More than 2,500 people filled the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul on a sunny and warm April 11 to celebrate the episcopal ordination Mass of Bishop Michael Izen, and his appointment as auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
“How wonderful to have all of you here as we celebrate the ordination of our newest auxiliary,” said Archbishop Bernard Hebda, consecrator and principal celebrant of the Mass. “I’ve never prayed before that we would have a larger Cathedral, but we could have used one today.”
The Churches of St. Michael and St. Mary and St. Croix Catholic School in Stillwater and St. Charles in Bayport are the last parishes and school Bishop Izen, 56, served in his 18 years as a priest of the archdiocese. Other schools were part of parishes Divine Mercy in Faribault, St. Timothy in Maple Lake and St. Raphael in Crystal. Teachers and students in each school said Bishop Izen knew everyone by name, and he enjoyed giving nicknames to many.
As the temperature climbed comfortably into the 70s, Archbishop Hebda noted in his homily that Bishop Izen must be particularly loved by God. Co-consecrator Bishop Andrew Cozzens of Crookston was ordained and assigned as an auxiliary bishop to St. Paul and Minneapolis when it was minus 2, the archbishop said. Co-consecrator and Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Williams was ordained when it was minus 4, and the archbishop received the pallium as having metropolitan jurisdiction when it was minus 11.
“That’s 86 degrees colder than it is today,” the archbishop said to laughter. “You get the picture. Bishop-elect Izen is clearly loved by the Lord.”
About 16 bishops concelebrated the Mass, mostly from Minnesota and surrounding states. They included Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States, and former priests of the archdiocese Bishop Peter Christensen of Boise, Idaho; Bishop Donald DeGrood of Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Bishop Emeritus John LeVoir of New Ulm; and Bishop
By Rebecca Omastiak The Catholic SpiritJoy, humility and service are qualities that many who attended the episcopal ordination of Bishop Michael Izen said they have seen him live out.
Bishop Izen, 56, was ordained April 11 at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul with the support and presence of his family, friends, fellow bishops, priests and religious, and the faithful who traveled from throughout the state to pack the pews or who watched via television or livestream at home.
Joni Polehna, 69, a member of St. Mary in Stillwater for the past 43 years, was aboard one of the two full buses transporting St. Michael and St. Mary parishioners to the ordination. Bishop Izen most recently served as pastor of the two churches in Stillwater. People on the bus were filled with excitement, Polehna said. “People are overjoyed for Bishop Izen.”
The joy comes, in part, from deep appreciation of Bishop Izen’s ability to relate to people. Reflecting on Bishop Izen’s preaching, Polehna said, “His humanness brings the message of God and Jesus to the people because everybody can relate … it’s the little stories that he gives that are so human; you stop and say, ‘Yeah, that’s happened to me before, OK, got it. Now I can turn that into prayer. I can turn that into an offering.’ And so, his examples are just so beautiful. He’s got a lot of them and they’re all wonderful.”
Patty Hooley, 60, a parishioner of St. Michael in Stillwater for the past 37 years, expressed her fellow parishioners’ shared excitement over Bishop Izen’s ordination. “We’re very happy, very proud. We’re going to miss him, so there’s a bit of sadness in that, but I
Emeritus Richard Pates of Des Moines, Iowa, recently appointed as apostolic administrator of the Archdiocese of Dubuque, Iowa. Bishop Pates served as an auxiliary bishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis from 2001 to 2008.
Priests of the archdiocese concelebrated, and the procession included members of the Knights of Columbus, Knights and Ladies of St. Peter Claver, and the Knights and Dames of the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta.
Bishop Izen helped lead a decade of the rosary his siblings and the congregation recited before the Mass. He was joined by his brothers Tom and Paul and sisters
Geri Martin, Ann Wehner and Mary Izen Book. The rosary was an important prayer for the Izen siblings growing up in Fairmont in the then-Diocese of Winona, with their late parents, John and Joanna.
Archbishop Pierre, who read the mandate from Pope ORDINATION CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE
just think for the greater archdiocese, it’s going to be a really great thing. He’s going to bring a lot of great gifts. I spoke to somebody last night (at a vespers service at St. Michael) and I just said that the joy … just the deep joy of loving Christ that he brings to people, it affects people. It makes people want to be a part of the Church even more.”
Hooley attended the ordination at the Cathedral with her husband, Tom, 60, who has been a lifelong St. Michael parishioner. In the process leading up to the ordination, Bishop Izen has “stayed very humble,” Patty said. “He really is a servant. He serves and he does it
Bishop Michael Izen greets students of St. Croix Catholic School in Stillwater after his ordination Mass.
DAVE HRBACEK THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT
very quietly and very joyfully.”
Michael Gerads, 53, and his wife, Sarah, 50, knew Bishop Izen when he served their parish, St. Raphael in Crystal.
“He is just such a humble soul and a good shepherd to everyone in the parish,” Sarah said. She said Bishop Izen “made me feel welcome so much in the Catholic faith, and he had so much to teach and is just a really awesome gentleman,” she said. “I’m so happy for him.”
Students, teachers, seminarians, parishioners see ‘the deep joy of loving Christ’ in Bishop IzenABOVE Bishop Michael Izen kneels underneath the Book of the Gospels during his ordination Mass April 11 at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul. RIGHT Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States, left, and Archbishop Bernard Hebda join the congregation in applauding Bishop Michael Izen during the ordination Mass. PHOTOS BY DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT
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Francis for Bishop Izen’s ordination and appointment to St. Paul and Minneapolis and the titular see of Newport in South Wales, noted the bishops’ studies in mathematics and computer science.
“But you never calculated that you would be elected bishop,” Archbishop Pierre said with humor. While students from St. Croix Catholic School will miss the bishop, he will now “be able to share his care for the people of God with all the faithful of the archdiocese,” the archbishop said.
Bishop Izen had commented in the past about feeling trepidation in being named a bishop. Archbishop Hebda and Archbishop Pierre talked of his openness and humility in expressing that, and yet his courage in going forward by trusting the Church.
“You said you were a little terrified of being a bishop,” Archbishop Pierre said. “It is OK, to be a little bit terrified. But just a little bit, by the way.”
Bishop Izen exuded only joy as he walked with a broad smile through the Cathedral with the papal mandate in hand, displaying it for the congregation as people responded with sustained applause.
In his homily, Archbishop Hebda noted that the readings were for the Mass of the day — Tuesday in the Octave of Easter.
“That these Easter readings would speak volumes to a newly ordained bishop and to the Church that he is called to serve would be no surprise,” the archbishop said. “They give him two wonderful companions from this day forward in his episcopal ministry — Mary Magdalene and Peter. It is interesting that they are both disciples who are well aware of their own weaknesses. We know from John’s Gospel that Peter knew deeply Jesus’ forgiveness after he denied him.”
St. Luke holds that seven demons afflicted Mary
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Stephanie Eckerman, 47 — a St. Michael parishioner for 13 years along with her husband and two daughters, ages 13 and 16 — also expressed the joy she felt at the ordination.
“We're all just so happy and so proud of him,” that there’s excitement “to see what he'll do for the greater community, now.” Eckerman said both her daughters were students at St. Croix Catholic School in Stillwater when then-Father Izen joined their parish. “We got to know him and have so much affection for him.” She went on to say, “He took pride in the fact of learning everyone’s name, but it was so much more than just knowing your name; he knew your family, he knew where you belonged, he knew your story. And I just know he's going to continue that love and that genuine care and interest for his new flock here in the archdiocese.”
Marie Droske, a fifth grader at St. Croix Catholic School in Stillwater, which brought all its 285 students to the ordination, said not only would Bishop Izen know students’ names, but he would also give them nicknames. “He’s really funny,” said Droske, who has known Bishop Izen for eight of her 11 years.
Molly Gallagher, 34, who now works for NET Ministries in Ohio, recalled meeting then-Father Izen the summer before her first year teaching at St. Croix Catholic. She mentioned his comments at a golf tournament fundraiser at which he spoke briefly. “He said, ‘A lot of people send their kids to a Catholic school for different reasons, to be good students,’ and he listed reasons,” Gallagher said. But then-Father Izen said, “We want your kids to leave here and become
Magdalene until she was healed by Jesus, the archbishop said.
“So aware of their own frailties, they knew that Christ loved them gratuitously. It’s not an earned love, but a love that pours forth spontaneously from the heart of Jesus. And it’s a love that changes everything,” Archbishop Hebda said. “It’s Jesus’ love that gave
them both courage to carry out the mission that Jesus entrusted to them.”
“No matter how unworthy you feel or how inadequately prepared you fear you may be, the Lord is calling you, as he did Mary Magdalene and Peter, to rely on his strength rather than on your weakness,” the archbishop told Bishop Izen. “You’ve done that beautifully in your many years of priestly service and I trust that will continue. It’s crucial that you keep before your eyes the tender encounters that you have had with the Lord. I know that you are a man of prayer and have made prayer a priority in your preaching. No matter how great the demands of your work may be, I hope that you’ll never allow your work to get in the way of your relationship with the Lord, who alone is our strength.”
After the homily, Archbishop Hebda queried Bishop Izen with the Promise of the Elect, asking a series of questions including whether he was resolved to preach the Gospel faithfully and unfailingly, to guard the deposit of the faith, build up the body of Christ and encourage the people of God.
Responding “I do” and “I do, with the help of God,” Bishop Izen then prostrated himself before the altar for the Litany of Supplication of the saints before the laying on of hands by the archbishop and other bishops present, the prayer of ordination, anointing of the head, receiving the book of the Gospels, the ring of office, the miter upon his head and the crosier in his hand.
After Communion, Bishop Izen addressed the congregation and then walked through the assembly, imparting his episcopal blessing.
Thanking all present and God first and foremost, Bishop Izen said the receiving line for a blessing outside under a large tent with cake, coffee and other refreshments was likely to be long, but he would be there as long as people wished.
“God bless you all,” he said. “Thank you.”
elevation to bishop, and to see their pastor elevated to this position,” said Fury, 28. “We’ve had the fortunate opportunity to hear from him over the past few months since he’s been named bishop,” he said, sometimes during homilies, sometimes when stopping in at classes. “He says Mass for us occasionally, so many (students) have a relationship with him,” Fury said.
Many school families had planned to attend the ordination, taking their children out of school because it was important to them, Fury said, “so we decided that, well, if it’s really important, then we should just bring the whole school.” He went on to say, “We're very lucky to be able to witness this as a school community.”
Before the ordination Mass started, clusters of seminarians gathered in the Cathedral’s common areas. Nicholas Deutsch, 21, a member of Most Holy Redeemer in Montgomery, and Martin Gawarecki, 22, a member of Holy Family in St. Louis Park — both archdiocesan seminarians — were among those gathered.
saints.” Gallagher said, “as a new teacher at that school, I thought, ‘I want to follow this guy.’ … this is exactly where I’m supposed to be, and this is a mission I want to be on.
“So now to see him become a bishop, knowing that’s where his mind is … that it’s not just about a good education or a nice way to pray, or a nice church to be part of — it’s about being saints.”
Dan Fury, a teacher at Chesterton Academy of the St. Croix Valley in Stillwater, brought to the ordination the more than 40 students at his school, most of whom he said were St. Michael or St. Mary parishioners.
“This is great for them to witness (Bishop Izen’s)
“I think it's amazing to see Pope Francis pick (another) bishop from this diocese … all the priests know him and it’s just amazing to see all the priests get together,” Deutsch said. Gawarecki added, “It’s just a beautiful experience to be able to attend the ordination, to come together as a diocese to celebrate the gift of Bishop Izen and just witness his consecration.”
Also waiting with anticipation was Josephine Lohnes, 69, a member of St. Charles Borromeo in St. Anthony, who said, “I’m excited, I love being with Catholics.” Her decision to attend the ordination comes from her prayer for vocations, she said. “I am a Serran, so I support vocations, that is our apostolate, to support vocations, so that's why I'm here, to be a support.”
— Barb Umberger contributed to this report. DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT Bishop Michael Izen shows the papal mandate from the Apostolic See as he walks through the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul during his episcopal ordination April 11.
By Barb Umberger The Catholic Spirit
St. Michael in Stillwater was filled with parishioners, visiting bishops and others for a 7 p.m. April 10 vespers service preceding Bishop
Michael Izen’s episcopal ordination April 11 at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul.
Bishop Izen, now an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, has served as pastor of the Churches of St. Michael and St. Mary in Stillwater since 2015. He also is parochial administrator of St. Charles in Bayport and canonical administrator of St. Croix Catholic School in Stillwater.
Presiding at the vespers service was a former priest of the archdiocese, Bishop Emeritus John LeVoir of New Ulm. Those in attendance included Archbishop Bernard Hebda and Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Williams, and Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States. One of the bishop-elect’s sisters, Ann Wehner, played the organ in the choir loft, a task she normally performs at her home parish, St. John Vianney in Fairmont in the Diocese of Winona-Rochester.
During his homily, Bishop Andrew Cozzens of Crookston, also a former priest of the archdiocese and a former auxiliary bishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis, said qualities of Bishop Izen that he thinks make him a good witness to the Resurrection include his thoughtfulness.
“He’s a very thoughtful and caring leader, and a dedicated pastor,” Bishop Cozzens said.
“And the second (quality) would be his joy,” which together with his humor attracts others to him, Bishop Cozzens said.
After the homily, Bishop Izen declared his profession of faith and oath of fidelity.
At the end of the service, Bishop Izen thanked all who gathered and expressed his gratitude to Bishop LeVoir for “coming back to preside at this service.”
Acknowledging Bishop LeVoir’s time as pastor in Stillwater from 2004 to 2008 before being named a bishop, Bishop Izen said he called and emailed him often during his first few years ministering in Stillwater. He also expressed his gratitude to Bishop Cozzens for accepting the invitation to preach at the service, and said that the bishop, as a priest, had served as Bishop
Three experiences of conversion and an introduction that explains God‘s constant invitation to draw closer to him.
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Izen’s spiritual director.
Bishop Izen thanked his sister, Ann, for serving as organist and acknowledged his other four siblings in the front pews. “Mom had us all take piano lessons, and if you were any good, you moved on to organ lessons,” he said. “The three boys did not move on to organ (lessons).”
“In the living room, we had the organ and the TV right next to each other. My most frequent memory is dad saying, ‘Boys, turn the TV off; your sister has to practice.’ I’m grateful tonight that it’s finally paying off for me,” he said.
Bishop Izen thanked anonymous parishioners for the gift of his crosier, and two couples who donated his two miters. He shared the story of his bishop’s ring, adding that he had not worn a ring until now. This one is special, he said. The cross on the ring is made of gold from his father’s wedding ring, and five diamonds from the wedding band now on his bishop’s ring represent
Mary Wicker has known Bishop Izen since 2015, when he joined St. Mary and she was its council chair. She also serves as a sacristan. Wicker later became a trustee and has served with Bishop Izen on the leadership team for the church’s renovation. “He’s a very gifted man,” said Wicker, 62. “Gifted with the Holy Spirit, very prayerful and reverent. He has brought to our parish this sense of reverence,” she said, and honoring the Eucharist as the true presence of Jesus.
“He is a true pastor, very concerned about his parishioners,” Wicker said. “He gets to know them very well,” caring and worrying about them. The bishop takes things very seriously and is thoughtful in making decisions, she said. He “always takes time for prayer and speaks a lot about his daily prayer and adoration.” Those qualities make him a good role model for the seminarians and newly ordained associate pastors who have served with him at St. Mary, Wicker said. Bishop Izen will bring multiple gifts to his new role as bishop, she said, including “holding the liturgy up as so important and so beautiful, and making sure that it’s done with reverence, with that emphasis of the true presence of God in the Eucharist. He’s just an amazing person.”
— Barb Umbergerthe five wounds of Christ on the cross, Bishop Izen said. His father’s wedding band had been in a dresser drawer for years, because his brothers, Tom and Paul, chose to get their own wedding bands when they got married, the bishop said.
Commenting before the vespers service, Mike Nystrom, a parishioner of St. Michael for more than 30 years, said Bishop Izen was “a perfect parish priest,” from knowing people by name to visiting table after table at every event, including Lenten fish fries. “And he’s always smiling,” Nystrom said.
Corey Manning, director of faith formation for the three parishes, said the bishop has the same qualities as a biological father — loving every single one of his children and loving his spouse, the bride, the Church. Manning said the bishop, even from his first days as pastor in Stillwater, would go to “every single group at the parish, and we still have to urge him to go home and rest.”
Bishop Michael Izen!
We wish you many blessings as you serve the people of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
From all of us at St. John Vianney Church and School, in your hometown of Fairmont.
Auxiliary Bishop Michael John Izen on your consecration to the episcopacy.
The faculty, staff, and students of Benilde-St. Margaret’s May God grant you blessings for many years!
Bishop John T. Folda, the clergy, religious, and laity of the Diocese of Fargo offer congratulations and prayers on your ordination as Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
“This is so compelling,” said one listener.
Father Mark Wehmann knew he had found a new friend at The St. Paul Seminary when Michael Izen (now bishop) arrived.
At the time, Father Wehmann was a year ahead of Bishop Izen in his studies. Father Wehmann’s 1994 light blue Honda Accord was admired by the new seminarian, who liked it so much he bought one for himself — same year and model, different color (black).
A bond was formed right away, and the friendship continued to grow.
“I would describe it as one of joy and laughter and depth,” said Father Wehmann, 54, who was ordained in 2003 and currently serves as parochial vicar of St. Olaf in downtown Minneapolis. “It’s very often several times a week that we’ll be talking.”
The two recently drove together two hours north of the Twin Cities to a funeral. Father Wehmann talked with Bishop Izen about his upcoming ordination and ministry as an auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. And, as always, the two exchanged mutual support for their priestly ministry. Offering a listening ear — and a good dose of humor when needed — is a trademark of the bishop, who has helped priests, friends and family with their personal struggles.
Like the time Bishop Izen walked into a very tense situation involving a friend who was facing a serious problem. Father Wehmann, a mutual friend, had gone to a restaurant with the man and was struggling with how to offer encouragement. The friend had just received some very tough news.
“We went to lunch,” Father Wehmann recalled. “I picked him up and drove him there, and I’m like, ‘I don’t know what to say. How do you cheer a guy up? What do you do?’”
Turns out, Bishop Izen knew exactly
what to do — and he did it with ease.
“We got to the restaurant, and Izen came in, and it was like nothing (bad had) happened,” Father Wehmann recalled. “He was just joking (around). And then he pulled out a monster cookie that he got from a parishioner and slid it across the table to (the friend in trouble) and said, ‘You know what? There’s nothing a monster cookie can’t solve.’”
Just like that, he lightened the mood and calmed both the man and Father Wehmann, who admitted he was “all nervous (about) what to say.” Looking back, Father Wehmann calls that experience “a powerful moment in our friendship.”
Other priests have had such moments, too. Father Ralph Talbot, pastor of St. Mary of the Lake in White Bear Lake, met Bishop Izen in 1998 when both were taking pre-theology classes at St. John Vianney College Seminary in St. Paul. The two continued as classmates at The St. Paul Seminary and were set for ordination in 2004. But Bishop Izen took a school year off for further discernment while Father Talbot went straight through to ordination in 2004.
Despite having different ordination
years, Bishop Izen keeps in close contact with Father Talbot and the five other priests of the 2004 ordination class — Fathers James Adams, David Blume, Paul Jarvis, Peter Williams and Dennis Zehren.
“Our class is somewhat unusual, I think,” Father Talbot said. “We’ve tried to get together for dinner on the first Sunday of every month, and we’ve been doing that now for 18 years. We don’t do it every month, but pretty close. That’s been a good piece of fraternity.”
Not only does Bishop Izen attend those dinners faithfully, but he also helps with the planning, Father Talbot said. That is in addition to regular get-togethers with his actual ordination class of 2005.
On top of those gatherings are vacations that Bishop Izen goes on with his close priest friends. A group recently went to Florida to spend time hanging out on the beach, which is an annual event. Father Williams went on that trip and enjoys opportunities to be with Bishop Izen and the small group of priests who soak up the sun together. He also has fond memories of his days at the seminary, when he and the bishop played football and basketball together. Every year, men from The St. Paul Seminary would play a football game
against men from St. John Vianney College Seminary in what was called the Rector’s Bowl.
“We had a blast,” said Father Williams, pastor of St. Ambrose in Woodbury. “I was blessed to be the quarterback during that time. He was just a speed receiver, so it made my job easy. I’d just throw it up, and Michael would run under it.”
That combination led to four straight victories for the SPS men, and the athletic prowess continued on the basketball court, where Father Williams and Bishop Izen again teamed up to generate success. Two years, they drove to Mundelein Seminary near Chicago for the annual Mundelein basketball tournament in January. Bishop Izen, a shooting guard, helped his seminary team place third both times.
“One time, we were so inspired on the drive home that our little minibus stopped at Archbishop (Harry) Flynn’s, where he used to live” in a residence across the street from the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul, Father Williams said. “It was a cold night. We just wanted to share the joy that we had just experienced. And, we had a huge trophy.”
To their delight, Archbishop Flynn came to the door when they rang the bell. “He opened the door and we sang the ‘Salve Regina,’” Father Williams said. “And we said, ‘Archbishop, we just wanted to share the joy. We’re just getting home from Mundelein. We got third place.’”
True to his classic Irish wit, Archbishop Flynn offered a deadpan reply: “Only third place?” Father Williams took the gentle ribbing in stride. “It was just a joy to share that with him,” he said.
It also has been a joy for Father Williams’ parents, Dr. Gary and Mary Williams, and several siblings and their families to have Bishop Izen as their pastor at St. Michael and St. Mary in Stillwater.
