what sort of character they ought to try to form. Young people grow up a lot when they’re in college. Aside from the time when you live with your parents, there is no time in your life where you grow like this. It’s like an adolescent going through a growth spurt. You can see it over the course of a semester: They’re more mature; they write better; they think differently. And over the course of four years, they really form characters of a certain kind. So rather than tell them, “Don’t do this”; “don’t do that”; “this is a bad thing to do”; “stay away from X and Y,” ask them instead, “What would you like to be?” “Who do you really admire?” “What kind of person do you want to become?” Another way of asking that is: “What virtues do you want to cultivate? And why do you admire them? And would that make you happy?” That also leaves some room for mistakes or missteps. We’re human. We all do things
What effect do you think that approach overall could have on our society if more universities were more serious about inculcating virtue? Here’s a really interesting thing: When I was in college — I graduated in 1970 — this was the peak of the civil-rights revolutions, the Vietnam War and the sexual revolution, which really started in ’65. And at that time, when you would come for admissions weekend, they would have professors talk to you, saying, “Look, our job is not to tell you that you want to be X or Y. College is a time for exploring: Be what you want to be; do what you want to do. We will teach you mechanical engineering, Chinese or whatever else you want to study. But your moral formation, that’s your decision.” That’s what liberal theory is about: freedom. “The right is prior to the good,” as [American philosopher] John Rawls thought. But I think that no longer holds true. I mean, I think we’ve come to realize that’s a radically insufficient way of thinking about how to grow up or how to educate young people. What we see in a lot of colleges — maybe most colleges now — is a very different thing. Colleges nowadays will tell you, “You should behave this way and not that way”; “this is good; that’s bad.” We talk about it being a “woke culture,” by which we mean that colleges are preaching diversity,
and equity, and inclusion, and Black Lives Matter; that we should approach gender expression and identity in a particular way; and we should care for the environment in this way and prioritize it over manufacturing, let’s say. Well, that’s a moral theory. That’s a way of saying, “Yeah, this is good. And the opposite is bad. And you should be like this.” So I view that in one way as progress. But since we’re talking about “what’s a good way to be, and what’s not a good way to be,” I think it allows me to say, “You got the right idea that we should tell people what’s good and what’s not. But here’s where you have got a hold on the wrong end of the stick. That’s not a good way to be. Let me show you the way to be.” That’s the discussion about virtues. So I think people are open to this discussion now because we have gotten past the liberal assumption, like Justice Anthony Kennedy’s liberal assumption that you are your own “sweet mystery” of the universe. No, we actually believe that there are good and bad things, and we’re having a public discussion now about what’s good. That’s an interesting perspective. We’ve essentially all come back to the view that morality actually does matter. That’s a good place to begin, isn’t it? Now with this book on virtue, you’ve written it in a conversational style. Why did you opt for that approach? The reason is that the book is a bunch of conversations. I’ve been giving commencement speeches about virtues for 25 years. It used to be faith, hope and charity; and, over time, I was beginning to run out of virtues. So really, nearly all of the meat of this is speeches that I’ve given at
commencements, but knit together in a way. So you can read it out loud, and it won’t sound like you’re reading a book: It’ll sound like you’re saying something because I was saying them out loud. I want to talk that way about the virtues so that people will really get engrossed in them and feel like virtue matters to them because it’s real. What was the final virtue you wanted to impart to students at this year’s commencement exercises? It was wisdom which, as I said, isn’t really a virtue, but the gift of the Holy Spirit and the crown of the virtues. What I tried to say was, “Here’s what we mean by wisdom; it’s not knowing a whole lot of stuff from a lot of books. It’s really understanding that God is the God who made you and is in charge of your life. You’re here to know him, love him and serve him. If you understand that, then you’re truly wise. But, of course, you’re not going to do all of those things unless you have acquired and practiced the virtues in a way that makes them habitual. And then you’ll begin to understand these other things.” So it really was a nice way of rounding out what I have been trying to say for 12 years. Back to your book on virtues, what do you hope people will most take away from it? The book is written for a particular audience: undergraduates and their parents. It says to them, “Here’s what your college experience ought to be like. And here’s what you ought to hope to get out of it.” And so I hope people read this and think, “I admire people who exemplify the virtues. I admire people who act like that.” Peter Jesserer Smith is a Register staff writer. This interview is edited for length and clarity.
