The Catholic Spirit - November 9, 2023

November 9, 2023 • Newspaper of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis

TheCatholicSpirit.com

Joyful ministry NATIONAL CATHOLIC YOUTH CONFERENCE 5 | VATICAN SYNOD PHASE ONE 6-7 | HUB OF HEALING 8 VOCATIONS TO MARYKNOLL 10 -11 | MUSIC TO EVANGELIZE 12 | MINISTRY TO THE MILITARY 15

2 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

NOVEMBER 9, 2023

PAGETWO NEWS notes Saints are the “hall of famers” of Catholic holiness, Father John Utecht, parochial vicar of Our Lady of Grace in Edina, said during an appearance Nov. 1 on KSTP-TV’s “Minnesota Live” show in the Twin Cities. Appearing on All Saints’ Day, Father Utecht said saints are recognized in the Catholic Church after their deaths for their virtue and efforts to lead other people to Jesus. Among those recognized by the Church are Blessed Solanus Casey, Father Utecht said. The friar on the road to sainthood, born in 1870, worked in Stillwater as a young man. Ordained to the priesthood and serving in New York City and Detroit, he was revered for his great faith, humility, compassion and spiritual counsel.

HAZEL JORDAN FOR THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

NEW UKRAINIAN CATHOLIC DEACONS In front, Deacon Nick Modelski (left) and Subdeacon Yuri Ivan (right) flank Bishop Benedict (Aleksiychuk) of the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of St. Nicholas in Chicago who ordained the two men Nov. 5 at St. Constantine Ukrainian Catholic Church in Northeast Minneapolis.

Deacon Modelski has been a parishioner for about two years. Subdeacon Ivan is the music director at St. Constantine. Deacon Modelski was ordained to the subdiaconate just the day before. Some men choose to remain subdeacons and others take the next step to become a deacon, if not on to priesthood.

St. Mary’s University of Minnesota announced Nov. 2 it had received a $10 million gift from the Slaggie Family Foundation to go “toward the future of St. Mary’s and innovation.”

Steve and Barb Slaggie oversee the foundation, with philanthropic interests in Catholic education, the arts and humanitarian causes. “Knowing many, including our son and my siblings, who have attended St. Mary’s, we know the knowledge and strong leadership they foster in their students,” Steve Slaggie said in a statement. “We are galvanized by the change St. Mary’s students and alumni are able to make and want to see that continue through our gift.” Along with their parents, the four Slaggie children supported the commitment. “Our family deeply believes in the importance of the Lasallian Catholic experience at this university, and we are inspired by the students we continue to meet — really, the future leaders of our country that will need strong character and virtue for the challenges they will encounter,” son Michael Slaggie said, in part. The gift will go toward a $100 million challenge set earlier this year by an anonymous benefactor, according to the university. With this gift, the university has raised approximately $34 million on its $100 million goal. According to the university, St. Mary’s enrolls nearly 4,100 students at its undergraduate and graduate programs on its Minneapolis, Rochester and Winona campuses as well as online.

A St. Paul painter and installation artist was among roughly 50 Catholic artists who shared their artistic interpretations of the Synod of Bishops on synodality gathering in October. Mary Gallagher shared her work as part of the virtual “Art and Synodality” showcase. According to Gallagher, her newest landscape series — among her pieces exhibited in the virtual showcase — depict waterways stamped with quotes from Pope Francis’ encyclical “Laudato Si’.” “Catholicism and synodality are both global, ancient, and focused on well-being,” Gallagher wrote, in part, in her artist statement for the showcase. “The vast infrastructure of the Church is a perfect vehicle to convey messages via art of care for our common home, the Earth, and the salvation of our own and other species including those at the margins.” The showcase is viewable online at catholicartistconnection.com/artandsynodality-virtual.

In a partial legal win for pro-life protesters outside abortion clinics, a federal judge has allowed a First Amendment challenge to proceed against Minneapolis’ 2022 “abortion bubble” ordinance, OSV News reported. U.S. District Court Judge Eric Tostrud, in his Oct. 30 ruling, rejected the assertion by nonprofit Pro-Life Action Ministries in St. Paul — which provides “sidewalk counseling” to abortion-minded women outside abortion clinics — that the words “physical” and “disrupt” in Minneapolis’ ordinance are so vague they don’t give protesters adequate notice of what is and is not prohibited. But Tostrud allowed the complaint to proceed through the court system on free-speech grounds, since the lawsuit asserted the city’s ordinance was overly broad and “it would be premature to dismiss the overbreadth challenge at the pleadings stage,” OSV News said. The lawsuit was brought in April by the Thomas More Society, a Chicago-based public interest law firm. The ordinance creates “an unconstitutional, content-based exclusion zone, created exclusively for the purpose of shutting down pro-life speech outside of abortion facilities,” Thomas More Society lawyer Erick Kaardal said in a statement when the suit was filed. “The ministry of pro-life sidewalk counseling is a peaceful interaction with pregnant women to convey life-affirming alternatives to abortion,” he said. Volunteers and staff members from Pro-Life Action Ministries customarily approach cars entering the parking lot or people on foot approaching the door of the only Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Minneapolis. But the ordinance, enacted in November 2022, prohibits them from entering even the public sidewalk portion of the parking lot entrance when doing sidewalk counseling.

COURTESY MICHAEL SHEAREN PHOTOGRAPHY

PRAISE AND ADORATION Pete Burak, a member of Catholic music apostolate The Vigil Project, helps present an evening of praise, adoration and music at St. Mary of the Lake in White Bear Lake Oct. 24.

Father Allan Paul Eilen, pastor, was among those in the parish participating in the event, which centered on Eucharistic devotion and recognizing Christ’s true presence in the Eucharist. The Vigil Project hails from Paradis, Louisiana. It offers music through a sacramental lens as well as retreats and workshops for Catholic musicians.

ON THE COVER: From left, Pro Ecclesia Sancta Sisters Madeleine Elking and Emy Ychikawa play a game with people attending an All Saints party at St. Mark in St. Paul. Sister Madeleine leads family faith formation and youth ministry for the parish. COURTESY PRO ECCLESIA SANCTA

The Catholic Spirit is published semi-monthly for The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis Vol. 28 — No. 21 MOST REVEREND BERNARD A. HEBDA, Publisher TOM HALDEN, Associate Publisher JOE RUFF, Editor-in-Chief REBECCA OMASTIAK, News Editor

PRACTICING Catholic On the Nov. 3 “Practicing Catholic” radio show, producer Kayla Mayer interviewed Father Joseph Taphorn, rector and vice president of The St. Paul Seminary, who discussed formation and the seminary’s recent uptick in enrollment. Also featured were Christina Krutza, staff member at St. Vincent de Paul in Brooklyn Park and a co-presenter of the Called & Gifted charism discernment process, who discussed charisms and the Called & Gifted process; and Pro Ecclesia Sisters Julieta Del Carpio and Maddy Elking, who described their call to a religious vocation and the mission and spirituality of their religious order. Listen to interviews after they have aired at practicingcatholicshow.com or anchor.fm/practicing-catholic-show with links to streaming platforms.

Materials credited to CNS copy­righted by Catholic News Service.

Materials credited to OSV News copyrighted by OSV News.

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NOVEMBER 9, 2023

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 3

FROMTHEARCHBISHOP ONLY JESUS | ARCHBISHOP BERNARD HEBDA

Vocations: Blossoming into — and bearing — great fruit

A

s I recently gazed upon the myriad of stars reflecting off Buffalo Lake, I felt deeply blessed. After years of archdiocesan retreats and programs at Christ the King Retreat House, I’ve come to experience that setting as a privileged place for encountering our God at work. This past weekend, I was there for the annual Archbishop’s Discernment Retreat for men. It’s a tradition that began decades before I arrived here, and I feel privileged to carry it forward.

The past few years, we’ve divided that retreat into two events each year: one for men who have graduated college and another for younger men. There’s also an annual discernment retreat for women. All three are excellent opportunities for those desiring to see the Lord’s will for them more clearly. Each event has a distinct feel.

I immediately knew that I was at the retreat for high school and college men when I spotted two skateboards at the entrance to the chapel. With 21 young participants, most in their teens, the energy level was refreshingly high. They played hard and prayed hard, and never hesitated to enter into robust debates: Is applause ever appropriate at Mass? Should Origen be canonized? How do you distinguish consolation from desolation when discerning? Is it OK for a guy to date in high school if there’s even a chance that the Holy Spirit might be leading him to give seminary a try? Does seminary formation really make a man a better husband and father? Why would anyone settle for a Church

“founded by a dude” when they could belong to the Church established by the Son of God? I was inspired as I heard of all that these young men were pursuing to learn more about the faith, and all that they were doing to put their faith into action. They gave me both some great podcast recommendations and mission trip suggestions. They were clearly serious about their prayer, and I felt privileged to pray with them — and for them — at Mass. While some of those men may find their way into a seminary or religious community, most will hear the Lord calling them to serve his Church as engaged laymen excited about being leaders and selfless laborers in the vineyard of our parishes. I slept well at the retreat house, not because I was exhausted from the pace of questioning but rather because I had experienced such a strong sense that our Church will be in good hands as these young men embrace their vocations.

It never ceases to amaze me how God provides just what we need in every age. On my way to Buffalo, I was privileged to participate in a ceremony that celebrated the legacy of the Sinsinawa Dominicans at Bethlehem Academy in Faribault. While we were marking a transition in the canonical sponsorship of the academy to Dominican Veritas Ministries, a structure created by the Sinsinawa Dominicans and four other congregations to perpetuate the Dominican charism in their schools, the event highlighted the singular contribution made by the Sinsinawa Dominicans to Catholic education in Faribault, beginning with the decision in 1865 to send 20% of their sisters to the wilds of Minnesota to establish what was initially an academy for girls. It was

the congregation’s first venture outside of Sinsinawa.

Those early religious sisters were nothing short of heroic, and the continued existence of Bethlehem Academy has to be attributed to their perseverance and to that of their successors, as well as to their commitment to collaboration with the laity and clergy of Faribault.

I detected that same sense of generosity and perseverance on a recent visit to the Benedictine community at St. Paul Monastery in Maplewood, as the religious sisters celebrated the 75th anniversary of the establishment of their monastery. It would be difficult to measure the enormous impact that the Benedictines have had on our archdiocese since the arrival in 1948 of the 178 founding sisters from the Monastery of St. Benedict’s in Stearns County. What a gift to our schools and parishes just as the Catholic population in the archdiocese began to experience its post-war boom!

I am grateful that the Benedictines — and the Oblates associated with them — continue to have a meaningful impact on our local Church through their retreat ministry, their apostolic presence and their other efforts to share their Benedictine heritage of hospitality, work and prayer.

As we profit from these occasions to congratulate the Sinsinawa Dominicans and Benedictine sisters, let’s be sure to pray for them — and for the many young “discerners” of our archdiocese. May our provident God continue to prepare, inspire and raise up young women and men to meet the unique challenges faced by this local Church in every age as we strive to make the good news of God’s love known and felt.

Vocaciones: florecer y dar grandes frutos

la oración y me sentí privilegiado de orar con ellos (y por ellos) en la Misa. Si bien algunos de esos hombres pueden encontrar su camino hacia un seminario o una comunidad religiosa, la mayoría escuchará al Señor llamándolos a servir a su Iglesia como laicos comprometidos y entusiasmados por ser líderes y trabajadores desinteresados en la viña de nuestras parroquias. Dormí bien en la casa de retiro, no porque estuviera agotado por el ritmo de las preguntas, sino porque había experimentado una sensación tan fuerte de que nuestra Iglesia estará en buenas manos a medida que estos jóvenes abracen sus vocaciones.

Nunca deja de sorprenderme cómo Dios proporciona justo lo que necesitamos en cada época. En mi camino a Buffalo, tuve el privilegio de participar en una ceremonia que celebraba el legado de los dominicos Sinsinawa en la Academia Bethlehem en Faribault. Mientras marcábamos una transición en el patrocinio canónico de la Academia a los Ministerios Dominicos Veritas, una estructura creada por los Dominicos Sinsinawa y otras cuatro congregaciones para perpetuar el carisma dominicano en sus escuelas, el evento destacó la contribución singular hecha por los Dominicos Sinsinawa a La educación católica en Faribault comenzó con la decisión en 1865 de enviar al 20% de sus hermanas a las tierras salvajes de Minnesota para establecer lo que inicialmente era una academia para niñas. Fue la primera aventura de la congregación fuera de Sinsinawa.

Aquellas primeras hermanas religiosas fueron nada menos que heroicas, y la existencia continua de la Academia Belén debe atribuirse a su perseverancia y a la de sus sucesoras, así como a su compromiso de colaboración con los laicos y el clero de Faribault.

Detecté ese mismo sentido de generosidad y perseverancia en una visita reciente a la comunidad benedictina en el Monasterio de St. Paul en Maplewood, mientras las hermanas religiosas celebraban el 75º aniversario del establecimiento de su monasterio. Sería difícil medir el enorme impacto que los benedictinos han tenido en nuestra arquidiócesis desde la llegada en 1948 de las 178 hermanas fundadoras del Monasterio de San Benito en el condado de Stearns. ¡Qué regalo para nuestras escuelas y parroquias justo cuando la población católica de la arquidiócesis comenzaba a experimentar el auge de la posguerra! Estoy agradecido de que los benedictinos –y los oblatos asociados con ellos– sigan teniendo un

impacto significativo en nuestra Iglesia local a través de su ministerio de retiro, su presencia apostólica y sus otros esfuerzos para compartir su herencia benedictina de hospitalidad, trabajo y oración.

Mientras aprovechamos estas ocasiones para felicitar a los dominicos y hermanas benedictinas de Sinsinawa, asegurémonos de orar por ellos y por los muchos jóvenes “discernientes” de nuestra arquidiócesis. Que nuestro Dios providente continúe preparando, inspirando y levantando a mujeres y hombres jóvenes para enfrentar los desafíos únicos que enfrenta esta Iglesia local en cada época mientras nos esforzamos por hacer conocer y sentir las buenas nuevas del amor de Dios.

M

ientras contemplaba recientemente la infinidad de estrellas reflejándose en el lago Buffalo, me sentí profundamente bendecido. Después de años de retiros y programas arquidiocesanos en la Casa de Retiros Cristo Rey, he llegado a experimentar ese entorno como un lugar privilegiado para encontrarme con nuestro Dios en el trabajo. El fin de semana pasado estuve allí para el retiro anual de discernimiento del arzobispo para hombres. Es una tradición que comenzó décadas antes de que yo llegara aquí y me siento privilegiado de poder llevarla adelante.

