The Catholic Spirit - April 11, 2024

Dottie Luckow shows her kindergarten classmates on April 8 at Divine Mercy Catholic School in Faribault a doll depicting St. Maria Faustina Kowalska that she took home over the weekend. Teacher Anna Wagner, back right, bought the doll at the beginning of the school year and lets a student take it home each weekend. Then, on Monday, the student shares about what he or she did with the doll and where it traveled. Luckow had the doll on Divine Mercy Sunday. DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

WINE AND COMMUNITY Leo Puntillo, second from left, a senior psychology major and Spanish minor at the University of Minnesota from Burlington, Wis., talks with other members of the St. Lawrence Newman Center at its inaugural Spring Wine Social on April 5 at Jax Cafe in Minneapolis. Puntillo said he finds a sense of belonging at the center that encourages him in his faith. “It is really easy to be Catholic when you are surrounded by other people who are trying to do the same thing, but if you are trying to do it by yourself it is just not going to work. You need a community. I’ve found that here at the Newman Center.” He shared his testimony with over 150 attendees of the event.

MEN OF CHRIST Archbishop Bernard Hebda is among those preparing to process into St. Joseph in Rosemount for the opening Mass of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ Men’s Conference March 23. More than 500 men from across the archdiocese attended the conference, which was hosted by Catholic Watchmen and included the archbishop and Auxiliary Bishops Joseph Williams and Michael Izen among those addressing the men. The conference’s theme was “Men of Christ — Rising Daily in Discipleship.” A keynote speaker known nationally as the “dynamic deacon” — Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers — urged the men to step up as husbands, fathers and members of society. “Strong men, strong families. Strong families, strong Church. Strong Church, we take back this culture ... but it has to start with us,” Deacon Burke-Sivers said.

PRACTICING Catholic PAGETWO

Produced by Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the April 5 “Practicing Catholic” radio show included a discussion with Bishop Andrew Cozzens of Crookston about the importance of the National Eucharistic Revival. Plus, a deacon who will be ordained to the priesthood in May shared his journey to the priesthood. He was joined by Father Joseph Taphorn, rector of The St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul, who talked about the pillars of priestly formation. Also on the show, Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Williams explained how to live out the joy of Easter when there is still sadness and suffering in our lives. Listen to interviews after they have aired at archspm org/faith-and-discipleship/practicing-catholic or choose a streaming platform at Spotify for Podcasters.

The Catholic Spirit is introducing a fixture to its pages beginning with the April 11 edition. Madelyn Reichert, publications administrative coordinator for the newspaper, will write a monthly book review for the paper’s Faith + Culture pages, titled “And the beautiful.” Reichert joined the newspaper in January from Washington, D.C., where she worked as journals coordinator for Catholic University of America Press and copy editor of the Catholic Historical Review. She has a Master of Arts degree in English literature, bachelor’s degrees in philosophy and theology and minors in Catholic Studies, Spanish literature and English literature. About her column, Reichert said, “I’m excited to bring a greater awareness of fiction that illuminates the beauty of the faith to the readers of The Catholic Spirit.” See Reichert’s first book review on page 13.

Inspired by the call for synodality in the Catholic Church, 81 women — some speaking Spanish, others English, others both languages — attended a bilingual Lenten retreat March 16 at Ascension in Minneapolis. Through an interpreter and bilingual attendees at each table, the women prayed, sang and shared testimonies. The Women’s Lenten Encounter Retreat was funded by the League of Catholic Women Foundation. The Catholic Community Foundation of Minnesota stewards the league’s fund.

Father Victor Valencia, pastor of St. Jerome in Maplewood, has been elected to serve on the leadership council of the National Association of Filipino Priests-USA. The association provides a venue for Filipino-American priests serving in the United States to continue formation and spiritual renewal together in a spirit of fraternity and fellowship “so they can become better ministers and partners in our mission of evangelization,” wrote Bishop Oscar Solis of Salt Lake City to Archbishop Bernard Hebda, informing the archbishop of the election. As a regional representative on the council, Father Valencia will help plan the association’s 2026 national assembly in the Diocese of San Jose, California.

More than 20 parishioners from St. Frances Cabrini in Minneapolis and Sacred Heart in St. Paul helped serve lunch and prepare dinner Easter Sunday for people at Catholic Charities’ Dorothy Day Place campus in St. Paul. “Jesus Christ came to serve, and that’s what we’re doing,” said Deb Brisch-Cramer of St. Frances Cabrini. “We’ve talked about that over the last three days; in the Catholic Church, the Easter Triduum is all about serving. Serving your community, serving those who are less fortunate than you, and being like Jesus. It’s about giving back and giving to other people.”

A Benilde-St. Margaret’s junior brought into full communion with the Catholic Church at this year’s Easter Vigil and a sophomore produced the art for the St. Louis Park high school’s Easter greeting and prayer cards. Elaine Hughes said her conversion to the Catholic faith had her particularly excited about having her painting “Risen Lord” chosen for the annual Easter prayer card. And Abigail Marusich’s painting, “He is risen!” graces BSM President Danielle Hermanny’s Easter greeting card. Hughes depicts Jesus emerging from a bright yellow background. Marusich paints Jesus leaving his tomb into bright sunlight, surrounded by titles including Lamb of God and Redeemer. Visitation School in Mendota Heights has named Jennifer Bigelow as its new head of school, effective July 1. She has over 20 years’ experience in educational leadership and is the interim superintendent of schools in the Diocese of Richmond, Virginia. Bigelow replaces Rene Gavic, who is retiring June 30 after working at the school for 37 years. “I am thrilled to join the Visitation School community and to become part of the Sisters’ rich, 150-year legacy of academic excellence, educating the hearts and minds of students,” Bigelow said in a written statement. “I look forward to working collaboratively with students, faculty, staff and parents to uphold Visitation’s tradition of fostering compassionate leaders and lifelong learners.”

Ticket #22 continues to resonate with Ted and Noel Paukert two years after the family trip to a resort in the Dominican Republic that inspired the catch phrase designed to bring them all closer to Jesus. To celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary in March 2022, the retired public-school teachers from St. Timothy in Maple Lake treated their three children and their families to the trip — a total of 21 people. They presented each family with a split — a $500 check — of the combined cost of $2,000 honoring Jesus as one of the group, to be spent in a charitable way. In addition, a grandson designed T-shirts in his grandparents’ wedding colors that read: “Faith & Family 50th Anniversary.” Their travel agent gave them drink canisters with the same slogan engraved on them. The gift was announced at Christmas and Ted Paukert said he “came up with a plan to strengthen our faith and hopefully draw all of us closer to Jesus. We would simply bring him with us.” He made plaques for each family that read: “TICKET #22” and “Be Kind, Helpful and Generous, sharing in family love!” Even now, when sending small gifts to their grandchildren in college they sign the note, “with love of Ticket #22.”

On April 17, internationally-renowned speaker and personal friend of St. John Paul II George Weigel will present his lecture “Why was — and is — Vatican II necessary?” at the O’Shaughnessy Education Center auditorium at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. The St. Paul Seminary is hosting the event, which is free and open to the public. Weigel is the author of over 30 books, including the definitive biography of St. John Paul II, “Witness to Hope,” and was recently featured on the archdiocese’s “Practicing Catholic” radio show to discuss the event.

COURTESY KEVIN CONNORS

ANNA WILGENBUSCH | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

ONLY JESUS | BISHOP MICHAEL IZEN FROMTHEBISHOP

Family meals and the rosary

One of my great recurring memories of growing up is the family meal. Especially when I was little and didn’t have evening activities, I was always at the table, while at least some of my five older brothers and sisters were present as well. My mother was a great cook, so I enjoyed the food, but I also enjoyed the conversation that took place with the most important people in my life. Stories, jokes and teasing were typically on the menu, and very consistently, toward the end of the dinner, mom would remind us that, right after the dishes, we were going to pray the rosary.

She would receive some groans, including from me. If it was summer, we would have wanted to go out and play. If it was winter, there was a TV show we had to see. Or perhaps we had critical homework from school. Occasionally, we could bargain mom into a later start time for the rosary, but she usually held fast to the “right after dinner” standard. Otherwise, if it was postponed into the evening, she knew she would lose some of us.

It was in this environment that I learned the rosary, learned the mysteries, and learned a good

Comidas familiares y el rosario

Uno de mis grandes recuerdos recurrentes de crecer es la comida familiar. Especialmente cuando yo era pequeña y no tenía actividades nocturnas, siempre estaba en la mesa, mientras al menos algunos de mis cinco hermanos y hermanas mayores también estuvieron presentes.

Mi madre era una gran cocinera, así que disfruté la comida, pero también disfruté la conversación que tuvo lugar con las personas más importantes de mi vida. Cuentos, chistes y burlas normalmente estaban en el menú, y de manera muy consistente, hacia el final de la cena, mamá nos recordaba que, justo después de lavar los platos, íbamos a rezar el rosario.

Ella recibiría algunos gemidos, incluso de parte mía. Si fuera verano, hubiéramos querido salir a jugar. Si era invierno, había un programa de televisión que teníamos que ver. O tal vez teníamos tareas críticas en la escuela. De vez en cuando, podíamos negociar con mamá para que comenzara el rosario más tarde, pero ella generalmente se atenía al estándar de “justo después de la cena”. De lo contrario, si lo posponían hasta la noche, sabía que perdería a algunos de nosotros.

Fue en este ambiente que aprendí el rosario,

chunk of my faith. It also didn’t hurt that I would see my mom and dad praying their private prayers almost every day as well. My mom would often be sitting with her prayer book at the kitchen table or the dining room table. Dad would often grab one of the dining room chairs, but he would be in the living room (where the only TV was) leaning over the chair and saying his prayers. For whatever reason, my parents didn’t pay much attention to Jesus’ instruction that when you pray you should go to your room and close the door. I think mom and dad had an agreement with the Lord that their time with him would be both prayer and an opportunity to teach their children the value of prayer. Whether I realized it at the time or not, their scheme worked. By the time I was in high school, my bedtime prayers included more than just the typical Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be. I started praying for people as well, and for my own intentions. The attraction to the rosary never completely left me, although I must admit, I probably did not pray it much while I was in college. But as a young adult I returned to it, realizing that truth that mom used to speak — if you want to stay close to Jesus, stay close to Mary.

This issue of The Catholic Spirit includes a centerpiece article by Maura Keller on Catholic

aprendí los misterios y aprendí un buena parte de mi fe. Tampoco me dolió ver a mi mamá y a mi papá orando sus oraciones privadas casi todos los días también. Mi mamá solía estar con su libro de oraciones sentada en la mesa de la cocina o en la mesa del comedor. Papá solía agarrar una de las sillas del comedor, pero estaba en la sala de estar (donde estaba el único televisor) inclinado sobre la silla y rezando sus oraciones. Por alguna razón, mis padres no prestaron mucha atención a las instrucciones de Jesús de que cuando ores debes ir a tu habitación y cerrar la puerta. Creo que mamá y papá tenían un acuerdo con el Señor de que su tiempo con él sería tanto oración como una oportunidad para enseñar a sus hijos el valor de la oración.

Ya sea que me diera cuenta o no, su plan funcionó. Cuando estaba en la escuela secundaria, mis oraciones antes de dormir incluían más que el típico Padre Nuestro, Ave María y Gloria. También comencé a orar por la gente y por mis propias intenciones. La atracción por el rosario nunca me abandonó por completo, aunque debo admitir que probablemente no lo recé mucho mientras estaba en la universidad. Pero cuando era joven adulto volví a ello y me di cuenta de la verdad que mamá solía decir: si quieres estar cerca de Jesús, quédate cerca de María.

Esta edición de The Catholic Spirit incluye un artículo central de Maura Keller sobre la vida familiar

family life and intentional living, pages 10-11, as well as an update on page 7 of the success of small group formation as part of implementing Archbishop Hebda’s pastoral letter, “You Will Be My Witnesses: Gathered and Sent From the Upper Room.” The family is the original small group. Although my brothers and sisters and I were blessed to attend Catholic grade school, growing up we learned more about the faith from mom and dad than we did in school.

One reason mom was able to gather us consistently for the rosary was our gathering consistently for the evening meal. For many families, the family meal seems to be a lost art. The Izen family gathered for their small group, which included a great meal with fun and instructive conversation, and then we transitioned into prayer, by moving into the next room and praying the rosary.

As a priest, and now a bishop, I am often called on to lead the prayer at our extended family gatherings. Even that moment of just saying grace can be instructive for the family. When it comes to your meal prayer, don’t just ask the Lord to bless your food, but invite him into your conversation and your time together, and perhaps invite the family into some extended prayer, like praying a family rosary before the kids go outside to play.

católica y la vida intencional, páginas 10-11, así como una actualización en la página 7 sobre el éxito de la formación de grupos pequeños como parte de la implementación del post- carta pastoral sinodal, “Ustedes serán mis testigos: reunidos y enviados desde el Cenáculo”. La familia es el pequeño grupo original. Aunque mis hermanos y hermanas y yo tuvimos la suerte de asistir a la escuela primaria católica, al crecer aprendimos más sobre la fe de mi mamá y papá que en la escuela.

Una de las razones por las que mamá podía reunirnos constantemente para el rosario era nuestra reunión constante para la cena. Para muchas familias, la comida familiar parece un arte perdido. La familia Izen se reunió para su grupo pequeño, que incluyó una gran comida con una conversación divertida y instructiva, y luego hicimos la transición a la oración, pasando a la habitación de al lado y rezando el rosario.

Como sacerdote, y ahora obispo, a menudo me piden que dirija la oración en nuestras reuniones familiares. Incluso ese momento de simplemente dar las gracias puede ser instructivo para la familia. Cuando se trata de la oración de la comida, no solo le pida al Señor que bendiga su comida, sino invítelo a su conversación y a su tiempo juntos, y tal vez invite a la familia a una oración extensa, como rezar un rosario familiar antes de que los niños se vayan afuera para jugar.

Pope marks 800th anniversary of St. Francis of Assisi’s stigmata

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service

The wounds of Christ’s passion and death and the stigmata given to some Christians over the centuries are reminders of “the pain Jesus suffered in his flesh out of love for us and for our salvation,” Pope Francis said.

But, the pope said, the stigmata also is a reminder that through baptism Christians participate in Christ’s victory over suffering and death because “it is precisely through his wounds that the mercy of the Risen, Crucified One flows to us as through a channel.”

With a visiting group of Italian

Franciscan friars from La Verna and from Tuscany April 5, Pope Francis joined celebrations of the 800th anniversary of St. Francis of Assisi receiving “the gift of the stigmata” after he had withdrawn to the hills of La Verna to pray and do penance in 1224.

