The Catholic Spirit - June 8, 2023

HOLY CROSS TOUR Father Spencer Howe, pastor of Holy Cross in Northeast Minneapolis, talks to a group of 40 people who came from Little Falls in the Diocese of St. Cloud June 1 to visit churches — including Holy Cross — designed by Victor Cordella, a Polish immigrant born in 1872. The bus tour was organized and led by Michael Retka of Little Falls, who wanted to highlight Cordella’s work. The group visited churches in the St. Cloud diocese, then came down to the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis where they stopped at St. Mary of Czestochowa in Delano before ending the tour at Holy Cross. Father Howe explained features of the church to those gathered, then a priest from the group, Father Ben Kociemba, celebrated Mass. “This church (Holy Cross) is phenomenal,” said Cheryl Stanek of Holy Family in Belle Prairie, who came with her husband, Charlie. “It’s everything I thought it would be and more.” Father Howe led a similar tour to visit churches in the St. Cloud diocese designed by Cordella.

NEWS notes

Alumni, parents, teachers, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet and other community members are invited to participate in the June 24 Rock the Lawn event at Academy of Holy Angels in Richfield. The annual, community-building, outdoor event includes food, beverages, games, music and fellowship, organizers said. This year, Catholic parish liturgists and accomplished musicians Paul Peterson and Tommy Barbarella will perform, and they are assisting in co-chairing the event, a development that Academy of Holy Angels Advancement Director Jesse Foley called “a blessing to our school and to our larger Catholic community.” Proceeds go to the school. Ticket information can be found online at: e giveSmart com/eventS/vPu

Father James Radde, a Jesuit priest, made a pilgrimage to Rome earlier this year to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood. While there, he met with Pope Francis Feb. 13 and presented him with a porcelain cross he had made for him. In a letter Father Radde had written to the pope asking for a visit, he reminded the pope that the two had been theology students in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1968-1969. To read an essay Father Radde wrote about his experience, visit thecatholicSPirit com

Bishop Michael Izen and Father Michael Creagan helped celebrate the recent ordination of longtime parishioner Father Julian Druffner of St. Michael in Stillwater, where Father Druffner held a Mass of Thanksgiving. Father Druffner was ordained for the Diocese of Superior, Wisconsin. The Mass and a dinner afterward took place May 29. On July 1, Father Creagan — pastor of St. Joseph in West St. Paul — will take on the role of pastor of the Churches of St. Michael and St. Mary in Stillwater from Bishop Izen, who was ordained as an auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis April 11. In addition to his ministry as bishop and a vicar general for the archdiocese, Bishop Izen will be pastor of St. Francis of Assisi in Lake St. Croix Beach. For a complete list of the most recent clergy assignments, see page 7.

Retired teacher and historical reenactor Arn Kind recently visited St. Hubert Catholic School in Chanhassen to educate the school’s fifth graders on the Revolutionary War. Through participation activities, students learned what it was like to be a soldier in the Continental Army, learned the basics of military training and procedures of the time, and viewed wooden replicas of Revolutionary War muskets.

Nearly 1,700 people have been anointed by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ Anointing Corps since the Corps’ inception on May 5, 2020, for people in the archdiocese suffering from COVID-19. The Corps and those who signed up to assist in their prayers also have prayed for patients’ families, priests and health care workers. An online prayer opportunity encourages one Our Father, one Hail Mary and One Glory Be for those involved with the care of people isolated with any type of contagious illness. There have been no known anointings since April, but in many parishes, ministering to those with COVID-19 or other contagious illnesses has become part of their routine, and training by the Corps to other priests open to this mission continues. Those wishing to receive the notifications can sign up online at eva uS/ac429c28. The prayer opportunity will remain open until responsibility for such ministry is fully transferred out of the Corps itself.

PRACTICING Catholic

BUILDING FOR BEES

Members of Boy Scout Troop 524, which typically meets at Epiphany Catholic School in Coon Rapids, recently built bee houses as part of a pilot program with the Coon Rapids Sustainability Department. The scouts will monitor the bee houses, which are set up near local watersheds, and track the pollinators throughout the summer.

On the June 2 “Practicing Catholic” radio show, Joe Ruff, editor-inchief of The Catholic Spirit, interviewed Archbishop Bernard Hebda of St. Paul and Minneapolis, who gave an update on formation of Synod Evangelization Teams and small groups at parishes. Also featured was Father Michael Van Sloun, director of clergy personnel for the archdiocese, who provided tips for supporting couples preparing for marriage; and Sam Backman, director of music at Holy Cross, and Chorbishop Sharbel Maroun of St. Maron, both in Northeast Minneapolis, who described an upcoming June 11 eucharistic procession. Listen to interviews after they have aired at PracticingcatholicShow com or anchor fm/Practicing-catholic-Show with links to streaming platforms.

ON THE COVER Fathers William Kratt, right, and John Rumpza, left, hug during their ordination Mass May 27 at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul. Partially visible behind them are the other two ordinands: Fathers Kyle Etzel, left, and Ryan Glaser. See more on pages 12-17.

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COURTESY EPIPHANY CATHOLIC SCHOOL

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ONLY JESUS | ARCHBISHOP BERNARD HEBDA

Something unusual and beautiful is happening in the local Church

“Do you realize how blessed you are to be in this archdiocese at this time?

The Lord is really blessing this local Church, doing things that he is not doing elsewhere.”

In the last two months, I’ve heard those sentiments at least a half dozen times, coming in a variety of contexts, but in ways that have always rung true to me. I have been grateful for these reminders, and indeed feel blessed to be here.

When I first came to the archdiocese, the listening sessions that we held highlighted that this local Church is blessed with lay Catholics who desire to exercise leadership in our parishes, schools and institutions, as envisioned at the Second Vatican Council. I recently saw that illustrated convincingly as more than 1,300 people gathered to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Catholic Community Foundation. The CCF traces its roots to a collaboration between Archbishop John Roach and lay leaders who saw the need for an independent foundation that would support Catholic activities in the archdiocese. Archbishop Roach was ahead of his time in trusting the leadership of the foundation to lay Catholics, and the abundant fruits of his wise decision continue to be seen.

The CCF has grown substantially from those early days. It continues to serve as an excellent vehicle for supporting our parishes, schools and institutions and for addressing the basic needs of our neighbors as we together strive to live out the beatitudes. There are similar Catholic foundations around the nation, but I know of none that carries out its mission more effectively than the CCF. We have indeed been blessed.

That sense of being particularly favored was certainly felt as well when more than 1,700 of the faithful of our archdiocese gathered recently in Minneapolis for our Activated Disciple workshop and joined me in praying for a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit. As Professor Mary Healy, Jeff Cavins, Father Michael Becker and Bishop Joseph Williams spoke that day, the presence of the Holy Spirit was palpable. I bet I was the proudest bishop in the country as we listened to testimonies from our brothers and sisters about how the Holy Spirit had been leading them to share the Gospel in the weeks since they had completed the School of Discipleship and its 40-Day Challenge. As I left the venue that afternoon for an evening Mass, there were still hundreds waiting to be prayed over. This is anything but “business as usual”; we’re living in an extraordinary — and blessed — moment.

That wave of grace continued the following Saturday as we gathered at the Cathedral for the Vigil of Pentecost. The ecclesial unity that only the Spirit can bring was evident as the readings of the extended vigil were proclaimed by representatives of our Vietnamese, Latino, Hmong, Polish and West African communities. The joy exuded by the Karenni choir was particularly memorable for me, knowing that their home country of Myanmar, still wracked by political unrest, had just suffered the added damage of tropical Cyclone Mocha. In the midst of the Church that they loved, they found the solace that only the Paraclete, the consoler, could bring — and they shared it with the rest of us.

I was particularly grateful for the prayer experience that followed the Mass. I once again detected the extraordinary openness to the Holy Spirit that has characterized our vigil celebrations ever since

en la arquidiócesis. El arzobispo Roach se adelantó a su tiempo al confiar el liderazgo de la fundación a católicos laicos, y se siguen viendo los abundantes frutos de su sabia decisión.

we gathered at St. Peter in Mendota in 2019 for the formal announcement of the calling of our Archdiocesan Synod. The presence once again of so many young people associated with St. Paul’s Outreach and NET Ministries, both based in our archdiocese, as well as so many families from the Community of Christ the Redeemer and the People of Praise, reminded me that this local Church is particularly well-equipped to discern the movements of the Holy Spirit.

Like every faith community since the time of the Acts of the Apostles, we face challenges, real challenges. But, as in the past, the Lord continues to raise up an army of witnesses to spread the good news. I presided at a wedding of a young couple this week and I was moved by their commitment, and that of their peers, to live out and share our faith.

Moreover, we’ve been blessed in recent weeks by the ordination of four new priests and 11 new transitional deacons, and we are rightly celebrating in these days the religious professions of a number of young women from this local Church who are responding generously to Christ’s call to a life of poverty, chastity and obedience.

Also, we can’t forget that earlier this spring, we had the consecration of four women as consecrated virgins living in the world, and two more consecrations are to be celebrated in the next few weeks.

Something unusual and beautiful is indeed happening in our Church. We know that the Lord expects more from those who are given more. Please join me in praying that we might be able to continue responding to the amazing opportunities that the Lord is giving us. As we sang at the Pentecost vigil, “Holy Spirit, you are welcome here!”

Misa vespertina, todavía había cientos esperando que oraran por ellos. Esto es cualquier cosa menos “negocios como de costumbre”; estamos viviendo un momento extraordinario y bendecido.

me recordó que esta Iglesia local está particularmente bien equipado para discernir los movimientos del Espíritu Santo.

Se dan cuenta de lo bendecidos que son de estar en esta arquidiócesis en este momento? El Señor realmente está bendiciendo a esta Iglesia local, haciendo cosas que no está haciendo en otros lugares”.

En los últimos dos meses, escuché esos sentimientos al menos media docena de veces, en una variedad de contextos, pero en formas que siempre me han parecido verdaderas. He estado agradecido por estos recordatorios y, de hecho, me siento bendecido de estar aquí. Cuando llegué por primera vez a la arquidiócesis, las sesiones de escucha que realizamos destacaron a esta Iglesia local como bendecida con los católicos laicos que desean ejercer el liderazgo en nuestras parroquias, escuelas e instituciones, como se previó en el Concilio Vaticano II.

Recientemente vi que ilustró de manera convincente como más de 1.300 personas se reunieron para celebrar el 30th aniversario de la Fundación de la Comunidad Católica. El CCF tiene sus raíces en una colaboración entre el arzobispo John Roach y líderes laicos que vieron la necesidad de una fundación independiente que apoyara las actividades católicas

La CCF ha crecido sustancialmente desde esos primeros días. Continúa sirviendo como un excelente vehículo para apoyar a nuestras parroquias, escuelas e instituciones y para abordar las necesidades básicas de nuestros vecinos mientras nos esforzamos juntos por vivir las bienaventuranzas. Hay fundaciones católicas similares en todo el país, pero no conozco ninguna que lleve a cabo su misión con mayor eficacia que la CCF. De hecho, hemos sido bendecidos.

Ese sentimiento de ser particularmente favorecido ciertamente también se sintió cuando más de 1500 fieles de nuestra arquidiócesis se reunieron recientemente en Minneapolis para nuestro taller de Discípulos Activados y se unieron a mí para orar por un nuevo derramamiento del Espíritu Santo. Mientras la profesora Mary Healey, Jeff Cavins, el padre Michael Becker y el obispo Joseph Williams hablaban ese día, la presencia del Espíritu Santo era palpable. Apuesto a que era el obispo más orgulloso del país mientras escuchábamos los testimonios de nuestros hermanos y hermanas sobre cómo el Espíritu Santo los había estado guiando a compartir el Evangelio en las semanas desde que completaron la Escuela de Discipulado y su Desafío de 40 días. Cuando salí del lugar esa tarde para asistir a una

Esa ola de gracia continuó el sábado siguiente cuando nos reunimos en la Catedral para la vigilia de Pentecostés. La unidad eclesial que solo el Espíritu puede traer fue evidente cuando las lecturas de la vigilia extendida fueron proclamadas por representantes de nuestras comunidades vietnamita, latina, hmong, polaca y de África occidental. La alegría que exudaba el coro de Karenni fue especialmente memorable para mí, sabiendo que su país de origen, Myanmar, todavía asolado por la inestabilidad política, acababa de sufrir el daño adicional del ciclón tropical Mocha. En medio de la Iglesia que amaban, encontraron el consuelo que sólo el Paráclito, el Consolador, podía traer, y lo compartieron con todos nosotros.

Estuve particularmente agradecido por la experiencia de oración que siguió a la Misa. Una vez más detecté la extraordinaria apertura al Espíritu Santo que ha caracterizado nuestras celebraciones de vigilia desde que nos reunimos en St. Peter en Mendota en 2019 para el anuncio formal del llamado de nuestro Sínodo Arquidiocesano. La presencia una vez más de tantos jóvenes asociados a St. Paul’s Outreach y NET Ministries, ambos radicados en nuestra arquidiócesis, así como de tantas familias de la Comunidad de Cristo Redentor y del Pueblo de Alabanza,

Como toda comunidad de fe desde la época de los Hechos de los Apóstoles, nos enfrentamos a desafíos, desafíos reales. Pero como en el pasado, el Señor continúa levantando un ejército de testigos para difundir las buenas nuevas. Presidí la boda de una pareja joven esta semana y me conmovió su compromiso, y el de sus compañeros, de vivir y compartir nuestra fe. Además, hemos sido bendecidas en las últimas semanas con la ordenación de cuatro nuevos sacerdotes y 11 nuevos diáconos, y con razón celebramos en estos días las profesiones religiosas de varias jóvenes de esta Iglesia local que están respondiendo con generosidad a la llamada de Cristo. a una vida de pobreza, castidad y obediencia. No podemos olvidar, además, que a principios de esta primavera tuvimos la consagración de cuatro mujeres como vírgenes consagradas vivas en el mundo, y se van a celebrar dos consagraciones más en las próximas semanas.

De hecho, algo inusual y hermoso está sucediendo en nuestra Iglesia. Sabemos que el Señor espera más de aquellos a quienes se les da más. Únase a mí en oración para que podamos continuar respondiendo a las increíbles oportunidades que el Señor nos está dando. Como cantamos en la vigilia de Pentecostés, “¡Espíritu Santo eres bienvenido aquí!”

Algo inusual y hermoso está sucediendo en la iglesia local

SLICEof LIFE

Honoring fallen Vietnam soldiers

Viet Le, a former Vietnam refugee who now teaches mathematics at St. Thomas Academy in Mendota Heights, talks about his experience of coming to the United States from Vietnam during a ceremony at the school May 27 honoring men and women who lost their lives in the Vietnam War, including three graduates of STA: Maj. Patrick Murray (class of 1960, died in 1968), Col. Richard Walsh (class of 1944, died in 1969) and 2nd Lt. Peter Troy (class of 1966, died in 1969). “I will never forget them,” said Le, 56, a member of St. Odilia in Shoreview, of those who served in the war and lost their lives. “They are why I’m here. … I have a better life now because of them.” Family members of each of the three STA grads who died in the Vietnam War also gave remarks at the ceremony. One of them, Vince Troy, 77, Peter’s brother and a member of St. Bartholomew in Wayzata, said, “This (ceremony) is spectacular — absolutely. It’s an honor. I can’t say enough for what this represents.” The ceremony was tied to the display of a Vietnam War Memorial replica that was brought to the school and remained on school grounds through Memorial Day for the public to view.

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Fifth-generation farm family to host Rural Life Sunday

By Barb Umberger The Catholic Spirit

“We have a beautiful park in our backyard every day, which not everyone has,” said Amy Leonard, who with her husband, Tim, and family will welcome attendees June 25 to Rural Life Sunday, an annual event celebrated for about 60 years in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Archbishop Bernard Hebda will celebrate Mass at 1:30 p.m. on the Leonard family farm near Norwood Young America, followed by lunch for all participating and children’s games and activities, including the chance to see farm animals.

