The Catholic Spirit - November 23, 2017

St. Peter Claver 5A • Archdiocese Financial Report 1B-4B • Senior Services Guide 11A-14A November 23, 2017 Newspaper of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis

Boxed blessings

Hayley Shibley, left, of Mary, Mother of the Church in Burnsville, works with her children Trey, left, and Peyton to create a Thanksgiving basket at the parish Nov. 15. The annual event draws families and faith formation students to make food baskets that are distributed to families in the community.

“It’s really a joyous thing that we get to do together,” Hayley said, “knowing that we’re going to help someone have a nice Thanksgiving.” Behind the family is volunteer Jim Eayrs. A total of 452 Thanksgiving baskets were made, with the parish delivering them to local agencies for distribution to families in need. Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit

ALSO inside

UST receives $50 million

Father Casey beatified

Concert aids female inmates

The University of St. Thomas gets a record donation from the GHR Foundation for business school scholarships.

— Page 6A

Liturgy in Detroit honors the Capuchin Franciscan priest with ties to Minnesota, with more than 60,000 people attending.

— Page 10A

U of M ‘Magnificat’ performance will earmark donations for the Minnesota Prison Doula Project that helps pregnant inmates.

— Page 15A

2A • The Catholic Spirit

PAGE TWO

November 23, 2017 OVERHEARD

in PICTURES

“If we truly wish to encounter Christ, we have to touch his body in the suffering bodies of the poor, as a response to the sacramental communion bestowed in the Eucharist.”

Pope Francis in his message for the first World Day of the Poor, held Nov. 19. The pope celebrated Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica and then hosted a meal for people who are poor, homeless, migrants and refugees.

NEWS notes

ACCW to host Advent reflection Dec. 2 Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women will host “Where is God Leading You: A morning of prayer, praise and presentation” 8:30 a.m.– 1 p.m. Dec. 2 at St. Charles Borromeo, 2739 Stinson Blvd. NE, St. Anthony.

The event includes speakers Father Troy Przybilla, St. Charles pastor, and Crystal Crocker, director of the archdiocese’s Office of Evangelization; Mass, vendors and exhibitors. For more information and to register, visit www.archspm.org/accw-advent2017.

ANNIVERSARY ALE Father Tom Wilson, pastor of All Saints in Lakeville, presents Archbishop Bernard Hebda with bottle No. 1 of the parish’s All Saints Ale after Mass Nov. 19. Looking on are Deacon Jim Marschall, left, and, from right, altar server Payton Rodewald and Tyler Ferry, a seminarian from St. Michael in St. Michael. Lakeville Brewing Company used a monastic recipe for the specially-made Belgian quadruple in honor of the parish’s 140 years in Lakeville. The beer is on tap at the brewpub as Hilltop Celebration Ale. Courtesy Chris Mattson

Catholic Watchmen Bible Boot Camp Dec. 2 Biblical scholar Jeff Cavins is leading “Men’s Bible Boot Camp” 9 a.m.– 3:30 p.m. Dec. 2 at St. Therese, 18325 Minnetonka Blvd., Deephaven.

The event is designed to teach the basics of the Bible in one day, including the Bible’s structure and story of salvation history. There is an optional 7:30 a.m. Mass. Cost is $40. Register at www.st-therese.org/events. For more information, contact Susanna Parent at parents@archspm.org.

WINE’s Women, Wine and Wisdom Dec. 7 Women in the New Evangelization (WINE) will hold “Long Story Short: The Original Millennials, Models of Faith” 7–9 p.m. Dec. 7 at Kellerman’s Event Center, 2222 Fourth St., White Bear Lake. The event features Catholic singer and storyteller ValLimar Jansen. Cost is $40; registration required.

For more information, visit www.catholicvineyard.com.

Mass of Solidarity at Basilica of St. Mary Dec. 9

EARTH MOVERS Members of Mary Queen of Peace in Rogers shovel dirt after Mass Nov. 12 as part of a groundbreaking ceremony for the church’s Parish Life Center. Once complete, the new building will provide space for meetings, faith formation, fellowship and classrooms for the parish school. The project is estimated at $4.5 million and scheduled for completion in fall 2018. Jim Bovin/For The Catholic Spirit

ONLINE exclusives Transfiguration in Oakdale has noted an uptick in Mass attendance after launching its “Mass: Every Family, Every Sunday” campaign, which includes T-shirts. “Many Catholics amazingly have not heard from the pulpit or anywhere why they should come to Mass every Sunday,” said Father William Baer, Transfiguration’s pastor.

“There might be something said about the beauty and the value and centrality of the holy Eucharist, but never the point that, therefore, they should come every Sunday.”

Sisters of the Franciscan Clarist Congregation serving in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis are celebrating the Nov. 4 beatification of their fellow Clarist, Sister Rani Maria Vattalil. They have been praying for her intercession for years, said Sister Tresa Margret Sauriammackel, principal of St. John the Baptist in Vermillion. “It is so wonderful. We are so happy it happened in our congregation,” she said.

Academy of Holy Angels senior Patrick Dysart was selected to participate with the Great American Marching Band for the 91st annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City. Dysart, who plays the euphonium, was one of 185 students selected among thousands who auditioned across the nation and the only student selected from Minnesota.

The Catholic Spirit is published semi-monthly for The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis Vol. 22 — No. 22 MOST REVEREND BERNARD A. HEBDA, Publisher TOM HALDEN, Associate Publisher MARIA C. WIERING, Editor

Archbishop Bernard Hebda and Auxiliary Bishop Andrew Cozzens will concelebrate an Archdiocesan Mass of Solidarity 5 p.m. Dec. 9 at the Basilica of St. Mary, 1600 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis. The Mass is part of the twoyear “Share the Journey” campaign, launched by Pope Francis in September to support people who have left or been displaced from their home countries. The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is home to more than 800,000 Catholics who regularly attend Mass in 11 languages.

For more information, visit www.archspm.org.

Speakers on ‘order of creation’ at UST Dec. 11 Six speakers will address “Man, Woman and the Order of Creation” in a day-long program Dec. 11 with a separate evening session at the University of St. Thomas’ OEC Auditorium, 2115 Summit Ave., St. Paul. Speakers include Ryan Anderson, Father Paul Check, Dr. Michelle Cretella, Walter Heyer, Deborah Savage and Bradford Wilcox on male and female complementarity, transgenderism and “Laudato Si’.” Registration is required for the 9 a.m.–5 p.m. session. Registration is not required for the 7:30– 9 p.m. session. Both sessions are free; registration with lunch provided is $10. The event is co-sponsored by the Minnesota Catholic Conference; Archbishop Harry J. Flynn Catechetical Institute; and the Siena Symposium for Women, Family and Culture. For more information, visit www.stthomas.edu/spssod/about/events.

Retirement Fund for Religious collection in Advent The annual collection for the Retirement Fund for Religious will be taken in U.S. parishes during Advent. Coordinated through dioceses by the National Religious Retirement Office, funds support retired religious men and women and order priests. Last year, Catholics in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis donated $394,779. For more information, visit www.retiredreligious.org.

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November 23, 2017

FROM THE MODERATOR OF THE CURIA

The Catholic Spirit • 3A

Preparing for Advent

E

arly in November, I heard the TV announce: “The holiday season has arrived! It’s time to … .”

I inhaled with practiced indignation over the earliness of the holiday season. It seemed to me that the holiday season now starts on Halloween and ends New Year’s Day. I sighed with the realization that there would be almost two months of ho-ho hype before the Christmas season even begins. I knew that when church bells around the world announced the birth of the savior of the world, Jesus Christ, an already saturated and satiated culture would be sure to crab about the extra Masses.

The holiday season has arrived! It’s time to ... prepare for Advent. Yes, it sounds strange, given that Advent itself is a season of preparation.

Nevertheless, we know that the rising tide of family, relatives and friends will carry us through our national day of Thanksgiving, through the mall mania, through the extravagant light displays and right up to the doors of a church on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, already exhausted from the holidays. This year, the Christmas season extends all the way until Jan. 8.

Just watch peoples’ faces when you say “Merry Christmas” Jan. 7.

An insight into the preparation for Advent can be found in the Gospel parable of the five wise and five foolish virgins (Mt 25:1-13). As they entered their advent of waiting for the bridegroom to arrive, the wise had their extra oil already with them. This prudential preparedness kept their lamps lighted through the entire time of waiting. The wise were therefore ready when the bridegroom finally did arrive and the doors to the festive banquet were opened.

In God’s providence, we are given all the extra oil we need through the practice of our faith and the blessings of God in each day. To count our blessings is indeed a Thanksgiving tradition, but to seek the presence of God in the everyday and the ordinary is to be led by the Holy Spirit to the oil of gladness.

If we come to Mass on the first Sunday of Advent drained by life and with empty flasks, then it is to be expected that our flame will go out even before we find a parking place.

Perhaps this is why some say that they do not get anything out of going to church.

But if we come to the first Sunday of Advent with full flasks from the other six days of the week, our hearts aflame with a desire to thank God for the graces already given, then what we offer is returned to us a hundred-fold. We arrive at Mass with a song of praise on our lips and gratitude in our hearts. In our encounter with the person and presence of Jesus Christ, we enter deeply into the mysteries of faith and receive his most holy body and blood.

To prepare for a season of preparation, we can already examine our consciences and set aside time for the celebration of the sacrament of reconciliation in the Advent season. After all, to experience the light of Christ over the ONLY JESUS darkness of sin is to behold the very mystery of Christmas.

We can already reflect on the Scripture readings for the

Father Charles Lachowitzer

En preparación para el Adviento

A

principios de noviembre, escuché que la televisión anunciaba: “¡Ha llegado la temporada de vacaciones! Es tiempo de … .” Inhalé con práctica indignación por la precocidad de la temporada de vacaciones. Me pareció que la temporada de vacaciones ahora comienza en Halloween y termina el día de Año Nuevo. Suspiré al darme cuenta de que habría casi dos meses de bombo antes de que comenzara la temporada de Navidad.

Sabía que cuando las campanas de las iglesias de todo el mundo anunciaran el nacimiento del salvador del mundo, Jesucristo, una cultura ya saturada y saciada, seguramente se interesaría por las Misas extra. ¡La temporada de vacaciones ha llegado! Es hora de ... prepararse para Adviento. Sí, suena extraño, dado que el Adviento mismo es una temporada de preparación. Sin embargo, sabemos que la marea creciente de familiares, parientes y amigos nos llevará a través de nuestro día nacional de Acción de Gracias, a través de la manía del centro comercial, a través de las pantallas de luz extravagantes y hasta las puertas de una iglesia en Nochebuena o Navidad, ya agotado de las vacaciones. Este año, la temporada de Navidad se extiende hasta el 8 de enero. Solo mire las caras de las personas cuando diga “Feliz Navidad”

CNS season of Advent and set aside time for prayer and charitable service.

So prepared, we arrive for Advent grateful for the gift of a light that is eternal, inexhaustible and inextinguishable through all seasons of waiting.

Then, when the Christmas season begins with heralds of glad tidings and good news, we will come into the great banquet of the celebration of the Eucharist. We will be ready to enter more fully into the Christmas season, celebrating with joyful hearts that the light of Christ shines through every darkness on earth with the bright promise of his return at the end of time.

In the words of the old saying, “Death is not the snuffing out of a candle, rather, it is the putting out of a lantern because the dawn has come.”

Until then, let us fill our flasks with the oil of gratitude to God and enter the Advent season with our lamps lighted as we await the coming of Jesus Christ.

el 7 de enero.

Una idea de la preparación para el Adviento se puede encontrar en la parábola del Evangelio de las cinco vírgenes prudentes y las cinco insensatas (Mt 25: 1-13). Cuando entraron en su advenimiento de esperar que llegara el novio, los sabios ya tenían su aceite extra con ellos. Esta preparación prudencial mantuvo las lámparas encendidas durante todo el tiempo de espera. Por lo tanto, los sabios estaban listos cuando finalmente llegó el novio y se abrieron las puertas del banquete festivo.

En la providencia de Dios, recibimos todo el aceite extra que necesitamos a través de la práctica de nuestra fe y las bendiciones de Dios en cada día.

Contar nuestras bendiciones es de hecho una tradición de Acción de Gracias, pero buscar la presencia de Dios en lo cotidiano y lo ordinario es ser guiados por el Espíritu Santo hacia el aceite de la alegría.

Si vamos a Misa el primer domingo de Adviento agotado por la vida y con frascos vacíos, entonces es de esperar que nuestra llama se apague incluso antes de que encontremos un lugar para estacionar. Quizás es por eso que algunos dicen que no obtienen nada de ir a la iglesia.

Pero si llegamos al primer domingo de Adviento con los frascos llenos de los otros seis días de la semana, nuestros corazones encendidos con un deseo de agradecer a Dios por las gracias ya dadas, entonces lo que ofrecemos se nos devuelve cien veces más. .

Llegamos a la misa con una canción de alabanza en nuestros labios y gratitud en nuestros corazones. En

nuestro encuentro con la persona y la presencia de Jesucristo, entramos profundamente en los misterios de la fe y recibimos su más santo cuerpo y sangre.

Para prepararnos para una temporada de preparación, ya podemos examinar nuestras conciencias y reservar tiempo para la celebración del sacramento de la reconciliación en la temporada de Adviento. Después de todo, experimentar la luz de Cristo sobre la oscuridad del pecado es contemplar el mismísimo misterio de la Navidad. Ya podemos reflexionar sobre las lecturas de las Escrituras para la temporada de Adviento y el tiempo dedicado para la oración y el servicio de caridad.

Tan preparados, llegamos a Adviento agradecidos por el regalo de una luz que es eterna, inagotable e inextinguible a través de todas las temporadas de espera. Luego, cuando la temporada de Navidad comience con heraldos de buenas nuevas y buenas nuevas, iremos al gran banquete de la celebración de la Eucaristía. Estaremos listos para entrar más plenamente en la temporada navideña, celebrando con corazones alegres que la luz de Cristo brilla a través de cada oscuridad en la tierra con la brillante promesa de su regreso al final de los tiempos. En las palabras del viejo dicho, “la muerte no es apagar una vela, sino apagar la linterna porque ha llegado el amanecer”.

Hasta entonces, llenemos nuestros frascos con el aceite de gratitud a Dios y entremos en la temporada de Adviento con nuestras lámparas encendidas mientras esperamos la venida de Jesucristo.

4A • The Catholic Spirit

LOCAL

November 23, 2017

‘Homeless Jesus’

SLICEof LIFE

From left, Ro Shanklin and John Cole, who are homeless, reflect on a bronze statue called “Homeless Jesus” Nov. 19 at the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis, following a blessing

by Father John Bauer, Basilica rector. The statue was created by Catholic artist Timothy Schmalz of Toronto and is among many “Homeless Jesus” casts that have been installed worldwide.

It is located near Hennepin Avenue and depicts Jesus as a homeless person, covered by a blanket on a park bench, with the crucifixion wounds on his feet visible. Charlotte Robinson, who has been homeless for more than 20 years and once slept in the parking lot across the street from the Basilica, said she was glad to see a statue depicting Jesus as a homeless person. “I love it because it represents us,” she said. Shanklin and Cole are part of a choir made up of homeless people called StreetSong MN. They sang at the blessing, along with members of the Basilica choir. The blessing coincided with the first World Day of the Poor, initiated by Pope Francis.

Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit

Retirement Fund for Religious Please give to those who have given a lifetime. www.retiredreligious.org

“ Be faithful to your prayer life and have a sense of humor,” says Sister Rita Polchin (foreground), 87, a member of the Sisters of Saints Cyril and Methodius.

This philosophy has served her well during nearly 70 years of religious life, especially as a teacher and principal in Catholic schools. Like Sister Rita, the senior sisters, brothers, and religious order priests shown here—and nearly 33,000 more across the nation— have offered their lives in service and prayer. Your gift to the Retirement Fund for Religious helps provide nursing care, medications, and other necessities.

Please be generous.

Roughly 95 percent of donations aid senior religious.

To donate: National Religious Retirement Office/MSP 3211 Fourth Street NE Washington DC 20017-1194 Make your check payable to Retirement Fund for Religious.

Or give at your local parish December 10–11.