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PAID ADVERTISEMENT
Cross Catholic Outreach Partners With Pwoje Espwa to Rebuild Homes Destroyed by Haiti Earthquake
“They can be confident knowing they will receive a house that will provide better protection from any major storm or earthquake to come.” Jim Cavnar, Cross Catholic Outreach “The earthquake came without warning, killed indiscriminately, and left scores of shattered lives — and homes — in its wake,” he explained. “While it was centered in a part of Haiti that is less populated than the country’s capital city, we were on high alert that day because the Tiburon Peninsula contains a lot of makeshift homes, and we knew they would never hold up to an earthquake of that severity.” (See related story on opposite page.) Even before roads had been cleared and
damaged bridges could be repaired, Cross Catholic Outreach had found routes to provide earthquake survivors with food and other relief supplies. The ministry continued this emergency relief work for weeks following the disaster, but it also began working with its in-country Catholic partners to determine what kinds of long-term support would be needed. It was then that Cross Catholic Outreach’s staff learned something encouraging. The homes it had been building for poor families prior to the earthquake through an in-country partner called Pwoje Espwa (Project Hope) were among the few structures that had remained intact during the tremors. “We were very impressed by the quality of homes our partner had built. Few sustained any serious damage, while many other cement houses in the area had been reduced to rubble. That proved the importance of our commitment to build simple but high-quality homes through the ESPWA team,” Cavnar said. “It also inspired us to expand our plans so we could provide new homes to the families that had lost everything in the earthquake. The quality of Espwa’s work will be a comfort to them too. They can be confident knowing they will receive a house that will provide better protection from any major storm or earthquake to come.” As with all of its programs, Cross Catholic Outreach will approach this housing project in a way that blesses
families both materially and spiritually, according to Cavnar. “We believe in integral human development. That is a formal term used by the Catholic Church, but its meaning is actually very simple,” he said. “It means we believe spiritual and emotional support must accompany the material aid we provide. We stress that because we know true, lasting change is only possible when we address the needs of both the body and the soul.” Cavnar added that Cross Catholic Outreach feels a sense of urgency and is eager to get its next large-scale housing project underway.
Photo courtesy of Overture International.
Within a few horrifying minutes, the lives of hundreds of Haitian families were literally turned upside down. On Aug. 14, 2021, a massive earthquake struck Haiti’s Tiburon Peninsula, causing 2,248 deaths, injuring more than 12,760 people, and damaging hundreds of homes, parishes, schools and medical buildings. It was a day Jim Cavnar remembers very well. As the president of Cross Catholic Outreach, he understood exactly how the disaster would impact Haiti’s poorest families.
“We’ll be launching a campaign soon to get funding for this effort from Catholic donors in the U.S.,” he said, “and we are
The impact of the earthquake reduced poorly constructed homes to rubble in a few minutes, so Cross Catholic Outreach and Pwoje Espwa — the ministry’s in-country partner in Haiti — are using improved construction techniques on the new homes being built. confident a lot of individuals, families and even Catholic businesses will want to participate. No one wants these Haitian families to be homeless or living in tents because of this disaster. Our housing project will build quality homes at a very reasonable cost using local labor, which also helps support poor families in Haiti through job training and employment. There’s not a more impactful or lifetransforming gift a donor could give.” Readers interested in supporting Cross Catholic Outreach’s housing
program and other ministries to the poor can contribute through the brochure inserted in this issue or by sending a tax-deductible gift to: Cross Catholic Outreach, Dept. AC02114, PO Box 97168, Washington, DC 20090-7168. The ministry has a special need for partners willing to make gifts on a monthly basis. Use the inserted brochure to become a Mission Partner, or write “Monthly Mission Partner” on mailed checks to be contacted about setting up those arrangements.