The altar will be in “a beautiful setting” on the farm, Amy said. In the event of inclement weather, Mass will be in a large shed on the property, where the wedding of one of Amy and Tim’s sons was held. Rural Life Sunday celebrates and affirms, in a public way, the rural way of life. Many people are working together “to make it a beautiful Mass and a day of fellowship,” Amy said. The family hopes to greet everyone there and wants them “to enjoy their time here and the Mass and just rural life,” she said, that they can be thankful “for all the beauty that we have in our county, our city, on our farm.”

The Leonards operate a dairy farm, milking 45 cows, with another 50 head of young stock. The farm is home to about 20 chickens, four rabbits, barn cats, an Australian blue heeler dog — and one sheep. They own 81 acres and rent 120, growing corn, soybeans and alfalfa.

The Leonards have hosted other events at the farm over the years — visits from preschool and high school classes, and various University of Minnesota Extension agricultural outreach events — but Amy expects Rural Life Sunday will be the largest. St. Joseph in Waconia — of which the Leonards are members — is this year’s host parish for the event.

Besides the setting’s beauty and the farm animals, attendees can get a sense of history. Amy and Tim are the fifth generation in Amy’s family to own and operate the farm, and their daughter,

FAMILY LEGACY

The Leonard farm has been in the family for 152 years. Amy Leonard’s great-great-grandfather homesteaded the property in 1871.

Amy and Tim Leonard are in their 32nd year of farming the land. “We bought the farm from my parents, so it’s been handed down on the woman’s side of the family for the last three generations,” Amy said.

Their daughter, Christine, said she and her parents are working through a transition for her to take over the farm. Many people believe that a farm “just gets handed down from one generation to the next,” Christine said, “but this is my parents’ retirement, essentially,” so they are working on ways for her to start buying the farm. She recently attended a conference focused on farm transitions, which she said can be stressful for families because “there’s a lot of personal matters involved, a lot of money and equity … and a lot of families can struggle through that.” But one conference attendee recalled his father saying, “When we look at all of this stuff, all the messy part of it, really, this is all God’s land, and we’re just the ones that get to take care of it.”

Christine, 29, hopes to be the sixth. Christine, one of four children, returned home five years ago to work full-time with her parents. She plans to take over the farm once her parents, both 63, retire.

Christine’s two brothers David, 33, and Brian, 35, are married with children, and her sister, Emily, 23, is completing a master’s degree focused on dairy cattle research: specifically, ways to maintain animal health, Christine said. Amy’s mother, Elaine Buesgens, 88, was born on the Leonard farm and now lives next door. Buesgens said she enjoyed farm life because there are “so many new things to see each day and to appreciate that you have no control over.”

“You realize that God has to help you grow things and live,” Buesgens said. “Even if you feed livestock healthy, you still need God’s help (for them) to stay healthy.”

Buesgens said her family has “turned to prayer many times” over the years.

“I can remember, as a little girl, when (a) thunderstorm came, my mother and dad, we all knelt down in the kitchen by a chair and prayed all the while the storm was going on, so everything would be safe,” she said. The family prayed the rosary to keep buildings, animals and crops safe from damage. “Often, we’d go to the kitchen and pray,” she said, “for

sure with hail.”

Asked about the relationship between faith and farming, Tim said “you plant the seed, and you see the bounties of God’s creation as it grows.” That’s also true of the birth of a calf, he said, raising it for two years and seeing it grow into a milk cow.

“We get to see God all the time, in where we live and … the pace of how we live and the animals that we work with,” Christine said. “It forces us to slow down. And sometimes when you have a tough day, there’s always beauty around you, too, so you can look at the good and always see that. And I think we’re … excited to be able to share the beauty that we get to experience and, hopefully, everyone else feels God the same way we do on the farm.”

Christine said it would be “really hard” to be a farmer without faith. “We put seeds in the ground every spring … and we do everything we can, but at a certain point in time, it’s out of our control,” she said. Praying provides “something to lean on in times when things seem a little bit more difficult.”

Christine said one of her father’s favorite sayings is “never pray for sun or pray for rain, only for good weather.”

PLEASE TURN TO RURAL LIFE SUNDAY ON PAGE 10

Christine said she still has much to learn about farming. “I couldn’t do it all by myself yet, that’s for sure,” she said. Her father will continue to do the field work, “all the tractor work” and other tasks as long as he can, she said. Her mother takes care of the calves.

Her grandfather “was in the barn” until he was 75, she said.

Christine’s goal is to keep farming at the home farm “and figure out … how we can make that work.”

“I’m the sixth generation and, hopefully, there’s a seventh and an eighth and a ninth and a 10th, too,” she said.

JUNE 25 DETAILS

Guests are asked to bring lawn chairs to the June 25 event, which starts with Mass at 1:30 p.m. Freewill offerings will be accepted for lunch.

Directions to the Leonard farm

Address: 13315 106th St., Norwood Young America.

From the east: Take Highway 212 west, turn right (north) on County Road 51, then left onto 106th St. or take Highway 5 west, turn left (south) onto County Road 51, then right onto 106th St.

From the west: Take Highway 5 east, turn right (south) on County Road 51, then right onto 106th St.

“Christ beside me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ within me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me.”

Saint Patrick

‘It’s not really a job; it’s a way of life’

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

From left, Tim and Amy Leonard, her mother, Elaine Buesgens, and their daughter Christine represent three generations who have worked on the family farm.

Hundreds gather for vigil Mass, Pentecost prayers at Cathedral of St. Paul

By Joe Ruff The Catholic Spirit

For a second straight year, Archbishop Bernard Hebda celebrated the vigil Mass of Pentecost at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul and hundreds of people remained afterward for more than an hour to pray and sing hymns of praise and worship.

“It’s one year ago that we gathered here for the conclusion of our Archdiocesan Synod,” the archbishop said in his homily at the May 27 Mass. “Since that time, we’ve been unpacking what was discussed and decided at the Synod. Those of you who were there will remember it was a graced evening.”

That should not be a surprise, the archbishop said, “because the Holy Spirit never disappoints. And this great feast of Pentecost with its vigil is a time when the Lord makes his presence known in the rumblings of the Holy Spirit.” Pentecost celebrates the Holy Spirit’s descent upon the Apostles in the Upper Room in Jerusalem, filling them with the grace and power to spread the love of Christ far and wide.

Signs of the Spirit’s movement through the multi-year Synod — which culminated in an assembly last June that was followed by the archbishop’s post-synodal pastoral letter “You Will Be My Witnesses” in November and is now being implemented — have included physical and spiritual healings and “people coming back to the Church because of the prayers to the Holy Spirit of their family members,” the archbishop said. “The Holy Spirit is indeed active and calls us forth into a deep unity.”

At the Mass, Patty Rosno of St. Joseph in West St. Paul said she saw announcements beforehand about plans

for Archbishop Hebda and Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Williams to celebrate the vigil Mass and be part of the prayer service afterward.

“I just thought it was amazing, that the bishops would be leading us in an evening of awakening of the Spirit,” said Rosno, 57, who came with her husband, Jim, 59, their oldest daughter Michelle, 34, and her two children. All were dressed in red, representing the fire of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

The two-hour, extended vigil Mass included five Scripture readings, prayers between each and the Gospel. Readings, prayers and hymns were proclaimed in Spanish, Vietnamese, Polish, Hmong, French and English.

“How beautiful that we were able to hear those readings proclaimed in those languages that are so important to this archdiocese,” the archbishop said in his homily. “The Spirit brings together people from many cultures, many languages, many continents, all to be fixed on that love that is shared by the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

“We gather here this evening in thanksgiving for the ways in which we’ve seen the presence of the Holy Spirit,” the archbishop said. “But it’s not just thanksgiving. We also pray for more. We want the Holy Spirit to be so evident in the life of this Church that more would be attracted to Jesus and his Church.”

Preston Richter, 24, of New Brunswick, New Jersey, attended the Mass and prayer service that followed. A member of college and university campus ministry St. Paul’s Outreach, based in Mendota Heights, he and others were gathered for summer training. Striving to rely on the Holy Spirit in his ministry, Richter said, “I am right at home here.”

PHOTOS BY JOE RUFF | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Preston Richter, 24, of New Brunswick, New Jersey, foreground, of St. Paul’s Outreach, prays at the worship session after the May 27 Pentecost vigil Mass at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul. Beside him are Emmanuel Sanchez, 26, of South Orange, New Jersey, and Matt Rodriguez, 24, of Pullman, Washington, also members of SPO.

Among the many prayers offered on the eve of Pentecost, those who gathered in the Cathedral prayed in particular for the health and ministry of Archbishop Bernard Hebda, Bishop Joseph Williams and Bishop Michael Izen and for the effective implementation of the Archdiocesan Synod.

Julie Le proclaims the second reading of the Mass in Vietnamese.

OFFICIAL

Archbishop Bernard Hebda has announced the following appointments in the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis:

Effective June 1, 2023

Reverend Patrick Evans Bello, PES, assigned as parochial vicar of the Church of Saint Mark in Saint Paul. Father Evans Bello is a priest of the community of Pro Ecclesia Sancta.

Reverend Christopher Collins, SJ, assigned as parochial administrator to the Church of Saint Peter Claver in Saint Paul. This is in addition to his assignment as Vice President for Mission at the University of Saint Thomas.

Reverend Joseph Gifford, assigned to academic studies at the Catholic University of America. Father Gifford previously served as pastor at the Church of Saint Peter Claver in Saint Paul.

Effective July 1, 2023

Reverend Aric Aamodt, assigned as parochial vicar of the Church of All Saints in Lakeville. This is a transfer from his current assignment as parochial vicar of the Church of Saint Hubert in Chanhassen.

Reverend Paul Baker, assigned as parochial vicar of the Church of Saint Agnes in Saint Paul. This is a transfer from his current assignment as parochial vicar of the Church of the Epiphany.

Reverend Richard Banker, granted medical retirement status. Father Banker has served the Archdiocese as a priest since his ordination in 1988, most recently at the Church of Saint Edward in Bloomington.

Reverend Robert Barry, OP, assigned as parochial vicar of the Church of Mary, Mother of the Church in Burnsville. Father Barry is a priest of the Dominican Friars of the Province of St. Albert the Great.

Deacon John Belian, granted retired deacon status. Deacon Belian has served the Archdiocese as a permanent deacon since his ordination in 2008, most recently at the Church of Saint John the Baptist in New Brighton.

Reverend Timothy Combs, OP, assigned as chaplain to St. Thomas Academy in Mendota Heights. Father Combs is a priest of the Dominican Friars of the Province of St. Albert the Great.

Reverend Michael Creagan, assigned as pastor of the Church of Saint Mary in Stillwater and the Church of Saint Michael in Stillwater. This is a transfer from his current assignment as pastor of the Church of Saint Joseph in West Saint Paul. Father Creagan is also assigned as canonical administrator to Saint Croix Catholic School in Stillwater.

Reverend Allan Paul Eilen, assigned as pastor of the Church of Saint Mary of the Lake in White Bear Lake. This is a transfer from his current assignment as pastor of the Church of Saint Patrick in Oak Grove. Father Eilen is also assigned as Moderator of Frassati Catholic Academy in White Bear Lake.

Reverend Kyle Etzel, assigned as parochial vicar of the Church of Saint Joseph in West Saint Paul. Father Etzel was ordained to the priesthood on May 27, 2023.

Reverend Samuel Gilbertson, assigned as parochial vicar of the Church of Saint Ambrose in Woodbury. Father Gilbertson is returning to the Archdiocese after completing academic studies in Rome.

Reverend Nels Gjengdahl, assigned as formation director The Saint Paul Seminary in Saint Paul, and as sacramental minister to the Church of Saint Lawrence in Minneapolis. This is a transfer from his current assignment as chaplain for Holy Family Catholic High School in Victoria and as sacramental minister for the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Loretto and the Church of Saint Thomas the Apostle in Corcoran.

Reverend Ryan Glaser, assigned as sacramental minister to the Church of the Holy Name of Jesus in Medina, until returning to Rome in September to continue academic studies. Father Glaser was ordained to the priesthood on May 27, 2023.

Reverend Nathan Hastings, assigned as pastor of the Church of the Holy Spirit in Saint Paul. Reverend Hastings has been serving as parochial administrator of the same parish.

Reverend Paul Hedman, assigned as parochial vicar of the Church of the Epiphany in Coon Rapids. This is a transfer from his current assignment as parochial vicar of the Church of Saint Peter in Forest Lake.

Reverend David Hottinger, PES, assigned as pastor of the Church of Saint Mark in Saint Paul. Father Hottinger has been serving as parochial vicar of the same parish.

Most Reverend Michael Izen, assigned as pastor of the Church of Saint Francis of Assisi in Lake Saint Croix Beach, while continuing as vicar general for the Archdiocese. This is a transfer from his current assignment as pastor of the Church of Saint Mary in Stillwater and the Church of Saint Michael in Stillwater.

Reverend William Kratt, assigned as parochial vicar of the Church of Saint Hubert in Chanhassen. Father Kratt was ordained to the priesthood on May 27, 2023.

Reverend Joseph Kuharski, assigned as spiritual director and adjunct instructor at The Saint Paul Seminary in Saint Paul. This is a transfer from his current assignment as formator and spiritual director at Saint John Vianney Seminary in Saint Paul.

Reverend Matthew Malek, OFM Conv., assigned as parochial administrator of the Church of the Risen Savior in Burnsville. Father Malek has been serving as sacramental minister of the same parish.

Reverend Kevin Manthey, assigned as priest in solidum of the Church of the Maternity of the Blessed Virgin in Saint Paul, and the Church of the Holy Childhood in Saint Paul. Father Manthey is also assigned as formator to The Saint Paul Seminary in Saint Paul. Father Manthey is returning to the Archdiocese after serving abroad with the Emmanuel Community.

Reverend Luke Marquard, assigned as pastor of the Church of Saint Joseph in West Saint Paul. This is a transfer from his current assignment as pastor of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Golden Valley.

Reverend Thomas McCabe, assigned as pastor of the Church of the Holy Trinity in Goodhue. Father McCabe has been serving as parochial administrator of the same parish.

Reverend Marcus Milless, assigned as pastor of the Church of Saint Helena in Minneapolis. Father Milless has been serving as parochial administrator of the same parish.

Reverend Bruno Nwachukwu, assigned as parochial administrator of the Church of Saint Charles in Bayport. Father Nwachukwu has been serving as parochial vicar of the Church of Saint Joseph in West Saint Paul. Father Nwachukwu is also assigned as chaplain to Chesterton Academy of the Saint Croix Valley in Stillwater.

Reverend Edwin Nyuydine, CFIC, assigned as parochial vicar of the Parish of Saints Joachim and Anne in Shakopee. This is a transfer from his current assignment as chaplain at Hennepin Country Medical Center in Minneapolis.

Reverend Humberto Palomino, PES, assigned as parochial vicar of the Church of Saint Mark in Saint Paul. Father Palomino has been serving as pastor of the same parish.

Reverend Mark Pavlak, assigned as priest formator and faculty member at Saint John Vianney Seminary in Saint Paul. This is a transfer from his current assignment as chaplain to Saint Thomas Academy in Saint Paul.

Reverend James Peterson, assigned as pastor of the Church of Saint Odilia in Shoreview. This is a transfer from his current assignment as pastor of the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Columbia Heights.

Reverend John Powers, assigned as pastor of the Church of Saint John the Baptist in Dayton. This is a transfer from his current assignment as pastor of the Church of Saint Andrew in Elysian and the Church of the Holy Trinity in Waterville.

Reverend Matthew Quail, assigned as parochial administrator of the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Columbia Heights. This is a transfer from his current assignment as parochial vicar of the Church of Saints Joachim and Anne in Shakopee.

Reverend Michael Reding, assigned as pastor of the Church of Saint Joseph in New Hope. This is a transfer from his current assignment as pastor of the Church of Saint Thomas the Apostle in Minneapolis.

Reverend Michael Reinhardt, assigned as parochial vicar of the Church of the Holy Name of Jesus in Wayzata. This is a transfer from his current assignment as parochial vicar of the Church of All Saints in Lakeville.