The friars also brought to Pope Francis a reliquary containing blood from the stigmata of St. Francis, a reliquary that is making a pilgrimage to different Franciscan communities.

The stigmata, or sharing the wounds of Christ, Pope Francis told the friars, is a reminder that a Christian is part of “the body of Christ,” not in name alone but in reality.

In the “communion of love,” which is the Church, he said, “each of us rediscovers who he or she is: a beloved, blessed, reconciled son or daughter, sent to give witness to the wonders of his grace and to be artisans of fraternity.”

Pope Francis said that is why “Christians are called to address themselves in a special way to the ‘stigmatized’ they encounter: to those who are ‘marked’ in life, who bear the scars of the sufferings and injustices they have endured or the mistakes they have made.”

St. Francis of Assisi can be a “companion on the journey,” the pope

said, supporting Christians and helping them “not to be crushed by difficulties, fears and contradictions, ours and those of others.”

The stigmata for St. Francis was a call to return to what is essential, he said, and the celebrations of the eighth centenary should be a similar call to Franciscans today: “To be forgiven bearers of forgiveness, healed bearers of healing, joyful and simple in fraternity; with the strength of the love that flows from the side of Christ and that is nourished in your personal encounter with him, to be renewed every day with a seraphic ardor that burns the heart.”

SLICEof LIFE Bountiful baskets

Kameron Wittmer places an Easter basket on a table at Holy Cross in Northeast Minneapolis March 30 with her sons George, left, and Charlie. Theirs was one of several baskets displayed and later blessed by the pastor of Holy Cross, Father Spencer Howe, who noted that the annual Easter Basket Blessing dates to the early years of the parish in the 1800s and is popular with the parish’s Polish community. Wittmer and her husband, John, moved to Minnesota from Austin, Texas, in 2013 and went to their first basket blessing at Holy Cross in 2014, in part because of John’s Polish heritage. “It’s one of my favorite traditions,” John said. “It is, for me, one of the ways I’ve connected with my faith, even in years when I wasn’t practicing. This has always brought me back to the Church as something that speaks to the goodness of the season and, on this holiest of holidays, Christ’s sacrifice for us.” The Wittmer family puts the basket together, which contains various food items like cheese and sausage, along with Easter eggs they decorate the morning of the blessing (Holy Saturday). After the blessing, they like to have a picnic with the food. “This is a good example of the global Church,” Father Howe said, noting that food basket blessings are practiced in countries around the world, including Italy. “It really goes back to the idea that the faithful always desire to have the domestic church at home connected with the Church in their parishes.”

St. Paul-based Catholic gift shop, athletic association celebrating 75 years

By Joe Ruff The Catholic Spirit

An April 15 sold-out banquet will honor former Catholic Athletic Association (CAA) players — Joe Mauer of Minnesota Twins fame and Hannah Brandt, a center for Boston in the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) — and will celebrate the CAA’s 75 years serving parochial schools in the Twin Cities and sites beyond.

Also celebrating 75 years is the St. Patrick’s Guild book, gift and church goods store with May 31 to June 1 instore specials, music, refreshments and a short program June 1 with a blessing from Archbishop Bernard Hebda.

The late Bob Doran, a faith-filled family man, was instrumental in founding both St. Paul fixtures.

“He was very spiritual and a devout Catholic — the Dorans would often pray the rosary on their knees as a family in the den,” said one of his sons, Tim Doran, who runs the store now with his wife, Barb, and with help from their daughter, Teresa, in marketing, and their son, Robert, a sales manager.

Tim’s older brother, Mike Doran, oversaw the store after their father died in 1972 at age 48. Mike Doran is now retired; Tim and Barb Doran bought him out in 2004.

The Dorans also remain involved with the CAA; Tim Doran, a member with his wife of Assumption in St. Paul, is a former president of the board. In an interview on the March 18 “Practicing Catholic” radio show on Relevant Radio 1330 AM, two other leaders of the CAA talked about the organization’s mission and growing network of schools.

“Beginning in 1948, our (late) founders Father Otto Neudecker, Bob Doran and John Hajlo saw a need in the Catholic community for some kind of program to augment and add to what was going on in our Catholic schools,” said Kevin McCloughan, board president and parishioner of Nativity of Our Lord in St. Paul. “We provide this framework that allows

our member schools to plug into a multitude of programs in a very easy fashion.”

Hajlo, a friend of Bob Doran, served as the first CAA athletic director and carried on his friend’s vision for more than 50 years as executive director. That vision included boys’ and girls’ athletic and non-athletic programs serving the Catholic community. Hajlo’s daughter, Nancy Hajlo Johnson, has been a CAA board member for over 20 years. She recalled a line from a letter Bob Doran sent to her father, asking if he would be interested in the athletic director’s job: “This new program is taking hold, we think it will be a dandy.”

The CAA offers programs in cross country running, soccer, volleyball, hockey, swimming, baseball, basketball, softball, golf and track. Swimming is currently its most expansive program with over 1,000 participants, McCloughan said. The association serves 57 schools in the Twin Cities area and western Wisconsin. While maintaining a Catholic identity, the CAA offers athletics to private schools with religious associations.

Megan Jacobson, also a member of Nativity and CAA’s director of operations, told “Practicing Catholic” radio show host Patrick Conley that the association’s athletic offerings expand what small schools can provide. Students have “an opportunity to participate in sports they maybe wouldn’t otherwise,” she said.

The banquet marking CAA’s anniversary will be held April 15 in Woulfe Alumni Hall at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. Archbishop Hebda will offer closing remarks and a final blessing.

The event comes only months after January’s first-round election of Mauer, a St. Paul native and retired Twins catcher and first baseman, to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.

Growing up in St. Columba parish and a graduate of Cretin-Derham Hall

High School, both in St. Paul, Mauer played in the CAA from 1994 to 1997. His mother, Teresa Mauer, was the office manager at St. Patrick’s Guild while Mauer and his two brothers, Bill and Jake, were growing up and playing in the CAA, Tim Doran said. All three Mauer siblings also played in the Twins’ organization.

Hockey player Brandt, who grew up attending St. Odilia in Shoreview, is a graduate of Hill-Murray School in Maplewood. She played in the CAA from 2001 to 2007. Her career has included representing the United States in two Olympic Winter Games, winning gold in 2018 and silver in 2022. She also has been on the U.S. Women’s National Team, winning gold

in 2015, 2017 and 2019 and silver in 2012 and 2022.

At the CAA banquet, Brandt and the Mauer family, including Teresa Mauer’s late husband, Jake, will be inducted into the CAA Hall of Fame. Brandt and Joe Mauer also will be honored as the outstanding athletes of the last quartercentury.

The Mauer family plans to attend the event. Brandt’s team was in the hunt for a playoff spot in the PWHL, and as The Catholic Spirit went to press, her attendance at the banquet had not been determined.

Retired sports broadcaster Dick Bremer, the lead TV announcer for the Twins from 1983 until he retired last year, will be the evening’s emcee.

At least 2 from archdiocese hold roles in Easter morning Mass with Pope Francis

By Joe Ruff The Catholic Spirit

At least two members of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis studying in Rome assisted at this year’s Easter morning Mass with Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square.

Transitional Deacon Joseph Wappes served alongside five other deacons, each with different roles during the Mass. The group met with Pope Francis before the liturgy started, the deacon wrote in an email exchange about the day.

Meanwhile, University of St. Thomas (UST) in St. Paul sophomore Brendan Bonin proclaimed the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, with his parents and siblings in the congregation. Bonin came to Rome with UST’s Catholic Studies program.

Deacon Wappes, who is preparing for priestly ordination in May and is a member of St. Charles Borromeo in St. Anthony, wrote that at the beginning of the Mass an icon of the risen Christ was opened in front of the pope.

Then, Deacon Wappes wrote, “the deacon (me) sings, ‘Surrexit Dominus de sepulcro, qui pro nobis pependit in ligno; surrexit Dominus vere, et apparuit Simoni’ (The Lord has risen from the tomb, he who was hung on the cross for us; the Lord is truly risen and has appeared to Simon).

In this screenshot from Sky News on YouTube, Brendan Bonin proclaims the first reading at the Easter morning Mass in St. Peter’s Square in Rome.

“After singing that part, I then incensed the icon,” Deacon Wappes wrote. “The most moving part was that in that second phrase I was announcing to ‘Peter’ (Pope Francis, St. Peter’s successor) the good news of the Resurrection! In fact, as we were rehearsing, the MC (Master of Ceremonies) directed me to turn toward the Pope as I sang that phrase, instead of being turned toward the congregation as I thought I should be. I was very honored and humbled to have the role of announcing the Good News to the Pope!”

Deacon Wappes wrote that the Vatican Liturgy Office reached out to his seminary, the Pontifical North American College, asking for deacons who could assist at the altar and sing parts of the Mass. Deacon Wappes, a cantor at seminary liturgies, explained he was asked to try out, then was scheduled for the Easter morning Mass.

“It was so beautiful for me to pray with the Universal Church, so clearly represented by the large, diverse crowd assembled in the Piazza on Easter morning,” Deacon Wappes wrote. When the pope gave his Easter message and blessing after Mass, “urbi et orbi” (to the city and the world), Deacon Wappes wrote, “I sensed the spiritual authority of the Chair of St. Peter, calling down God’s blessing on those gathered that day and on the entire Christian people.”

Bonin’s parents, Brian and Rachel, of St. Mary of the Lake in White Bear Lake; his two brothers, Ben and Jude; and Ben’s fiancé, Codi Zwack, traveled to Rome to be with Brendan during Holy Week and Easter. It was the family’s first trip to Rome. Brian and Rachel said they were surprised to learn during the trip that Brendan would read at the Mass.

“We were excited to have Brendan lead us on a holy pilgrimage through Rome,” Brian said. But they didn’t imagine having a front row seat at Easter morning

JOE RUFF | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT Tim Doran and Nancy Hajlo Johnson flank newspaper clippings about the Catholic Athletic Association posted on the wall of an office at St. Patrick’s Guild in St. Paul.

COURTESY BRENDAN BONIN

ACCW recognizes 4 laywomen for exceptional service

By Anna Wilgenbusch

The Catholic Spirit

The Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women (ACCW) is recognizing four women from across the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis with its annual laywoman volunteer awards.

The awards recognize the women’s involvement in their CCW groups, parishes and communities. The four women will be honored at the ACCW’s 91st annual convention April 19 at Mary, Mother of the Church in Burnsville.

BARBARA CONNOLLY

St. Genevieve, Centerville

Connolly knew of the CCW since early childhood, when she accompanied her mother to meetings. In the early 1970s, Barbara was elected secretary of the St. John the Baptist in Hugo chapter of the CCW — a role she maintained for 10 years. She continued to be involved with the CCW after St. John merged with St. Genevieve in Centerville, attending local, archdiocesan and national CCW conventions while raising four children.

After her husband, who served in the Air Force Reserves, died in 2006 due to an inoperable brain tumor, she became involved in the local Yellow Ribbon Network, which supports current and former military personnel and their families. She now serves as vice president of that organization, where she coordinates distribution of care packages to deployed personnel and helps their families with lawn mowing, appliances and household needs. She received the Good Neighbor of the Year award from the city of Hugo in 2017 to recognize her involvement with the organization.

For many years, she cleaned the altar and sacristy of St. John the Baptist, where she also taught religious education for 12 years. Now, at St. Genevieve, she is an active member of the parish funeral ministry and serves on committees for many other events including the rummage sale, fall festival, Lenten retreat, country store, Madonna luncheon, harvest fest, penny auction, Red Cross blood drives, holiday craft and bake sale, socks and mitten drive and the food shelf. She also helps organize Mary’s Way of the Cross, which presents the Stations of the Cross from Mary’s point of view during Lent.

She enjoys spending time with her 11 grandchildren.

SAVERN GUERTIN

Our Lady of the Prairie, Belle Plaine

Guertin is the mother of four children, grandmother of 18, great-grandmother of 36, and great-great-grandmother of six. Three of

her children are in the Belle Plaine area and serve at Our Lady of the Prairie, following the footsteps of their mother, who has served there for longer than many parishioners can remember.

From 1975 to 2000, Guertin taught catechesis and faith formation at the parish. In 1991, she worked with another parishioner to restore the parish’s Catholic United Financial branch, at which she has served as president since 2013. The chapter has raised over $150,000 under her leadership, which benefited the church and adjoining Catholic school. In addition, she organizes monthly Donut Sundays and other fundraising events for the parish and school, where she volunteered from 1975 to 2000. Currently, she is a member of the Seven Sisters Apostolate, which intercedes for the parish priest, and helps organize funeral lunches at the parish.

Guertin’s service is not confined to her parish. She volunteered at the HOPE Residence — a home for adults with brain injuries — and, for many years, volunteered to deliver food to those in need for the Meals on Wheels program. She still sews lap quilts for veterans and helps at the local Veteran’s Auxiliary fish and steak fry, where she has completed 40 years as an American Legion Auxiliary Member. Before the pandemic, she was a regular volunteer at the local nursing home, where she would take the residents to attend Mass.

Guertin served as the parish’s CCW secretary for many years and in 1984 was a member of the International Commission for the Southwest ACCW Deanery. She has a heart for hospitality, especially for international missionaries and guests, whom she has hosted since 1981. Most recently, in 2019, she hosted members of a Kitui delegation to the archdiocese. She has also hosted Totus Tuus missionaries, who taught a summer catechesis program at her parish twice, and she will host them again this year.

Guertin participates in monthly CCW meetings and helps with the chapter’s first weekend of the month CCW Treats and Fellowship after Masses. For many years, she cleaned the altar of Our Lady of the Prairie. When the CCW helps deep clean the parish’s kitchen, she not only helps — she brings her own bucket and rags.

At 90 years old, Guertin still loves working in her garden; it reminds her of her life on the family farm. One of her granddaughters now lives on the farm where she milked cows twice a day for over 50 years and raised her family with the love of her life.

KAREN HODGMAN

St. Paul, Zumbrota

Hodgman has been active in her parish for more than 30 years, the last four of which she has served as president of the parish’s CCW. She generously contributes to events such as Madonna dinners, bake sales and bi-annual parish mission hospitality. She also has chaired the annual CCW salad luncheon for four years. Hodgman plays an active role on the parish’s Synod Evangelization Team and leads a small group.

From 1992 to 2017 she taught faith formation classes and led the parish’s youth group for at least five of those years. She serves as an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion and before the COVID-19 pandemic took Communion to residents of a nursing home. This year, she is wrapping up a

three-year commitment to organizing volunteers for the parish’s annual fundraising dinner.