En los últimos años, hemos dividido ese retiro en dos eventos cada año: uno para hombres que se graduaron de la universidad y otro para hombres más jóvenes. También hay un retiro anual de discernimiento para mujeres. Las tres son excelentes oportunidades para quienes desean ver más claramente la voluntad del Señor para ellos. Cada evento tiene una sensación distinta.

Inmediatamente supe que estaba en el retiro para hombres de secundaria y universitarios cuando vi dos patinetas en la entrada de la capilla. Con 21 participantes jóvenes, la mayoría adolescentes, el nivel de energía fue refrescantemente alto. Jugaron mucho y oraron mucho, y nunca dudaron en entablar intensos debates: ¿Es alguna vez apropiado aplaudir en la misa? ¿Debe ser canonizado Orígenes? ¿Cómo distingues el consuelo de la desolación al discernir? ¿Está bien que un chico tenga citas en la escuela secundaria si existe siquiera la posibilidad de que el Espíritu Santo lo esté guiando a probar el seminario? ¿La formación en el seminario realmente convierte a un hombre en un mejor esposo y padre? ¿Por qué alguien se conformaría con una Iglesia “fundada por un tipo” cuando podría pertenecer a la Iglesia establecida por el Hijo de Dios?

Me sentí inspirado al escuchar todo lo que estos jóvenes estaban haciendo para aprender más acerca de la fe y todo lo que estaban haciendo para poner su fe en acción.

Me dieron excelentes recomendaciones de podcasts y sugerencias de viajes misioneros. Se tomaban muy en serio

OFFICIALS Archbishop Bernard Hebda has announced the following appointments in the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis: Effective November 1, 2023 Reverend DePorres Durham, OP, assigned as parochial administrator of the Church of Saint Albert the Great in Minneapolis. Father DePorres is a religious order priest of the Dominican Friars, Province of Saint Albert the Great. The previous pastor, Reverend Jude McPeak, OP, has been reassigned outside of the Archdiocese by his religious superior.

Reverend Biju Mathew, assigned as pastor of the Church of the Blessed Sacrament in Saint Paul. This is a transfer from his current assignment as parochial administrator of the Church of Saint Boniface in Minneapolis and is in addition to his assignment as chaplain for M Health Fairview Saint John’s Hospital in Maplewood.

Reverend David Ostrowski, assigned as parochial administrator of the Church of Saint Boniface in Minneapolis. This is in addition to his assignment as pastor of the Church of Saint William in Fridley.

Reverend Sojan Thomas, CFIC, assigned as sacramental minister of the Church of Saint Boniface in Minneapolis. This is in addition to his assignment as chaplain for M Health Fairview Southdale Hospital in Edina and Methodist Hospital in St. Louis Park.

Reverend Joseph-Quoc Vuong, released for an assignment in the Diocese of Phoenix.

Effective September 28, 2023 Reverend Francisco Pérez Colunga, C.Ss.R., assigned as missionary in residence at the Church of Saint Alphonsus in Brooklyn Center. Father Perez is a priest of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, Mexico Province.

LOCAL

March 9, 2017

‘Angel’ among us

4 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

LOCAL

SLICEof LIFE

NOVEMBER 9, 2023

St. Joseph of Carondelet Sister Avis Allmaras, center, talks with Rose Carter, left, and Irene Eiden at Peace House in south Minneapolis Feb. 27. Sister Avis goes to the center weekly and visits frequent guests like Carter. Eiden, of St. William in Fridley, is a lay consociate of the Carondelet Sisters. Peace House is a day shelter for the poor and homeless.

“It’s a real privilege to know these people and hear their stories,” Sister Avis said. “I could not survive on the streets like they do. There are so many gifted people here.” Said Carter of Sister Avis: “She’s an angel. She hides her wings under that sweatshirt. She truly is an angel.”

Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit

Trunk of treats

Celebrating sisters National Catholic Sisters Week is March 8-14. An official component of Women’s History Month and headquartered at St. Catherine University in St. Paul, the week celebrates women religious and their contributions to the Church and society. View local events, including two art exhibitions, at www.nationalcatholicsistersweek.org.

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DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

From left, Molly Gunderson, Isabella Afonso and Rachel Clark, all seniors at Hill-Murray School in Maplewood and dressed as mermaids, offer candy to Charlotte Fredrickson Oct. 26 at the school’s annual Trunk or Treat event. Charlotte came with her sister, Hailey, and mother, Malory, who heard about the event through her daycare provider. Hill-Murray also invited students from nearby Catholic and public schools to enjoy treats and a chance to see creative displays and costumes. One parent, Catherine Martinez, who came with her husband, Hector, and daughter, Elena, found out about it from their parish, Presentation of Mary in Maplewood. “I love it,” Catherine said of the trunk decorations and costumes. “I enjoy it a lot better than going around our neighborhood at night (on Halloween).” Elena is in kindergarten at Presentation of Mary Catholic School.

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LOCAL

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 5

National Catholic Youth Conference offers speakers, Mass, adoration, music, fellowship

By Barb Umberger The Catholic Spirit Yen Fasano offers her time as a chaperone for the National Catholic Youth Conference (NCYC) because she believes in the mission to bring young people to see the universal Church with their peers “worshipping and growing in faith and holiness.”

With more than 20,000 high school students “feeling the freedom to worship (God) and to love him and to learn about him, that’s really powerful for a youth to see,” said Fasano, the interim president of the Catholic Services Appeal Foundation who served as a chaperone for NCYC in 2017.

The next conference, hosted by the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry, takes place Nov. 16-18 in Indianapolis. Fasano, a parishioner of All Saints in Lakeville, is chaperoning students from a number of archdiocesan parishes, with her 15-year-old daughter, Maria, making her first trip.

“I can’t wait for the grace, and I hope the Holy Spirit invades her heart,” Fasano said.

NCYC started in 1981 with encouragement from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Fasano believes every high schooler should have the opportunity to attend, especially when the median age of those who have made up their mind to leave the Church is 13, she said.

“Give them an experience they will never forget for the rest of their life,” she said, knowing that the teens are “so loved, known and seen by (God) and that he wants them to live in abundance, joy and freedom.”

Fasano believes her daughter will return “very confident in her identity and recognize the Church is alive.”

“The young Church seeks to learn and grow and love Christ,” Fasano said. “And I’m just excited for her to be

COURTESY NATIONAL FEDERATION FOR CATHOLIC YOUTH MINISTRY

Thousands of high school students attending the 2019 National Catholic Youth Conference in Indianapolis participate in an event in Lucas Oil Stadium. loved … by Christ in the midst of all her peers.”

Mornings at the conference include time to pray with other young people, and hear a speaker on the main stage, said Amy Schroeder, director of youth formation at Mary, Mother of the Church in Burnsville. Afterward, attendees move to a conference center connected to Lucas Oil Stadium for their choice of breakout sessions “important to them in their faith to help them grow,” she said.

An exposition hall offers the chance to meet with Catholic college representatives and Catholic vendors from across the United States. There, attendees can learn about Catholic vocations, service opportunities and camps, Schroeder said. “And there will be service projects and fun things” through which young people can

connect with each other, she said.

Mass and adoration are offered, as are workshops and praise and worship. This year’s concert features popular duo For King and Country.

The closing Mass is “just such a cool experience to see the whole Church,” Schroeder said, with hundreds of priests processing with “a massive amount of deacons and seminarians” and sisters, providing the chance to experience “the greater Church.”

Fasano recalled that at least one year, close to 100 people attended the conference from the archdiocese. Young people from at least four parishes in the archdiocese will be attending this year.

Besides All Saints, they include Mary, Mother of the Church in Burnsville, Risen Savior in Burnsville and St. Michael in Prior Lake.

When the young people return

home, they are expected to share their experience at their parish, Schroeder said. Some “get up and talk in front of (a) faith formation group, or share their experience at the parish, or make a little video that can go on the social media website,” Schroeder said.

Sharing makes the experience personal, she said. “Tell me how it changed something for you, or helped you learn or grow.”

Being a strong Catholic can be “really isolating when you’re in high school,” Schroeder said. But it’s impactful to see others that age “who are really excited, involved, engaged and love the Lord,” she said. Schroeder, 43, attended NCYC as a high school student starting in 1997. She attended as a young adult leader during college and later as a chaperone.

Schroeder said she finds the conference “so valuable because the kids I have taken … all have really just grown into beautiful leadership roles in the Church because they saw the value,” she said.

“We hope the experience … brings them in to love the Church,” Schroeder said. “I’m taking kids who already love the Lord. I really want them to love the greater Church.”

Archbishop Bernard Hebda of St. Paul and Minneapolis first attended NCYC when he served as bishop of the Diocese of Gaylord, Michigan. He said he found it “one of the most positive things we could offer young people.”

“I’ve returned several times and always found it to be inspiring and a way to keep young people energized about their faith,” Archbishop Hebda said.

Going forward, the conference will be annual, with sessions held in Long Beach, California, between the years Indianapolis hosts it.

To learn more about the conference, visit ncyc.us.

‘Night of Light’ draws record number of Aim Higher Catholic school scholarship supporters

By Joe Ruff The Catholic Spirit Andrea Urzua, an Aim Higher elementary Catholic school scholarship recipient who is now a junior at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, told a record 640 people at the organization’s 11th annual “Night of Light” gala that their support makes a difference in the lives of many Catholic elementary school students — including in her own life.

“I’m here to tell my story and how you all, by supporting the Aim Higher Foundation, helped me,” she said.

After entering fourth grade, she was bullied in school, Urzua said. Her family unsuccessfully sought help from school leaders and “that is when Shakopee Area Catholic Schools (SACS) joined the picture,” she said.

Seeking another school and advised by fellow Catholics, her parents learned about the school in Shakopee but found tuition to be an obstacle, Urzua said.

“However, my parents were told about the Aim Higher scholarship, which would enable me to attend my local Catholic school,” she said. “If I had not

gone to SACS, I don’t think I would be same person I am today.”

Most recently, after interning at a large accounting firm, Urzua said she signed a job offer at the same firm and plans to start full time in 2025.

“Overall, with the help of my family, school and friends at the Aim Higher Foundation, I was able to grow in my education, my friendships, my faith, and most importantly, my sense of self, to become the person I am today,” she said.

Before Urzua spoke, Ricky Austin, president of the St. Paul-based foundation, stated Aim Higher’s purpose and focus: “Aim Higher does one thing,” he said. “We offer $1,000 scholarships so students can go to a Catholic school.”

That same amount is granted to qualifying students until they graduate from eighth grade, Austin said, and it takes a large community of supporters to make that happen. With 200 more people at the dinner in Minneapolis than any year before, “I think it’s safe to say the outlook of our future is bright,” he said.

By Nov. 7, the foundation estimated more than $850,000 was raised at the

In the 2022-2023 academic year, Aim Higher provided scholarships to 2,152 students at 82 Catholic elementary schools in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, foundation officials said. More than 550 of those students attend the archdiocese’s 10 Drexel Mission Schools, which serve the highest concentration of children and families who could benefit from additional resources. Since its founding in 2011, Aim Higher has awarded more than 16,000 scholarships totaling more than $15 million, the foundation said.

COURTESY AIM HIGHER FOUNDATION JEREMY MCCOLM AND RICH GRANER

Andrea Urzua addresses those gathered Oct. 27 at the “Night of Light” gala for St. Paulbased Aim Higher Foundation, which gives scholarships to qualifying students attending Catholic elementary schools. Urzua said she benefited greatly from the program. event.

During remarks at the beginning of the evening, Archbishop Bernard Hebda said Aim Higher’s ability to help families is “empowering parents, opening doors and transforming their lives.”

Jason Slattery, director of Catholic education for the archdiocese, said the event was marked by inspiring stories of hope and reminders of “the urgent need to help families overcome obstacles in providing their children a Catholic education.”

“We are grateful for our partnership with the Aim Higher Foundation to provide students access to Catholic schools,” Slattery said, as well as the support of many people in the archdiocese committed to “helping families find their way into a Catholic school classroom.”

6 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

SYNODOFBISHOPS

NOVEMBER 9, 2023

CNS | LOLA GOMEZ

Pope Francis presides over Mass marking the end of the first session of the assembly of the Synod of Bishops on synodality in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican Oct. 29.

Wanting to ‘control’ God, confine him to an agenda is idolatry, pope says

By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service

T

o reform the Church is to put God first and adore him, and to love and serve others, Pope Francis said at Mass marking the conclusion of the first session of the Synod of Bishops on synodality.

“This is the Church we are called to ‘dream’: a Church that is the servant of all, the servant of the least of our brothers and sisters; a Church that never demands an attestation of ‘good behavior,’ but welcomes, serves, loves, forgives; a Church with open doors that is a haven of mercy,” he said.

“We may have plenty of good ideas on how to reform the Church, but let’s remember: to adore God and to love our brothers and sisters with his love, that is the great and perennial reform,” the pope said in his homily at Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica Oct. 29.

Thousands of faithful stood at the start of Mass as synod members and participants processed into the basilica. The procession was led by non-ordained members followed by bishops and then cardinals. The synod on synodality marked the first time

laypeople and women religious could take part as voting members. Of the total 364 members, close to 25% were “non-bishop members” and 54 of them were women. Among the voting members was Cynthia Bailey Manns, adult learning director at St. Joan of Arc in Minneapolis.

“Dear friends, the general assembly of the synod has now concluded,” the pope said in his homily. “Today we do not see the full fruit of this process, but with farsightedness we look to the horizon opening up before us.”

“The Lord will guide us and help us to be a more synodal and missionary Church, a Church that adores God and serves the women and men of our time, going forth to bring to everyone the consoling joy of the Gospel,” he said.

As the Church concludes this stage of its journey, he said, “it is important to look at the ‘principle and foundation’ from which everything begins ever anew: love.

“Loving God with our whole life and loving our neighbors as ourselves,” he said, is “the heart of everything.”

The way to channel this love is to adore God and serve one another, he said.

“We have lost the habit of adoration,” the pope said, calling on all priests, dioceses, parishes and communities to “return to worship” and adore the Lord. “Only in his presence will we be purified, transformed and renewed by the fire of his Spirit.”

To adore God means “to acknowledge in faith that he alone is Lord and that our individual lives, the Church’s pilgrim way and the ultimate outcome of history all depend on the tenderness of his love. He gives meaning to our lives,” he said.

“We are always at risk of thinking that we can ‘control God,’ that we can confine his love to our own agenda.