Photos: (foreground) Sister Rita Polchin, SSCM, 87; (background) visit retiredreligious.org/2016photos for a list of names. ©2016 United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Washington, DC. All rights reserved. Photographer: Jim Judkis.

November 23, 2017

LOCAL

St. Peter Claver celebrates 125 years

By Jessica Trygstad The Catholic Spirit At the corner of Oxford Street and St. Anthony Avenue in St. Paul sits a small, unassuming church.

But on the inside, St. Peter Claver has a big reputation as a welcoming community with a vibrant liturgy.

“Nothing is worse than being in a church and everyone is looking at you,” said longtime parishioner Odessa Bond, 79. “[At St. Peter Claver], you get that feeling of being welcomed. I can’t explain it, but you know when it isn’t there.”

Father Kevin McDonough, who served as its pastor for 26 years until 2016, said St. Peter Claver parishioners practice their faith in a “strongly welcoming and strongly evangelizing way.”

“It is a wonderfully hospitable parish that is proud to be both black and Catholic,” he said.

St. Peter Claver, Minnesota’s first Catholic church established for black Catholics, celebrated its 125th anniversary Nov. 19 with Mass and a fundraiser brunch at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul.

In 1888 — 23 years after slavery was abolished — black Catholics worshiped in a rented church in downtown St. Paul, on the site now occupied by the St. Paul Hotel. With Archbishop John Ireland at the charge, several members spearheaded construction of a church at Farrington Street and Aurora Avenue in St. Paul, and St. Peter Claver was established in 1892 as a home for black Catholics, with the hope of drawing other African-Americans to the faith. According to some historical accounts, black Catholics were being turned away from other Catholic parishes.

Today, the parish has about 700 families from 90 ZIP codes. As a canonically-designated “national parish,” it’s responsible for black Catholics east of the Mississippi River, said Father Erich Rutten, St. Peter Claver’s pastor. Across the river in Minneapolis, St. Leonard of Port Maurice was established in 1940 to serve black Catholics west of the river.

“Throughout all that time, we’ve been a strong part of the community fabric,” said Father Rutten, who is white and spent a week at the Institute for Black Catholic Studies at Xavier University in New Orleans to prepare to serve an African-American parish. “The fact that this parish has remained faithful 125 years is a testament to their faith in Catholicism and in Jesus Christ.”

Father McDonough, who is also white, said the African-American Catholic experience is unique historically and now, making St. Peter Claver’s founding purpose and mission important. “The challenge is that ... there are few places where black folks are made to feel at home — there’s still racism in the Church — and in the African-American community, Catholicism is considered something at least exotic, if not foreign. So, the African-American Catholic experience is that of being a double minority.”

The parish took its name from the 16th-century Spanish Jesuit who ministered to African slaves in South America. Father McDonough noted that St. Peter Claver was canonized in 1888, so many Catholic churches and organizations chose the namesake in that era.

The anniversary celebration appropriately took place during National Black Catholic History Month. One of the parish’s founding members, Fredrick McGhee, was born a slave in Mississippi, but he became a lawyer and helped organize the Niagara Movement, the NAACP’s predecessor. According to parish records, he was baptized at St. Peter Claver’s mission congregation in 1891 at age 30. And, in 1910, the parish got its first black pastor — Father Stephen Theobald, who, with Archbishop Ireland’s mentorship, was the first AfricanAmerican to be ordained at the St. Paul Seminary. The parish has also had strong leadership in the National Black Catholic Congress.

Culturally diverse Although the parish was founded to serve black Catholics — much like other ethnic parishes established to serve Polish or German Catholics — the special designation never felt like segregation, said lifelong parishioner Stanley Williams.

The Catholic Spirit • 5A in BRIEF JORDAN

Fire damages old school building

Longtime St. Peter Claver parishioner Louverne Williams reacts during a choral reading recounting the history of the parish at a brunch Nov. 19 at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul to celebrate the parish’s 125th anniversary.

Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit Williams, 86, a third-generation parishioner, said in the Church, ethnicity is more important than race.

“The black Catholic Church is still predominantly black, but the meaning of the term ‘black’ has completely changed,” Williams said. “We’re really talking about culture. But the common thread is what it should be for all Catholics, and that’s the Mass.”

A number of Nigerian, Cameroonian and Eritrean immigrants attend the parish’s 10 a.m. Sunday Mass, Williams said, noting how demographics are the parish’s biggest change in the last 25 years. In August, the parish added a monthly Nigerian Mass.

Cameroonian, children’s and other choirs rotate through Sunday Masses.

The style of worship at St. Peter Claver reflects parishioners’ welcoming spirit, Father Rutten said.

During the sign of peace, many people walk up and down the aisles to greet friends. Music directors choose Communion hymns that “draw people in,” and the congregation often claps afterward.

“Here, it’s an authentic expression of their spirit,” Father Rutten said. He noted that about a third of parishioners are African-American, a third are African immigrants, and the final third, “all else.”

While Williams and his wife, Louverne, 84, welcome the diversity, Stanley describes the change as a “slow movement — the death of the first generation of parishioners.”

Neighborhood changes St. Peter Claver was located in St. Paul’s Rondo neighborhood, which was dismantled with the construction of Interstate 94 in the mid-1950s. Rondo was a stable, predominantly black neighborhood with its own community of professionals and business owners, said Stanley, a retired medical researcher.

Many residents owned their homes, and people knew each other, making the I-94 addition all the more disruptive because it forced people out. Consequently, the makeup of the parish changed, too.

The pastor at the time, Father Jerome Luger, wanted the church to be where the people were moving, so in 1950, the parish opened a school, followed by a convent that housed the Oblate Sisters of Providence from Baltimore, and then in 1957, the new church at its current location.

Stanley said the school was also a destination for non-Catholics, who came to love the black nuns through their evangelization efforts in the neighborhood, which parishioners continue today by going door-to-door inviting people to worship with them. The school closed in 1989 because of low funding and enrollment, but re-opened in 2001.

A mural depicting the parish’s history and the African-Americans who influenced it was unveiled at the Nov. 19 celebration. Parishioner Mary Gallagher, 62, spent five months painting the two 2-foot-by-3foot panels that will hang in a hallway at the church.

“It’s a celebration of a spiritual home that I found as a transplant to Minnesota,” Gallagher said. “I didn’t know folks, but I found a place to land and a place to pray with support through many of life’s ups and downs over the past 24 years.”

A fire damaged a former Catholic school building in Jordan Nov. 14. It was reported at 5:24 a.m. in the building that housed St. John the Baptist Catholic School until 2004. The building was already in “rough shape” because it hasn’t been used in more than a decade, said Jordan Police Chief Brent Empey. The fire burnt a hole in the floor of a second-floor clock closet and caused smoke damage, he said. Two windows also burst out near the flame. Built in 1908, the red brick school sits across the street from St. John the Baptist Catholic Church. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

MINNEAPOLIS

Philanthropy group refurbishes playground at St. Helena school Participants in WorldLegacy, a North Carolina-based leadership program, selected St. Helena Catholic School as the beneficiary for an international fundraising effort and construction project. WorldLegacy raised funds and coordinated community efforts to add a new playground structure, basketball and pickleball courts, and asphalt games at the school. As part of the WorldLegacy strategy, the funds had to be raised in 10 days, and the seven-person WorldLegacy team, which included members from five countries, had to complete the project‚ with community help, in three days.

St. Helena pastor Father Richard Villano cut the project’s ribbon Nov. 5. Principal Jane Hileman estimates about $65,000 in funds and gifts was donated for the project.

ST. PAUL

Hmong Catholic leader appointed USCCB subcommittee adviser A former president of the St. Paul-based Hmong American National Catholic Association was named an adviser for Hmong ministry for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Island Affairs in October. Khamsy Yang, 52, hopes to address concerns facing Hmong Catholic communities around the country. He will serve a one-year term on the subcommittee. A parishioner of the Cathedral of St. Paul mission St. Vincent de Paul, Yang said that California, Minnesota and Wisconsin have the largest Hmong Catholic communities in the United States.

Latino ministry director honored with CRS Hispanic partner award Estela Villagrán Manancero, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ director of the Office of Latino Ministry, is the national recipient of Baltimore-based Catholic Relief Services’ inaugural Hispanic Heritage Partner Award. The award recognizes CRS partners in Hispanic ministry across the country for their support and promotion of CRS’ resources, programs and mission. Manancero joined a CRS delegation to Burkina Faso and Ghana in 2010 and continues to promote and partner with the organization as president of the National Catholic Association of Diocesan Directors for Hispanic Ministry. CRS announced the award Oct. 1.

VICTORIA

Holy Family Catholic High School receives $100,000 gift for STEAM Holy Family Catholic High School received a $100,000 endowment from Strom Engineering in Minnetonka that it will use to support its science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM) program. The endowment will be called the Strom Engineering Endowment for Technology. Strom CEO emeritus John Radick sent his four children to Holy Family and is a board member emeritus of the school.

6A • The Catholic Spirit

LOCAL

November 23, 2017

GHR gives St. Thomas largest scholarship gift in state history

By Dave Hrbacek The Catholic Spirit

Travel to the

Heart of Italy

with Archbishop Hebda!

Assisi, Siena, La Verna and Rome Sept. 20-28, 2018 Archbishop Bernard Hebda and Father Sean O. Sheridan, president of Franciscan University of Steubenville, invite Catholics from the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis to travel with them to “the heart of Italy.”

In a letter of invitation, Archbishop Hebda wrote: “As we receive graces from these sacred encounters, we will travel in the spirit of the early Christian pilgrims. Central to the pilgrimage experience will be the daily celebration of the Eucharist, prayer, inspiring talks, and fellowship. Of course, we will also have ample time to enjoy the art, beauty and food of Italy (the first gelato is on me)!”

Estimated cost is $3,995.

RSVP with deposit due Dec. 15.

For a complete itinerary and more information, visit Franciscan.edu/Pilgrimages or call the Franciscan University Pilgrimage Office at 740-284-5812.

Read Archbishop Hebda’s invitation at www.TheCatholicSpirit.com.

Future business students at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul will benefit from a $50 million gift to the institution from the GHR Foundation.

The gift was announced Nov. 16 at an event that featured remarks by St. Thomas President Julie Sullivan.

The money will be put into an endowment and will fund scholarships for business students who are accepted into the GHR Fellows program. Starting in 2019, 15 students will be selected annually to receive a full, four-year scholarship plus other supports designed to help them succeed in business after they graduate.

According to St. Thomas, the sum is the largest endowed scholarship for the school and the largest scholarship gift for any college or university in Minnesota history.

The Twin Cities-based GHR Foundation was created by Gerald and Henrietta Rauenhorst, who started and ran the Opus Group before dying in 2014 and 2010, respectively. Their youngest daughter and the foundation’s CEO, Amy Rauenhorst Goldman, is happy to see her parents’ legacy continue. Gerald was an alumnus of St. Thomas, and both Gerald and Henrietta supported Catholic education throughout their lives.

“They firmly believed that Catholic education was what changed their lives,” Goldman said. “They were both firstgeneration college students, and they really committed so much of their work, when they were on the earth, to Catholic education. And, I’m just so grateful that they left this legacy of the foundation so that we can continue that support.”

The gift kicked off a campaign to raise $200 million in scholarship money over the next eight years, a plan that was announced along with the $50 million gift. Such a campaign is vital to helping students in today’s economy afford a college education, Sullivan said.

“With the cost of higher education and student debt issues, it’s more and more difficult to attract the best students ... [and] to make this St. Thomas education available for all,” she said. “I think what this gift does is ensures that, for the next 100 years, we will continue to produce outstanding business leaders who are ethically minded, entrepreneurial and innovative, and committed to their communities. And, we’ll produce those

Amy Rauenhorst Goldman, right, CEO of the GHR Foundation, talks with Julie Sullivan, University of St. Thomas president, Nov. 16 at an event announcing the GHR Foundation’s $50 million gift to St. Thomas. Courtesy Mike Ekern, St. Thomas business leaders for Minnesota and for the world.”

About $2 million a year will be used to fund the GHR Fellows’ education, with the rest of the money remaining in the fund for future students. The idea is to build a community of business leaders who will take their Catholic values into the marketplace and lead with their faith.

“I think it will attract fabulous students from Minnesota and far beyond,” Sullivan said. “And, many of those students will stay here [in Minnesota] and work. We often find that when students come here from elsewhere or come here from the state of Minnesota, a large proportion of our graduates become the business leaders in Minnesota after they graduate. So, I think it will have a profound impact.”

The idea for a fellows program was a year in the making, Goldman said, and it seemed like something her parents would support.

“I’ve had many of my parents’ friends come up and say, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if they could be here?’” Goldman said.

“I wish they were still here, but I also know that they are involved, with their spirit and their inspiration. I’m grateful for their example of giving. For them, giving came first. It wasn’t second or third, it was always first. I truly hope that their story and this gift to St. Thomas and the work of the foundation inspire all of us to follow that example.”

St. John Paul II relic to be on view

By Susan Klemond For The Catholic Spirit A small ampoule of St. John Paul II’s blood associated with miraculous healings will visit three parishes in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis Nov. 29 to Dec. 1.

Events include a 9:35 a.m. school Mass Nov. 29 at St. Hubert in Chanhassen with Archbishop Bernard Hebda, followed by veneration later that day from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. A Spanish-language veneration service will be 6:30-8:30 p.m. Nov. 30 at Guardian Angels in Chaska with another service 6:30 p.m. Dec. 1 at St. Joseph in

West St. Paul. For more details, visit the parishes’ websites.

The Church permits veneration of the relics of canonized and beatified servants of God to foster sanctification.

St. Hubert’s pastor Father Rolf Tollefson invited the Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and Mary, a women’s religious institute that cares for the relic, to bring it to the archdiocese. He hopes it helps people to pray.

“To have an encounter with St. John Paul II means to have an encounter with our Lady and our Lord,” he said.

Read more at www.TheCatholicSpirit.com.

November 23, 2017

LOCAL

The Catholic Spirit • 7A

Modern adoption: Birth mothers stay connected to children November is National Adoption Month

By Jessica Trygstad The Catholic Spirit When Kate Gillen walks down the aisle on her wedding day next June at St. Vincent de Paul in Brooklyn Park, the son whom she placed for adoption as a college freshman will be there with a special role.

The open adoption from 2001 has allowed Gillen, 35, and Michael, 16, to maintain a relationship. He’ll be an usher at the wedding.

“He doesn’t quite know what an usher is yet, but he’s very excited to be involved,” Gillen said. “He’s told all his friends about it, and it’s very sweet. I think it’s just a testament to how positive [the open adoption] has been for him as well.”

Through the years, their relationship has looked different — some years it entailed regular phone calls and emails, and in other years, regular visits.

“As he’s gotten older, we’ve entered this new phase of our relationship where he’s had more questions and kind of testing the waters of showing more emotion toward me,” Gillen said.

Gillen, who grew up attending St. Vincent de Paul church and school, discovered she was pregnant the summer after graduating from Totino-Grace High School in Fridley in 2000. The pregnancy remained a secret that fall when she went off to Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall. Once she had the courage to share the news with her parents, they were supportive, and her mom was the first person to suggest adoption.

With her parents and a social worker from an adoption agency, they looked through three-ring binders with 100-some prospective adoptive parents.

Ultimately, Gillen chose a Catholic couple who live in the Fargo-Moorhead area.

Seeking support after placing her son with his adoptive family, an adoption nonprofit has provided a platform for Gillen to share her story, process her emotions and also help others. Bellis, formerly the

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Kate Gillen and her birth son, Michael, attend a Minnesota Twins game in 2016. Courtesy Kate Gillen Adoption Option Council of Minnesota, connects people affected by adoption and advocates for a better understanding of adoption in general.

In its primary work, Bellis trains volunteers and sends them in teams to speak to health, child development, and family and consumer science classes in Minnesota high schools. The organization reaches about 4,000 students in 50-60 high schools each year.

“Our hope in doing that is to be able to talk about what modern adoption looks like. It’s fun to be able to dispel myths, so they can see adoption more accurately,” said Jenny Eldredge, Bellis’ executive director and adoptive mother of two. She added that Bellis also provides information to pregnancy resource centers, corporate groups and other organizations.