Reverend Timothy Rudolphi, assigned as pastor of the Church of Saint Edward in Bloomington. This is a transfer from his current assignment as parochial vicar of the Church of Mary, Mother of the Church in Burnsville, and as temporary parochial administrator of the Church of the Risen Savior in Burnsville.

Reverend John Rumpza, assigned as parochial vicar of the Church of Saint Odilia in Shoreview. Father Rumpza was ordained to the priesthood on May 27, 2023.

Reverend Erich Rutten, assigned as pastor of the Church of Saint Thomas the Apostle in Minneapolis and the Church of Christ the King in Minneapolis. This is a transfer from his current assignment as pastor of the Church of Saint Odilia in Shoreview. Father Rutten is also assigned as canonical administrator of Carondelet Catholic School in Minneapolis.

Reverend Matthew Shireman, assigned as pastor of the Church of Saint Gregory in North Branch and the Church of the Sacred Heart in Rush City. Father Shireman has been serving as parochial administrator of the same parishes.

Reverend Andrew Stueve, assigned as pastor of the Church of the Holy Trinity in Waterville and the Church of Saint Andrew in Elysian. This is a transfer from his current assignment as parochial vicar of the Church of Saint Charles in Bayport and as chaplain to Chesterton Academy of the St. Croix Valley in Stillwater.

Reverend Ralph Talbot, assigned as pastor of the Church of Saint Hubert in Chanhassen. This is a transfer from his current assignment as pastor of the Church of Saint Mary of the Lake in White Bear Lake. Father Talbot is also assigned pastoral advisor to Holy Family Catholic High School in Victoria.

Reverend Rolf Tollefson, assigned as pastor of the Church of the Nativity of Our Lord in Saint Paul. This is a transfer from his current assignment as pastor of the Church of Saint Hubert in Chanhassen.

Reverend Benjamin Wittnebel, assigned as parochial administrator of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Golden Valley. This is a transfer from his current assignment as parochial vicar of the Church of Saint Ambrose in Woodbury.

Reverend Timothy Wratkowski, assigned as parochial administrator of the Church of the Holy Name of Jesus in Wayzata. Father Wratkowski has been serving as parochial vicar of the same parish.

Reverend Timothy Yanta, assigned as pastor of the Church of Saint Patrick in Oak Grove. This is a transfer from his current assignment as pastor of the Church of Saint John the Baptist in Dayton.

Reverend Andrew Zipp, assigned as pastor of the Church of Saint Mary of the Lake in Plymouth. Father Zipp has been serving as parochial administrator of the same parish.

MCC: Families First finds foothold in legislative session, pro-life efforts continue

By Rebecca Omastiak The Catholic Spirit

A central aspect of the 2023 Minnesota legislative session was determining the state’s budget for the next two years, including what to do with a large surplus that began emerging in 2020.

Now that the session has wrapped, here is a look at some of the key issues tackled, including perspective from staff of the Minnesota Catholic Conference, the public policy arm of the state’s bishops.

Abortion

Measures to codify abortion in Minnesota moved quickly as the 2023 legislative session opened.

Pro-life and pro-abortion advocates gathered at the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul various times throughout the session as debates took place in the Legislature. In January, as bills made their way through House and Senate hearings, Archbishop Bernard Hebda and Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Williams of St. Paul and Minneapolis, along with Bishop Chad Zielinski of New Ulm and the state’s four other Catholic bishops, wrote a letter protesting the bills and had it handdelivered to every lawmaker.

Archbishop Hebda also released a video and accompanying statement, urging people to reach their legislators to head off approval of abortion-related legislation. In the video, Archbishop Hebda called bill proposals “part of the most extreme abortion legislative agenda in Minnesota history.”

Bishop Zielinski — among those who testified against the legislation — said, in part, “The bill reflects a complete denial of the humanity of the unborn child, their right to live, and the state’s interest in protecting nascent human life.”

Ultimately, after it passed the House and Senate, Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, signed the Protect Reproductive Options, or PRO Act — a bill placing a right to abortion for any reason and without limit on viability — into state law on Jan. 31.

Additionally, the Legislature this session left few care requirements in place for infants who survive abortions. It repealed the Positive Alternatives Act grant program that helped support pregnancy resource centers and expanded taxpayer funding to include elective abortions. It eliminated the informed consent in writing requirement as well as a mandatory 24-hour waiting period prior to a woman undergoing an abortion.

Now that the session has ended, it’s time, suggested Jason Adkins, executive director and general counsel of MCC, for Catholics to “think about what it means to rebuild or build anew the pro-life movement here in Minnesota” and to consider the question: “How do we create a state where every child is welcomed in life and respected by law?”

Answering that question poses new challenges: “Now we have to change hearts and minds and laws going forward,” Adkins said, particularly with the possibility of “constitutional amendments in 2024 or 2026 that would further codify and strengthen abortion rights here in Minnesota.”

Adkins said, however, “regardless of whether the laws change, we can always

work to decrease demand for abortion” by accompanying women in crisis pregnancies and walking with mothers in need.

Civic life

This session, as in prior years, MCC backed a particular piece of voting legislation.

The proposal — passed by the Legislature and signed into state law by Walz March 3 — restores the right to vote to those convicted of felonies upon their completion of any term of incarceration imposed and executed by a court for the offenses.

“When people have paid their debts, we find there are collateral consequences for crimes that inhibit them from getting housing, access to certain forms of employment, rebuilding their life,” Adkins said. “So, when you pay your debt to society, which you should … then, how do we find ways to reintegrate people into political participation?

… Giving people the opportunity for positive civic participation to play a role in society. One of the hallmarks of Catholic social teaching is the call to participation; how can we expect people to model and exhibit good behavior when we isolate them from some of the most very basic things of civic life in society?”

Education

The Legislature took up a series of education proposals this session.

St. Paul-based advocacy organization Opportunity for All Kids, an MCC advocacy partner, backed legislation that would establish the creation of education savings accounts. The accounts would operate like Health Savings Accounts or Flexible Spending Accounts, to allow families to cover specifically educationrelated expenses, “including privateschool tuition, tutoring, supplies, transportation, and extracurricular activities and individual classes at local public schools.” The provision was not included in the finalized K-12 spending bill that passed the Legislature May 17. Relatedly, MCC and the Minnesota Nonpublic Education Partners coalition it co-leads voiced support of the Legislature continuing its support of alternate transportation options for nonpublic

school students, established under the Safe Learning Plan during the COVID-19 pandemic. The provision passed the House and Senate and was included in the final legislation.

Nonpublic Education Partners also backed an expansion in nonpublic student counseling aid programs. MCC pushed for primary school inclusion “because mental health needs are increasing,” Adkins said. Ultimately, expanded funding was not included in the finalized bill.

Meanwhile, Walz recommended funding for a Building and Cyber Security Grant Program. The Legislature did allocate funding for the 2024 year, but it did not include nonpublic schools as MCC had asked.

Family life

MCC particularly advocated for direct economic relief to Minnesota families this session.

Adkins said he and MCC staff “were excited this session when legislators really sought to make Minnesota the best state to raise a family.”

u Families First Project

As the session began, MCC introduced its Families First Project, an advocacy campaign MCC considered central to its efforts this session. The platform promotes policy that would help remove roadblocks Minnesotans confront in forming and raising their families.

The centerpiece of the Families First Project is the creation of a nationleading state child tax credit, which was included in the tax bill. The legislation allocates $400 million per year in tax relief to lower-income families. Adkins said he considers it a major success of the session.

The Legislature passed the robust tax credit with “up to $1,750 per child and with no cap on the number of children who can benefit in a family,” Adkins said.

According to MCC, this per-child refundable tax credit was expected to reduce childhood poverty in the state by 25-30%. Its versions in the Legislature were targeted to assist low-income families and MCC encouraged its extension into Minnesota’s middle class.

“It’s a great thing to build on going forward,” Adkins said. He added he and

the MCC staff “think it’s best to empower families directly with economic benefits and opportunity rather than having them go to a government program to benefit.”

“We are encouraged by the fact that what we proposed as the metric for how the budget should be measured — how it helps the family — was indeed embraced by Gov. Walz and legislators,” Adkins said. “Legislators are now asking what it means to make Minnesota the best state to raise a family. We may have disagreements about the particulars, but family economic security is now a key moral test of the budget.”

Additionally, Families First bill proposals would authorize the issuance of pregnancy-related disability parking certificates and exempt more baby products from sales tax. These provisions did not pass.

Another related proposal that passed the Legislature and garnered MCC support was earned sick and safe time legislation, which would provide workers the ability to earn one hour of time off for every 30 hours worked. MCC considers the legislation “vital” to supporting family life, especially as it would allow workers time to care for themselves when ill as well as care for sick family members.

MCC also pushed for a payday lending reform and noted Minnesotans who face financial difficulties are now better protected from debt traps by a 36% interest rate cap on payday loans, due to legislation passed this session.

u ‘Driver’s Licenses for All’

Walz signed into law March 7 legislation to allow undocumented people in Minnesota to apply for state driver’s licenses. The legislation — known as “Driver’s Licenses for All” — allows an individual to obtain a Minnesota driver’s license or state identification card without the need to show proof of citizenship or lawful presence in the United States. Proof of lawful presence in the U.S. became a requirement to obtain a Minnesota license or identification card following a rule change implemented in 2003.

Archbishop Hebda and MCC were among those backing the legislation. “Every Minnesota resident, especially those who have proven themselves as hardworking contributors to our communities, deserves to live with dignity, not in fear of being separated from their families every time they drive to meet basic needs,” Archbishop Hebda said at a news conference as the Legislature began its 2023 session. Now signed into state law, applications will be accepted starting Oct. 1.

Adkins recognized the legislation “generates strong opinions.” But he said a primary consideration is how this legislation affects families. “It’s not to reward lawbreaking or some of these other claims. It’s to say, ‘We need to keep families together.’ Our undocumented brothers and sisters are here, they’re not going anywhere. Many of them have been here for many years; they’ve built lives; they’ve had children; they, sometimes, have children who are

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Nearly 700 pro-life advocates gathered in the State Capitol rotunda in St. Paul Feb. 28 for a United for Life rally and meetings with lawmakers.

LEGISLATIVE UPDATE

CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE citizens; and no one should be separated from their families simply for going to the grocery store, going to work, taking their kids to school or church. It’s to say that we’re not going to get Immigration and Customs Enforcement involved for minor traffic violations.”

“Does the availability of a driver’s license allow an undocumented immigrant to vote? No,” Adkins said. “Does it grant all the privileges of other citizenship? No. It’s meant specifically for driving privileges only. And that’s the extent of what this driver’s license does.”

u Gender ideology

The Legislature took up a series of proposals related to gender ideology this session — examples included a bill to prohibit counseling for minors who seek to address gender discordance, the so-called “conversion therapy ban”; a bill that would allow minors from other states to be brought to Minnesota to seek “gender-affirming health care” unavailable in other states due to law or custody orders; a Minnesota Constitution amendment that would countermand attempts for accommodations or exemptions for those who do not assent to gender theory; a bill proposing a new definition in the Minnesota Human Rights Act for gender identity; a “Gender-Affirming Rights Act” which asserts a person’s right to subjectively define gender existence; and a bill to require “gender-affirming care coverage,” including for medical and surgical interventions to manipulate the body.

In April, Walz signed into law the counseling ban and the “transgender refuge” legislation mentioned previously.

MCC spoke out against the pieces of legislation, arguing they cause harm and create confusion — particularly among young people — about the human experience and intrinsic identity.

The Church needs to be at the center of conversations about identity, Adkins said, “because we have a particular perspective that we think promotes human flourishing. … we’re the Church that helps people live the way in which they were created.”

He went on to state that “what’s troubling about legislation that enables children to receive, in some cases, permanent, life-altering therapies, hormones, even surgeries to conform to their subjective sense of their self … what they do is they inhibit one’s ability to form family; we’re made for relationship, we’re made for each other, we’re made for life.”

The legislation also poses questions for the future regarding parental rights in the state as gender ideology enters certain public education spheres, Adkins said.

“What’s troubling and what we’re seeing is that parents are really confused about these issues; there’s such strong cultural headwinds pushing in one particular way to help them affirm their child because parents are scared about losing their child … Parents need to be really aware and need to get forms of counseling and

support to help their child conform his or her psychological state to the objective reality of their body,” Adkins said. “Now what’s really sinister is also there was a ban on counseling that passed (this session), the so-called ‘conversion therapy ban.’ The real conversion therapy of allowing a child to alter his or herself physically and pharmacologically — that is supposedly acceptable — but a minor child seeking counseling to help align their psychological state with the objective reality of the way God made them, that’s not OK according to legislators. So, we’re really doing harm to our young people through these pieces of legislation here in Minnesota.”

Health

A finalized health bill that passed the Legislature would appropriate $9.34 billion during the 2024-2025 biennium, $1.78 billion of which is new spending. Included in the finalized bill were provisions related to abortion (outlined earlier in this article) as well as emergency shelter (outlined in this article’s next section).

Also included in the finalized bill was a provision to provide access to health care insurance coverage for lawfully present noncitizens and undocumented noncitizens through MinnesotaCare. MCC supported the provision, arguing it encourages undocumented Minnesotans to access preventative care, as to avoid unnecessary trips for costly emergency room services.

Housing

Walz signed into state law May 15 a $1 billion housing omnibus bill — according to the governor’s office, the largest of its kind in state history.

The investment would allocate funding to provide rental assistance, improve access to affordable housing, reduce housing and homeownership disparities and prevent homelessness throughout Minnesota.

“Housing has been identified as an important way in which people climb the ladder out of poverty,” Adkins said. “It provides a measure of stability in

one’s life.”

Catholic Charities Twin Cities urged the public this session to contact lawmakers regarding funding for emergency shelter services and operations, supportive housing programs, and programs that address housing inequities, among other priorities. “We’re asking the state to step up so that we can continue to show up for our neighbors in need,” the nonprofit organization stated on an action page it published online.

The push to support emergency shelter services and operations was one MCC and members of Christian, Jewish and Muslim faiths in Minnesota also backed.

“Despite the fact that Minnesota has a very strong social safety net, where I think things fall through the cracks is in that distinction between poverty and destitution,” with more state resources for the former than the latter, Adkins said.

“We need emergency shelter capital but also emergency services and emergency shelter program funding, and that’s where Catholic Charities has really been leading the way … as they address those critical frontline needs in terms of the most destitute in our community so that they can live, in fact, with a measure of human dignity,” Adkins said.

To that end, the Legislature approved $100 million in new spending for emergency shelter grants.

MCC, through its advocacy partner the Joint Religious Legislative Coalition, also supported proposed coding for a new section of existing state law that would authorize the creation of microunit dwellings on religious properties for those experiencing homelessness. The proposal was ultimately not included in the final legislation Walz signed into law May 16.

Marijuana

MCC strongly opposed a proposal that would legalize adult recreational use of marijuana. The proposal bounced back and forth this session, ultimately passing the Legislature May 20; Walz signed

the legislation into state law May 30. The legislation takes effect Aug. 1 and would include up to a 10% retail tax in addition to the state’s 6.875% sales tax and other locally imposed sales taxes.

In 2014, medical marijuana was legalized in Minnesota; last year, recreational marijuana edibles containing a maximum of 5 milligrams of THC derived only from hemp were legalized.

This latest legislation allows adults to possess up to 2 pounds of marijuana in their homes; no more than 2 ounces in public. It would be illegal to operate a motor vehicle while under the influence; give marijuana to a person under the age of 21; or smoke or vape marijuana in a multifamily housing complex, at child care or family or group care facilities.

MCC encouraged Minnesotans to advocate for safeguards, such as potency caps and childproof packaging, by contacting the newly forming Cannabis Advisory Council and the Office of Cannabis Management.

“For a Legislature that supposedly spent a lot of time putting people over profits, this is one of the worst instances of putting profits over people,” Adkins said about the decisions made regarding marijuana this session. “Fortunately, MCC was able to get in the bill an impact study” to monitor the effects recreational use of marijuana might have on the Minnesota population.