Instead, the way he acts is always unpredictable and consequently demands amazement and adoration,” Pope Francis said. The path of idolatry is “wanting the Lord to act according to the image we have of him.”

He said the Church needs to be “a worshipping Church and a Church of service, washing the feet of wounded humanity, accompanying those who are frail, weak and cast aside, going out lovingly to encounter the poor,” as God commanded.

“It is a grave sin to exploit the

vulnerable, a grave sin that corrodes fraternity and devastates society,” he said, and, “as disciples of Jesus, we desire to bring to the world a different type of leaven, that of the Gospel.”

Quoting St. John Chrysostom, he said that those who are merciful are like a safe harbor to those in need, so “when you see a man suffering shipwreck on land through poverty, do not sit in judgment on him, nor require explanations, but relieve his distress.”

Later in the day, before praying the midday Angelus, the pope again reflected on the Lord’s command to love God and neighbor.

He held up the example of St. Teresa of Kolkata as someone “who was so little,” but was still able “to do so much good — by reflecting God’s love like a drop” of clear water.

“If at times, looking at her and other saints, we might be moved to think that they are heroes that cannot be imitated, let us think again about that small drop,” which reflects love and “can change many things,” he said.

“How?” the pope asked. By taking the first step to love and serve those in need without waiting for others to act, even though this is not easy to do.

NOVEMBER 9, 2023

SYNODOFBISHOPS

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 7

Synod synthesis shows agreement, divergences, including on ‘synodality’

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service

A

report summarizing discussions at the assembly of the Synod of Bishops said the Church may need more welcoming pastoral approaches, especially to people who feel excluded, but also acknowledged fears of betraying traditional Church teachings and practices.

Among the topics addressed in the report were clerical sexual abuse, women’s roles in the Church, outreach to people in poverty and the concept of “synodality” itself.

The assembly, with 364 voting members — 365 counting Pope Francis — met in working sessions six days a week Oct. 4-28 after a three-day retreat outside of Rome. They were scheduled to join the pope Oct. 29 for the assembly’s closing Mass. Among them was Cynthia Bailey Manns, director of adult learning at St. Joan of Arc in Minneapolis.

After the voting on the synthesis concluded, the pope said he wanted to remind everyone that “the protagonist of the synod is the Holy Spirit.” He briefly thanked the synod officers and joined members of the assembly in giving thanks to God. The assembly’s discussions set the stage for a yearlong period of reflection that will culminate in the second and final synod assembly in late 2024 on the same topic.

The 41-page synthesis report, voted on paragraph by paragraph Oct. 28, described its purpose as presenting “convergences, matters for consideration and proposals that emerged from the dialogue” on issues discussed under the headings of synodality, communion, mission and participation.

Every item in the report was approved by at least two-thirds of the members present and voting, synod officials said. They published a complete list of the votes.

Within the synod topics, members looked at the role of women in the Church, including in decision making, and at the possibility of ordaining women deacons. The report asked for more “theological and pastoral research on the access of women to the diaconate,” including a review of the conclusions of commissions Pope Francis set up in 2016 and 2020.

The paragraph, one of several on the theme of women deacons, was approved 279-67, which was more than the needed two-thirds support but still garnered among the highest negative votes.

Among members of the assembly, the report said, some thought the idea of women deacons would be a break with tradition, while others insisted it would “restore the practice of the Early Church,” including at the time of the New Testament, which mentions women deacons.

“Others still, discern it as an appropriate and necessary response to the signs of the times, faithful to the Tradition, and one that would find an echo in the hearts of many who seek new energy and vitality in the Church,” it said. But, the report added, some members thought that would “marry the Church to the spirit of the age.”

CNS | VATICAN MEDIA

Pope Francis smiles as members of the assembly of the Synod of Bishops approach the end of their work Oct. 28 in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican.

The paragraph on how different members explained their support of, or opposition to, women deacons also was approved by more than two-thirds of the voting members, but it received more negative votes than any other item, passing 277 to 69.

Assembly members also discussed pastoral approaches to welcoming and including in the life of parishes people who have felt excluded, including the poor, people with disabilities, LGBTQ+ Catholics and Catholics whose marriages are not recognized by the Church. The synthesis report did not use the term “LGBTQ+” or even “homosexuality” and spoke only generally of issues related to “matters of identity and sexuality.” The synthesis said that “to develop authentic ecclesial discernment in these and other areas, it is necessary to approach these questions in the light of the Word of God and Church teaching, properly informed and reflected upon.”

“In order to avoid repeating vacuous formulas, we need to provide an opportunity for a dialogue involving the human and social sciences, as well as philosophical and theological reflection,” it added.

The divergences in the assembly, it said, reflected opposing concerns: that “if we use doctrine harshly and with a judgmental attitude, we betray the Gospel; if we practice mercy ‘on the cheap,’ we do not convey God’s love.” Still, it said, “in different ways, people who feel marginalized or excluded from the Church because of their marriage status, identity or sexuality, also ask to be heard and accompanied. There was a deep sense of love, mercy and compassion felt in the Assembly for those who are or feel hurt or neglected by the Church, who want a place to call ‘home’ where they can feel safe, be heard and respected, without fear of feeling judged.”

The report emphasized the “listening” that took place on the local, national and continental levels before the assembly and the “conversations in the Spirit” that took place during it, which involved each person speaking in his or her small group, other participants at first

commenting only on what struck them, silent reflection and then discussion.

In several places throughout the report, assembly members insisted that greater efforts must be made to listen to the survivors of clerical sexual abuse and those who have endured spiritual or psychological abuse.

“Openness to listening and accompanying all, including those who have suffered abuse and hurt in the Church, has made visible many who have long felt invisible,” it said. “The long journey toward reconciliation and justice, including addressing the structural conditions that abetted such abuse, remains before us, and requires concrete gestures of penitence.”

Members of the assembly said the process helped them experience the Church as “God’s home and family, a Church that is closer to the lives of her people, less bureaucratic and more relational.”

However, it said, the terms “synodal” and “synodality,” which “have been associated with this experience and desire,” need further clarification, including theological clarification and, perhaps, in canon law. Some participants, it said, questioned how an assembly where about 21% of participants were lay women, lay men, religious and priests could be termed a Synod of Bishops.

The report also acknowledged fears, including that “the teaching of the Church will be changed, causing us to depart from the Apostolic faith of our forebears and, in doing so, betraying the expectations of those who hunger and thirst for God today.”

In response, though, assembly members said, “We are confident that synodality is an expression of the dynamic and living Tradition.”

“It is clear that some people are afraid that they will be forced to change; others fear that nothing at all will change or that there will be too little courage to move at the pace of the living Tradition,” the report said.

“Also,” it added, “perplexity and opposition can sometimes conceal a fear of losing power and the privileges that derive from it.”

Members of the assembly described the synodal process as being “rooted in the Tradition of the Church” and taking place in light of the teaching of the Second Vatican Council, particularly its emphasis on “the Church as Mystery and People of God, called to holiness.” Synodality, they said, “values the contribution all the baptized make, according to their respective vocations,” and thus “constitutes a true act of further reception of the Council.”

The report also insisted the purpose of synodality is mission. “As disciples of Jesus, we cannot shirk the responsibility of demonstrating and transmitting the love and tenderness of God to a wounded humanity,” the report said.

Throughout the synod process, the report said, “many women expressed deep gratitude for the work of priests and bishops. They also spoke of a Church that wounds.

Clericalism, a chauvinist mentality and inappropriate expressions of authority continue to scar the face of the Church and damage its communion.”

“A profound spiritual conversion is needed as the foundation for any effective structural change,” it said.

8 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

NOVEMBER 9, 2023

NATION+WORLD

After mass shooting, Maine parish becomes hub of healing

By Gina Christian OSV News A Maine parish has become a hub of healing as its community grapples with a devastating mass shooting.

“It’s been miraculous what the Holy Spirit has done,” said Tyler Nadeau, director of evangelization and catechesis at Prince of Peace in Lewiston, Maine. “I can say with 100% certainty that God has sent legions of angels into our community.”

Nadeau spoke with OSV News hours after an Oct. 29 prayer vigil — organized by Lewiston officials and hosted by the parish — drew some 4,000 residents to the Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul, one of the five churches that comprise the parish.

The evening gathering commemorated the 18 victims killed in an Oct. 25 shooting rampage that spanned two locations in Lewiston. The attack was the deadliest mass shooting since 21 people were killed at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, in May 2022.

After a two-day manhunt that saw the town and surrounding communities locked down, 40-year-old suspect Robert Card was found dead of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Speaking to media after the discovery, Maine Gov. Janet Mills said she was “breathing a sigh of relief … knowing that ... Card is no longer a threat to anyone.

“Now is a time to heal,” she said.

That task began when “the community came back to its roots” at the basilica, Nadeau told OSV News.

“We were able to come out as one,” he said. “So many people just walked (into the basilica) and said, ‘We had forgotten how beautiful this is.’”

The bells of the basilica — which was “built by the community of mill workers through the Great Depression” — tolled for the dead, and “there were almost 2,000 people standing outside in the street on the front lawn watching a (livestream) of what was happening inside,” said Nadeau.

The parish also held an additional vigil featuring Eucharistic adoration and another tolling of bells, with some 200 in attendance — including members of some of the victims’ families, Nadeau said.

No parishioners from Prince of Peace were among those slain, he said, although one teen parishioner was injured and hospitalized for reconstructive surgery.

At the same time, “we all (lost someone),” said Nadeau. “This is one community, and people don’t appreciate how connected Maine is.”

Are you a future

OSV NEWS | KEVIN LAMARQUE, REUTERS

A woman holds a candle outside the Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul in Lewiston, Maine, Oct. 29, 2023, during a vigil for the victims of a deadly mass shooting. Robert Card, who later took his own life, shot and killed 18 people and injured 13 others at a restaurant and a bowling alley in Lewiston Oct. 25.

Several of Nadeau’s family members who are hard of hearing knew the victims who were part of the local deaf community.

One of the parish’s priests — who wished to remain unnamed and who serves as a hospital chaplain — “sat with one of the deceased until the family could arrive,” said Nadeau. “And then he sat with the family the rest of the night.”

Parishioners also are remembering the suspect in their prayers, he said.

“I’m not going to say it’s easy to pray for Robert Card,” Nadeau admitted. “It’s very, very hard to pray for him. (But) we can’t hate him, because hate just breeds more pain. … And we don’t know the whole story.

Mental health struggles are real. … What was going through his mind? Did he get any clarity as to the evil that had been committed? … If he did wrestle with his

own demons, we have to pray for that.”

Nadeau said the parish will frame and present to first responders and city officials an Oct. 28 message of consolation from Pope Francis, which was issued by the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and sent to Bishop Robert Deeley of Portland, Maine, by the U.S. apostolic nuncio, Cardinal Christophe Pierre.

The parish has already raised well over $10,000 for the victims’ medical and funeral expenses, Nadeau said.

The work of healing hearts will take time, he said.

“We’re always going to be that town where that awful thing happened. … It needs to scar over, this wound,” he said. “(But) it’s going to be a continual message of hope that there is no room for hate, that evil does exist, but that wherever evil things happen, grace abounds and the Holy Spirit is there.”

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NATION+WORLD

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 9

HEADLINES u Caritas establishes a “humanitarian bridge”

for hurricane-stricken Acapulco. The morning after Hurricane Otis stormed through Acapulco as a Category 5 storm, Father Leonardo Morales surveyed the damage and saw total destruction. “It looked like a war zone,” Father Morales, archdiocesan Caritas director, said in WhatsApp messages shared with OSV News. “It hit everyone.” People in Acapulco have been left to pick up the pieces after Hurricane Otis battered the already down-onits-luck tourist destination. The storm made landfall Oct. 25 as the strongest hurricane to hit Mexico’s Pacific Coast with winds reaching 165 miles per hour. Caritas chapters across Mexico have established collection centers and sent donations to Acapulco, which was left incommunicado after the storm and so badly battered that electricity still hasn’t been fully restored. CoreLogic, which models catastrophic risks, estimated the insurable damage in Acapulco at between $10 billion and $15 billion, while some 63% of buildings on the city’s tourist strip were damaged, according to a satellite analysis by Copernicus Emergency Management System.

Many of Acapulco’s residents lived in poor neighborhoods of self-built dwellings, which were obliterated in the storm, according to clergy familiar with the city. Businesses have been unable to open amid water and electricity shortages; many stores were looted after the storm. As of Nov. 6, the death toll stood at 47 with 56 missing, according to the Mexican government.

u New Catholic Charities USA leader: We are

called to do a “very noble, holy work.” Kerry Alys Robinson, the new president and CEO of Catholic Charities USA, the organization dedicated to carrying out the domestic humanitarian work of the Catholic Church in the United States, says its mission isn’t only to be generous, but to inspire generosity in turn. “Generosity is humankind’s birthright and we are all called to be generous and also to be catalysts to inspire generosity in others,” Robinson told OSV News in a recent interview. “I love that part of what Catholic Charities offers, an opportunity for people to volunteer and be generous with their time, with their talents, with their merciful hearts, and in service to others who are really struggling and were converted in that activity.”

Robinson began her new role in August and is just the second layperson and second woman to lead the organization. Although Catholic Charities is not a political or partisan organization, Robinson’s tenure coincides with several key political issues in the U.S. that impact its service to the poor and vulnerable; the potential for a government shutdown, a shifting legal landscape on abortion, and a growing cultural divide on the issue of migration. While the challenges may seem intractable, she said what binds them together at Catholic Charities is “the very noble holy work that we’re called to do.”

u Vatican confirms papal trip to Dubai for

climate conference. Pope Francis will travel to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates Dec. 1-3 to participate in the U.N. Climate Change Conference, the Vatican press office confirmed. In an interview broadcast in Italy Nov. 1, the pope had said he intended to go, but the Vatican did not confirm the trip until Nov. 3. “Accepting the invitation of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, president of the United Arab Emirates, His Holiness Pope Francis will make the previously announced trip to Dubai from 1 to 3 December 2023, on the occasion of the upcoming Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on

Climate Change,” commonly called COP28, said Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press office. The conference seeks to assess progress or failures in reaching goals adopted by 196 nations and parties, including the Holy See, with the Paris climate agreement in 2015.

League and the Council on American-Islamic Relations shows. “In the face of such base hatred, we must affirm certain fundamental truths,” said Cardinal Dolan. “Every human life is of equally incalculable worth. Hating your neighbors is a grave sin against God, who created us all in his image and likeness.