Hodgman seeks to enrich her own faith as well. She participated in the School of Discipleship via The St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul and is currently a student in the class of St. Therese of Lisieux at the seminary’s Catechetical Institute. Hodgman has a weekly Holy Hour at the parish and has participated in, and led, Bible studies hosted by the parish. Additionally, she is part of the Seven Sisters Apostolate, which prays for the pastor of St. Paul parish.

Her commitment to service spills into the wider community. She shares her faith with those she encounters day-to-day, such as non-Catholic coworkers in her nursing job. For about 10 years she has served with the local Partners in Prevention organization, which helps youth make healthy decisions and provides school scholarships. Also, she has helped prepare and serve a meal at the Dorothy Day Hospitality House in Rochester about four times per year since 2014. She also delivers leftover food, which would otherwise be discarded, from the nearby Mayo Clinic to the Dorthy Day house every Friday. She is involved with the local Toastmasters group to help others boost their confidence and speaking skills. Her life of service is most pronounced within her own family. Hodgman cultivates her family’s hobby farm and selflessly serves her family members. She inspires her four children and three grandchildren to do the same.

MARY ELLEN PETERSON

St. Pius X, White Bear Lake

When Mary Peterson joined St. Pius X as a parishioner, she noticed a group of joy-filled women who often spent time together. After mustering up the courage to ask them who they were and why they were so joyful, they informed her that they were the CCW and encouraged her to join. She took their advice, and Peterson has been an upstanding member of the St. Pius X CCW for over 30 years, serving as Service Commission Chair for six years.

Peterson serves as a sacristan, delivers meals to parishioners and attends at least one Holy Hour a week in the adoration chapel. She also chairs the New Parishioner Welcome Program, which organizes a biennial gathering for new parishioners, and is a member of the Building and Grounds Committee. She uses her expertise in gardening and flowers to beautify the church grounds and make centerpieces for events in the church and her community. Her career also revolved around service: Over the course of her 40-year career as a pharmacy clerk, she helped many people receive the medications they needed.

Peterson is part of a small group that was formed in response to Archbishop Bernard Hebda’s call for implementation of the Archdiocesan Synod. She also meets with a lectio divina group to discuss the weekly Sunday Mass readings.

Peterson has a strong devotion to Mary, which informs many of her activities. She leads a rosary before many funerals in the parish and volunteers to lead a monthly rosary at the local nursing home. She also brings the Eucharist to homebound parishioners. She loves spending time with her two children and four adult grandchildren, whom she took care of when they were little.

Archbishop Hebda’s call to grow small groups in archdiocese meets fertile ground

By Anna Wilgenbusch

The Catholic Spirit

Archbishop Bernard Hebda set an ambitious goal in his 2022 pastoral letter: All parishes in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis were to launch small groups building community and forming missionary disciples in 2024.

Not only have most parishes formed these small groups, but leaders in the archdiocese say they are astounded by the number of participants flocking to a form of developing small groups called Parish Evangelization Cell Systems (PECS).

Popular in parts of Europe and South America, this is the first attempt to establish small groups under PECS — which stresses evangelizing through relationship-building — across an entire diocese.

Now, there are more than 1,220 groups in the archdiocese, with over 16,000 participants, who meet weekly or biweekly in living rooms and parish centers, said officials in the archdiocese’s Office of Synod Evangelization. Due to gaps in reporting, these numbers are likely lowballing the actual number of participants, said the office’s director, Deacon Joseph Michalak.

“Establishing small groups on this scale, across the archdiocese, is a massive undertaking,” Deacon Michalak said. The response “has exceeded my expectations.”

Implementation of the pastoral letter — “You Will Be My Witnesses: Gathered and Sent From the Upper Room” — is a landmark initiative, Deacon Michalak said. The letter grew out of a three-year process of prayer and listening events, prayerful collecting and discerning of suggestions for pastoral needs in the archdiocese, and an Archdiocesan Synod Assembly of nearly 500 people with the archbishop in June 2022.

Among the priorities coming out of the Synod Assembly was forming small groups, which was one of the top five voted-upon propositions.

Although the archdiocese has encouraged the formation of small groups before, the PECS groups are distinguished by their orientation toward relational evangelization.

“We are the first diocese in the U.S. to even attempt this on such a scale,” said Deacon Michalak, who was one of a team of five archdiocesan leaders, including Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Williams, that traveled to Milan, Italy, in June 2023 to learn about how to implement the PECS model.

PECS group facilitator Gizella Miko said that for many, “these groups have been an answer to prayer and truly a work of the Holy Spirit.”

“People have expressed feeling more connected to their parish community, meeting new parishioners, and feeling closer to people they have seen in the pews. We have also heard that small groups have helped to involve new people in the parish as well as re-engage those who have been far from the Church for some time,” Miko said.

Tom and Julie Rabaey of St. Anne in Le Sueur have

experienced those effects firsthand. Together, they lead a small group, which gathers weekly in their living room, on the topic of prayer. The group has cultivated relationships among parishioners who barely knew each other before, Tom Rabaey said.

“We just really connected,” he said. “What I really enjoy about the group is that you realize that you are not alone. You are not alone on your faith journey. The challenges are different, but the struggle is the same.”

They plan to continue the group for years to come.

Kathryn Wehr leads a small group of nine women from Nativity of Our Lord in St. Paul, which she joined a year and a half ago after moving into the neighborhood.

On April 4, the group gathered in Wehr’s living room. As they sipped tea, they laughed about the events of their week and reflected upon the joy they experienced on Easter. Then they bowed their heads to open their group’s discussion to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

Wehr said the small group has made the parish feel like home.

“I personally feel more connected to my parish,” said Wehr. “I see the women in my group when I go

Thank you, Karen, for your years of service!

to Mass ... or even at the grocery store. It feels a little bit more like home, like these are my people.”

Wehr’s small group plans to continue its meetings with regular lectio divina sessions.

Bishop Williams said he offers most of the Masses he celebrates for the members of small groups and that participants might “multiply and grow.”

“The experience has been so rich for so many, and I pray that a great majority of those who have walked in small groups these past weeks realize they have found something essential for their lives as disciples as well as something essential for the life of their parishes and make a choice to continue,” Bishop Williams said.

Although some groups plan to taper the frequency of their meetings, their work is just beginning. Archbishop Hebda’s pastoral letter envisions these groups as a fixture of parishes, which will help draw people into relationship with others and ultimately with Christ.

Deacon Michalak said that it is never too late to join a small group.

“You can’t miss this bus because this bus is always here,” he said.

Contact local parishes to join a PECS small group.

Fr. Kasel, staff, and parishioners at the Church of St. Paul in Zumbrota congratulate Karen Hodgman on being selected to receive a 2024 ACCW Lay Woman Volunteer Award!

ANNA WILGENBUSCH | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT Nativity of Our Lord parishioner Kathryn Wehr, left, leads a small group in her living room in St. Paul on April 4.

EASTER IN ROME

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5

Mass in St. Peter’s Square to see and hear their son lector at Mass.

Getting to the right spot was difficult due to the crowds and they feared they might miss part of the Mass, Rachel said. Before they found their seats in time for the liturgy, she began praying and felt at peace, giving up her desire to see her son. “It was clear to me he was needed elsewhere, and I offered it up,” she said.

Brian and Rachel said they were proud of Brendan, who read the Scriptures with strength and confidence. It was windy, and he had to wrestle with some of the pages. At one point, a large object fell with a loud thud just behind Brendan, but he continued to read as though nothing happened, Brian said.

“He was so locked in,” Brian said. “He so embraced this role. He was so honored to have the opportunity to read.”

Brendan said one of his professors was asked about obtaining lectors for Holy Week and Easter Masses in St. Peter’s Square. Two women from UST’s Catholic Studies program read at Palm Sunday Mass and the Easter Vigil, and 13 students from UST’s campus in Rome participated in the procession of palms for the Palm Sunday Mass. Read about their experiences at TheCaTholiCSpiriT.Com. Brendan was chosen to read at the Easter Mass in part because his family would be in Rome.

“Hearing that I might read at the pope’s Mass was amazing in itself, but realizing I had been chosen left me speechless,” Brendan wrote in an email exchange.

Arriving early, Brendan wrote that he spent some time alone in front of Michelangelo’s Pietà in St. Peter’s Basilica.

“There were no tourists in front of it and all the voices coming from outside began to fade away,” he wrote. “I was able to spend about 10 minutes with one of the greatest pieces of art ever created ... completely undisturbed. I felt exactly what the Pietà should make believers feel ... pure joy. I was so grateful for the sacrifice that Jesus made for the sake of my soul and I rejoiced at the fact that I would be able to proclaim his mission to countless people on the day he rose from the dead. It was the fullest moment of my life. From then on, all the nerves that I had went away. I was just full of joy for the opportunity in front of me.”

Brendan credited his parents for encouraging him to discover new aspects of the faith, and he praised the Catholic Studies program at St. Thomas.

“I would not be who I am today if it wasn’t for this program,” he said.

The Bonins said they worked hard at keeping faith alive in their home through a weekly Holy Hour, family prayer time and staying active in their parish. Their hopes it would take hold in their children appear to have been fulfilled, they said.

“All three of our boys have embraced that, and taken the opportunity to talk about their faith,” Brian said. “I think they all would have liked to be at the ambo.”

EASTER VIGIL BAPTISM

Father Brian Park, pastor of St. Michael in St. Michael, baptizes Chelsea Neba during the Easter Vigil Mass March 30 at St. Michael. Neba, a high school senior, was one of six catechumens who were baptized at the vigil Mass. In addition, 20 candidates (those already baptized) joined the Church that night. Neba was born in the African country of Cameroon, but has lived most of her life in the United States.

The Anatomy of a Catholic Estate Plan

A good estate plan has the bones to hand down the things you’ve worked hard for in life and to plan a proper funeral. A great estate plan has the brains to consider how your affairs are handled and how assets are distributed. But a Catholic estate plan ensures your legacy lives on — it has a heart. A Catholic estate plan ensures that not only are your assets passed on, but so, too, are your values

The bones of a good estate plan

A will or trust will give your estate plan the structure it needs to express what you want done with your estate. If you don’t have a will or trust in place, state law determines who inherits your property.

The heart of a Catholic estate plan

CATHOLIC ESTATE PLAN

BONES

• will or trust

• funeral directions

BRAINS

A Catholic estate plan ensures that the end of your life is as faith-filled as all the years before. One important component that conveys your faith is a medical directive. This document helps your loved ones and healthcare providers understand the end-of-life and palliative care you’d prefer.

• power of attorney (POA)

• strategically assign beneficiaries

HEART

• medical directive

• ethical will

• charitable legacy

Including funeral directions in your estate plan ensures that your celebration of life has structure, too. Plus, it lets your loved ones know where you’d like your sacred resting place to be.

The brains of a great estate plan

It’s smart to have a power of attorney (POA) in place with your estate plan. A POA is a legal document that permits someone to handle financial and legal matters and to make decisions in the event that you are incapacitated.

Another way to make your estate plan smart is to strategically assign beneficiaries for your funds and assets. Some assets are more tax-efficient for heirs than others.

An ethical will or legacy letter is one way to pass on the intangible things you hold dear: your faith and values. This is typically something you personally write to your children, godchildren, or close friends, detailing stories that demonstrate how you lived your values.

Another way people choose to pass on their faith and values is through a charitable legacy. By naming your parish or favorite charity as a beneficiary of your estate, you can continue to support its mission in death as you did in life. And, with a gift to a permanent endowment, you can support that cause perpetually.

Talk to an expert

To ensure your estate plan has all the right parts, work with your legal advisor.

And to give your estate plan a Catholic heart, talk to the experts at the Catholic Community Foundation of Minnesota. We’re happy to provide options that will ensure your faith and values live on forever.

COURTESY GABRIELLE ILKKA

NATION+WORLD

Vatican says abortion, surrogacy, war, poverty are attacks on human dignity

Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service

Being a Christian means defending human dignity and that includes opposing abortion, the death penalty, gender transition surgery, war, sexual abuse and human trafficking, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith said in a new document.

“We cannot separate faith from the defense of human dignity, evangelization from the promotion of a dignified life and spirituality from a commitment to the dignity of every human being,” Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, dicastery prefect, wrote in the document’s opening section.

The declaration, “Dignitas Infinita” (“Infinite Dignity”), was released at the Vatican April 8.

In the opening section, Cardinal Fernández confirmed reports that a declaration on human dignity and bioethical issues — like abortion, euthanasia and surrogacy — was approved by members of the dicastery in mid-2023 but Pope Francis asked the dicastery to make additions to “highlight topics closely connected to the theme of dignity, such as poverty, the situation of migrants, violence against women, human trafficking, war and other themes.”

In February the cardinals and bishops who are members of the dicastery approved the updated draft of the document, and in late March Pope Francis gave his approval and ordered its publication, Cardinal Fernández said.

With its five years of preparation, he wrote, “the document before us reflects the gravity and centrality of the theme of dignity in Christian thought.”

The title of the document is taken from an Angelus address St. John Paul II gave in Germany in 1980 during a meeting with people with disabilities. He told them, “With Jesus Christ, God has shown us in an unsurpassed way how he loves each human being and thereby bestows upon him infinite dignity.”

Cardinal Fernandez said initially the dicastery was going to call the document “Beyond all Circumstances,” which is an affirmation by Pope Francis of how

HEADLINES

uAmid war, Cardinal Dolan is set to make a pastoral visit to Israel, Palestine. Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York has announced he will travel to Israel and Palestine April 12-18, amid a war now in its seventh month. The cardinal will undertake the pastoral visit in his role as chairman of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association. Founded by Pope Pius XI in 1926, CNEWA supports the hospital as part of its overall mission to support the Catholic Church in the Middle East, Northeast Africa, India and Eastern Europe. During his trip, Cardinal Dolan plans to meet with local Christian, Jewish and Islamic religious leaders; Israeli and Palestinian representatives; families of Israeli hostages; and various social service and humanitarian efforts. The visit will mark the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Pontifical Mission for Palestine, established by Pope Pius XII in 1949 and placed since

human dignity is not lessened by one’s state of development, where he or she is born or the resources or talents one has or what one has done.

Instead, he said, they chose a title inspired by the comment St. John Paul had made.

The declaration noted that the Second Vatican Council’s Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World also listed attacks on human dignity as ranging from abortion and euthanasia to “subhuman living conditions” and “degrading working conditions.”

Members of the doctrinal dicastery included the death penalty among violations of “the inalienable dignity of every person, regardless of the circumstances” and called for the respect of the dignity of people who are incarcerated.

The declaration denounced discrimination against LGBTQ+ people and particularly situations in which people are “imprisoned, tortured and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”

But it also condemned “gender theory” as “extremely dangerous since it cancels differences in its claim to make everyone equal.”