A series The Catholic Spirit produced on this issue can be found online: thecatholicspirit com/marijuana

Public safety

This session, a variety of proposals regarding public safety were debated in the Legislature.

MCC voiced support of the Clean Slate Act, which would provide processes for the automatic expungement of certain convictions. The legislation ultimately passed this session.

Adkins said the legislation helps Minnesotans with overcoming certain barriers to reintegration into the community after a conviction, and thus facilitates “access to employment, access to housing, and other things.”

“(T)he Catholic Church in Minnesota has consistently advocated for responses to crime that do not simply punish, but that also rehabilitate and restore,” Adkins wrote in a letter to members of the Public Safety Omnibus Conference Committee on behalf of MCC. “Expungements for certain offenses can help reintegrate them into the community and make it easier for them to rebuild their lives. Expunging certain convictions will also have the positive collateral effect of also rebuilding their family life, which promotes the well-being of any minor children that they may have.”

Another proposal MCC encouraged was to expand criminal background checks for certain types of gun purchases. Such regulations “come with little cost and might save hundreds of lives per year,” Adkins wrote in the letter. At the same time, MCC pushed for lawmakers to support “a renewed commitment to enforcing laws related to illegal gun possession that are already

MINNESOTA CATHOLIC CONFERENCE STAFF

Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester, left, and Bishop Andrew Cozzens of Crookston review briefing books at the Minnesota State Office Building near the State Capitol in St. Paul March 23 as they and other Catholic bishops in Minnesota prepared to meet with lawmakers.

RURAL LIFE SUNDAY

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5

“Because if you pray for one or the other, you’ll get too much rain or too much sun,” she said. “So, if you just pray for good weather, then you’re in good hands.”

“You turn to prayer when things are good, and you turn to prayer when you need help,” Amy said. “You have to remember it goes both ways. Be thankful for what you have and if you just need some strength and hope, prayer is important, too.”

“Farmers don’t farm to make a lot of money,” Christine said. “We do what we do because we get to work in the most beautiful places and … (with) the most beautiful animals out there. … It’s not really a job; it’s a way of life.”

Her father agreed, saying farming is not a job but a lifestyle, “especially dairy farming,” Tim said. “Cows don’t take the weekends or holidays off, but you have to enjoy it or else you wouldn’t continue to do it.” But “the fruits of your labor are all around you,” he said. “So that’s very rewarding.”

Today, Christine considers herself “the herdswoman of the farm,” managing, milking, feeding, taking care of cow health. “I’m still learning every day,” she said. And while her father makes needed repairs, when something needs fixing, she no longer asks “Hey, Dad, can you fix this?” But says, “Hey, Dad, can you show me how to fix this?”

“I don’t have quite the skill set he has yet, but I’m getting closer all the time,” she said.

The way to get to six generations on a farm is to care for the land, Christine said. “And so, I hope to … fulfill that legacy, too, and keep taking care of where we live and the animals that are providing for us.”

“These are gifts from God that we get to enjoy every day,” Amy said. “And we’re lucky that we get to.”

The family is very proud of “sustainably farming” the land for so long, “that our forefathers did a good job and we’re doing a good job and, hopefully, our daughter and her (family) will continue to do well,” Amy said.

LEGISLATIVE UPDATE

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 9

on the books.”

“With rights comes responsibility; that has been a hallmark of our discussion around guns and gun safety,” Adkins said. “Making sure that people who possess certain forms of guns are able to do so responsibly is consistent with promoting the common good.”

Walz, meanwhile, previously voiced his support of “red flag laws” — allowing law enforcement to intervene when people are at risk of injuring themselves or others with a firearm — Adkins said although MCC has supported similar proposals in the past, there was concern regarding this legislation’s wording and its constitutionality, concern echoed by groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union.

Walz ultimately signed the red flag law and universal background checks into state law May 19, among other measures outlined in this session’s public safety bill.

A third proposal receiving MCC support was one that would appropriate money for supplemental nonprofit security grants, to protect those praying and worshipping at religious institutions against acts of violence; this was included in the public safety omnibus bill the Legislature passed.

“Many houses of worship are being targeted,” as are certain nonprofits such as pregnancy resource centers, Adkins said. This legislation allows entities that might not qualify for federal funding to qualify for security funding from state grants.

Technology

An ongoing experience for many Minnesotans is the effect of social media — particularly its use among young Minnesotans. This session, the state’s bishops advocated for prohibiting social media algorithms on minors, using their pastoral experience to speak to the difficulties families face

navigating the psychological strain social media has on young people.

Maggee Hangge, policy and public relations associate with MCC, wrote to members of the Legislature that “The goal for these algorithms is to keep users engaged in the platform for as long as possible, which in turn gives a false fabrication of connectedness and reality.”

The Minnesota Legislature proposed the creation of the “Minnesota Age-Appropriate Design Act” to prevent social media companies’ use of algorithms on minors in its omnibus commerce finance and policy bill, which passed at the end of April.

What’s ahead

Conversations about legislative efforts for next year are already underway.

“Catholics need to be already engaged about what those issues might be … the work for 2024 begins now. … we need to inform ourselves about the issues, form our consciences in the right principles of Catholic social teaching, so that we can then transform our state,” Adkins said.

“You might not be interested in politics, but politics is interested in you,” Adkins said, adding legislative decisions affect every Minnesotan in some way.

There are ongoing opportunities for “faithful citizenship,” Adkins said — members of the Catholic community sharing “what serves human dignity and the common good” with their representatives.

Catholics across Minnesota can join MCC’s Catholic Advocacy Network by visiting mncatholic.org, which provides the tools needed to contact legislators about key issues.

The 2024 legislative session is scheduled to begin Feb. 12, 2024.

Editor’s Note: The Catholic Spirit will continue in-depth coverage of these issues in its upcoming editions.

uPope prays for Indian train crash victims during Angelus. Government authorities June 4 were working to get rail services back in operation in the district of Balasore after the deadliest train crash in India in decades killed 275 people and injured at least 1,000 June 2. At the Vatican, Pope Francis during his June 4 Angelus remembered the victims of a crash that involved three trains. “May our heavenly Father receive the souls of the deceased into his kingdom,” he said, echoing a papal telegram sent to the apostolic nuncio of India. The pope also assured the injured he is close to them and their families. News outlets reported June 4 that the death toll was lowered to at least 275, after officials found that some victims had been counted twice during the chaos that followed the crash. The number of injured was reported variously as about 900, more than 900 and at least 1,000. Two days after the crash, news outlets were consistently reporting at least 1,000 injured. By June 4, rescue efforts had ended and the derailed cars had been removed from the tracks. The crash occurred in Odisha state in eastern India southwest of Kolkata, the home of St. Teresa and her Missionaries of Charity. Kolkata is in the neighboring state of West Bengal.

uUvalde Catholic community marks painful anniversary with Mass, prayers. Community members gathered in Uvalde, Texas, to pray and honor the 21 lives taken last year in a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School. “We kneel once again today before God, united and looking for ways to support each other. We continue sharing the pain while we give thanks for the greatness of the short lives that were taken from us a year ago,” said San Antonio Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller during a bilingual Mass at Sacred Heart Church in Uvalde May 24, the first anniversary of the tragedy. The Remembrance Mass drew more than 500 people to Sacred Heart Church, according to the San Antonio Archdiocese, to honor the memory of two teachers and 19 children, most of whom were 10 years old. Attendees told the archbishop that the Mass was helpful for everyone present. Some talked about the homily and an art commission designed to aid healing, and others spoke about a “sense of the Spirit working” in the community that has experienced division in the shooting’s aftermath.

uPriest is among heroes fighting flames in Canadian wildfires. While Canada is fighting wildfires from western Alberta province to eastern Nova Scotia, at least one priest is on the frontlines of the battle in firefighter uniform. Father Gerald Mendoza, pastor at Our Lady of Assumption Parish in Chateh and St. Peter and St. Paul Church in Rainbow Lake, both located in Alberta province, is also a volunteer firefighter. He assisted in the putting out of blazes in both of his communities — and he helps out around the fire hall. Though mindful of not appearing to be “showy,” Father Mendoza said he tries to bring a “priestly presence” to the fire hall by praying the rosary in his firefighting gear. Around 16,400 people had to evacuate their homes near Halifax, Nova Scotia’s largest city, on May 29. Drier than normal weather conditions have already caused nearly 550 wildfires in the province — over 100 more wildfires than in 2022. The blaze led officials to declare a local state of emergency in Halifax late May 28, according to the BBC. Justin Trudeau, Canadian prime minister, tweeted May 29 that “the wildfire situation in Nova Scotia is incredibly serious,” adding that he is “keeping everyone affected in our thoughts, and we’re thanking those

who are working hard to keep people safe.” Meanwhile, heavy rainfall throughout the province of Alberta over the Canadian long weekend May 20-22 potentially signaled a hopeful turning point in the effort to quell the 2023 wildfire state of emergency.

uVictims of apartment building collapse in Davenport, Iowa, turn to nearby Catholic church. Had it not been for a Pentecost prayer vigil, St. Anthony Catholic Church in downtown Davenport would not have been open at 5 p.m. on a Sunday night, said its pastor, Father Rudolph Juarez. Tenants fleeing from a partially collapsed apartment building a little more than a block away were grateful for that blessing the night of May 28. “It was providential this (prayer vigil) was going on. I’m just glad there were no deaths,” Father Juarez told The Catholic Messenger, newspaper of the Diocese of Davenport. A section of the apartment building — six stories high — had collapsed, leaving the residents dazed and shaken. Many of them lived in the building that housed 80 apartment

units and four commercial units because of its affordability. Many of them often turned to St. Anthony for a meal or pantry items to tide them over, said John Cooper, St. Anthony’s pastoral associate and business manager. Emergency shelter has been worked out for the time being for tenants, including with help from Humility Homes and Services Inc. But Cooper and Ashley Velez, HHSI’s executive director, worry about a more permanent solution, with 80 units of affordable housing now eliminated. Velez said. “We have a crisis and we need to do something together.” Cooper said, “What’s going through my mind is how fragile people’s lives can be.”

uNearly 2,000 children abused by Catholic clergy over decades, says Illinois AG report.

Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul released a May 23 report revealing decades of abuse by Catholic clergy against almost 2,000 children. The report, unveiled during a May 23 press conference and totaling almost 700 pages, concludes a multi-year

investigation launched in 2018 into child sexual abuse by 451 clergy and religious brothers from all six Catholic dioceses in Illinois. Prior to Raoul’s investigation, the Catholic dioceses of Illinois publicly listed just 103 credibly accused abusers. “I was raised and confirmed in the Catholic Church and sent my children to Catholic schools. I believe the church does important work to support vulnerable populations,” said Raoul in a May 23 statement. “However, as with any presumably reputable institution, the Catholic Church must be held accountable when it betrays the public’s trust.” Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich said in a statement that archdiocesan officials “have not studied the report in detail but have concerns about data that might be misunderstood or are presented in ways that could be misleading.” He also said, “We must think first of the survivors of sexual abuse who carry the burden of these crimes through their lives.”

— OSV News

Your Family’s Legacy Starts with a Simple Conversation

What do you want your family’s legacy to be?

If you struggle to answer that question, consider this one: What do you want to pass on to your children when you yourself pass on?

You might think of gifting your children an inheritance of money to provide financial support. Or perhaps, you picture an heirloom, an artifact that has been in the family for generations. Maybe you’re thinking more sentimentally of family traditions that you’ve honored together at countless Christmases or Easters. You might even be thinking of what could have an impact beyond your immediate family: your faith and values.

The obstacle many face

We know many families that were Catholic for years are now mixed-faith families. Research shows that half of young Americans who were raised Catholic no longer identify as such. Maybe your family has experienced this statistic personally.

But just because your children or grandchildren don’t share your faith now, doesn’t mean they won’t always. And, it doesn’t mean your values can’t still be passed on.

How to talk about your faith and values

Having a conversation about your faith and values doesn’t have to be a big deal. It doesn’t have to be tense or contentious. Start at the dinner table by asking your children how they would like your family to be remembered – kind, compassionate, intelligent, ambitious, generous, fun-loving? What traits and values drive their everyday decisions? If they had $1,000,000 to give away, what organizations would they support? Whom do they admire for their generosity, and why?

As you listen to their answers, you’ll likely find similarities and common ground. Even if your daughter’s path has strayed from the Church, your faith – and your shared experiences – has likely left an imprint.

Practice what you preach

A beautiful way you can express your faith and values as a family is through generosity. Once you’ve identified as a family how you’d like to be remembered, which charities you love, and whom you hope to honor, put your money where your heart is! By giving together, you’ll not only make a difference for your selected nonprofits, you’ll make a lasting impression on your children too. This practice will quickly establish generosity as a family value and a key piece of your family’s legacy.

By Susan Klemond For The Catholic Spirit

od has been generous with the archdiocese’s four newest priests and he now desires that they use those gifts in new ways to serve his people, said Archbishop Bernard Hebda of St. Paul and Minneapolis before ordaining the men to the priesthood during a May 27 liturgy at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul.

“Today, Jesus is taking you and making you his instruments, his priestly ministers to grow his Church,” he told transitional Deacons Kyle Etzel, Ryan Glaser, William Kratt and John Rumpza in the presence of their families, supporters, clergy and religious during the homily at their ordination Mass.

“Through you, Christ himself will speak,” the archbishop said. “Through you, he will absolve sins and reconcile the faithful to the Father. That’s why all these people are here. We’re so excited about what God is going to do through you.”

About 2,900 people attended the Mass, which Archbishop Hebda concelebrated with Auxiliary Bishops Joseph Williams and Michael Izen, Sioux Falls Bishop Donald DeGrood and Maronite Chorbishop Sharbel Maroun of St. Maron in Minneapolis.

Also concelebrating were more than 140 priests. About 20 deacons participated in the liturgy, which was also attended by women religious from several communities.

Several days after the ordination, Father John Rumpza, 34, said he feels a new strength and a deeper zeal “to protect and fight for my people” and give them God’s gifts. Father Rumpza said he looks forward to getting to know his new flock at his first priestly assignment, St. Odilia in Shoreview.

Processing into the Cathedral at the start of the ordination was powerful, Father Rumpza said, because he knew he was holding nothing back from God.

Even more significant was leaving the altar as a newly ordained priest, he said, “knowing (God) had responded to my offering by giving me the greatest gift of my life since baptism. I am his priest, and not just in this life, but for all eternity, too.”

John and Mary Kavanagh said they’ve already seen how Father Rumpza has loved parishioners at his teaching parish, St. Henry in Monticello. “He’s just going to continue to do beautiful things as a priest,” said Mary, 60, who with her husband belongs to St. Henry. “We’re just very emotional, very blessed to know (Father Rumpza) and we wish we could keep him at St. Henry’s.”

Father Ryan Glaser’s teaching parish, Holy Name of Jesus in Medina, is also where he’ll begin serving in his first priestly assignment this summer. One of his hopes is to help parishioners realize God’s love for them.

As Father Glaser, 26, greeted and blessed family and friends after the ordination, he said, “I’m where God wants me. ... It’s many years in the making, but it’s overwhelming. All of a sudden, it happened and I’m at the beginning of another journey, as one ends.”

Father Glaser said he was especially moved when he was prayed over by all the concelebrating priests during the ordination rite. “The moment where the priest sits in the middle of that prayer, ‘renew deep within them the Spirit of holiness’ and I, though unworthy to have someone pray that over me, to enrich me,” he said. “I need to pray that every day.”

Calling Father Glaser “a really great guy,” Holy Name of Jesus parishioner Joe Floeder, 69, said he believes he will be a good priest. Floeder, who attended the ordination to support the new priest, said he got to know him as he and other Holy Name parishioners took the then-seminarian out for breakfast after daily Mass.

Supporting another of the new priests, Father Kyle Etzel, 31, was a large “cheering section” consisting of extended family and godparents, said his sister Sarah Etzel, 25.