Violence only begets more violence, not justice. May those whose hearts have been gripped by hatred repent, and may people of goodwill stand courageously for peace.”

u Cardinal Dolan sharply rebukes surging

religious hatred in U.S. amid Israel-Hamas war. Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York has issued a sharp rebuke against surging religious hatred in the U.S. amid the IsraelHamas war. “In recent days here in America, where for hundreds of years many have sought refuge from religious persecution, we have seen outbreaks of religious hatred that shock the conscience,” said Cardinal Dolan, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Religious Liberty, in a Nov. 1 statement. Threats, slurs and physical attacks against both Jewish and Muslim individuals in the U.S. have risen dramatically since Hamas launched its attacks on Israel Oct. 7, as data from both the Anti-Defamation

event honored Sister Seli Thomas of the Sisters of Mary Immaculate from India, Sister Patricia Ebegbulem of the Sisters of St. Louis from Nigeria and Sister Francoise Jiranonda of the Sisters of St. Paul de Chartres from Thailand. They “have demonstrated courage, creativity, collaboration and achievement in the protection of their communities from human trafficking,” Arise said. Women religious “are the largest force against human trafficking in the world. There are over half a million Catholic sisters in the field, a significant proportion of which are working against human trafficking,” Arise said in a Nov. 1 press release, which noted that Talitha Kum — a Rome-based, international umbrella organization of anti-trafficking efforts by women religious — “alone has over 6,000 members.” Sisters meet the need for networks to combat human trafficking to an exceptional degree, as part of congregations and the global Catholic community, Arise said.

u Religious sisters who fight human trafficking

are honored for their work. On Oct. 31 in London, the spotlight was on the exceptional contribution of Catholic sisters to the antitrafficking movement, at the inaugural Sisters Anti-Trafficking Awards, SATAs. The SATAs are co-hosted by Arise foundation, the Conrad H. Hilton Foundation and the International Union of Superiors General.

The awards brought together an audience of 200 people from across and beyond the anti-trafficking and Catholic spheres. The

— CNS and OSV News

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FOUNDATION OF MINNESOTA

MARYK

10 • NOVEMBER 9, 2023

MISSIONARY MINISTRY For many American Catholics, Maryknoll’s small quarterly magazine containing color images of children in other countries was a window into the world of missions.

As the Church commemorates National Vocation Awareness Week Nov. 5-11, The Catholic Spirit is opening a mission window into the lives of a Maryknoll sister, priest and brother dedicated to helping the poor and suffering around the world. There also is a look at Maryknoll’s history, goals and diverse membership.

Stories by Susan Klemond, for The Catholic Spirit

Maryknoll sister leaves legacy of women’s groups in Tanzania

W

hen a family member of one of Sister Connie Krautkremer’s students asked to wash her feet when she visited their Tanzanian village in 1970, the Maryknoll religious sister didn’t want her to go through the trouble.

The girl insisted. Since the family had no faucet, she brought the water from an outside source and heated it over a fire.

“She washed my feet in this warm water, and I was the recipient of this beautiful gesture of hospitality,” recalled Sister Connie, who grew up on a farm in Montgomery, about an hour south of the Twin Cities, and has spent many of her almost 60 years as a Maryknoll sister serving in Tanzania.

More than two decades after having her own feet washed, Sister Connie said, she was rubbing a Tanzanian AIDS patient’s feet when visitors commented on her love. She pointed out that as a missionary she had given but also received from others.

“I came to Tanzania and somebody washed my feet,” she said. “Don’t give me credit for being the only one who knows how to look.”

Reflecting on her ministry in Tanzania between 1969 and 2015, Sister Connie said she admired Tanzanians for their simplicity of life and culture.

She worked with youth, but mainly taught and helped Tanzanian women and girls gain empowerment and self-awareness, and she accompanied those discerning a call to join her community. Sister Connie also has served with her congregation’s leadership and administration, alternating with her Tanzanian service and exclusively now that she’s no longer serving in Africa.

Sister Connie was born in New Prague in 1943.

Benedictine sisters taught at her grade school, Most Holy Redeemer Catholic School in Montgomery. “My vocation story started there because of my secondgrade teacher and I wanted to be just like her,” she said.

In middle school, Sister Connie enjoyed learning about geography and people of other nations. A few years later, at a high school retreat in St. Paul, she felt an intense call to become a missionary sister.

While studying biology at then-College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, Sister Connie researched Maryknoll and learned about Tanzania from Tanzanian students.

“I was in the dormitory with one (student) and I just liked her so much I thought if I ever become a Maryknoll sister and I ever have a chance to ask where I want to go, I’m going to say Tanzania,” she said.

After graduating in 1965, she entered the congregation at the Maryknoll Sisters Novitiate in Valley Park, Missouri, and four years later Sister Connie got her wish: She was sent to Tanzania. Sister Connie’s family supported her vocation but were apprehensive about her serving in the distant country, she said.

Following her first assignment teaching biology and other subjects in a rural high school for girls, Sister Connie helped young people moving from rural areas to the city to settle and find jobs.

Returning to the United States in the mid-1980s, Sister Connie directed the Maryknoll Mission

COURTESY SISTER CONNIE KRAUTKREMER

Sister Connie Krautkremer with a neighbor and her son in

Father James Kofski during his time in Myanmar.

Institute, which looked at theology developed in different parts of the world. In 1991, she earned a master’s degree in Culture/Creation Spirituality.

When she went back to Tanzania in the early 1990s, she helped women suffering from HIV/AIDS as the virus ravaged the country. Sister Connie began working more directly with women and girls, helping them to be empowered and protect themselves from sexual and other forms of harassment. She also incorporated knowledge from her graduate studies into lessons on religion and care of the earth.

The Tanzanian women’s groups that Sister Connie founded were so successful that participants began taking over the leadership, she said. “Some of my students who were such rascals in my biology classes were now setting up a center for women who are abused,” she said. As she readied to leave Tanzania, she said, “part of the reason for going, besides my age, was that I really felt like I had worked myself out of a job.”

Apart from working in Tanzania, Sister Connie said she visited many mission sites around the world where Maryknoll sisters serve while on her congregation’s leadership team. She currently assists its roughly 280 sisters at those sites as personnel director. She sees hope for her congregation in the ideas and energy of younger sisters.

“Our leadership team now is a younger group of women so they have ideas and plans and take risks for what we could do, (such as) ‘we might try this or we might try that,’ so I find hope in all of that.”

Sister Connie turns 80 in December but won’t consider retirement until her term as personnel director ends in two years.

Reflecting on her ministry, Sister Connie said that rather than bringing knowledge into the country, she found more often she was helping connect Tanzanians with what they already knew from their cultures, villages and families.

Working with people of different faiths has broadened her own view of the world and faith, she said. “I think part of it for me is awareness of how people in different parts of the world do things, care for one another and express their faith.”

Priest’s skills and experience be

B

y the time Maryknoll Father James Kofski discerned his call to be a missionary priest at age 37, he’d gained skills and experience on his vocational journey during stops in the Philippines, India and Bismarck, North Dakota.

He contacted a religious community but was told they didn’t take “older vocations,” he said.

Not deterred, Father Kofski applied to be a Maryknoll priest. In 40 years with the society, the now-77-year-old priest has used his English and music skills while serving those who are poor in countries around the world — and he has no immediate plans to retire.

Originally drawn to Maryknoll because “they seem to strike a balance between caring for the body and for the soul,” Father Kofski’s work has included administering the sacraments, giving material and spiritual assistance, writing for news and scholarly publications, lobbying in politics and teaching English in locations such as Egypt; Israel; Thailand; Myanmar; Washington, D.C.; and currently, El Paso, Texas.

Father Kofski said he didn’t consider becoming a missionary while growing up, but he and his three siblings received a faith foundation from their parents who were parishioners at Annunciation in south Minneapolis.

After earning a journalism degree from the University of Minnesota in 1967, he taught English for two years in the Philippines with the Peace Corps. He stayed in that country three more years to earn a master’s degree in communications and Asian studies.

Father Kofski was hired to write for The Associated Press in the Dakotas when he returned to the United States. He worked in Bismarck for seven of his 10 years with the AP, often writing about farm issues.

Before and after his 1991 ordination, he wrote Caritas funding proposals while serving in Cairo, and during his five years in Jerusalem. After that he spent six years in Thailand, where he edited a university research publication and was an editor for an Asian Catholic news service.

Father Kofski returned to Washington, D.C., in the late

KNOLL

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 11

FACTS AND FIGURES Named for the Blessed Mother and the hill or “knoll” on which its Asian-inspired seminary was built in Ossining, New York, Maryknoll has been the “heart and hands of the U.S. Catholic Church’s overseas mission work for more than a century,” according to its website maryknollsociety.org. The seminary complex, now known as the Maryknoll Society Center and Seminary, was completed in 1956.

Founded in 1911 by two diocesan priests to train U.S. priests and brothers for foreign mission work, Maryknoll is known as the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America.

Today, it consists of four independent organizations: priests and brothers; sisters; lay missioners and affiliates.

The small group of recently ordained Maryknoll priests who set out for China in 1918 were among the first U.S. Catholics to do mission work after Pope Pius X removed the United States from a list of mission countries in 1908.

Today, roughly 350 Maryknoll priests and brothers serve in more than 20 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the U.S. They are dedicated to spreading the good news of Jesus Christ through love and hope by serving those most in need. Maryknoll missioners do this through direct evangelization and various pastoral ministries, including health care, education, agriculture, vocations and disaster relief.

Maryknoll sisters also give witness to God’s love by giving their lives to help the poor, sick and marginalized in 24 countries worldwide, their website maryknollsisters.org states. In 1912, Maryknoll cofounder Molly Rogers led a small group of women interested in foreign missions and eight years later it was canonically approved as a religious community, titled the Foreign Mission Sisters of St. Dominic. In 1921, Maryknoll sisters traveled to China and Hong Kong, the website states.

Maryknoll lay missionaries began serving in 1930 as single people, married couples or families who commit to two to three years of overseas service in collaboration with local communities in nine countries in Africa, Asia and the Americas. According to their website mklm.org, 50 lay missionaries work in education and leadership development, faith formation and pastoral care, health care, justice and peace, or sustainable development.

Maryknoll affiliates live in their own communities but identify with Maryknoll’s vision, charism and mission goals, states their website, maryknollaffiliates.org. Organized in global chapters of about 12 members, affiliates gather for prayer, reflection and action. Many chapters support members going on immersion trips to mission sites.

— Susan Klemond

Brother in Africa serves all ages, those with mental illnesses

COURTESY MARYKNOLL MAGAZINE

enefit countries where he serves 1990s and for seven years was a lobbyist in Congress on Middle East issues. After that, he taught English for a decade in Myanmar until 2018.

While serving in Asia, he contracted lymphoma.

Though the cancer remains in remission, he said he now has a U.S. assignment at an El Paso, Texas, parish because of the possibility of a flare-up.

Of all the places Father Kofski has served, he said he most enjoyed Jerusalem, where he lived five minutes from the Wailing Wall and where he maintains friendships with Israelis and Palestinians whose different perspectives have helped him to better understand the conflicts there.

Learning the languages of the people he serves isn’t always easy, but Father Kofski has used music to connect and communicate. He plays the violin.

“It is one thread and one way to get to know people,” he said. “What pleased me a lot, … besides being a good way to make friends, was the deeper function to share the culture and (I) felt I could actually contribute something to the culture because I was doing music with them.”

El Paso’s music and culture are very different from what Father Kofski found in Jerusalem and Thailand, but he still plays regularly with his Texas parishioners while continuing to work on his Spanish. Though near the southern border, Father Kofski said he doesn’t often work directly with new immigrants, as a team of priests, sisters and lay people do.

Serving as a Maryknoll priest has been rewarding and humbling, he said.

“Whether you’re editing or teaching English, there are different opportunities for you to use your skills that way,” he said. “(I)n a given country, to be there and just soak in the culture was just fascinating for me.”

While he’s in good health, Father Kofski said he plans to keep working at the border.

“It’s hard for me to see myself putting my feet up and retiring,” he said, noting that when that happens, he wants to help in local parishes and play his violin with a community orchestra.

T

he idea of serving the poor in Africa — which the School Sisters of Notre Dame planted in Brother Loren Beaudry’s mind in the third grade at then-St. Albert School in Albertville — resurfaced when he was a young adult seeking to do something meaningful.

After building a home for himself near Big Lake in 1977 at age 23, Brother Beaudry wasn’t satisfied.

While learning about a ministry to New York City children living on the street and St. Teresa of Kolkata’s work with the Missionaries of Charity, the religious order she founded, he remembered the sisters’ words about missions in Africa.

As Brother Beaudry’s interest grew, he began looking into the Maryknoll Catholic Society of Apostolic Life of missionary priests and brothers; 41 years ago, he entered formation to become a religious brother. “I just wanted to do something with my life,” he said.

In the years he’s been a member of the society, which serves those who are poor and suffering around the world, Brother Beaudry has worked with youth, those with mental illnesses, the elderly and other disadvantaged persons in Kenya, Namibia and Tanzania. He’s also helped promote the society’s vocations.

Brother Beaudry, 69, grew up in Albertville as the middle child in a family of 11 children. He said his parents hoped that one of their children would have a religious or priestly vocation and they supported him when he announced his plan to become a Maryknoll brother.

His call to be a brother rather than a priest has given him more freedom in choosing his ministry work and talking to people who might hesitate to share deeply with a priest, he said. He’s also found opportunities to work with those on the margins of society.

Brother Beaudry had those opportunities in his first assignment in Kenya, from 1985 to 2003, while doing pastoral work and operating a rescue center for youth experiencing homelessness in Mombasa. He spent the next three years promoting vocations and earning a college degree in New York, then returned to Africa, this time with youth in Namibia for four years before moving in 2011 to Tanzania, where he still serves.

One of Brother Beaudry’s ministries is weekly visits to the Bukumbi Rehabilitation Village for the Mentally Ill in Mwanza, where he spends time with the roughly 20 adult and child residents who can’t

COURTESY BROTHER LOREN BEAUDRY

Brother Loren Beaudry helps a man play bingo at the Bukumbi Rehabilitation Village in Mwanza, Tanzania. live independently, including a man and woman with hearing and speech impediments and known in the village as “Joseph and Maria,” he said.

“A lot of (the patients) don’t have families and they’re just by themselves and I think it’s the show of God’s love to them, to be present with them,” said Brother Beaudry, who socializes and plays bingo with the residents. He also started a program to improve their diet with rice, fruits and vegetables.

Along with people with mental illnesses, Brother Beaudry is present to senior citizens, disabled and youth while he works with Tanzanian men discerning a vocation to be Maryknoll missioners.