Cross Catholic Outreach’s ‘Day of Prayer’ Blesses Catholics Spiritually Each year, one of the nation’s leading international relief and development ministries sets aside a special day to offer prayer as a gift to those in need — particularly to Catholics in America who have been supporting its work overseas. It is yet another sign of the organization’s deeply spiritual approach to charity. “Since our inception, we have always set aside a day of the week to pray for those
who have shared their intentions, and those requests have typically come to us through the many priests who visit U.S. parishes to share about our mission during the homily of the Mass,” explained Jim Cavnar, president of Cross Catholic Outreach. “The Day of Prayer we celebrate in August is a full day dedicated to prayer for others, particularly our missionary partners overseas and those they serve. It also includes a wonderful
additional blessing: in Rome, on the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Cardinal Konrad Krajewski will offer a special Mass for the collective intentions of all our benefactors.” Individuals interested in participating in the Day of Prayer are encouraged to use the ministry’s special online form to submit their prayer intentions. It can be found at CrossCatholic.org/dayofprayer.
“While Cross Catholic Outreach is best known for the many things it does to support Church missions serving the poor — delivering shipments of food and medicines, funding educational and house-building initiatives, and developing self-help projects that allow people to escape poverty — we are very intentional about serving the poor spiritually as well,” Cavnar said. “That is not always the case with charities, even religious
ones, but we believe communicating the Gospel of Christ and promoting the means of grace — including prayer — must be part of our relief and development mission.” “This approach is also in keeping with the points made in the papal encyclical, Deus Caritas Est,” he added. “It very clearly states that those of us who become involved in works of mercy must also be people of prayer.”
On Aug. 14, 2021, more than 60,700 homes were destroyed and 76,100 damaged by a 7.2 magnitude earthquake. Days later, a tropical storm battered the same area, dumping torrential rain that destroyed crops at the peak of the harvest season. “Those two devastating natural disasters shook thousands of families to their core and left many wondering if it would ever be possible to rebuild their lives,” confirmed Jim Cavnar, president of Cross Catholic Outreach, one of the leading Catholic ministries serving in Haiti and involved in relief efforts after these events. “It was terrible to see the suffering, to learn about how many lives had been lost and how many homes had been reduced to piles of rubble. Roads and bridges were destroyed, and families were driven into the streets in fear. Fortunately, the Church was in a position to help, and we could join in with the work they were doing to provide help and hope to the families that were suffering most.” While the destruction caused by the 2021 earthquake was staggering, most Americans were unaware of the disaster because they saw or heard very little about it on the news. “We work in Haiti, so we understood the scale of the Aug. 14 disaster, but very few American Catholics were aware of what had happened,” said Cavnar. “That’s probably because the earthquake occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, and because a blitz of other international news stories hit during the same week. The disconnect is understandable, but you can imagine how discouraging it was to the earthquake survivors. Thousands had lost family members, homes and possessions, and they wondered if their pleas for help were even being heard.” Fortunately, Cross Catholic Outreach was aware of the disaster’s impact and remained vigilant, doing whatever it could to provide relief. In the months following the earthquake, it arranged shipments of food, medicines, tarps for temporary shelter, and other important supplies to the areas where the needs of the poor were greatest. Eventually, the focus of Catholic