As the eldest of three growing up at St. Hubert in Chanhassen, Father Etzel has been a guiding light in his family, said his brother Nick Etzel, 28, who added that he hopes his brother will “extend that into his new parish family and see where he can grow and thrive with his next adventure.”

When Father Etzel begins that adventure at his first parish assignment this summer, St. Joseph in West St. Paul, he said he’ll be open to whatever the Lord asks of him.

Four men ordained priests May 27 seek G

But the idea of priestly ordination was still “surreal” to him, right up until the archbishop said the prayer of ordination, Father Etzel said.

Just before that prayer, during the Litany of Supplication, when the candidates prostrated themselves in front of the altar while the congregation sang the Litany of the Saints, Father Etzel said he experienced profound peace and grace that made him forget his earlier nervousness.

“It was happy, it was joyful and peaceful and (I’m) just very grateful for the Holy Spirit’s work, especially in the sacrament,” Father Etzel said.

One of the saints the ordinands included in the Litany was the 12th century anchorite hermit, St. Drogo of Sebourg. Injecting a bit of humor into his homily, Archbishop Hebda related how his curiosity at the inclusion of the relatively unknown saint led him to discover that, as the patron of coffee and baristas, St. Drogo is especially popular with millennials and Gen Z.

The archbishop said he questioned why the ordinands overlooked St. Augustine of Canterbury, whose feast day was the May 27 ordination day and who evangelized thousands in England in the sixth century.

Encouraging the candidates to emulate St. Augustine of Canterbury a little more than St. Drogo in the context of implementing the Archdiocesan Synod, the archbishop said: “We need you to be willing to go wherever you are sent to plant and to grow our Church.”

But with a nod toward St. Drogo, he added, “Your beachheads might not be the white cliffs of Dover, but the counters and tables of (coffee shops) Caribou, Spyhouse and Nina’s.”

Father Kratt, 27, said before his ordination he looks forward to getting to know parishioners in both the critical and “more ordinary” moments of their lives when he starts his first assignment at St. Hubert in Chanhassen.

While excited and in awe of becoming a priest, he said it seemed like something beyond him and he didn’t feel worthy. But, Father Kratt added that God “knows all my weaknesses, all my flaws, and he still calls me, and he still wants me to be his priest. That’s pretty amazing.”

Father Kratt’s mother, Barbara Kratt, was thrilled to see her son become a priest. “It was a beautiful experience to stand behind my son on that and just love on him,” said Barbara, a parishioner of St. Mark in St. Paul, who along with the other mothers of the new priests brought up the gifts during the liturgy. “I just stood behind him, loving him and praying for him. It was beautiful.”

Hannah Hilgendorf, 32, a mother of five young children, including her unborn child, said she traveled from Omaha, Nebraska, with her husband, Father Stephen Hilgendorf, to support Father Etzel and the other new priests. A former Anglican priest, Father Hilgendorf is now a priest in the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter. According to the Ordinariate’s website, it is equivalent to a diocese, created by the Vatican in 2012 for those nurtured in the Anglican tradition who wish to become Catholic.

The family was “very, very excited” that the four men, whom they have gotten to know, were being ordained, Hannah said. “We are so grateful that God has blessed the Catholic Church by giving her more faithful priests and we are eager to see an increase in vocations and a continued improvement in formation.”

Archbishop Bernard Hebda delivers the homily before

Archbishop Hebda offers the gifts of bread and wine

to use gifts in service of the Church

PHOTOS BY DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT before ordaining Fathers Kyle Etzel, left, Ryan Glaser, William Kratt and John Rumpza at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul May 27. to Father Glaser.

Transitional Deacons Rumpza, right, and Kratt listen to Archbishop Hebda at the beginning of their ordination Mass. At far left are transitional Deacons Etzel and Glaser.

Newly ordained Father Etzel, right, hugs Father Jeffrey Huard during the Kiss of Peace at the ordination Mass.

Corporate layoff steers Father Rumpza to the priesthood

By Dave Hrbacek The Catholic Spirit

A30-hour drive from San Diego to Minnesota in late June 2015 helped pave a path to the priesthood for Father John Rumpza, who grew up in St. Paul and attended Nativity of Our Lord parish.

At the time, he was working for a large software company in the California city and was seriously dating a woman he thought he would marry. Priesthood “wasn’t on my radar at all,” he said. At the same time, he said, he was open to that calling throughout his life and did give it serious consideration. That calling came to fruition with Father Rumpza’s May 27 ordination Mass at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul.

As of June 2015, it looked like marriage and raising a family would be his vocation. He was using his degree in business administration from Benedictine College in Kansas and making advancements in his career. After dating for a year, he and his girlfriend started considering marriage.

Then, that month, he got laid off. Try as he might, he couldn’t find a job. He decided his best chance would be moving back to Minnesota to take advantage of connections in his home state. Rather than continue the dating relationship long distance, the two mutually decided to break up. He spent his final evening in San Diego with her in late June.

He’ll never forget the stunning words she blurted out as they prepared to part ways.

“We had dinner and we were saying our goodbyes,” said Father Rumpza, 34. “Her face just froze. And, she just looked at me and she had this moment. I don’t know what happened exactly for her. But, she said, ‘Oh my gosh, I think you’re going to be a priest.’”

Her comment made a hard landing.

“I remember just thinking, ‘What?’” Father Rumpza, 34, recalled. “I had 30 hours in the car over the next three days alone, just me and the open road from San Diego to Minnesota. I packed my stuff in a pickup truck and was driving home. And, that (comment from his now former girlfriend) was the only thing I could think about the whole way home.”

Turns out, there were deep roots to a priestly vocation that had been planted years ago and finally were emerging. The beginning was a conversation he had back when he was in the fourth grade at Nativity School with his father, Mike. A family custom for him and his seven siblings was to have one-on-one time with their dad, usually going out to lunch or dinner. On one of those occasions, a seed was planted.

“He (his father) said, ‘John, I think it’s time for you to start asking God what he wants you to do with your life,’” Father Rumpza recalled. “He explained how it’s something that I would start asking, (but) it’s not something that God would tell me right away.”

In his case, it took more than two decades to get the answer. He went to some discernment events in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, including one at St. John Vianney College Seminary in St. Paul. He joked that his favorite part of that night was the pizza. Though he was open all those years, he just didn’t feel a call to the priesthood — in grade school, high school or college.

“I was planning to get married and join the NBA,” he said. “I was not the kid playing Mass (at home). That was my little brother (Joe), actually. My little brother is the one in our family we thought would be a priest because, when he was a toddler, he’d hold up his sippy cup during the consecration (at Mass), imitating the priest.”

“Everybody thought he was going to be the priest, and no one was thinking that for me,” Father Rumpza said. “It’s pretty funny how God works.”

Once back home, Father Rumpza dug into discernment. During his first week, he went to the eucharistic adoration chapel at St. Mark in St. Paul, just

blocks from the house where he grew up.

“I prayed for an hour, and after that hour, I was just kind of sitting peacefully with God,” he said. “And this question just kind of poured out of my heart, and it was with this childlike openness and almost a sense of wonder: ‘Are you calling me to be a priest?’”

God spoke. “The response was immediate,” Father Rumpza said. “I heard and felt God’s voice in the depths of my heart say, ‘Come, be a priest for me.’ And I felt it in my whole being. It was so strong. God spoke to me, and I had no question about it.”

He waited a day “to make sure I’m not crazy and this wasn’t a fluke,” he said. Then, he contacted the vocations director for the archdiocese, Father David Blume. After they talked, Father Blume said he could start his seminary studies in fall 2016. But Father Rumpza wanted to start in fall 2015, just weeks away.

“There was an urgency I was feeling, a peaceful urgency,” Father Rumpza said. “So, I asked him, ‘Is that even possible (to start in fall 2015)?’ And, he said, ‘Well, I don’t think the door is locked yet. It might be cracked open.’”

Father Blume, new to the role of vocations director, moved the application forward quickly and Father Rumpza spent the final weeks of summer moving through the process.

The Catholic Church of Divine Mercy congratulates

Father William Kratt on the occasion of his ordination to the Priesthood.

We extend our prayers to you, and have every confidence of your ministry in the Archdiocese.

We rejoice with you in your ordination to the holy priesthood, and we wish you many blessings as you continue your journey with our Lord.

John E. Trojack Attorney at Law

FATHER JOHN RUMPZA

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Father Kratt excited for sacramental ministry, priestly fraternity

By Barb Umberger The Catholic Spirit

Father William “Wil” Kratt had some impressive role models while growing up at Divine Mercy in Faribault.

They included then-Father Andrew Cozzens and then-Father Michael Izen, who both served his home parish. Bishop Donald DeGrood, who grew up in the area, went to school with his mother — a grade or two apart — but Father Kratt said he knew “a lot of his family” and after joining the seminary, got to know him better, which he called “a really big gift.”

Father Kratt remembers being in preschool and first grade when Father Cozzens (now Bishop Cozzens of Crookston) would visit all the classrooms. “He’d come and play with kids at recess, and just come and talk to us,” Father Kratt said. “He had a really great way of being able to explain the faith, kind of … simply, and know how to have fun with the kids, and also … lead us to actually want to have a relationship with God.”

He values the time Father Izen, who is now an auxiliary bishop for St. Paul and Minneapolis, served the parish as well. “He was definitely … a good associate to have and … very grounded, very solid, and very intentional with parishioners, families.”

Father Kratt’s own consideration of the priesthood didn’t start until sophomore year of high school when he attended youth retreats and started hearing that “a lot of Catholic young men should be open to the priesthood.” So, he thought, “maybe I should be.”

Father Kratt, 27, met “a lot of really good priests” who were “definitely very fulfilled in life,” who had a mission, and “they’re just on fire” and “definitely living for something, very satisfied with their life, and … (I thought) maybe I could be, too.”

Father Kratt began praying about it more, asking questions of priests and other parish leaders, youth group members, close friends and family members. “It just became a lot more real and something of ‘Oh, there really is something here.’”

Around the summer after his sophomore year, he recalls praying to the Lord about whether he was being called to the priesthood. His prayers included a plea that, if so, “You just (need) to hit me over the head with a brick,” Father Kratt recalled. “Make it obvious, make it clear.”

And about 10 days later, eight to 10 people “randomly” told him, “You could be a great priest.” “And I remember saying, “OK, Lord. It’s not just me. You’re doing something,” he said with a laugh. “Now I just have to keep praying about this.”

His junior year of high school, he and a couple of friends participated in a three-day visit at St. John Vianney College Seminary in St. Paul. He left feeling “really convicted” that if he was to discern, “this is where the Lord wants me to go … to actually dive

deeper into that question of priesthood.”

He recalled hearing messages over that weekend that included, “this place is where we want you to be formed,” “we want you to actually become real disciples of Christ, first — men living for the Church, for the Lord, and then finding it — where is the Lord calling you — is it to marriage, religious life, priesthood? Wherever that is, just being able to really rejoice with you when you discover that,” Father Kratt recalled.

With that freedom, “why wouldn’t I go here?” Father Kratt said. And since he had “this question about priesthood,” “where else am I going to go and ask this question?” he said with a laugh.

During his most recent years in formation at The St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul, Father Kratt gained experience at Nativity of Our Lord in St. Paul, which served as his teaching parish, and last summer he served as a deacon at Holy Cross in northeast Minneapolis. And as ordination drew near, he said he was ready to “get into a parish and start active ministry.”

Father Kratt looks forward to getting to know parishioners and being there for them in both critical moments in their life and those “more ordinary moments,” he said. And he is excited for sacramental ministry: “just saying Mass, hearing confessions, … anointings, … confirmations …” And having “priestly community” within the rectory and outside of that, too, with priests in the archdiocese, he said.

Before his May 27 ordination, Father Kratt said he felt excitement and awe, but that it also seemed a bit surreal to be on the threshold of becoming a priest.

“I think so much of my life — priesthood, obviously being in seminary, it’s like, that’s planned,” he said. “But at the same time, it still seems like something … so beyond me, something that I don’t feel worthy of.”

Yet the Lord knows him, Father Kratt said. “He knows all my weaknesses, all my flaws, and he still (called) me, and he still wants me to be his priest,” Father Kratt said with a laugh. “That’s pretty amazing.”

FATHER WILLIAM “WIL” KRATT

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

By Barb Umberger

The Catholic Spirit

Father Ryan Glaser recalled fall of his senior year at St. John Vianney College Seminary in St. Paul when he brought to prayer where he should enroll for the rest of his seminary studies: The St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul or the North American College in Rome.

“After some prayer, I discerned the Lord was calling me to an adventure far from home, to get out of my comfort zone a little bit,” he said, and he believed studying in Rome would offer unique opportunities. Normally “a planner,” Father Glaser said he felt the Lord “tugging at my heart,” urging him to “come to something that you don’t know … that’s what the Lord asks of his disciples … come and follow me. They had no idea what they were getting into.”

No one knew in fall 2019 how hard the COVID-19 pandemic would hit Italy the following spring, Father Glaser said. The NAC board of governors eventually closed the college. Father Glaser returned to Minnesota and, days later, resumed classes online to finish the semester.

He and other seminarians who had been studying in Rome stayed at a rectory in Hopkins and Bishop Andrew Cozzens soon joined them.

Father Glaser, 26, said the experience was a lesson in “being ready for the completely unexpected,” along with the need for patience. “It felt like we can’t go to Mass, we can’t come together any more … but overall, it was never to take for granted the sacraments of the Church because we still had Bishop Cozzens with us, so we could have Mass every day,” he said.

The rectory had a small chapel and tabernacle, Father Glaser said. “We have our Lord there,” he said. “We were incredibly blessed, so I think that’ll affect how I one day minister the sacraments. I’m not going to take that for granted.”

The highlight of his experience studying in Rome was “being ordained (a transitional deacon) at the altar of the chair of St. Peter under the Holy Spirit window.” He was one of about 25 from “all over the United States.”

“How many people have been through that church … and on that hill throughout history, including St. Peter himself,” Father Glaser said. “It’s like, wow, who am I to prostrate myself on that floor,

praying for the Holy Spirit to come down? It was an overwhelming experience for all of us.”

Father Glaser’s immediate family and a group of about 25 aunts, uncles, cousins and family friends traveled to Rome to witness his ordination and do some sightseeing.

Growing up, Father Glaser was an altar server at St. Michael in Prior Lake and then a lector “from the time I could stand on my tippy toes behind the ambo,” he said. Faith was always part of his life, but in high school he participated in theater, robotics, golf, student government, and focused on academics, too. “Every once in a while, I’d perhaps feel a little twinge toward the priesthood, and … some people in my life would throw that out there from time to time,” he said.

His grandmother would sometimes tell him, “I think you should be a priest like your uncle,” who serves in the Dubuque, Iowa, archdiocese. But he’d reply, “No, I just don’t think that’s in the cards. I have my life planned out,” including studying computer science at the University of Wisconsin in

Madison. “But God also has plans, I guess, and his were different than what I had come up with on my own,” he said.

Father Glaser attended an autumn retreat sponsored by the campus Catholic Newman Center, where he “fell in love with the Lord and realized, perhaps for the first time, Jesus Christ is a real person … and he wants to have a relationship with us.” He began attending daily Mass as often as he could, reconciliation more often and became more involved with the youth center. And he later started a parttime job as website manager for the Catholic student organization.

Yet the following summer, he had an internship at an aerospace company in Burnsville and he thought, “my life is set.” But returning to start his sophomore year at college, he clearly recalled the priest’s homily Sept. 21, the feast of St. Matthew, and that the saint’s story “tells us that God does not call us because of who we are, but because he knows who we can become.” “That was a dagger to the heart, and any doubts I had, there’s always someone holier (who) can be a priest, someone more gifted can be a priest, that just pierced me straight to the heart,” Father Glaser said. “No, the Lord knows what kind of priest you can be. And I began a very quick process of discernment,” calling an uncle, who had heard that same conversation more than once, and talking with priests on campus.

Slowly, Father Glaser realized “I think the Lord is calling me to go to seminary and see if this is really what he wants for me.” He talked with Father David Blume, director of the Office of Vocations for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. He entered St. John Vianney College Seminary in St. Paul the following January.