As Brother Beaudry prepares to turn 70 in December, he said he should probably retire but he enjoys serving in Tanzania and wants to continue as long as he’s healthy.

The Tanzanian people’s friendliness and openness are reasons Brother Beaudry delays retirement.

Cultural differences between countries are real, he said, but what has impacted him in his years as a Maryknoll missionary brother is how similar people are across cultures.

“When I hear a story like the refugees coming from Mexico or something, I can see them as my brothers and sisters also,” he said. “I think there’s a stronger feeling of we’re all the same. We’re all one.”

12 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

NOVEMBER 9, 2023

FAITH+CULTURE

Rock of faith Dominican priest uses heavy metal melodies to reach people for Christ

By Dave Hrbacek The Catholic Spirit

C

an a guitar be used as a tool for evangelization?

Father Brian Zuelke, OP, a Dominican priest who recently recorded a music video while serving in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, thinks the answer is yes.

“I belong to what’s called the Order of Preachers, founded by St. Dominic 800 years ago,” said Father Zuelke, 41, who this year celebrated his 10-year jubilee as a Dominican (he was ordained a Dominican priest in 2019). “We’re also known as the Dominicans. And, as preachers, we are always trying to figure out: How do we live out our charism of preaching the Gospel in the world today?”

The starting point is taking inventory of one’s gifts and talents and thinking about how they can be used for God’s work. Father Zuelke has a background in electrical engineering, which he used on an assignment for the Dominicans in the engineering department at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul.

“I did things like teach on theology and science, (and) I helped advise senior design teams over at the engineering college,” he said of his time at St. Thomas from 2019 to 2022, which also included campus ministry. “It was a great experience.”

As he did that, he got to thinking about another gift that he might use for ministry.

“I’ve long had an interest in music,” he said. “I’ve played electric guitar since I

was a teenager, always wanted to be in a band. I did some very amateur recording when I was in college, but nothing ever really came of it.”

While working as an engineer in Cheyenne, Wyoming, where he grew up, he met with the director of vocations for the Dominicans of the St. Albert the Great Province. The director saw his musical equipment and said, “You should keep that,” Zuelke recalled. “So, I did.”

It lay in storage for the next 10 years, “but I had lots of ideas about what could be done in a more creative way to appeal to the underground rock music scene that I’ve been into since I was in college,” he said. “Because I kind of know these (types of) people. I know what they’re looking for. And most of them, I think, are ultimately looking for God.” He began to wonder if he could use rock music to reach them. Finally, within the last two years, he decided to explore the idea of producing and recording a rock music video. He found support within his order, and from “many people” in the Twin Cities for what he calls “an evangelizing music project.”

“The idea is not to make this music for Catholics or even other Christians, but actually to make it so that it could be played and enjoyed by very secular people within any sort of concert setting,” he said. “The music is meant to be harder-edged, very intense sonically, but it’s supposed to be beautiful as well.

And the basic idea is to combine the Church’s sacred music traditions — going all the way back to the medieval period — with kind of harder-edged popular music forms of today (like punk rock and heavy metal). Those two, the sacred and the secular, if (they) were to be played in a concert venue, could act for some people as a conduit from the secular to the sacred — a bridge. And so, that’s the idea of the evangelical aspect of all this.”

His original idea was to perform a live concert, but “logistically, that was going to be too hard,” he said. So, he found a local music studio to help him produce a music video, which he released on

COURTESY HAZEL JORDAN

Father Brian Zuelke right, plays the electric guitar during a recording session in May. Nov. 1, All Saints’ Day. He has named the band Aeternum (“Eternal”) and the video “Domine refugium,” which are Latin words found at the beginning of Psalm 90: “Lord, you have been our refuge.”

The video can be found on the website Father Zuelke created: aeternumband.org.

It features an array of instruments, including electric guitar and violin, and Father Zuelke wearing his white Dominican robe while playing lead guitar in the recording. A total of 11 musicians perform in the video, which is 13-anda-half minutes long and is a musical rendition of Psalm 90. The musicians, all volunteers, completed the recording in three sessions of three to four hours each.

“I’m hoping that this will turn into a longer running project that ends up getting funded by people who are interested in supporting it long term,” said Father Zuelke, who moved from the Twin Cities in August to pursue graduate school in Washington, D.C., and also served at St. Odilia in Shoreview while he was here.

“Music taps into the emotions in a powerful way,” he said. “The hope is that the beauty and power of the song will be

MINISTRY AND MORE Learn more about the Dominicans of the St. Albert the Great Province at opcentral.org. able to reach certain people” who might not want to listen to any type of music that mentions God. The entire song is sung in Latin so audiences, not knowing what the words mean, “won’t put up the guard walls immediately,” and tune out, Father Zuelke said. If they listen to the end and like it, they can explore the words and, hopefully, be drawn to Psalm 90, he said.

William Gomes and his wife, Teresa, who belong to St. Mark in St. Paul, both participated in the project, she as a vocalist and he as a consultant who helped with the composition of the song, including vocals and violin parts.

William first met Father Zuelke while studying music composition at St. Thomas.

Father Zuelke and William got to know PLEASE TURN TO MUSIC ON PAGE 17

Pro Ecclesia Sancta sister: ‘Our life is an adventure’

By Barb Umberger The Catholic Spirit

P

ro Ecclesia Sancta Sister Julieta Del Carpio is a convert to Catholicism.

In fact, when she was younger, she said she was an atheist. But God was “so merciful that he instilled in me this great, deep desire to be happy — not only a little, but always, infinitely,” she said.

After friends invited her to a retreat, she said she “met God’s love.” She started praying, going to Mass, learning SISTER JULIETA about the faith and, DEL CARPIO ultimately, converted.

But she felt her heart was not yet “completely filled” and wondered what was missing.

“At some point, I felt like he (God) was telling me, ‘I don’t want only part of your life. I want to be the center of your life,’” she said. So, she believed God wanted her to join religious life.

Sister Julieta, born in Peru, said at first,

she was afraid; she planned her life to include getting married, having children and studying abroad. And her parents weren’t practicing the faith back then.

But God gave her “the courage to know,” she said.

“If he’s asking (for) my whole life, he’s going to make me completely happy,” she said. “I decided to say ‘yes’ and I’ve never, ever regretted it.”

Sister Julieta and PES Sister Madeleine (Maddy) Elking recently joined “Practicing Catholic” radio show host Patrick Conley on Relevant Radio 1330 SISTER AM to discuss their MADELEINE ELKING vocation stories and the work and spirituality of the Pro Ecclesia Sancta community for an episode that first aired Nov. 3. A recording of the interview is available at PracticingCatholicShow.com.

Sister Maddy, 27, who is from St. Louis, said her life as a Pro Ecclesia Sancta sister is “totally God’s mercy.” While in college considering what she’d do

after graduation, an application to be a missionary popped up in her Facebook news feed. Shortly after, an acquaintance sent her the same application, thinking it could be a fit. She submitted the application, was interviewed and “felt like maybe the Lord was asking this from me,” she said.

Sister Maddy’s parents reminded her of her student loan debt, which they said would be difficult to pay off as a missionary. But Sister Maddy said, “I really felt like the Lord was tugging at my heart and asking this of me.”

When she met the PES sisters, she “saw their joy and … how they loved the Sacred Heart.”

“There was something in me that wanted what they had, … this thing that I didn’t have that I saw in them,” Sister Maddy said.

Eight Pro Ecclesia Sancta sisters live in the Sacred Heart of Jesus Convent in Bloomington. Seven do ministry in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and one is in formation.

PES sisters serve four parishes in the archdiocese, Sister Maddy said.

She leads family faith formation and

youth ministry at St. Mark in St. Paul.

Sister Julieta leads middle school youth ministry at Our Lady of Grace in Edina, where she also coordinates the confirmation program. Some sisters work in the order’s communications office, producing “tools that families can use to help catechize their kids, teach them about the faith, holiness and the Sacred Heart (of Jesus),” Sister Maddy said.

The basis of the sisters’ life is their relationship with the Lord, Sister Maddy said. Mass and prayer keep them spiritually nourished and, through their ministries, help others encounter the Lord as well, she said.

Sister Maddy had some misconceptions about religious life when she was discerning, including that it would be “boring or monotonous.” But her experience has been the opposite.

“Our life is an adventure, and there’s a beautiful freedom when we’re open to the Holy Spirit and letting him be the one who guides us,” she said.

Every day brings a new encounter with God, Sister Julieta said, “full of excitement of what he might bring for us.”

FAITH+CULTURE

NOVEMBER 9, 2023

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 13

Young at heart: playing organ and counting birds at 91

By Christina Capecchi For The Catholic Spirit Sister Janis Haustein, 91, recently celebrated 70 years as a School Sister of Notre Dame. The Red Wing native, a retired science teacher, resides at the Benedictine Living Community in Shakopee. She plays organ at nearby St. Mark for 5 p.m. Saturday Mass and practices there twice a week.

“Age is just a number,” Sister Janis said.

“I feel young at heart.”

plants are good, what kind of soil, what time of year, what colors will be suitable.

This will be my winter reading. I’m taking notes.

We have several people involved. We call it the Butterfly Garden Committee. I guess I’m the organizer.

Notre Dame is a Laudato Si’ community.

When it first came out, we spent a lot of time talking about it. It made me all the more a fan of Pope Francis — opening up these doors, waking us up.

Q Tell me more about butterfly

A You can walk along and pray as you’re

monitoring.

A Back when I was in Chicago, we had

Q You entered the convent right after high school.

A It was an easy path to follow. The only difficulty was the fact that my mom was a Lutheran and remained a Lutheran her whole life, and I think she found it hard. This was pre-Vatican II. We were only allowed four home visits during our lifetime. But whenever there was an opportunity, my parents came and visited me. Over time, it got to be better.

COURTESY SCHOOL SISTERS OF NOTRE DAME

Q When did you learn to play organ?

A As a teenager, I joined the choir

practicing, it was behaving very nicely.

You feel like you’re making a lot of noise.

It’s nice to just open up the pipes — the expression we use is “dust the pipes off.”

This Sunday, I’m playing a prelude written by a French composer and based on the Magnificat. It’s kind of like my prayer to the Blessed Mother.

and sang up in the choir loft, where I watched Sister play the organ. I got curious how the thing worked and started taking lessons.

The only time I could practice was the noon hour, so I would go over to the church and practice and get so carried away that I came late for school in the afternoon and (would) get a detention.

But it turned out right because on graduation day, I got to play the organ processional for all the classmates to walk in, down the Sheldon Auditorium, the big theater downtown, and they had a master organ. That was the joke: You had to live through a detention or two but then could play at graduation.

Q You’re pouring everything into it.

That’s a prayer!

A That’s what I want it to be.

Q What’s your secret to aging well?

A Being active and doing a lot of things.

Curiosity. Ninety-one doesn’t sound like how I feel. People who look at me say I must be late 60s or early 70s.

Q What’s something you’re curious about now?

Q What do you like about the

A The landscaping here isn’t completely

instrument?

done, and the inspiration came to go to the administrator and ask: “Is one of the possibilities to make a butterfly garden?”

I do butterfly monitoring.

That got approval, so next spring we’re going to start planting for a butterfly garden. Now I’m studying up on what

A It’s like having a whole orchestra in front of you. You can create different songs and different moods. There’s so much you can do with it. You’ve got to have your hands and feet working together. This afternoon, when I was

a certain Republican who was elected president, and he was not much of an environmentalist, and it made me angry, so I decided I would see what I could do that would help the environment. It turned out that there’s an environmental center through the Forest Preserver District in Chicago, so I spent time there and heard they needed somebody to monitor the butterflies. There’s a national database where you go out and you identify them and count them and submit your data so they can keep track of what’s going on in the butterfly world.

Q How does your time in nature help you connect with God?

walking — prayers of gratitude and thanksgiving. My aunt had a house on a hillside, and she could watch birds and talk about all the different birds that she saw. At that point (as a girl) I thought I would wait for the kind of day where I could have that same kind of experience.

So, it goes way back.

Q You’ve never lost your sense of wonder.

A This is the first year I’ve had a chance

Bluebirds. The environmental center had a couple dozen nests for the bluebirds, so I got a portion of them to take care of, and watch, and count when the little characters hatched.

to have a monarch egg and watch it hatch all the way through its living stages until it becomes a fully grown butterfly.

It was a two-week process. All told, here in this house, we hatched five monarchs safely so they wouldn’t be lost anywhere in creation and sent them on their way to Mexico.

That was, for me, like making a retreat somewhere. God must have such immense capacity for ingenuity to figure out how to make each one of these little characters so different.

Q How lovely! You never became a

Q What’s something you haven’t done

Q You countered your political rage with butterflies.

A I also monitor the nests of the Eastern

mother, but you’re a caretaker to the bluebirds and butterflies.

A It’s my meditation time, when you

go out in the woods, and you see these little things and you marvel at them.

I’ve been doing it in Mankato, since I came here, and the phenomena that I experienced here was a new butterfly that I had not met in Chicago called the hackberry. They explode, when all the eggs hatch. You get swamped by them when you walk by the route — like 75 or 80 can come at you all at once. It’s an otherworldly experience! To have all these little creatures explode up on you — it’s like all your little friends.

Our community of School Sisters of

yet but would like to try?

A They had a group in here last week

called The Wild Rose Cloggers — women who do a mix of tap dancing and Irish dance. I would like to learn how to do a little bit of tap dancing yet.

I thought: “Well, my legs still work, so maybe I’ll give that a try.”

Q How did it feel to mark your 70th jubilee in July?

A I’m very grateful. I’m going through

all the cards a second time and looking at them more carefully, from a distance, at what people have said and thanking them for some of the things they said.

You can’t soak it all up at once.

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14 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

NOVEMBER 9, 2023

FOCUSONFAITH SUNDAY SCRIPTURES | FATHER JOSEPH JEROME BAMBENEK

Christian hope and preparation overcome death As I write this reflection in late October, the leaves are at their peak. As you read this, those same trees are undoubtedly barren; the once-beautiful leaves are withering on the ground if not turned into mulch or compost.

Such is the life of a deciduous leaf in autumn.

And from a natural perspective, so too, are our lives. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church states, “Death is the end of earthly life. Our lives are measured by time, in the course of which we change, grow old and, as with all living beings on earth, death seems like the normal end of life. That aspect of death lends urgency to our lives: Remembering our mortality helps us realize that we have only a limited time in which to bring our lives to fulfillment” (1007).