Gender theory, it said, tries “to deny the greatest possible difference that exists between living beings: sexual difference.”

The Catholic Church, the declaration said, teaches that “human life in all its dimensions, both physical and spiritual, is a gift from God. This gift is to be accepted with gratitude and placed at the service of the good.”

Quoting Pope Francis’ exhortation “Amoris Laetitia,” the declaration said gender ideology “envisages a society without sexual differences, thereby eliminating the anthropological basis of the family.”

Dicastery members said it is true that there is a difference between biological sex and the roles and behaviors that a given society or culture assigns to a male or female, but the fact that some of those notions of what it means to be a woman or a man are culturally influenced does not mean there are no differences between biological males and biological females.

“Therefore,” they said, “all attempts to obscure reference to the ineliminable sexual difference between man and woman are to be rejected.”

Again quoting Pope Francis’ exhortation, the declaration said, “We cannot separate the masculine and the feminine from God’s work of creation, which is prior to all our decisions and experiences, and where biological elements exist which are impossible to ignore.”

“Any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” it said. However, the declaration clarified that “this is not to exclude the possibility that a person with genital abnormalities that are already evident at birth or that develop later may choose to receive the assistance of healthcare professionals to resolve these abnormalities.”

Members of the dicastery also warned about the implications of changing language about human dignity, citing for example those who propose the expressions “personal dignity” or “the rights of the person” instead of “human dignity.”

In many cases, they said, the proposal understands “a ‘person’ to be only ‘one who is capable of reasoning.’ They then argue that dignity and rights are deduced from the individual’s capacity for knowledge and freedom, which not all humans possess. Thus, according to them, the unborn child would not have personal dignity, nor would the older person who is dependent upon others, nor would an individual with mental disabilities.”

The Catholic Church, on the contrary, “insists that the dignity of every human person, precisely because it is intrinsic, remains in all circumstances.”

The acceptance of abortion, it said, “is a telling sign of an extremely dangerous crisis of the moral sense, which is becoming more and more incapable of distinguishing between good and evil, even when the fundamental right to life is at stake.”

“Procured abortion is the deliberate and direct killing, by whatever means it is carried out, of a human being in

the initial phase of his or her existence, extending from conception to birth,” it said.

The document also repeated Pope Francis’ call for a global ban on surrogacy, which, he said, is “a grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the child, based on the exploitation of situations of the mother’s material needs.”

Surrogacy, it said, transforms a couple’s legitimate desire to have a child into “a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life.”

The document stated that extreme poverty, the marginalization of people with disabilities, violent online attacks and war also violate human dignity.

While recognizing the right of nations to defend themselves against an aggressor, the document insisted armed conflicts “will not solve problems but only increase them. This point is even more critical in our time when it has become commonplace for so many innocent civilians to perish beyond the confines of a battlefield.”

On the issue of migrants and refugees, the dicastery members said that while “no one will ever openly deny that they are human beings,” many migration policies and popular attitudes toward migrants “can show that we consider them less worthy, less important, less human.”

The promotion of euthanasia and assisted suicide, it said, “utilizes a mistaken understanding of human dignity to turn the concept of dignity against life itself.”

The declaration said, “Certainly, the dignity of those who are critically or terminally ill calls for all suitable and necessary efforts to alleviate their suffering through appropriate palliative care and by avoiding aggressive treatments or disproportionate medical procedures,” but it also insisted, “suffering does not cause the sick to lose their dignity, which is intrinsically and inalienably their own.”

Editor’s Note: The declaration, “Dignitas Infinita” (“Infinite Dignity”), can be found on the Vatican website: tinyurl com/yrjb2et9

its inception under the administration of CNEWA. Plans for the cardinal’s visit were in place before Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, ambush on Israel, said CNEWA communications director Michael La Civita — and there is no intention of canceling this visit, during which Cardinal Dolan will help “keep open the windows of dialogue” to ensure “a just peace.”

uVideo series offers a “deep dive” into the mysteries of the Mass. A new video series featuring several U.S. Catholic bishops will offer what organizers call a “deep dive into the sacred mysteries of the Mass.” “Beautiful Light: A Paschal Mystagogy,” produced by the National Eucharistic Revival, will be livestreamed on seven consecutive Thursdays from April 4 to May 16 at 7 p.m. CT on the revival’s Facebook, YouTube and Instagram channels. Launched in June 2022, the revival is a three-year grassroots initiative sponsored

by the nation’s Catholic bishops to enkindle devotion to the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. The various events and programs of the revival will be capped by the National Eucharistic Congress, which will take place July 17-21 in Indianapolis. The video series is hosted by Sister Alicia Torres, a member of the Franciscans of the Eucharist of Chicago and part of the revival’s executive team; and National Eucharistic Revival missionary Tanner Kalina. The episodes, led by various bishops, survey the central aspects of the Mass as part of what the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1075) calls “liturgical catechesis,” or “mystagogy.” More information about the video series, along with links to the platforms on which it will be livestreamed, can be found at the website of the National Eucharistic Revival: eucharisticrevival org/post/beautiful-light-apaschal-mystagogy-live

uCatholic community prays and offers support to those affected by the Baltimore Key Bridge collapse. Several hours after the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed into the Patapsco River March 26, more than 200 people, many of them still in a state of shock, gathered in prayer at a 5:30 p.m. Mass at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in Baltimore. The bridge collapsed about 1:30 a.m. after a 900-foot container ship had problems with its power and collided into one of the bridge’s support pilings. Three construction workers working on the bridge at the time of its collapse were killed and three were missing and presumed dead. Two other construction workers were rescued, one of them hospitalized. Several cars plunged into the river. At the liturgy, Archbishop William Lori encouraged prayers for those who were killed and everyone impacted by the collapse.

By Maura Keller For The Catholic Spirit

IN A WORLD where troubled marriages are far too common, some Catholic couples are seeking to establish intentionally Catholic marriages and family life — and for good reason.

Bill Dill — marriage preparation and youth ministry events coordinator in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ Office of Marriage, Family and Youth — said parents are the most powerful influence in young people’s lives. The example that parents set impacts religious beliefs, political leanings, moral bearings, leisure choices and more.

“Many often think that as youth become teens that their friends, teachers or the media are the strongest influence. While these sources are quite significant, they still don’t match the influence of parents,” Dill said. “To be clear, going to Mass on Sunday and sending children to a Catholic school or faith formation classes (are) essential, (but) it’s more about how we go to Mass, why we go to Mass, what happens before and after Mass, and talking about Mass as a family. Christ is also our model for marriage. Couples who live, love and forgive like Christ will produce a family that does the same.”

Donovan and Clare Catton have been married for three and a half years and are proud parents of 1-year-old Marco. In their married life, striving to live intentionally Catholic has evolved as their family has grown.

“The way the Church has seasons is so helpful and has taught us to be attentive to the season of life we are currently in and what God is inviting us to participate in during that time,” Clare Catton said.

For example, when they were first married, they had a weekly Holy Hour at 3 a.m. But since having their first child, they said that hour is no longer a good fit or what they felt God was inviting them to do — so now they have a 2 p.m. hour.

“As we have experienced more life together as a married couple, we have realized more and more the necessity of our faith and can’t imagine going through the same challenges of life without our Catholic faith as a foundation,” Donovan Catton said. The couple has suffered through two miscarriages and, while going through those times was difficult, the Cattons received a lot of grace from the Lord.

“We believe he (God) strengthened the three-way relationship between us and him as a result,” Clare Catton said. “So now we have hope we will see our children in heaven someday, whom we named Judah Rose and Zelie John. We are at peace knowing they are with God, and now (we) are at a place where we can talk about them in joy and gratitude.”

Faith has always been central to the Cattons’ relationship. Having met in college at the University of MinnesotaDuluth’s Newman Center, they often spent time together in the chapel or at Newman Center events.

“It was a wonderful environment for our friendship to grow initially, to serve alongside each other, and then eventually to start dating and discern marriage, surrounded by great people and a culture (that was) pretty intense about living intentionally Catholic lives,” Clare Catton said. “Our time with the UMD Newman Center really taught us and solidified a foundation for daily prayer, sacraments, service to the Church, loving

the people around us, and pursuing greatness in the way God created us to be.”

The Cattons have seen the difference that living intentionally Catholic lives makes. They have found that they are more able and willing to sacrifice for each other when they have gone to confession regularly, the Cattons said, and they find themselves more grateful and gracious when they make time for regular personal prayer.

“We are happier and less stressed when we celebrate the Lord’s Day fully and (do) leisure well on Sundays. We are more alive,” Donovan Catton said. “Our Catholic beliefs give us reason to have joy in the midst of the loss and suffering we face. That said, it’s hard. God doesn’t ever give us more than we can handle. He has given us people to support us in our tough times, and we have been able to bless others in their hard times, too.”

In addition to being members of St. Mark in St. Paul, they are part of the Community of Christ the Redeemer (CCR) charismatic group, and they enjoy Bible study with friends. These groups have provided practical ways for the Cattons to incorporate their faith into their busy lives.

“Especially through accountability, discussion and opportunities to care for and be taken care of by each other in the groups,” Donovan Catton said. “We also have made it a practice to pray together as a family before bedtime with our son and as a couple before bed. We have tried incorporating Mass, prayer, good conversation into vacations — so it’s a time with the Lord, not just to check out from life. One little thing we often do is ask each other, ‘What did you hear today?’ after Mass, a meeting or an event. Simply hearing how the Lord is working in each other’s heart, mind and even body, draws us closer together.”

The Cattons hope to continue to build the foundational habits that will draw them closer to God and closer together as a family. “We would like to continue learning more about the traditions of the Church and integrating some of those into our own daily, weekly, monthly, annual traditions,” Donovan Catton said.

GROWING IN FAITH

Faith has also been a core component of Nestor and Melina Arguello’s marriage. Married in 2020, the Arguellos enjoy their 1-year-old daughter, Isabella Veronica, who will be 2 by the time the couple’s second baby arrives in August.

“Thankfully, Nestor and I were raised by faithful and joyful Catholic parents who love Jesus,” Melina Arguello said. “They passed down the faith to us, and we are so grateful to them, even more so now that we’ve become parents ourselves.”

Nestor and Melina met at the tail end of Melina’s college years. By that point, they had each experienced profound conversions on their own faith journeys that convinced them of the faith’s truths.

“We have certainly aimed to live out our marriage and family life in such a way that springs forth from our relationship with Jesus and his Church,” Melina Arguello said.

Nestor Arguello said he was raised in a Catholic charismatic community where his faith formation felt like being “raised by a village.”

“Now in our family life, we have also found that surrounding ourselves with others that strive for holiness is

Living intentionally Catholic

incredibly beneficial, in particular when raising children,” he said.

Within the context of marriage, the Arguellos said their Catholic faith has produced immeasurable fruit, including joy, peace and deeper healing as individuals and as a couple — all of which has been initiated by the Lord.

“The Lord has used marriage to reveal to each of us areas that still need to be surrendered to him,” Nestor Arguello said. “In striving to live out our Catholic faith, we make ourselves vulnerable to one another. As uncomfortable as this can be at times, it is also one of the most fertile areas for growth and intimacy.”

In addition to weekly Mass at their parish, St. Mark in St. Paul, the Arguellos pray together every morning with their daughter. The couple tries to take at least 15 minutes a day for personal prayer. They thank God before each meal they share, and they pray with their daughter before her bedtime. If Nestor puts Isabella to sleep, he sings the Canticle of Simeon with her and prays the Mosaic Blessing over her. If Melina puts her to sleep, she prays two short Spanish prayers that she grew up praying: the Guardian Angel Prayer in Spanish and a simple, beautiful prayer her godfather wrote when she was little. On a yearly basis, the Arguellos try to

attend three marriage retreats.

“One of our pillars of communication is having a weekly husband-wife meeting, or as we call it ‘our encuentro,’” Nestor Arguello said. “It is an opportunity to let our guard down and encounter each other in a time of prayer, honoring, sharing and reconciliation. We take time to recenter our marriage on the Lord.”

Part of the couple’s weekly meeting involves keeping an eye out for “busyness” that squashes spontaneity, and spending carefree time with other families, they said.

“Whether it’s having dinner with friends on a weeknight or a weekly date night or some form of leisure as a family, these are activities we try to prioritize weekly to slow us down so we can develop the habit of being and not just doing,” Melina Arguello said. “The faith is truly our pearl of great price. We thank God regularly for the gift of the Catholic faith that was passed down to us and that we, in turn, chose (to follow). Our faith gives us a necessary vision so that instead of living our lives out of resentment, jealousy, anger, pride, sadness and despondency, we can live out of love. A Christ-like love that endures all things.”

When the Arguellos had their home blessed last summer, the priest prayed

Catholic in marriage and family

that their home would be a place where, through them, Christ would be welcomed and where Christ would welcome anyone who walked through the door.

“Nestor and I hope to continue entering into relationship with the people God places before us,” Melina Arguello said.

LIFELONG COMMITMENTS

Celebrating 42 years of marriage, Dr. Dennis and Mary Helen O’Hare have two sons, three daughters, and 15 grandchildren “on this Earth.” Having met in Omaha, Nebraska, while at Creighton University — Dennis was in medical school and Mary Helen was in nursing school — the O’Hares married and eventually moved to the Twin Cities, where they raised their children.

Today, all the O’Hares’ children and their families live within 20 minutes of their parents.

“It is really a dream to have our grown children around,” Dennis O’Hare said. Having always lived as committed Catholic Christians and active members of the Church, prayer was an integral part of the couple’s relationship from the beginning, he said. “As part of our

dating, we would end our evenings in prayer before going our separate ways. I wasn’t used to praying freely with another person before I met her, so she introduced me to that.”

Early in their marriage, the O’Hares were introduced to the CCR community. Having grown up in the Twin Cities, Mary Helen was familiar with the association, but it was a new experience for her husband.

“It was one of the few times in my life where I felt like I heard the Lord speak to me and say, ‘This is what you’re looking for,’” Dennis O’Hare said. “Part of that intentionality has become an important part of our family.”

The O’Hares have lived intentionally Catholic lives by putting their marriage and family first.

“We had a family mission and did annual goal setting with the kids,” Mary Helen O’Hare said. “We also intentionally put the kids in Catholic grade school, and they went to a Christian high school that was predominantly Catholic.” When their children were young, Dennis O’Hare, who always engages in morning prayer, spent time with each child individually, sharing his Bible and prayer book.

Today, the O’Hares are members of St. Joseph in West St. Paul and continue

to be active in the CCR community, with Dennis serving as coordinator for the association. The community has three main charisms that the couple has embraced: actively pursuing holiness of life, loving and serving one another as brothers and sisters in Christ, and working together to spread the Gospel and build a Christian life.