Reflecting on his time studying in Rome, Father Glaser said he was able to meet Pope Francis twice and participate in Pope Benedict XVI’s funeral, sitting in the second row and assisting with Communion as a deacon. That meant a lot to him “since he was elected pope about two weeks before my first Communion in 2005.”

“Being able to experience these things, the Lord has just been so good to me and generous … through no merit of my own,” Father Glaser said. “My desire is to help people come to realize that themselves, too. The Lord is really generous and loving, and we just need to be listening.”

FATHER RYAN GLASER

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Father Glaser: God calls us ‘because he knows who we can become’

Father Etzel credits ‘Damascus road moment’ in discerning vocation

By Barb Umberger The Catholic Spirit

Father Kyle Etzel, 31, grew up Catholic, prayed with his family every day, but said he “mostly went along with” the way that his fellow middle school, high school and college students were living.

While attending Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, he had a “personal revelation” that his lifestyle was “largely empty” and that many of his friends were friends because they had similar interests or pastimes. That revelation “hit him like a ton of bricks” and when he went to Mass the next day, the Newman Center was promoting its new small groups for that semester.

Father Etzel joined one of the groups and said it felt like he had “rediscovered the wheel.”

“It was people who wanted to know me just because I was interesting to them as a person, and be able to talk about the faith and have in common something as deep as a relationship with Christ, which was new to me,” he said. By the end of that semester, Father Etzel was on the parish committee at the Newman Center, and the next fall, heading campus ministry.

He also had “a profound experience” in the confessional at his home parish, St. Hubert in Chanhassen. Afterward, Father Rolf Tollefson asked to talk with him, and during that spring and summer, the priest provided “a little bit of formation, a little spiritual direction,” Father Etzel said, “helping me to learn about the faith and integrate it in a deeper way.”

When Father Etzel came home from college that Thanksgiving, he and Father Tollefson connected and the priest asked if Father Etzel had ever considered becoming a priest. Father Etzel had a girlfriend at the

time and was considering marriage. He told the priest it was nice of him to ask, but no thanks.

As Father Etzel started leaving the parking lot after the conversation with Father Tollefson, he pulled into a spot behind the church near where the tabernacle is located. “It was just a profound moment of peace and joy,” he said. “I would say now that it was an experience of the Holy Spirit’s presence. … I don’t know if I would say I knew for sure that I was called to be a priest, but I knew for sure that I had to check this priesthood thing out because it was big,” he said. In fact, Father Etzel said the experience was like

“the holy two-by-four on the back of the head.” “And once you have the holy two-by-four, you realize there’s all these little moments throughout your life that the Lord’s been doing work and you didn’t even realize it,” he said. The Lord had been preparing him for a long time, “but I just needed to have that Damascus road moment.”

It took a couple months to commit to discerning the priesthood, and a year later, he transferred to the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, participating in Catholic studies before entering pre-theology a couple years later.

“I can say that I got to spend six years preparing for the priesthood with 70 to 100 of my best friends,” Father Etzel said. “I don’t think I would have made it without the support of all the guys here, and the way that the seminary has promoted that kind of growth and fraternity.”

Father Etzel loves working with young adults and doing evangelization work with that demographic. Before starting at the seminary, he taught faith formation at church and worked for campus ministry at college for two years. “And I love preaching,” Father Etzel said. “Those are the things, other than celebrating the sacraments, which are the most exciting.”

The late Father Francis Pouliot is a distant cousin by marriage to Father Etzel. He recalled visiting Father Pouliot a few times at the Leo C. Byrne Residence in St. Paul for retired priests before he died in 2022.

The priest provided Father Etzel with good encouragement, he said, telling him to “make sure you maintain your prayer life, keep your holy hour, stay close to the Lord and the Blessed Mother, and say Mass reverently.” The messages are some he also heard at the seminary, but “it never hurts to hear it again, especially from a legend like Father Pouliot,” he said.

FATHER KYLE ETZEL

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Jesuit road trips across the Midwest to promote vocations

By Christina Capecchi For The Catholic Spirit

Brother Matt Wooters spends most of his time on the road in his role as vocations promoter for the Jesuits’ Midwest province, cruising in his white Toyota Corolla and sipping black coffee. Though he’s based in Chicago, the 35-year-old has ties to St. Paul, which he visits seven or eight times a year.

Q What are the keys to a good road trip?

A Playlist, No. 1. (It) has to match the mood and has to be diverse. There’s a time to sing Lizzo at the top of your lungs and there’s a time to sing church songs. I like to have 45-minute segments — a conversation with a friend, a podcast, prayer, the rosary. That’s how I chip away at hours on the road.

Q You lead retreats and give talks to college students. How do you approach those conversations?

A It’s a tough time to be a young person. They’re entering a future that is uncertain. The path is less clear than it was 10 years ago. I have a lot of empathy for young people and their holy questions. What do I want to do with my life? What’s going to make me happy? How can I make money?

What I hope for young people is that, through a process of discernment, you can see how God is already moving in your life. Some people think you have to get in shape before you can do CrossFit. No, no, no – CrossFit is the workout! We can frequently push off discernment, “Oh, I have to work on my prayer before I can get there.” Well, God is already at work in your life. When do you feel gratitude? When are you moved by beauty? When is something so silly you laugh out loud?

How do we engage the present tense, the reality, and approach the future tense with hope and joy, not letting the fear drive our choices?

Q And how do we?

A It all starts in love. We are made in the image and likeness of God. Part of my job is just to remind them how loved they are, that they are good. Then we can ask: What fires you up? When are you your best self? What’s the version of you (that) you want to be in five years? Let’s aim toward that.

You can reframe the questions about vocation and future based on what you already know about yourself — “OK, maybe this is silly, but I love making pottery.” OK, you love creating. Let’s work with that. It doesn’t have to be running a pottery shop. But you’re really fed by making.

It’s using God’s raw material. God’s already doing that.

Q Is there relief when you frame it that way?

A There can be relief. There can also be frustration that Jesus doesn’t speak in clear sentences. Should I take this job? Should I marry this person? They want Jesus to thunder from the heaven, “Yes!” That’s not how it works.

In Jesuit discernment, we talk about consolation or desolation. In any given

encounter, are you growing in faith, hope and love — or not?

Q That can show them the next right step?

A Totally. And it’s important to pay attention. In the spiritual realm, we believe there are different spirits in our lives. There’s the good spirit and the evil spirit. The evil spirit tends to be very loud and critical and analytical. It tends to be in your brain. “You can’t do this. You’re not good. What if you fail?”

The good spirit is quiet. It’s always quiet and it’s always soft and it’s always consoling. “You are my beloved son with whom I am well pleased.” And it’s in your body — it physically lives in your body.

You have to create the silence for it. You have to not have input (from elsewhere) to hear the voice.

Q Which is hard to do!

A Very hard! The internet exists for a reason: so we don’t look away from it.

Q You just spent a weekend off the grid.

A I was in the woods of northern Michigan helping my buddy chop down trees. There was no power, we brought our own water. It was amazing! In a hyper-digital world, to do real stuff with a friend, there’s no cellphone reception and you can just chop up trees — that’s something really beautiful.

Q Tell me about your ritual of coldwater swimming.

A Every morning, I meet friends at sunrise on Lake Michigan. If you’re swimming in a Great Lake, you are so small, and that is so powerful. It’s baptismal. How you go into the baptismal font is different from how you leave. Not only are you physically wet, but you’re drenched in grace. I feel the same. And whatever worries or fears you had going into it are gone when you’re done. You’re laughing and having fun.

I frequently go up to Collegeville to see the monks at the abbey. I swim with them in Lake Sag (Sagatagan). I think one monk swims every morning if it’s not frozen.

Q What’s the trick? Do you submerge quickly?

A I go in really slow. I do an acclimatizing thing — ankles, knees, hips, chest, then all the way up. Your fight-or-flight response kicks in. Your first response is to clench and hyperventilate. But you can breathe through that. You can reset your nervous system: “I’m safe, this is OK.” Then you feel bliss. You’ve got a high cortisone level in your brain — all this stress — and once that goes down, you have this rush of emotions. “I did something hard, and I’m still OK. I moved past the scary part and now it’s

kind of awesome.” Your brain is flooded with happy chemicals.

Q Does that happen every time — even when you do it daily?

A Every time.

Q Cold-water plunges are trending. There’s something to it.

A It’s a little adventure you can have. There’s something to having a thrill.

Q What is the spiritual underpinning to that?

A Almost always we’re trying to fill a God-shaped hole in our heart. And I think more than anything, we crave to live with God forever, as St. Ignatius says. All this stuff that brings me closer to God — I’m hungry for that. I want more of that.

Q You’ve said before that you can be thick-headed, and God uses very cold water to bring you back to him.

A It’s so true! We get caught up in our stuff. But it’s hard to think about what emails you need to send when you’re watching the sunrise and you’re freezing.

Q What else makes you feel alive?

A I deleted all my social media this year for Lent. I decided to text all my friends and ask if they’d have time after they put their kids to bed to have a real talk. People loved it. I’d schedule it. I really like authentic connections.

COURTESY BROTHER MATT WOOTERS

FOCUSONFAITH

Participating in Christ and partaking of the One Loaf

As a young priest and bishop, Venerable Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan had great ministerial success, from the formation of seminarians, men and women religious, laity and youth to the constructing of Catholic schools, promotion of lay movements and missions for evangelization. But all this came to an abrupt end with the fall of Saigon in 1975. Arrested on the pretense of conspiring with the Vatican after Pope Paul VI named him coadjutor bishop of the capital of South Vietnam a week before it fell into the hands of the communist government, for the next 13 years Bishop Van Thuan was imprisoned, suffering unspeakable physical and mental torture, nine years of which were in solitary confinement.

In the darkness of his prison cell, at the height of his most grueling humiliation and in complete isolation, when all hope seemed lost, he lamented, “Many times

FAITH FUNDAMENTALS

FATHER

MICHAEL VAN SLOUN

The solemn blessing for the newly married couple

The liturgical prayers offered during the celebration of the sacrament of marriage reveal the Church’s theology and understanding of the sacrament. The Solemn Blessing offered over the couple before the dismissal is in three parts and imparts a powerful final message (Roman Missal, 1030; Order of Celebrating Marriage, No. 77, pg. 38).

The first invocation begins, “May God the eternal Father keep you of one heart in love.” The goal for marriage is oneness in love. This oneness is patterned on the relationship between Jesus and his heavenly Father. Jesus explained, “The Father and I are one” (Jn 10:30), “the Father loves me” (Jn 15:9), and he in turn loved his Father. In a world filled with conflict and division, Jesus deeply longed for unity and fervently

DAILY Scriptures

I was tempted, tormented by the fact that I was fortyeight years old, in the prime of my life; I had worked as a bishop for eight years, I had acquired a great deal of pastoral experience, and there I was: isolated, inactive, and separated from my people.”

“Do not forget,” exclaims Moses in June 11’s first reading. “Remember how for forty years now the Lord, your God, has directed all your journeying in the desert … .” In other words, Moses is reminding Israel, “Remember, God is in charge. He always was, always is, and always will be. Do not forget.” One can know this intellectually and cognitively, but until it sinks into the depths of one’s soul experientially, until it is wedded to every fiber of one’s being, it remains on the level of theory and not of actuality. Bishop Van Thuan received this profound realization of faith one night in his cell when he heard a voice encouraging him from the depths of his heart: “Why do you torment yourself so? You must learn to distinguish between God and the works of God … .” It was within that context of verging on complete, total and utter despair that the light of Christ kindled within him a renewal of hope and divine charity: “Francis, everything you have done and desire to continue doing … all of these are excellent works, they are God’s works, but they are not God. Choose God and not the works of God.”

The work of the National Eucharistic Revival, a threeyear grassroots movement to rediscover the “Source and Summit” of our Catholic faith, called for by the bishops of the United States, has begun. It encompasses every baptized member of the mystical body of Christ. But while there are many things we can do, the Revival is

prayed, “that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you” (Jn 17:21). His prayer was answered when the early Christian community “was of one heart” (Acts 4:32), and his prayer will be answered again when the newly married couple is of one heart in love.

The first invocation continues, “that the peace of Christ may dwell in you.” Jesus told his disciples, “My peace I give to you” (Jn 14:27). His peace is not like the world’s peace, the absence of fighting, a sense of humor, or a good mood, but a genuine inner peace that comes when a person obeys the commandments and Gospel teaching, follows the guidance of the Holy Spirit, freely lays down one’s life for one’s spouse, and gives generously without counting the cost. The indwelling of Christ happens through faith, truth, kind words, good deeds, prayer and frequent reception of the sacraments.

The first invocation concludes, “and abide always in your home.” Love and peace are not only to fill each spouse individually, but they are to permeate their home. They are to be a house church. The head of the house is God. The house rules are God’s laws. Christ abides where he is welcomed and warmly embraced.

The second invocation begins, “May you be blessed in your children.” A pregnancy, the birth of a child, and a new life is a miracle, and it is an incredible blessing for a mother and father to participate in God’s ongoing work of creation. Parents love their children, and it is a great blessing when the children reciprocate with their obedience, respect, cooperation and kindness. Parents are blessed in their children when they stay in close

not a call to ecclesial and spiritual activism — the great modern temptation of the multiplication of programs geared toward productivity and economic efficiency, measurable and affirmed by statistical analyses. Certainly, the fruits of the Revival will come about via practical and concrete initiatives. However, it is more profoundly an invitation to rediscover the primacy of receptivity, the art of being with God and not merely reducing the human person to a being for God, as though God himself needed a revival. God does not need a revival. We do.

The key, therefore, lies in the words Jesus speaks in the Gospel, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.” This act of “remaining with” or “remaining in” is the foundation upon which all activity for an authentic Revival is and should be established. Unbeknownst to the communists, the little bottle of “stomach medicine” and the flashlight they allowed Bishop Van Thuan to have contained the wine and hosts, sealed in the battery compartment, necessary for Mass. The immense joy of celebrating Eucharist every day with three drops of wine and one drop of water in the palm of his hand became Bishop Van Thuan’s Revival while in prison. Therein lies the light of hope gleaned from his dark night: The primacy of act, not of activity, and the primacy of being, not of doing, is Corpus Christi, the body of Christ, and it is the Eucharistic Revival.

Father Tran is parochial vicar of St. Stephen in Anoka and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ liaison for the National Eucharistic Revival.

contact with them when they become adults and assist them in their old age.

The second invocation continues, “May you have solace in your friends.” A faithful friend is sturdy shelter, a treasure beyond price, and a life-saving remedy (Sir 6:14,15,16). It is a rich blessing to have companions on the journey of life, help when it is hard to manage, and encouragement when feeling low.

The second invocation concludes, “May you enjoy true peace with everyone.” Peace is characterized by mutual respect and harmony. It is the ideal and a lofty goal. St. Paul has practical words of advice: “If possible, on your part, live at peace with all” (Rom 12:18).

The third invocation is, “May you be witnesses in the world to God’s charity, so that the afflicted and needy who have known your kindness may one day receive you thankfully into the eternal dwelling of God.” The blessing envisions a group at the gates of heaven comprised of everyone that the couple helped over the course of their marriage. If the couple was stingy and helped only a few, the welcoming committee will be small, but if the couple has been generous and helped many, there will be a large and friendly crowd enthusiastically waiting at their arrival and eager to show them to their dwelling place in the heavenly mansion.