Eldredge said there are a lot of stereotypes about adoption, and most people are surprised to learn that 90 percent of domestic infant adoptions are open, and the relationships between the birth mother, child and families involve common family dynamics.

“It’s not always easy; it’s like any relationship, with issues, and ebbs and flows,” said Eldredge, a parishioner of St. Katharine Drexel in Ramsey.

Bellis doesn’t have a religious or political affiliation, but it has partnered with Annunciation in Minneapolis for its annual fundraising brunch and received financial

support from the social justice ministry at Our Lady of Grace in Edina. The Catholic Community Foundation of Minnesota provided grants this year.

Eldredge noted the need for such an organization. Its Adoption Connection gatherings bring together birth parents, adoptive parents, adopted children and family members to share their experiences every other month.

She cites a gap in support, especially for birth mothers, who often deal with grief and shame.

“They can feel so intentional and proud of their decision to make an adoption plan for their baby, and it’s just really hard to get the support they need, because it’s joy and grief wrapped up in one,” Eldredge said, noting that in its 34-year history, Bellis has supported about 1,000 birth mothers from all walks of life.

Gillen knows those feelings. As a volunteer, board member and past president of Bellis, Gillen has helped plan the annual weekend birth mothers retreat, Stronger Together, which began four years ago. But she didn’t realize how much the retreat would impact her as a participant.

“I was totally blindsided by … a lot of things that I never really dealt with or faced head-on, especially in that first year after placement,” she said. “While it was always a positive experience, there’s a lot of healing that needs to happen that first year, and I think I skipped that.”

She added: “I’ve come to such a strong place through my work with Bellis and [am] proud of the decision that I made and the life that Michael and I both have now because of it. [And I try to] use that to help others and to share that story as a beacon of hope for people who are maybe in that decision-making process or are struggling post-adoption to really show the value in that, over the course of life, [adoption] just keeps giving.”

Gillen graduated college with a bachelor’s degree in English and works in marketing at Children’s Minnesota.

“To this day, Michael is my motivator,” she said. “I never wanted him to look back on this and have it all be for naught. I wanted him to be proud of me, too, and the things that I accomplished because of our adoption.

So, a lot of what I’ve been able to accomplish in life I attribute to trying to make him proud.”

8A • The Catholic Spirit

LOCAL

November 23, 2017

Panel of educators, philanthropists tackle achievement gap

By Melenie Soucheray For The Catholic Spirit A Nov. 14 forum hosted by the Catholic Community Foundation of Minnesota addressed the issue of Catholic education by asking five educators and philanthropists the question, “Can urban Catholic elementary schools close the achievement gap and be self-sustaining?”

The consensus: Yes. Held at Our Lady of Grace in Edina, the panel agreed that collaboration among pastors, educators, families, alumni, philanthropists and public policy makers is needed to tackle existing challenges, which panelists cited as poverty, lack of teacher support and low buy-in for Catholic education.

Benito Matias, principal of Ascension Catholic School in north Minneapolis, said many urban students are poor, and their home lives are unsettled, making learning difficult. Students need support while being held accountable to meet their goals.

Christine Healey, president of the Camden, New Jerseybased Healey Foundation, said teachers must have access to necessary coaching and tools. And supplemental services such as meals, counselors, social workers and extracurricular activities could make a difference in closing the achievement gap, said Meghan Gehlen Nodzon, senior program officer with Twin Cities-based GHR Foundation. She also pointed out that a charter school model isn’t popular for Catholic schools because it would limit their ability to incorporate Catholic values throughout the curriculum. While charter schools are funded with public school monies and allow for parents and school leaders to collaborate on innovative curricula, religion-related classes would have to be scheduled outside of the regular school day.

Financial models have changed, noted Barry Lieske, president of DeLaSalle High School in Minneapolis and panel moderator, and at least 25 percent of students in

Benito Matias, center, principal of Ascension Catholic School in Minneapolis, talks about challenges Catholic schools face during a Catholic Community Foundation of Minnesota panel discussion Nov. 14 at Our Lady of Grace in Edina. At left is Barry Lieske, president of DeLaSalle High School in Minneapolis, and at right is Karen Rauenhorst, chair of the AIM Higher Foundation board of directors. Dave Hrbacek/Courtesy CCF urban Catholic schools live in poverty. Costs have risen to cover the salaries of lay teachers when tuition used to be enough with mainly priests and religious sisters and brothers comprising faculties.

“We started losing 1,000 kids per year out of our Catholic elementary schools,” said Karen Rauenhorst, chair of the AIM Higher Foundation board of directors.

The organization provides tuition assistance scholarships to Catholic school students in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Lieske said that a little more than 5 million children were enrolled in U.S. Catholic schools in 1960, and today, that number has dropped to less than 2 million.

“How do you stop the bleeding?” he asked.

Rauenhorst said that enrollment has increased in recent years, and strong parish leadership is vital.

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“Some of our pastors have to say this is critical,” she said. “I think that people would know it is our responsibility to see that our schools provide an excellent educational opportunity for all students.

“Data show that tax credits make a difference in the quality of education,” she added. “It would be a significant game changer.”

In the last few years, school choice bills haven’t passed in the Minnesota Legislature.

Doug Milroy, former chairman and CEO of G&K Services Inc. and an advocate for Catholic education, urged the audience to “do what works” and make their voices heard by lawmakers.

“To me, the opportunity for school choice is a little bit like a Mother Teresa moment,” he said. “She never touched the political stuff. She just said, ‘Here’s what needs to be done. Here is what I know will make a difference.’ Then she just went ahead and did it.”

The forum was the first in a three-part series coinciding with CCF’s 25th anniversary. The second forum will address how Catholic millennials engage in their faith, and the third forum will explore how to support young mothers and their children in crisis. The series will culminate with an April 26 celebration.

Teri and Kevin McCloughan, parishioners of Nativity of Our Lord in St. Paul, attended the forum. They sent their four children to Catholic schools and believe it gave them a “chance to thrive and be very successful,” said Teri, who serves on the board of directors for Risen Christ Catholic School, a dual-language immersion school in Minneapolis.

Now that their children are grown, the couple can look at what kind of legacy they want to leave.

“It goes back to what the panel[ists] said,” Teri said.

“What are we going to do through our donor advised fund [at CCF] by volunteering our time, and by using the expertise from our careers to give back to the organizations that make a difference in people’s lives?

Catholic education is very dear to my heart.”

November 23, 2017

U.S. & WORLD

U.S. bishops take on immigration, racism at fall assembly Archbishop Hebda named to CRS board

By Carol Zimmermann Catholic News Service At the start of their annual fall assembly in Baltimore Nov. 13, U.S. Catholic bishops faced immigration and racism straight on and zeroed in on how to raise the national level of discussion on these topics starting in the church pews.

They acknowledged the current polarization in the country and divides within the Catholic Church and stressed their responsibility as Church leaders to promote immigration reform, educate parishioners on justice issues and listen to those affected by “sins of racism.”

On immigration, Bishop Joe Vasquez of Austin, Texas, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Migration, said there needs to be a “path to legalization and citizenship for the millions of our unauthorized brothers and sisters who are law-abiding, tax-paying and contributing to our society.”

The bishops responded with applause and an agreement by voice vote to issue a statement calling for comprehensive immigration reform.

The bishops were keenly aware that their defense of immigrants was not necessarily the view of the U.S. Church at large. For example, Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich spoke of dangers of Catholics falling prey to and believing “poisoning rhetoric” about immigrants that demonizes them.

“There’s something wrong in our churches, where the Gospel is proclaimed, and yet people leave our worship services, our Masses on weekends, with that rhetoric still echoing in their hearts,” he said.

Several bishops also brought up the notion of prudential judgment — referring to the view Catholics could take on immigration that differs from the bishops — since it is not a specific matter of Church teaching.

The bishops who spoke on the floor didn’t buy that argument and said Catholics can’t use it to push aside the need to care for immigrants. Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco went a step further saying prudential judgment can’t be “taken lightly” on a “justice issue like immigration.”

Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami said the bishops’ defense of immigrants, as brothers and sisters, not problems, is not only right for immigrants but also “for our society as a whole.”

“We can make America great, but you don’t make America great by making America mean,” he added, referring to a slogan of President Donald Trump without naming him.

On racism, Bishop George Murry of Youngstown, Ohio, head of the bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee Against Racism, said the Church must recognize “and frankly acknowledge” its failings. He said the issue has found a “troubling resurgence” in recent years, referring particularly to a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, this year where he said racial hatred was “on full display.”

Other key issues of the day where Church leaders are responding include health care, taxes and abortion, mentioned by Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of GalvestonHouston in his first address as USCCB president. He took office at the close of last year’s fall assembly.

“We are facing a time that seems more divided than ever,” Cardinal DiNardo said. “Divisions over health care, conscience protections, immigration and refugees, abortion, physician-assisted suicide, gender ideologies, the meaning of marriage and all the other headlines continue to be hotly debated.

But our role continues to be witnessing the Gospel.”

He explained that the National Catholic War Council, created by the U.S. bishops in 1917 in response to the world refugee crisis that emerged from World War I and the forerunner to the USCCB, was formed to address great national and international needs at a time not unlike today.

The cardinal emphasized other modern challenges such as recent natural disasters and mass shootings.

But the problems of the day should not overwhelm Church leaders who should recognize

Bishops to put together pastoral plan for marriage, family life ministry U.S. Catholic bishops acknowledged that Catholic families and married couples need more support from the Church at large and hope to offer it by giving parishes plenty of resources through a pastoral plan for marriage and family life.

A proposal for such a plan was introduced to the bishops on the second day of their annual fall assembly in Baltimore Nov. 14 and was approved by paper ballot with 232 votes in favor.

The pastoral plan was described by Bishop Richard Malone of Buffalo, New York, a member of the bishops’ Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth, as a response to Pope Francis’ 2016 apostolic exhortation “Amoris Laetitia” (“The Joy of Love”).

Bishop Malone, who introduced the idea to the bishops, was filling in for Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput, the committee’s chairman, who was in Rome for a preparatory meeting for the Synod of Bishops in 2018.

The bishop said he hoped the pastoral plan would encourage long-term implementation of the pope’s exhortation and also encourage a broader reading of it. Several bishops who spoke from the floor echoed this sentiment, emphasizing that the document was more than just one chapter — referring to Chapter 8’s focus on the possibility of divorced and remarried Catholics receiving Communion, which gained significant media attention.

Auxiliary Bishop Robert Barron of Los Angeles, founder of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries, said a pastoral plan focused on the exhortation lets the Catholic Church “seize control” of its message after the “blogosphere was forcing us to read it in another way.”

Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky, similarly noted that the exhortation’s Chapter 8 “got all the headlines” and he hoped a new plan based on the text would get more people to read the entire document and “read it slowly.”

A new pastoral plan for marriage and families would not be “the pastoral plan,” as in the be-all, end-all addressing every detail, but it should provide a framework to help parishes work in this area, Bishop Malone said.

— Catholic News Service

signs of new hope in the Church, mentioned by the papal nuncio, Archbishop Christophe Pierre, who addressed the bishops at the start of the meeting and encouraged them to make time for prayer amid “burdens of the office.”

The bishops also heard from the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, at a Nov. 12 Mass where he was the main celebrant and the homilist, and at a dinner celebrating the USCCB’s 100th anniversary.

Prior to the Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a few protesters held placards or placed them on the sidewalk, calling on the U.S. bishops to embrace pacifism. Also in the lobby of the hotel where the bishops were meeting, a protester sought dialogue with Church leaders to urge them to offer sanctuary to immigrants facing deportation, and another voiced displeasure with Church leaders he said support war.

The second day of public meetings examined ways the bishops can continue to uphold the Catholic faith with specific wording in the baptismal rite.

Bishops also chose six members from among eight nominees for the Catholic Relief Services board of directors, including new member Archbishop Bernard Hebda of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

The Catholic Spirit • 9A in BRIEF CAPE TOWN, South Africa

Zimbabwean bishops call for restraint, patience in shake-up Zimbabwe’s Catholic bishops urged restraint and patience from Zimbabweans in what they called “most delicate times” after 93-year-old President Robert Mugabe was sacked as leader of his party following a de facto coup. They also called on Zimbabwe’s defense forces and political leaders to work for a “peaceful end to the crisis and a speedy return to normalcy and constitutional order.” Jesuit Father Fidelis Mukonori, parliamentary liaison officer for the Harare Archdiocese, heads a negotiating team between Mugabe, who has led Zimbabwe since its independence from Britain in 1980, and the military officers. Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in the capital, Harare, Nov. 18 to celebrate the expected end of Mugabe’s reign as one of Africa’s longest-serving heads of state. Mugabe’s policies are widely blamed for Zimbabwe’s economic decline over the last two decades. Millions of economic refugees have left the country, with most going to South Africa.

VATICAN CITY

Pope puts John Paul I on path to sainthood, declares him ‘venerable’ Pope Francis recognized that Pope John Paul I, who served only 33 days as pope, lived the Christian virtues in a heroic way. The Vatican announced Pope Francis’ decision Nov. 9. It marks the first major step on the path to sainthood for the pope who died in 1978 at the age of 65, shocking the world and a Church that had just mourned the death of Blessed Paul VI. Pope Francis would have to recognize a miracle attributed to the late pope’s intercession in order for him to be beatified, the next step toward sainthood. A second miracle would be needed for canonization.

WASHINGTON

Bishop Dewane disappointed

by House passage of tax cut bill The chairman of a U.S. bishops’ committee concerned with domestic justice issues expressed disappointment over the House of Representatives’ passage of “the deeply flawed” tax cut bill. House members “ignored impacts to the poor and families” in passing the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act Nov. 16, said Bishop Frank Dewane of Venice, Florida. In a statement Nov. 17, Bishop Dewane cited findings by the nonpartisan congressional Joint Committee on Taxation that show the bill’s raising of taxes on the working poor beginning in 2023 while giving simultaneous tax cuts to the highest-income Americans is problematic. A Nov. 9 letter to House members by the chairmen of three U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ committees outlined what they called “many deficiencies” in the bill and that the bill would place “new and unreasonable burdens on families.”

Bishop Dewane credited lawmakers for restoring the adoption tax credit, which was not included in earlier versions of the bill. But he also raised concern that the House measure repeals an exclusion for families assisted by their employer to adopt children in need and eliminates incentives for charitable giving.

Supreme Court to hear case on free speech and crisis pregnancy centers The Supreme Court has decided to hear a case examining freedom of speech at crisis pregnancy centers. The case, accepted Nov. 13, will consider if a 2016 California law violates the Constitution by requiring the state’s 200 crisis pregnancy centers to inform their clients, in specific detail, about the availability of free or low-cost abortion and contraceptive services and provide a referral number for them. Centers that fail to comply are subject to fines of $500 for a first offense and $1,000 for subsequent offenses.

— Catholic News Service

10A • The Catholic Spirit

U.S. & WORLD

November 23, 2017

Notre Dame allows third-party coverage of contraceptives in health plan

Friar lived out faith, hope, charity every day, says cardinal

By Ann Carey Catholic News Service

Catholic News Service

Questions and confusion continue to swirl around the University of Notre Dame’s decision to allow the third-party administrators of its health plans to go on providing morally objectionable services to university employees, even though Notre Dame no longer is required by the government to do so.

On Oct. 6, the Trump administration issued an interim rule expanding the religious exemption from the U.S. Health and Human Services 2012 mandate, which requires most employers to include contraceptives, abortifacients and sterilizations in its employee health plans. That expanded exemption now allows religious institutions, like Notre Dame, to exclude these items from employee health plans.

The new rule is in effect while the government solicits public comments.

On Oct. 7, Holy Cross Father John Jenkins, the university’s president, applauded the new rule, and an Oct. 27 email was sent to faculty saying those services would not be covered after Dec. 31. However, another email to faculty Nov. 7 reversed course and informed employees that the university’s third-party administrator, Meritain Health, and prescription benefit manager, OptumRx, would continue to provide those items free of charge.