“These are a set of ideals, practices, standards and ways of life that we try to embrace and pursue,” Dennis O’Hare said. Together, the O’Hares also embrace six key practices of making a strong Catholic family, which are based on a concept in medicine that if a certain outcome is sought, certain things should be done with regularity.

“It’s a wonderful concept that we actually use in the CCR community,” Dennis O’Hare said. “In the midst of all we do, we need to have daily personal and family prayer, eat family meals together, hold weekly husband and wife meetings, celebrate the Lord’s Day, and participate in small groups and the life of the larger Catholic community.”

A nurse by training, Mary Helen O’Hare became a homemaker after their first child was born. After their youngest graduated from high school, she had an opportunity to teach high school science

FAR LEFT

Nestor Arguello, left, gives a paternal blessing to his daughter, Isabella, as she sits on the lap of her mother, Melina Arguello, in their St. Paul home.

ABOVE LEFT

Donovan and Clare Catton with their son, Marco.

UTECHT

LOWER LEFT

Dr. Dennis and Mary Helen O’Hare.

at two Catholic schools in the Twin Cities — Chesterton Academy in Hopkins and St. Agnes in St. Paul, and at another Christian school before retiring a couple of years ago to care for her elderly parents. The opportunity to teach at faith-filled institutions further enhanced her faith, she said.

As a physician, Dennis O’Hare senses how fleeting life is. “This has allowed me to learn how to serve more and have greater compassion. I chose to practice medicine purposefully, to join a practice where I could bring my faith into my practice,” he said. After a career in family medicine, he is now a geriatric physician, caring for the elderly in assisted living and nursing homes.

In the end, the O’Hares said, they’ve learned through 42 years of marriage that living intentionally Catholic lives is about relationships.

“Both the Old Testament and the New Testament have shown how the Lord commits and desires commitments. It’s such a blessing to have committed long-term relationships being a covenant,” Dennis O’Hare said. “If I look at our life, one of the great blessings we have is long-standing relationships, which come from making commitments. And out of that comes fruit.”

DAVE HRBACEK THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

COURTESY MOLLY

COURTESY THE O’HARE FAMILY

Handwritten recipes from mom still inspire

By Christina Capecchi For The Catholic Spirit

Mary Jo Thorne is a dynamic Maplewood mother of two. She and her husband, Jeff, belong to St. Ambrose in Woodbury. She runs Theresa’s Vision, an antique store that pays tribute to her late mom, Theresa, who loved crafting and thrifting. It’s one of many ways Thorne keeps her mom close at heart.

“We talk all the time,” said Thorne, 57.

Q You left a high-up job in senior housing that had begun to take a toll.

A I was so committed to my sites and my team. It becomes really hard to become everything for everyone and not have your family lose out. I had spent 30 nights in hotels in half a year, and when I asked for some modifications to the travel, they didn’t grant it. I loved my job, but I couldn’t take it anymore.

I’m not making the money I used to, but I have never been happier and my relationships have never been better. I’ve lost a total of 110 pounds since leaving. It’s not having that intense stress.

Q Now you’re doing creative work — and you’re working with your daughters to honor your mom’s memory. You launched Theresa’s Vision one month after resigning.

A I was creating these vintage vignettes for Christmas, because my mom loved Christmas and I love Christmas. I’d made about 400. Jeff said, “Honey, you need to sell them!”

God has a way of doing wonderful things. My mom would have a ball with this.

Q You buy secondhand treasures from estate sales and then you sell them at shows like Junk Bonanza, which is in Shakopee later this month. Where do you store it all?

A The garage — and now I have a bunch (of items) in the basement that I’m pricing. I’m already getting ready for the next fall and Christmas season. My daughters and I are going to start a new adventure with these Halloween pieces. I’ve learned so much and made new

friends. I kind of feel like a historian. Every time a group comes to my booth, at least one person says, “Oh, I had one of these growing up!” or “My mom had one of these!” Instead of going to the dump and being wasteful, it’s being repurposed, coming back alive — and hopefully the memories will continue.

Q Keeping memories alive is your specialty. Tell me about your mom.

A My mom lived in St. Paul and went to Sacred Heart. She was 5 feet 1 inch tall, but you never messed with her. She was a tough broad.

She was diagnosed with cancer my senior year of high school and given a 10 percent chance of living another year. She made it seven, dying at 56 — shortly before my wedding. We had all the RSVPs go to my mom, so she could open up the letters and see who was coming. She did get to see me in my wedding dress.

Q She took up a special project in her final months.

A She wanted to leave something for me, so she wrote out all her recipe cards. She loved to paint, so she painted

little flowers on the corner. She’d write on there where the recipes were from. She had the best handwriting — this beautiful, tiny cursive that just flowed. It was something to marvel at.

Q What does it feel like when you use those recipes?

A It feels like she’s coming home, that she’s with me.

Q Now you’re advancing the cause.

A I’ve already written out a bunch of recipes for my daughters. I write comments in my recipe books that I love. If it’s a Christmas cookie, I write the years I’ve made them. I modify them and tell them what works better. My grandma’s spritz recipe calls for oleo, which is half margarine, and she said, “No, do half margarine, half Crisco — that’ll make the cookies taste better.” And even though it doesn’t call for vanilla, put a dash of vanilla in the almond; it makes the almond taste better. My mom used to make a white cake lamb every Easter. That white cake now has become kind of a symbol for our family. Well, I’ve written how to make

it: one-and-a-half the recipe and cook it longer and put toothpicks in their ears so they don’t fall off.

Q You’re leaving breadcrumbs, a manual of mistakes to avoid.

A I love taking care of people.

Q The communion of saints must be very real to you.

A Yes. When my girls were little, they would say that they knew Grandma. I think, truthfully, that she came many nights and visited them. She’s been present in our lives.

One night, my daughter Hanna was crying in her crib and then Jeff brought her to me. I left the monitor on in her room, and as I was falling asleep, I heard: “Is she in there? No, she’s not in there?” I really think it was my mom and (grandmother) coming to check on Hannah. I really do.

As Jeff says, she would have a ball with my new business. My mom loved antiques before antiques were a big thing. She would repurpose them. Once she had these beautiful old wooden spoons, and she dried flowers on them with a ribbon. It was so cute! She had my dad make these really intricate frames around pieces of wallpaper she put on the wall to make it her own art. She had a purple bedroom before purples (were) in. She sewed. She painted. She created.

Q What’s your favorite prayer?

A The Serenity Prayer. Change the things you can, and if you can’t, don’t. And know the difference.

Q When do you feel closest to God?

A I feel my faith the most when I’m next to Jeff holding hands in church. He has been with me since I was 16. He has been my one and only love, and I’m his.

Q What do you know for sure?

A Whatever problem you have today, don’t overreact because in an hour or a day or a month or a year, it’s not going to be a big deal.

I know love will get you through anything.

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

What is love, really? Graphic novel for teenagers creatively explores the topic

“Lunar New Year Love Story” by Gene Luen Yang and LeUyen Pham. Macmillan Publishers. (New York, New York, 2024). 352 pp., $17.99. Publisher-suggested age range: 14-18.

In a world of broken marriages, unhappy relationships and false notions of love, is it even possible to believe in romantic love anymore? This is the question posed by Gene Luen Yang and LeUyen Pham’s “Lunar New Year Love Story.”

The graphic novel centers on the aptly-named Valentina, a Vietnamese American high schooler with a love for Valentine’s Day and a literal angel on her shoulder — “Saint V,” a cupid-like spirit who claims to be the embodiment of love. Val’s faith in love, however, undergoes a major crisis when she discovers that her parents’ idyllic relationship ended not with her mother’s death, as her father has always told her, but rather in abandonment and heartbreak.

With this revelation, the cherubic “Saint V” transforms into a ghoulish apparition in the form of a martyred St. Valentine, who insists that love leads only to suffering. He offers Val a deal: if she gives him her

heart, he will ensure she never feels the pain her father felt. Val resists temptation, but only just — she says that the ghoul must give her a year to find true love, but if she does not, her heart is his.

With the bargain struck, Valentina embarks on her quest. But the world of high school romances is a thorny one, and time is ticking; a love triangle — thankfully devoid of the tired clichés readers might have come to expect — soon develops between Val and two of her fellow teenage lion dancers (an art

You work hard to give your children good gifts — a loving home, a quality education, memorable experiences. Do they, too, know how to give good gifts to others? With a donor advised fund, you can teach your children how to give generously by giving together – as a family.

form best known to most Western audiences from its performances at Lunar New Year celebrations). Luckily, Valentina is not alone. Flanked by her teammates, a cynical but well-meaning best friend, a pushy Catholic grandmother and fallen-away father, and possibly even St. Valentine himself, Val sets off to find answers to some of life’s toughest questions: What is love, really? And is it worth the risk?

With his usual deft touch, Yang weaves together a story that approaches this issue with both deep pathos and keen philosophical insight. Although the book has clearly impressed this reviewer, there is one matter to give the Catholic reader pause: It is revealed late in the story that a minor character is in a same-sex marriage. Said relationship is mentioned twice, and it’s unclear from the writing whether this relationship is meant to convey the author’s personal stamp of approval, or simply to realistically acknowledge the existence of such relationships in our world. This reviewer is inclined to give Yang the benefit of the doubt, and the detail is unlikely to cause any serious difficulties to adult Catholics who are strong in their faith. But parents will want to assess the spiritual maturity of their children before recommending the book to teenage readers.

Brilliantly told and beautifully illustrated, “Lunar New Year Love Story” is a worthwhile read for any Catholic lover of comics and graphic novels. Pham, known for her award-winning illustrations in the children’s book “Bear Came Along,” brings the exterior and interior worlds of young Val to life with her vibrant and dynamic style, and makes the book a work of visual as well as literary art. And readers will again find in Yang — author and illustrator of works such as “American Born Chinese,” “Boxers and Saints” and “Dragon Hoops” — a consummate storyteller with a talent for narratives both rooted in a particular identity and capable of speaking to a broad audience about important personal and fundamental truths.

Reichert is publications administrative coordinator at The Catholic Spirit. She can be reached at reichertm@archspm org

FOCUSONFAITH

The ministry of the Word

The Gospel reading appointed for the Third Sunday of Easter in Cycle B contains the third and fourth narratives about the risen Jesus on Easter Sunday in a series of five recounted in Luke 24: an appearance to Jesus’ disciples gathered in Jerusalem (36-43) and a remembrance of his final instructions to them (44-48).

The appearance narrative focuses on the reality of Jesus’ bodily resurrection while the story of Jesus’ last words to the disciples contains the missions Jesus gives them for the future. As those who share the faith of Jesus’ disciples, we align ourselves with those who experience him as risen Lord and take our place as witnesses to the reality of his risen life.

All of the appearance narratives make a central point about the reality of the resurrection: the Jesus whom the disciples had come to know as preacher, teacher, exorcist, healer and miracle worker; the Jesus who had aroused opposition from both the religious and political authorities of the day; the Jesus who had been condemned to, and undergone, a shameful death by crucifixion was the very same Jesus they now experienced as alive, but radically transformed.

This Gospel reading reminds us of the shock the disciples felt at experiencing the living Jesus on the “other side” of death: “scared and terrified, they thought they were seeing a ghost/ spirit (pneuma).” In response, Jesus asks the disciples to trust their senses: seeing his hands and feet, still bearing the wounds of his crucifixion; touching/feeling (pselaphesate) his flesh; and observing him eat some broiled fish when the disciples provide the food, thus recalling the feeding of the multitude on bread and fish during Jesus’ earthly ministry.

Formation of a deacon

In the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, once a man is admitted to the diaconate formation program, it is a long and spiritually rich five-year journey to ordination.

During each of the five years there are two retreats, the Winter Retreat and the weeklong Summer Immersion Retreat. These retreats are an immersion in prayer, silence, study, learning, reflection, integration and fellowship. They are occasions to grow closer to God, deepen and interiorize one’s faith, better understand the vocation of a deacon, and further discern one’s own call.

The first two years are called the period of aspirancy. Once admitted to the deacon formation program, the man is called an aspirant, one who is aspiring to be nominated as a candidate for ordination to the diaconate.

The first year is comprised of a series of Saturday and evening seminars on prayer, the theology of holy orders, and spiritual and human growth. The first-year internship is “Living the Corporal Works of Mercy,” an experience of service that is the foundation of the Order of Deacon. If the aspirant is married, his wife is required to participate in every aspect of the program during the first year. The seminars and the internship provide context for further reflection by the aspirant, his wife and his formation directors to determine if he is moving in the right direction.

At the end of the first year, and at the end of the next four years, an annual scrutiny is conducted. It is a conversation with the man, and if married, his wife, and is conducted by a committee comprised of two or three deacons, one or more of their wives, and a priest. This review and evaluation process is designed to make a recommendation whether the man should continue with the diaconate formation program.

The curriculum for the second year of aspirancy is philosophy,

KNOW the SAINTS

Having established the reality of his presence, Jesus now enacts for the gathered disciples what he had done for Cleopas and his companion on the road to Emmaus.

First, he interprets his own suffering and death as the fulfillment of Jewish Scriptures, the enactment in history of God’s will to be reconciled with sinful humanity through the loving obedience of the Suffering Servant. Second, he commissions the disciples as “witnesses” (martyres) to spread the good news of God’s action in raising Jesus from the dead as a call to conversion and repentance, a commission that is manifested in both the preaching of Peter in the first reading (Acts 3:13-15, 17-19) and the proclamation of Jesus as our advocate in the second reading (1 John 2:1-5a). Finally, he sends forth the promise of his AbbaGod upon these remembering and proclaiming witnesses, an act of power that is fulfilled in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon them (and us).

While there is much that could be pondered in these readings, I would like to hold up the ministry of the Word as continuation of part of Jesus’ own ministry. When the text declares that “everything written about (Jesus) in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms must be fulfilled,” it cites a traditional organization of the Jewish Scriptures into Torah (Pentateuch/Law), Nebi’im (Prophets) and Ketubim (writings, headed by the psalms). Whether through homilies and reflections, through Bible study or Bible-sharing among believers, or engagement with scholarly or popular commentaries on the Scriptures in individual study, we can pray that the risen Lord through the power of his Spirit will continue to open our minds to understand and cherish the Scriptures.

Though retired as an artist in residence at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Father Joncas continues to celebrate the sacraments in various worshiping communities in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, teaches in person or online, and continues to write articles and music.

sacred Scripture, the new evangelization, spirituality, and the human skills of listening and accompaniment. If the aspirant is married, his wife is invited but not required to participate in these sessions. There is a separate program for wives that continues from the second year throughout the remainder of formation. The second-year internship is “Pastoral Care of the Sick and Suffering” in which the aspirant serves in a long-term care facility or a hospital.