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

3-6 Mt 5:20-26

Friday, June 16

Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus Dt 7:6-11

Saturday, June 17

Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Sunday, June 18 Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time Ex 19:2-6a Rm 5:6-11 Mt 9:36–10:8

Monday, June 19 2 Cor 6:1-10 Mt 5:38-42

Tuesday, June 20 2 Cor 8:1-9 Mt 5:43-48

Wednesday, June 21 St. Aloysius Gonzaga, religious 2 Cor 9:6-11 Mt 6:1-6, 16-18

Thursday, June 22 2 Cor 11:1-11 Mt 6:19-23

Friday, June 23 2 Cor 11:18, 21-30 Mt 6:7-15

Saturday, June 24

Solemnity of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist Is 49:1-6 Acts 13:22-26 Lk 1:57-66, 80

Sunday, June 25

Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Monday, June 26 Gn 12:1-9

Tuesday, June 27 Gn 13:2, 5-18 Mt 7:6, 12-14

Wednesday, June 28

St. Irenaeus, bishop and martyr Gn 15:1-12, 17-18

Mt 7:15-20

Thursday, June 29

Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul, apostles Acts 12:1-11 2 Tm 4:6-8, 17-18

Friday, June 30 Gn 17:1, 9-10, 15-22

Saturday, July 1 Gn 18:1-15

Sunday, July 2

Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

COMMENTARY

TWENTY SOMETHING | CHRISTINA CAPECCHI

‘Find the heart of the work’

The U.S. Postal Service just released a stamp that bursts with nostalgia: an homage to the beloved author and illustrator Tomie dePaola. It depicts his best-known character, Strega Nona, who earned him a Caldecott Medal in 1976, clutching her pasta pot and smiling at her peacock. The stamp inspired me to sift through my dePaola collection — his saint books, his condensed histories, his quirky stories and spooky tales. So much of dePaola’s Catholic upbringing appears in his richly colored folk art — the nuns and friars, the churches and baptisms — and the depiction of family life often mirrors his own Irish-Italian rituals.

DePaola treated young readers with intelligence, addressing their natural questions about life and death with books like “Nana Upstairs and Nana Downstairs” and the hauntingly beautiful “The Clown of God.”

Painting in his New Hampshire studio in a 200-yearold barn, dePaola worked out his own aging. Books like “Now One Foot, Now the Other” and “Quiet” celebrate a gentler, slower pace. The very titles of some later books capture his philosophy of life: “Angels, Angels Everywhere,” “Let the Whole Earth Sing Praise” and “Look and Be Grateful.”

DePaola was once asked to offer guidance for creators of children’s books. Advice for artists often doubles as advice for living.

His response did not disappoint.

“If I look at my early things, it’s not there yet,” dePaola said. “I’m too full of myself, too full of showing off, showing how well I could crosshatch, for instance. I think that’s the progression of a young artist. You show off and then you — or I — suddenly find the heart of the work. I suddenly began to be faithful to the heart: the humor, the pathos, whatever is there.”

KATE SOUCHERAY

Strengthening the family in faith

When our now-adult children were young, I found manners videos at the library, which we watched together and talked about how we would use them while we were on a special vacation that summer. Whether it was how to look at the waitress when we placed our order at the restaurants we were visiting, why we needed to keep our room clean at the hotel or our commitment to not littering when we were visiting the parks on our itinerary, we all benefited from the reminders provided by the videos. I said, “Good manners never take a vacation.”

In the same way, our faith never takes a vacation. During the summer months, whether we are on vacation or at home and just don’t feel like attending Sunday Mass, our faith still needs to be fed. We may want to take a break from the sacrament of reconciliation or our commitment to the adoration chapel, and yet we know a laxness in these commitments opens us to sin.

During the summer months when we have longer days and warmer weather, it’s not uncommon to relax our determination to do the right and good thing in every situation we face. Our faith helps us remain

In the age of Instagram, not showing off can feel counter-cultural. We view other people’s lives as highlight reels filmed at golden hour and put to acoustic music. We are tempted to play along.

All ages are guilty. We show off on playgrounds and in boardrooms. We brag, we fake it, we one-up each other.

Overcoming the desire to show off is a turning point in the spiritual life. It is the beginning. It’s a launching pad for all worthy endeavors — be it the development of a craft or a relationship. It enables us to say important things.

“I don’t know.” “I don’t like that.” “I’m scared. “I need help.” “I was wrong.”

We can confess fear and remorse, and we can express delight and affection.

“I’m excited!” “I’m amazed!” “Wow!” “I love you!” “I want to be with you.” (My kindergartner says this to me, and it feels like the ultimate compliment.)

There is freedom in reaching this point and also responsibility. We are free to simply embrace what is, rather than force what we want it to be.

But this doesn’t come easy. We must pay attention long enough and open our hearts wide enough to recognize the heart of the matter. And then, as dePaola instructs, we must be faithful to it.

What is the heart of your work? What is the crux of your vocation when you step back and consider the big picture?

It’s not the to-do list, the meeting agenda or the meal plan. It’s not our commitments — that stuffy space between calendar and clock.

It’s none of the day-to-day shuffle.

It’s how we make people feel.

It’s how we spend our precious time, how often we laugh and pray and play, whether we notice the sunset and the birdsong and utter “how great Thou art.”

It’s not what we do but why we do it and who we are — our identity rooted in Christ, his beloved sons and daughters.

Find the heart and cling to it. Everything else will fall into place.

Capecchi is a freelance writer from Inver Grove Heights.

consistent and committed to being the kind of person we can be proud of. The kind of person we want to be proud of.

So how can we maintain our faith commitments during these vital summer months?

We can begin by explaining to our family that at the bare minimum, we will always attend Sunday Mass, no matter where we are. If we are on vacation, we will look ahead and find the closest Catholic church and make sure we attend Mass either Saturday evening or Sunday morning.

We can also say the rosary together as a family, whether we are at home, in the car or on a walk enjoying a beautiful summer day. We can offer prayers for the good of others and those who have asked us to pray for them. We can read books about the lives of saints and work to emulate their sacred qualities in our everyday lives. Msgr. Gerald Philips reminds us, “Religion is more than a coat which a citizen dons each Sunday morning, doffs as soon as possible and puts away for another week. To believe means to abandon oneself with reverence and confidence to the living and true God, Father and Creator, in whose hands we are held.”

Rather than forgetting about our faith in the summer, it can become a time to set aside the demands of the busier months and open ourselves more fully to God. It can become a fruitful season of spiritual growth, one that enhances the months that require so much of our mortal attention and effort. The summer, with its more relaxed schedule, is a perfect time to respond to the grace of the Holy Spirit as he moves in our hearts, minds and souls, encouraging us to grow in

BRIDGING FAITH | DEACON MICKEY FRIESEN

Confirmed in faith

“I’m not supposed to be here!”

Those were the opening words of a university commencement address

I heard this spring. The keynote speaker went on to say that he should not have been able to go to college, let alone graduate, based on the challenges of his growing up years. He spoke about his mother who gave birth to him while still a teenager and unprepared to be a parent, and how they struggled to make it. She embraced her life and encouraged him to grow beyond his circumstances. He also said he didn’t plan to be a basketball coach, but he did agree to be a “Big Brother” to a 12-year-old boy while in college.

Unbeknownst to the speaker, his “little brother” volunteered him to be his junior high coach. This unplanned, sneaky predicament changed the speaker’s life. He went on to be one of the most successful high school basketball coaches in Minnesota history. He said, “I was not supposed to be here, but I am here. I stand here on the shoulders of my mother, my mentors, my little brother and all those who confirmed me on a path that I had not planned for. I am here by the grace of God. Whether we planned it or not … WE ARE HERE!”

Pentecost marks the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and sending them into mission. The early Apostles moved beyond Jerusalem in ways they had not planned for. I think of St. Phillip the deacon being forced to flee Jerusalem to escape persecution and finding himself unexpectedly in Samaria. Or, St. Peter being sent to the home of Cornelius, a gentile and Roman soldier. I can imagine them thinking, “I am not supposed to be here!” And yet their unplanned departures became part of God’s bigger plan to bring the Gospel to new places and faces. The Spirit went with St. Phillip and St. Peter and confirmed them in faith for the journey. The Spirit also went ahead of them preparing the hearts of those they would encounter. They were confirmed in the Spirit to embrace their predicament and give witness to Christ.

It has been said that life is what happens while we are busy making other plans. We can face trials in life we did not plan for. It can make us think, “I’m not supposed to be here.” We can have dreams and goals that turn out differently. The good news is that the Spirit of God accompanies us and confirms us in faith no matter our plans. God’s plan is big enough to give meaning to our life circumstances and transform them for God’s purpose. In fact, it may be where our plans end that God’s plan is able to begin and grow. Our faith is an apostolic faith. Our faith sends us forth into the world as witnesses of Christ. It is a faith born in and confirmed by the Spirit of God. We may not be able to plan the time and place for when we are called upon to give witness, but the Spirit of God accompanies us and leads us into the truth of the meaning of our lives. We cannot plan for everything that life has in store for us, but we are here now. We can live with a faith ready to give the reason for our hope. God’s plan gives meaning to our situation and the Spirit accompanies us to comfort and encourage, to direct and confirm us in Christ.

Let us be confirmed in faith, confirmed in the Spirit, confirmed in communion and ready to give the reason for our hope in Christ. We are the ones God has been waiting for to be his witnesses to the ends of the earth.

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

ALREADY/NOT YET | JONATHAN LIEDL

The men who were just ordained are human — and that’s a good thing

I’d say I know the four men who were just ordained to the priesthood at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul on May 27 better than most. And for good reason: I was actually in the same seminary class with three of them before I discerned out.

So let me let you in on a little secret: These guys aren’t angels. They’ve been known to do non-spiritual things like drink beer, play 500, shoot hoops, and even perform in a seminary rock band. To be clear, our new priests are very human. And that’s a good thing.

Here’s why: Men ordained to the priesthood have “awe”-some power and an awesome responsibility. In fact, the Church teaches us that they are conformed to Jesus Christ, the High Priest, at the level of their soul. It’s a lofty calling, to participate in Christ’s mediation

between heaven and earth as his priest, to be the means through which God’s sacramental grace is poured upon his people — but it’s also one that never leaves behind the man’s humanity.

And when we forget the priest’s humanity, things can go wrong. Because as St. Thomas Aquinas famously taught, grace doesn’t destroy nature, it perfects it. A man’s ordination doesn’t remove his humanity but works through it in a way that makes him fit to be a channel of grace. Divine power and human instrumentality must hold together in the seeming paradox of the priestly ministry. Forgetting either part of that equation is a problem.

The Church, it could be argued, has at times lost sight of the human end of this “both/and” reality. This tendency manifests itself in the form of putting the man in priestly ministry on a pedestal, treating him as a kind of superhuman or demigod because supernatural works are, in fact, worked through him. As Pope Francis reminds us, this kind of clericalism can be a problem — perhaps especially when the laity are the ones guilty of it.

It might seem like a compliment to the clergy to have such a lofty view of the priesthood, to think that the men ordained are angelic beings, but it’s not. Losing sight of the priest’s humanity sets him up for failure — we forget that priests need community, exercise and some decent hobbies, and occasionally serious spiritual and psychological help. Burnout — and worse — are the products of forgetting the humanity of our clergy.

But the counterreaction to this exclusively spiritual view of the priesthood is also a problem: reducing the priest to “just one of the guys.” A priest is not the same

as a layman. If he is, I have no idea why I’m confessing my sins to him. Priests are human, but they have been “set apart” for service and their power is genuinely not their own. Christ truly works through them, and they are meant to be truly conformed to him and his ministerial priesthood in a way that the rest of us aren’t. Prayer is important for all of us, but it takes on an added significance in the life of the priest, because his is such a supernaturally dependent vocation. There is nothing more off-putting nor concerning than a priest who doesn’t pray.

In a similar way to how the early Church overcame a slew of Christological heresies by affirming that Jesus is fully God and fully man, we always need to recognize that our priests are both fully men, and fully sacramentally transformed to be divine instruments.

So next time you see your parish priest, keep this “both/and” in mind. Embrace the fact that he’s been called to God to serve the Church in a mind-blowing way and trust that sacramental power flows through him; but also keep in mind that he’s only human, and could maybe use a word of encouragement, patience on the occasional bad day, or maybe just a hearty, homecooked meal.

And make sure to pray for our new archdiocesan priests, Fathers Kyle Etzel, Wil Kratt, John Rumpza and Ryan Glaser. Because although their souls have been conformed to Christ, the High Priest, they still need his help.

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

In June, let your garden honor the hearts of Jesus and Mary

By Margaret Rose Realy OSV News

We enter into June, and Ordinary Time, with the sense of sharing the faith and expanding the Church. The green of this liturgical season is symbolic of hope and new growth. Seedlings sprout — those planted in the earth or those growing in our soul — and we anticipate flowering, and when managed properly, an abundant harvest.

Interestingly, this season begins with the month’s dedication to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and includes the Immaculate Heart of Mary. A more verdant pasture of hope would be hard to find. The Sacred Heart of Jesus signifies not only his physical heart but also his love for all mankind, and love is powerful. It is a restoration of peace that is encircled with a crown of thorns, for peace is not easily gained. There is a harsh reality of love, because when we love, we are vulnerable to pain, loss and anxiety.

During our dedication to the Sacred Heart we give our hearts, an act of consecration, to him in return. And there are many beautiful ways to commemorate the Sacred Heart of Jesus in a garden. You can do so by using images or shrines attached to a tree or post, creating pavers, or adding symbolic plants and colors.

Plants for a Sacred/Immaculate Heart garden could include monochromatic or harmonious color schemes of reds and oranges, vines symbolic of clinging to God, or plants with heart-shaped leaves or flowers. If you plan to honor the Immaculate Heart of Mary, consider adding white or red roses, or a touch of blue representing her mantle.

A few of the more common flowers used for Sacred/ Immaculate Heart gardens — both symbolically and in form — are anemone, angel wing begonia (Begonia coccinea), bleeding heart (Dicentra) and carnations (Dianthus).

Also consider green — the color of hope — which is the foundational architecture of any garden. It is the varying shades of green that lend depth to our gardens, as does our varying intensity of hope to our faith. It is against this backdrop that the flowers (our virtues) are revealed more distinctly.

For greens in a Sacred/Immaculate Heart garden, consider using heart-shaped leaves. A few suggestions: Brunnera: This shade-loving genus comes in a

range of leaf textures and venation, and has delicate blue flowers in spring — an excellent selection for a garden dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Colocasia and Alocasia: Both genera are tropical plants with exceptionally large leaves, many of them shaped like a heart, and symbolize growing toward heaven.

Cyclamen: This tuberous plant grows throughout the Mediterranean and parts of Europe, and red flowering cultivars are readily available. It is symbolic of resignation both to love and to death.

Hosta: Nearly all species of this predominantly shade-loving plant have heart-shaped leaves, represent devotion and are closely related to the Virgin Mary.

Ipomoea batatas: Cultivars of this sun-loving trailing vine vary from bright chartreuse to deep magenta. It carries the same spiritual meaning as a morning glory, which is an enduring love even through eternity.

However you intend to develop your prayer garden, it will be one created from the heart. It is an outdoor space that moves your faith forward with its creation, and a space where others who visit can learn the spiritual significance each plant holds for you. And isn’t that a lovely way to evangelize?

Realy is a Benedictine Oblate and the author of “A Garden Catechism: 100 Plants in Christian Tradition and How to Grow Them” (OSV, 2022).

OSV NEWS PHOTO | HERMANN HAMMER, WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

An image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, enshrined in wood and nailed to a tree, located on Pinus Cembra in the Stubai Alps, between Salfains and Grieskogel, painted in 1996.

Why I am Catholic

By Steven C. Anderson

first inkling of a calling was forming within me.

Then one day, I decided to sit in the front row at the Cathedral. I started to listen, pray and reflect. I had never done this before, and something was beginning to stir inside. Raised Lutheran, I never thought of becoming Catholic. Even though I played piano and organ at four or five Masses on a weekend plus weddings and funerals,

didn’t — who began to suggest and encourage me to do OCIA. So, when my good friend asked me if she could be my sponsor, I said yes. Oh boy did the word spread! I had the entire church community supporting me.

My path to becoming Catholic began 21 years ago when I started accompanying Mass on piano and organ at St. Joseph in West St. Paul. How crazy to think that after 21 years of sitting in the front row, I finally realized this was my spiritual home all along.