On Nov. 7, in his annual address to faculty, Father Jenkins said that the “university’s interest has never been in

preventing access to those who make conscientious decisions to use contraceptives. Our interest, rather, has been to avoid being compelled by the federal government to be the agent in their provision.” He went on to say that since these items will continue to be provided “directly” through the thirdparty administrators, “this will allow employees who choose to do so to acquire contraceptives directly through these insurance providers, without the university’s direct involvement.”

This position appears to duplicate the so-called “accommodation” offered by the Obama administration to religious employers who objected to the original HHS mandate. That “accommodation” provided for religious nonprofits to file written notice of their objection with the HHS, which in turn would tell insurers to provide the services at government expense, with no cost to the employee and no involvement of the employer.

This “accommodation” was rejected by the U.S. bishops and other Catholic employers, who said it was still a violation of religious liberty because it required the religious employer to facilitate provision of the objectionable services. Notre Dame was among religious employers who rejected the “accommodation” and sued the government to prevent its enforcement.

Bishop Kevin Rhoades of Fort WayneSouth Bend said he disagrees with the Notre Dame decision and continues to “dialogue with Father Jenkins on this matter in the context of fidelity to Notre Dame’s Catholic mission.”

Blessed Solanus Casey always said that “as long as there is a spark of faith,” there can be no discouragement or sorrow, said Cardinal Angelo Amato, head of the Vatican’s Congregation for Saints’ Causes.

His words were accompanied by “the concrete practice of faith, hope and charity in his everyday life,” the cardinal said in his homily during the Nov. 18 beatification Mass for the beloved Capuchin Franciscan friar who was known for his cures and wise counsel.

“He came from an Irish family of profound Catholic convictions. Faith for him was a very precious inheritance for facing the difficulties of life,” Cardinal Amato said. “When the young Bernard (his given name) Casey, entered the Capuchins, he passed from one community of faith to another.”

Blessed Solanus “focused on the poor, the sick, the marginated and the hopeless,” Cardinal Amato said. “He always fasted in order to give others their lunch. For hours upon hours, he patiently received, listened and counseled the ever-growing number of people who came to him.”

The friar saw people “as human beings, images of God. He didn’t pay attention to race, color or religious creed,” the cardinal said.

A congregation of more than 60,000 filled Ford Field, home of the NFL’s Detroit Lions, which was transformed for the Mass. To the right of the altar was

a large painting of Blessed Solanus. It was unveiled after the beatification rite, which took place at the beginning of the Mass.

Dozens of bishops, priests and deacons processed into the stadium for the start of the liturgy. The music was provided by a 25-member orchestra and a choir of 300 directed by Capuchin Franciscan FathernEd Foley.

The singers were Father Solanus members of parish CASEY choirs from across Detroit.

Cardinal Amato was the main celebrant, joined at the altar by Detroit Archbishop Allen Vigneron, Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States, and Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley, himself a Capuchin Franciscan.

In the congregation were 240 Capuchin friars and at least 300 members of the Casey family from across America and their ancestral country of Ireland. The Casey family’s Irish roots were reflected in the Irish hymns chosen as part of the music for the liturgy. As The Catholic Spirit previously reported, Blessed Casey lived in Stillwater for a short time before joining the Franciscans.

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Columbia Heights

November 23, 2017 The Catholic Spirit • 11A

2017 SENIOR SERVICES GUIDE

To our readers The descriptions of senior housing and services in this section were provided by the facilities and service agencies, which are responsible for the accuracy of the content.

The Catholic Spirit

Benedictine Health System The Benedictine Health System is one of the largest Catholic senior care organizations in the country, operating more than 35 communities in six states, including eight in the Twin Cities. BHS is a missionbased, nonprofit health system headquartered in Minnesota, sponsored by the Benedictine sisters of St. Scholastica Monastery in Duluth.

BHS provides a continuum of care services for aging adults, including independent senior housing, assisted living, skilled nursing, memory care and rehabilitation services.

For more information, visit www.bhshealth.org.

iStock/Melpomenem

Deephaven Woods Senior Living Deephaven Woods is a community that provides nurturing and caring senior housing on the campus of St. Therese Catholic Church in Deephaven.

We offer independent and assisted living, as well as memory care and enhanced care for the highest level of assisted living.

We partner with St. Therese Catholic School to offer intergenerational programming. We are a member of Struthers Parkinson’s Care Network.

For more information, call 952-746-8562 or visit www.deephavenwoods.com.

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Benedictine Health Center of Minneapolis 618 E. 17th Street | Minneapolis 612-879-2800 bhcminneapolis.org

Cerenity Senior Care – White Bear Lake 4615 2nd Avenue | White Bear Lake 651-232-1818 CerenitySeniorCare.org

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11/15/17 6:43 AM

12A • The Catholic Spirit

SENIOR SERVICES GUIDE

November 23, 2017

Known for his love of cooking, people and liturgy, Father Simonson retires

By Dave Hrbacek The Catholic Spirit

W

hen Father Spencer Howe came on board in July as parochial administrator of Holy Cross in northeast Minneapolis, it didn’t take him long to learn about the “giant” who preceded him, Father Earl Simonson.

“In essence, he’s just been a giant in the neighborhood,” Father Howe said of Father Simonson, 87, who celebrated his retirement Nov. 19 at Holy Cross.

Forty years ago, Father Simonson became pastor of St. Clement, which merged in 2012 with nearby St. Anthony of Padua, St. Hedwig and Holy Cross, taking the latter parish’s name.

“Many people are aware of the contributions he’s made,” Father Howe said. “One of the important groups who knows him and remembers him are the poor.

He had a real tenderness towards the poor.”

During his tenure, Father Simonson ensured the doors of St. Clement church and rectory were always open to the poor in the neighborhood, parishioners or not.

“He would baptize anyone, and he would bury anyone,” said Diane Soderberg, Holy Cross’ campus coordinator who worked with Father Simonson for five years. “He told me once, ‘I do that because there is always hope that one person in that church will come back.’ And, I always thought that was pretty cool.”

Father Simonson considers himself somewhat of a curmudgeon, talking as though it takes some fortitude to put up with him.

“I’m not easy to get along with,” he said. “I’ve got a temper. I’m also stubborn.”

But, that’s not the way those who have gotten to know him over the years describe a man many priests call “Earl the Pearl.”

“People just loved him right from the start,” said longtime St. Clement parishioner Lorraine Bohlman, who was there when Father Simonson arrived in 1977.

“He just had a way. It was just like he was one of your family.”

Bohlman still remembers the funeral Mass Father Simonson celebrated for her husband, Earl, on the Monday after Thanksgiving in 1983. He had died Thanksgiving day, and the funeral was originally scheduled for Saturday. A snowstorm caused it to be pushed to Monday. Because there still was snow in the parking lot that day, the mortuary staff asked Lorraine if she wanted to have the funeral at the mortuary instead, to avoid the hassle of taking her husband’s body to the church.

No way, she said. She wanted his funeral at the church, and she wanted Father Simonson to celebrate the Mass.

She was not disappointed.

“He did a beautiful job” celebrating the funeral Mass,

Father Earl Simonson says he “loved the parish” of St. Clement in northeast Minneapolis, and called serving there for 40 years “a delight.” Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit Lorraine said of Father Simonson. “He made me and the kids feel very comfortable, just the way he talked.”

She said he was that way with everyone.

“When there was a funeral, [with] the homily that he gave at the Mass, you would feel like he was part of the family,” she said. “He had such a way of talking to everybody. You just felt like ... the person that had passed away was a friend of his also.”

She also noted that he had a practice of taking Communion weekly to homebound parishioners. While many were watching football games, he would spend his Sunday afternoon visiting parishioners confined to their homes.

“I don’t know any other priest who does that,” she said. “He would do it every single Sunday all year long.”

He is also skilled in the kitchen. He was known for making gourmet dinners for priests who would come to the church on weekends to celebrate Masses. His go-to menu choice was Cornish game hen stuffed with wild rice and mushrooms, asparagus with Hollandaise sauce and baked potato, all following a shrimp cocktail appetizer, with a dessert of baked Alaska.

“I was trained to cook,” he said. “I had originally decided I might want to be a cook.”

Priesthood was not something he thought about during his childhood because he was not Catholic. Born in Decorah, Iowa, he moved with his parents, Clara and Clifford, to St. Paul when he was just a few months old.

A younger brother and sister followed.

The summer before his ninth-grade year at Harding High School, he got a job working on a farm in southern Minnesota. Because of World War II, there was a shortage of men for the fields, so high schoolers were recruited.

The farm was owned by a devout Catholic couple who took him to Sunday Mass. When he returned to St. Paul, he decided it was time to “get a religion,” he recalled.

After reading up on several denominations, he chose Catholicism. He visited St. John of St. Paul on St. Paul’s East Side and was baptized there when he was 16.

(St. John merged with St. Pascal Baylon in 2013.)

St. John’s priest liked him, and he encouraged him to go to college and think about seminary. The family was poor, and Earl thought it was financially impossible.

But, all of his service at the parish made an impression on a wealthy member, who funded his entire seminary education. He was ordained in 1969 at age 39, 13 years older than most of his other 13 classmates.

His first assignment after ordination was St. Charles Borromeo in St. Anthony, not far from St. Clement.

He believes that assignment prepared him well for the day he was assigned to be St. Clement’s pastor, a role he relished.

“It was just a delight to be there, and I loved the parish,” he said of St. Clement. “I got along with the people. They seemed to get along with me. They’d be happy with what I would do.”

According to Soderberg, Father Simonson was happiest when he was celebrating a baptism, funeral or school liturgy. He kept plenty busy with those things and more, but still had time to engage in one of his other hobbies — sewing.

“A whole room in the rectory was a sewing room,” Father Howe said. “He did make a lot of vestments and mend a lot of vestments. I think it was one of the ways he expressed his love for the Church and for the liturgy.

He always used to joke: ‘Why would I buy a cassock when I could make my own?’”

Most things about this retired priest were self-made, including his independent personality.

“He’s his own man,” Father Howe said. “There’s kind of a rugged independence and idiosyncrasies. But, God uses those idiosyncrasies and personality traits both to endear people and [bring] the levity we need not to take ourselves too seriously.”

One thing Father Howe will take seriously is the legacy left by a man who insists he is not worthy of being honored for his four decades of ministry. Father Howe was one of many who fought through Father Simonson’s resistance and insisted on a celebration so that people could gather and express their gratitude.

He is among Father Simonson’s many admirers.

“He loved the people,” Father Howe said. “He was accessible, [and] he worked hard. There was nothing really flashy in his ministry, but that commitment to not settle for less and to just be all in and given to his people. ... As a young priest, I hope and pray to have the same energy and zeal for souls, God willing, when I get CathSpSister-Nov30-Feb24-2018.qxp_Layout 1 11/18/1 to be an old priest.”

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The Catholic Spirit • 13A

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14A • The Catholic Spirit

SENIOR SERVICES GUIDE

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Care for the dying does not mean obstinately resisting death, pope says

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service

P

eople who are dying must be accompanied with the love of family members and the care of medical professionals, but there is no requirement that every means available must be used to prolong their lives, Pope Francis said Nov. 16.

“Even if we know that we cannot always guarantee healing or a cure, we can and must always care for the living, without ourselves shortening their life, but also without futilely resisting their death,” the pope said in a message to the European members of the World Medical Association.

“This approach is reflected in palliative care, which is proving most important in our culture, as it opposes what makes death most terrifying and unwelcome: pain and loneliness,” the pope said.

Pope Francis’ message touched on end-of-life care and health care inequalities, which he said intersect when determining what level of medical intervention is most appropriate when a person is dying.

“Increasingly sophisticated and costly treatments are available to ever more limited and privileged segments of the population,” the pope said, “and this raises questions about the sustainability of health care delivery and about what might be called a systemic tendency toward growing inequality in health care.

“This tendency is clearly visible at a global level, particularly when different continents are compared,” he said. “But it is also present within the more wealthy countries, where access to health care risks being more dependent on individuals’ economic resources than on their actual need for treatment.”

A variety of factors must be taken into account when determining what medical

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interventions to use and for how long with a person approaching the end of his or her earthly life, Pope Francis said. For those with resources, treatments are available that “have powerful effects on the body, yet at times do not serve the integral good of the person.”

Even 60 years ago, he said, Pope Pius XII told anesthesiologists and intensive care specialists that “there is no obligation to have recourse in all circumstances to every possible remedy and that, in some specific cases, it is permissible to refrain from their use.”

Determining what measures amount to “therapeutic obstinacy” or “overzealous” treatment, and are therefore either optional or even harmful, requires discernment and discussion with the patient, the patient’s family and the caregivers.

“From an ethical standpoint,” the pope said, withholding or withdrawing excessive treatment “is completely different from euthanasia, which is always wrong, in that the intent of euthanasia is to end life and cause death.”

In determining the best course of action in caring for a dying person, the pope said, “the mechanical application of a general rule is not sufficient.”

If the patient is competent and able, the pope said, he or she “has the right, obviously in dialogue with medical professionals, to evaluate a proposed treatment and to judge its actual proportionality in his or her concrete case” and to refuse the treatment “if such proportionality is judged lacking.”

In either case, he said, even medical professionals must follow “the supreme commandment of responsible closeness,” remaining alongside those who are dying. “It could be said that the categorical imperative is to never abandon the sick,” he said.

The Catholic Spirit staff would like to extend a sincere thank you to our advertisers and our subscribers.

We appreciate your continued support.

Have a beautiful and blessed Thanksgiving holiday.

FAITH & CULTURE

November 23, 2017

The Catholic Spirit • 15A

Local ‘patrons’ help revitalize historic Vatican art

By Melenie Soucheray For The Catholic Spirit

T

here are more than two dozen Vatican museums full of new and old artwork representing centuries of cultures and faiths from all over the world. And every year, nearly 6 million people view the art, architecture and ethno-anthropology, from small, fragile pieces to the larger-than-life frescoes in the Sistine Chapel. Art historians say the works are a testament to God’s creation and tools for evangelization.

According to Johan van Parys, director of liturgy and sacred arts at the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis, the art doesn’t belong to the Church as an institution.

“It belongs to us in the Church,” he said. “The Church has been given custody of this art, and it is our responsibility to protect it for all of the generations to come.”

Van Parys noted the Vatican doesn’t have the money to preserve, restore or conserve the collections that began under Pope Julius II in the early 16th century. To remedy that, the worldwide organization Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums was founded in 1983.

Approximately 2,000 Catholic and non-Catholic philanthropists in 26 European and North American PAVM chapters support efforts to promote Vatican Museums, restore works of art and increase the collections’ holdings.

In 2000, van Parys was approached separately by a non-Catholic woman he didn’t know and a Benedictine monk he did know. The latter had been named the American chaplain of the Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums. Both of them encouraged van Parys to form a local chapter.

He assembled a board, drafted bylaws and filed as a tax-exempt nonprofit organization. A dues structure was adopted: $600 for individuals, $1,200 per household and $250 for people younger than 35.

Today, the PAVM Minnesota and North Dakota chapter has between 60 and 75 members. Every year, the Rome office publishes its “Wishbook” listing projects that need financial support. Funds collected from chapter members are used to “adopt” a project.

“The first project we adopted for restoration was the

John and Paula Kelly, parishioners of St. Joseph in West St. Paul and members of the Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums, sponsor the restoration of this wooden crucifix, circa 1325-1350. The restoration will help provide more in-depth information for its analysis and artistic origin. Courtesy Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums ‘Hammer for the Verification of the Death of the Pope,’” van Parys recalled. Reportedly used the last time following the death of St. Pope John XXIII, the ceremonial hammer was used to tap on the forehead of a dead pope while his name was called. If the pope did not answer after the third tap, he was declared dead.

The object the PAVM adopted in 2002 dated to the mid20th century and was made of ebony and gilded silver.

In 2014, the chapter adopted a contemporary piece, “Le Manteau de la Vierge” (“The Mantle of the Virgin”)

by Hantai.

“It is abstract and beautiful, but it may not appeal to everyone,” van Parys said. “Our chapter is the one that adopts projects that are considered unadoptable.”

Basilica parishioners Jack and Cathy Farrell were early members of the local PAVM chapter. Their philanthropy is a legacy they’ve handed down to their four sons, daughters-in-law and nine grandchildren.