At the end of the second year, in addition to the annual scrutiny, if the aspirant still believes that he is being called by God to serve as a deacon, he petitions to become a candidate for holy orders, a canonical state in which the man is formally accepted by the archbishop to continue on the road to ordination. Admission is celebrated liturgically with the Rite of Admission to Candidacy. At this point the man is no longer called an aspirant, but instead, a candidate.

The third-year program delves more deeply into various theological and ministerial topics. The internship is “Corrections Ministry” in which the candidate offers pastoral care for inmates in a workhouse or county jail.

During the fourth and fifth years, the candidate designs and implements an Apostolic Project. The candidate chooses a project to address a concrete ministerial need that he has observed and undertakes it over a number of months. At the conclusion, the candidate prepares a report on the nature of the project, what took place, its spiritual and theological significance, and then makes a presentation on his project to his classmates, their wives and his formators.

The fifth year’s curriculum focuses on preaching and the rites to be celebrated once ordained: the Mass, baptisms, marriages and funerals. The candidate writes a letter to the archbishop to request ordination. If married, his wife writes a letter of consent. Finally, canon law requires the candidate to participate in a retreat prior to ordination. And then, after such a long journey building a firm foundation, the candidate is ordained a deacon.

Father Van Sloun is the director of clergy personnel for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. This column is part of a series on the sacrament of holy orders.

DAILY Scriptures

Sunday, April 14

Third Sunday of Easter

Acts 3:13-15, 17-19

1 Jn 2:1-5a Lk 24:35-48

Monday, April 15

Acts 6:8-15 Jn 6:22-29

Tuesday, April 16

Acts 7:51—8:1a Jn 6:30-35

Wednesday, April 17

Acts 8:1b-8 Jn 6:35-40

Thursday, April 18

Acts 8:26-40 Jn 6:44-51

Friday, April 19

Acts 9:1-20 Jn 6:52-59

Saturday, April 20

Acts 9:31-42 Jn 6:60-69

Sunday, April 21

Fourth Sunday of Easter

Acts 4:8-12 1 Jn 3:1-2 Jn 10:11-18

Monday, April 22

Acts 11:1-18 Jn 10:1-10

Tuesday, April 23

Acts 11:19-26 Jn 10:22-30

Wednesday, April 24

Acts 12:24—13:5a Jn 12:44-50

Thursday, April 25

St. Mark, evangelist 1 Pt 5:5b-14

Mk 16:15-20

Friday, April 26

Acts 13:26-33 Jn 14:1-6

Saturday, April 27

Acts 13:44-52 Jn 14:7-14

Sunday, April 28

Fifth Sunday of Easter

Acts 9:26-31 1 Jn 3:18-24 Jn 15:1-8

ST. BENEDICT JOSEPH LABRE (1748-1783) Born in France as the eldest of 15 children of a prosperous shopkeeper, Benedict tried unsuccessfully to join a religious order. He was rejected as too young, too delicate and too eccentric. After a pilgrimage on foot to Rome around 1770, he spent several years wandering among Western Europe’s Catholic shrines, begging as he went. From 1774 on, he stayed in Rome, spending his days praying in churches and his nights in the ruins of the Colosseum. The Roman people esteemed this mendicant pilgrim, whose health failed, as a “new St. Francis.” His feast day is April 16. — OSV News

COMMENTARY

TWENTY SOMETHING | CHRISTINA CAPECCHI

Gowns of grace, heaps of joy: Rediscovering Catholicism

Jenna Wright has come a long way from being an NFL cheerleader to a first Communion catechist.

Now, rather than sporting a skimpy outfit at the Super Bowl, she’s selling white gowns to secondgrade girls and their families — and making it a memorable part of their sacramental preparation. It’s the perfect fit for the mother of five who’s rediscovered her faith.

Wright was raised Catholic in Michigan. Again and again, the green-eyed blonde performed in the spotlight. As a teen, she trained in ballet and won a beauty pageant. In college, she studied broadcast journalism and became a professional cheerleader. She even cheered at the Super Bowl.

Meanwhile, her faith was crumbling. “I was quite thin, yet I had huge body issues and felt low in my self-worth,” she said. “I was surrounded by worldly things.”

At the end of her junior year of college, Wright hit a breaking point. “I’m tired of this!” she felt. “Jesus was calling me back.”

She made her first confession in years. Grace began to flood in.

When the Arizona Cardinals invited Wright back the following season, she declined. “I don’t want to be dancing around in a bikini in front of hundreds of thousands of people,” she thought. “I’m done with that.”

ALREADY/NOT YET | JONATHAN LIEDL

Social activism and Easter glory

The Easter Vigil is a solemn celebration of Christ’s glorious redemption of humanity. But at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City this year, it was also the scene of something else: a disruption in the name of a social cause.

During the March 30 liturgy, pro-Palestinian protesters walked to the foot of the sanctuary and unfurled a banner that read “silence=death.” The demonstrators stood there, upstaging the altar, before cathedral security intervened. Some of the activists yelled “free Palestine!” as they were escorted away.

To be sure, the situation in the Middle East demands action.

In just over half a year, the Israel-Hamas conflict — including Hamas’ Oct. 7 instigating attack — has now killed more than 1,200 people in Israel, including at least 30 U.S. citizens, Israeli officials have said. And the Palestinian death toll from the war has passed 33,200 — about two-thirds of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Pressure needs to be exerted on the parties involved to bring the horrific violence to a swift end and to take steps toward lasting peace.

But ironically, the protesters profoundly undermined the humanitarian goals they were working for through their actions, and not just

The more she learned about her faith, the more her confidence surged.

Now 36, she and her husband, Eric, are raising five kids ages 1 to 10 on Daniel Island in Charleston, South Carolina, where they attend St. Clare of Assisi. Jenna delights in leading first Communion classes.

“That age group is still so sweet and innocent, but they’re asking good questions and can understand bigger concepts,” she said. “And the sacraments! I get teary-eyed just thinking about it. Whenever you receive the Eucharist, it’s like you have a cup, and God is filling up your cup with grace. Sometimes it gets so full that it’s overflowing so you just have to share it with other people.”

As she taught, Jenna couldn’t help but notice a business opportunity. It started when her firstborn needed a first Communion dress. No local stores were selling them, and shopping online didn’t feel the same.

Other families began asking Jenna where to find dresses. She didn’t have an answer. One parent mentioned that they’d booked a trip to New York to shop at a boutique. The next year, another parent said they were headed to Rhode Island to buy a first Communion dress.

“I saw a hole in the market,” Jenna said.

Her thoughts quickly progressed. “There’s a need, especially down South, where there aren’t as many Catholics. But it’s seasonal — you don’t need a brickand-mortar all year round. Someone’s got to start a pop-up first Communion boutique. I guess that someone is me.”

Last summer, Jenna officially launched Gowns of Grace. She sources all the dresses, culling from three designers, along with veils. Suits for boys are also selected. Then, she hosts a pop-up shop at a church. She packs everything up, carrying every size and style of dress. She makes it an experience for families to enjoy together, providing cookies and drinks, a religious craft, a photo booth and a keepsake gift.

The event functions as a fundraiser for the hosting church, which receives up to 25 percent of her sales. Jenna also sells her products online at gownsofgrace com Parishes who promote it are given a code that gives them 10% back.

because, as several accounts have pointed out, their disruptiveness and disrespectfulness likely alienated people from their cause.

The issue is far more fundamental: By turning the Easter liturgy into a stage on which to advocate for a temporal good, the activists unwittingly undercut the very existential foundations that give their humanitarian cause its ultimate coherence and legitimacy.

Here’s why: The liturgy is fundamentally an act of communion between God and man. In fact, it is God’s invitation to man, through Jesus Christ, to participate in the divine life. In other words, it is the most profound affirmation of the dignity of humanity imaginable. That we can enter into true worship of God secures the fact that man is not alone, underscoring that his ultimate worth and value is not something contestable or up for grabs, but is given and guaranteed by the divine.

This is all the more clear at the Easter Vigil, when we celebrate the culmination of Christ’s redemptive mission, which affirmed the goodness and value of humanity every step of the way, from his incarnation to his resurrection. At Mass, we participate in this very act of redemption, the paschal mystery, reaffirming the fact that we are made in the image and likeness of God, have been redeemed by his Son, and are being drawn to him through his Holy Spirit, truths that are the bedrock of our claims about the dignity and value of human life.

Even for non-Christians, the acknowledgment that we are created by God, a truth available to unaided reason, is at the heart of most accounts of human dignity, and worship is both an expression and affirmation of that God-given value.

But by symbolically saying that their cause was more important than worshipping God, the proPalestinian protesters at St. Patrick’s Cathedral

Jenna’s goal is to celebrate each child. “This is not just another dress you have to get,” she said. “This is really special.”

It works, creating a positive experience that underscores the importance of the sacrament — faithfilled and fun. “Every single parent and grandparent who came thanked me and told me how lovely it was.”

These days, beauty fills Jenna’s life. She’s come so far since college.

“I felt like Jesus stepped in and said, ‘Here’s a fork in the road, go the other way,’” she said. “I haven’t looked back.”

Capecchi is a freelance writer from Inver Grove Heights.

effectively denied the basis for human dignity that justifies their entire campaign.

Put another way, if the vision of reality advanced by the protesters’ actions — a reality in which temporal goods are ultimate, and divine communion is not — is true, then man is by himself. He is existentially cut off from God, and therefore from the source of any real sense of human dignity. There is no ultimate justice and, frankly, there is really no reason to care about Palestinian civilians being massacred, other than sentiment and/or factors motivated by power.

Point being: To deny God and our relationship with him is to deny humanity. Every time.

This is the danger of the activistic spirit, which views its cause as so important that it even trumps the primacy of receiving from God. This can happen with any cause, no matter how good, from the pro-life movement to efforts to treat migrants with compassion.

This isn’t to say Christians should avoid political and social activism. In fact, our faith demands engagement in the public square for the sake of the common good.

But activists should remember that communion with God is not a competitor to causes promoting human dignity — it’s what guarantees their legitimacy. Rather than something to upstage or ignore, those working for justice and the common good should see prayer and worship as foundational, not merely as a means to achieving their social and political ends, but as the most essential expression of man’s dignity and worth.

Or, at the very least, they shouldn’t interrupt Easter Vigil Mass.

Liedl, a Twin Cities resident, is a senior editor of the National Catholic Register and a graduate student in theology at The St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity in St. Paul.

COURTESY JENNA WRIGHT

The Holy Spirit

Last winter, with all the terrible ice and snow, I fell and broke my arm. While I was waiting for surgery, I slept in a recliner in the family room so I would not accidentally roll over on my arm. Throughout that week, I found myself waking up during the night and turning on EWTN programming. What an unexpected blessing I received, because a priest on a program late at night spoke about the Holy Spirit. This brief, unassuming, late-night presentation has changed forever my perception of the relationship between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This is what he said. Jesus, in his obedience to the Father, went to his cross. He was put to death in a horrific and torturous way, a method perfected by the Romans to inflict maximal pain, suffering and public humiliation. When I taught about the cross and Jesus’ passion and death to my students as a religion teacher, they said, “We had no idea Jesus suffered so much!”

When he died and went to the Father, the priest continued, Jesus was enveloped in the beauty and love of God. When the Father greeted his Son, he was delighted with Jesus’ obedience and trust in what he had been asked to do. From this mutual love and appreciation between the Father and Son, the Holy Spirit is released! The Holy Spirit, this priest said, is the outpouring of love between the Father and the Son, and it is this same Holy Spirit who speaks to us, inspiring us to act with courage, obedience and trust.

How does this relate to marriage? If we are willing to see our spouse with eyes of love and appreciation, seeing them as a gracious gift God has given to us, there will be an outpouring of love for each other in our union. When I was a therapist, I would say to my couples, “In marriage, we do not give 50-50. We give 100-100. We must be ready to give our very best in

When we trust the Trinity to help us, we will not be abandoned or dismissed, but rather fortified by power and strength to continue to say a dynamic “yes” to our marriage ...

our marriage, especially when our spouse is hurting and unable to give.” The commitment we make to our marriage requires 100% of our effort.

During those hurting times, we must rely on the Holy Spirit to fill us with his strength and his compassion for our spouse. The Holy Spirit is the love expressed between the Father and the Son, and the outpouring nature of the Trinity will be enough for us.

In “Gaudium et spes,” the Vatican II document on “The Church in the Modern World,” the council states, “spouses ... are fortified and, as it were, consecrated for the duties and dignity of their state by a special sacrament; fulfilling their conjugal and family role by virtue of this sacrament, spouses are penetrated with the spirit of Christ and their whole life is suffused by faith, hope and charity; thus they increasingly further their own perfection and their mutual sanctification, and together they render glory to God.” (48)

When we trust the Trinity to help us, we will not be abandoned or dismissed, but rather fortified by power and strength to continue to say a dynamic “yes” to our marriage, creating a lasting and loving union for our mutual sanctification, providing a loving witness to society. The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains, “in the epiclesis of this sacrament the spouses receive the Holy Spirit as the communion of love of Christ and the Church. The Holy Spirit is the seal of their covenant, the ever-available source of their love and the strength to renew their fidelity.” (1624) What a blessing our faith tradition provides for us!

Soucheray is a licensed marriage and family therapist emeritus and a member of St. Ambrose in Woodbury.

I met a young woman named Katie who had served as a Franciscan missionary in Zambia at an orphanage for children living with AIDS.

She recounted how, day after day, sick children would arrive to be cared for by the religious sisters and laywomen of the community.

Many children died in their care. She recalled one particularly difficult month when 30 children died. It was decided that they would have a memorial service for all the children who had been lost.

Katie’s heart was heavy from the sight of so much death and she struggled to make sense of it all. On the day of the service, she was called into mother superior’s office and handed a slip of paper that said, “We just had number 31. Please add this name.” At this, Katie was overwhelmed with a sense of loss and hopelessness. Over the next few days, she walked in a kind of fog. But she noticed how the Zambian sisters and other women continued to care for the children.

She finally asked one of them, “How do you keep doing this day after day and live through so much death?” And the woman responded, “Sister, I believe in resurrection! And I believe that God cares for each of these children by name. And so will I (take care of them).”

Katie remembered these words from the creed: “I believe ... in the resurrection.” She had said those words at Mass countless times, but she had never heard them

BRIDGING FAITH CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

rejoicing in the harvest

Celebrating 100 Years of Catholic Rural Life

Event Date: Wednesday, May 8th, 2024

Location: University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN

Catholic Rural Life (CRL) is dedicated to the vitality of the American countryside.To mark its 100th Anniversary, CRL will gather members, donors, chapters, and friends from around the country for an evening program.