Highlighting the importance of understanding death in the Christian life, St. Paul addressed this matter in the first of the letters that he composed to the communities he founded. In the second reading, St. Paul presents the vision, the reality, of how Christians are to view death. “We do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, about those who have fallen asleep, so that you may not grieve like the rest, who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose, so too will God, through Jesus, bring with him those who have fallen asleep” (1 Thes 4:13-14). In short, there is much more to Christian

FAITH FUNDAMENTALS | FATHER MICHAEL VAN SLOUN

The order of deacon

Deacons are members of the clergy along with priests and bishops. A deacon shares in the one apostolic ministry of the bishop, who has the fullness of holy orders. The deacon participates in that ministry through his assistance of the bishop, and by extension, his priests.

The word deacon is derived from the Greek word diakonia, which means to serve. The sacrament of holy orders was instituted by Jesus on Holy Thursday night. Before the Last Supper, Jesus humbly served his apostles when he washed their feet (Jn 13:5). All three holy orders: deacons, priests and bishops, configure themselves to Christ the servant. Service is the cornerstone of all ordained ministry.

The ministry of deacon was further established by the apostles during the first generation of the Church in the early first century. The apostles did not want to neglect their prayer and the ministry of the word, so they selected assistants, men who were reputable and filled with the Spirit and wisdom, and they chose Stephen, along with Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas and Nicholas of Antioch (see Acts 6:1-5).

St. Paul describes a deacon as “dignified, not deceitful, not addicted to drink, not greedy for sordid gain, holding fast to the mystery of faith with a clear conscience” (1 Tim 3:8-9), “married only once” and able to “manage their children and their households well” (1 Tim 3:12).

There is only one order of deacon, but it can be lived in different ways, either on a stable basis as a permanent deacon or on the road to priesthood as a transitional deacon. In both cases, the sacramental nature of the diaconate is permanent.

death than meets the eye.

That is not to say that the death of a loved one is easy for Christians. Our love for them does not die and we retain our human emotions. We see this even when Jesus’ friend Lazarus died. Before Jesus raised Lazarus, Jesus cried, one of only two times that Jesus is recorded as crying. Jesus cried even though he knew that he would raise Lazarus from the dead a few minutes later. When someone we love dies it is hard. It is OK to miss them and to be sad. And it is also not unusual to experience other emotions as well, as we reflect upon the life of someone who had an important impact upon us.

As we experience these various emotions, we are also invited to retain hope in multiple dimensions. Hope that our loved one is experiencing something better than life on this Earth. Hope that we can be together again. And hope that in the interim, we can remain connected through Christ. My favorite prayer in the funeral vigil service is “for those who believe in your love death is not the end, nor does it destroy the bonds that you forge in our lives.”

Yet for those hopes to be fulfilled, we, and the people we love, need to be prepared for death. Jesus made salvation possible, but we must accept that gift through what we believe in our hearts and how we live. The reality of death is a special focus of the Church in November, which began with All Saints’ Day, followed by All Souls’ Day. Many of our readings, including the Gospel passage, remind us that our natural lives will end, and that we need to be prepared. If we are truly wise, we will live out the passage’s concluding wisdom: “stay awake, for you know neither the day nor the hour” (Mt 25:13). If we do so, we have the greatest hope of all: We will shine for eternity (Wis 3:7) rather than meet the fate of the bright tree leaves I am now admiring.

Father Bambenek is the assistant director of the archdiocesan Office for the Renewal of Structures and Office of Synod Evangelization.

There are many requirements for ordination to the diaconate.

The candidate must be a fully initiated Catholic male who has received the sacraments of baptism, Eucharist and confirmation; be evaluated by competent authorities to have the personal qualities to serve in ordained ministry; be considered useful for the ministry of the Church; undertake a thorough formation program; receive proper instruction; have integral faith, the right intention, requisite knowledge, a good reputation, solid morals and proven virtue; if unmarried, the completion of the 25th year of age, and if married, the completion of the 35th year of age; if married, the consent of one’s wife and the reception of the ministries of lector and acolyte. For an unmarried candidate, the promise of celibacy is made; a profession of faith and a five-day preordination retreat take place; and a handwritten personal request to receive ordination of his own free will and the promise to devote himself perpetually to the ecclesial ministry is submitted (see Canons 833, 1025-1039).

Deacons are to pray the Liturgy of the Hours each day and nourish their spiritual lives with sacred Scripture and the frequent reception of the Eucharist. They are invited to participate in the Mass often, even daily, go on an annual retreat, receive the sacrament of penance regularly and have a special devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary (see Canon 276).

A number of deacons are among the most celebrated saints in the history of the Church. Most notable is St. Stephen, the first deacon and the first martyr (see Acts 7:54-60) who is remembered on Dec. 26. During the liturgical year there is also St. Vincent on Jan. 23, St. Ephrem on June 9, and St. Lawrence on Aug. 10.

Father Van Sloun is the director of clergy personnel for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. This column is part of a series on the sacrament of holy orders. Past series on the sacraments by Father Van Sloun provided catechesis on marriage, the Eucharist and confirmation. All of the columns can be found at TheCatholicSpirit.com/faithfundamentals.

DAILY Scriptures Sunday, Nov. 12 Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time Wis 6:12-16 1 Thes 4:13-18 Mt 25:1-13 Monday, Nov. 13 St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, virgin Wis 1:1-7 Lk 17:1-6 Tuesday, Nov. 14 Wis 2:23—3:9 Lk 17:7-10 Wednesday, Nov. 15 Wis 6:1-11 Lk 17:11-19 Thursday, Nov. 16 Wis 7:22b—8:1 Lk 17:20-25 Friday, Nov. 17 St. Elizabeth of Hungary, religious Wis 13:1-9 Lk 17:26-37 Saturday, Nov. 18 Wis 18:14-16; 19:6-9 Lk 18:1-8 Sunday, Nov. 19 Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time Prv 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31 1 Thes 5:1-6 Mt 25:14-30 Monday, Nov. 20 1 Mc 1:10-15, 41-43, 54-57, 62-63 Lk 18:35-43 Tuesday, Nov. 21 Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary 2 Mc 6:18-31 Lk 19:1-10 Wednesday, Nov. 22 St. Cecilia, virgin and martyr 2 Mc 7:1, 20-31 Lk 19:11-28 Thursday, Nov. 23 Thanksgiving Day 1 Mc 2:15-29 Lk 19:41-44 Friday, Nov. 24 St. Andrew Dung-Lac, priest, and companions, martyrs 1 Mc 4:36-37, 52-59 Lk 19:45-48 Saturday, Nov. 25 1 Mc 6:1-13 Lk 20:27-40 Sunday, Nov. 26 Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus, King of the Universe Ez 34:11-12, 15-17 1 Cor 15:20-26, 28 Mt 25:31-46

KNOW the SAINTS ST. JOSAPHAT (1580-1623) An early ecumenist, St. Josaphat was born in Ukraine. Not happy with a mercantile apprenticeship in Lithuania, he spent his spare time learning church Slavonic to enhance his liturgical and prayer life. In 1604 he entered a monastery in Vilnius, where he began promoting Orthodox union with Rome and reform of Ruthenian monasteries. This movement eventually became the Basilians of St. Josaphat. As an abbot, bishop and archbishop in Eastern Europe, he constantly called for unity with Rome, a position that became increasingly controversial. In 1623, after preaching openly in Vitebsk (Belorussia), he was attacked by a mob, shot and thrown in a river. This patron of Ukraine is the first Eastern-rite saint whose cause was processed by Rome. His feast day is Nov. 12.

— OSV News

NOVEMBER 9, 2023

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 15

COMMENTARY ECHOES OF CATHOLIC MINNESOTA REBA LUIKEN

The church at Schiebe’s Corner Before most people had cars, the trip from Delano to Minneapolis was a long way.

Those who made the trip often stopped just about halfway at a place known as Schiebe’s Corner, the Farmers Home Hotel, and the Half Way House. From 1872 until 1977, the Schiebe family ran the business, which included a hotel, tavern, icehouse, dance hall, grocery store and hardware store at various times. All were centered at what is now the intersection of Highway 55 and Old County Road 15 in Plymouth.

In the early 1930s, Archbishop John Murray decided the growing community around Schiebe’s Corner was the perfect place to build a church. The Catholic Schiebe family agreed to help, so Father Nicholas Finn lived and said Mass at Schiebe’s Corner while the new church, St. Mary of the Lake, was built. Emma Schiebe, matriarch of the family, also donated money for the church building.

Having a church across the street was

probably a welcome change for a family used to making a four-mile trip to the north side of Medicine Lake for Mass at St. Joseph.

By the spring of 1936, there was reason to celebrate. The new church had been completed. In the week after Easter, St. Mary of the Lake hosted the first musical program in its new auditorium, attracting more than 500 people on a Thursday evening. A few months later, they installed a new pipeless organ, the first of its kind in the area. The parish became home to a thriving community through Masses, card parties and annual turkey festivals. By the 1950s, it was clear that the church needed to be expanded to accommodate its 700 families. Rather than build at the current site, the parish purchased land nearby to build a new church building and school. After construction was completed in 1961, the original church at 11015 Old County Road 15 was sold to Lutherans, who first used it as a seminary and continue to worship in the church to this day.

The Catholics settled in at their new home on Forestville Lane under the leadership of their new pastor, Father Anthony Louis. Amid the Second Vatican Council, St. Mary of the Lake began an ecumenical initiative in 1964, inviting the members of 15 local Protestant churches for an open house. Over 1,200 people were welcomed by parishioners with punch and tours explaining the Catholic liturgy, confession and vestments. Building on their connections, that fall Father Louis went on pilgrimage to the Holy Land, Egypt, Greece and

GUEST COLUMNIST | CAPT. CHARLES ANDERSON

We need Minnesota priests who wear combat boots

Editor’s note: As the nation honors men and women who have served in the military this Veterans Day, Nov. 11, Capt. Charles Anderson shares this reflection of appreciation for those who have served as Catholic military chaplains and the military’s continued need for chaplains.

In 2003, I was deployed as a military police officer in Iraq. During the invasion, we made several convoys to Camp Wolf, Kuwait, to transport Iraqis who were wounded and required advanced care. I was a sergeant at the time.

During one of those trips, I had to designate a secure area due to the sensitivity of the people we were escorting. We put up concertina wire and an entry control point. I gave my team orders not to allow anyone into the cordon. I set a watch and exhausted, stretched out on a cot to catch a quick nap. My short sleep was violently interrupted as I was shaken awake by one of my soldiers.

“Sergeant, there’s an officer outside that wants to get through our area.” That wasn’t going to happen. “Tell him to find another way around,” I groggily replied.

Just as I started to drift off again the soldier came back.

“Sarge, he’s a colonel and he’s getting upset. He is demanding to talk to you.” I begrudgingly got up, tied my boots, and shook off the hazy half-asleep feeling. I was grumpy. I thought to myself that this might be a good time to use the treasured retort from an enlisted military police officer to a commissioned officer: “Don’t confuse your rank with my authority.”

COURTESY ST. MARY OF THE LAKE

Stained glass windows and a depiction of Mary at St. Mary of the Lake in Plymouth.

Rome with Rev. Warren Heggem of Oak Knoll Lutheran Church in Minnetonka.

Their tour was funded by housewives in their respective parishes and included an audience with Pope Paul VI. The next big shake-up at St. Mary of the Lake was the closing of the parish school. Just eight years after it was built, enrollment was falling, and parish staff were ready to try something new. In the fall of 1969, the school became the Family Learning Center. The new model was designed to offer formation for the whole family, with an emphasis on teaching adults to lead their children’s

I went out into the hot, humid night, the darkness broken up with light posts, smoky generators chugging underneath them. The colonel (one rank below a general) explained that he was returning after a long day, his quarters were on the other side of my newly secured area, and it would take him an hour to go around and through another part of the base. It was clear he was tired and frustrated. I was about to explain that this was a problem for him and not for me when I saw the cross on his uniform lapel, indicating he was a Christian chaplain. I asked what flavor chaplain he was.

“I’m a Catholic priest,” he said.

“In that case, Father, come on through,” I replied.

Preferential treatment aside, Father Anthony Medairos and I have been friends ever since. He concelebrated my nuptial Mass and is the godfather to my youngest son.

Our family has spent many happy summer vacations at his little cottage in Hyannis, Cape Cod. It was also in Nasiriyah, Iraq (near the Temple of Ur in the land of the Chaldees — the birthplace of Abraham) where I met Father Eugene Theisen, who is now serving St. Wenceslaus in New Prague. He was in the Air Force as an active-duty chaplain at the time. His chapel was a literal oasis for me. He has a picture of me fast asleep before the Blessed Sacrament in the makeshift adoration chapel. I had just come back from a mission and was dead tired.

In 2021, I was deployed again to the Middle East, this time as a commissioned military intelligence officer for the Minnesota Army National Guard. Our task force served as the rapid response force based in Camp Buehring, Kuwait, and operated in hotspots around the theater. There was a chapel on our base, which is where I met Father Daniel Schwartz. He was a Marine from Ohio, and he told me of his encounter with the Companions of Christ in St. Paul, near the University of St. Thomas campus. These men had played a major role in his discernment of the priesthood, Father Schwartz said.

That August, my unit deployed forward during the Noncombatant Evacuation Operation (NEO) from Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan. I saw Father Schwartz at Ali al Salem air base as we were about

education. A staff of five educators offered retreats and workshops, plus Sunday school for kindergartners.

The program was deemed a success.

Parishioners were more likely to attend than they had been to send their children to the parish school, and the groundbreaking model received national attention. These days, St. Mary of the Lake continues to serve the needs of its community on the southern shore of Medicine Lake.

Luiken is a Catholic and a historian. She loves exploring and sharing the hidden histories that touch our lives every day.

to board C-17s to Kabul. The city was about to be overrun by the Taliban as the regional government collapsed, leading to chaos and human catastrophe. (Is war ever anything but that?) He gave me a blessing. While at the Kabul airport he was on the south side with the Marines, and I was on the north side with the Army. He would be the one to give last rites to those who were injured or died at the Abbey Gate suicide attack.

More recently, I returned this spring from a NATO exercise in Mailly-le-Camp, France. There I went to Mass with soldiers from many different countries. The chaplain was a young missionary priest from Poland serving in the French 3rd Division. I think perhaps his French was worse than mine, but his hands were what mattered to me.

The clergy and laity of this archdiocese should know that there is currently only one priest serving the 15,000 soldiers and airmen and women of the Minnesota National Guard, a quarter of whom identify as Catholic.