“We took the whole family to Italy and went to see a restoration at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls,” Jack recalled. “The archaeologists found some early artifacts and wanted to excavate, but they needed money. My grandchildren said, ‘Papa, you have to do it.

The Vatican is asking you to do it.’ It was a family decision.”

John and Paula Kelly, parishioners of St. Joseph in West St. Paul, joined PAVM five years ago.

“We are moved by the beauty inherent in the Vatican’s art collection,” John said.

The couple collects crucifixes, and they adopted a 14th century crucifix for restoration.

“It’s not a glamorous piece,” John said. “It’s preRenaissance, very simple wood. Seeing the 750-year corpus detached from the cross in disrepair moved us. It reminded us of Christ’s willingness to suffer for us.”

This past summer, the local PAVM chapter also brought a bit of the Vatican Museums to Minnesota by sponsoring “The Life of a Swiss Guard” photography and object exhibition at the Basilica.

PAVM members are granted special access to the museums and exhibitions. They’re invited to participate in chapter events, including a biennial European trip.

The next trip is scheduled for October 2018. Van Parys said the itinerary will include a visit to Vatican laboratories to see the restoration artists in action.

U of M ‘Magnificat’ concert prompts reflection on mothers in prison

By Maria Wiering The Catholic Spirit

L

ast year, Amanda Weber was accompanying a women’s choir singing a lullaby, when she looked up from the piano and noticed that many of the women were swaying as if they were rocking a child. She was moved by that, and she discovered many of the women were mothers.

The women were members of Voices of Hope, a choir at the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Shakopee, a women-only prison. Weber founded and directs the choir. About 70 percent of incarcerated women have children under age 18, Weber said. And some of those mothers give birth — sometimes for the first time — while in prison.

Weber, 30, is connecting the uncertainty, fear and hope of those mothers to another mother who may have experienced similar emotions 2,000 years ago, when she was preparing to give birth to the Messiah. A doctoral student studying conducting in the University of Minnesota’s School of Music, Weber is directing the university’s University Singers and Chamber Singers in Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Magnificat” and other Marian songs 7:30 p.m. Dec. 7 at the Luther Seminary Chapel, 1490 Fulham St., St. Paul.

The public concert is free, but donations will be taken to support the

Minnesota Prison Doula Project, which helps pregnant inmates with pregnancy and parenting support, including birthing support, education groups and one-on-one counseling to help mothers cope with separation from their children.

Inspired by an experience of forming and directing a choir for homeless women while volunteering Amanda post-college with WEBER the Lutheran Volunteer Corps in Washington, D.C., Weber formed Voices of Hope two years ago.

The homeless women’s choir “was really an eye-opening year for me, of how my interests might serve the world in a bigger way, and how necessary it is for people to make music, and to connect with their bodies as an instrument and with one another,” she said.

Voices of Hope is also preparing a version of the Magnificat and pieces with similar themes for its own Dec. 12 concert, which is closed to the public.

Voices of Hope boosts the women’s selfesteem, teaches them to work together and brings joy, Weber said. “Oftentimes, the women will say they forget they’re in prison during those couple of hours we’re

together [each week],” she said.

She hopes that, once released from prison, the choir’s members join choirs in the community, not only to help them re-enter society, but also to help the community welcome them.

A Lutheran, Weber chose Bach’s “Magnificat” for her final doctoral recital because it was liturgically appropriate for Advent, and because she wanted to connect the concert to Voices of Hope.

The composition sets to music the canticle of Mary during her visit to her cousin Elizabeth as recorded in the Gospel of Luke. It begins, “My soul magnifies the Lord.” “[The ‘Magnificat’] is a fantastic work for the students to do,” she said of the university’s flagship choirs, which together include about 40 vocalists.

“Here we are singing this text from the perspective of someone who just found out that they’re a mother, and maybe a mother before they wanted to be, or before they thought they would be, so this concept of unexpected pregnancy is very relevant for women in prison and people who are living more high-risk lives,” Weber added. “I thought, how interesting would it be to do a partnership and have a perspective around motherhood and incarceration. ... Just a few years ago women in prison were shackled when they were in labor.”

As a prayer, the Magnificat’s themes also resonate beyond the Christian

tradition, Weber said.

“There’s a lot to take from [the text] if you are a Christian, but if you are not, it also says a lot about fear and expectation and responding to that with joy and gratitude,” she said. She said one of the members of Voices of Hope first balked at the piece because she isn’t religious, but after exploring the text, she said she related to it because, like Mary, everyone has points in life that require profound reflection.

“It’s really fascinating to read Mary’s response in that way,” Weber said. “It’s also a pretty radical text in that it addresses social justice issues, in terms of bringing the rich down low and the lowly up, and I think that is a pretty potent text for now, our present time.”

Weber hopes her audience sees the contemporary relevance of a Baroque piece, and that the concert raises awareness about incarcerated women and their unique challenges.

Working with the Magnificat with Voices of Hope and the university’s choirs has helped Weber look at a familiar text with a fresh perspective.

“It’s been fascinating to work on this project and to have the insight of a whole lot of other people who are reading it in slightly different ways,” she said. “It’s made this masterpiece that was written in the 1700s be relevant to today’s world, and that’s such a goal for me as a choral musician.”

16A • The Catholic Spirit

FOCUS ON FAITH

SUNDAY SCRIPTURES

What joy we will know one day when we hear Jesus say to us, “You have loved like me, you have served like me, you have died like me. Enter now and forever into the palace of the King of Kings!”

Deacon Stephen Najarian

Long live Christ the King On Nov. 23, 1927, a 36-year-old Jesuit priest, only two years ordained, stood before a firing squad in his native Mexico on the trumped up charges of conspiracy. Mixed in with the politics of the Mexican revolution of some 10 years earlier, the decades of Church persecution were finally coming to a head. For two years, Father Miquel Augustin Pro had exercised his priestly ministry in secret, even begging alms to help the poor. Just before the shots were fired that made him a martyr, he boldly proclaimed, “Viva, Cristo Rey — Long live Christ the King!”

On this Solemnity of Christ the King, our holy mother the Church offers an opportunity for us to reflect on the true meaning of kingship. But, who is this king of ours?

The eternal Son of the Most High God, through whom the entire universe came into being, was born in absolute poverty, in a stable surrounded by animals. He grew up in an obscure village and worked with his hands. In his public life he owned only the clothes on his back and relied on the generosity

November 23, 2017

iStock/esmithproductions of his followers.

He who made the stars usually slept out under them. And now in the Gospel for this great solemnity,

we hear Jesus tell us the measure he will use to judge the faithfulness of our discipleship: Have we treated others with the same kind of self-giving charity as we would unto Jesus himself?

Can others tell by looking at our lives that we have submitted to the kingship of Christ?

Christ is truly our king if we continue to narrow the big gap between what we say we believe and the way we behave every day. Christ is our king if we are more concerned with being faithful to the demands of the Gospel than how we appear to others. Christ is our king if we have not made the pursuit of pleasure, power or domination of others the goals of our lives.

Christ is our king if we are willing to forgive others their faults and failings. Christ is our king if we are willing to make a real effort at regular prayer, seeking to pattern our lives more and more after the pattern of him who is love. Christ is our king if we have served others through the same kind of sacrificial gift of self he gave for us.

May we never forget our dignity as royalty in the household of Christ the King. What joy we will know one day when we hear Jesus say to us, “You have loved like me, you have served like me, you have died like me. Enter now and forever into the palace of the King of Kings!”

Viva, Cristo Rey — Long live Christ the King!

Deacon Najarian was ordained for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis in 2003 and has served at St. Charles Borromeo in St. Anthony since then. He also teaches pastoral theology, the sacrament of marriage and biomedical ethics at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity in St. Paul.

DAILY Scriptures Sunday, Nov. 26 Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe Ez 34:11-12, 15-17 1 Cor 15:20-26, 28 Mt 25:31-46 Monday, Nov. 27 Dn 1:1-6, 8-20 Lk 21:1-4 Tuesday, Nov. 28 Dn 2:31-45 Lk 21:5-11

Wednesday, Nov. 29 Dn 5:1-6, 13-14, 16-17, 23-28 Lk 21:12-19 Thursday, Nov. 30 St. Andrew, apostle Rom 10:9-18 Mt 4:18-22 Friday, Dec. 1 Dn 7:2-14 Lk 21:29-33

FAITH FUNDAMENTALS

Father Michael Van Sloun

What’s in a name?

With a pregnancy, the birth of a child and the celebration of the sacrament of baptism, a name must be chosen for the child. A name is a person’s title or identifier for life. This is a not a decision that should be taken lightly. The selection of the name is primarily the duty of the parents, and only secondarily the duty of the sponsor or the pastor.

The name that is chosen is extremely important.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains, “Everyone’s name is sacred. The name is the icon of the person. It demands respect as a sign of the dignity of the one who bears it” (No. 2158). God calls each person by name (Is 43:1). Jesus, the good shepherd, “calls his own sheep by name” (Jn 10:3). “The name one receives is a name for eternity” (No. 2159). It is the name that will be used during a person’s life on earth, and then it will be inscribed in the Book of Life (Rv 3:5; 21:27), the list of those who are redeemed and saved by Jesus, the official directory of all of the citizens of heaven, and it will serve as the person’s

Saturday, Dec. 2 Dn 7:15-27 Lk 21:34-36

Tuesday, Dec. 5 Is 11:1-10 Lk 10:21-24

Sunday, Dec. 3 First Sunday of Advent Is 63:16b-17, 19b; 64:2-7 1 Cor 1:3-9 Mk 13:33-37

Wednesday, Dec. 6 Is 25:6-10a Mt 15:29-37

Monday, Dec. 4 Is 2:1-5 Mt 8:5-11

Thursday, Dec. 7 St. Ambrose, bishop and doctor of the Church Is 26:1-6 Mt 7:21, 24-27

name for all eternity.

If God is the center of the life of the parents, and if their faith is their greatest treasure, then it makes sense to choose a name that expresses their faith and reflects their spiritual values. Over the centuries it has been the custom and practice of Catholic parents to choose faith-based names for their children.

An increasing number of parents, however, are not choosing faith-based names for their children, which is a departure from the Christian tradition. This may be due to lack of religious education or the advance of secularism in modern culture.

There is nothing improper with naming a child after a relative, entertainer, star athlete or celebrity, or choosing a name that reflects one’s cultural heritage.

In fact, the Church does not insist on a faith-based or a specifically Christian name. The Church teaches that any name can be chosen as long as it is not offensive to the Christian faith. Nevertheless, the Judeo-Christian tradition places a high premium on spiritual names, and they are recommended to parents.

There is a wide array of names with spiritual value to choose from. One excellent category is Old Testament biblical figures, most of which have a spiritual meaning: Joshua, which means “God saves,” Hannah, which means “God is gracious,” or Ruth, which means “friendship.” Another recommended group is New Testament biblical characters. Mary and

Friday, Dec. 8 Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary Gn 3:9-15, 20 Eph 1:3-6, 11-12 Lk 1:26-38 Saturday, Dec. 9 Is 30:19-21, 23-26 Mt 9:35–10:1, 5a, 6-8 Sunday, Dec, 10 Second Sunday of Advent Is 40:1-5, 9-11 2 Pt 3:8-14 Mk 1:1-8

Joseph stand at the forefront. Other possibilities would be Elizabeth, Anna or Martha, apostles like Peter or Thomas, evangelists like Mark or Luke, or martyrs like Stephen or James. A third category is the angels, like Angela or Michael. The saints are a fourth category, individuals who lived exemplary lives and serve as an inspiration, patron and intercessor. There are literally thousands to choose from, wonderful women like Clare, Rose and Theresa, and magnificent men like Francis, Anthony and Patrick. Christian virtues offer yet another option, names such as Faith, Hope, Charity, Constance or Joy. The Church does, however, prohibit certain names: “Parents, sponsors and the pastor are to take care that a name foreign to a Christian sensibility is not given” (Canon 855). Some names are so offensive to Christian decency that, if chosen, the sacrament of baptism is to be refused. Objectionable names include those for the devil such as Satan, Lucifer or Beelzebul; names for pagan gods like Baal or Molech; curse words; and derogatory slang terms.

The birth of a child is a miraculous gift from God. The selection of a faith-based name honors God and offers thanks for the gift of a new life.

Father Van Sloun is pastor of St. Bartholomew in Wayzata. This is the eighth column in a series on baptism. Read the series at www.TheCatholicSpirit.com and more of his writing at www.catholichotdish.com.

THIS CATHOLIC LIFE • COMMENTARY

November 23, 2017

FAITH IN THE PUBLIC ARENA

Rachel Herbeck

St. Francis: Tough words for lawmakers and citizens alike St. Francis of Assisi is a beloved saint to many, but often a mischaracterized one. Usually shown with animals, the mainstream vision of Francis is tame and gentle. However, St. Francis was an intense and radical preacher, consumed with zeal for the kingdom of God and intent on relaying the truth to others, including Muslim sultans.

Toward the end of his life, St. Francis wrote a letter to all the rulers and leaders of the people that was not only powerful at the time, but also provides us with lessons on how to be better citizens and lawmakers. In the letter, he urges leaders to: not forget the Lord and his commandments, or they will be cursed; put aside all cares of the world and receive the body and blood of Jesus; and give God praise and thanksgiving, or render an account to God on the day of judgment.

St. Francis’ words remind us that, like him, we must enter into the public arena to be of service to our public servants. We must remind them of their obligations and the lofty calling of politics — what Pope Francis called one of the highest forms of charity.

Civic leaders need friends For citizens, St. Francis sets an example of a way we can relate to our legislators. He wrote these words because he genuinely cared for the people to whom he was writing. He did not see them as far away or above him, but as people with whom he had a responsibility to befriend and call to holiness.

His letter is not a laundry list of policy recommendations. Instead, it reminds leaders of the need to keep the commandments and of the judgment

YOUR HEART, HIS HOME

Liz Kelly

To ‘listen’ one another There’s a quote I keep in my office from Douglas Steere, the Quaker, and I read it before every meeting I have, especially with spiritual directees. He writes, “To ‘listen’ another’s soul into a condition of disclosure and discovery may be almost the greatest service that any human being ever performs for another.”

The first time I read this line while in school for spiritual direction, I copied it by hand and sent it to my best friend with a note that said, “This is what you do for me; you listen me.”

I hope you all have friends like that, someone who listens you.

When I was living in Alaska, I worked for a think tank called Commonwealth North. (In case you’re wondering, I was a note-taker, not a thinker.) The year I worked with them, they were meeting to discuss the

to which they are ultimately subject due to their grave responsibilities.

While it may not be prudent to rush out to remind our legislators about the reality of hell, as St. Francis did, his letter does encourage us also to consider more fully our relationships with legislators. We want to follow the lead of St. Francis and have relationships with our legislators that aren’t utilitarian. As we participate in advocacy, we must not see those in office merely as people who can get us what we want, viewing our interactions with them as solely transactional.

Instead, we need to strengthen and encourage those representing us in office. We can be a resource for them in the community, and we can pray for them. We need to remind them why they are doing their jobs, who they represent and the good that they can do. And then thank them when they do it.

As constituents, our support, not just our demands, can help our legislators make good and right decisions.

And though we don’t ask rulers to remind the people to pray, as Francis did, we can ask them to enact policies that uphold human dignity and foster the common good, which creates the conditions for people and communities to flourish.

Servants, not masters For lawmakers, the words of St. Francis are a reminder that they are servants: servants of the people, but ultimately, servants of God. In a world that is so politically divided and divisive, St. Francis urges lawmakers to remember that ultimate power belongs to God and God alone.

Ultimately, lawmakers and citizens alike can take St. Francis’ words as a challenge to regain a healthy fear of the Lord. St. Francis does not want those in power to forget that while God is a God of perfect love, he is also a God of perfect justice. Pope Francis describes fear of the Lord as “a joyful awareness of God’s grandeur,” an awareness that reminds us that we are “held accountable to the Just Judge.”

Fear of the Lord convicts and pierces our hearts for what is right, because we know of God’s greatness and power as king. As we deal with legislative issues, let us be convicted to think and act with the mind and heart of God. And then, when prudent, offer ourselves as servants to the servants — providing counsel, prayer and opportunities to deepen their knowledge of and relationship with the broader community so that they may act for the common good.