“For eight years, they’ve been hearing Christ’s voice through his,” Father Williams said. “I don’t know if it gets any better than that. I think there’s a lot
Bishop Michael Izen worked as a computer systems analyst at 3M in Maplewood from 1989 to 1998. His brother, Paul, is a retired vice president of operations at the company; the two played on the same corporate basketball team.
In a coincidence none could have predicted, Bishop Izen will minister as an auxiliary bishop in the old 3M headquarters on St. Paul’s east side, a building leased starting in 2017 and purchased last year by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Constructed in 1939 and on the National Register of Historic Places, the building serves as the archdiocese’s central administrative and ministry offices, including for Archbishop Bernard Hebda and Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Williams.
When then-Father Izen’s appointment as an auxiliary bishop was announced Jan. 5, Archbishop Hebda lightheartedly suggested at a news conference that the bishop-to-be consider including in his coat of arms the famous 3M-developed and trademarked Post-it note. Asked later about the archbishop’s comment, Bishop Izen noted that his new office in the Archdiocesan Catholic Center is part of what used to be one of 3M’s main conference rooms. “I couldn’t have predicted that,” the bishop said in a March email. “In my nine years at corporate headquarters, I don’t think I ever visited this original 3M site, but it is a cool connection,” he wrote. “My announcement back in January triggered a department reunion for my co-workers. About 15 of us met at the end of February for dinner and conversation.”
Steve Horan, who hired and supervised the bishop at 3M and has become a close friend, was at the reunion, held Feb. 25 in a community room at Carondelet Village in St. Paul. So was Jeff Fritz, also a friend of the bishop who worked three or four cubicles down from
CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE of love in my family for him and for his priesthood.”
In 2003, Bishop Izen decided to take time away from the seminary for more prayer and discernment. He came back and then became part of the 15-member 2005 ordination class, the largest in recent history. Far from being overwhelmed by the large group, he found his way into the center — and into the other men’s hearts and lives.
“We accepted him,” said Father David Hennen, pastor of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Hastings and a member of the 2005 class. “I think we have great relationships among the 15 of us. I think
of the people he interviewed with when he first joined 3M,” said Anderson, who retired from the company two years ago. “I recall teasing him about being a Johnnie (St. John’s University in Collegeville) as I was a Tommie (University of St. Thomas in St. Paul). He was well-liked at 3M and a hard worker.”
Anderson said he and Bishop Izen often enjoyed lunch and played multiple sports together including softball, touch football and pickup basketball. He, too, was aware of the bishop’s discernment of the priesthood. “Bishop Izen has always had a very strong faith and his decision to leave 3M to join the seminary was a huge step,” he said.
DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT
Bishop-elect Michael Izen greets friend and former 3M colleague Steve Horan after Mass Jan. 5 at St. Michael in Stillwater. That day, the Vatican announced then-Father Izen had been appointed auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
him and competed against him in the same 3M basketball leagues.
“I always enjoyed playing with him; he’s a good person to compete against,” said Fritz, who remains at 3M. Bishop Izen was a reasonable competitor who could help others “calm the nerves” if a game got a little tense, Fritz said.
Fritz and Horan said they were aware of Bishop Izen’s difficult discernment about the priesthood even as he worked at a multinational company.
“He obviously made the right decision, going into the seminary and doing what he is doing now,” Fritz said. “He’s in a place where he can impact a lot of people in a lot of good ways.”
Another former workmate, Rick Anderson, said he has known Bishop Izen for more than 30 years. “I was one
we’re all fairly close. We have different personalities, obviously, but he seemed to fit in well because he likes people … I was glad to have him because I thought he’d just bring a lot to us, just who he is as a person and as a priest.”
In addition to seeing Bishop Izen at regular ordination class gatherings, Father Hennen also sees him at priest support group gatherings. Once a month, their group of four priests meets to talk about what’s on their minds and hearts, whether it’s things going on in their parishes or things going on personally.
“You can be honest, and the other priests are not going to judge you because they all know what you’re going through,” Father Hennen said. “It’s just a great place of freedom, where you can be who you
Horan, a member of St. Ambrose in Woodbury, said his friend stayed with him each summer while he was studying at The St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul. When Bishop Izen took a school year off before his ordination as a priest to be certain he was doing the right thing, he lived at Horan’s house. Horan recalls the bishop volunteering at Catholic Charities’ homeless shelter in downtown St. Paul and consulting with people at the seminary about the priesthood.
“The house was open to him,” Horan said. “He’s got a room upstairs we always say is his.”
Bishop Izen said he attended Mass about three times a week while he was working at 3M, and the idea of the priesthood never left him. “The Lord never abandoned me,” he said. “The call never went away.”
When he was 28, the bishop broke up with a woman he had been dating, deciding he could not have thoughts of marriage while still feeling a call to the priesthood. In 1998, at age 31, he entered the seminary.
His time at 3M has served him well as a priest, Bishop Izen said. When hearing confessions, he can relate to concerns about relationships, discerning marriage and other issues that can dominate the lives of young people, he said.
“He is a true leader and an inspiration for others in the Catholic faith,” Fritz said of Bishop Izen. “Seeing him progress to bishop is a significant thing.”
want to be. We look forward to it. All four of us look forward to it every month.”
The group started about four or five years ago, Father Hennen said, and Bishop Izen approached him to ask him to join, which he did “in a heartbeat.”
“For me, it’s an honor to be his friend because he’s such a kind man,” Father Hennen said. “He has a great sense of humor. He’s just fun to be around, and he’s also encouraging. He listens well.”
Bishop Izen’s priest friends are confident he will make a good bishop, and they are quick to point out qualities that back up their strong feelings about his readiness for his new role.
“He likes to be with people,” Father Hennen said, “whether it’s sports, or a pastoral situation or being at families’
homes. It’s where he thrives — being with people. And that’s why he’s going to make a good bishop.”
Another member of the priest support group, and 2005 ordination classmate, Father Dennis Zehren, said the bishop is “a man of the people.”
“He is a shepherd who loves to graze with the sheep,” said Father Zehren, pastor of St. Vincent de Paul in Brooklyn Park, before the bishop’s ordination. Bishop Izen’s “approach to ministry might best be described as, ‘Ask first how I can serve the people and share with them the love of Jesus. Then, ask what’s for lunch.’
“Pope Francis described a good bishop as one in ‘trusting union with Christ.’ Bishop-elect Izen demonstrates that union in all that he does.”
The Parishioners and Staff of the Cathedral of Saint Paul wish to congratulate Bishop Andrew Cozzens
The Parishioners and Staff of the Cathedral of Saint Paul wish to congratulate Bishop Michael Izen
May God bless you and the faithful of our Archdiocese!
May God bless you in your new ministry!
Those who have served with Bishop Michael Izen at the parishes and schools he has ministered to as a priest recall his attentiveness to people’s needs and the love of Christ he strove to bring into every situation.
Pastor of the Churches of St. Michael and St. Mary in Stillwater the past seven years, as well as parochial administrator of St. Charles in Bayport and canonical administrator of St. Croix Catholic School, the bishop served at three other parishes since his priestly ordination in 2005.
Divine Mercy has had its share of role models over the years, and Bishop Izen is one of them, said Regina Ashley, who joined Divine Mercy School as a teacher 34 years ago and accepted the post of principal 11 years ago. The list of role models includes Bishop Andrew Cozzens of the Diocese of Crookston, who was a parochial vicar at the parish, as was Bishop Joseph Williams, now auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
Bishop Donald DeGrood of the Diocese of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, grew up on a farm outside Faribault and “came all the way through our school system,” Ashley said. “I really do feel we’ve been blessed in a lot of ways.”
During his ministry as parochial vicar at Divine Mercy, Bishop Izen had an
impact on her grade school students. He has “lots of energy,” and a friendly and outgoing nature that showed itself in many ways, Ashley said, such as playing kickball and other outdoor games with students on the playground. He will bring many gifts to his new role, including listening and relating to people, she said.
“He certainly understands the importance of Catholic education and how that plays into our Church as a whole,” Ashley said. As someone who has dedicated decades of her own life to that work, “that’s important to me,” she said.
Bob Donnett, 50, has been a member of St. Timothy since 2004 and a member of the school board for the past 15 years. He and his wife have 10 children, and the Donnett clan attends St. Timothy School.
Donnett recalled Bishop Izen as pastor being “over and above supportive of the parish school.” When he arrived, the school served children in grades K-6. “He helped broker and get things in place
to add on seventh and eighth grades to the school, which has been highly successful,” Donnett said. “He’s a big believer in strong, authentic Catholic education, which is awesome,” Donnett said. “As a parent, it’s just refreshing.”
The bishop took his priestly duties seriously, but he did so with “such a joy” that left an impression on children and parents, Donnett said. “They see that, and you have the ability to make an immediate connection with that gift.”
Bishop Izen has “plenty of intellectual horsepower” and took matters of faith seriously, he said. But he immediately pointed toward the happiness that faith can bring “and put the teachings in light of that.”
Loyal to the magisterium, Bishop Izen explained things clearly, but it was always joyful, Donnett said. “God loves you, God wants you to be happy,” he said. “God wants you to be happy just like a father wants his kids to be happy. And sometimes he has to tell what you can do, but don’t treat it like a bunch of rules. Treat it like, ‘here’s a guideline to be happy,’” he said.
A conversation with Bishop Izen left people “feeling better about the Church, where you’re at and how much God loved you,” Donnett said. “And I think that was a pretty cool way to be a pastor.”
Another gift Donnett appreciates is the way Bishop Izen handles confession, as a “remarkably gentle and patient man.”
“He always had insight and was encouraging in such a way that (said), ‘don’t give up, keep going, God loves you, don’t give up (the) good fight,’”
PLEASE TURN TO PARISH, SCHOOL MINISTRIES ON NEXT PAGE
AND I WILL GIVE YOU SHEPHERDS AFTER MY OWN HEART, WHO WILL FEED YOU WITH KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING. JEREMIAH 3:15
CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE
Donnett said. That’s an important message for the faithful to hear, he said.
As with many people who know Bishop Izen, Donnett recalled the bishop’s gift with remembering names. He does so because it says, “I care about you as an individual,” Donnett said.
Peggy Marquette said she has taught first grade for 25 years at St. Timothy, which has about 160 students in preschool through eighth grade. Marquette recalled how much the children enjoyed interacting with Bishop Izen, whether at lunch, recess or the occasional field trip. For example, he traveled to an environmental camp for sixth graders each year to preside at Mass.
Bishop Izen started a program at the school that involved students writing letters to seminarians, Marquette said. “That’s something we continue today,” she said. The bishop spoke to the children in classrooms and asked that the children pray for the seminarians and write letters throughout the year. One of those seminarians today is Marquette’s son, Alex (see page 10A).
When Bishop Izen was assigned to St. Raphael in Crystal he followed the ministry and sudden death in June 2011 of Father Richard Hogan, the pastor, a loss that left parishioners reeling.
“We were a parish that had lost its way a little bit,” said Dave Johnson, who has taught physical education, science and health during his 46 years at the parish school. When Bishop Izen arrived, Johnson was teaching physical education and serving as athletic director.
“Father Izen got us back on our feet” with all eyes on the Lord, Johnson said. He recalled Bishop Izen’s Masses as “so prayerful” that “you felt you were right up on the altar with him.” His homilies were “powerful, profound and impactful,” giving content “that you could work on
all week,” he said.
“Every Mass he celebrated, it just felt like his first Mass,” Johnson said. He recalled teachers taking notes during his homilies so they could bring his thoughts and words back to the classroom.
At school, Bishop Izen moved from table to table in the lunchroom, each filled with about 20 children, Johnson said. “He was alive and fully present, just like with our Lord, when the crowds would come and just wanted to be with him, around him and listen to him,” he said. After school, the bishop attended students’ games because he wanted them to know he loved all parts of their lives, not just when they were in church, Johnson said.
It was difficult when Bishop Izen was reassigned, Johnson said, called by the archdiocese to serve the
Stillwater-area parishes. “When Father Izen was here, he touched hearts, he changed lives and then he would move on,” Johnson said. “We saw him as our pastor, as the light of the Lord, the light of Christ. His light shined into others’ hearts by saying people’s names,” he said.
“We were blessed to have Bishop Izen assigned to the parish of St. Mary’s and St. Michael’s in Stillwater,” said Fran Ramportl, a parishioner of St. Michael and second grade teacher at St. Croix Catholic School. She said the bishop is “a great spiritual leader who you can confide in” and someone to share a joke with.
“He is generous with his time to be with families in their homes and with all the activities at church and school,” Ramportl said. “His leadership and personal connections will be missed.”
Bishop Izen presided at two funeral masses with Pamela Berry’s family the past year. “All who attended were impressed with his homily and ability to bring comfort to the mourning families,” said Berry, kindergarten teacher at St. Croix Catholic School and a St. Michael parishioner.
“He visited with each of us afterward, which brought great comfort at such a difficult time in our life,” Berry said. “When my mom heard he was becoming auxiliary bishop, she was so excited. I wish him many blessings in this next journey in spreading the goodness of Jesus Christ.”
At St. Charles in Bayport, Tom Thuesen, the parish bulletin editor and a member the Finance Council and St. Michael’s Cemetery Committee, said he found Bishop Izen to have “an exceptional ability to listen attentively, show support and offer guidance — all at the same time.”
“While he’s listening carefully to others and being completely honest in his responses, he fairly radiates a sense of kindness,” Thuesen said. “I’m glad that so many more people will experience his presence as our newest bishop.”
Alexander Marquette — a second-year seminarian at The St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul — is holding a letter as he talks about following the call to become a priest. During the 2008-2009 school year at St. Timothy’s School in Maple Lake, Marquette, in fourth grade at the time, received the letter as part of a letter-exchange program with local seminarians begun by Bishop Michael Izen, who was appointed pastor of St. Timothy in 2007. The letter Marquette received was from Father Evan Koop, who was a seminarian at the time.
Marquette, 23, recalled writing his own letters to seminarians; now he receives letters from students at St. Timothy and at different schools throughout the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
“The students draw pictures, and they always say that they’re praying for us and, like, ‘good luck at being a priest’ or something like that,” Marquette said. “Children … have just a joy and innocence about them that causes delight and when seminarians receive these letters and drawings from them, they receive joy and love from these children. Also, the children find it quite something special to receive mail at school from one of the seminarians writing back to them. They give us delight and joy, and we get to share with them in return our own delight and joy.”
“It’s always a delight to receive the ones from St. Tim’s because that’s where home is and I know a lot of these families, I know these kids personally,” Marquette, a member of St. Timothy, said. His mother, Peggy, has taught first grade for 25 years at the school and he said he visits her classroom to spend time with the students as often as he can.
The letter program isn’t the only aspect of Marquette’s life touched by Bishop Izen; the bishop was instrumental in Marquette’s early discernment to become a priest.
Marquette recalled being in third or fourth grade and being at a school Mass when he said Bishop Izen asked, “‘How many of you young men are going to be priests one day?’ And something stirred up inside of me to raise my hand. The desire was there from a young age.”
Soon after, as a fourth grader, Marquette learned to be an altar server, under Bishop Izen’s tutelage. “I absolutely loved it from day one, being able to help out and being able to be that close to the Lord in the Eucharist,” Marquette said. He viewed being able “to take full advantage of the privilege that it is to serve at the altar and to be able to serve well” as “a huge blessing that brought a lot of joy to me and still brings a lot of joy to me. I always look forward to the days I still get to altar serve here at the seminary or at my teaching parish” of Immaculate Conception in Columbia Heights.
During remarks at his episcopal ordination, Bishop Izen explained that six of the 11 altar servers at the ordination Mass at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul once assisted him at his parish Masses and are now seminarians:
Dominic Romportl and Steven Lang, both of St. Michael in Stillwater
Romportl is a sophomore attending St. John Vianney College Seminary in St. Paul. Lang, a first-year seminarian at the Pontifical North American College in Rome, “actually flew back for this, so thank you, Steven, for making this a priority,” Bishop Izen said.
Christopher Yanta and Alexander Marquette, both of St. Timothy Yanta is a third-year seminarian and Marquette a second-year seminarian, both at The St. Paul Seminary.
Josh Gerads of St. Raphael in Crystal Gerads is in his first year of pre-theology studies at The St. Paul Seminary.
Derek Gilde of St. Mary in Stillwater Gilde is a third-year seminarian at The St. Paul Seminary.
a school” as well. As he takes on the role of auxiliary bishop, he said he felt like “I’m kind of becoming an empty nester” and that he “may not know them (the students) the way I have been able to know them.”
Marquette said Bishop Izen’s example, particularly in the way he exuded joy around Marquette and his classmates, informed his own desire to be placed at a parish with a school.
“He (Bishop Izen) came and had school lunch with us almost every day in grade school and (he was) always smiling, always joyful, always delighting, being around us kids. As a grade school kid, to have your spiritual father come and just delight in you, that left a large impact in my life,” Marquette said. He recalled “seeing (then-)Father Izen and seeing how happy he was and wanting that same happiness, seeing the joy he brought to the people of the parish and wanting to do the same and just sort of emulate his example. That desire, it started there at a young age and the Lord’s been bringing it to fulfillment and hopefully, very soon, I’ll be able to do it in a parish of my own.”
During his remarks at the Archdiocesan Catholic Center in St. Paul Jan. 5 — the day Pope Francis named him as an auxiliary bishop of the archdiocese — Bishop Izen, 56, said being with students has been a favorite part of his ministry. “I love the schools,” he said, noting all his parish assignments have “been blessed to have
“I think (then-)Father Izen very much saw the need to form good Christians from the youngest age,” Marquette said, which can be accomplished through the values of “respect and virtue and kindness and personal responsibility” taught in Catholic schools.
Those teachings have stayed with Marquette as he continues his seminary education. “The studies, even though they’re grueling, it’s like being put into the fire and being forged stronger, going through the studies, going through formation.” When it comes to life as a seminarian, Marquette said he especially loves that “the seminary life is so disposed to prayer … Being able to pray together as a community, as a family multiple times each day is one of the greatest blessings of seminary life.”
When he’s not studying for his master’s in divinity degree, Marquette fills his days with prayer and adoration, faith formation and Cor Jesu nights at the seminary, and learning from pastor Father James Peterson at Immaculate Conception. In his spare time, he enjoys playing Ultimate Frisbee, going to baseball games, playing the piano, spending time with friends, playing cards and cooking. As he goes about his days preparing for priesthood, the encouragement he’s felt on his path has contributed to his current outlook: “Every day is just grace.”
By Joe Ruff The Catholic Spirit
Annie Betts grew up just blocks away from Bishop Michael Izen.
The same age, both the youngest in large Catholic families, they played together at a park near their homes in Fairmont. They attended the same Catholic grade school, public high school and adjoining colleges — St. John’s University in Collegeville and the College of St. Benedict in nearby St. Joseph.
“Our parents both shared the same wedding anniversary and were close friends,” Betts said. “Our lives intersected frequently in our neighborhood.”
Their lives still do. Bishop Izen, who assisted post-abortion outreach efforts in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis from 2010 to 2012, is a strong backer of Cradle of Hope in Roseville, which helps pregnant women in need. Betts, an attorney, is on the nonprofit organization’s board. The two were together again for Cradle of Hope’s Spring Life Gala April 15 at The
St. Paul Hotel in St. Paul. Bishop Izen gave a special blessing at the gathering and shared dinner with Betts and her husband, Jeff, also a native of Fairmont.
“Bishop Izen is a champion for pro-
life and the vulnerable,” said Betts, a member with her husband and their four children of Our Lady of Grace in Edina. Betts, 56, is the youngest of eight siblings; Bishop Izen is the youngest of six. They celebrated first holy Communion and confirmation together; in high school they were in the marching band, Bishop Izen playing the drums and Betts playing the clarinet. They have been at each other’s milestone events, Betts said, including her wedding, his ordination as a priest, the funeral Masses of their parents, and Betts and her husband at Bishop Izen’s episcopal ordination.
Bishop Izen’s brother Paul married Betts’ college roommate, Theresa. Bishop Izen, Paul and Theresa had dinner at the Betts home the night before he learned of his appointment as auxiliary bishop, Betts said.
Growing up, Bishop Izen was an excellent student, smart, witty and “kind to everyone,” Betts said. “He has always had a gentle and peaceful spirit about him since I can remember — and thoughtful and reflective, too,” she said.
The Catholic Spirit
Bishop Michael Izen’s episcopal motto: “God with us,” reflects the trust he places in the Lord and Jesus’ presence in the Eucharist.
“It comes from Matthew
1:20-23, where the angel visits Joseph and tells him not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife,” Bishop Izen said. The Scripture says Mary is to bear a son, Jesus, who will be called Emmanuel, which means, “God is with us,” he said.
“Advent and Christmas have always been my favorite time of year,” he said. “This reading falls right at the end of Advent, which is also when I received the call from the apostolic nuncio, informing me about this appointment
(Dec. 18),” Bishop Izen said. “Perhaps even more significant is the strong connection to the Eucharist, which is the center of my life, and I imagine, any priest’s life. God is with us, most concretely, in the Eucharist.”
After his April 11 episcopal ordination at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul, Bishop Michael Izen sat down with “Practicing Catholic” host Patrick Conley for a show that debuted April 21 on Relevant Radio 1330 AM. In an email interview April 18, Bishop Izen answered questions posed by The Catholic Spirit. The bishop’s responses are combined here in Q&A form. The exchanges have been edited for length and clarity.
Q What a beautiful day and a beautiful ceremony for your ordination. Please share with us some of your thoughts and impressions.
A It was marvelous, as you know. Everything just went so well. I’ve processed in (at a church) at a lot of these events, whether it’s a priestly ordination or a bishop ordination. And you always see the archbishop standing there, at the doorway along with the other big names. And now, I’m one of those! I kind of was torn, as I (wondered) should I be front and center, as all the priests walk in? But I did want to see them. I’m glad I did, because that was the only time I saw some of them, because there were so many people.