leaders working in the hardest-hit areas of Haiti shifted from providing emergency aid to finding solutions to long-term challenges. For example, families had found ways to create makeshift shelters or were huddling under tarps, but they clearly needed more substantial shelter, especially if they had children. “That’s why constructing housing is our priority now,” Cavnar said. “Once food, water and medical needs are addressed after a disaster, it is essential that we get families out of tents and other primitive shelters and into safe, sturdy homes. The house can have a simple design, but it should be well constructed and secure and meet sanitary needs. Supplying this housing is critical because it restores hope and gives families a foundation for rebuilding their lives. The homes we build are perfectly suited to the areas we serve, and they are designed to address these poor families’ need for shelter and security.” According to Cavnar, Cross Catholic Outreach has launched this major housing reconstruction project in Haiti, and an in-country ministry team called Pwoje Espwa (Project Hope) will be involved in managing the process to ensure each house is built to a high standard. (See related story on opposite page.) Based on the way U.S. Catholics have supported previous efforts like these, Cavnar is confident many will again want to join the cause and build homes for these displaced families. “I have been involved in ministries to the poor for 30 years and worked on many relief projects like this before. In my experience, Catholics are deeply compassionate people and are always eager to help needy families, particularly in the wake of a disaster,” he said. “They understand how important having a safe home is to their own family, and they sympathize with parents who feel hopeless desperation when their children are suffering and there is nothing they can do to improve their situation. For some, providing a home to a poor family is also a way to show gratitude to God for the blessings he has bestowed on them.
Photo courtesy of Overture International.
US Catholics Play Critical Role in Helping Poor Haitian Families Still Struggling After Major Earthquake
Families who were displaced by the Haiti earthquake are finally able to start rebuilding their lives — thanks to an outreach of Cross Catholic Outreach funded by compassionate Catholic donors in the U.S. Much has been accomplished, but more remains to be done. Others see it as a tangible way to respond to Christ’s call to love others as you love yourself.” Sponsoring a home for a needy family is also popular because it produces a tangible impact with long-term benefits, Cavnar said. “When people give, they want to know their contribution is achieving something specific and will improve someone’s life in a profound way,” he shared. “That is another reason both our disaster relief efforts and our home-building initiatives are so popular. When you donate to those causes, you know your gift is going to produce a significant benefit to the
families being helped. In the case of relief efforts, it can literally save a life. With the
gift of a home, you restore lost hope and bless a family for many years to come.”
How to Help
To fund Cross Catholic Outreach’s effort to help the poor worldwide, use the postage-paid brochure inserted in this newspaper, or mail your gift to Cross Catholic Outreach, Dept. AC02114, PO Box 97168, Washington, DC 200907168. The brochure also includes instructions on becoming a Mission Partner and making a regular monthly donation to this cause. If you identify an aid project, 100% of the donation will be restricted to be used for that specific project. However, if more is raised for the project than needed, funds will be redirected to other urgent needs in the ministry.
NAT IONA L CAT HOL IC R EGIST ER , J U LY 31, 2022
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Podcast
Responsibility before. He learned the practical aspects of love, lust and use versus self-gift. Renzo then jumped into the life of St. Joseph and began leaning into his example of fatherhood and masculinity. “I’m very grateful for St. John Paul’s willingness to be very practical and pragmatic, but also be very philosophical and theological. He really rounded it out for me,” Renzo said.