Herbeck is policy and outreach coordinator for the Minnesota Catholic Conference.

Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. A series of experts in anthropology, sociology, economics, public policy, wildlife preservation and the like met with the group each week to discuss the impact of this legislation, which in part, meant that Alaska would never have reservations like the rest of the Lower 48.

It’s an interesting system, and not without its own serious problems. But I’ll never forget one sociologist who visited our group to speak about some of the common practices of the various Native American cultures in Alaska.

He told us that in some indigenous populations, when a tribe member suffered a particular trauma, the whole tribe would gather together in a circle, and the person who had suffered the trauma was invited to share his or her experience with the first person in the circle. When they were finished, they moved on to the next, and then the next, and the next, just as long as it took. They went around the circle telling their story — until they were finished, until they were “listened” through the trauma.

In my mind’s eye, I pictured each one in the circle being given a tiny share of the trauma-teller’s suffering, no more burdensome than a rose petal. And by spreading it out, carrying it together as a tribal community, it eventually dissipated altogether.

That anecdote tells me something tremendously important about listening, only listening — without feedback, without commentary, without judgment,

The Catholic Spirit • 17A

Urge Congress to reject assisted suicide Assisted suicide puts the vulnerable at risk and undermines health care for all. Congress is in position to label assisted suicide as the dangerous, unethical practice it is.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has expressed its strong support for H. Con. Res. 80, a resolution of Congress declaring that assisted suicide is a “deadly, discriminatory and non-compassionate practice.” Please join your voice with Catholics across the country and urge your representative to support the resolution, which calls on the federal government to reject assisted suicide and to ensure that every person facing death has access to the best quality and comprehensive medical and palliative health care.

The resolution, introduced by Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio), along with a bipartisan group of members, including Rep. Collin Peterson (MN-7), states that “the Government has a legitimate interest in prohibiting assisted suicide” and explains how assisted suicide endangers everyone, especially those least able to defend against coercion. The resolution warns that “assisted suicide ... puts everyone, including the most vulnerable, at risk of deadly harm and undermines the integrity of the health care system.”

Call your representative today and ask him or her to co-sponsor this important resolution: Rep. Timothy Walz (1st District) Rep. Jason Lewis (2nd District) Rep. Erik Paulsen (3rd District) Rep. Betty McCollum (4th District) Rep. Keith Ellison (5th District) Rep. Tom Emmer (6th Distric) Rep. Rick Nolan (8th District)

202-225-2472 202-225-2271 202-225-2871 202-225-6631 202-225-4755 202-225-2331 202-225-6211

Call Rep. Peterson to thank him for opposing the legalization of assisted suicide at 202-225-2165.

without critique, without correction or editing or advice-giving or one-upmanship. In a culture where so many seem to be clamoring to launch their own talk show, to be a listener seems ridiculous and almost certainly weak.

And it made me think of the Blessed Sacrament: forever silent, forever listening, forever available to hear our stories again and again and again.

We all know what it means not to be listened to, to have the sacredness of our story trampled over by the well-meaning, the distracted or the careless. God forgive me for my tramplings — they are too many.

But I am grateful to be learning that listening to one another is, in its way, a participation in honoring the sacredness of the soul before me; it is to kneel at God’s altar in awe for the unique and unrepeatable person he has created.

Let’s do better to listen one another.

Heavenly Father, in the cacophony that is human suffering and strife, teach me the poise and stillness of the Blessed Sacrament, and like the silent Christ of the holy Eucharist, to bear witness to the sanctity of every person I encounter.

Kelly is the author of six books, including “Jesus Approaches: What Contemporary Women Can Learn about Healing, Freedom and Joy from the Women of the New Testament” (Loyola Press, 2017). She is a parishioner of St. Michael in Stillwater.

18A • The Catholic Spirit

THIS CATHOLIC LIFE • COMMENTARY

CATHOLIC WATCHMEN

Vincenzo Randazzo

Entering the storm A friend told me about a family stuck in a blizzard late at night in an unfamiliar, remote area. They’d seen no one else on the road in hours. Their car, though safe and mechanically sound, ran out of gas. Their cell phones were dead, and even if they had power, reception was low.

They pulled over and nervously weighed options.

They had blankets and some food. The children were calm but tired. After a discussion, the husband and wife remembered, with reservations, that there was a gas station at least 5 miles down the road. From the radio, they learned that the blizzard would continue to blow for four hours. After a discussion, a distinct twofold duty emerged as a clear course of action for the husband and wife to get the help they needed. So they acted quickly: The wife stayed with the children, and the husband entered the storm. The mother and children would remain in the car and pray and await the father’s return.

This story struck me as precisely what a man must do if he is a man. It reminds me of what is essentially and uniquely good about being a man. And this reminder of a man’s goodness has never been more crucial for men than now. Prominent males in society

There is a hidden, mysterious principle in this story. Something essential about the complementary goodness between wife and husband, mother and father, female and male. are dropping like flies into the category of pigs. Boys have few men of integrity to look up to. Today, being a caddish bachelor is encouraged. Meanwhile, if a man is considerate or kind to a woman because she is a woman, it could be gawked at in disbelief in the name of equality.

In times like this, my mind returns to this family in the blizzard, with the wife looking after the family while the husband enters the storm. There is a hidden, mysterious principle in this story. Something essential about the complementary goodness between wife and husband, mother and father, female and male.

I offer it as a thought experiment. It seems to me that the man had to do what he did, and likewise, the woman fulfilled her mission. Of course, the woman could instead have gone into the storm, and the man could have stayed with the kids. Yet, that doesn’t seem right, does it? I wonder what a wife would think of her husband, if, when faced with the task of going into the storm, he suggests they first flip a coin or draw straws, perhaps in the spirit of equality in their marriage.

I personally know plenty of women who could make

November 23, 2017

that trek to the gas station, even faster and more efficiently than many men. Yet I know that those same magnanimous women would, if placed in that situation, ask themselves while they are trudging through the snow, “What the heck kind of man did I marry?” And I know no man who would sit in the vehicle comforting the children while Mom’s away saying, “Let’s pray Mommy comes back soon with a tank of gas on her shoulder.”

What ought to be said to the father who, unwavering and determined, kisses his wife and enters the blizzard? He treks the 5 miles steadily and busts through the doors of the shop right before it closes.

“My family needs help!” He then returns with a tow truck, gas, doughnuts and hot chocolate. The children cheer and his wife hugs and kisses him, thanking him for his sacrificial love. He thanks his wife for protecting the kids while he was gone and tells her how much he loves her for it.

That’s what happened. And what man wouldn’t want to accomplish that mission? What woman wouldn’t want that kind of man? Mary the mother of God stayed with us and prayed with unwavering trust and hope. Christ descended into hell determined to return to his mother. He rose victorious. Men share in that mission. There is goodness in men. It’s found when he enters the storm.

Randazzo is an evangelization manager in the Office of Evangelization of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, and director of development at St. Stephen in Minneapolis. Learn about the archdiocese’s Catholic Watchmen initiative at www.rediscover.archspm.org/the-catholic-watchmen or www.facebook.com/thecatholicwatchmen.

Live in the archdiocese but don’t get The Catholic Spirit at home? That’s an easy fix!

Contact your parish to be added to its subscriber list for free, or call us at 651-291-4444.

CALENDAR

November 23, 2017

215 S. Eighth St., Minneapolis. www.mnchorale.org.

CALENDAR submissions

Spiritu “Emmanuel” CD release concert — Dec. 5: 7 p.m. at Nativity of Our Lord, 1938 Stanford Ave., St. Paul. www.spiritumusic.com.

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 next issue date.

From Age to Age Christmas music program — Dec. 9: 7:30–9 p.m. at St. Olaf, 215 S. Eighth St., Minneapolis. www.fromagetoage.org.

LISTINGS: Accepted are brief no­tices of upcoming events hosted by Catholic parishes and institutions.

If the Catholic connection is not clear, please emphasize it in your submission.

“Let There be Christmas” cantata — Dec. 10: 2:30 p.m. at Mary, Mother of the Church, 3333 Cliff Road, Burnsville. Combined adult choirs, youth choir, bell choir, full orchestra with narratives. Free-will offering. www.mmotc.org.

ITEMS MUST INCLUDE the following to be considered for publication: • Time and date of event • Full street address of event • Description of event • C ontact information in case of questions

Parish events Christmas tree sale — Nov. 24-Dec. 24: 3–9 p.m. weekdays and 9 a.m.–9 p.m. weekends at St. Pascal Baylon, 1757 Conway St., St. Paul.

ONLINE: www.thecatholicspirit.com/

Immaculate Conception Men’s Group sloppy joe dinner, cribbage and games — Nov. 30: 5:30–8 p.m. at Immaculate Conception, 4030 Jackson St. NE, Columbia Heights. www.iccsonline.org.

calendarsubmissions

FAX: 651-291-4460 MAIL: “Calendar,” The Catholic Spirit 777 Forest St., St. Paul, MN 55106

The St. Ignatius CCW annual Christ Child Luncheon — Dec. 1: 10:45 a.m.–1 p.m. at St. Ignatius, 35 Birch St. E., Annandale. www.stignatiusmn.com.

Festivals: thecatholicspirit.com/festivals

Music The Singers MCA featuring Eric Whitacre’s “Lux Aurumque” and Bob Chilcott’s “What Sweeter Music” — Dec. 2: 7:30–9 p.m. at St. Olaf, 215 S. Eighth St., Minneapolis. www.singersmca.org.

Lessons and carols — Dec. 3: 4–6 p.m. at The St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity, 2260 Summit Ave., St. Paul. www.stthomas.edu/spssod/about/events.

Messiah singalong featuring Handel’s “Messiah” — Dec. 3: 6:30–8 p.m. at St. Olaf,

Holiday boutique and bake sale — Dec. 2: 9 a.m.–3 p.m. at Pax Christi, 12100 Pioneer Trail, Eden Prairie. www.paxchristi.com.

Christmas bazaar — Dec 2: 9 a.m.–5 p.m. at St. Vincent de Paul Education Center, 9100 93rd Ave. N., Brooklyn Park. www.saintvdp.org/christmas-bazaar.

Christmas boutique and cookie sale — Dec. 2-3: 9 a.m.–5 p.m. Saturday and 8:30 a.m.–1 p.m. Sunday at Guardian Angels, 8260 Fourth St. N., Oakdale. www.guardian-angels.org.

The Catholic Spirit • 19A

Fair Trade Marketplace — Dec. 2-3: 4–7 p.m.

Saturday and 8 a.m.–1 p.m. Sunday at St. Gerard, 9600 Regent Ave. N., Brooklyn Park. www.st-gerard.org.

St. Bridget unique boutique, bake sale and luncheon — Dec. 2-3: 9 a.m.–6 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m.–noon Sunday at St. Austin, 4050 Upton Ave. N., Minneapolis. 612-529-7779.

Immaculate Conception parish name celebration with Archbishop Bernard Hebda — Dec. 8: 7:30 p.m. at Immaculate Conception, 116 Alabama St. SE, Lonsdale. www.churchoftheimmaculateconception.net.

Prayer/worship Taize Prayer — First Friday of each month: 7:30 p.m. at St. Richard, 7540 Penn Ave. S., Richfield. www.strichards.com/first-fridays.

Taize Prayer — Third Friday of each month: 7 p.m. at The Benedictine Center at St. Paul’s Monastery, 2675 Benet Road, Maplewood.

651-777-7251 or www.stpaulsmonastery.org.

Retreats

Conferences/seminars/ workshops Aging with Dignity — Dec. 5: 7–9 p.m. at The Benedictine Center at St. Paul’s Monastery, 2675 Benet Road, Maplewood. 651-777-7251 or www.stpaulsmonastery.org.

Singles Sunday Spirits walking group for 50-plus Catholic singles — ongoing Sundays: For Catholic singles to meet and make friends.

The group usually meets in St. Paul on Sunday afternoons. Kay at 651-426-3103 or Al at 651-482-0406.

Singles group — ongoing second Saturday each month: 6:15 p.m. at St. Vincent de Paul, 9100 93rd Ave. N., Brooklyn Park. Gather for a potluck supper, conversation and games. 763-425-0412.

Schools Cadet coffee and admissions information session — Dec. 7 and 19: 9–10:30 a.m. at St. Thomas Academy, 949 Mendota Heights Road, Mendota Heights. www.cadets.com/admissions/ open-house-and-events-calendar.

Project Rachel morning of reflection Dec. 2 — 8:30 a.m.­­–1 p.m. at the Center for Catholic Studies, University of St. Thomas, 2115 Summit Ave., St. Paul. Project Rachel serves men and women who have been affected by abortion. flomos@archspm.org.

Other events

Advent retreat: Be the voice of hope — Dec 9: 9 a.m.–noon at St. Patrick, 6820 St. Patrick’s Lane, Edina. www.leagueofcatholicwomen.org.

Ongoing groups

Embracing Advent — Dec 10: 3:30–6 p.m. at St. Paul’s Monastery, 2675 Benet Road, Maplewood. www.benedictinecenter.org.

Knights of Columbus bingo — Wednesdays: 6–9 p.m. at the Solanus Casey Council Hall, 1920 S. Greeley St., Stillwater.

Faithful spouses support group — Third Tuesday of each month: 7–8:30 p.m. at the Chancery, 777 Forest St., St. Paul. For those who are living apart from their spouses because of separation or divorce.

651-291-4438 or faithfulspouses@archspm.org.

Marketplace • Message Center Classified Ads Reach nearly 70,000 homes with Minnesota’s largest paid semi-monthly newspaper Email: classifiedads@archspm.org • Phone: 651-290-1631 • Fax: 651-291-4460 Next issue: 12-7-17 • Deadline: 3 p.m., 12-1-17 • Rates: $8 per line (35-40 characters per line) • Add a photo/logo for $25 ACCESSIBILITY SOLUTIONS

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Catholic Charities-Diocese of Des Moines, IA seeks a full-time Executive Director.

Reporting to the Board of Directors and Bishop of Des Moines, this position will provide administrative leadership and overall direction to advance the agency’s vision, mission, strategy, annual goals, and long-term objectives. Graduate degree in Human Service, Mental Health, Social Work, Public Administration or related field required. MBA with relevant experience may also be considered. Minimum 10 years’ experience in the health and human service field with progressive leadership, operational and nonprofit management experience. Must be practicing Catholic in good standing. For confidential consideration, send resume and cover letter to HR@CatholicCharitiesDM.org.

Edward F. Gross • Wills, Trusts, Probate, Estate Planning, Real Estate. Office at 35E & Roselawn Ave., St. Paul (651) 631-0616 C1127O

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CEILING TEXTURE Michaels Painting. Popcorn Removal & Knock Down Texture: TextureCeilings.com (763) 757-3187.

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Call our ad representatives at 651-290-1631 to advertise in the classifieds EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES The Diocese of St. Cloud seeks a Director of Pastoral Planning. This unique role supports and interacts regularly with the bishop, the diocese, and parish faith communities in guiding the Church’s mission. Responsibilities include implementation of diocesan plans, assisting parishes with planning needs, and overseeing risk management programs. Qualifications include experience in pastoral planning, knowledge of the Catholic faith, and excellent interpersonal and communication skills.

Applications due by January 5, 2018. Apply at humanresources.stcdio.org Executive Director: Please see Archdiocese of Omaha ad on page 14A of this edition. Thank you.

Part-time Law Office Receptionist in West St. Paul, Minnesota: Administrative support to attorney, paralegals, and office manager. Description, required qualifications, and skills listed at www.TrojackLaw.com. Contact Signe Betsinger (651) 451-9696.

Part-time Law Office Typist in West St. Paul, Minnesota: Produce legal documents including Wills, Trusts, Briefs, Pleadings, and Reports. Administrative support to attorney, paralegals, and office manager. Description, required qualifications, and skills listed at www.TrojackLaw.com. Contact Signe Betsinger (651) 451-9696.

To advertise in the classifieds, email classifiedads@archspm.org.

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20A • The Catholic Spirit

THE LAST WORD

November 23, 2017

Happy new (liturgical) year!

As Advent approaches, families say living by Church’s calendar at home draws them closer to saints, Mass

What’s the liturgical year?