To see of course, my closest friends, classmates, but anybody from the archdiocese, but then also some men from other dioceses who I was in seminary with. I grew up in the Winona diocese (now WinonaRochester). My priest, who’s the pastor for my sister and brother down in Fairmont, I invited him, and he made it up. And some priests from the New Ulm diocese, from Duluth, even from Iowa. It was great. Q It was astounding how packed the Cathedral was.
A Yes, that was humbling. The Cathedral holds 2,500 people, and I don’t have that many friends. But obviously, a lot of people come out who maybe don’t even know me, because it’s a great day for the Church. One of the other things I want to mention: In the choir stalls, (at the front of the Cathedral) two retired priests who were my part-time retired helpers when I first got here, Father Jack Donahue and Father Robert Valit, and they were both able to make it. Father Valit is 95, Father Donahue is 88.
Q Have you and Archbishop Bernard Hebda had time to work out your principal roles as an auxiliary?
A The archbishop is such a good man and such a good father. He called me yesterday and I was ready to ask him, “OK, what’s like, on the immediate docket that you want me to start doing?” And his call was just to basically see how I was doing, making sure I was feeling all right.
Q I’m sure he has plenty of ideas.
A I know he’d like to see me involved with the Catholic schools. Yeah, I think that’s one thing he mentioned. I think he’s looking forward to me having more of a presence at the Archdiocesan Catholic Center (in St. Paul).
Q You continue to be the pastor of the Churches of St. Michael and St. Mary in Stillwater and an administrator at St. Charles in Bayport and at St. Croix Catholic School in Stillwater. Will that change, do you know?
A We just announced that to our people this past weekend. So, July 1, I will move down the street just a little bit to a little town called St. Croix Beach. It’s where St. Francis of Assisi is. And it’s a smaller parish, and they’re in need of a pastor. The archbishop likes his auxiliaries to have a parish, although I’ve kind of warned them I’m not going to be there every Sunday. I’m going to be representing the archbishop
across the archdiocese. But I (will be) their pastor, and it’s a place for me to call home.
Q You are a man of prayer. What time of day is it best for you to pray and why? Do you have a particular place that you pray, or a particular part of the Liturgy of the Hours you treasure?
A Good question. First thing (in the morning), I will often drink a bottle and a half of water. And then, even before I shower, I’ll go and pray a Holy Hour. We have a chapel right here in the rectory in Stillwater, so it is literally next door to my bedroom. Father Austin Barnes is my associate. We will do a Holy Hour together once or twice a week. But usually, we kind of come and go. We might overlap. But I pray an hour and that always includes the Office of Readings. I love the Psalms, but I also love those two readings that come with the Office of Readings.
Q How might we uphold you in prayer? How can we support you?
A Thank you. It seems pretty simple. Just pray that I’d be a good, holy bishop. Brave, and doing the Lord’s will.
Q Please let me set this question up. You have IN HIS OWN WORDS CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE
Congratulations Bishop David D. Kagan and the clergy, religious and lay faithful of the Diocese of Bismarck offer sincere congratulations to Bishop Michael J. Izen and a promise of prayers on his appointment as Auxiliary Bishop for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
sends our prayers and warmest congratulations to Bishop Michael J. Izen on your ordination as Auxiliary Bishop. We look forward to continuing to work with you to spread the Gospel.
Bishop Izen asks that people pray he be ‘a good, holy bishop’Bishop Michael Izen reads the Gospel of John to second graders in their Catechesis of the Good Shepherd class April 14 in the library at St. Croix Catholic School in Stillwater. The students are preparing for their first sacrament of reconciliation and reception of holy Communion. COURTESY JESSICA TIMMERMAN, ST. CROIX CATHOLIC SCHOOL
CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE humbly said that you weren’t certain you had the gifts to be a bishop, but that you would trust the Church and accept the ministry. You entered studies for the priesthood after nine years in the professional world and took a school year off the year before your ordination to carefully discern whether it was right for you. And now, just 18 years into priesthood, you are a bishop. What do you make of this progression? Do you see the Lord’s hand in it?
A I think there’s something to the idea that the Lord calls the weak and makes them strong. That’s not a direct Scripture quote, but perhaps a paraphrase from 2 Corinthians 12. I do think — with me at least — that the Lord has used plenty of opportunities to remind me that I can’t do this without him. So, when I pause and think to myself, “I’m not bishop material, I can’t do this,” perhaps the answer is, “Of course I can’t, but God can do it through me.” When I reflect, as I had the opportunity during my canonical retreat, I see how this has been so true in my priesthood. Even with something that people think I’m good at. For example, my love for Catholic schools and our school children. Our heavenly Father has been working through me on that as well. For a dear little first grader at St. Croix Catholic School, it’s not that Father Izen loves them — or now, that
Bishop Izen loves them. That really wouldn’t be that big of a deal. Rather, it’s that our heavenly Father loves that first grader through me. I get to show little Vivian, or Gino, or Bernadette the love of the Father. In fact, the Father loves all 285 of our students through me. Some days I do a better job of letting the Father work through me than other days.
Q The archdiocese is at the beginning stages of a Synod implementation process that is focused on 1) Forming parishes that are in the service of evangelization, 2) Forming missionary disciples who know Jesus’ love and respond to his call, and 3) Forming youth and young adults for a Church that is always young. Have you seen fruits of this process so far? What do you see as your role in the Synod implementation?
A My role in the Synod still needs to be worked out between Archbishop Hebda and me. I can tell you that I have enjoyed the process so far as a pastor. The School of Discipleship was a great gift, and I had been doing well in the 40 Day Challenge, up until April 10. You may recall that my life was particularly busy that week. But just yesterday, I returned to the challenge and completed three days’ worth of the challenge. I find the Lectio Divina in the challenge, and relating that to each day, to be very helpful. I hope to catch up.
Q In the weeks leading up to your ordination you spent March 20-25 at
a canonically required retreat. You went to your sister Mary’s lake cabin near Dassel. Can you share with us some of the fruits of that time for you?
A A week of silence and prayer is always going to be a great thing. But the requirement for a retreat before ordination is so wise . . . even just practically speaking. The weeks before March 20 I had been focused on seven different ordination events, what they would look like, and who should be invited to them. Add to that the necessity of completing a coat of arms, designing a ring, coming up with an episcopal motto, purchasing the different cassocks, miters, finding the right crozier, etc. You can see that there’s not a whole lot of time to actually, prayerfully prepare for ordination. This is what the retreat allows for. I mentioned that Bishop Don DeGrood (a priest of the archdiocese who is now the bishop of Sioux Falls, South Dakota) was my director, and he was great. It was in those prayer hours that I was reminded, or in some cases actually inspired, with much of what I have shared with you today and shared with the people of God last week. It was during the retreat that I realized that I can’t complete these bishop duties by myself, but the Lord can complete them through me. That’s just one example. I think in general, what the Lord gives you in a retreat like this is a realization of how much he loves you. As Archbishop Hebda said to me after the retreat, “Isn’t it amazing how the Lord gives you exactly what you need?!”
In the weeks before his ordination, Bishop Michael Izen shared a few of his favorite things:
Favorite meal of the day: breakfast, lunch or dinner: “Dinner”
Favorite food: “Lebanese. I’m half Lebanese. Although, it’s hard to beat any pasta.”
Mac or PC: “PC and iPhone. Sometimes I wish I had a Mac.”
Best restaurant: “Emily’s in northeast Minneapolis, a Lebanese deli.”
Favorite dessert: “Strawberry shortcake.”
Salty or sweet: “Salty.”
Favorite pastime: “Sports”
Favorite sport: “To play, basketball. To watch, football.”
Star Wars or Star Trek: “Neither.”
Best place ever traveled: “Rome.”
Bucket list of places to go: “Australia, Alaska.”
Favorite book: “St. Augustine’s ‘Confessions.’”
Favorite musician or band: “The Outfield. 1980s.”
Favorite movie: “The Passion of the Christ” and “Tommy Boy.” The latter for its humor. Tommy: “A lot of people go to college for seven years.”
Richard: “Yeah, they’re called doctors.”
Favorite saint or devotional: “Mary and St. Michael, being a Michael, and St. Therese of Lisieux.”
— The Catholic Spirit
Growing up in a town of 10,000 and a stone’s throw from one of the city’s five lakes, Bishop Michael Izen learned to water ski with his older brother, Paul, behind a neighbor’s boat. He loved to play basketball and football and was eager to burst out the door to do those things — after the nightly family rosary.
That mix of everyday activity and faith put into practice was part of growing up in Fairmont for the Izen family. The bishop and his siblings — Mary, Geri, Tom, Ann and Paul, children of the late John and Joanna Izen — attended St. John Vianney parish and elementary school, which offered strong academics and Mass attended by the students each day.
During the summer, their mother continued to encourage daily Mass, and strove never to miss one herself. Eldest sibling Mary Izen Book, 67 – now a member of St. Timothy in Blaine — said her mother’s devotion to the Mass was so strong, that when going into labor with her third child, Tom, she suggested she could still get to morning Mass.
“No, we better go to the hospital,” replied her husband.
“I can remember them backing out of the driveway, mom looking back at me and waving goodbye,” Mary said as the family discussed their brother’s April 11 episcopal ordination at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul.
Bishop Izen, 56, a priest of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, will serve as an auxiliary bishop of the archdiocese, ministering alongside Archbishop Bernard Hebda and Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Williams. He will help lead the Church in a 12-county metropolitan area that encompasses the Twin Cities and is home to about 720,000 Catholics.
Ordained a priest in 2005, Bishop Izen practiced being one as a child, he and his siblings said.
His sister, Ann Wehner, 59, a member of St. John Vianney in Fairmont,
remembers her brother pretending to preside at Mass. “Paul and I would play Mass with him,” Ann said. “We took great pride in preparing and participating in that. Making the hosts out of regular bread slices and sometimes even doing music.”
“We would argue over who were the servers, who got to be the priest. Mike would usually win because he was the youngest,” said Tom, 62, also of St. John Vianney. “I can picture the coffee table he used as an altar,” said Geri Martin, 64, a member of Pax Christi in Eden Prairie.
Bishop Izen recalled growing up in comments he made at a Jan. 5
Asked what they most wish for their brother as he begins his role as bishop, Bishop Michael Izen’s siblings offered:
“That he enjoys it. That he lives in the moment. He brings so much that he doesn’t realize. He cares. He’ll bring a lot more than he realizes to the role,” Paul said.
“That he continues with his new calling like his past calling. Humble and compassionate. It’s going to be bigger and better for him. It’s a promotion, if you want to think about it that way. I think he can do more and do it better,” said Tom.
“My biggest wish is that he embraces what he has and be at peace with it. And have time for himself and not get run down. That he gets chances to sneak away and relax,” Ann said. That “he’s blessed with peace and truly happy and joyful in the role,” Geri said.
“You’ve really spoken to it,” Mary said to her siblings. “It seems to me it’s a very, very high stress job. A lot is expected, lots of demand. I hope he takes care of himself.”
“I hope they leave him in Minnesota,” added Ann.
age 61. Their mother, who had Alzheimer’s for years, died in 2000, when Bishop Izen was 33.
news conference at the Archdiocesan Catholic Center in St. Paul, the day his appointment to the archdiocese and his April 11 ordination were announced. He remembers and still has books on the faith his father read, including “Life of Christ” by the late Archbishop Fulton Sheen.
The youngest in the family, Bishop Izen was 21 when his father died — just a month after he had retired — in 1988 at
“It was a different kind of relationship with my parents in my mid-20s,” Bishop Izen said at the news conference. “But I would never, ever say that I was shortchanged when it comes to my parents. They were super examples of love. And I think, being the youngest, I got to see that in my last few years of high school, when I was the only one in the house. Just how much my dad loved my mom, and my mom loved my dad.”
In an interview before his ordination, Bishop Izen said his favorite memory of living in Fairmont is his family. “Home
FAMILY CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE
Congratulations and welcome auxiliary bishop, Rev. Michael J. Izen!
The Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, Consociates, Agrégée, Friends of St. Joseph, and Partners in Mission welcome you, and invite you to join the CSJ community in “Moving always toward the profound love of God and love of neighbor without distinction.”
CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE was simply a great place to be. I loved my mom and dad so much,” he said in an email. “I’m embarrassed to admit how hard it was for me to leave home for college. I loved all my brothers and sisters, too. As the youngest, I looked up to them as they grew up, went off to school and got married. I couldn’t wait to be an uncle.”
Bishop Izen said his first job and one he held through high school was mowing and raking lawns, shoveling and blowing snow, first with his brothers Tom and Paul, and later just with Paul. “I think we peaked at 22 yards,” he said.
His mother whipped up a great homemade pizza and spareribs in her own barbeque sauce. “I can still picture the slices of onions that would bake right on top of each rib,” Bishop Izen said. “Her pork chops and chicken were also two of my favorites. I could go on and on. People say I have quite an appetite. They should have seen me when I was young.”
Bishop Izen loved and ministered to his parents, and they were proud of him, his siblings said.
“They were definitely proud of Paul and Mike, the two youngest who probably saw more of what mom was going through,” recalled Geri. “When our dad passed away unexpectedly, it was June, and Paul and Mike were both home from college. Mike was working at the Green Giant factory in Blue Earth but quit his job to care for mom. I remember thinking Mike was a pretty mature young man to care for his mom at age 21 and help her with all the activities of daily living she needed assistance with.”
Their mother was a teacher, then a homemaker as her children grew up and a substitute teacher at St. John Vianney Catholic School in Fairmont, Bishop Izen said. “I still remember my embarrassment when I had her as a sub and I had to leave for the public school for my band
lesson. Any other substitute, I would have asked for permission to leave, but I thought, ‘Not necessary, this is my mom.’ So, I just got up, went to the back of the room to put on my coat (it was winter) and grab my drum case. As I was walking out, she had the ‘nerve’ to ask me where I was going. I said, ‘To my band lesson.’ She replied, ‘Not without your boots, you’re not.’ Seven years later, my buddies in high school were still reminding me of that day.”
The Izens were known in the community for running Izen Food Market, a grocery store founded by their dad’s father, John P. Izen, in the 1930s as Mocol’s Grocery store, to capitalize on a successful grocery store in Mankato run by his brotherin-law, Joe Mocol, Sr., Mary said.
“Our grandfather was the owner, and our dad was the manager and one of the butchers,” Mary said of the Fairmont store. “It would most likely bring to mind a grocery store in a 1940s movie.”
But by 1969, when Bishop Izen was 2 years old, two large grocery store chains had moved into Fairmont and Izen Food Market couldn’t compete. The family sold it, the Izens said.
“I felt sad for my dad when the store closed,” Ann said. “I was also proud of him and touched when he took a job at Wolf’s (Wolf-Habein) department store and was primarily downstairs in the fabric department.”
In 1974, their father began managing a furniture store in Fairmont, where he remained until retiring, said Tom, who lives with his wife, Lisa, in the home the Izens grew up in, just off Budd Lake. The Izens have made some changes, such as converting the living room to a dining room. Tom said he sometimes opens the silverware drawer of his youth only to remember it no longer holds knives, forks and spoons.
“The beauty for us,” said Paul, 58, of St. Ambrose in Woodbury, “is when we visit Tom, it’s like going home. It evokes fond memories for our family.”
Jan. 12, 1967
Born to the late John and Joanna Izen of Fairmont in the Diocese of Winona (now, Winona-Rochester), the youngest of their six children.
1973 to 1981
Attended St. John Vianney Catholic School in Fairmont.
1981 to 1985
Attended Fairmont High School.
1985 to 1989
Attended St. John’s University in Collegeville, earning an undergraduate degree in mathematics and computer science.
1989 to 1998
Worked as a computer systems analyst for 3M in Maplewood.
1998
Entered The St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul, earning a Master’s of Divinity degree.
May 28, 2005
Ordained to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, with 14 other men, the largest class since 1963, when 19 men were ordained.
2005 to 2007
Assigned associate pastor of Divine Mercy in Faribault.
2007 to 2012
Assigned pastor of St. Timothy in Maple Lake.
2010 to 2012
Became assistant in archdiocesan Office of Marriage, Family and Life in ministry of postabortion outreach.
2012 to 2015
Assigned pastor of St Raphael in Crystal.
2015 to 2023
Assigned pastor of St. Michael and St. Mary, canonical administrator of St. Croix Catholic School, Stillwater; parochial administrator of St. Charles, Bayport (2020-2023).
April 11, 2023
Ordained a bishop at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul, assigned as auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
The Catholic Spirit
When Bishop Michael Izen’s appointment as auxiliary bishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis was announced Jan. 5, Archbishop Bernard Hebda said it was providential that the soon-to-bebishop’s titular see would be Neoportus, or Newport, in South Wales.
It was the titular see held by the late Archbishop Fulton Sheen, widely known for his books and radio and television programs including “Life Is Worth Living” and “The Fulton Sheen Program.”
Bishop Izen still has a book by Archbishop Sheen that was treasured by his father, the late John Izen, titled “Life of Christ.” The bishop’s sister, Mary Izen Book of St. Timothy in Blaine, said she remembers her parents watching Archbishop Sheen’s TV program every Sunday night.
“Well, who doesn’t look up to Archbishop Fulton Sheen?” Bishop Izen said in an email in the weeks leading up to his April 11 ordination at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul. “I don’t know if I’ll ever get to visit South Wales, but that would be quite a gift. My dad never went to college, but he was bright and liked to read. He had secular and Catholic books on his bookshelf. ‘Life of Christ’ is one of the few books that I inherited from my father that I have actually read. As is the case with everything Sheen wrote, it is a great read, and I will sometimes turn to it for homily material.”
Titular sees are former dioceses that have been suppressed or substantially reconfigured and the location of the cathedral transferred to another location, often because they fell into the hands of non-Christian conquerors, were part of a schism, or the number of Catholics sharply declined or moved to another part of the diocese.
Auxiliary bishops, as well as bishops holding titles and responsibilities that do not entail overseeing a specific diocese, such as papal nuncios, vicars apostolic and superiors of departments in the Roman Curia, are given a titular see in recognition of their episcopal status.
Bishop Daniel J. Felton and the faithful of the Diocese of Duluth congratulate Bishop Michael J. Izen
on his ordination and installation as Auxiliary Bishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis
“God with us!”
Bishop Izen’s titular see was once held by a family favorite, the late Archbishop Fulton SheenDAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT Bishop Michael Izen after his April 11 episcopal ordination in the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul.
The Catholic Spirit
With the ceremonial opening of doors at the new chapel at St. John Vianney College Seminary in St. Paul April 20, hundreds got their first look at the place where 92 men from 16 dioceses across eight states will pray daily both to encounter Christ and discern their vocational calling.
Three bishops, including Archbishop Bernard Hebda of St. Paul and Minneapolis, assembled in the sanctuary for the dedication of the new chapel, which included anointing of the chapel’s altar and walls. They were joined by more than a dozen priests and deacons, including the current rector of SJV, Father Jonathan Kelly, and his predecessor, Father Michael Becker, both of whom played key roles in the design and construction of the chapel.
The chapel is part of a larger construction project at the seminary scheduled to be completed later this spring. SJV has partnered with Zeman Construction, Finn Daniels Architects, and Studio io Liturgical Design and Consulting.
During his homily at the dedication Mass, Archbishop Hebda, filled with emotion, gave his impression of the chapel and of its importance in the formation of SJV men who will spend time there trying to hear God’s call in their lives.
“This is a chapel that speaks about a generous response,” he said, acknowledging the many benefactors who contributed to the $10 million overall SJV renovation project. “It’s not just adequate, it’s spectacular. It’s a way in which we are able to demonstrate to the seminarians that we think that what they’re doing is incredibly important. But it’s also a way in which we’re able to communicate that God has to be at the heart of
everything we do in this seminary.”
In remarks at the end of Mass, Father Kelly said he hopes the chapel will help in the overall mission of SJV, which is to form “men who are authentic and transparent … The one place that we want to be truly authentic is before God in this chapel.” To that end, the chapel is filled with natural materials like wood and stone, augmented by large windows that let in lots of daylight. That, combined with artwork created by local iconographer Nicholas Markell, help give all who enter the chapel “a sense of the divine,” Father Kelly said.
The central part of the chapel — and SJV — is the tabernacle containing Jesus himself, in the Eucharist.
“Jesus is here,” Father Kelly noted, making a connection to the ongoing National Eucharistic Revival, “and he is the center of our life, and the center of our home.”
COURTESY BENILDE-ST. MARGARET’S AND RISEN CHRIST CATHOLIC SCHOOLS
SERVICE AND LEARNING A recent month-long service project for about 150 high school students at Benilde-St. Margaret’s in St. Louis Park teamed them with students in grades K-3 at Risen Christ Catholic School in Minneapolis to read, practice writing skills and spend time together at recess. The high school students also gathered information about the grade school students’ interests, pets and hobbies to create a story about them, with visuals, to inspire interest in reading. The younger students received personalized, laminated storybooks for practicing Spanish and English writing and reading, and older students received bound bilingual stories for practicing comprehension and fluency. In the photo, Benilde-St. Margaret’s 11th grader Steven Sibri Pina reads a book to Risen Christ students, including third graders Aydee C. and Jaileen R. (at Sibri Pina’s immediate right).
Fletcher Stoen, an eighth grader at Benilde-St. Margaret’s in St. Louis Park, competed in the Can-Am Alpine Ski Race Series the weekend of March 30-April 2 at Mont-Tremblant in Quebec. Stoen placed 10th in slalom and 20th overall out of about 95 skiers. He had qualified as the No. 1 seed out of the U.S. Ski Team’s Central Region, junior level (under age 14). Stoen’s mother, Hayley, taught her son to ski, starting when he was 18 months old.
