PAGETWO

Brian Ragatz, leader the last three years of Edina-based Catholic Schools Center of Excellence, will take the helm as president July 1 of St. Thomas Academy, an all-male high school in Mendota Heights, his alma mater. “That place, that community plays a special role in my heart,” Ragatz said of STA. In addition to leading CSCOE, Ragatz has been a teacher and a principal at four Catholic elementary schools in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Consecrated women and men from across the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis will celebrate milestone anniversaries at a 10 a.m. Mass May 14 with Archbishop Bernard Hebda presiding at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul. Religious order men and women celebrating jubilees in 2021, 2022 and 2023 will be recognized.

A kindergarten student at Providence Academy in Plymouth, Isobel “Izzy” Ketcher was so touched by the Center for Mission’s program Living Water, for the drought-plagued Diocese of Kitui, Kenya, that she advertised among her neighbors, and from her driveway and doorto-door sold many of her toys and other items, raising $248. The center, which supports the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ global solidarity partnership with Kitui, will highlight her effort this month in its spring newsletter. The center said Ketcher heard about the program from her teacher, Tasha McMorrow, who shared the center’s calendar, a video and water bottles for students to collect funds. The center’s Living Water effort is an opportunity for students in Catholic schools to learn about another culture.

BLESS THIS HOUSE Father Mike Sullivan, pastor of St. Joseph the Worker in Maple Grove, blesses Marie Johnson at senior living center St. Therese of New Hope. Last month, Father Sullivan also blessed the building, asking God to be present and for things not of God to be cast out. He blessed any residents he saw and each apartment on all seven floors of the center’s senior living apartments, sprinkling them with holy water. Father Sullivan also heard confessions, which he now will do on a monthly basis at the New Hope facility.

A record-breaking, urban-concept, one-person, hydrogen-powered vehicle is the St. Thomas Academy Experimental Vehicle Team’s latest claim to fame. The team of 11 students from the high school in Mendota Heights traveled to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway April 14-17 and broke the Shell Eco-marathon Americas’ performance record with an efficiency of 118 miles per cubic meter of hydrogen — the equivalent of 1,430 miles, about half the width of the United States, per gallon of gasoline.

Parishioners across the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis bolstered retirement assistance for consecrated men and women by donating $416,629 to the annual Retirement Fund for Religious, particularly in December. Gifts to the fund are accepted year-round, but with March 31, 2023, the closing date for the 2022 appeal, School Sister of Notre Dame Lynore Girmscheid, archdiocesan coordinator for the fund, noted that she is grateful “to our many supporters for their faithful generosity and to assure them that the sisters, brothers and religious order priests hold them in daily prayers of gratitude.” Since the fund began in 1988, contributions from the archdiocese have totaled $17.1 million.

Students from two high schools in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis were among the more than 250 from 17 schools across the state who recently competed at the state level in the National Economics Challenge, facilitated regionally by the Minnesota Council on Economic Education. DeLaSalle in Minneapolis placed first in the division focused on general economics and won the state competition in that category in the final, quiz bowl round. DeLaSalle lost in the online Regional National Competitions. One team from St. Thomas Academy in Mendota Heights placed second in the division focused on advanced economics, and a second team placed third in the general economics division. Neither team advanced further.

GUARDS AT THE VATICAN Pope Francis greets one of 23 new members of the Pontifical Swiss Guard and his family May 6, before the traditional swearing-in ceremony held at the Vatican. Pope Francis asked the new members to draw close to the sacraments, read Scripture and meditate on spiritual texts, including during calm shifts while on guard. “Your mission here in the Vatican is a path the Lord has opened for you to live your baptism and bear joyful witness of faith in Christ,” the pope told them. “In the many faces that approach you each day, be they members of the Roman Curia or pilgrims and tourists, may you see just as many invitations to recognize and share God’s love with each person.” The ceremony is held May 6 each year to commemorate the 147 Swiss soldiers who died protecting Pope Clement VII during the Sack of Rome on that date in 1527. The present guard is composed of 125 Swiss men.

On the May 5 “Practicing Catholic” radio show, host Patrick Conley interviews Jeremy Rohr, founder of Freedom to Love, a ministry focused on the transformative impact of human and spiritual formation to free young men from the lure of pornography. Also featured are Cami Berthiaume, producer of the Practicing Catholic radio show, who shares memories from the show and where she will be contributing next in her career; and Sharon Shuck, whose parents attended Indian boarding schools, who discusses the schools’ generational impact. Listen to interviews after they have aired at PracticingcatholicShow com or anchor fm/Practicing-catholic-Show with links to streaming platforms.

Deacon Fred Yekaldo, who ministered for 22 years at St. Ambrose in Woodbury and nearly a year at Blessed Sacrament in St. Paul, died surrounded by family April 15. He was 90. A native of St. Paul who served in the Navy, Deacon Yekaldo worked as a plumber and was ordained a permanent deacon in 1982. He ministered at Blessed Sacrament before serving at St. Ambrose and had been on a personal leave of absence since 2005. Among other attributes, he was known as a good cook and a woodworker who created wooden signs for family and friends. Deacon Yekaldo was preceded in death by his wife of 49 years, Myra, his parents, Ralph and Lillian, and his brothers, Frank and Tony. His survivors include four children, nine grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren. A funeral Mass was held May 5 at Guardian Angels in Oakdale. Interment was at Guardian Angels Cemetery.

A photo caption in the April 6 issue mistakenly identified figures in a marble crucifixion scene at Holy Cross church in northeast Minneapolis. On either side of Jesus are his mother, Mary, and St. John the Beloved (or Evangelist).

ONLY JESUS | ARCHBISHOP BERNARD HEBDA