The liturgical year is the annual cycle of Church seasons that begins with the first Sunday of Advent. Advent is followed by the Christmas season, then Ordinary Time, Lent, the Triduum, the Easter season and a longer stretch of Ordinary Time. Within those seasons are days traditionally observed as feasts, such as Christmas Day, and fasts, such as Ash Wednesday. Each day of the year is also assigned as a feast or memorial for several saints, such as St. Nicholas (Dec. 6), or devotions, such as Our Lady of the Rosary (Oct. 7). Some of those saints are recognized in the Mass and other liturgical prayers of their feast day.

By Maria Wiering The Catholic Spirit

G

rowing up in St. Louis, Susanna Spencer loved her family’s Advent tradition of adorning a Jesse Tree with Old Testament symbols leading up to Christ’s birth. She continued the tradition while in college at the University of Steubenville in Steubenville, Ohio, where she met her husband, Mark.

“After seeing [Advent traditions] in my childhood, I thought, I want to do this the whole year, not just for the short four weeks before Christmas,” Spencer said.

Even before they were married, Susanna and Mark both felt “drawn to liturgical life” and began incorporating more aspects of the Church calendar into their daily lives, from praying the Liturgy of the Hours to observing saints’ feast days. Now parents of four, ages 2 to 8, and parishioners of St. Agnes in St. Paul, the Spencers are intentional about shaping their home with the rhythm of the Church seasons.

The first Sunday in Advent marks the beginning of a new Church year, and for some Catholic families, the liturgical “New Year” is tied to special traditions at home. “A lot of the things that we’ve done are taking the Advent wreath idea and conforming it to the other liturgical seasons,” said Susanna, 31.

While families enhancing their “domestic church” through aspects of the liturgical calendar is nothing new, Catholics who are interested in liturgical home practices can find an increasing wealth of information online, where Catholics share ideas on blogs dedicated to the practice, such as Carrots for Michaelmas and Catholic All Year. Spencer noted that Sts. Louis and Zelie Martin used a set of 15 books dedicated to the annual cycle of feasts and fasts in their 19th-century French home; Spencer has an edition on her own shelf.

In her West St. Paul home, the Church’s season is regularly reflected in two spots: the dining room table centerpiece and the family’s small prayer table. The latter contains candles and a few icons, statues and artworks of saints and devotions, some of which change to reflect certain feasts or seasons. The family prays there together daily, often noting that day’s saint or memorial. Sometimes, they mark a saint’s feast by attending daily Mass, where the saint is commemorated in the liturgy.

The Spencers’ centerpieces range from an Advent wreath, to a crown of thorns during Lent, to fresh flowers during Ordinary Time. Susanna anticipates feast days while meal planning, serving spaghetti on an Italian saint’s memorial or a blueberry dessert on days honoring Mary, which the Church traditionally symbolizes with blue.

“One of the ways that you can learn about holiness is living with the saints,” she said. “If we never think of them, we ... can’t benefit from their intercession.”

She realizes that observing the Church’s calendar can feel like another task on the to-do list, and therefore potentially overwhelming or discouraging. She

From left, Lucy, Gemma and Felicity Spencer place ornaments on the family’s Jesse Tree. Their parents, Susanna and Mark, place the tree on a small prayer table that they use throughout the year to follow the Church’s liturgical calendar.

Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit encourages Catholics who want to try it to keep it simple.

That’s also the advice shared by Beth Morgan, who was inspired to incorporate the Church year into her home after becoming a mother. Now with two girls under age 4 and a baby due in January, she said the practice helps her teach her children the faith.

“It’s hard to engage [children] in Mass if you don’t make it tangible, and I think having [aspects of the liturgical year] at home makes it tangible,” said Morgan, 28, a parishioner of Transfiguration in Oakdale.

Like the Spencers, the Morgans try to reflect the Church season with their dining table centerpiece, because it’s a daily focal point in their home. The Advent centerpiece includes a purple cloth to help her daughters connect their home to what they see at Mass, she said. “The Church has a beautiful tradition, and everything we do in our life goes to that same cadence,” she said. “We want to instill that Jesus and God are part of everything we do.”

Morgan also rotates some of her daughters’ bedtime books to correspond with Christmas, Lent and Easter; celebrates the feast days of the saints for whom her daughters were named; and changes the family’s prayer routine to reflect the season or devotional month, such as adding Hail Marys to their prayers in May, the month the Church especially honors the mother of God. The Morgans’ Advent will include a Jesse Tree and special daily prayers paired with their meal prayer. On Christmas Day, Morgan will swap her Advent wreath’s purple and pink candles for white, and she’ll place the Nativity scene’s Baby Jesus in the center to await the arrival of the Magi — whose figurines Morgan plans to move closer to Jesus each day until Epiphany.

Morgan said she developed her approach to liturgical living by picking and choosing ideas from Catholic bloggers. There’s no right way to do it, she said. Her aim is to keep her efforts approachable for her children.

“We’ve seen in our 3-year-old a bigger interest in Mass and what’s going on and the words she’s hearing,” Morgan said. “[It’s] bringing those questions and interest home so she understands the best she can.”

Near St. Joseph in West St. Paul, Heidi Flanagan’s family has developed an Advent tradition that has connected its members more intimately to the

communion of saints. On the first Sunday of Advent, Heidi; her husband, John; and their six children — ages 2 to 12 — each select a slip of paper from a shoebox. On that paper is the name of a saint who becomes his or her patron for the liturgical year.

Heidi, 43, received the box — and the idea — about eight years ago from a friend who does something similar in her home. St. Joseph parishioners, the Flanagans say a small litany of the saints daily, asking each member’s patron saint for that year to pray for them. They also celebrate their feast days throughout the year.

“I feel like it’s given them this buddy in heaven — this sense of security — that we’re not alone, that they have these superheroes rooting for them and praying for them in heaven,” Flanagan said of her children.

“They develop friendships with these saints.”

The tradition has provided an opportunity to learn more about the saints’ lives, and the saints have helped all of the Flanagans grow spiritually. Before they select their saints, the Flanagans also pray that the saints selected would also “choose” them.

“It’s been so cool how often we look back at the year and say, ‘Oh, I can totally see how this saint chose me,’” because different challenges or opportunities seemed suited to that saint’s intercession.

Heidi had two saints this year — St. Gianna Molla (a patroness of mothers) and St. Thomas Aquinas (a patron of educators) — and she felt they were particularly helpful in interceding for her as a mom and homeschooler.

The Flanagans’ youngest child — John Francis — was named for St. John the Apostle and St. Francis de Sales, the two saints whose names a sibling pulled from the box to intercede for him before he was born.

For Heidi’s children, having an annual patron has given them examples of virtue and courage — something she feels has been especially important for her older sons.

“I think it’s shaped their attitude about life and the difficulties of life,” she said. “These saints aren’t saints by living in easy times or easy circumstances, but they’re proven saints by the trials they go through and how they go through those trials. ...

“I see that every single day we’re reading about these saints and how they accepted suffering or turned to God in the suffering, and that suffering is just normal,” she added. “I think it has shaped in [the children’s] hearts and minds a different reality that probably wouldn’t be there otherwise.”

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November 23, 2017 The Catholic Spirit • 1B

Archdiocesan Chancery Corporation Annual Financial Report • 2017

God’s providence, staff’s fiscal responsibility evident in finances

B

oth the Old Testament and the New Testament are full of allusions to the providential care of a God who opens wide his hand to provide Archbishop all that we need Bernard (Ps 145). The Lord HEBDA is truly the good shepherd who makes sure that there is nothing of importance that his flock lacks. While

the vibrancy of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis can hardly be reduced to a financial bottom line, this year’s financial report reminds me once again of the many ways in which the Lord continues to provide for our archdiocese, most especially through the generosity of the lay faithful who make up this local Church.

I am happy to report that the archdiocese, while still embroiled in the challenges of bankruptcy, has once again performed even better than expected at the end of the fiscal year. Benefiting from the vision and expectations of the Archdiocesan Finance Council, as well as the attentiveness of the archdiocesan staff to the annual budget, our shared commitment to fiscal responsibility, accountability and transparency has continued to bear fruit. As you will see from the annual report, we managed to reduce total operating expenses in Fiscal Year 2017, while maintaining the level of essential pastoral support that is expected by our pastors and parishes.

The fiscal year saw the move of archdiocesan operations from the historic Cathedral Hill sites that we had sold as part of the diocesan

reorganization to our new leased home on St. Paul’s East Side. We continue to look for ways of realizing greater savings from that move, and we are already pleased by the positive impact that the move has had on the fruitfulness of our internal collaboration.

You will notice that our legal expenses, while still quite high, were reduced considerably in this fiscal year. They nonetheless continue to reflect the priority that we have given to seeing the bankruptcy proceedings through to their conclusion. We continue to be sensitive to the needs of those who are counting on us for a fair and just resolution of the 400 claims that have been brought against the archdiocese. I would ask you to keep that intention in your prayers.

I continue to be humbled by the support and generosity of the Catholic faithful of this archdiocese, without whom we could do nothing. Please be assured of my gratitude as well as my prayers. As we set our sights on the next fiscal year, let us together keep before our eyes the Lord’s command that we seek first the kingdom of God, trusting that he will always take care of our needs.

While the vibrancy of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis can hardly be reduced to a financial bottom line, this year’s financial report reminds me once again of the many ways in which the Lord continues to provide for our archdiocese, most especially through the generosity of the lay faithful who make up this local Church.

Financial Officer Report Author’s note: The following comments elaborate on the financial statements of the archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis Chancery Corporation (“archdiocese”) that ended June 30, 2017.

Condensed financial statements are included in this issue of The Catholic Spirit. The Management Discussion and Analysis and Financial Statements are posted at www.archspm.org on the Administration and Finance page.

By Thomas Mertens, CFO

Introduction Fiscal year 2017 began July 1, 2016, and ended June 30, 2017. While the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis continues to operate under the uncertainty of the ongoing bankruptcy that began in January 2015, it continues to operate with fiscal responsibility, accountability and transparency.

Our financial priority is the fair, just and timely resolution of the more than 400 claims of sexual abuse of minors against the archdiocese. Some of the claims date back as far as the 1940s, and their impact is real and lasting for the claimants, their families and friends.

Archdiocesan leaders continue to meet with some of those who were harmed and seek to understand the impact through review of the accounts of other victims/survivors.

In December 2016, the archdiocese submitted its second Amended Plan of Reorganization to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, raising our proposed settlement from $130 million to more than $156 million. The plan is funded by more than $122 million from archdiocese insurance carriers, the single highest amount provided by archdiocese insurance carriers in any diocesan bankruptcy to date, nearly $14 million from the sale of available archdiocesan properties and assets, between $5 million and $6 million from the General Insurance Fund, and nearly $14 million from parish insurers. Those funds would be available to claimants upon the court’s approval of the plan.

The financial statements in the following pages show the archdiocese continues to incur legal and professional expenses (referred to as Special Issues Expense), but these expenses are significantly less than last year. This year, the archdiocese incurred $4.8 million of Special Issues

Expense, compared to $7.9 million in FY 2016. Attorneys for the archdiocese billed $1 million less, the Official Parish Committee (which represents many of the parishes in the archdiocese) billed $1.5 million less, and the law firm that represented the archdiocese in the civil and criminal cases in Ramsey County billed nearly $600,000 less on a year-over-year basis. The only legal expense that increased in the past year was the amount billed by the attorneys for the Unsecured Creditors Committee, which was $350,000 greater than in FY 2016.

In bankruptcy, the entity that files for reorganization pays the fees of all professionals and attorneys involved.

U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Robert Kressel has reminded all involved in the case that the longer the process continues, less money will be available to those who have been harmed. That is the guiding force behind our efforts to bring this case to a just and fair resolution as soon as possible. All professional fee requests are subject to review and approval by the bankruptcy court.

Archdiocesan leadership and staff continue to work diligently to be good stewards of the resources entrusted to our care by the faithful through parish assessments and other donations. For the fourth consecutive year, Operating Expenses Before Special Issues Expense declined. Our total Operating Expense Before Special Issues Expense for FY 2017 totaled just short of $18.5 million, down from $18.6 million. Those numbers topped $22.9 million in 2015 and $30.5 million in 2014.

This represents a $12 million or 39 percent decrease since FY 2014. The flattening of expenses over the past two years demonstrates the ability of leadership to hold management accountable to controlling expenses.

After selling the Chancery and Archbishop’s Residence for $3.2 million, the Hayden Center for $4.3 million and the Hazelwood property near Northfield for $350,000 in FY 2016 for a combined total of more than $7.8 million, the Dayton Building sold this fiscal year for nearly $900,000. The proceeds from the sale of those properties total almost $8.8 million and are part of the archdiocese’s $156 million proposed settlement for victims/survivors of clergy sexual abuse.

Because of the sale of all offices near the Cathedral of St. Paul, all archdiocesan employees moved into our leased offices at 777 Forest St. in the Dayton’s Bluff

neighborhood of St. Paul. We are one of the area’s largest employers and proud to be part of St. Paul’s East Side.

There is a spirit of camaraderie and collaboration having all staff members working together in the same building for the first time in decades. This new working environment allows us to serve parishes better and continue the mission of the Church. The archdiocese does that by forming and assigning priests to parishes, hospitals and prisons, as well as supporting parishes in their vital mission of evangelizing and catechizing all Catholics and those who are preparing to join the Catholic Church.

While we support parishes, Catholic schools and other Catholic entities in the 12 counties that make up the archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, this annual fiscal report does not contain their financial information.

That is because, under Minnesota law, they are all independent corporations with completely separate finances and are required to prepare their own financial reports.

In our commitment to accountability and transparency to the Catholic faithful and the public, the archdiocese has released its full audited financial reports annually since June 30, 2013. This is important to Archbishop Hebda, the archdiocesan Finance Council and staff because approximately 70 percent of the archdiocese’s funding comes from parish assessments, which is predominately the result of plate and envelope collections from parishioners at the parishes. People who give generously to this local Church deserve a full accounting of their resources.

For the third year, because of our ongoing Reorganization, the archdiocese, in consultation with the archdiocesan Finance Council and Corporate Board of Directors, filed a motion with the bankruptcy court, and was granted approval, to allow our CPA firm to perform Agreed Upon Procedures on our financial statements for the Fiscal Year 2017. These procedures do not represent an audit and as a result you will not see an Independent Auditor’s Report attached to our financial statements.

The Agreed Upon Procedures were developed by management in consultation with our CPA firm and will Continued on next page

2B • The Catholic Spirit

November 23, 2017

Archdiocesan Chancery Corporation Annual Financial Report • 2017 Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis Chancery Corporation Operating Revenue FY 2017: $20.7 Million

Contributions $2.8

Other Income $0.9 Parish Assessments $14.5

Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis Chancery Corporation Operating Expense FY 2017: $18.5 Million Community Services $0.04 Stewardship & Development Marriage, Family & Life $0.4 $0.96 Latino Ministries $0.4 Parish Services & Outreach $1.6

Investment Income, net $0.4

Central Services $5.1

Communications $1.9 Fees & Program Revenues $2.1 General & Administrative $2.5

Clergy Services $4.1

Evangelization & Catechesis $0.2

Continued from previous page assist us in governance of the archdiocese by requiring attestation procedures on key balance sheet accounts and internal controls. The Agreed Upon Procedures are significantly less expensive than an audit. Our financial records are submitted on a monthly basis to the bankruptcy court and United States Trustee and are subject to their review. When we emerge from Reorganization, we intend to return to the standard practice of annual independent audits and will continue our practice of release promptly after completion of our financial statements and auditor’s report.

Financial condition For the year ended June 30, 2017 (our Fiscal Year 2017), we generated a profit from Operations before Special Issues Expense of nearly $2.3 million as compared to $2.2 million in FY 2016. Our loss from Operations in FY 2017 was $2.6 million and compares favorably to a loss of $5.8 million for FY 2016 which was the result of Special Issues Expense decreasing from $7.9 million in FY 2016 to $4.8 million in FY 2017.