Middle and upper school students at Visitation School in Mendota Heights took part in Women’s Day April 5. The theme was Trailblazers: Women who lead the way. The event featured speaker Rosalind Wiseman, a New York Times bestselling author and co-founder of Cultures of Dignity, an organization that tries to help bring dignity and social and emotional learning to all.
Benilde-St. Margaret’s appointed Danielle Palkert Hermanny, a 2003 graduate of the school, as its next president. Palkert Hermanny, a lawyer and theology teacher, will take her new post May 15. Most recently, she has served at the University of St. Thomas as associate vice president for equity compliance and Title IX coordinator. Meghan Lind DesLauriers has served as interim president at BSM since last July after the departure of Adam Ehrmantraut, who stepped down as president to pursue personal business opportunities.
The annual Family Rosary Procession is 2 p.m. May 7 beginning at the State Capitol in St. Paul and ending at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul. People are invited to gather at the Capitol beginning at 1:15 p.m. Archbishop Bernard Hebda will be participating at the Capitol and the Cathedral. Parishes are encouraged to bring banners to represent their communities, and first Communicants are invited to wear their first Communion attire. Those who are unable to join the procession are invited to come to the Cathedral at 2 p.m. to pray the rosary. The event, celebrating its 75th year, is sponsored by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and Minnesota Rosary Processions.
THE BLESSING OF BAPTISM
Hollis Norman, 5, receives the waters of baptism
April 15 from Pro Ecclesia Sancta Father Joe Barron, associate pastor of St. Mark in St. Paul. Normanis among five children from three families who were baptized in the same ceremony, inspired along with their parents by the staff at St. Mark’s Preschool. The preschool’s director, Gayane Manukyan, said, “It wasn’t our goal to make sure to baptize these children at St. Mark, (but) for sure our goal is and always will be to make sure these children are loved by the teachers and that they know that they are loved by God.”
On the April 21 “Practicing Catholic” radio show, host Patrick Conley interviews newly ordained Bishop Michael Izen, auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, who reflects on his ordination and new responsibilities. Also featured are School Sister of Notre Dame Kathleen Storms and Adam Fitzpatrick, social mission outreach coordinator for the Center for Mission in the archdiocese, who discuss the Laudato Si’ apostolate and stewardship of creation; and Paula Kaempffer, the archdiocesan outreach coordinator for restorative justice and abuse prevention, who describes a new ministry for victim-survivors of clergy abuse to receive the Eucharist and a new support group for victim-survivors. Listen to interviews after they have aired at PracticingcatholicShow com or anchor fm/Practicing-catholic-Show with links to streaming platforms.
Doug Hoverson, the chair of St. Thomas Academy’s Social Studies Department in Mendota Heights, has been nominated by National History Day in Minnesota for the Patricia Behring National History Day Teacher of the Year award. All nominees receive $500. Each of 47 National History Day affiliates may nominate one high school and one middle school teacher for the award. The winner, to be selected by a committee of teachers and historians and awarded $10,000, will be announced June 15 at the national awards ceremony in College Park, Maryland.
The Catholic Schools Center of Excellence will hold its seventh annual CSCOE Bash May 6 at the JW Marriott in Bloomington. Students, principals, community leaders and CSCOE President Brian Ragatz will offer remarks, and there will be a live auction and presentation of the Legacy of Greatness Award. CSCOE supports all 156 Catholic elementary schools in Minnesota.
A seminarian for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis joined an ensemble of schoolmates to play jazz tunes at the annual Rector’s Dinner April 20 at the Pontifical North American College in Rome. Joseph Wappes, 25, who plays the trumpet and is studying at the NAC, also played at last year’s dinner, which is a fundraiser and celebration of supporters of the school. Among the 450 guests are bishops, Curia members and diplomatic representatives. Online Catholic news and information outlet Aleteia featured Wappes and his role leading the entertainment.
Deacon John Masla, who served about a decade in the permanent diaconate — including nearly two years at St. Ambrose in Woodbury before retiring from active ministry, and eight years in Sacramento, California — died April 3. He was 94. His wife of 70 years, Mary Lou, said her husband, a native of Chicago, was an administrator and consultant in higher education. He ministered at the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament in Sacramento, where he was ordained May 30, 1992. She and her husband moved to Woodbury in 2000 to be closer to family. They first met while he attended then-St. Mary College, now St. Mary’s University of Minnesota, and she attended then-College of St. Teresa, both in Winona. In addition to his wife, Deacon Masla is survived by seven of eight children, 19 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. The funeral Mass was April 14 at St. Ambrose.
AAs a child, I loved Christmas, but I did not like Easter. Christmas had everything. The songs, the food, the lights, the specials on TV, the decorated trees under which were the wrapped presents.
But Easter? Even as a child I found Easter corny. Rabbits laying colored eggs in a nest of plastic grass surrounded by multi-colored jellybeans? To add injury to the paschal insult of my childhood, Easter Sunday meant new shoes. There were more than a few children who awkwardly walked up for Communion in shoes that hurt.
My entire childhood, I don’t remember much about Pentecost. There wasn’t anything at home and no one greeted anyone with anything about Pentecost. Yet, in an older image of the Church, the high, holy feast days of Christmas and Easter are but two of the legs on a threelegged stool. The third leg is Pentecost. It can give us reflective pause when there is such to-do in the parishes over Christmas and Easter while Pentecost Sunday can seem to be the last gasp at the end of a long Easter season. But shh! Don’t tell anyone out there in the secular world about Pentecost. They’ll just ruin it like what happened to Christmas and Easter and many of the other feasts of the Church. The Incarnation reduced to mistletoe and eggnog; the Resurrection reduced to chocolate bunnies with marshmallow birds. No wonder we have zombies begging for candy on All Hallows’ Eve. No. Let’s not make too big of a deal
De niño, amaba la Navidad, pero no me gustaba la Pascua. La Navidad lo tenía todo. Las canciones, la comida, las luces, los especiales de la tele, los árboles decorados bajo los cuales estaban los regalos envueltos.
Pero Pascua? Incluso cuando era niño, encontré la Pascua cursi. ¿Conejos poniendo huevos de colores en un nido de hierba plástica rodeado de gominolas multicolores? Para colmo del insulto pascual de mi infancia, el Domingo de Resurrección significaba zapatos nuevos. Hubo más de unos cuantos niños que torpemente se acercaron a comulgar con zapatos que dolían.
Toda mi infancia, no recuerdo mucho sobre Pentecostés. No había nada en casa y nadie saludaba a nadie con nada sobre Pentecostés. Sin embargo, en una imagen más antigua de la Iglesia, las fiestas santas y elevadas de Navidad y Pascua son solo dos de las patas de un taburete de tres patas. La tercera pata es Pentecostés.
about the feast of Pentecost lest it go the way of Groundhog Day on Feb. 2. Instead of the feast of the Presentation of the Lord, we have some little rodent out east determining by its shadow, or lack thereof, the length of winter in Minnesota. As if…
Oh, I can see it now if the people
Puede darnos una pausa reflexiva cuando hay tanta actividad en las parroquias durante la Navidad y la Pascua, mientras que el domingo de Pentecostés puede parecer el último suspiro al final de una larga temporada de Pascua.
Pero sh! No le cuentes a nadie en el mundo secular sobre Pentecostés. Simplemente lo arruinarán como sucedió con la Navidad y la Pascua y muchas de las otras fiestas de la Iglesia. La Encarnación reducida a muérdago y ponche de huevo; la Resurrección reducida a conejitos de chocolate con pájaros de malvavisco. No es de extrañar que tengamos zombis pidiendo dulces en la Víspera de Todos los Santos.
No. No le demos demasiada importancia a la fiesta de Pentecostés para que no siga el camino del Día de la Marmota el 2 de febrero. En lugar de la fiesta de la Presentación del Señor, tenemos un pequeño roedor en el este determinando por su sombra , o falta de ella, la duración del invierno en Minnesota. Como si…
Oh, puedo verlo ahora si la gente se entera de Pentecostés. Las versiones más nuevas de la alabanza cristiana prenderán fuego a sus cabellos o soltarán palomas aterrorizadas porque son más fieles a las Escrituras que los
out there find out about Pentecost. The newest versions of Christian praise will set their hair on fire or release terrified doves because they are truer to the Scriptures than balloons. We will have to go to the stores to do Pentecost shopping. Seven gifts for each family member. Pentecost sales on white
chocolate doves and red velvet cake. And of course, in the evening of this great feast, we will all have to sit outside around bonfires scaring each other with holy ghost stories.
Please, don’t tell anyone about Pentecost. They’ll just ruin it. Everyone will go around for one day babbling incoherently and claiming they understand rap music.
Let Christmas and Easter wobble without the third leg. At least they won’t ruin the great feast of the Holy Spirit.
Except we can’t. We cannot keep Pentecost a secret because without Pentecost we cannot be an Easter people. We ourselves are incomplete without the Holy Spirit. Christmas is the birth of Easter and Pentecost is the birth of the Church.
If our faith party is just “me and Jesus” then the Holy Spirit was not invited. For all of us reborn in baptism, the feast of Pentecost is a continuation of the workings of the Holy Spirit moving in and through us as powerfully as on that first Pentecost. Up until this very day, and continuing until the end of time, we most beautifully see the workings of the Holy Spirit, gifting us through the sacraments, so that we may be transformed into the Body of Christ, the Church — one, holy, Catholic and apostolic.
Christmas draws us closely to the mystery of God’s presence here on earth. Easter defines us as disciples of the risen Christ. Pentecost makes it possible to live lives in joyful witness to the Gospel. It is in the Holy Spirit that we are renewed as an Easter people even though we know all too well that we live in a Good Friday world.
secreto porque sin Pentecostés no podemos ser un pueblo de Pascua. Nosotros mismos estamos incompletos sin el Espíritu Santo. La Navidad es el nacimiento de la Pascua y Pentecostés es el nacimiento de la Iglesia.
globos. Tendremos que ir a las tiendas a hacer las compras de Pentecostés. Siete regalos para cada miembro de la familia. Ventas de Pentecostés en palomas de chocolate blanco y pastel de terciopelo rojo. Y, por supuesto, en la noche de esta gran fiesta, todos tendremos que sentarnos afuera alrededor de las fogatas y asustarnos unos a otros con historias de fantasmas sagrados.
Por favor, no le cuentes a nadie sobre Pentecostés. Simplemente lo arruinarán. Todo el mundo estará un día balbuceando incoherencias y afirmando que entiende la música rap.
Deja que la Navidad y la Pascua se tambaleen sin la tercera pata. Al menos no arruinarán la gran fiesta del Espíritu Santo.
Excepto que no podemos. No podemos mantener Pentecostés en
Si nuestra fiesta de fe es solo “yo y Jesús”, entonces el Espíritu Santo no fue invitado. Para todos los que renacemos en el bautismo, la fiesta de Pentecostés es una continuación de la obra del Espíritu Santo moviéndose en nosotros y a través de nosotros tan poderosamente como en ese primer Pentecostés. Hasta este mismo día, y continuando hasta el final de los tiempos, vemos muy bellamente las obras del Espíritu Santo, regalándonos a través de los sacramentos, para que podamos ser transformados en el Cuerpo de Cristo, la Iglesia, una, santa, católica y apostólica.
La Navidad nos acerca al misterio de la presencia de Dios aquí en la tierra. La Pascua nos define como discípulos de Cristo resucitado. Pentecostés hace posible vivir vidas en gozoso testimonio del Evangelio. Es en el Espíritu Santo que somos renovados como pueblo pascual, aunque sabemos muy bien que vivimos en un mundo de Viernes Santo.
We are an Easter People and Alleluia is our song.
St. John Paul II (1986)iSTOCK PHOTO | ARTPLUS
Jeremy Trafton of St. Stephen in Anoka hands fellow parishioner Laurie Zahalka a glass of his home-brewed beer, a smoked vanilla porter he calls Holy Smoke, during an event at St. Stephen in Anoka April 21 called Thank God for Beer. This is the second year of the gathering, which was started by Father James Bernard, who was serving at St. Stephen at the time (he now is at Our Lady of Guadalupe in St. Paul). He thought it would be a good way to combine his hobby with faith and fellowship. He invited people to bring their own homebrewed beer, or commercially made beer, for guests to sample and cast votes for their favorite. Father Bernard began the evening with a special beer blessing that included the sprinkling of holy water on all those who brought beverages. “This event was just an opportunity to invite the Lord into something that I’m interested in and share it with others,” said Father Bernard, who has been brewing beer for the last 12 years. “I’m not an expert brewer by any means … It’s just something that I enjoy doing, and it’s fun to do with other people.” More than
With prayer and song, parishioners of St. Andrew Kim in St. Paul greeted visiting Bishop John the Baptist Jeong during a Mass April 16 at Holy Childhood to recognize the parish community’s 50th anniversary.
Archbishop Bernard Hebda presided at the Mass concelebrated by Bishop Jeong, of the Diocese of Incheon, South Korea. During the Mass, Bishop Jeong confirmed six students and 18 adults.
During his homily, Archbishop Hebda expressed his gratitude to Bishop Jeong and his diocese in Incheon for providing “such excellent pastors” to St. Andrew Kim. And he congratulated the parishioners.
“I know that this is a community with a high level of lay leadership and involvement,” Archbishop Hebda said. “I remember how involved your lay leaders were when we didn’t have a Korean priest to lead this community. You are all to be congratulated as you celebrate this milestone in the life of the Korean Catholic community in this archdiocese.”
The Mass’ first reading, from the Acts of the Apostles, described “what a Catholic community should look like,” Archbishop Hebda said. “They devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal life, to the breaking of bread, and to the prayers,” he said. “For 50 years, Korean Catholics in this archdiocese have been coming together to form a community centered on the breaking of the bread, while supporting one another in prayer and learning more about Jesus and the Church that he founded.
“As was true in the day of the Acts of the Apostles, you have distinguished yourselves for your care of one another, making sacrifices for those in need,” Archbishop Hebda said. “I can assure you, Bishop John the Baptist, that this is a community that lives out the faith, that puts their faith into practice.”
Images of church life over the past
For 50 years, Korean Catholics in this archdiocese have been coming together to form a community centered on the breaking of the bread, while supporting one another in prayer and learning more about Jesus and the Church that he founded.
Archbishop Bernard Hebda
decades, including photos of pastors and groups of parishioners, were projected on a screen at the conclusion of Mass. A reception and luncheon followed in the facility’s lower level. At the reception, through a parishioner-translator, Bishop Jeong said that “even if we might not speak the same language, under the same faith, we have this connection and communion between the dioceses, that having the bishop and the St. Paul
archbishop come together is like the two dioceses being in communion together.”
Bishop Jeong recalled St. Andrew Kim in need of a priest in 2017 and 2018. He visited the parish and talked with “the St. Paul archbishop,” Archbishop Hebda, who was very “open to crosscultural interactions in the Church.”
With the translator assisting, Bishop Jeong said he “felt good” about sending one of his priests to St. Paul. “We may
not speak the same language, but we are also part of the St. Paul diocese, together in the same Church,” he said.
Stacey Oh, 43, a parishioner of St. Andrew Kim for 18 years, said she appreciates the chance to attend “the only Korean Catholic church in Minnesota.”
“I bring my daughters here to learn about the Catholic faith and the Korean culture,” she said. Many children in the parish were born in the U.S., she said, so “this is the avenue to learn about the culture, like the Korean food we are having today (at the reception).” She said many of the children attend a “Korean language school” after Mass.
Jiyoung Choi, 52, a parishioner for 15 years, said of the day’s Mass, “when Archbishop Hebda spoke in English and we responded in Korean, it symbolized harmony and collaboration” and created a “beautiful fabric together.”
The parish has about 80 households, said Won Yong Kim, a parishioner since 2016. “Celebrating Mass in Korean is very important to Korean Catholics to keep our faith as we did in our native country,” he said. Although St. Andrew Kim’s numbers are not large compared to other parishes in the archdiocese, he said every one of them appreciates the archbishop’s presence at the celebration “and also, support from other Catholics.”
The parish plans to have another celebration in September, perhaps including a retreat, said Kim, but plans are not yet finalized.
St. Andrew Kim has shared a parish campus with Holy Childhood since 2018. The Korean parish offers Masses 7 p.m. Friday and 11:15 a.m. Sunday.
St. Andrew Kim traces its roots to Sept. 26, 1973, when a group of Korean graduate students at the University of Minnesota came together for Mass at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. The Korean Catholic community organized as a parish in 1991.
A coworking space for Catholics is opening in St. Paul in May.
The Quarry is owned and will be run by the St. Joseph Business Guild — a nonprofit with 650 members from 95 parishes in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis that seeks to help Catholics support their families through business, entrepreneurship, worker and mentor networks.
It will be in the St. Mark Catholic School building, part of St. Mark parish at 1983 Dayton Ave. The school restructured in April 2019 after leadership announced a decline in enrollment and rising costs. The preschool remains and a homeschooling ministry is in the building.
Former St. Mark business administrator Joe Hermerding, who read about the interest in a Catholic coworking space from the St. Joseph Business Guild newsletter, contacted
This aligns with St. Mark’s mission of living and sharing Christ’s call to holiness.
Randy Lehnenthe nonprofit and suggested the school building.
Randy Lehnen stepped into the role of business administrator in March. He said the guild is renovating parts of the building and rent will be part of the equation. The preschool will be locked and secure; the students will not have contact with other ministries in the building, Lehnen said.
“This aligns with St. Mark’s mission of living and sharing Christ’s call to holiness,” Lehnen said. Those using the coworker space will have ready access to daily Mass, confession and other aspects of parish life, he said.
Roger Vasko, guild president, said his organization saw a need for coworking space for Catholics who were working from home. “Man was not made to work alone,” Vasko said in a statement.
“The idea is to create a Catholic business center where Catholic businesses can thrive,” Vasko said, adding that there is interest in giving the guild a central location to host speakers, classes and networking events as well as to develop mentor-mentee relationships.
Plans are in place to renovate classrooms into office space, the guild said. The coworking space inside the former school is the size of two classrooms. A small room attached to the coworking space and a secondary room across the hall can be used for phone calls. A small meeting room and a conference room are also available. A former classroom has been renovated for a breakroom and lunchroom.
Plans also include converting the school cafeteria into a banquet hall.
Tentative plans include renting that space to a caterer and to entrepreneurs interested in using commercial kitchen space. Other possible plans include setting up a photography studio, podcasting rooms, a tool library and a fitness center.
The Quarry is primarily supported through individual donations and member business sponsorship packages. Fundraising efforts are ongoing, Vasko said.
An open house for the space will be held from 4-8 p.m. May 1. Food and drinks will be provided, and a blessing will take place at 6 p.m. RSVP online at sjbusinessguild com
The introductory rate for the space in May, June and July will be $125 a month. Then, in August, the rate will increase to $150 per month. Those interested in registering for the coworking space can find more information online at quarrycoworking.com.
— Joe Ruff contributed to this report.
The Catholic Spirit
Fresh from helping the Catholic Services Appeal Foundation focus its mission as it financially supports ministries across the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Tizoc Rosales is returning to the place he served for seven years prior to taking the helm at CSAF in 2021: The St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul.
In mid-May, Rosales, 50, will be director of institutional advancement at the graduate-level seminary. While last there, he was part of the advancement team for both The St. Paul Seminary and St. John Vianney College Seminary. That team secured more than $40 million toward the seminaries’ joint strategic funding campaign.
“Tizoc was instrumental in our Joyful Catholic Leaders capital campaign, and he has a huge heart for our mission and connecting local and regional Catholics to it,” said Father Taphorn, rector of The St. Paul Seminary. “I’m thrilled that Tizoc will guide and serve our advancement team. His leadership will help us form the next generation of priests, deacons and lay leaders.”
Rosales said as he looks back on his professional and personal life, “I believe the Lord has been preparing me for this role all along. The seminary is special. It is an extremely vital mission in the Church right now to form joyful, Catholic leaders for our parishes and communities. I’m both thrilled and humbled to come back and lead our efforts in ensuring this crucial mission thrives for generations to come.”
In Tizoc’s two years as CSAF’s president, he successfully led the annual appeal while prayerfully discerning with CSAF’s board and other Catholic leaders four pillars to concentrate on as the nonprofit supports 19 Catholic ministries: prolife, or protecting and affirming the dignity of every person; archdiocesan efforts, including outreach ministry and the seminaries; Synod priorities of the Church, such as spreading the good news of Jesus; and Catholic education.
“I think Tizoc brought CSAF to a new level with a strategic plan,” said Karen Rauenhorst, a CSAF board member and parishioner of Holy Name of Jesus in Wayzata. “We’re continuing to be set
for success.”
The seven-member CSAF board issued a statement April 24 that addresses Rosales returning to the seminary.
“While he will be missed at CSAF, his work in this vineyard will continue and will benefit the local Church and beyond,” the board said. There will be no disruption to the annual appeal that kicked off in February, the board said. Yen Fasano, board chair, will assume interim leadership of CSAF, with support and collaboration from Jean Houghton, director of the archdiocesan Office of Mission Advancement and former head of the Aim Higher Foundation in St. Paul.
In his own April 24 letter to CSAF
supporters, Archbishop Hebda said Houghton agreed to assist the organization at his request. “I am grateful to both Yen and Jean for their willingness to respond so generously to this need,” the archbishop said. Additionally, the board has expressed a desire to begin a prayerful discernment process of evaluating CSAF operations and structures, in light of the organization’s recent strategic planning work, the archbishop said.
The archbishop also thanked Rosales, saying, “He has been a tireless laborer and partner in our Lord’s vineyard, and I look forward to what God has in store for him at The Saint Paul Seminary.”