CONTINUING PAGE 13 STORY
more than half their lives. They started dating in high school and got married shortly after Monica graduated from college. Married nine years, with their 10-year anniversary this October, the Ortegas are the parents of five children. “We were both very involved in our faith, in youth ministry and religious education, being catechists,” Renzo said. “We knew our faith pretty well, but we were very challenged by the first five years of our marriage.” Though Renzo and Monica knew Catholicism, they didn’t know how to apply it to their day-to-day marriage. “We really struggled to live out that Christian married life that we knew about,” Monica said. “We both came from families where marriages ended in divorce, so our mission statement going into marriage was ‘Don’t get divorced.’” The Ortegas were grateful to participate in their diocesan marriage prep and quickly learned they weren’t the only imperfect Catholic couple struggling in this transition, they said. But in 2020, during the COVID-19 lockdown, their marriage encountered new challenges. Renzo became a stay-at-home-dad, and Monica went back to work. “It gave me time for a lot of reflection and a lot of prayer,” Renzo said. During this time, Renzo encountered two pivotal people that would change the outlook of their relationship: St. John Paul II and St. Joseph. “Through St. John Paul II’s teachings and knowledge of St. Joseph, we were able to really bring it home and bring down to earth a lot of teachings we knew but didn’t know how to live out,” Renzo said. The idea of a ministry had been in the back of their minds for a while. But when marriage prep in their diocese went virtual as COVID-19 began, the two launched Two Become Family. They began blogging, writing and creating resources from what they had learned. “We felt that everything we had learned up to that point, we wanted to be able to share with other people,” Renzo said. “Without reservation, no filter, just letting people that wanted holy marriages know the struggles that you might encounter and what you
Shepherds CONTINUING PAGE 13 STORY
strength, wisdom, insight and grace to lead the people of God to Jesus,” he told the Register. The shrine decided to “make it a part of our daily prayer routine: Include the bishops in our Mass intentions, and pray for them, their needs and intentions throughout the day. That evolved into our Shepherd Project.” This project is not limited to the shrine or local dioceses, but meant for every diocese in the United States, plus the 10 dioceses in U.S. territories and the Military Archdiocese, to embrace. The shrine aims “to include as many people from around the country as we can, praying for our bishops, who are in need of a lot of prayer and support from us the faithful,” he said. All of the bishops across the country are prayed for, one bishop, one diocese per day, through the end of October. The shrine has assigned a particular date on which each bishop will be remembered in prayer. The first day of prayer was for Archbishop
ALL ABOUT FAMILY LIFE. Renzo and Monica Ortega saw the need for their ministry Two Become Family during the midst of COVID-19. Courtesy of the Ortegas
could do and how you prepare for those things. If you’re engaged, dating, or whatever stage of life you’re in, we wanted to be able to share our experiences.” Five months ago, three different couples from the Ortegas’ former youth-group teams became engaged around the same time. The Ortegas wanted to share their experiences with them and offer advice, but the couples were out of state. “We would just be talking before we went to bed about all different types of things, whether it be marriage-related or current events, and we would have such long conversations,” Renzo said. “I would joke, ‘We should just put up a microphone. I’m sure other people would want to just sit in’ because we go over everything, and we’re pretty honest with each other.” What started as long conversations at the kitchen table then transitioned into their podcast, PreCana With the Pope. The two present a question each week and partner with St. John Paul II to tackle hard topics relating to marriage and family life. “This is not just Monica and Renzo’s brains, and it’s not a lecture or a deep dive into theology,” Renzo said. “It’s a conversation about real things that are in marriage, and we feel like the Church still has a lot to say and a lot of good wisdom to give.” Monica said they hope that couples feel like they’re sitting at home
with them at the kitchen table as they listen to the podcast. “We felt like it was really important to share both the husband and wife perspective,” Monica said. “I do think that there’s a lot of good resources for both individually, but then how does it work in a marriage? How do we wrestle through these circumstances together? It was really important that both of our voices were heard in all the things that we do.”
Jerome Listecki of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee; the second was for Bishop David Ricken of the Diocese of Green Bay; the third was for Bishop William Patrick Callahan of the Diocese of La Crosse. The intentions continued with the Wisconsin dioceses before radiating outward, state by state, to cover the entire country. The main public prayer takes place during Mass at the shrine. “Anybody attending Mass here joins us in the prayer,” Father Broussard said. In addition, the shrine also has a prayer box in the downstairs Apparition Oratory with a picture of each particular bishop and diocese in the “prayer spotlight” that day. Speaking of light, a perpetually lit candle dedicated to all U.S. bishops will remain in the Apparition Oratory throughout the entire project. The Shepherd Project website presents the entire day-by-day lineup, listing the particular bishop for the day. The ordinary bishop’s name appears, but any auxiliary bishop in that diocese is also automatically included. The webpage also carries the special prayer written for this project.