Just one. Without priest chaplains, the sacraments aren’t available to those serving our country. Chaplains of other faiths and denominations, though undoubtedly well-intended, are not a substitute.

I’m fortunate to know our solitary military chaplain, Father (Maj.) Michael Creagan. In fact, he’s my new pastor at St. Michael and St. Mary in Stillwater. He has said Mass in the barracks of Camp Ripley; in the desert of the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California; at a chapel in the Balkans; and at forward operating bases in Logar, Paktia, Nangarhar and Parwan provinces of Afghanistan. He brings Christ in the sacraments, yes, but he also brings his presence in other ways — spiritually advising and mentoring servicemen and women who find themselves in a military culture that can be extremely challenging to a life of discipleship.

Amid war, he brings with him a host of angels and saints to evil and violent places.

Please pray for the priests of this archdiocese to respond to the invitation to serve as a Minnesota National Guard chaplain, and for our bishops to PLEASE TURN TO GUEST COLUMNIST ON PAGE 19

COMMENTARY

16 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

SIMPLE HOLINESS | KATE SOUCHERAY

Our Catholic identity guides us As I wrote this column, the synod on synodality at the Vatican had not begun. When you read this, however, it will have concluded, and the information provided by the gathering in Rome will be shared and propagated. Without a doubt, we are living in a time of change.

There have been significant cultural shifts every 500 years or so in our human history, and we are living through another cultural shift. Human beings measure everything in time, and yet God himself is timeless. Our fickle human nature needs the temporal constraints of the human construct of time to help us mark our years and achievements. God does not need time. In fact, God can enact miracles by working outside of time. But that is another column.

The time in which we are living has been marked by turbulence and confusion, as seen in the constancy of change in the decades since World War II. We have not been able to catch our breath before the next big thing happens to cause us to wonder what could be right around the corner. That is not the way to develop a sense of security: to be

ALREADY/NOT YET | JONATHAN LIEDL

King of the universe — in all directions Later this month, we celebrate the solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe.

This cosmic title certainly underscores the epic proportions of Christ’s reign. According to science, the universe is 94 billion light-years wide and has existed for over 13.7 billion years. Jesus is and has been Lord of all of it: from the most significant, epoch-making moments in human and natural history, to the largest stars and the remotest of all the galaxies.

Jesus’s reign is expansive. It is total and complete.

There is nothing “out there” that does not fall under his kingship — even aliens, if they exist.

But Christ’s kingship extends just as expansively in the other direction. Not just covering what is

watching for “the next shoe to drop.”

Whatever changes emerge from the synod on synodality, we know that God is in charge. He has led us to this place, and he will lead us through it.

We can trust that is true, just as Catholic Christians have trusted it for nearly 2,000 years. Jesus has been our guide and our beacon of light, never wavering in his message of love, compassion and hope. We can be assured of that and find solace and comfort in his presence and his promise.

In this time of change, we must rely on our Catholic identity, which includes the following: We must continue to develop our relationship with Jesus. We must attend Mass. We must offer prayers to God daily, and if we can, devote an hour to adoration each week. We must know and understand Catholic social teaching and incorporate social justice into our lives. We must emulate the holy life of our favorite saints. We must pray the rosary, read and understand the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and attend classes, lectures and Bible studies. We must move more deeply into our faith and give it the foundational place it is meant to hold in our lives.

Our Catholic faith in Jesus Christ has been the one constant reliable, trustworthy reality our world has known through the past two millennia. It is not going to let us down now, because God is not going to let us down. Living through a time of change is difficult and challenging. It requires a personal surrender of our worries and our will to God and a complete trust in his providence.

Father John Riccardo, in his book “Rescued: The Unexpected and Extraordinary News of the Gospel,”

external and outside of us, but including what is inside and deep within. Not just to the farthest reaches of the universe, but to the deepest depths of our souls.

As St. John Henry Newman put it, each person is an “infinite abyss of existence” — more expansive than the universe. Jesus is king of this abyss as much as he is of all the universe’s black holes, red dwarfs and supernovas.

This, I think, can be alarming and even uncomfortable for us. While the idea of having a king whose reign extends across all external time and space might be reassuring — especially if he is our king — the idea of a king who is lord of our deepest depths can seem downright invasive.

Is there any space left for just ourselves? Is there any corner of this kingdom that can just belong to me?

Part of this fear comes from a worldly and distorted understanding of kingship. On this account, the more power the king has, the less freedom I experience. If he’s expanding, it means I’m decreasing. If he’s lord of all, it means I’ve got nothing.

It doesn’t work like that with Christ. His kingship is not in competition with our freedom. Rather, his kingship is aimed at restoring us to full freedom and fulfillment by restoring our relationship with God the Father.

NOVEMBER 9, 2023

ACTION PLAN u Work to understand Catholic identity this month. Listen to

“Catechism in a Year,” attend Mass, spend time in adoration, say the rosary. Take faith seriously.

u Lean on God this month and trust that you will not fall down.

explains that “faith is not the mere intellectual assent that there is a God. Faith is this: leaning so far over on God that if he weren’t there, you’d fall down. Faith is a personal, wholehearted connection to God — a connection that involves my whole life.”

Enter that kind of relationship with God, beginning today. It starts with our pleading that “Abba” (daddy) will give us exactly what we need as we step into this relationship of trust with him.

I attended a Mass several years ago and heard a bishop say: “If we will but turn, he will completely overtake us.” He needs us to take the initiative to show him we want what he is offering, which is salvation. When we do that, he will overtake our hearts, minds and souls, giving us the inspiration and grace to respond to his call through the movement of the Holy Spirit. Our part is to be open and unafraid. Do as Father Riccardo recommends: Lean so far over on God, that if he weren’t there, you’d fall down. Trust in him that much. Ask for his grace to carry out this holy endeavor.

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

In fact, the more Christ possesses our interiority, the more we can fully possess ourselves, because he invites us to join in his kingship. We participate in this reign; it isn’t an either/or.

By inviting Jesus more deeply into our inner lives — into our thoughts, feelings and desires — we gain more freedom and become more truly ourselves.

So, as we celebrate the feast of Christ the King, it can certainly help to marvel at the grandeur of the universe and the expansiveness of Jesus’s reign.

But it might also help to take a look inward. What are those areas of our own interiority that we have not submitted to Christ’s reign? What patterns of thought or action are we still clinging to as “our own,” something that we falsely believe we need to possess to be free and authentic?

Turning them over to Jesus in prayer is actually the most freeing thing we can do. Because Jesus isn’t any ordinary king — he’s the alpha and omega of all existence, the one through whom we were made and the one who draws us back to worship our creator.

Accepting his kingship isn’t an imposition upon us; it is the way things are meant to be, and the way to experiencing true peace, freedom and happiness.

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

LETTER

Compassionate care I was thrilled to read the article (Oct. 26 edition) recognizing Tom Cassidy’s R.N. care of the dying patient. Having worked with him over a number of years, I was impressed by his unique ability to listen and then apply the appropriate solution for the patient’s need. His compassionate easygoing demeanor is uplifting to patients and staff alike. The explanation for his caregiving success I believe is contained in the article by noting his prayer prior to starting his workday. Tom petitions God for strength, knowledge, inner peace, wisdom and patience. From

my perspective, Tom’s prayer has been answered.

Wayne Thalhuber Assumption, St. Paul

15-week ban on abortion A proposal for a federal ban on abortion after 15 weeks is being floated as a way to create political consensus over a divisive issue. However, over 95% of abortions are performed before 15 weeks.

Thus, the overwhelming majority of abortions in this country would still be completely legal under a 15-week ban.

Furthermore, by the time a baby in the womb reaches 15 weeks, he or she is 4

to 6 inches long, and the baby’s arms and legs are formed and moving, the organs are in place, and the heart has been beating for over two months. Babies at 15 weeks and earlier can possibly feel pain. For these reasons, I believe support for a federal 15-week abortion ban should not be a litmus test for pro-life candidates — or anyone, for that matter.

persons I have ever known. He lovingly cared for my husband, along with our family, when he was at OLP (Our Lady of Peace Residential Hospice). We are blessed to know him.

Roland Mayer Epiphany, Coon Rapids

Share your views by emailing TheCatholicSpirit@archspm.org. Please limit your letter to the editor to 150 words and include your parish and phone number.

The Commentary pages do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Catholic Spirit.

Read more letters from our readers at TheCatholicSpirit.com.

Loving care Thank you for recognizing Tom Cassidy in the last issue (Oct. 26) of The Catholic Spirit. He is one of the kindest

Nancy Hansen St. Mary of the Lake, White Bear Lake

COMMENTARY

NOVEMBER NOVEMBER 9, 9, 2023 2023

TWENTY TWENTY SOMETHING SOMETHING || CHRISTINA CHRISTINA CAPECCHI CAPECCHI

Leap of faith: taking risks and beginning anew

I’ve I’ve been been following following the the press press around around the the most most anticipated anticipated biography biography of of the the year: year: “Elon “Elon Musk” Musk” by

by Walter Walter Isaacson.

Isaacson. I’m I’m interested interested in in the the controversial controversial innovator innovator and and also also the the author’s author’s writing writing process, process, which which involved involved shadowing shadowing Musk Musk for for two two years. years.

Isaacson, Isaacson, an an acclaimed acclaimed journalist, journalist, gained gained surprising surprising access access to to Musk, Musk, sitting sitting in in on on high-profile high-profile meetings meetings and and negotiations, negotiations, studying studying the the billionaire billionaire as as he he made made headlines headlines and and profits profits and and mistakes. mistakes.

One One of of the the author’s author’s central central talking talking points, points, articulated articulated again again and and again again in in the the press press circuit, circuit, resonated resonated with with me: me: We We have have become become aa nation nation with with more more referees referees and and fewer fewer risk-takers. risk-takers. In In our our beginning, beginning, in in our our glory glory days, days, the the scales scales were were tilted tilted toward toward risk-takers. risk-takers. These These are are the the people people who who founded founded countries countries and and churches, churches, companies companies and and movements. movements.

By By contrast, contrast, Isaacson Isaacson says, says, modern modern culture culture is is largely largely defined defined by by referees. referees. These These are are the the folks folks who who sit sit on on the the sidelines sidelines and and offer offer commentary. commentary. They They criticize, criticize, cancel cancel and and correct correct the the risk-takers risk-takers — — often often from from the the comfort comfort of of their their couches, couches, through through anonymous anonymous online online profiles. profiles.

I’ve I’ve been been reflecting reflecting on on this this claim claim through through aa Catholic Catholic lens. lens. The The prophets, prophets, the the early early Church Church fathers, fathers, the the saints saints — — it it certainly certainly holds holds true true in in religion. religion. The The people people with with the the strongest strongest convictions convictions didn’t didn’t think think twice twice about about taking taking risks. risks. They They were were compelled compelled by by an an undeniable undeniable drive. drive.

The The Catholics Catholics II most most admire admire today today take take risks risks for for their their

COURTESY COURTESY JOSEPH JOSEPH MARK MARK PHOTOGRAPHY PHOTOGRAPHY

Karen Karen and and Tully Tully Wyatt Wyatt with with their their family family on on the the farm farm an an hour hour from from downtown downtown Dallas.

Dallas. families, families, spurred spurred by by their their faith. faith. They They see see the the perils perils and and pitfalls pitfalls of of modern modern secular secular life life and and they they dare dare to to build build something something different. different.

That’s That’s what what Karen Karen and and Tully Tully Wyatt Wyatt did. did. By By any any measure, measure, the the Catholic Catholic parents parents of of four four had had the the perfect perfect life. life. They They had had built built their their dream dream home home on on aa shaded shaded cul-de-sac cul-de-sac in in aa coveted coveted school school district. district.

But But Karen, Karen, now now 41, 41, aa realtor realtor and and Beautycounter Beautycounter executive executive director, director, felt felt aa stirring stirring in in her her heart. heart. She She yearned yearned for for rural rural life. life.

Most Most days, days, she she dismissed dismissed it. it. “It “It seemed seemed like like aa retirement retirement dream dream — — or or maybe maybe it it was was just just aa dream dream altogether,” altogether,” she she said. said. “There “There were were too too many many unknowns, unknowns, so so many many moving moving pieces pieces that that seemed seemed impossible impossible to to fall fall into into place. place. But But my my heart heart kept kept longing. longing. We’d We’d search search

THE THE CATHOLIC CATHOLIC SPIRIT SPIRIT •• 17 17 Zillow Zillow and and daydream.” daydream.”

In the the fall fall of of 2020, 2020, they they visited visited friends friends in in aa small small In Kansas town. town. “We “We loved loved every every minute minute — — small-town small-town Kansas values and and aa slower slower pace pace of of life,” life,” Karen Karen said. said. values She and and Tully Tully were were convinced convinced aa smaller smaller town town would would She serve them them well. well. Their Their hunt hunt began began around around the the same same serve time they they began began homeschooling. homeschooling. Something Something new new felt felt time possible. possible.

They found found aa Catholic Catholic hybrid hybrid school school on on aa 100-acre 100-acre They farm and fell in love. farm and fell in love.

“Our oldest oldest was was 11, 11, and and if if we we wanted wanted her her to to feel feel like like “Our she grew up in the country, we needed to make the she grew up in the country, we needed to make the move soon,” soon,” Karen Karen said. said. move The Wyatts now live on 52 sprawling acres off a The Wyatts now live on 52 sprawling acres off a winding country road — complete with cows, chickens, winding country road — complete with cows, chickens, a donkey, a horse and a big, fenced-in garden. Their a donkey, a horse and a big, fenced-in garden. Their ranch is an hour from downtown Dallas. ranch is an hour from downtown Dallas.

“Our new life feels worlds away, a turn-back“Our new life feels spent worldsoutdoors away, a turn-backtime lifestyle mostly with very little time lifestyle mostly spent outdoors with littlein screen time,” said Karen, a member of St. very William screen time,” said Karen, a member of St. William in on Greenville, Texas. “Days pass slower. We spend hours Greenville, Texas.

“Days pass slower.

We spend hours on the porch watching the most beautiful orange sunsets. the porch watching the most beautiful orange sunsets.

Another blessing is the satisfaction we’ve found in Another the satisfaction we’vewith found physical blessing labor — is working in the garden ourinhands, physical labor — working in the garden with our hands, feeding our chickens and cattle, building fences and feeding our chickens and cattle, building fences and chicken coops. Our children approach their chores with chicken coops.

Our children approach their chores with a heart of joy rather than obligation.” a heart of joy rather than obligation.”