Fasano, who has served on the CSAF board since 2014, said Rosales will be missed for his “steady leadership and the joy he brought to CSAF because of his Christ-centered leadership.” But Fasano said she is pleased he will continue to serve the local Church “in a very meaningful and fruitful way.”
Father Leonard Andrie, pastor of St. Therese in Deephaven, was recruited to the board by Rosales as the board sought the presence of a priest and a pastor’s perspective. He, Fasano and Rauenhorst agreed that prayerful discernment will lead the way.
“We need a little breathing time to decide how best to move forward. All of us are men and women of prayer,” Father Andrie said. “We will pray and talk to the archbishop. As I care for a parish, to make a decision, I talk to the people it will impact. There are so many people who support CSAF as well. It would be unwise to move quickly.”
The Catholic Spirit
Minnesota’s bishops and the Minnesota Catholic Conference — the public policy arm of the Catholic Church in the state — are voicing strong concerns over a certain “gender ideology” represented in the state Legislature.
MCC is urging Minnesotans to reach out to their representatives to push against the progression of the following bills through the Legislature:
uHF16/SF23, a bill to prohibit conversion therapy and do away with aspects of counseling for minors to align mind and the reality of biological sex;
uHF146/SF63, a bill that would allow minors from Minnesota and other states to seek “gender-affirming health care” in Minnesota;
uHF173/SF37, a Minnesota Constitution amendment that would countermand attempts for accommodations or exemptions for those who do not assent to gender theory;
uHF1655/SF1886, a bill proposing a new definition in the Minnesota Human Rights Act for gender identity;
uHF2280/SF2236, a “Gender-Affirming Rights Act” which asserts a person’s right to subjectively define gender existence; and,
uHF2607/SF2209, a bill to require “gender-affirming care coverage” including for medical and surgical
interventions to manipulate the body.
MCC argues these pieces of legislation cause harm and create confusion — particularly among young people — about the human experience and intrinsic identity.
In a joint written statement, MCC Executive Director Jason Adkins and MCC Policy and Public Relations Associate Maggee Hangge said the bills “seek to enshrine into law a deeply flawed and fictional account of the human person that would bring harm to vulnerable young people.”
“Many young people are struggling with confusion about their basic human experience and their identity, often caused by peer influence and cultural forces,” the joint statement reads. “Families are seeking honest help, yet pharmaceutical companies and some unscrupulous doctors are negligently funneling kids into a lifetime of surgical and hormonal treatments, which has already created a billion-dollar business.
By denying the reality that we are each created male and female, we are doing irreversible damage to children and inhibiting their future ability to form families.” Every instance of unjust discrimination must be avoided, but “we cannot allow gender ideology to grow unchecked, as ample evidence suggests that ‘gender affirming care’ not only does not resolve a person’s psychological struggles but exacerbates them,” Adkins and Hangge said.
In a video released by MCC, Bishop Robert Barron — of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester — said he and his fellow Minnesota bishops are “concerned about a gender ideology taking hold, which really stands to thwart our own anthropology, our own understanding of the human person; that we’re a hybrid of body and soul. The body is not there for the ‘real me’ to manipulate according to its desire, but it belongs to the very nature of the person. We think it does more damage to young people to encourage them along this line of gender change and gender manipulation. We’d much prefer to offer counseling and therapy to young people and help them through issues of gender dysphoria.”
Similarly, a statement from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops issued in March reads, in part, “A crucial aspect of the order of nature created by God is the body-soul unity of each human person … this soul only comes into existence together with this body. What it means to be a human person
The Minnesota Catholic Conference suggests several actions people can take against certain pieces of gender legislation proposed in the Legislature:
One minute: Send a message to lawmakers asking them to oppose radical gender legislation and embrace the true reality of man and woman. Lawmakers can be contacted on these issues by visiting mncatholic org/ actionalerts
Three minutes: Read the testimony of MCC Executive Director Jason Adkins and MCC Policy and Public Relations Associate Maggee Hangge online at tinyurl com/2ha9v5e4. They address competing worldviews in today’s society and express opposition to multiple pieces of gender legislation proposed this year.
More time: Learn about the Eden Invitation at edeninvitation com, which is an apostolate that helps men and women struggling with gender discordance live an authentically Catholic sexuality.
necessarily includes bodiliness.” To “show full respect for the dignity of each human person,” the USCCB states, “Catholic health care services must not perform interventions, whether surgical or chemical, that aim to transform the sexual characteristics of a human body into those of the opposite sex or take part in the development of such procedures.”
The Catholic Spirit
Mary, Mother of the Church in Burnsville welcomed staff from parishes across the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis April 20 for a formation day focused on the Synod, with the theme: The Parish and Small Groups: Preaching Jesus in the Temple and at Home.
Members of parish-based Synod Evangelization Teams, of about 12 people each, also were strongly encouraged to attend, said Julie Meyer, planning, transition and employee development facilitator for the archdiocesan Office for the Renewal of Structures.
As the archdiocese implements Archbishop Bernard Hebda’s pastoral letter released in November, “You Will be My Witnesses: Gathered and Sent from the Upper Room,” it is encouraging Synod Evangelization Teams and parish staff to create small groups that evangelize, support and minister to Catholics and others. To further that effort, evangelization teams recently completed a seven-week School of Discipleship program offered through the Archbishop Flynn Catechical Institute at the St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul.
Laura Schoenecker, a parishioner of St. Wenceslaus in New Prague, said she is part of her parish’s evangelization team. The School of Discipleship was “awesome,” she said.
“It was really a good experience and everybody, I think, really enjoyed it. We all learned a lot,” she said. As the April 20 program began, Schoenecker said of her parish’s team, “I’m excited for this time when we get together as a group to really see how we’re going to move forward with this.”
Discipleship has always been a focus of St. Wenceslaus’ adult formation, Schoenecker said. “So, when (Archbishop Bernard Hebda) came out with this, I was so excited and appreciative to be part of it. Today, I’m just hoping to learn more about how we can implement this within our parish,” which she said has already done a lot with small groups.
Archbishop Hebda welcomed those gathered, and he presided at the event’s Mass in a mostly full church. He said the day gave him the chance to say, “thank you to you, not only for your presence here today and for the great work that you do in our parishes and at the Archdiocesan Catholic Center, but also for the extraordinary work that you’ve
been doing as we try to implement the Archdiocesan Synod.” The archbishop said he hopes “evangelical synodality will be the ordinary way of Church life in this large diocese.”
“I think we’re taking our cue from Pope Francis and we’re already seeing fruits in the work that we’ve done over these past three years or so,” he said.
Speakers included Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Williams, who addressed the theme of parish small groups and evangelization. The power of small group ministry is not theoretical for him, the bishop said. “It’s very important in my own life as a disciple,” he said, and part of “my own witness.”
Father Michael White and Thomas Corcoran from the Church of the Nativity in Timonium, Maryland, spoke
twice: first on “A Pastor and a Lay Apostle on Mission Together: Evangelical Synodality Rebuilds a Parish,” and later, “Small Groups at the Service of Intentional Discipleship and Authentic Parish Community.”
Their first remarks addressed the value of being in communion with others, specifically the value of small groups. God clearly shows this need for connection in nature, Corcoran said.
“The roots of a redwood tree are only about 5 or 6 feet deep,” he said. “So, what accounts for their ability to grow? Their roots are interconnected with other redwood trees, and it gives them the strength to grow tall.”
In a similar way, people long for connection, Corcoran said.
At the Maryland parish, small groups
typically have six to 12 people. “We like to say small groups discuss the Bible, but they’re not Bible studies,” Father White said. “They support one another, but they are not support groups. They pray together, but they are not prayer groups. Instead, groups blend all three together as we meet … to understand where God is working in one another’s lives.”
Small groups are places to share how the truth of the Gospel is working, Father White said. “In the daily experience of members, they provide an opportunity to tell our story … And they provide an environment and create a space to actually have conversations about faith.”
“We need voices speaking into our lives, reminding us about Jesus’ teaching when we inevitably encounter problems in our daily experiences,” Father White said. “We need a safe place where we can process this conflict in a Christian context.”
Brandon Ocampo, director of communications and marketing for St. Peter in Forest Lake, said he learned from his pastor that Archbishop Hebda invited all parish staff to the April 20 event. So he and other staff members “went with open minds and open hearts just to see what we could learn, what ideas we could get, what connections we can make and see what other people are doing, too, related to the Synod,” he said.
Ocampo moved to Minnesota from New Jersey six months ago. He said he was impressed with the pastoral letter Archbishop Hebda released a few months later. “I felt very enthusiastic by the fact that I saw the archbishop and the diocese focusing on these things and then not just leaving parishes on our own to figure it out, but actually making an effort to train us,” said Ocampo, 27.
“Taking that time to come together as a staff, as a team, as volunteers, and just receive from the archbishop and these leaders and speakers really says that they do care about us and make it an initiative to form us and to treat us as disciples as well,” he said.
Grant Anderson, 36, started his role as marketing and communications specialist at Our Lady of Grace in Edina a couple months ago. He wanted to participate in formation day because he knows the archdiocese wants to use small groups to help grow the Church. It was a great time to see “how to tackle that issue and address it, and how we can all be a part of the solution,” he said.
“It’s human to look at the stars and to realize that there’s more to life than what’s for lunch,” said Jesuit Brother Guy Consolmagno, director of the Vatican Observatory. “The very thing that makes us different from a clever cat, the very thing that makes us breathe out, ‘oh my God’ — that’s the human soul, the image and likeness of God,” he said.
“And so, every morning, I look forward to going back to the lab, dropping meteorites into liquid nitrogen, finding out how each new number falls in the plot of the data. It’s slow and it’s tedious and it’s fun as all get out,” he said. “I mean, meteorites, right? You can touch pieces of outer space — and liquid nitrogen. What’s more fun than that?”
Brother Consolmagno spoke to a nearly full house April 17 at the McNamara Alumni Center on the Minneapolis campus of the University of Minnesota. He titled his remarks, “Captured by the Stars: Why Do We Look Up to the Heavens?”
The event was hosted by Anselm House, a center for Christian studies that helps students and faculty at the University of Minnesota (Twin Cities) connect Christian faith and knowledge with all of life, said Casie Szalapski, its program manager.
Anselm House sponsors an annual Anderson Lecture in science and religion, inviting “scientists who are very well respected in their field but who are also Christians and have thought deeply about how their faith speaks to their work,” said Szalapski. “My colleague, and the director of Anselm House’s Center for Faith and Learning, AJ Poelarends, is an astrophysicist and he was familiar with Brother Guy’s work and suggested we extend the invitation,” she said.
Science only happens because of the “oh, my God moments,” Brother Consolmagno said. “Science needs ‘oh my God.’ Nothing would happen without it. And that’s why we will get support from the Church, from a pope who himself was a chemist. I mean, look, he showed up in my lab wearing a white lab coat,” he said to laughter from the crowd as he projected a photo of Pope Francis in his white vestment.
That’s why it’s important to remember that creation happened over seven days, Brother Consolmagno said. “The first six, day by day by day, all the physical pieces were put together, but the climax of the story of creation is the Sabbath, where we spend the time to admire what God has done.
The Vatican Observatory is one of the oldest active astronomical observatories in the world, according to the Vatican Observatory Foundation. Its roots date to 1582 and the Gregorian calendar reform. Pope Leo XIII, who “refounded the observatory in its modern form in 1891,” according to the foundation, said the observatory exists so that the world can see how the Church supports science.
Consolmagno said it gives him joy. “I feel like the universe is a giant puzzle, a giant game where God gets to play with me,” he said. “I’m reminded of when I was a little kid and my mom would play cards with me and it was her way of telling me she loved me, and the universe is God’s way of telling me he loves me.”
Brother Consolmagno said he gets “this little burst of joy every time I see something,” followed by “almost a chuckle of, ‘oh, wasn’t that wonderful? Let me show you the next one.’ So it (research) is really an act of prayer because it’s a place where I encounter God,” he said.
“And if you lose that, then you’ve lost the reason for why you’re doing the science,” he said.
Brother Consolmagno, who has special expertise in planetary science, specifically asteroids and meteorites, received the Carl Sagan Medal in 2014 for outstanding communication from the American Astronomical Society’s Division for Planetary Sciences.
He received his bachelor’s and master’s of science degrees in earth and planetary sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his doctorate in planetary science from the University of Arizona. He started his undergraduate studies at Boston College but said he “didn’t fit in the dorms very well.”
“They’re guys who just wanted to party, and I was a nerd,” he said.
His best friend from high school went to MIT, which he called “a big nerd school, full of nerds, just like me.” And it offered weekend movies and pinball machines “and tunnels you could explore at night, and the world’s largest collection of science fiction books.”
“I figured if I’m going to be a nerd, I ought to go to nerd school,” Brother Consolmagno said. But he also recognized MIT was where he “could
stoke his passion.”
He served in the Peace Corps for two years in Kenya teaching physics and astronomy, then taught physics in the U.S. before entering the Society of Jesus in 1989. He started his work at the Vatican Observatory in 1993. His responsibilities at the observatory, which is based in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, include serving as curator of the Vatican meteorite collection. The Vatican also has a telescope on Mount Graham in southeastern Arizona.
During the presentation, Brother Consolmagno explained his work, including experiments with meteorites, which he described animatedly. It ended with time for questions and answers.
A reception with Brother Consolmagno followed across the street in the new office of Anselm House. He also gave a presentation April 16 at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul.
Asked after his presentation how his research impacts his faith, Brother
When asked for messages to the faithful on the topic of science and the Church, Brother Consolmagno responded, “Science was invented by the Church” and it is “our way of trying to understand God.”
“It is not an absolute set of facts, but it’s an approach,” he said. “And we should never think that we know it all, but we should never be afraid of it.” He recalled St. John Paul II saying “truth does not contradict truth.”
“Don’t be afraid, but don’t think that one bit of science is going to overthrow everything, because our science isn’t perfect,” Brother Consolmagno said. “Our faith, our understanding of the faith, isn’t perfect. In both cases, it’s a relationship of love.
“And you never tell somebody you love, ‘Oh, I understand you perfectly now.’ . . . We don’t understand the universe perfectly, but we never stop trying. We never understand God perfectly, but we never stop trying. And we’re never afraid to learn new things about the ones we love.”
A recording of the April 17 presentation is available for viewing at the Anselm House YouTube channel tinyurl com/bf9k9nfm
For more details, including contributions made possible through scientific work at the observatory, visit vaticanobservatory org
Your parish is grateful for the many ways through which you help create a welcoming and prayerful faith community, demonstrate vibrant volunteerism, and reflect God ’ s love both through the family you have raised and in your activities within our Rosary Altar Society, our Archdiocese and beyond. This award is well deserved!
The Church of St. Albert the Great Rich tradition. Open minds. Warm hearts . E. 29th St. at 32nd Ave. S. in Minneapolis www.saintalbertthegreat.org
The U.S. Supreme Court said April 21 it would block a lower court’s restrictions on an abortion pill, leaving the drug on the market while litigation over the drug proceeds.
The Supreme Court froze a lower court’s ruling to stay the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the drug. The Justice Department and Danco Laboratories, a pharmaceutical company that manufactures the abortion pill mifepristone, previously asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in the case after an appeals court allowed portions of the ruling by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Texas to take effect.
The order was an apparent 7-2 vote, with Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito publicly dissenting. A coalition of pro-life opponents of mifepristone, the first of two drugs used in a medication or chemical abortion, had filed suit in an effort to revoke the FDA’s approval of the drug, arguing the government violated its own safety standards when it first approved the drug in 2000. However, proponents argued mifepristone poses statistically little risk to women using it for
uBiden announces reelection bid, setting up 2024 showdown with GOP rivals. President Joe Biden said April 25 that he will seek a second term in the White House. In a video message titled “Freedom,” Biden said, “When I ran for president four years ago, I said we are in a battle for the soul of America. And we still are.” “The question we are facing is whether in the years ahead we have more freedom or less freedom. More rights or fewer,” Biden said. “I know what I want the answer to be. This is not a time to be complacent. That’s why I’m running for reelection.” The announcement was expected, but followed months of speculation from critics and allies alike as to whether Biden, 80, would launch a reelection campaign. Biden, a Democrat who is just the second Catholic president in U.S. history, frequently discusses the role of his faith on issues like labor, immigration and the environment. Biden routinely attends Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation. But his positions on some issues, perhaps most notably his platform supporting legal abortion, including his call to end a prohibition on taxpayer funding for abortion, have come under fire from many Catholics.
uDeSantis lowers Florida’s threshold to impose death penalty, signs legislation criticized by state’s Catholic bishops. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill April 20 that will eliminate the state’s requirement that juries in capital punishment cases agree unanimously to recommend death sentences. The legislation, which has met criticism from the state’s bishops, lowers the number of jurors needed to hand down a death sentence to the lowest threshold of any U.S. state, from 12 to eight. In an April 20 statement on his approval of the legislation, DeSantis said, “Once a defendant in a capital case is found guilty by a unanimous jury, one juror should not be able to veto a capital sentence.” But in an April 13 statement after the Florida Legislature passed the legislation, Michael Sheedy, Florida Catholic Conference executive director, called it “stunning” that Florida lawmakers “would weaken a common-sense law passed just six years ago that required unanimous agreement by a jury in order to sentence someone to death.”
uCatholic priests martyred during Paris Commune are beatified. Five Catholic priests were beatified April 22 in France, 152 years after they were seized as hostages and shot in the street by rebels of the Paris Commune.
abortion early in pregnancy, and claim the drug is being singled out for political reasons. The Supreme Court’s decision maintains the status quo while the case plays out.
In an April 21 statement, President Joe Biden said he would continue “to stand by FDA’s evidence-based approval of mifepristone, and my Administration will continue to defend FDA’s independent, expert authority to review, approve, and regulate a wide range of prescription drugs.”
“The stakes could not be higher for women across America. I will continue to fight politically-driven attacks on women’s health,” Biden said. “But let’s be clear — the American people must continue to use their vote as their voice, and elect a Congress who will pass a law restoring the protections of Roe v. Wade.”
Erik Baptist, senior counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, one of the groups challenging the FDA’s approval of mifepristone, said in a statement that “As is common practice, the Supreme Court has decided to maintain the status quo that existed prior to our lawsuit while our challenge to the FDA’s illegal approval of chemical abortion drugs and its removal of critical safeguards for those drugs moves forward.”
The revolutionary Commune was declared March 18, 1871, a year after worker groups in Paris had refused to accept France’s surrender to an invading Prussian army and standardized wages, commandeered empty housing for the homeless and turned the city’s factories into cooperatives. Its leaders also targeted France’s predominant Catholic Church, abolishing religious education and using places of worship as political clubs. “The story of these martyrs offers a warning for today, but also a message of hope from a Christian perspective,” said Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Causes of Saints. “The circumstances to which they fell victim — with several dozen other people also massacred by revolutionaries in their violent folly — constitute a tangled and complex history. It mixes all kinds of issues, overlapping conditions, social ideologies and anti-religious sentiments, appeals to truth but also rivers of lies that poison mankind.”
uProgress made protecting minors, but adults remain vulnerable to clergy abuse, say experts. The Catholic Church in the U.S. has made progress over the past two decades in confronting sexual abuse against minors within the Church, but has only begun to address the vulnerability of adults to sexual abuse by clergy, religious and lay leaders, experts told OSV News. “We’ve accomplished a tremendous amount in the area of (creating) safe environments,” said Suzanne Healy, chairwoman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ National Review Board, a lay-led group that advises the bishops on preventing sexual abuse of minors. At the same time, “there’s still a lot more work to be done” in extending safeguards to adults, she said. The newly revised papal reform, “Vos Estis Lux Mundi,” which specifically includes “vulnerable adults,” presents “a new frontier” for the Church, said Deacon Bernard Nojadera, executive director of the USCCB’s Secretariat of Child and Youth Protection, explaining that pastoral counseling and spiritual direction are particular areas of vulnerability to address. Other survivors’ advocates told OSV News that better reporting and information sharing regarding abuse investigations — possibly in the form of a national database — is needed.
uCardinal: Papal commission begins building safeguarding culture in Curia. The heads of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection
“Our case seeking to put women’s health above politics continues on an expedited basis in the lower courts,” Baptist said. “The FDA must answer for the damage it has caused to the health of countless women and girls and the rule of law by failing to study how dangerous the chemical abortion drug regimen is and unlawfully removing every meaningful safeguard, even allowing for mail-order abortions. We look forward to a final outcome in this case that will hold the FDA accountable.”
In an April 22 statement, Bishop Michael Burbidge of Arlington, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, called the Supreme Court’s interim order “a tremendous disappointment, both for the loss of innocent preborn life from chemical abortion, and for the danger that chemical abortion poses to women.”
“It is wrong to allow the FDA’s greatly diminished health and safety standards for mifepristone to remain in place,” the bishop said. “The FDA acted unlawfully when it first approved, and later relaxed safety requirements for prescribing and dispensing the drug. It is our hope and prayer that the Court will eventually overturn the FDA’s improper actions.”
of Minors and a section of the Dicastery for Evangelization have signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at improving assistance to victims of abuse as well as bishops and local churches both in mission countries and emerging communities. U.S. Cardinal Seán O’Malley of Boston, president of the commission, and Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, pro-prefect for “the first evangelization and the new particular churches” section of the dicastery, signed the agreement of collaboration at the Vatican April 21. The enhanced collaboration will include sharing resources, information and formation and “promoting concrete structural change to build a culture of safeguarding,” according to Vatican News April 21. Cardinal O’Malley said Pope Francis’ new mandate calls for the papal commission “to promote a culture of safeguarding in all the dicasteries of the Curia. The agreement with the Dicastery for Evangelization is just the first step of building that culture and “we’ll be working with other dicasteries in a similar fashion.”
uPope appeals for end to violence in Sudan. Pope Francis has appealed for an end to violence in Sudan and a return to dialogue.
