Newspaper of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis
Marriage: Speaking the truth with love
2 August 30, 2012
The Catholic Spirit News with a Catholic heart
Sprinter leaves disability in the dust
Minnesota native aids Syrian refugees
9
TheCatholicSpirit.com
By Dave Hrbacek The Catholic Spirit
Don’t let Krista Pylkki’s beaming smile fool you. Beneath her wide grin and hearty laughter lies a fierce competitive spirit. A track coach who spent two summers working with her put it best: “She hates to lose,” said Traci Pastoors, who graduated from Totino-Grace High School in Fridley in 2008 and was a track team captain there and at the University of St. Thomas. “She has a focus unlike anyone I’ve ever coached.” Many of the great athletes in sports share this disdain for failure, which often propels them to greatness. But what happens when soaring ambitions are trapped inside a disabled body? That’s the tension that Pylkki wrestles with every day she hits the track to run her three events — the 100, 200 and 400 meters. Born with mild cerebral palsy, she started off in swimming, then made a gradual switch to track and field several years ago. Her goal was to qualify for the U.S. team at the Paralympic Games, which began in London Aug. 29 and run to Sept. 9. A 2012 graduate of TotinoGrace, she trained with Pastoors in the summer, hoping her efforts would pay off in the form of a berth on the team. Alas, Pylkki was not among
Krista Pylkki stands on the track at Totino-Grace High School in Fridley, where she competed as a member of the varsity track team until her graduation this past spring. She also has trained there with T-G alum Traci Pastoors, who comes back to the school this fall as a teacher.
PLEASE TURN TO RUNNER ON PAGE 17
Dave Hrbacek / The Catholic Spirit
Court reinstates original title of marriage amendment The Catholic Spirit Supporters of the proposed state constitutional marriage amendment scored a victory in the courts earlier this week. On Monday, the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled that Secretary of State Mark Ritchie “erred and exceeded his authority” in retitling ballot questions when he disagreed with how the Legislature had written them. Thus, the titles of two proposed amendments, one relating to marriage and the other to voter I.D., will remain as originally written. The two measures go to voters on Nov. 6. Some traditional marriage supporters saw Ritchie’s rewording of the marriage amendment as a way of weakening its chances for passing. His version read: “Limiting the Sta-
tus of Marriage to Opposite Sex Couples.” The original version, which has been reinstated, reads: “Recognition of Marriage as Solely Between One Man and One Woman.” “Opponents of the marriage amendment know that the majority of Minnesotans believe marriage is between a man and a woman,” said Jason Adkins, executive director of the Minnesota Catholic Conference. “The polls affirm this again and again. Therefore, to defeat the amendment, they must use tactics such as those employed by the secretary of state to confuse voters about what the amendment does and does
not do, as well as about the effect of a ‘yes’ and ‘no’ vote.” “Those who believe marriage is between a man and a woman and that the people should have the final say about Minnesota marriage law — not judges or politicians — should vote ‘yes’ in November,” he said. Despite the conflict over the title, the wording of the actual ballot question remains the same. It will read: “Shall the Minnesota Constitution be amended to provide that only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in Minnesota?”