In addition, prayer cards with an official prayer for the bishops are placed by their picture at the shrine. No one is limited to only this particular prayer, of course. “People can say individual prayers for the bishop throughout the day,” Father Broussard added, “and a lot are doing that on their own.” Barbara Renard often visits the shrine. She told the Register she has been coming here “since I was a young child. Growing up, my mom and dad went there a lot.” Visits included going to the oratory, where she vividly remembers seeing the “wheelchairs and crutches and other things hanging from the ceiling,” attesting to answered prayers. “And I remember people on their knees praying the Rosary.” When she learned of “The Shepherd Project,” she immediately thought, “It’s Marian-inspired. I believe Our Lady knows they need to be prayed for. … And when this project came along, it was the right thing to do.” Renard prays daily for each bishop, such as Bishop Daniel Felton of the Diocese of Duluth, Minnesota, who is from the Green Bay area and served as a priest in the diocese before being appointed to Duluth. Bishop Felton was prayed for on May 21. She said, “It just seemed personal to pray for all the bishops I am familiar with and for the others who I personally think need lots of prayers.” The Derochers have been joining in prayer daily, including while traveling. During the week, Violeta also goes to the shrine for adoration, where she also prays “for all our priests because we need them,” she said. Violeta encourages others to pray for our bishops via “The Shepherd Project.” She sends the information “to anyone I know who is Catholic” and recommends joining in prayer via parish prayer groups. For their part, the bishops are grateful. The shrine began emailing the bishops “to let them know we’re
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Saintly Impact “St. John Paul II was the springboard because a lot of his writing changed our marriage,” Renzo said. “We were introduced to him fairly early in our relationship. I think we compartmentalized theology from the practical lived experience of engagement, dating and early marriage life.” While Renzo was a stay-athome-dad, he began to dive into St. John Paul II’s encyclicals. He read Familiaris Consortio and Redemptoris Custos and was reintroduced to theology of the body through Love and Responsibility. “The things that he was writing blew my mind because you could see theology of the body in all of his writings. Everything was written through that lens,” Renzo said. “He really lays out very explicitly what the husband needs to do, how the husband should live out his relationship with the kids, and how to be a father.” Renzo had never read Love and
The Need for Mentorship Although St. John Paul II and St. Joseph have treasures of wisdom to offer, it can still be hard to apply that advice and example to a relationship as a young couple. “There are a lot of Catholic couples with wonderful intentions, and they know a lot of good things, but then life happens and there’s a gap in the lived experience,” Monica said. “They wonder, ‘How do I live a Christian life? How do I live in a Catholic family?’ It’s difficult, and I think some of it is the oversharing.” Monica said there’s a difficult transition to becoming an adult and then working through the fear of oversharing and overexposing and even the fear of letting children into the weaknesses of your marriage. “I think that there’s a big gap in mentorship of young adults and having people they can look to that have lived this experience,” Monica said. “People aren’t inviting teens and young adults into that reality.” Renzo pointed out how, in Familiaris Consortio, St. John Paul II talks about why the education of family life should be coming from our families. “The entirety of our family life, including sexual education, should be happening and coming from your parents,” Renzo said. “Sons and fathers and daughters and mothers should be able to have open, honest conversations about all the questions they might have. Even into your wedding and into your first year of marriage, we should be able to go to our parents for that.” Unfortunately, that’s not the reality for many faithful Catholics, Renzo said. “People would rather go to Google or a search engine to try to figure things out,” Renzo said. “They don’t have the parental mentorship that they ought to have, by design of the family, and they also may not feel like they have other
people they can go to to fill those voids for them.” Even if there are great spiritual resources, such as theology of the body, there’s nothing that can replace others living their faith and sharing their experiences, they said. “You can’t substitute anything for authentic relationships and mentorships,” Renzo said. “Most of the struggles we see in holy marriages are because there’s that lack of mentorship.” While there are numerous marriage-prep programs, ranging from one day long to a weekend long to a whole year long, it’s difficult to make up for a lack of personal, authentic mentorship, they said. “I think there are many couples out there that have a lot to give,” Renzo said. “Maybe they just need to say ‘Yes’ to the Holy Spirit and take initiative and start pouring in and investing into the young couples that they see that might have questions.” Outside of their podcast and ministry, the Ortegas’ goal is to do just that: authentically mentor as many young people entering into marriage as they can. “I would encourage any engaged couple to seek out a marriage prep that involves a mentorship couple,” Monica said. “Be vulnerable enough to even ask for that if it’s not offered. I would also encourage married couples to also put themselves out there and invite people into their homes to see the realness of married life and parenthood.”