“I invite everyone to pray for our Sudanese brothers and sisters,” he said after reciting the midday “Regina Coeli” prayer with about 30,000 people gathered in St. Peter’s Square April 23. The pope had already expressed his concern about Sudan after the midday prayer April 16; fighting between forces loyal to two different generals has led to the deaths of hundreds of civilians since April 13. The power struggle has brought violence, shootings and bombings to the capital Khartoum and elsewhere. Electricity, internet and access to food and water have been cut off for many of the people. Pope Francis said April 23, “Unfortunately, the situation in Sudan remains grave, and therefore I renew my appeal for an end to the violence as soon as possible and for a return to the path of dialogue.”
uJudges block Texas executions in day hailed by Catholic leaders as victory for life. Texas was without any scheduled executions April 21 after judges intervened in capital punishment cases to allow two men on death row a new opportunity to clear their names. A Texas judge on April 19 canceled the scheduled execution of a death-row inmate in the state after a new appeal in the case claimed he was wrongfully convicted on false testimony from two key witnesses in his 2001
trial. The same day, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of another Texas death-row inmate, Rodney Reed, in his efforts to seek DNA testing that his appeal argues may prove his innocence. The Catholic Church teaches that the death penalty is morally inadmissible and that the Church is committed to its global abolition. Jennifer Carr Allmon, executive director of the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops, told OSV News that “it’s the first time in my life and in my career that we have had a day in Texas where abortion is illegal and there are no scheduled executions on the Texas Department of Criminal Justice website.” Allmon said she believed the mood on capital punishment is shifting in Texas, which has a reputation for being one of the biggest death penalty states. “We had a really exciting day,” she said. “It felt like life was winning, which was really encouraging.”
uCatholic leaders, laity join in ‘Linking Arms for Change’ to push for gun safety in Tennessee. Thousands upon thousands of people in Nashville, Tennessee, representing multiple faiths and backgrounds, came together April 18 to create a three-mile human chain from Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt University Medical Center to the Cathedral of the Incarnation to the Tennessee State Capitol, in honor of the victims of The Covenant School shooting and to urge legislators to pass multiple gun safety measures. Among the thousands were Bishop Mark Spalding and several clergy and laity from around the Diocese of Nashville. The Diocese of Knoxville held a similar event simultaneously that encircled Market Square in downtown Knoxville. The event was put together by Voices for a Safer Tennessee, a newly formed “nonpartisan statewide coalition dedicated to prioritizing gun safety and advocating for common sense gun laws to make communities across Tennessee safer for all of us,” according to the official website, safertn org. Erin Hafkenschiel Donnelly, whose family members are parishioners of Christ the King, is a founding member of the coalition. She was in a meeting March 29, two days after the shooting in which six people, including three 9-year-old children, were killed, when she found that she couldn’t focus on the topic at hand. “I just kept focusing on the school and the families and feeling like we had to do something,” Hafkenschiel Donnelly said.
By Christina Capecchi For The Catholic Spirit
Lino Rulli launched his media career in Minnesota, offering popular segments on WCCO-TV as the “Soul Man” and hosting an Emmy-winning cable show called “Generation Cross.” In 2006, he was offered a dream job: to host a Sirius XM Radio show. The gig required Rulli to relocate to New York City. He packed his bags.
“The Catholic Guy Show” became a hit, and Rulli, 51 — a graduate of Hill-Murray School in Maplewood and St. John’s University in Collegeville — assumed he’d live in New York for the rest of his life.
But he felt the pull back to Minnesota, and in 2020, Rulli bought a house in a St. Paul suburb and settled in with Jill, his wife of seven years.
Q What brought you back to Minnesota?
A I never thought I’d return to Minnesota. But the more time I spent away from Minnesota, the more proud I was to be Minnesotan. Jill and I had come back to Minnesota for Thanksgiving one year, and just being with my family and my friends made me wonder, “What if we ever came back here?”
With the biggest decisions of my life, it seems like I’m not sure where they came from and I don’t even see them as my idea. When it’s something I’d never planned on, it’s like, “Maybe God is doing something.”
Q And you had the freedom to host the show anywhere?
A Right. I’ve done the show from five different continents and 30 different states.
A month before the move, I panicked. What have I gotten myself into? Am I making a horrible decision? Am I ready to bump into old friends from high school and college, people who really know me? There’s a sense of anonymity in New York, which was awesome.
Q What did you see as the upsides to returning?
A One of my best friends said, “New York tries to kill us every day.” Minnesota is just easier. It’s better living. Being close to my parents as they get older was a big motivation. Two days ago, I went over because Mom has a few light bulbs out in the kitchen and I don’t want her on stepladders.
I spend three or four months of the year out of the country, so when I’m home, it’s nicer to have a real home and have life be here versus the chaos and energy of New York.
Q Do you see Minnesota with fresh eyes?
A Yeah! All the snow and cold is fun again. A bunch of my college buddies chipped in and bought us a grill. In New York, we couldn’t grill. All of the simple pleasures in my life that I never enjoyed — on a Sunday, now we go to church, we go pick up some meat and then we grill and watch the Vikings lose.
Q You’ve got to have tons of content for your show.
A My gripe in media has been that things are too New York or LA-centric. When I did the show for all those years, I didn’t talk to New York because I didn’t think anyone could relate.
But once I moved to Minnesota, I talk about Minnesota every day. People can relate to a rural or suburban average life. I name the wild animals outside. “Hey, Carl, the coyote was walking by last night.” I got a telescope. I’m looking out at the moon now, because we couldn’t see the stars in New York.
I had no idea it would offer so much content! On the other hand, when I’m sitting at home in rural Minnesota, there’s literally nothing going on. So, the content is different, but it’s more relatable.
Q Nothing going on and two hours a day to fill!
A It’s always hard to fill the time because I care a lot. Our radio show isn’t built on guests or caller segments. Anybody can do that, but that isn’t honoring what God gave me — or reaching someone who wouldn’t otherwise be reached. I can’t do a Catholic radio show just for Catholics — then it would no longer be evangelization. And I wouldn’t be broadcasting. I’d be narrow-casting.
Q Your reach is wide.
A A priest called in once and asked me a question about my musical taste. I said, “I’m a big Foo Fighters fan, but I’ve never been a Rolling Stones guy — that old bag of bones, Mick Jagger. The next day a friend called and said, “Hey, that line you had was funny, and you know who else thought that was funny? Mick Jagger!”
Q How’s married life?
A I was always a huge commitment-phobe. I have no explanation as to how I’m married or why I’m married. I’m surprised that it feels as natural to me as it does. You could call it a grace from the sacrament or you could just credit the vodka. It seems to work.
Q Would you ever have guessed that you’d build a career at this intersection of Catholicism and broadcasting?
A It’s a bizarre path. I get to be a part of other people’s lives — which means there are people out there who are just as warped as I am. I’m a sinner, and I’m a big mess, but I’m still the guy that you can relate to, or the guy you go to a bar with, and those voices are almost non-existent when it comes to religion. It’s weird to have somebody talk about — not the beauty of the sacrament of reconciliation but somebody who can find the humor and anxiety in it all. I’ve heard people say, “If Lino can be Catholic, almost anybody can,” so I give people a lot of hope.
Q How many countries have you been to?
A I’ve got this app that says I’ve been to 63 countries. But that’s only 25 percent of the world!
Q What’s next for you?
A I know I’ve got another book that I want to write. Five or six times a year, I bring my listeners to my favorite places. That’s another thing that God is asking me to do that I never expected. When God is doing something and it was not a plan, I’m happy to do it — but I’m also confused.
Q How many pilgrimages have you led so far?
A I’ve probably done only 50. I’ve been really lucky to have these experiences, and at a certain age comes wanting to give back. This is one way I give back. One time I was in the empty tomb of Christ in Jerusalem, and I remember asking, “Why me? Why do I get to have these experiences?” It felt like part of the answer was: to bring this to other people. Now I feel more of a responsibility.
Q How does your love of travel tie into your faith?
A One of my favorite things in the world is to go to a church that has a piece of art that’s centuries old and to think about all the people who have come before me, to stand and pray in front of that same piece of stained glass or marble.
I love being connected to the history of the Church, but I also like being connected to the people, knowing they were just as filled with doubts or fears as I am and going to Mary or Jesus and begging for help. I like that feeling of being a part of that. That rock of Catholicism gives me some stability in my unstable life.
Q Humor is part of your spirituality, too.
A To me, everything is funny. And the more it’s not supposed to be funny, the funnier it is.
If you’re not going to laugh about it, you’re going to cry about it. I’ve used humor as a defense mechanism, and it helps me so as to not completely give up on myself or my faith. Laughter, for me, is essential because otherwise there’s no way forward.
Black Catholic religious vocations emerge from a long tradition of faith, nurtured by silence and prayer within the life of the Church, said a religious sister at an event dedicated to those vocations.
“I stand on the shoulders of giants. …Vocations grow; they don’t just happen,” said Sister Mary Francis Bard, a member of the Sisters of the Holy Family, in an April 23 reflection for the National Day of Prayer for Black Vocations.
The online gathering — moderated
by Nate Tinner-Williams, co-founder and editor of Black Catholic Messenger and a Josephite seminarian — was sponsored by the National Black Catholic Seminarians Association, which established the observance in 2010. Founded in 1970, the nonprofit NBCSA, an affiliate of the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus, supports Black Catholic seminarians preparing for priesthood and religious life in the U.S.
The day of prayer is annually held on the Sunday closest to the ordination anniversary of Venerable Augustus Tolton (1854-1897), a former slave who became the first known Black Catholic priest from the United States.
Rejected by Catholic seminaries in the U.S. because of his race, Tolton entered formation at the Pontifical Collegium Urbanum de Propaganda Fide in Rome; he was ordained there in 1886 at St. John Lateran Basilica. He returned to the U.S. to serve in Chicago.
Father Tolton’s parents, both Catholic, were instrumental in fostering his faith — particularly his mother, Martha Jane, who was left to raise Tolton and his siblings after his father died while serving in the Union Army during the Civil War.
“(Religious vocations) come from families,” said Sister Mary Francis, the first woman religious invited to address the annual prayer gathering. “Nobody
has a perfect family, but (vocations) come from families.”
In addition, vocations derive from the prayer of loved ones and “from vibrant parishes, and dynamic schools, colleges and universities,” said Sister Mary Francis, who is Black and serves at the New Orleans motherhouse of the Sisters of the Holy Family, a historically Black religious community.
Both “sacred Scripture and the lives of the saints confirm that God calls all kinds of people” to religious life, regardless of skin color, she stressed.
“I refuse to believe God does not call people that look like me,” Sister Mary Francis said.
Is it possible to be a serious Catholic and at the same time a successful lawyer?
A group of about 24 attorneys at Holy Family in St. Louis Park asked themselves that question last year and decided to meet monthly and search for answers. They call themselves the Tower Society, a reference to the Tower of London where St. Thomas More, the patron saint of lawyers, demonstrated his commitment to God’s law, a stance which cost him his life.
The Tower Society’s members said they face many challenges these days, including a contentious professional environment that often has little room for the virtues of mercy and charity. Artful advocacy can take precedence over a search for truth, and frequently success requires long days pursuing billable hours and searching for new clients.
Tower Society member Jennifer Bullard, 38, acknowledges these challenges, but believes Catholic attorneys have an even higher hill to climb. “A Catholic lawyer generally prioritizes family and Church, which does not always align well with the race for success in the legal arena.”
Tensions involving hot-button social issues have also increased in recent years, according to some members. Peter Favorite, 51, said that a number of Catholic lawyers have told him of law firm pressure “to regulate the very words coming out of their mouths — the pronouns they use for fellow lawyers — in a manner that does not correspond with the Catholic view that there is a ‘givenness’ to our bodies.” Bullard mentioned her law firm’s recent widespread praise, initiated by firm leadership, of a lawyer’s pro bono work to “correct” a birth certificate to reflect an individual’s preferred sex. Tower Society members agree that dissent from secular orthodoxies on abortion, gay marriage and LGBT issues is becoming increasingly difficult.
Attorney William Bullard, 38, Jennifer’s husband, summed up the challenge this way: Tower Society members were drawn together “to strengthen our collective Catholic backbone.”
At some Tower Society meetings, guest speakers reflect on how the Catholic intellectual and social tradition can inform members’ professional work. Topics have included how Catholic lawyers might answer Pilate’s question: “What is truth?”; define the “common good”;
and understand ways that Catholic social teaching intersects with efforts to promote diversity, equity and inclusion. Other gatherings are priest-led “Catholic Boot Camps” that focus on members’ spiritual formation. This is vitally important to successfully navigating an increasingly secularized workplace, said Father Joseph Johnson, pastor of Holy Family. Lawyers are highly educated in their professional fields, Father Johnson said, but he often finds that “their catechesis ended in eighth grade.”
At the Society’s March meeting, members spent several hours trading stories of workplace challenges. Though many described the problems in stark terms, “we decided we needed something more than an end-to-end pity party,” noted Jennifer Bullard. “We came searching for glimmers of hope and strategies for thriving in our profession.”
Some members emphasized that cultivating excellent legal skills goes a long way to securing one’s status at a firm. Tower Society member Nick Nelson, 40, agreed, and pointed out the importance of viewing excellence more broadly. “The Catholic attorney who is successful in attracting work and clients to the firm will make
To learn more about the Tower Society and discuss how such a group might be started at any parish, contact Mark Johnson at mjjohnson7993@gmail com
himself critical to the firm’s financial success and grease the skids for his acceptance,” he said.
William Bullard stressed the importance of building strong relationships with colleagues. “An important strategy for success and joy as a Catholic lawyer is simply being the best human being you can be with other lawyers at the firm,” he remarked. “Show a willingness to listen, engage in civil conversation and pay attention to the little things — inviting coworkers to lunch who may never have stepped foot in a church before, sending a condolence or congratulations note regarding an important event in a partner’s personal life.” At the same time, said William, “let them know Catholicism’s importance to your life. You may find some surprising friends and allies in the workplace, even among some who strongly disagree with you on religious matters.”
Favorite pointed out that fellow firm members who’ve read only unfavorable accounts of Catholics in the secular media “are astounded when they find in you a joyful, multi-faceted Catholic, and are often interested to learn more about the ground for that joy.” Several Tower Society members said it is sometimes necessary to consider making dramatic changes. Nelson decided to leave a large, prestigious law firm and join a firm where he could better harmonize his professional life and his vocations as a Catholic husband and father.
Nelson acknowledges that Catholic lawyers face challenges. But he said they also have a unique capacity to promote the common good. “Good lawyers know a key to legal success is to fully understand the other side’s point of view — finding the ‘steelman’ in the other side’s view of a matter rather than the ‘strawman,’” Nelson said. Catholic lawyers “have a special ability and responsibility to bring that skill to bear on the non-legal divisions that bedevil our world,” he said.
Johnson, a Twin Cities writer, is a member of the Tower Society.
For The Catholic Spirit
Few pedestrians were on the sidewalks of Summit and Lexington avenues in St. Paul on the morning of April 22. Fresh snow flurries rested on the frozen ground while a bitter wind swept the Twin Cities.
But the April cold did not deter 14 pilgrims from Minneapolis and St. Paul, who set off from the Chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul and walked a roughly three-mile route to St. Peter Claver in the Rondo neighborhood. They dedicated the walk to racial reconciliation.
“It felt like an unreal event that I had the privilege of hosting and attending,” said Ali Brutus, 24, of Long Island, New York, a first-year student in UST’s Catholic Studies graduate program.
Brutus helped orchestrate the pilgrimage in her role as the Walking Together Fellow for the nonprofit Modern Catholic Pilgrim, which was founded in San Diego in 2017 and now ministers out of both San Diego and St. Paul, where it occupies an office on the University of St. Thomas campus. The organization works to build up a network of pilgrims and hosts that can serve to deepen the faith and solidarity of communities within the Catholic Church.
Will Peterson, founder and president of Modern Catholic Pilgrim, said a pilgrimage is a way to reflect on and pray for a specific intention — in this case, racial justice.
“This pilgrimage stems from our belief that the
work toward racial justice and reconciliation is important and necessary for the Catholic Church, and that pilgrimage is a great way to bring together prayer and action in a real way in our tradition,” he said.
Modern Catholic Pilgrim has organized other prayerful walks in the Twin Cities, including a November 2021 two-mile walk for racial justice in Minneapolis, from Ascension to the Basilica of St. Mary. The pilgrimage organized by Brutus began at 9 a.m. at the UST chapel. After Marta Pereira, associate director of the university’s campus ministry, welcomed the group, Brutus led them in an opening prayer. Father Lawrence Blake, the chaplain and director of campus ministry at UST, read Luke 24:13-35, which recounts the encounter between the Apostles and Jesus on the road to Emmaus. Brutus delivered a short reflection on the passage, connecting the walk of the apostles to the walk that the group was about to undertake.
The group prayed a “Litany for Racial Justice,” which was first recited at a June 2, 2020, prayer service on the John Carroll University campus near Cleveland, Ohio. The group then walked two miles to St. Thomas More, where they stopped for prayer and water. Four pilgrims joined the journey there, including three seminarians from The St. Paul Seminary and St. John Vianney College Seminary in St. Paul. With a blessing from Jesuit Father R.J. Fichtinger, pastor of St. Thomas More, the pilgrims set out again. After a blustery, mile walk via Lexington Avenue and then over Interstate 94, the pilgrims landed at their final destination, St. Peter Claver
church. The parish’s patron saint, a Spanish Jesuit missionary to South America, is considered the patron saint of slaves. The parish has served Black Catholics in St. Paul since 1892, the parish website says.
Once at St. Peter Claver, the pilgrims offered their intentions for the walk — which they had written on small pieces of paper at the beginning of the pilgrimage — at the Mary altar in the church.
Those who made the journey, 18 in total, said the pilgrimage was intensely meaningful.
Seminarian Brady Martinez, 21, who is in his second year at SJV, said his belief in the universality of the Church moved him to take part.
“It has been a movement in my heart, I think, to show the universal love of Christ, that it is not just for a particular group of people, but that it is for everyone,” he said.
Benita Amedee, 57, a parishioner of St. Peter Claver for 25 years who was originally from Iowa, said she was a panelist at an April 18 event connected to the pilgrimage, where she shared her experience of being a Black Catholic. The event, the Walking Together Panel, was also organized by Brutus for the Modern Catholic Pilgrim and was hosted in the Iverson Center for Faith on the UST campus. About 15 people were at the event, which was moderated by Father Christopher Collins, vice president for mission at the university.
“We are asked to do really difficult things from the Church, and why wouldn’t racial justice be part of it?” said Amedee. “I really enjoyed just getting to know people and being connected in that way, bringing the churches together.”
When I was asked to write this column for The Catholic Spirit, I agreed without paying attention to the date for which I was asked to provide a reflection for the Sunday readings.
Alas, had I known I was going to be writing for the Fourth Sunday of Easter, also known as Good Shepherd Sunday, I think I may have passed on the invitation, as there are so many other priests far more deserving of writing on the topic of being a shepherd. Yet, since I did agree to pen this column, I shall do my best to offer a worthy reflection on shepherding.
When I was ordained a priest in 2010, I took on the role of being a shepherd in the name of Christ. Whatever authority or credibility I possess as a priest, it is only commensurate to the degree to which I follow Christ. Truly, the Good Shepherd is not Pope Francis, Archbishop Hebda or our local pastor; it is and always will be Jesus Christ alone. Yet, interestingly enough, in the 10th chapter of St. John’s Gospel, which we read at Mass this weekend, the Lord does not refer to himself as a shepherd, but instead as the gate. “I am the gate for the sheep,” Jesus informs the Pharisees.
As the gate, Christ positions himself in the role of the mediator
of salvation, through whom all must pass to be saved. Yet, in order for the sheep to pass through the gate and enter into the gatekeeper’s pasture, someone needs to lead them. By establishing the priesthood, the Savior provides a means for his people to join him in paradise.
Many parishes will honor their priests on Good Shepherd Sunday, but this honor should not be one of aggrandizement for the priest. Instead, the honor should be a call for the priest to live up to the model of the Good Shepherd. As St. Peter states in his epistle that serves as the second reading this weekend, the priest is called to follow in the footsteps of Christ, who is identified by the Prince of Apostles — in a wonderfully strong turn of phrase — as, “the shepherd and guardian of your souls.” To whatever extent a priest can be said to be a shepherd, it is only to the extent that he is first, one of the sheep. No doubt, such an insight is behind Pope Francis’ famous remark that a priest should smell like the flock.
We live during an era of hyper-individuality that prizes autonomy as the ultimate good for a human person. In such a society, shepherds and sheep are bizarre images that strike people as insulting or even threatening. Nevertheless, as Catholics, we must embrace such imagery and identify with our role as sheep through humble obedience to Christ and those whom his providence has placed in roles of leadership over us. Similarly, should the Lord ever place us into a role of shepherding people through his gate, we should carry out such a task with humility and never for our own personal gain. It is indeed by acting this way that we will then be able to truly claim God as our shepherd and dwell in his house forever.
Father Meyers is pastor of St. Francis Xavier in Buffalo. He can be reached at nate meyers@stfxb org
Sunday, April 30
Fourth Sunday of Easter Acts 2:14a, 36-41 1 Pt 2:20b-25 Jn 10:1-10
Monday, May 1 Acts 11:1-18 Jn 10:11-18
Tuesday, May 2 St. Athanasius, bishop and doctor of the Church Acts 11:19-26 Jn 10:22-30
Wednesday, May 3 Sts. Philip and James, apostles 1 Cor 15:1-8 Jn 14:6-14
Thursday, May 4 Acts 13:13-25 Jn 13:16-20
Friday, May 5 Acts 13:26-33 Jn 14:1-6
Q I am writing because I keep coming back to the same question, “Am I a good person?”