Rejoicing in the Harvest is a celebratory event including Mass, a program featuring Cardinal Timothy Dolan and Monsignor James Shea, dinner, and social time together. The event will focus on celebrating and learning about the rich history as well as sharing plans about the future.

Registration Information

Individual Tickets:

$125 each

Tables:

$1,000 (8 seats per table)

Sponsorships:

Keynote Speaker

Cardinal Timothy Dolan

Options start at $2,500 and include benefits

FROM THE LOCAL CHURCH | MICHAEL STRANDE

The girl who may have saved your life

the openness and welcome structure and atmosphere of the church, where she would often play the piano. She recognized how the sanctuary was a place for her to express her artistry, whether it be as a liturgical minister or a performer in the annual variety show.

MARCH 9, 2017 • SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA

AMARA’S MUSIC

A song Amara Strande wrote titled “I Am the Strange” captures her spiritual struggle and expresses her connection to Christ. Listen to her music by searching for her name through Spotify, Apple, YouTube and more.

eal ch ll . Catholics are called to respond.

Editor’s note: Amara Strande spent her final months lobbying for a state law that restricts the non-essential use of “forever chemicals,” also known as PFAS, in a large swath of products. The then-20-year-old woman from Woodbury believed the chemicals led to her developing cancer. Legislators passed Amara’s Law, named in her honor, a week after her death in 2023, and it is now state law.

OT CT LIFE & MAN DIGNITY

In the following essay, her father, Michael Strande, who serves as the director of liturgy at St. Olaf in Minneapolis, describes the consolation his daughter found in Christ and the impact of her life on all Minnesotans, who could be protected from toxins due in part to her testimony on the legislation.

As one would expect, being diagnosed with a deadly disease at such a young age challenged her relationship with God. Amara understood lament in the true sense of the word. She was deeply engaged with God. However, her disappointment came from how God remained hidden, which led her to feel loss, loneliness and abandonment. She wrote once:

“The loneliness, isolation, and feelings of abandonment that comes (sic) with a faith crisis are sometimes unbearable. I was taught that God would always be there for me. If that was the case, then WHERE ARE YOU GOD?”

In anger and frustration, she would demand a response to her illness, to her pain and suffering. She dared to confront God: “Whether God inflicts pain on purpose, looks away, or stands idly is unacceptable. God must be held accountable. But one question remains, how does one punish God?”

bishops, dynamic Church leaders, and 1,000+ Catholics from a day of inspiration and advocacy at our State Capitol.

22 -and -under FREE!

lunch included with

In the autumn of her fifteenth year, Amara Strande was diagnosed with a rare cancer, fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma, an awful disease that begins in the liver. This disease takes the lives of mainly teens and young adults within three years of diagnosis. Over the next six years, Amara would undergo over 20 different surgeries and procedures, mainly to remove tumors that had spread into her abdomen and lungs. Fibrolamellar is so rare few oncologists have seen it. There is no cure except surgical removal if it is found early enough. There is no set plan to attack it. Chemotherapy and radiation treatments are minimally effective.

 Learn the issues, hear dynamic speakers, and meet your legislators.

 See the newly renovated State Capitol! and register at CatholicsAtTheCapitol.org HOSTS:

Amara did not want to be known as the girl with cancer. She wanted to be known for the gifts and talents she enjoyed. She was an athlete, an actress, a singer, a composer, a musician and an artist. She was well known in her parish of Guardian Angels in Oakdale. She was a cantor, a lector and an altar server. She loved

Halfway point: Key issues come into focus

As a religious educator, I taught Amara the ancient Greek word “satan.” The word satan means “a person who prevents you from doing what you feel you must do.” Jesus called Peter a satan when he wanted to prevent Jesus from traveling to Jerusalem. Jesus was not calling Peter the devil or evil. He was pointing out that Peter cannot be in his way — “get behind me.” Amara wondered if this applied to God. She wanted to do so much in her young life. She felt that God was getting in her way of doing what she felt she must do.

Because she felt she was not getting any response from an invisible God, she turned to Christ.

Sometimes before a surgery, a doctor or a nurse would say to Amara, “Go to your happy place.” Then they would ask her what that was. She would tell them that her happy place was at the foot of the Mount of Olives, in the Garden of Gethsemane, outside the Old City of Jerusalem. When asked why that was her happy place she would say, “It was there when all of the stuff about Jesus

a protected status but omitted a corresponding religious exemption for religious organizations and schools. This omission effectively restricts those entities from adhering to their religious beliefs concerning human sexuality. This could entail scenarios such as the MHRA compelling a church to hire a transgender individual as its religious education director.

Regrettably, legislators voted to table the motion instead of taking action to reinstate religious protections.

SPONSORS:

During the House floor proceedings March 25, Republican legislators tried to prioritize the restoration of religious freedom protections in the Minnesota Human Rights Act (MHRA) by moving to declare an urgency on the matter, which allows a bill to bypass the committee process and move right to a floor vote.

As previously covered in “Inside the Capitol,” a change was made last year to the MHRA that added a more specific definition of “gender identity” as

BRIDGING FAITH

CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE

stated with such confidence or met someone who so clearly based her life on them. Katie said she would never hear those words the same again.

Easter marks the season of being raised to new life. The first witnesses to resurrection encountered the risen Jesus at the tomb. Mary Magdalene first experienced Jesus’ death as a life stolen from her. When she went to the tomb, the body of Jesus was missing. Sometimes we can experience death as life that is stolen from us — stolen plans, stolen dreams and stolen identity. In the middle of feeling lost, the risen Jesus called her name, “Mary!” and she recognized her risen Lord. Her tomb of feeling lost was transformed into a womb of new life in Christ. She became a witness of resurrection to the disciples.

Archbishop Bernard Hebda observed the proceedings and shared his response to the events, highlighting the significance of restoring these protections and suggesting how Catholics statewide can engage in this issue. Watch the video online: youtube.com/ watch?v=uXw e6GJc9c

Over the past two months, legislators have had three opportunities to reinstate the exemption, all of which have been missed. This inaction represents a serious encroachment on religious liberties in Minnesota.

Catholics are invited to join the Minnesota Catholic Conference, which represents the public policy interests of the state’s Catholic bishops, and more than 10 other faith groups across the religious and ideological spectrum

The disciples had locked themselves in the upper room for fear of the authorities. This room in which they had shared so much love with Jesus had become a tomb of fear and guilt. Fear and guilt can keep us trapped and isolated. Jesus broke into their tomb of fear and offered them the gift of peace and forgiveness — the first fruits of risen life. Their tomb of fear, guilt and denial became a womb of reconciliation. They became witnesses to the resurrection for Thomas.

Jesus’ death had alienated Thomas from the community of disciples. Death filled Thomas with doubt about what it all meant. We can wonder why bad things happen to good people and why there is suffering and death of innocent people. When Thomas heard about Jesus’ rising, he was dubious and demanded to touch Christ’s wounds. Jesus met Thomas in his tomb of doubt and meaninglessness and invited him to touch

came together and it made sense.”

Amara spent many years in the Garden. Struggling with God so that at times, like Christ, she felt abandoned.

Amara would go out of her way to meet and know other kids with cancer. She not only met them, she got their contact information so she could continue the relationship. She would give them ideas to help them deal with cancer.

I asked her once, “Why do you seek out kids with cancer knowing they may die some day and it will hurt?” She said, “Dad, I want them to know that they are not alone.”

That is what she did. She understood the pain, loneliness and struggles of having cancer. She wanted no one who suffered to feel alone. This was exactly what Christ did. In my 40-plus years working in the Church I have never met anyone more Christ-like than Amara.

It was because of that solidarity with Christ that Amara began her great work of advocacy.

Amara didn’t want people to pity her, she wanted people to hear her, as she said, “not just for my sake but for the sake of my community.”

She died two days shy of her 21st birthday, a week before Amara’s Law was passed in the Minnesota House and Senate. Amara took her pain, suffering and deep compassion and used it to focus her attention to make life better for us all.

Strande has been working in the Church for over 40 years. He has a Master of Divinity degree from The St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity in St. Paul.

by signing a petition urging elected officials to restore the religious exemption to the MHRA.

Visit mncatholic.orG/mhra to learn more about the issue, sign the petition, and send a message to legislators.

Legislative deadlines provide new insights

The legislative session hit its first and second deadlines, which required committees in both chambers to act favorably on policy bills to still be considered for final passage this year. Now halfway through the legislative session, this milestone offers crucial insights into the fate of bills, signaling which ones still have a chance of passing by May 20 and which will likely be deferred until 2025.

Notably, the physician-assisted suicide (PAS) bill (HF1930/SF1813) has garnered significant attention this year, marking the most progress it has seen in the past decade.

But despite passing through four different House committees, thanks to amazing citizen engagement and thousands of calls and emails, it failed to secure a hearing

his wounds. Thomas’ tomb of doubt became a womb of faith, “My Lord and my God!” Thomas became a witness of resurrection for people as far away as India. His faith is still bearing fruit in many parts of Asia. The faith of Easter transforms our tombs of death into wombs of new life. Faith offers us a way to bring peace, healing and faith. It is the season to believe in resurrection — life that raises us from death. Let us take these words to heart — we may even base our lives on them — and believe in resurrection. Our witness to resurrection is the source of our mission. This is the faith of baptism that calls and sends us forth.

Deacon Friesen is director of the Center for Mission, which supports missionary outreach of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. He can be reached at friesenm@archspm org

GLORIA PURIVS Black Catholics United for Life

ARCHBISHOP BERNARD HEBDA

BISHOP ANDREW COZZENS Archdiocese of Saint Paul & Minneapolis

Thinking back on Evelyn Waugh’s famous Book Three title in “Brideshead Revisited,” I am Catholic because like “a twitch upon the thread,” God gently calls me and protects me when I need it most.

On Jan. 5, 2023, my 26-year-old son, Christopher, who was diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorder and struggled with alcohol, took his last breath. After abruptly falling ill, he required CPR twice before the ambulance reached the hospital. Since that time, he hadn’t opened his eyes or moved, save for distinct shudders in his face and body at the exact moment the priest put oil on his forehead when administering the anointing of the sick.

After praying a final Hail Mary as a family over his body, I intensely wanted to stay with my son. But God had other plans for me. It is through this experience that I can tell you why I am Catholic: One, I chose this religion for myself and my children; two, having Mary in my life has helped me immensely; and three, asking saints for intercessory prayers has drawn me close to Jesus when at my lowest.

Exposure to Catholicism, after my baptism and parents’ divorce, mainly consisted of my grandmothers taking me to Mass and teaching me the rosary. Not long after I gave birth to Christopher, I distinctly recall God pulling on my thread as I looked at my newborn baby and knew I needed to raise my children Catholic. Soon after, I completed the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults — now known as the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults — and entered full communion with the Church.

When I felt alone and lost after my son died, I related to Mary through the rosary. She also had lost her son. Through prayer I came to understand that God had called my son home. Mary knew my needs, and God sent condolences from family, friends and

By Tracy Ingham

even strangers touched by my son’s story, which we posted on the CaringBridge website.

Closer to home, one of my three daughters, who had previously declared she wasn’t Catholic, felt a twitch upon her thread when she started a Bible study with classmates. Similarly, our oldest daughter began leading Bible study at college, and our youngest daughter has shown interest in attending a Catholic high school.

Although I needed support from many for my healing, I also needed the Church. Intercessory prayers to saints have now become commonplace for me and they bring graces and love from God. Last fall, the relics of St. Therese of Lisieux and her parents — Sts. Louis and Zelie Martin, patron saints of illness, mental illness, marriage and parenting — were at our church. How amazing for them to literally come to me. I believe it was another way God helped my husband and me be strong for our children and each other while dealing with the loss of our son.

Losing my son has been difficult but it has helped me see God’s presence in my life. Like a twitch upon a thread, he has reeled me in through my grandmothers, Mary and intercessory prayers to saints. Being Catholic has opened countless ways for God to show me love.

Ingham, 51, and her husband, David, are members of St. Therese in Deephaven. They have five children in addition to Christopher. Ingham has worked as a nurse practitioner, but since her son’s death, she has spent more time volunteering, solo backpacking and reading from a list of the top 100 novels.

“Why I am Catholic” is an ongoing series in The Catholic Spirit. Want to share why you are Catholic? Submit your story in 300-500 words to CatholiCSpirit@arChSpm org with subject line “Why I am Catholic.”

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

CALENDAR

PARISH EVENTS

St. John Vianney Rummage Sale — April 11-13: 840 19th Ave. N., South St. Paul. Thursday presale: 5-7 p.m., $5 entry. Friday: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday: 9 a.m.noon, bag sale $5. SjvSSp org

Community Kitchen Meal — April 13: 5:30-7 p.m. at Guardian Angels, 8260 Fourth St. N., Oakdale. An event for anyone experiencing food insecurity, for those feeling isolated or alone, and those searching for community. The meal includes salad, beverages and desserts. All are welcome. tinyurl Com/4un9yae4

St. Matthew Rosary Society Spring Tea — April 13: 2 p.m. at 510 Hall Ave., Door 5, St. Paul. Tea, coffee, lemonade and assorted treats, including glutenfree ones, will be served. Adults: $15; seniors 65-plus: $12; kids 10 and under: $7. Advance tickets are required and are available after weekend Masses or by calling the parish center at 651-224-9793. St-mattS org/roSary-SoCiety-Spring-tea-april-13th-2024

Spring Craft Sale — April 20: 9 a.m. at Presentation of Mary School Gym, 1695 Kennard St., Maplewood. An opportunity to purchase a Mother’s Day gift, or a gift for yourself! Along with a variety of crafts, there will be bakery items and lunch and refreshments for sale.

preSentationofmary org/Spring-Craft-Sale

Ramsey Food Truck Festival — April 20: 5:30 p.m. at St. Katharine Drexel, 7101 143rd Ave. NW, Suite G, Ramsey. A family-fun event featuring food trucks, bingo, kids’ carnival, silent auction, wine-wheel raffle and live music. StkdCC org

Swing into Spring — April 20: 6:15-9:30 p.m. at St. Peter, 1405 Sibley Memorial Highway, Mendota. The Northstar Big Band will perform; come to swing dance or simply to enjoy the music. $10 entry, $8 with college ID, $5 for those under 18. Concessions available. All ages welcome. StpeterSmendota org

Vatican International Exhibit of Eucharistic Miracles of the World — April 20, 21, 27, 28: noon-4 p.m. at Blessed Sacrament, 2119 Stillwater Ave. E., St. Paul. There are 126 photographic, historically documented Eucharistic miracles from various countries. A first-class relic of Blessed Carlo Acutis will be available for veneration. Free admission. All are welcome.

bleSSedSaCramentSp org

Belgian Waffle Breakfast — April 21: 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. at St. Michael, 22120 Denmark Ave., Farmington. An all-you-can-eat Belgian waffle breakfast, includes 9-inch malted Belgian waffles with sausage and beverages. Tickets: $9 pre-sale; $10 at the door. Call Theresa at 651-460-6060.