The Fruit of Their Mission Both Monica and Renzo said they have learned a lot from starting their ministry, but, above all, they’ve increased their communication and trust of one another. “We are just more willing to be vulnerable and to share the things that are on our hearts without worry of how it’s going to be perceived,” Monica said. “One thing we’ve really learned, deep down in our hearts, is to assume the goodwill of the other. Even when there’s conflict or confrontation and something is difficult, we’re on the same team.” Rather than immediately assuming the worst-case scenario, Monica said there’s no judgment on either side of the relationship. “We’re learning how to work together,” Renzo said. “We’ve really had to just lean into each other and support each
INVOKING OUR LADY. Pilgrims seek spiritual solace and blessing and pray for bishops at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help. Courtesy photos praying for them,” Father Broussard said. He shared how, from every single bishop’s office informed about the prayers thus far, he has heard back either directly from the bishop or from his office regarding how pleased, appreciative and
thankful they were. For those within reach of the shrine, Father Broussard encouraged, “If you know your bishop is being prayed for that day, come join us. Make a pilgrimage. We would love it if people did that.”
other. That then translates to how we parent and how we do everything else. We’ve gotten to tackle a new challenge together, and we’re just better because we’ve been doing it as a team.” One of the biggest blessings Monica and Renzo receive from their ministry is hearing that their podcast helps other couples have hard conversations. A close friend and listener, Emma St. Hilaire, has also learned to communicate well with her husband. “Just the example that they set as a married couple, opening up to one another in this public way, goes to show how connected they are and how well they communicate off the podcast,” St. Hilaire said. “They’ll be the first ones to admit on the podcast or to their friends that their marriage is not perfect. They don’t always communicate perfectly. “But they’ve worked through it a lot. And that comes through in every episode because they feed off of each other so well.” St. Hilaire met the Ortegas five years ago when chaperoning a highschool retreat. They got to know each other more over time, and St. Hilaire even coached volleyball with Monica. St. Hilaire said she especially loves the podcast episode on natural family planning. “In this episode, I think they hit the nail on the head,” St. Hilaire said. “People don’t understand that the Church gives NFP to us as a tool to use that can really strengthen marriage as well. It’s not just about family planning, either. It’s about your health as a woman, and you don’t have to use NFP because you’re Catholic. They encourage men and women to be advocates for their own health.” Another popular episode is “Rehabilitating Chastity.” The title comes from Love and Responsibility. Renzo and Monica discuss everything related to chastity and are learning that chastity is still a virtue in marriage. “Monica and Renzo are 100% real and authentic, especially in their ministry,” St. Hilaire said. “It’s not coming at all from a place of ‘We know best.’ It’s coming from a place of lived experience.” Hannah Cote, who is a senior studying English and journalism at Hillsdale College, is the Register’s summer 2022 intern.
In any event, “join us in prayer.” Joseph Pronechen is a Register staff writer.
LEARN MORE For more information, visit ChampionShrine.org/ shepherd-project.