I am taking care of my husband who suffers from Alzheimer’s, as well as my parents who need a lot of attention. I can’t always find the time to pray the rosary every day (like St. John Paul II or St. Mother Teresa did), and I just can’t escape the Catholic guilt that I feel all the time.
A Thank you for such a heartfelt question. I want to get to a clear and helpful answer to your primary question of “Am I a good person?” But before that, it might be helpful to note three things.
First, when it comes to “Catholic guilt,” it might be helpful to cut through this right away. I’m sure that all of us have heard of “Catholic guilt.” But is that really a thing? My mom used to say, “There is nothing ‘Catholic’ about guilt … it’s just guilt. If I’ve done something wrong, then I ought to feel guilty; there is nothing specifically ‘Catholic’ about it!” That always made sense to me.
Think about it: Guilt is a good and necessary thing. Try to imagine a person who never felt guilty. This would not be a healthy or emotionally balanced person. They might experience what psychologists would call antisocial personality disorder. A sociopath is someone who doesn’t feel remorse having done something wrong or when they choose to not do the right thing. I have the sense that we would not want that.
Guilt is good. Guilt is a sign that our conscience is working.
At the same time, there is “false guilt.” False guilt is when I feel guilty for no real reason. This is not a virtue, and it is not at all helpful. It does not honor God, nor does it benefit anybody in the least. Therefore, one of the challenges of maturing in our emotional and spiritual development is discerning between true guilt and false guilt. What is God asking of me, and what is he not asking of me? Just because one person is called to pray a certain
way or to live a certain way does not mean that God is asking that same thing of you. Mother Teresa was called to run a religious community of sisters who cared for the poorest of the poor; you are called to care for the people in your own family. One practice that might help a person in figuring out the difference between false guilt and real guilt might be to give yourself an honest assessment of what you are able to do and what you are not able to do. God does not expect us to do something we are incapable of.
Second, I wonder if a more accurate phrasing of your question is not “Am I a good person?” but rather “Am I good enough?” As a being made in God’s image, it is good that you exist. Your very existence is a blessing. Beyond that, we hopefully all can recognize that there is both good and evil in us. As Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn stated, “The line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being.” If we give ourselves even a cursory examination of conscience, I think that we will all quickly discover that we choose both good and evil regularly. Because of this, I think that the question we all want answered is, “Am I good enough?” I already know that I’m not as good as I could be. Even more, I already know that I am not as good as the Lord himself. So, all I am left with is the hope, “Is there enough good in me that I can go to heaven?”
The answer is yes and no. Yes, you are made in God’s image. If you are baptized, you are also an adopted child of God. Because of this, you are good. You also choose many good things: you serve, you pray, you love, you forgive. Therefore, you could be described as a good person. And yet, none of us is good enough. I could serve better, I could pray more, I could love more truly, I could forgive more fully. We are not “good enough.” And we never will be.
Now, I know that some people will read this and condemn themselves. Some will read this and throw up their hands and say, “Then what’s the point?” And that discouragement and despair would be valid, except for one significant reality: Jesus Christ. Because of Jesus Christ, we always have hope. Even when we are not good enough, even when we do not love enough, even when we fail to be the people God has created us to be, we still have hope. Our problem is that we think that our hope lies in our goodness. It does not! Our hope is in Jesus and in what Jesus has
Saturday, May 6 Acts 13:44-52 Jn 14:7-14
Sunday, May 7 Fifth Sunday of Easter Acts 6:1-7 1 Pt 2:4-9 Jn 14:1-12
Monday, May 8 Acts 14:5-18 Jn 14:21-26
Tuesday, May 9 Acts 14:19-28 Jn 14:27-31a
Wednesday, May 10 Acts 15:1-6 Jn 15:1-8
Thursday, May 11 Acts 15:7-21 Jn 15:9-11
Friday, May 12 Acts 15:22-31 Jn 15:12-17
Saturday, May 13 Acts 16:1-10 Jn 15:18-21
Sunday, May 14 Sixth Sunday of Easter Acts 8:5-8, 14-17 1 Pt 3:15-18 Jn 14:15-21
APOSTLES PHILIP AND JAMES THE LESS Philip and James the Less, son of Alphaeus, are listed among the Twelve Apostles commissioned by Jesus. Philip brought Nathaniel to Christ, had a part in feeding the 5,000, and at the Last Supper, when asked to be shown the Father, was told by Christ: “Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip?” He may have evangelized in Turkey. Not much is known about James, but “the less” may refer to his height. One tradition puts him in Syria, while another has him martyred in the same Jerusalem persecution as James the Righteous. The feast day for Sts. Philip and James the Less is May 3.
Am I a good person?ASK FATHER MIKE | FATHER MICHAEL SCHMITZ FAITH AT HOME | LAURA KELLY FANUCCI
Remember when — as we watched Mass online or from cars in the church parking lot and as every part of parish life changed overnight — we said we’d never take the Eucharist for granted again?
Three years ago, the pandemic was just beginning. The world was shutting down.
Daily life suddenly centered around home. As each of us grappled with seismic changes in society, an unexpected ripple effect was that the domestic church became the primary expression of faith for most Catholics. No longer could we gather for regular celebrations of the Eucharist in person, but we could join in prayer with the universal Church from our kitchens, bedrooms and living rooms.
Do we remember how we promised we’d never forget?
The third anniversary of the pandemic lockdowns invites us to pray about what this time brought to our lives, families and faith. Since home was where we spent many of 2020’s intense months, praying at home can help us continue to navigate a changed world.
To remember what Catholicism teaches about the domestic church, it helps to return to the Catechism: “In our own time, in a world often alien and even hostile to faith, believing families are of primary importance as centers of living, radiant faith. For this reason the Second Vatican Council, using an ancient expression, calls the family the “ecclesia domestica” (CCC 1656).
Long before COVID or quarantine entered our daily discourse experience, we were called to remember that the Church is not limited to the four walls of a holy
At the Easter Vigil we celebrate the great story of salvation. But it is not just religious people that have salvation stories. Every culture (even the most secular) has them, and they provide the basic logic for our morality and ideas.
One popular salvation story goes something like this: There was a time long ago (say, the Middle Ages) when people lived in ignorance, and were slaves to superstition, religion and tradition. This led to religious wars and violence — a sort of war of all against all — as they competed for scarce resources. Life was mostly suffering and squalor. But at some point, so the story goes, people started to use reason (which they apparently hadn’t before), invented modern science, and learned that religion must be kept private and could not be the basis of objective thinking, much less of public policy. We discovered modern forms of government, economics and technology, which brought about peace, convenience and prosperity like never before.
Now, this is not a prelude to bashing anything in our modern world. I quite like our world most of the time, and we all benefit from its advances in countless ways. My point, rather, is that this can be a salvation story. It can tell a story of humanity as isolated, ignorant, suffering and violent, only recently reborn by a process of enlightenment.
The Easter Vigil tells a different story, which goes something like this: Once, there was a time when people lived in harmony with each other and the earth, for their Creator had made them for this. Not individuals, competition and scarcity, but rather unity, the common good and abundance ruled. Religion
building. Any time and place we gather as family can be a domestic church, too.
How was your own domestic church changed by the pandemic?
You might have spent every waking moment of 2020 or 2021 with your family, or you may have experienced deep isolation, wishing you could gather with children or grandchildren like before. You might have missed important celebrations: weddings, graduations, anniversaries, funerals or births. You may have been so overwhelmed by virtual work and distance learning, divisions in churches and communities, or anxieties about the future that you found it difficult to pray.
Or, you might have found that regular routines of prayer amid the chaos kept you going.
No matter what you experienced, God’s promise to remain constant and faithful holds true. Christ has stayed with us, never abandoning us even as the world turned upside down.
In thanksgiving to our faithful God, we can commit ourselves to deepening our domestic churches as we seek to strengthen our parishes. One simple step we can take is to keep praying at home, for ourselves and others.
Set a special time and place for daily prayer where you live. Let yourself enjoy the physical presence of sacramentals like candles, rosaries, holy water or prayer cards that remind you of God’s presence at home. Place a crucifix, icon or holy artwork on your wall to remind all who enter that this is a place of prayer.
May we give thanks each time we gather now, for the grace of worshipping together in person.
Most of all, may we never take the gift of the Eucharist for granted. May we savor every second of the sacraments and Scriptures we get to receive. May we stick to our promise never to forget.
Fanucci is an author, speaker and founder of Mothering Spirit, an online gathering place on parenting and spirituality. She is a parishioner of St. Joseph the Worker in Maple Grove.
and tradition were the very foundations of this, for it was God who gave both. Only later did sin enter — a sort of unfettered universal competition — in which oppression and bloodshed became the norm. But our instincts for our original unity were never completely lost, and so God slowly called us back from fragmentation toward him and each other. Like the first Adam, Jesus Christ’s body became the center of unity, and called all to become part of it by baptism. Being Christ’s body means we have already died and risen with Christ, and so are freed from the fear of death, on which all the world’s violence is based. Though we know our bodies will die, we can offer them freely for our neighbors, even to death, knowing that when we do, eternal life lies just beyond the veil.
Let me note just one difference between these two stories. While the first story can seem optimistic at times, at its core it is very pessimistic. For it usually implies that, without modern institutions and technologies as external safeguards, human beings tend to be extremely dangerous to one another. Lust for power, violence and greed is who we essentially are, and the modern world is so much better than all others because we have discovered techniques that keep us from destroying each other. That is a very pessimistic view of human nature because it means that each of us is most fundamentally a threat to one another, including our closest friends or our spouses. Fear all around. Universal suspicion. No real intimacy. What a nightmare.
The Christian story is utterly different. The deep reality of sin is firmly acknowledged, but not as a necessary part of human nature, for we are fundamentally made for each other. In baptism, we receive the forgiveness of those very sins by which we fragmented ourselves and re-become one in Christ’s body. In our story, the “law” of scarcity and competition is a lie. Life is a party, a feast. That’s what Easter is all about.
Miller is director of Pastoral Care and Outreach at Assumption in St. Paul. He has a Ph.D. in theology from Duke University, and lives with his family at the Maurin House, a Catholic Worker community in Columbia Heights. You can reach him at colin miller1@protonmail com
The Minnesota Catholic Conference’s Families First Project to remove economic roadblocks to forming and raising a family includes a simple proposal that would make life a bit easier for new parents by reducing the tax burden they encounter when purchasing necessities for their newborn baby. It is a sales tax exemption on baby products. When young couples consider whether to start a family, the start-up costs on items like car seats, cribs and strollers can be daunting. Right now, all families, including families with infants, face skyrocketing costs on necessities. On average, new parents might spend between $12,000 and $20,000 or more on newborns through the first year of their lives. First-time parents face the largest upfront costs as they acquire essential items for their infants. Minnesota cannot afford to lose young families who will support and sustain our welldocumented aging population. Minnesota is facing a demographic cliff; we have not had replacement fertility levels since 2006, according to the Minnesota State Demographic Center. With increasingly low birth rates, offering a small but impactful solution to families like eliminating the state sales tax on essential baby items could help lessen some of the fear felt by prospective parents. The state’s $17.6 billion surplus in 2023 demonstrates that we can afford to support growing families, especially low-income families who are most impacted by sales tax.
One solution: Eliminate the state sales tax on essential baby items.
HF2125 (Engen) / SF2182 (Coleman) is a bipartisan bill that would expand the state sales tax exemption for certain baby products. Specifically, this proposal would put families first by adding baby wipes, cribs, bassinets, crib and bassinet mattresses, crib and bassinet sheets, changing tables, changing pads, strollers, car seats and car seat bases, baby swings, bottle sterilizers and infant eating utensils to the list of tax-free items that are considered essential.
A quick search of places like Amazon and Target reveals, on average, a parent will spend nearly $2,000 on the items covered by the exemption expansion — with the sales tax on the items totaling about $130. Although $130 out of nearly $2,000 does not seem like an overwhelming number, it can make a difference in the lives of new families. With those savings, the parents could in turn purchase their crib mattress and sheets, or nearly pay for a changing table. Eliminating this tax on the big-ticket items is particularly vital for lower-income families who often live paycheck-topaycheck and are more impacted by inflation and sales tax.
Another bill to support families raising minor children would create a state child tax credit, offering a tax rebate for each child (HF1369/SF1754). Families are doing the hard work of raising the next generation amid immense economic pressure. For this reason, families should be the first recipients of economic relief. You can help get a robust child tax credit passed into law by contacting your legislators today.
Send them a message by visiting mncatholic org/actionalerts
I spent my Easter in an unusually green mode — and I don’t mean environmentallyconscious. I mean: stomach flu. The worst I’ve ever had.
I’d thought I’d escaped it. My husband became ill on Spy Wednesday. As he languished on the couch recovering ever so slowly, and between trips to the store for saltines and ginger ale, I attended the Triduum services solo. By the end of Easter Vigil, the most joyful Mass we celebrate all year, as the Exultet was still sounding in my heart, “This is the night, O truly blessed night!”, I was certain that indeed the dark desert of Lent was over, my husband was on the mend, and I had somehow evaded contagion.
But by 5 a.m. Easter morning, I felt a violent jolt backward. My Lent, it seems, would be extended, wave after nauseated wave well into the Octave.
Still, as strange as it might sound, it was an exceptionally meaningful Easter, and the stomach flu was almost a gift. I kept thinking about Mary Magdalene on that first early Easter morning, waiting and wondering in the dark, heartbroken and longing for comfort, lost in sorrow and confusion keeping watch at the tomb. And Jesus broke in upon her mourning in such a marvelous way, so unexpected. She thought he was the gardener. But it was Jesus, calling her by name, and she clung to him in wild relief. What an unspeakable moment that must have been.
CATHOLIC WATCHMEN | DEACON GORDON BIRD
Reminding myself to live in the joy of Easter throughout the year may sound like a lofty sentiment and a daunting quest. Yet we are in Eastertide — giving me plenty of opportunity to keep that attitude alive and create the fruitful habit of proclaiming the Gospel message of Easter joy at every opportunity God presents me.
I sense this is the intent of the 40-Day “Activated Disciple” Challenge going on now, as I and other members of parish-based Synod Evangelization Teams share Christ’s love as part of implementing the Synod in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
After recently completing the seven-week School of Discipleship, we are now working on establishing habits of virtue to help better live a life of faith. And to live it “radically,” as put by Jeff Cavins, leader of the School of Discipleship, which is offered through the Archbishop Flynn Catechetical Institute at The St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul.
It is a worthy initiative, albeit taken on to the chagrin of me and others with my parish who are seeking that joy amidst the other “No. 1 priorities” in life. But we are called to go through the challenge to help build habits and skills to grow in faith and “make disciples of all nations” (Mt 28:19) — starting with our own families and parish life.
Now that nearly two weeks have passed since
I know the parallel is hardly exact, but Jesus came to me, too, that terrible Easter morning. Mostly through the tenderness of my husband. He would stand over me and rub my back as I was ill. (And what a delightful thing that is to witness in your spouse.) His touch for me was so comforting, it felt like — it was — the touch of the Lord. How often Jesus makes himself present to me through my husband. This Easter it was as if the Lord was giving me my husband yet again as a gift, straight from his Sacred Heart to mine.
Jesus assured Mary Magdalene that morning that he would always be with her, and that she was worthy of receiving the good news of the resurrection, even before all the others. That he would trust her to rush back to his disciples to proclaim, “I have seen the Lord!” And it is as if the Lord keeps telling me, over and over through the love of my husband, you are worth being tenderly cared for. I want to receive that care as a revelation of the Lord’s presence.
Let us seek Jesus in the sacraments, of course. Let’s look for him and find him fully present in the Eucharist, certainly. But to be an Easter people, we want to be awake and alert to finding the Lord, risen and living indeed, in unexpected places, too. We want, just as Mary Magdalene did, to be quick to share with the darkened world around us the many ways that we have seen the Lord, the multitude of ways that he appears to us, loves us and touches us.
Lord, you are risen indeed! Strengthen us to live as Easter people, always looking for you, finding you in even the most unexpected places, and ready to share the good news with all who will listen. Amen. Alleluia.
Kelly Stanchina is the award-winning author of 12 books including Jesus Approaches, and a nationally recognized retreat leader and speaker. Visit her website at lizk org
the 40-Day Challenge launch on Palm Sunday, the man in the mirror tells me to practice what I preach as a Catholic Watchman and encounter Jesus in Scripture. Which means to be an active disciple versus a passive Christian curmudgeon. This should be a joyful activity. Actively proclaiming the joy of Easter is truly Christian. It is similar to daily prayer and being an authentic Christian father. Showing up physically and spiritually every day to our families is not a life of passivity. I have to remind myself more times than not to live always in Easter joy. St. Thomas Aquinas teaches that “joy is not a virtue distinct from charity, but an act or effect of charity (love).” This starts with the love for our Lord.
Encountering Jesus in the Bible helps us know, follow and love him. Through his resurrection, he defeated death — and that is whose side we want our families and loved ones to be on. That is the essence of the joy of Easter we need to proclaim daily.
To “make disciples of all nations” is a formidable mission indeed. The ancient practice of lectio divina (divine reading) with meditation, prayer and contemplation of sacred Scripture is the method used in the 40-Day Challenge to embrace biblical passages for daily living. Experiencing lectio divina individually or in group activities helps participants focus on what God is revealing through his words. In time, we can live the Scripture passages and attract others to the saving knowledge of Jesus — proclaiming and spreading the timeless message of Easter joy.
Deacon Bird ministers to St. Joseph in Rosemount and All Saints in Lakeville and helps with the archdiocesan Catholic Watchmen movement. See heroiCmen Com for tools supported by the archdiocese to enrich parish apostolates for ministry to men. For Watchmen start-up materials or questions contact Deacon Bird at gordonbird@roCkeTmail Com
In the March 23 edition (Letters, “Not funny”) you included a letter criticizing your editor for publishing a comment Matt Birk made regarding his wife and family. Most people, who either grew up in or raised a large family, would just laugh at a “Dad” joke. My criticism of your editor is: where was a human-interest story and a little favorable publicity for Mr. Birk before last year’s election? Did I miss something? Here was a Catholic candidate, outstanding athlete, Cretin-Derham graduate, who dedicated almost 18 months of his life trying to change the direction of Minnesota politics. And no criticism is implied, mentioned or published about Catholic voters and politicians who have turned Minnesota into a destination state for transgender surgery on minors and lucrative opportunities for abortion providers — no waiting period, no parental notification for under-age girls, no questions asked. Incidentally, Matt Birk praised his wife profusely in public for carrying more than her share of family responsibilities during his campaign.
Kathleen LangerSt. Odilia, Shoreview
Editor’s note: As the official newspaper of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, The Catholic Spirit covers political issues but is legally barred from participating or intervening in any political campaign on behalf of, or in opposition to, any candidate for public office.
Did you know that Minnesota allows abortion in the third trimester and for any reason regardless of the baby’s viability? Allows for brutal partial birth abortions? Subverts parental notification about minor children seeking abortion or sterilization? Will require more taxpayer funding for abortion? Is considering laws allowing newborns who survive abortion to be left to die? May divert taxpayer funds from pregnancy resource centers to abortion centers? May model sex-ed programs around Planned Parenthood information? May give sanctuary to criminal abortionists from other states? May repeal a woman’s right to know of potential abortion medical risks or alternatives to abortion? Some of these proposed laws (now in committee) may be passed, dropped or go forward quietly under the protection provided by the (Ramsey County District Judge Thomas) Gilligan decision of July 11, 2022, effectively allowing these abortion practices without passing new laws. What is next? Assisted suicide, infanticide, free distribution of dangerous abortion pills? Catholic leaders in Minnesota (especially bishops and priests) please create massive awareness of these abhorrent laws (including from the pulpit), avoid inherent politics and cherish the sanctity of life.
Jim Anderson St. Joseph, MiesvilleOnce again, we are weeping with parents whose children have been killed and traumatized by assault weapons of war designed to kill the greatest number of people in the shortest amount of time — weapons not long ago banned with great effect in reducing deaths by mass shootings. The gun lobby, protecting the billion-dollar industry of assault weapons, got Congress to reinstate them. As Catholics, we profess pro-life. Pro-life means kids’ lives have priority. Pro-life demands that these guns be taken off the street. Some say that impinges on our freedom, but there are many freedoms restricted for the sake of the common good. If certain congresspersons are unwilling to act, maybe what is needed is nonviolent mass demonstrations, as evidenced in France. A national worker strike to defend our children? Teachers and students refusing to go to school until a ban? Catholic schools could take the lead. “Thoughts and prayers” are not enough. Pro-life requires action.
Thomas Carey
St. Piux X, White Bear Lake
(And members of Men’s Catholic Spirituality Group, including Mike Haasl, Steve Robach, Ray Phenow, Dan Weinand, and Bob Goligowski)
Share your perspective by emailing TheCaTholiCSpiriT@arChSpm org Please limit your letter to the editor to 150 words and include your parish and phone number. The Commentary pages do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Catholic Spirit. Read more letters from our readers at TheCaTholiCSpiriT Com
When it was time last month for Cardinal Gregorio Rosa Chávez to preach on the 43rd anniversary of the death of his friend and mentor St. Oscar Romero, the retired auxiliary bishop of San Salvador chose to address a very controversial topic in the country right now: the “state of exception” that allows the government to lock up thousands of gang members without due process.
These “domestic terrorists” are to be housed (or better said, warehoused) in the recently opened “Terrorism Confinement Center.” This mega-prison will be the world’s largest with a capacity of 40,000, surpassing the Silivri Penitentiaries Campus in Turkey, which supposedly has more than 22,000 inmates. (Turkey, it should be noted, has a population of 84.6 million people, more than 14 times that of El Salvador.)