The Special Issues Expense of $4.8 million incurred by the archdiocese during FY 2017 was significantly less than FY 2016 and was due to what can only be described as a “slow down” in the Reorganization process and the resolution of civil charges in Ramsey County in December 2015 and the dismissal of criminal charges by the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office the following summer. Because the archdiocese filed for bankruptcy in January 2015, we are responsible for paying all legal fees incurred by our legal counsel, the legal counsel representing the plaintiffs or victims of sexual abuse, and the official parish committee appointed by the bankruptcy court.

We are very aware of the mounting Special Issues Expense in our Reorganization, now $16 million since FY 2015 when we filed for bankruptcy. A significant portion of those funds have resulted in archdiocese and parish insurance carriers committing to pay more than

$136 million into our $156 million Plan of Reorganization, which would be available upon court approval. That is why we continue to work as efficiently as we are able to end this process and fairly and justly compensate those who have been harmed.

Revenue Total Operating Revenue in FY 2017 was $20.7 million, down just more than $50,000 from FY 2016. Parish Assessments, Fees and Program Revenues, and Other Income all decreased, but strong financial markets increased our Investment Income and Contributions increased on a year-over-year basis, and made up most of the difference. The Investment Income was generated by restricted funds which are not available for general operations or contribution into the Plan of Reorganization.

Parish Assessments, our primary source of revenue, are generated from the 187 parishes within the archdiocese, decreased by 2.2 percent to $14.5 million in 2017 from $14.8 million in 2016. Assessments are calculated and billed on a two-year lag which means the parish financial results for the years ended June 30, 2014 and 2015 formed the basis for the Parish Assessments revenue for the years ended June 30, 2016 and 2017, respectively.

Operating expense Our Operating Expense Before Special Issues Expense in 2017 totaled nearly $18.5 million as compared to $18.6 million in 2016, a 0.8 percent decrease. This continued trend of decline in expenses that began in 2014 illustrates our continuing commitment to control costs whenever possible, look for opportunities to save and operate within our financial means.

Non-operating activity — Gain on sale of assets As previously mentioned, the archdiocese sold the Dayton Building in 2017. This sale resulted in cash received of approximately $875,000 and a book gain from the sale of $779,000.

Catholic Education $1.2

Non-operating activity — General Insurance Program The General Insurance Program of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis provides comprehensive, uniform coverage to all of the parishes, Catholic schools and certain other Catholic entities within the archdiocese, as well as the Chancery Corporation. The coverage provided by the General Insurance Program includes commercial property, casualty, general liability and workers’ compensation. The General Insurance Program is maintained for the benefit of the participants who have contributed those funds in exchange for obtaining insurance coverage.

The General Insurance Program had a surplus from operations of $2.1 million in 2017, down from $3.1 million in 2016. The decrease year-over-year was due to an increase in claims during FY 2017 over FY 2016, which had a historically low claim year.

As noted earlier, the General Insurance Program has committed at least $5 million and no more than $6 million to the Plan of Reorganization.

Non-operating activity — Priest Benefits The archdiocese coordinates a self-insured health and dental benefit fund for active priests and seminarians within the archdiocese. The archdiocese invoices parishes, Catholic schools and other Catholic entities based on clergy assignments and pays benefit providers directly for any claims. Priest Benefits generated a slight income in 2017 as compared to a loss in 2016. The income was the result of increased rates charged to participants and slightly lower claims.

Financial position Net Assets of the archdiocese were nearly $27.3 million on June 30, 2017 as compared to $26.8 million in 2016, Continued on next page

November 23, 2017 The Catholic Spirit • 3B

Archdiocesan Chancery Corporation Annual Financial Report • 2017 Supporting the mission of the Church The archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis serves Catholics and the greater 12 county Twin Cities community. The following narrative explains the function of each department and the funding level for FY 2017. There also is a chart that illustrates the expenditures, as compared to other departments.

Catholic Education • $1,231,886 The Office for the Mission of Catholic Education (OMCE) provides support for Catholic schools and parish faith formation programs in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis by focusing on Catholic identity, leadership development and assistance in implementing academic programs. A particular area of emphasis is providing programmatic oversight to promote innovation and excellence in local urban Catholic schools. The OMCE is focused on forming a new generation of Catholic students by teaming up with private partners like the AIM Higher Foundation, the Catholic Schools Center of Excellence and GHR Foundation.

Central Services • $5,089,918 The Department of Central Services provides support and services to the archdiocesan staff and the parishes.

The department includes the offices of the chancellors of civil and canonical affairs, information technology services, the metropolitan tribunal, human resources and benefits, records and archives, the office of financial standards and parish accounting and facility and maintenance. Also covered in this category are assessments to the Minnesota Catholic Conference and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Clergy Services • $4,114,615 The role of this office is to provide support and formation for priests and deacons in all aspects of ministry and pastoral care. Services provided by this office include the following: Seminary Formation: There are currently 55 men in formation for the priesthood for service of our archdiocese. While the number changes throughout the discernment process, our archdiocese has one of the largest enrollments of seminarians of any diocese in the country. The archdiocese funds the medical and dental coverage of those seminarians as well as tuition, room and board of those attending the Pontifical North American College in Rome.

Center for Clergy Formation: Institute of Ongoing Formation for Clergy and the Institute of Diaconate Formation comprise the Center for Clergy Formation.

Each entity of the center provides an integrated approach to priestly and diaconate formation, including gatherings and support for newly ordained priests, programs to assist new pastors in their role, and ongoing formation opportunities for priests and deacons throughout the archdiocese.

Continuing Education: This includes continuing Continued from previous page a nearly $500,000 or 1.8 percent increase as a result of the Statement of Activities Changes in Net Assets in 2017. The increase in Cash to $20.9 million in 2017 from $18.1 million in 2016 is the result of the cash from the sale of the Dayton Building and the approximately $2.3 million of cash generated from Operations Before Special Issues Expense as this expense was not paid during FY 2017.

Of the total Cash on June 30, 2017, of $20.9 million, $9.1 million represents Unrestricted ($5.1 million) and Board Designated ($4 million). Of the Board Designated funds, approximately $2.8 million has been committed to the Plan of Reorganization. The cash Restricted by Bankruptcy represents the cash proceeds from the sale of our real estate and interest earned on those funds, and the remaining cash of $3.1 million is Restricted by Donors.

education opportunities, a sabbatical program, international enculturation and a biennial presbyteral assembly.

Ministerial Standards and Safe Environment: The mission of the Office of Ministerial Standards and Safe Environment is to work with our community to prevent the sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable adults through a number of initiatives including implementing abuse prevention programs, immediately reporting allegations of abuse to law enforcement and/ or child/adult protection officials and cooperating fully with their investigations, and helping those affected by abuse in their healing journey.

Priest Support: This includes support for priests who are not in ministry due to personal health issues or a disciplinary leave of absence and those who have been permanently removed from ministry.

Chaplaincies: There are 36 priests and 28 deacons in full or part time ministry at hospitals and correctional facilities throughout the archdiocese who are supported by the archdiocese. There are many other priests and deacons throughout the archdiocese who provide pastoral care at healthcare, correctional facilities or schools, either as a ministry of their parish or through their outreach work. They offer the sacraments and spiritual support during some of the most difficult times in peoples’ lives. Last year, thousands of people throughout our community were served by chaplains.

Specialized Ministries: This includes the Office of Vocations, support for international clergy, and retired clergy, which includes the operation of the Leo C. Byrne Residence for retired priests.

Communications • $1,849,891 The Office of Communications helps convey the teachings of the Church and fosters communications between the archdiocese and the faithful, parish and school leaders and staff, and others in our community.

It does this through The Catholic Spirit, multiple websites, social media, e-newsletters, printing services and other communications. The office also conducts media consultation and training for clergy, parishes and other representatives of the archdiocese, and works with secular TV and radio stations, as well as print and online publications.

Community Services • $42,569 The archdiocese helps men, women and children most in need within our local community, including the poor, hungry, and homeless, primarily through cash support to Catholic Charities.

Evangelization • $225,157 The Office of Evangelization (OE) creates opportunities for people to encounter Jesus Christ and to make the truth of Christ and his Church clearly understood and accessible. Evangelization efforts are created and experienced in cooperation with parishes and Catholic schools and the many ministry groups throughout this local Church. Some of OE’s initiatives The categories of Board Designated and Restricted by Donors and their availability for operations will be determined at a future date by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

The largest increase in Assets other than Cash was in the General Insurance Program Assets. The balance at June 30, 2017 was $14.1 million, an increase of $2.1 million from the balance of $12 million in 2016 and was due to the surplus generated in the program during 2017. $5 to 6 million of that balance is included in our Plan of Reorganization and the remaining balance is required by the regulatory authority overseeing the self-insured workers’ compensation program and reserves to pay claims. The increase of approximately $4.4 million in Accounts Payable and Accrued Liabilities, PostPetition, is the result of accrued and unpaid Special Issues Expense during FY 2017.

It is important to understand that the value of the assets and liabilities on the Condensed Statements of

include WINE: Women in the New Evangelization and Catholic Watchmen.

Marriage, Family and Life • $957,191 This Office of Marriage, Family and Life assists the laity and parishes through programs supporting marriage preparation, family education programming, respect life, pro-life groups, biomedical ethics and outreach for people with disabilities.

The office also sponsors the annual archdiocesan Youth Day that brings together hundreds of local high school aged teens to praise God, grow in the faith and find fellowship. In addition, this office helps coordinate local representatives attending World Youth Day, the March for Life and other youth events.

Parish Services and Outreach • $1,580,189 The Office of Parish Services provides consultation, planning and leadership development opportunities to parishes throughout the archdiocese.

The archdiocese supports outreach ministry to various groups and members of the archdiocesan community, including Indian ministry, the Commission on Black Catholics, the Venezuelan mission, the archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women, deaf ministry, and other groups and coalitions.

Latino Ministries • $379,884 There are more than 23 Latino ministry parishes throughout the archdiocese which receive support from the Office of Latino Ministry. These Latino ministry parishes offer the sacraments, catechesis, and spiritual support to tens of thousands of Spanish-speaking people throughout the local Church. The Office of Latino Ministry also oversees special days of celebration of the faith and family throughout the year. In addition, biblical, catechetical, and pastoral leadership formation institutes are provided for members of the Latino community to assist them in growing in the faith.

Support Services General and Administrative • $2,490,280 The offices of the archbishop, retired archbishops, bishops, vicar general, accounting, finance and general administration are included in the General and Administrative category. Over half of this category of expense supports salaries and benefits of staff. Also included are expenses incurred for non-bankruptcy related legal fees and bad debt expense.

Stewardship and Development • $501,406 This office works with parishes and Catholic schools to help grow a culture of stewardship in local communities and to support parish and school development efforts. The office also engages in outreach to benefactors who wish to support specific ministries or programs of the Chancery Corporation.

Financial Position are not necessarily reflective of the outcome of Reorganization. They are based on Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. Assets, particularly Land, Property and Equipment, are recorded at their net book value which may not reflect their fair market value. Final determination of the value of the assets and liabilities will occur through the reorganization process.

Looking forward The cloud of bankruptcy is great and is a heavy burden for many of us as we complete our day-to-day responsibilities with uncertainty towards the future. It is our hope that the court will approve our Plan of Reorganization in the near term and the local Church can continue to carry out its core mission of spreading the Gospel message of Jesus Christ. At the same time, Continued on next page

4B • The Catholic Spirit

November 23, 2017

Archdiocesan Chancery Corporation Annual Financial Report • 2017 Condensed Statements of Activities THE ARCHDIOCESE OF ST. PAUL AND MINNEAPOLIS (Debtor in Possession) Chancery Corporation Condensed Statement of Activities (Unaudited) Years ended June 30, 2017 and 2016

Condensed Statements of Financial Position THE ARCHDIOCESE OF ST. PAUL AND MINNEAPOLIS (Debtor in Possession) Chancery Corporation Condensed Statement of Financial Position (Unaudited) As of June 30, 2017 and 2016

2017 2016

2017 2016

OPERATING REVENUE ASSETS Contributions $2,778,734 $2,379,452 Cash - Unrestricted and Board Designated $9,109,463 $7,515,128 Parish Assessments 14,493,612 14,826,794 Cash - Restricted by Bankruptcy 8,777,117 7,855,560 Fees and Program Revenues 2,179,442 2,348,287 Cash - Restricted by Donors 3,057,432 2,722,024 Investment Income, Net 400,099 7,043 Contributions Receivable, Net of Allowances 573,991 502,018 Other Income 877,003 1,218,508 Accounts Receivables, Net of Allowances 4,044,160 4,538,350 Loans and Notes Receivable, Net of Allowances 1,105,777 1,053,609 Operating Revenue 20,728,890 20,780,084 Investments 1,077,007 979,597

Beneficial Interest in Perpetual Trusts 1,488,199 1,370,187 OPERATING EXPENSE General Insurance Program Assets 14,106,969 11,992,782 Program Services: Prepaid Expenses and Other Assets 324,092 418,996 Catholic Education 1,231,886 1,304,156 Land, Property and Equipment, Net 4,540,216 4,054,110 Central Services 5,089,918 5,147,631 Total Assets $48,204,423 $43,002,361 Clergy Services 4,114,615 4,302,642 Communications 1,849,891 2,044,509

Community Services 42,569 46,108 LIABILITIES AND NET ASSETS Evangelization & Catechesis 225,157 332,701 Liabilities Marriage, Family and Life 957,191 806,161 Accounts Payable and Accrued Liabilities, Pre-Petition $242,252 $239,741 Parish Services and Outreach 1,580,189 1,339,894 Accounts Payable and Accrued Liabilities, Post-Petition 9,880,768 5,420,469 Latino Ministries 379,884 385,098 Litigation Claims Payable, Total Program Services 15,471,300 15,708,900 Net of Insurance Recovery 4,600,000 4,600,000 Support Services:

General Insurance Program Claims Payable and Other Liabilities 4,928,498 4,915,635 General and Administrative 2,490,280 2,421,347 Amounts Held for Others Under Agency Transactions 127,892 106,164 Stewardship and Development 501,406 484,762 Parish Demand Deposits 679,304 679,304 Total Support Services 2,991,686 2,906,109 Deferred Revenue 75,357 262,444

Lease Payable 75,090 — Total Operating Expense before Deferred Rent 347,554 — Special Issues Expense 18,462,986 18,615,009 Total Liabilities 20,956,716 16,223,757

Change in Net Assets from Operations before Net Assets Special Issues Expense 2,265,904 2,165,075 Unrestricted:

Special Issues Expense 4,829,831 7,937,542 General Insurance Program 21,997,646 19,896,322 Undesignated 293,238

2,308,791 Change in Net Assets from Operations (2,563,927) (5,772,467)

Total Unrestricted 22,290,884 22,205,113 NON-OPERATING ACTIVITY

Temporarily Restricted 2,948,733 2,683,413 Gain on Sale of Assets 797,084 4,267,286 Permanently Restricted 2,008,090

1,890,078 General Insurance Program Revenues 9,404,646 9,659,854 General Insurance Program Expenses (7,303,322) (6,569,079) Total Net Assets 27,247,707 26,778,604 Priest Benefit Revenues 2,752,875 2,738,973

Priest Benefit Expenses (2,618,252) (3,063,927) Total Liabilities and Net Assets $48,204,423 $43,002,361

Change in Net Assets from Non-Operating Activities 3,033,030 7,033,107 Continued from previous page

CHANGES IN NET ASSETS $469,103 $1,260,640 I believe that the changes and strategies leading up to the filing of bankruptcy and

the environment in which we have operated since then, have made us a stronger more unified and transparent Church. First and foremost we continually work to ensure a safe environment for children. Additionally, out of necessity, we are able to provide services with fewer resources, our managers have learned to operate within a smaller means and have become more creative and strategic, and we have built stronger relationships internally and with the parishes.

We will eventually emerge from bankruptcy, and as was well stated by our Moderator of the Curia, Father Charles Lachowitzer, in a recent article in The Catholic Spirit, “We cannot just dust off our hands in that familiar gesture of finishing a project. When civil justice has run its linear process, then the virtue of justice must continue to direct our path.”

These have been challenging and uncertain times for all Catholics, and I want to thank all the clergy, lay leaders, staff, volunteers, parishioners and others within the archdiocese for their commitment to creating a stronger, more unified Church.