Cathedral Hill or “the Hill” in St. Paul is where I live, work and have raised my family. My weekly routine included runs on Summit Avenue past the Cathedral. Oftentimes, I would enter the Cathedral and sit in the back when there was no Mass going on. The architecture and beauty always gave me pause. I believe it was there, sitting in the back row of that empty space, where the

I saw Church as a job, a way to make money while doing what I loved. Father Michael Creagan, pastor of St. Joe’s, was a constant source of inspiration to me. Not only was he my boss, but he was a friend who edified me with his preaching for over 15 years — plus, we have a shared love of good coffee!

Last summer, when I was playing for a renewal of wedding vows, Father Mike Schmitz was presiding. During his homily, he asked everyone, “Are you willing to accept God’s love for you exactly as you are today?” That hit me like a lightning bolt and inside I felt a resounding yes.

I went home and noticed the cross on my wall that my Aunt Val Pezzani gave me six years ago. Val knew what she was doing before she died, and I know that cross was filled with prayers and hope for me.

I’m guessing that is when the Holy Spirit got to work. There was a succession of people — some I knew, some I

As I stood before the altar during Easter Vigil this year, I knew I had found my spiritual home. For the days and weeks following the vigil, I was overwhelmed with the response from so many people with thoughtful cards, books and gifts. I could not be more grateful.

Becoming Catholic has been transformative. I have found the spiritual home that had been waiting for me all along. It took 21 years of me being in the front row physically, but now I am actually in the front row spiritually. I am excited to see where my faith leads me, as my journey has just begun.

Anderson, 57, is a member of St. Joseph in West St. Paul and a father of five. He enjoys running, tennis, musicals, fast cars and “probably too much coffee!” He said he is “blessed to do what I do and I’m working on new music for the Catholic Church.”

“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.”

COURTESY STEVEN C. ANDERSON

CALENDAR

PARISH EVENTS

Minnesota author to visit parish book club — June 12: 6:30 p.m. at St. Pascal, 1757 Conway St., St. Paul. Presenter: Staci Lola Drouillard, a descendant of the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Anishinaabe, she lives and works in her hometown of Grand Marais.

6:30 p.m., fellowship. 7-8 p.m., Drouillard to lead book discussion in Brioschi Hall. RSVP at StpaSCalS org/pariSh-newS and use the SignUp Genius link. StpaSCalS org/pariSh-newS

Presentation: The Holy Face of Jesus — June 13: 6:45–8:15 p.m. at Nativity of Mary, 9900 Lyndale Ave. S., Bloomington. Guest speaker: Father Lawrence Carney, author of the book “The Secret of The Holy Face.” An opportunity to gather and learn from Father Carney’s profound insights and spiritual wisdom.

nativitybloomington org

Free Store — June 17: 10 a.m.–noon at St. Thomas More, 1065 Summit Ave., St. Paul. The Free Store provides gently used clothing and household items at no charge. Please use the alley entrance to the school. No income requirements or ID necessary. Next date: July 15. moreCommunity org/free-Store

Chicken Cookout — June 18: 10:30 a.m.–3 p.m. at St. Nicholas, 51 Church St., Elko New Market. Join us for 8 a.m. or 10 a.m. Mass. Tickets: $16 adults; $9 for under 11 and over 65. Takeout available. Shuttles, Charlie Sticha Band, games, baked goods, burgers, hot dogs and refreshments. Big ticket raffle drawing 3 p.m. StnCC net

‘SUPER’ sale — June 22-24: 9 a.m.–8 p.m. June 22-23; 9 a.m.–1 p.m. June 24 (Bag Day, $5/bag, fifth bag free) at St. John the Baptist Catholic School, 12508 Lynn Ave., Savage. Clothing, baby items, tools and home decor, books, DVDs, CDs, games, luggage, linens, jewelry, garden and outdoor items, beauty, camping and items for pets. Early bird sale June 21, 5–8 p.m., $5 per person entrance fee. StjohnS-Savage org/Super-Sale

WORSHIP+RETREATS

18th Annual Northeast Eucharistic Procession — June 11: 3–5 p.m. at Holy Cross, 1621 University Ave., Minneapolis. Take Jesus to the streets and venerate his eucharistic presence. The procession will begin at 3 p.m. at Holy Cross and will conclude at All Saints parish with Benediction. Reception to follow at St. Maron Catholic Church. Shuttle service is provided. ourholyCroSS org

Women’s Mid-Week Retreat — June 13-15 at Franciscan Retreats and Spirituality Center, 16385 St. Francis Lane, Prior Lake. Women have been a vital part of this retreat center from its inception. Four conference talks. franCiSCanretreatS net/womenS-midweek-CatholiC-retreatjune-13-15-2023

Silent Retreat (Open to women and men) — June 22-25 at Franciscan Retreats and Spirituality Center, 16385 St. Francis Lane, Prior Lake. Relax and focus on the Lord. Refrain from talking except with confessors.

franC SCanretreatS net/Silent-CatholiC-retreat-men-womenjune-22-25-2023

Ignatian men’s silent retreat — Thursday-Sunday most weeks at Demontreville Jesuit Retreat House, 8243 Demontreville Trail N., Lake Elmo. Freewill donation. demontrevilleretreat Com

CONFERENCES+WORKSHOPS

“The Next Chapter” Program (Information Sessions) — June 21 (in-person) or June 27 (via Zoom): 7–8 p.m. at the University of St. Thomas, 2115 Summit Ave., St. Paul. In-person session will be held in the Iverson Center for Faith, which is attached to the Chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas on Cleveland Ave. N. The University of St. Thomas invites recent retirees to find out more about “The Next Chapter” program. This is a six-month guided journey using principles of Ignatian spirituality for discerning what God may be calling you to do next. A new cohort starts in September. RSVP for an info session via email: karin trailjohnSon@StthomaS edu StthomaS edu/miSSion/programming/ nextChapter

SEMINARS

Voices in Education: Anything but Boring – Catholic Schools and the Law — June 22: 5–8 p.m. at The St. Paul Seminary, 2260 Summit Ave., St. Paul. Join The St. Paul Seminary’s Institute for Catholic School Leadership for dinner and dynamic discussion around Catholic schools and the law. Speaker John DeJak, J.D., is a lawyer, institute instructor and headmaster at Chelsea Academy in Front Royal, Virginia. SaintpaulSeminary org/event/voiCeS-ineduCation-anything-but-boring-CatholiC-SChoolS-and-the-law

OTHER EVENTS

Vatican International Exhibition: The Eucharistic Miracles of the World — June 16-18: 9:30 a.m.–8 p.m. at St. Peter, 1405 Highway 13, Mendota. Designed and created by Blessed Carlo Acutis. More than 150 eucharistic miracles from around the world and through the history of the Church. Each miracle is described on a 2-foot by 3-foot panel displayed in an art gallery setting. StpeterSmendota org

Basilica Music and Arts Immersion Camp — June 26-30: 9 a.m.–4 p.m. at Basilica of St. Mary, 88 N. 17th St. Minneapolis. A choral and arts music enrichment camp for singers entering grades 4-8. Campers will also work with local artists and visit local arts organizations. Tuition: $100. Scholarships available ($75). mary org/muS CCamp

ONGOING GROUPS

Bridge Club — Last Saturdays: 7–8:30 p.m. year-round at St. Joseph, 13015 Rockford Road, Plymouth. From veteran to new, all are invited. Simply show up. Tables, treats and tallies are provided. Contact Mike or Janet Malinowski at 952-525-8708.

Calix Society — First and third Sundays: 9–10:30 a.m. First Sunday via Zoom, third Sunday in person hosted by the Cathedral of St. Paul, 239 Selby Ave., St. Paul. In Assembly Hall, Lower Level. Calix is a group of men, women, family and friends supporting the spiritual needs of recovering Catholics with alcohol or other addictions. Zoom meeting link, call Jim at 612-383-8232 or Steve at 612-327-4370.

Career Transition Group — Third Thursdays: 7:30–8:30 a.m. at Holy Name of Jesus, 155 County Road 24, Wayzata. Host speakers on various topics geared toward helping people look for a job, change careers or enhance job skills. Networking and opportunities for resume review. hnoj org/Career-tranSition-group

Caregivers Support Group — Third Thursdays: 6:30 p.m. at Guardian Angels, 8260 Fourth St. N., Oakdale. For anyone juggling the challenges of life, health, career and caring for an aging parent, grandparent, or spouse. guardian-angelS org/event/1392201-2019-09-19-CaregiverSSupport-group

Healing Hope grief support — Second and fourth Thursdays: 6 p.m. at St. Timothy, 707 89th Ave. NE, Blaine. Facilitated by Bob Bartlett, licensed therapist. No fees or required registration. ChurChofSttimothy Com

Job transitions and networking group — Tuesdays: 7–8:30 a.m. at St. Joseph the Worker, 7180 Hemlock Lane, Maple Grove. Network, share ideas and learn about searching for a job at this faith-based meeting every Tuesday. Email Bob at bob Sjtw@gmail Com or visit Sjtw net/ job-tranSition-networking-group

Natural Family Planning (NFP) — Learn Churchapproved ways to achieve or postpone pregnancy while embracing the beauty of God’s gift of sexuality. Find a class at arChSpm org/family or call 651-291-4489.

Order Franciscans Secular (OFS) — Third Sundays: 2–4 p.m. at St. Leonard of Port Maurice, 3949 Clinton Ave. S., Minneapolis. Learn more about lay Catholic men and women striving to observe the Gospel of Jesus Christ by following St. Francis’ example. 651-724-1348

Restorative Support for Victims-Survivors

— Monthly: 6:30–8 p.m. via Zoom. Open to all victimssurvivors. Victim-survivor support group for those abused by clergy as adults — first Mondays. Support group for relatives or friends of victims of clergy sexual abuse — second Mondays. Victim-survivor support group — third Mondays. Survivor Peace Circle — third Tuesdays. Support group for men who have been sexually abused by clergy/religious — fourth Wednesdays. Support group for present and former employees of faith-based institutions who have experienced abuse in any of its many forms — second Thursdays. Visit arChSpm org/healing or contact Paula Kaempffer, outreach coordinator for Restorative Justice and Abuse Prevention, kaempfferp@arChSpm org or 651-291-4429.

CALENDAR submissions

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

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

ITEMS MUST INCLUDE:

uTime and date of event

uFull street address of event

uDescription of event

uContact information in case of questions

TheCatholiCSpirit Com/CalendarSubmiSSionS

SIMPLE HOLINESS

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 20

virtue and character.

Alexandre Havard explains that virtue creates the content of our character. The virtues that contribute to a well-formed character are magnanimity, humility, prudence, courage, self-control and justice, which help soften our given nature, or temperament. For those who practice the development of virtue, life is a quest for personal excellence. Helpful resources to grow in virtue and holiness can be found in local stores or on Catholic websites. If you purchase a resource today, you can begin to incorporate the teachings it proposes into your family life for the rest of the summer. Continue your quest to become a family containing strong Catholic virtues and values over the remaining summer months. Remember, our faith never takes a vacation.

Soucheray is a licensed marriage and family therapist emeritus and a member of St. Ambrose in Woodbury. Learn more at her website ifhwb com

GREAT CATHOLIC SPEAKERS

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Resurrection Cemetery: 2 side-by-side non-monument plots overlooking the lake. Value: $4160 for both. Sale: $4000 for both. Contact: 323-491-4087.

TheCatholicSpirit.com

HANDYMAN

WE DO 1,162 THINGS AROUND THE HOME!

Catholic Owned Handyman Business: We will fix/ repair and remodel almost anything around the home. Serving entire Metro. Call today. Mention this ad and receive 10% off labor. ACE Handyman Services 952-946-0088.

MUSIC SCHOOL

St. Joseph’s School of Music: Summer Music Camp for ages 8-15; registration now open. Weekly lessons and classes too - all instruments, all levels, all ages. Excellence in music education since 1970. stjomusic.org; 651-690-4364

HARDWOOD FLOORS

Sweeney’s Hardwood Floors Spring’s Here! Spruce up your home with new or refurbished hardwood floors. 15% off refinishing. Sweeney (651) 485-8187

archspm.org

PAINTING

For painting & all related services. View our website: PAINTINGBYJERRYWIND.COM or call (651) 699-6140.

Merriam Park Painting. Professional Int./ Ext. Painting. WP Hanging. Moderate Prices, Free Estimates. Call Ed (651) 224-3660. Michaels Painting. Texture and Repair. MichaelsPaintingllc coM. (763) 757-3187

PRAYERS

NOTICE: Prayers must be submitted in advance. Payment of $8 per line must be received before publication

RELIGIOUS ITEMS FOR SALE

www.Holyart.com

Over 50k Religious Items & Church Goods.

The importance of being dad

Book points to personal example, consistent involvement in children’s lives

By Susan Klemond For The Catholic Spirit

Mark Berchem became aware of how he influenced his children after seeing a family photo taken about 18 years ago that showed him and his son throwing rocks into Lake Superior with identical posture and movement, although Berchem had never taught his son the skill.

“People listen with their eyes and even more so in today’s culture, the importance of example is huge for parents,” said Berchem, founder of NET Ministries who talked about his new book, “Step Up Dad! Your Kids Need You.”

“Our kids are watching. They may not be always listening to us but they’re watching. We are teaching loud and clear by how we live our life.”

Berchem, a parishioner of St. Joseph in West St. Paul, seeks to help dads recognize their power to affect their children’s lives and pass on faith and values. Including fathering advice with his experiences of raising four children and nurturing five grandchildren, as well as memories of his own father, Berchem provides a guide for all dads who want to raise children of virtue.

The book’s topics include deciding to be a good father, spending intentional time with kids in ordinary life, communicating well, creating memories and traditions, being a loving spouse, praying, controlling screen time and finding support from other dads.

“I think what I’m hoping to do is to help (dads) realize, ‘I can really, really help my sons and daughters to grow into secure, confident men and women who can make an impact and make the world a better place,’” he said. “It all starts with dads realizing that they have a significant role to play.”

Inspiration for the book came from Berchem’s observations during the decades he’s worked in youth ministry of how young people’s fathers have impacted them. He said he’s seen youth who were wounded, those who wanted more from their fathers and youth whose fathers helped them thrive.

In 1981, Berchem founded NET Ministries, which has trained and sent out more than 3,500 young adult missionaries to share the Gospel with 2 million youth across the United States. It also sponsors monthly Lifeline Masses for archdiocesan and other youth at its West St. Paul headquarters. Berchem recently passed the NET presidency on to Dave Rinaldi and serves as a strategic adviser helping with the transition. Fathers need to know their kids well enough to recognize their God-given personality and potential even before they’re fully developed “and help them to realize and become the fullness of what God has created them to be,” Berchem wrote in the book. “You do that by having great conversations, asking meaningful questions, letting them wrestle with deep thoughts and ideas.”

As Berchem shared about how he and his wife, Mary, raised their two daughters and two sons, now in their 20s and 30s, he also described his own father’s good traits and what he’s learned from what his dad didn’t do as well. Whether fishing at a Wisconsin lake or taking him on walks after Sunday dinner, Berchem said his father made time for him and created memories.

COURTESY NET MINISTRIES

Even ordinary experiences like taking his own boys to baseball games were critical for creating memories and transmitting values, Berchem discovered. Noting that dads’ time with kids is short, he added, “you want to make sure you use your time well while your kids are with you.”

Berchem emphasized that the book is for all dads and even grandfathers, along with men who feel they’ve made parenting mistakes. “You don’t fail by making mistakes,” he said. “My encouragement to dads is, don’t give up.”

Deep down, most dads want to be great dads and the first step is having the desire, Berchem said. “We can help awaken that desire,” he said. “I think it’s in us; we just bury it.”

Above all, Berchem encouraged men to embrace the role of father, which God gives them in their children’s lives.

“There’s a part that grace plays and a part that’s their free will,” Berchem said. “We need to do what we can do and then trust the rest to God. God loves our kids more than we love them. He wants them to come to know his love, he wants them to grow and gives us a privileged place to help with the process.”

Mark Berchem with his new book, “Step Up Dad! Your Kids Need You,” which is available online through Dynamic Catholic or Amazon.