The gangs in El Salvador have a monstrous record of mayhem and violence, their criminal activity penetrating almost every sector of the country’s economy and people’s daily lives. In the little town where I was pastor for many years, El Puerto de La Libertad, hardly any small business escaped paying protection money.
It was a way of life. One “pandillero,” as the gang members are called, charged my compadre — a store owner whose son with Down syndrome is my godson — $50 a week. The average daily wage in El Salvador is estimated at $12 a day.
This same gang member later went to prison for the murder of the wife of a Mexican agent of Interpol who worked in El Salvador. Ironically, he had been contracted by the wife, who was in love with her children’s swimming instructor, to kill her husband. The “pandillero,” on a motorcycle, rode up to the car of the couple at a traffic light and shot into the car, wounding the husband, who survived, and killing his client. Stories like these help explain why The Washington Post in 2016 declared El Salvador “the murder capital of the hemisphere.”
We can thank God that is no longer true of the country. Violence has dropped dramatically, earning President Nayib Bukele popular support around the country. Unfortunately, it has taken something like
the “state of exception” for that to happen. Bukele’s government has not been shy to admit its suspension of legal rights for anyone accused of being a gang member.
Under the “exceptional rules,” police don’t have to inform arrestees of their rights or what they’re being arrested for, nor do those arrested have the right to a lawyer. They can now be held for 15 days without seeing a judge (the period used to be 72 hours).
Watchdog group Human Rights Watch reported that the policies have resulted in “mass arbitrary detention, torture, and other forms of ill treatment against detainees, deaths in custody, and abuse-ridden prosecutions.”
Bukele’s government has produced videos showing at least 4,000 “domestic terrorists” being transferred to the mega-prison. The scenes of shirtless, shoeless tattooed men in white boxer shorts filing into a courtyard and squatting with their heads touching the backs of the men ahead of them resembles something out of Hollywood science fiction.
I don’t know what is more shocking: the footage of these men or the fact that many Salvadorans, especially those who have immigrated to the U.S., are not appalled by the sight of so many young men entering an environment that would have intimidated Dante Alighieri.
“Abandon hope all ye who enter here,” the Italian poet famously imagined the sign welcoming new arrivals to hell. The same words would seem fitting for this mega-prison.
The government boasts that no one can escape from it. “This will be their new house, where they will live for decades, all mixed, unable to do any further harm to the population,” boasted Bukele recently. The potential for violence in prison in a country with no death penalty is part of the terror the “state of exception” inspires.
One of Cardinal Chávez’s concerns is the many innocent young men who have been detained mistakenly. Some 4,000 of the 70,000 arrested under the new anti-terrorism protocols have since been released, but I am told that this takes some doing. Not all innocent men and their families have recourse to the lawyers and other resources needed to apply pressure.
“How can you sleep at night, seeing how the ‘exceptional’ has become the rule, what is normal?” said Cardinal Chávez, addressing the government in his March 24 homily. “How is it that you can accept as normal that the people who suffer cannot even express themselves publicly? How is it that it can be
The trend is clear. As the Hispanic population grows quickly and steadily in the United States, fewer Hispanics self-identify with Roman Catholicism. There are nearly 63 million Hispanic people in our country.
On April 13, the Pew Research Center updated its estimates reporting that about 43% of all Hispanic adults in the U.S. self-identify as Catholic. Just a decade ago, in 2010, that estimate was 67%. The drop is rather breathtaking.
Yes, there was a time within very recent memory when most Hispanics were Catholic. That is not the case today. It is unlikely that the trend will reverse in the foreseeable future.
Contrary to popular belief, most Hispanics who stop self-identifying as Catholic do not join Protestant communities or other religious traditions. A good number do, however, and there is a sense that they do so searching for something that they did not find in the religion of their
The scenes of shirtless, shoeless tattooed men in white boxer shorts filing into a courtyard and squatting with their heads touching the backs of the men ahead of them resembles something out of Hollywood science fiction.
regarded as normal that all possibility of dialogue is closed?”
I would go even further than the cardinal in that I believe even the guilty deserve better treatment. Is the possibility of redemption now totally ruled out? What about the souls of these men? Can we just lock the doors and throw away the key?
During a recent visit to El Salvador, some of those I talked to found the treatment of the prisoners dehumanizing. Others disagreed, saying that the gang members deserved the brutal treatment.
But what remains is a terrible situation, an invoice of sorts for El Salvador’s long history of injustice, oppression, violence, and loss of faith. The cruelty and viciousness of the gangs is sinful, but it needs to be understood in the context of a society at war with its religious roots, overwhelmed by selfish materialism, and scarred by generations of fratricidal conflict.
Charles Dickens once wrote this about the excesses of the French Revolution: “Crush humanity out of shape once more, under similar hammers, and it will twist itself into the same tortured forms. Sow the same seeds of rapacious license and oppression over again, and it will surely yield the same fruit according to its kind.” The gangs are both producers and products of violence.
The problem is not just that of the present government of El Salvador. This is something with international and even metaphysical dimensions. The desperation of the “state of exception” represents the bankruptcy of a civilization. The Confinement Center said that only force can hold society together. May God have mercy on us all. And may other brave voices join with that of Cardinal Chavez in speaking for reason and decency.
Msgr. Antall is pastor of Holy Name Church in Cleveland, Ohio, and the author of several books. His latest novel, “The X-mas Files” (Atmosphere Press), is now available for purchase. This piece was originally published in The Angelus, at angelusnews com
childhood, or at least the institution that mediates it.
The biggest phenomenon affecting Hispanics in America is this: They are religiously disaffiliating, which has become a de facto highway into secularization. About 30% of Hispanic adults are religiously unaffiliated; most of them are former Catholics — another breathtaking piece of information.
The last half a century has been a roller-coaster for the Catholic Church in the U.S. vis-à-vis the Hispanic experience. Hispanics went from being about 10% of the Catholic population to becoming the major source of demographic vitality for our Church. Today, nearly half of all Catholics in the country are Hispanic.
During the 1980s and 1990s, immigration from Latin America and the Caribbean was the main engine of growth for the Hispanic Catholic population. Since millions and millions of immigrants from these regions in the continent were Catholic, it was natural that their presence would tilt the
demographic scales of U.S. Catholicism.
When most Hispanics were Catholic, pastoral leaders at all levels, from bishops to catechetical leaders and pastors in parishes, viewed this population as a breath of fresh air, injecting new life into faith communities and structures. That’s still the case in our day.
But the positive reception of this breath of fresh air has not always been of one mind. There have been pockets of resistance among some Catholics who see the fast growth of Hispanics as a threat. Others seem to have adopted a “let’s wait and see” attitude.
Resistance and inaction to embracing the blessing of a young, dynamic and profoundly Catholic population, and integrating it in all our Catholic structures, including parishes, schools and organizations, has led to the lack of appropriate investment in the evangelization and retention of millions of Hispanic Catholics.
When most Hispanics were Catholic, we took them for granted. That is perhaps the best assessment I can offer
at this point, and after dedicating much of my career as a theologian studying Hispanic Catholicism.
The fact that only four in 10 Hispanic adults self-identify as Catholic changes the rules and calls for fresher conversations. Most Hispanic children in the United States born henceforth will not grow up in Catholic households.
Hispanics are a lifeline to the vitality of U.S. Catholicism, especially as the Euro-American Catholic population ages and declines numerically, and the Catholic presence dwindles in parts of the country where Catholic life strongly defined local cultures.
Recently, the Fifth National Encuentro of Hispanic/Latino Ministry research team, under the auspices of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, estimated that in 2021 nearly 31 million Hispanic Catholics lived in our country. That’s a sign of hope. Let’s not take them for granted.
Ospino is professor of theology and religious education at Boston College.
My name is Henry Radoc. I am 18 years old and a senior at Central High School in St. Paul.
I sing in a few different choirs in my spare time, and I perform in theater often. Most recently, I directed a show at my high school. Next year, I will attend North Dakota State University.
I am a Catholic. I attend Mass at Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Maplewood, which is a few blocks from my house. I have gone there since I was born. I have had every single major sacrament so far in my life (except for confirmation, which was at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul) at this church. I was baptized as a baby in 2005 and remain active in the church.
My time in the Church has taught me many things about myself and my place in the world. I am Catholic because the teachings of Jesus and the Church make sense to me from a moral standpoint. I believe that one must not judge anyone for what they believe in or what they do because everyone comes from different places in life and it’s what the Lord commanded us to do. I also believe that the Church has given me an idea that evangelization comes in the form of service to others. I strive to be as helpful as I can, from driving my friends who don’t have cars, to packing meals at Feed My Starving Children, to donating blood annually and being an organ donor. If I can help one person live, I will have done my job well.
I have felt that through my many years of being in public
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schools and performing in churches that are not Catholic, I have strengthened my faith. I have been exposed to all different types of people and beliefs, and though I choose to believe some and disregard others, I find that the ones that challenge my way of thinking help cement my beliefs even further. Thinking about an opposing viewpoint allows me to come up with a justification that makes me believe in the Church more. Even though I am not perfect in my ways and in my faith, I believe that what the Church and the teachings of Jesus have taught me will serve me for years to come.
Radoc is part of St. Paul-based Minnesota Boychoir. He enjoys golfing, badminton and, most recently, pickleball.
“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.”
Reduce/Reuse Rummage Sale — April 27-29 at St. John Vianney, 19th Ave. N., South St. Paul. April 27 5–7 p.m. presale, admission $5; April 28 10 a.m.–5 p.m., April 29 9 a.m.–noon ($5 bag sale). sjvssp org
Crafters Spring Sale — April 29-30 at Guardian Angels, 8260 4th St. N., Oakdale. Unique items for Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, gifts for teachers, weddings and birthdays. Includes: quilts, blankets, throws, kitchen essentials, children and baby items and home décor. Also, plant sale, bake sale and quilt raffle. tinyurl com/yzt52ese
Rummage Sale — May 4-5: 9 a.m.–6 p.m. at Holy Childhood, 1435 Midway Parkway, St. Paul. No entrance fee. Clothing, furniture, housewares, books, toys and games. May 5 is Bag Day. Entrance in parking lot behind church off Pascal Street.
holychildhoodparish org
Spring Rummage Sale — May 4-6 at Holy Name, 11th Ave. S., Minneapolis. Preview sale (admission
$1/person): May 4, 4–7:30 p.m.; May 5, 9–5 p.m.; May 6 (Bag Day, $2/bag), 9 a.m.–noon. Books, clothing, furniture, household items, jewelry, toys and more.
churchoftheholyname org
Spring Rummage Sale — May 4-6 at St. Gabriel the Archangel (St. Joseph’s campus), 1310 Mainstreet, Hopkins. 9:30 a.m.–7 p.m. May 4; 9:30 a.m.–5 p.m. May 5; 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. May 6. Household goods, clothes, crafts, books, furniture, jewelry, yard and holiday items, toys, hardware and electric tools.
stgabrielhopkins org
Silver Tea and Discipleship Reflection for Women
— May 7: 1–3 p.m. at The Lowell Inn, 102 Second St. N., Stillwater. The Silver Tea is a fundraiser for church renovations at St. Mary, Stillwater. Includes High Tea at the Historic Lowell Inn and a reflection by Father Austin Barnes: “The Discipleship of Women, a Call to
ASK FATHER MIKE
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 14B
done for us.
Because the Second Person of the Trinity took on our human nature and lived, suffered, died and rose from the dead in our human nature, we have the possibility of experiencing new life. Because of what he has done, we can have eternal life. Because the good God has met us in our misery, we do not have to worry about being “good enough.”
And this leads us to the third thing to remember: You are loved.
Your call is not to be good enough. Your call is to allow God to love you, and to respond to that love with love.
Follow Christ.” Tickets: $50. Call St. Mary church 651-439-1270. stmichaelandstmarystillwater org
Garage Sale — May 10-13 at St. Bonaventure, 901 E. 90th St., Bloomington. Preview sale ($2 admission): May 10, 5–8 p.m.; May 11, 9 a.m.–6 p.m.; May 12, 9 a.m.–4 p.m. (1/2 price day); May 13, 9 a.m.–2 p.m. ($5 Bag Day).
saintbonaventure org/garage-sale
Worldwide Marriage Encounter Weekend — May 5-7 at Christ the King Retreat Center, 621 1st Ave. S., Buffalo. wwme.org
Becoming Holy: Fully Alive in the Spirit — May 6: 8 a.m.–4:30 p.m. at Shakopee Area Catholic School, 2700 17th Ave. E., Shakopee. Barbara Heil is a former Pentecostal minister who discovered she was baptized Catholic and felt drawn to take a class — which happened to be at the Catechetical Institute. Event will include her inspirational teaching, praise and worship, and individual prayer ministry. ccro-msp org/spring-conference
Spirit and Fire — May 12: 6:30–8:30 p.m. at St. Rose of Lima, 2048 Hamline Ave., Roseville. John the Baptist proclaimed that Jesus would baptize with “the Holy Spirit and fire” (Mt 3:11). Father Paveglio and parishioners will give teachings and testimonies. saintroseoflima net/news/spirit-and-fire
OTHER EVENTS
Family Rosary Procession — May 7: 1:15 p.m. at the State Capitol, 75 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd., St. Paul. 2 p.m.: procession to The Cathedral of St. Paul, 239 Selby Ave., St. Paul. If unable to process
This might sound too “fluffy” or too basic. This might sound too easy! But
I have discovered something in almost 20 years of being a priest and of trying to remind people about God’s love for them. Most people I meet have heard that God loves them. But most people do not believe that God loves them, they believe that God tolerates them.
Most people have never given God permission to do the one thing that the entire Bible is building toward: to allow God to love you as you are.
When we allow God to love us as we are, we no longer ask the question “Am I good enough?” because we know that we are not. We simply keep coming back to the better question (truly, it is the only question): “Does
from the State Capitol to the Cathedral, come pray the rosary in the Cathedral starting at 2 p.m. Archbishop Bernard Hebda will be at the Capitol and the Cathedral. Parishes are encouraged to bring banners to represent their communities. First communicants are invited to wear first Communion attire. 75th anniversary. minnesotarosaryprocessions org
Franciscan International Award Dinner — May 11: 6–9 p.m. at The Wilds Golf Club, 3151 Wilds Ridge, Prior Lake. Dress up, enjoy a meal and hear a speaker support an inspirational, heartwarming cause. One World Surgery will be honored for providing surgical care to underserved communities in Honduras. franciscanretreats net/franciscan-international-award
Restorative Support for Victim-Survivors — Monthly: 6:30–8 p.m. via Zoom. Open to all victimsurvivors.
uVictim-Survivor support group for those abused by clergy as adults — First Mondays
uSupport group for relatives or friends of victims of clergy sexual abuse — Second Mondays
uVictim-Survivor support group —Third Mondays
uSurvivor Peace Circle — Third Tuesdays
uSupport group for men who have been sexually abused by clergy/religious — Fourth Wednesdays
uSupport group for present and former employees of faith-based institutions who have experienced abuse in any of its many forms — Second Thursday. For more information and to attend the virtual meetings, visit archspm org/healing. Questions? Contact Paula Kaempffer, outreach coordinator for the archdiocese’s Restorative Justice and Abuse Prevention, at kaempfferp@archspm org or 651-291-4429.
God have my permission to love me as I am right now?” Because if he does, then everything changes. When we are succeeding, we do not become prideful because God is the one who loves us. When we are failing, we do not despair because God is the one who loves us. When we sin, we come back to him because God is the one who loves us. And when we are not good enough, we cast all our weaknesses on him because God is the one who loves us.
Father Schmitz is director of youth and young adult ministry for the Diocese of Duluth and chaplain of the Newman Center at the University of Minnesota Duluth.
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Congratulation Bishop Izen, our prayers and support are with you as you serve the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
By Rebecca Omastiak The Catholic Spirit
f it helps people pray, I’m happy,” Father Michael Joncas said as he reflected on how he feels about his sacred music being performed the world over. “I’m a church music composer, so it’s always (about) trying to support the community’s prayer.”
Father Joncas’ contributions as a liturgical composer are being recognized this month with his induction into the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame in New Ulm; Bonnie Ubl, the hall of fame’s executive director, credited Father Joncas’ hymn “On Eagle’s Wings” — based on Psalm 91 and performed at Masses, baptisms, weddings and funerals — as being an especially notable contribution to music.
Ubl, who has been in her current role for the past three years after joining the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame staff in 2010, said two main criteria must be met to be included in the hall of fame: the inductee was born and/or has lived in Minnesota and the inductee has contributed to the state’s music scene.
Anyone can submit a nomination form. The board of directors begins looking at those each year in late summer, then pares down the list of names “until we end up with five to six,” Ubl said. Selected inductees receive a 6-foot shelf in the museum that is filled with their bios, photos, music and memorabilia. A ceremony is held to recognize the inductees.
“I always say our induction Friday night is New Ulm’s Academy Awards,” Ubl said.
“It’s an honor,” said Father Joncas, 71, expressing his gratitude to be an inductee. He said the induction “kind of came out of the blue” for him. “I’m grateful; that’s a very nice thing.”
Father Joncas has composed more than 300 pieces of liturgical music and his academic, writing and speaking career spans decades. Yet he said, “I have always understood my primary calling to be a priest.” Throughout his ministry, music has served as an artistic expression of faith.
Growing up as the eldest of eight kids in northeast Minneapolis with a father in technical theater and a mother who was a lyric soprano, music “was always part of my upbringing,” Father Joncas said.
In addition to taking piano lessons at St. Charles Borromeo in St. Anthony, Father Joncas said his family lived next door to the principal horn for the Minnesota Orchestra (at the time, the Minneapolis Orchestra). “He let me haunt his library, so I did a lot of study of classical composition early on.”
Father Joncas entered the seminary at age 13 “when we still had Nazareth Hall Prep Seminary” in St. Paul. Coinciding with the Second Vatican Council, “there were all sorts of changes in worship, and we needed music that was now in the vernacular rather than just in Latin and Greek and Hebrew. So, I started writing.”
He graduated from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul in 1975. After his ordination to the priesthood in 1980, he ministered at Presentation of Mary in Maplewood, Newman Center and Chapel in Minneapolis, the University of St. Thomas, The St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul, St. Cecilia in St. Paul, and St. Thomas the Apostle in Minneapolis. He obtained degrees from the University of Notre Dame in Indiana and The Pontifical Atheneum of St. Anselm in Rome.
He became a faculty member of the University of St. Thomas’ theology department and began teaching in 1991, later joining the Catholic Studies department. He was also an artist-in-residence at the university, which he called “a total gift to me from Father Dennis Dease, who was the president at that point.” Father Dease recognized Father Joncas’ dedication to teaching at the university: “He said
that I had worked very hard … and so he wanted to give me a chance at the end of my academic career to have enough time for some of my own projects,” Father Joncas said.
Recently, Father Joncas’ projects have included writing hymns of the day for each Sunday of the three-year liturgical cycle. Having celebrated the Masses in the threeyear cycle “multiple times,” Father Joncas said he is “now trying to take what I’ve been understanding of the Scriptures and put it into a poetic form that could be sung.”
Another project has been a four-volume set called “The Simple Psalter.” Meant for a capella or for vocalists with keyboard accompaniment, the volumes contain all the responsorial psalms in the threeyear lectionary. One volume is dedicated to solemnities, feasts and other liturgical celebrations and the other three volumes are for years A, B and C. The four-volume set, which took Father Joncas about five years to work on, is being published by Liturgical Press in Collegeville.
Father Joncas described the process for the latter project as “writing to task,” which he enjoys — regularly carving out time to complete his compositions. He contrasted that with the process of “being overwhelmed by something emotionally and then writing out of that emotional experience. And I’ve done that, too. But, what I really try to do is balance the two of them.”
It’s why Father Joncas describes the process for writing his recent hymn “Shelter Me” as “very unlike what I would normally do.”
He recalled waking up at about 3 a.m. one morning early in 2020 “with just one line of music going through my head.” Eventually the words “ahead is dark and difficult to see” came to him. “Things like that don’t happen to me. I don’t wake up in the middle of the night with a tune or a text or anything, but that (time I) did.”
He set to work writing the music and the accompanying text, which is based on Psalm 23. “Basically, I wrote the song between 3
in the morning and 10 in the morning; I didn’t go back to sleep and (I) just worked on it.” Released during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Father Joncas intended it “for comfort and courage.”
“Part of the joy of being a Christian is trusting that we’re being cared for by a loving God and no matter what the future is, even if we can’t see it, God will be present to us,” Father Joncas said.
Father Joncas himself turns to music for solace, mentioning German composer Richard Strauss’ “Four Last Songs” as providing him with “great comfort and great courage.” Liturgically, Father Joncas especially appreciates the Sanctus at Mass. “Here is kind of the central music we sing, and we sing it for God’s praise,” he said about its significance.
Although he retired from full-time ministry in 2022, Father Joncas continues to celebrate Mass on an “on-call” basis. In fact, he declined attending the banquet and showcase to recognize the latest class of inductees April 14 and 15 at the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame due to a commitment he had already made to celebrate Mass.
When he’s not celebrating Mass, Father Joncas enjoys attending services at St. Cecilia. “I served as their pastor for a couple of years way back when I was starting to teach and so I’ve always had a real affection for that community. And considering that she (St. Cecilia) is the patron saint of music, I think that’s pretty personal,” he said. A social hour, dinner and induction presentation to honor the latest class of Minnesota Music Hall of Fame inductees — jazz vocalist Gwen Matthews, bluegrass singer-songwriter and musician Becky Buller, “Old Tyme” band Jolly Huntsmen, rock band Del Counts and Father Joncas — were held April 14 and a showcase was held the following day.
Information about the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame can be found online at mnmusichalloffame org