StmiChael-farmington org

Evening of Easter Celebration — April 24: 6:30-8:30 p.m. at St. John Neumann, 4030 Pilot Knob Road, Eagan. A joyful evening of encountering the risen Lord Jesus through song, prayer, personal story, adoration, confession and community. Refreshments and confession are also available beforehand at 6 p.m. Sjn org/eventS/eaSter-evening-of-renewal

Spring Rummage Sale — April 25, 26, 27: St. Gabriel, 1310 Mainstreet, Hopkins. 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m.

April 26 and 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. April 27. $1 bag day April 27. Clothes, shoes, jewelry, books, furniture, tools, housewares, holiday, pets, toys and sporting goods.

StgabrielhopkinS org

St. Mark’s Spring Rummage Sale — April 25-28:

St. Mark, 1983 Dayton Ave., St. Paul. 5-7 p.m. April 25: $5 “sneak peek” entry fee; 9 a.m.-4 p.m. April 26 and 27; 9 a.m.-noon April 28. Furniture, clothes, jewelry, household items and more. oneStrongfamily org

Crafters Spring Sale — April 27, 28: 10 a.m.6 p.m. April 27 and 9 a.m.-1 p.m. April 28 at Guardian Angels, 8260 Fourth St. N., Oakdale. Quilts, blankets and throws, kitchen goods, unique home decor, children’s and baby gifts, plant and bake sale, and quilt raffle.

tinyurl Com/4y8Chddj

WORSHIP+RETREATS

Hearts United: Marriage Empowerment Workshop — April 13: 8:30 a.m. at St. Michael, 11300 Frankfort Parkway NE, St. Michael. A workshop to help married couples rediscover the joy of being together, recommit to their shared goals and reignite the spark in their marriages. Sponsored by Cana Family Institute and Martin Center for Integration.

CanafamilyinStitute Com/eventS

Interfaith Just Peacemaking: Muslim and Christian Resources for Restorative Justice — April 17: 7-8 p.m. at the University of St. Thomas, John Roach Center, 2115 Summit Ave., St. Paul. In this lecture, Professor Najeeba Syeed will explore the concept of interfaith just peacemaking, drawing on Muslim and Christian perspectives. Register online:

tinyurl Com/yCxw2thu

Ignatian Silent Women’s Weekend Retreat — April 18-21: Christ the King Retreat Center, 621 First Ave. S., Buffalo. This weekend silent retreat focuses on the spiritual wisdom and practices that develop the inner resilience needed to engage constructively in the world today. ignatianSpiritualityCenter org/event/ignatian-Silentretreat-for-women-weekend/

Choosing the Way of the Light: A Retreat on Hope — April 20: 9:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. at St. Paul’s Monastery, 2675 Benet Road, Maplewood. Reflection, prayer, sharing and inspiration to commit to cultivating more hope, with Sister Paula Hagen and author Christine Jurisich. Email development@StpaulSmonaStery org or call 651-777-8181. tinyurl Com/3w6Cn6xh

“Do This in Memory of Me”: Women’s Silent Midweek Retreat — April 23-25: Christ the King Retreat Center, 621 First Ave. S., Buffalo. Be reminded of the Last Supper shared with the disciples and the gift of Jesus’ presence as he becomes the Bread of Life and Cup of Salvation. The disciples’ memories of this night will guide the retreat. kingShouSe Com

“A Day Away” for Men and Women — April 27: 8:30 a.m.- 4 p.m. at Christ the King Retreat Center, 621 First Ave., S., Buffalo. Time on holy ground, a peaceful spot to “walk humbly with God.” Optional guided meditation and conferences. kingShouSe Com

Ignatian Men’s Silent Retreat — Thursday-Sunday most weeks: Demontreville Jesuit Retreat House, 8243 Demontreville Trail N., Lake Elmo. Let God meet you at a beautiful retreat location in Lake Elmo. Freewill donation. demontrevilleretreat Com

SPEAKERS+SEMINARS

Dabbling in Artistic Prayer — April 16: 1-3 p.m. at St. Thomas More’s Ignatius Hall, 1079 Summit Ave., St. Paul. Claire Bischoff explores two prayer practices connected with icons and art as part of the Sacred Ground’s Groundings Series. SaCredgroundSpirit org/eventS/ groundingS-dabbling-in-artiStiC-prayer

The Continuing Importance of Vatican II with George Weigel — April 17: 6:30-8 p.m. at 2115 Summit Ave., St. Paul. This talk is free, open to the public, and part of The St. Paul Seminary’s Archbishop Ireland Memorial Library Lecture series. A reception will follow the presentation. SaintpaulSeminary org/event/ ireland-leCture-Spring-2024-george-weigel

Pro-Life Across America Banquet — April 18: 5:45-9 p.m. at Banquets of Minnesota, 6310 Highway 65, Fridley. The 27th annual Culture of Love spring banquet features keynote speaker Scott Klusendorf. Cost: $75. Reservations: 612-781-0410 or online by April 10. prolifeaCroSSameriCa org

Pre-Planning Seminars: 10 a.m.-noon April 19 or 10 a.m.-noon April 27 at Gethsemane Cemetery, 8151 42nd Ave. N., New Hope. 10 a.m.-noon April 19 or 10 a.m.-noon April 27 at Resurrection Cemetery, 2101 Lexington Ave. S., Mendota Heights. CatholiC-CemeterieS org/eventS

Lincoln on Behalf of Life — April 20: 6 p.m. at Bloomington Event Center (Bloomington KC Hall), 1114 American Blvd. W., Bloomington. Michael Kenney — lawyer, author, educator and filmmaker — presents on former President Abraham Lincoln, with stories of hope and a way forward. lifelegalmn org/life-legalminneSota-annual-benefit-dinner-april-20-2024-6-pm

Movie Showing: “The Letter” — April 22: 6 p.m. at Corpus Christi, 2131 Fairview Ave. N., Roseville. The film profiles five people who have an encounter with Pope Francis inspired by his encyclical on climate change, “Laudato Si’”. After the movie, reflect on how to better treat God’s creation. Refreshments provided.

SCHOOLS

Blue and White Gala — April 12: 5:30 p.m. at Starkson Family Life Celebration Chapel, 3075 Vermillion St., Hastings. A fundraising event through St. John the Baptist School to celebrate the tradition of support for Catholic education. Tickets are available online: Sjb-SChool org

St. Agnes School Presents “Meet Me in St. Louis” — April 19, 20, 21, 26, 27, 28: Meet the Smiths as they eagerly await the opening of the 1904 World’s Fair. With loveable songs like “The Trolley Song,” “Skip to My Lou,” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” this show is sure to become a family favorite; see Squadup Com/hoStS/6705865/event for times.

Resurrection Cemetery: Mausoleum Bldg #2; Tandem Crypt (2); Market Value: $50,000+; Price: $35,000. 612-518-7130

Sunset Memorial: one plot; $1,600; 612-308-2731.

Epiphany Cemetery: one full-sized burial plot close to back door of the church; fits one casket or 2 urns; $1500; 612-790-3968

CEMETERY LOTS FOR SALE

CD of the Month Club

Lighthouse Catholic Media, Scott Hahn,

DEADLINE: Noon Thursday, 14 days before the anticipated Thursday date of publication. We cannot guarantee a submitted event will appear in the calendar. Priority is given to events occurring before the issue date.

LISTINGS: Accepted are brief notices of upcoming events hosted by Catholic parishes and organizations. If the Catholic connection is not clear, please emphasize it in your submission. Included in our listings are local events submitted by public sources that could be of interest to the larger Catholic community.

ITEMS MUST INCLUDE:

uTime and date of event

uFull street address of event

uDescription of event

uContact information in case of questions

uThe Catholic Spirit prints calendar details as submitted.

TheCatholiCSpirit Com/CalendarSubmiSSionS

INSIDE THE CAPITOL

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 17

in the Senate before policy deadlines, significantly dimming its prospects of becoming law this session. While this outcome brings relief, it underscores the need for continued vigilance to prevent the passage of physician-assisted suicide in subsequent years.

In addition to the PAS bill, other significant bills under debate this session include those concerning the legalization of surrogacy arrangements, legalization of online sports betting, a proposed Equal Rights Amendment, and insurance mandates related to abortion, assisted reproduction technologies, and so-called gender affirming care. These bills continue to be active, as they have passed the first two deadlines.

To stay informed on these issues and for opportunities to take action, join the Catholic Advocacy Network at mncatholic org/join

“Inside the Capitol” is a legislative update from Minnesota Catholic Conference staff.

Experts: Historic rise of ‘never-marrieds’

By Kimberley Heatherington OSV News

Arecently-released study from the Institute for Family Studies — a Charlottesville, Virginia-based think tank dedicated to strengthening marriage and family life — reveals that a record number of young adults are predicted to never marry.

The research brief by IFS fellow Lyman Stone found that based on current marriage data “plausibly, one-third of men and women who turn 45 in 2050 (those who are about 18 or 19 today) will not have married.”

Stone’s research indicates the percentage of never-married adults is at a historic high in the United States. And because marriage is coming later and later in life, a growing share of Americans will never marry at all.

According to Stone’s figures, 61% of 35-year-old men were ever married in 2023, down from 90% in 1980; 70% of 35-year-old women were ever married in 2023, down from 93% in 1980.

“I think economic factors delaying the life course are the dominant force shaping declining marriage, alongside marriage penalties in tax and welfare policies,” Stone told OSV News. “Overwhelming majorities of young people still report (a) strong desire to marry, and at younger ages than the current median age of marriage.”

Stone said, “The long delay between adulthood and economic independence is the main cause of declining marriage.”

Asked if individualism plays a role, Stone replied that something more fundamental is going on.

“Highly individualistic societies often still have high marriage rates,” he said. “The bigger values shift is about marriage as a ‘capstone’ to personal success rather than marriage as a ‘foundation’ for couple success.”

The best way to deal with these outcomes, Stone said, “is to try and help people get into good marriages earlier in life. There is no societal substitute for marriage.”

IFS’ collected data is “a rather bleak portrait of where marriage is now, and where it’s heading,” said Julia Dezelski, associate director of marriage and family life at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat of Laity, Marriage, Family Life, and Youth.

“Unfortunately, I would say I’m not so surprised,” she told OSV News. Changes in social attitudes have had a major impact on marriage, Dezelski reflected, citing “the pervasive permissiveness in society towards those things that enable other forms of so-called marital life that’s not officially married. The promiscuity, and the cohabitation, and all the socalled ‘perks’ that come with this kind of lifestyle, obviously does not lend itself to encouraging couples to marry if they can reap the benefits of just cohabiting at a lower cost — and without the risks of pregnancy, thanks to contraception.

“And then, why not delay if IVF would allow them to have children later on, too?” she asked rhetorically, referring to in vitro fertilization. The Church opposes the artificial reproduction method on the grounds that it treats the child as a product, divorces sex from procreation, and the process often involves the destruction of human embryos to achieve pregnancy resulting in birth.

“It’s this permissive society in which young people are living,” Dezelski said, “that doesn’t make marriage much of an incentive in the light of all of these other things.”

The Catechism of the Catholic Church notes that marriage as a vocation “is written in the very nature of man and woman as they came from the hand of the Creator.”

But Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate notes that in 1965, U.S. Catholic sacramental marriages reported from the previous year numbered 347,179. In 2022, the figure was 98,354.

A 2020 Pew Research Center study of millennials — the generation usually defined as anyone born between 1981 and 1996 — also gave cause for concern, stating, “Millennials are much less likely to be living with a family of their own than previous generations when they were the same age.” Pew found that in 2019, 55% of millennials lived with their spouse, their own child or both, noting, “This compares with 66% of Gen Xers in 2003, 69% of Boomers in 1987 and 85% of members of the Silent Generation in 1968.”

“The Church has a huge responsibility here, in trying to paint a picture of marriage as truly the beautiful vocation that it is — and also, just to hearken back to how it fits into God’s plan for salvation,” Dezelski said. The costs of not reversing the nonmarriage trend “are enormous, really — for everyone; for the Church and for society,” she observed. “If we’re not supporting the family, then we will not have families in church to support.”

A link to the IFS research brief is found here: tinyurl com3hu8h7wy

MARRIAGE IN THE ARCHDIOCESE

The number of Catholic to Catholic and Catholic to non-Catholic marriages in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has notably declined over a 50-year period (see Figure A).

This decline is not necessarily a result of a declining population — Catholic or total — in the archdiocese.

Though Figure B does not show the full year-to-year Catholic population changes, that population has linearly increased. Similarly, the total population of the archdiocese (the number of Catholics and non-Catholics) has linearly increased, from 1.66 million in 1969 to 3.55 million in 2023, per estimates from civil census data for the 12 counties of the archdiocesan territory.

The data on marriages, from 1969 to 2023, come from The Official Catholic Directory, sometimes referred to as the Kenedy Directory — a Catholic reference resource including various diocesan data. Its first publishing dates to 1817 by P.J. Kenedy & Sons, according to its website.

These data were used to create Figure A, which depicts the raw number of total marriages (both Catholic to Catholic and Catholic to non-Catholic, or interfaith marriages) in the archdiocese from 1969 to 2023.

The five-year averages shown in this figure were calculated using the full data set (each year’s raw number of total marriages) simply to present a cleaner, easier-to-read graph.

The limitations of presenting these data are as follows: Certain demographics (age, sex and marital status) for the total Catholic population and total population of the archdiocese are beyond the scope of the data available. Due to data limitations, a marriage rate (for example, the number of marriages per 1,000 people) for the Catholic population in the archdiocese could not be calculated. Because of this, the total Catholic population reported in Figure B is a reference point. Also, determining the number of marriage-eligible people within the total Catholic population and the total population in the archdiocese is beyond the scope of the data available.

— Rebecca Omastiak

Figure A

Catholic and Interfaith Marriages:

The total of both Catholic marriages (both people marrying are Catholic) and interfaith marriages (one person in the couple is Catholic and the other is nonCatholic) in the archdiocese. These data are reported by the parishes and recorded in The Official Catholic Directory.

Figure B

Total Catholic Population:

The number of Catholics in the archdiocese. These data are estimates, based on the Pew Research Center’s Religious Landscape Study and other sources.

(above)