Karen shares her country life on Instagram shares )her life ontoInstagram (@Karen thewyattfarm andcountry urges others consider a similar (@ thewyattfarm ) and urgespatch othersoftoland consider similar a move — even on a small — to aembrace move — even on a small patch of land — to embrace a slower life steeped in Catholic values. slower life steeped in Catholic values.

“We’ve learned that, when you feel peace to follow “We’ve whenfor you feel need,” peace to follow the Lord’slearned plan, hethat, provides every she said. the Lord’s plan, he provides for every need,” she said.

“Placing our lives under his direction and literally taking “Placing hisfeeling direction andknown. literallyThe taking a leap of our faithlives wasunder the best we’ve arewards leap of have faith been was the best feeling we’ve known.

The tenfold.

Our marriage, our children, rewards have been tenfold.

Our marriage, our children, our daily life all reflect his hand guiding us toward our daily life all reflect his hand guiding us toward goodness.” goodness.”

Christina Capecchi is a freelance writer from Inver Grove Capecchi is a freelance writer from Inver Grove Heights.

Heights.

LETTER

MUSIC CONTINUED FROM PAGE 12

there’s only one who can give it to us.”

So, will the video work as an evangelistic tool? each other through attending Mass “I think it will beTom effective,” William onIcampus, andto Father Zuelke helped was thrilled read the article (Oct. 26 edition) recognizing Cassidy’s R.N. said.

“This is a really wonderful William with some music projects. care of the dying patient. Having worked with him over a number of years, I was It’s a really wonderful They stayed touch after William impressed byinhis unique ability to listen and(recording) then apply track. the appropriate solution for song, really wonderful instruments, graduated in 2021, and Father Zuelke the patient’s need. His compassionate easy-going demeanor is uplifting to patients really success powerful energyisthat’s coming reached to The himexplanation for help with and staffout alike. forthe his caregiving I believe contained in from it that I think a lot of people music video. the article by noting his prayer prior to starting his workday. Tom petitions God will for findpatience. appealing.”

Williamknowledge, was not familiar with Psalm strength, inner peace, wisdom and From my perspective, Tom’s Father Zuelke is hopeful, but unsure 90 when the project started, but he prayer has been answered. how it will fare with secular viewers. found it to be a fitting text for this video.

“I don’t know if it will be successful, Wayne Thalhuber “It does make a lot of sense for this but I had to try it, at least,” he said.

Assumption, St. Paul mission, with Psalm 90 being about an “I look at this music as a vector for aching desire for God,” William said. transmission of the Gospel into a “Augustine ‘Our hearts are territory not to Share yoursays, views by emailing Therestless CaTholiCSpiriT @arChSpmthat .org.would Pleaseotherwise limit your letter until theytorest you, and my include God.’ …

This but who be forcedpages to the editor 150inwords your parish welcome and phoneit, number.

Themay Commentary isdowhat we appealreflect to as the evangelists, look into it Read deeper because not necessarily opinions of The Catholic Spirit. more lettersthey fromenjoy our that we’re aching and it.” heC aTholiCSfor piriThappiness, .Com. readers at Tall

Compassionate care

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NOVEMBER 9, 2023

Why I am Catholic Ryan Skoug DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

ave you ever asked God for something, but didn’t

of Dallas studying education and theology. Our favorite pastime was

provide many details about your request? Well, that’s

talking about our faith. As this went on, I discovered many things

why I’m Catholic, and my life in his Church has been

in my beliefs that were missing. I went on to read cover-to-cover

the greatest gift he has ever given me.

Luther’s “Small Catechism,” “Catholicism for Dummies” and the

I grew up in Dubuque, Iowa, as a Missouri Synod Lutheran. Our

Bible. Through this process, I became convinced that I needed to

family went to church on Sundays. I attended Sunday school and went to catechism classes on Wednesdays all through childhood.

follow God to the Church he established.

My greatest yearning was for the Eucharist. While I had enjoyed

While this regular participation in faith life was a good influence

receiving Communion at my Lutheran church, I had come to

on me, along with having loving parents and grandparents who

believe the Church’s teaching that only a man who has received

set good examples, the biggest influence on my faith took place

holy orders can consecrate the Eucharist. While attending RCIA

every summer when I went to Camp Luther. While camp was tons

(now OCIA), I also went to daily Mass a few times each week. I had

of fun, it was also the place where I was deeply inspired by the

a holy jealousy of everyone who could receive the Eucharist on a

living out of faith that I witnessed in high school- and college-age

daily basis. The happiest day of my life was that first Easter Vigil

counselors.

when I finally received confirmation and first holy Communion.

These experiences formed me as a young Christian man. When I went away to the University of Nebraska Omaha, I was one of

Mary and I were married two years later. Thanks be to God for his many blessings.

the rare students who actually went to church. It was at this time in my life when I asked God for a favor. I realized that I may soon

Skoug and his wife, parishioners of Holy Family in St. Louis Park,

meet the young woman I would someday ask to be my wife. I

moved to the Twin Cities in 2011 for Skoug’s work as a noise control

can remember asking God, “Whoever you want me to marry, all

consulting engineer. They have four children ages 3 to 11 — Damien,

I ask is that she be a strong Christian so that we can raise a faith-

Dominic, Juliana and Becket. The Skoug family likes to hike, bike,

filled family together.” Note that I didn’t say, “strong Protestant

kayak, hunt and fish together.

Christian.”

Not too long after, I was introduced to the woman I now call my wife. While Mary was certainly beautiful, what really attracted me to her was her strong faith life. Mary was a student at the University

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

NOVEMBER 9, 2023 THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 19

CALENDAR PARISH EVENTS Matt Birk: A Time of Reflection — Nov. 11: 8 a.m.– 1 p.m. at Guardian Angels, 8260 Fourth St. N., Oakdale.

Matt Birk will speak on “Life and the Cost of Discipleship.”

This is a fundraiser for the new chapel for the Carmelite Hermits in Lake Elmo. Father John Burns will also speak on the progress of the chapel. guardian-angels.org St. Alphonsus CCW Christmas Bazaar — Nov. 11-12: 9 a.m. at 7025 Halifax Ave. N., Brooklyn Center. Jewelry, religious and Christmas decorations, homemade candy, Christmas cookies, jellies and baked goods. stalsmn.org St. Odilia CCW Holiday Bazaar and Bake Sale — Nov. 11-12: Saturday: noon-6:30 p.m. Sunday: 8:30 a.m.1:30 p.m. at 3495 N. Victoria, Shoreview. Sweet treats, kitchen items, toys for kids of all ages, handmade goods and Christmas items.

Fall Market — Nov. 11-12: 9 a.m.-7:30 p.m. at St. Therese, 18323 Minnetonka Blvd., Deephaven. Stock up for the holidays with baked goods and gifts. Includes a bake sale, marketplace, silent auction and books. st-therese.org Turkey Bingo — Nov. 12: 1-3 p.m. at Guardian Angels, 8260 Fourth St. N., Oakdale. $10 per person for three cards.

Unlimited pop and popcorn. Prizes. guardian-angels.org/event/22668910-2023-11-12-turkey-bingo Mary Mother of the Church Concert for Peace — Nov. 12: 4 p.m. at 3333 Cliff Road E., Burnsville. All are invited to pray for peace through music, Scripture and intercessions, featuring the Mary, Mother of the Church Italy pilgrimage choir. mmotc.org/upcomingevents

spirituality. Small group sessions are available, both inperson and online. Advent prayer materials are provided. ignatianspritualitycenter.org

CALENDAR submissions

Christmas Trees — Nov. 24-Dec. 17: 4-8 p.m. at St. Pascal Baylon, 1757 Conway St., St. Paul. The St. Pascal’s Men’s Club is selling premium Christmas trees at reasonable prices (Fraser, Canaan and Balsam firs, Scotch and White pines).

Ignatian Women’s Retreat — Nov. 28-30: 4:30 p.m. start at Christ the King Retreat Center, 621 First Ave. S., Buffalo.

Retreat theme is St. Ignatius and Women: Wisdom from His Letters. The retreat is conference style with time for silent prayer and reflection. Sister Catherine Michaud is the retreat director. ignatianspiritualitycenter.org

DEADLINE: Noon Thursday, 14 days before the anticipated Thursday date of publication.

We cannot guarantee a submitted event will appear in the calendar. Priority is given to events occurring before the issue date.

St. Raphael’s Christmas Village — Dec. 2: 8:30 a.m.2 p.m. at St. Raphael, 7301 Bass Lake Road, Crystal. Listen to music provided by the school children, shop unique items and baskets, and visit Santa from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Games for kids of all ages, and food from Grandma’s Kitchen.

Questions? Call 763-537-8401 ext. 501.

St. Vincent de Paul CCW Christmas Bazaar — Dec. 2: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. at 9100 93rd Ave. N., Brooklyn Park. Over 65 crafters, the Taste of Heaven Bakery, soup and sandwich lunch, coffee at Java Joe’s, and a raffle. saintvdp.org/ christmas-bazaar Christmas Boutique — Dec. 2-3: Saturday: 9 a.m.1 p.m., Sunday: 9 a.m.-4 p.m. at Guardian Angels, 8260 Fourth St. N., Oakdale. Annual boutique and craft sale featuring over 70 vendors and shopping for kids. All items are unique and handmade. Christmas trees, Saturday morning cookie sale and a visit from Santa on Saturday. guardian-angels.org/event/16068158-2023-12-02-christmasboutique

The Cloud of Witnesses Presentation — Nov. 14: 7-8:30 p.m. at Risen Savior, 1501 E. County Road 42, Burnsville. View the art collection “The Cloud of Witnesses,” which celebrates Catholic saints. risensavior. org/seasonal-faith-enrichment Holiday Sale: Quilters for a Cause — Nov. 18: 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. at St. Jerome, 380 E. Roselawn Ave., Maplewood. Items for sale include kitchen items, table runners, pillowcases, baby items and more. Blankets made by Quilters for a Cause are donated to charities in the Maplewood area. Proceeds of this sale will be used to further the charitable work of the Quilters for a Cause. facebook.com/profile.php?id=100087945155707 Holiday Boutique and Pie Sale — Nov. 18: 9 a.m.4 p.m. at St. George, 133 N. Brown Road, Long Lake. An assortment of merchandise vendors, homemade pies and cookies. General store shopping with themed baskets, special baked goods, unique shopping finds, ornament tree.

Raffle: $1. Lunch, along with caramel rolls, pie slices and coffee. stgeorgelonglake.org CCW Fall/Christmas Craft and Bake Sale — Nov. 18 and 19: 1 p.m. at St. Peter, 2600 N. Margaret St., North St. Paul. Craft and bake sale Saturday and Sunday with doughnuts and coffee on Sunday. churchofstpeternsp.org Knights of Columbus Pancake Breakfast — Nov. 19: 8:30-11 a.m. at St. George, 133 N. Brown Road, Long Lake.

Proceeds go to the scholarship fund. stgeorgelonglake.org St. Michael Community Thanksgiving Dinner —

Nov. 23: 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m. at 16311 Duluth Ave. SE, Prior Lake. Freewill offering is appreciated but not necessary. stmichael-pl.org

Jewelry Sale to Support Victims and Survivors of Human Trafficking — Dec. 2-3: Risen Savior, 1501 E. County Road 42, Burnsville. Risen Savior’s Human Trafficking Committee hosts a jewelry sale of used and refurbished jewelry. Most items $1. Proceeds will benefit community partners Brittany’s Place and Breaking Free.

Saturday: 4-7 p.m.; Sunday: 9 a.m.-3 p.m. risensavior.org/service-and-outreach Advent Evening of Renewal — Dec. 6: 6:30-8:30 p.m. at St. John Neumann, 4030 Pilot Knob Road, Eagan.

An Advent evening of guided reflection, prayer ministry, adoration and songs of praise. Confession and hospitality available after the 5:30 p.m. Wednesday Mass. sjn.org/advent Advent Lessons and Carols — Dec. 9: 7-8:30 p.m. at Holy Cross, 1621 University Ave. NE, Minneapolis.

A musical celebration combining seasonal carols, choral music and Scripture readings with a uniquely Polish flare. ourholycross.org

WORSHIP+RETREATS Savoring Scripture: A Weekend of Lectio Divina Practice — Nov. 10-12: Overnight retreat at The Benedictine Center of St. Paul’s Monastery, 2675 Benet Road, Maplewood. Lectio Divina encourages you to approach Scripture to hear from God personally, for the sake of your spirit. benedictinecenter.org/bc-events Ignatian Advent Retreat in Daily Life — Nov. 28: 10 a.m. at St. Thomas More in St. Ignatius Hall, 1079 Summit Ave., St. Paul. The Ignatian Advent Retreat in Daily Life provides daily readings and teachings from Ignatian

Advent Retreat Sponsored by the Ignatian Associates — Dec. 2: 8:30 a.m.-2:45 p.m. at St. Thomas More in St. Ignatius Hall, 1079 Summit Ave., St. Paul. Father Mike Graham will lead the retreat. Reflection time follows each of three presentations. A $35 registration fee includes a continental breakfast, noon lunch and refreshments during the day. ignatianassociates.org

LISTINGS: Accepted are brief no­tices of upcoming events hosted by Catholic parishes and organizations. If the Catholic connection is not clear, please emphasize it in your submission.

Included in our listings are local events submitted by public sources that could be of interest to the larger Catholic community.

ITEMS MUST INCLUDE:

SPEAKERS+SEMINARS Cathedral Art Lecture: “Our Michelangelo” — Nov. 13: 7-8 p.m. at the Cathedral of St. Paul, 239 Selby Ave., St. Paul. A 17-year-old sculptor from Florence, Italy, named Joseph Capecchi, arrived in 1906 when the Cathedral had no more than a foundation built. Three grandsons tell the story. tinyurl.com/ytun93yv James: Pearls for Wise Living — Nov. 14, 21, 28, Dec. 5, 12: 7-9 p.m. at Mary, Mother of the Church, 3333 Cliff Road, Burnsville. A Catechetical Institute six-week lecture and small group course on the letter of James, taught by Jeff Cavins. saintpaulseminary.org/ci/jeff-cavinsbook-james-wise-living

uTime and date of event uFull street address of event uDescription of event uContact information in case of questions TheCatholicSpirit.com/calendarsubmissions

The Dangers of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: A Quarterly Meeting of the St. Joseph Business Guild — Nov. 16: 5:30-8:45 p.m. at 5900 W. Lake St., St. Louis Park. Emery Koenig, retired vice chairman and chief risk officer for Cargill, shares experiences with, and challenges concerning, DEI issues. sjbusinessguild.com/events/thedangers-of-diversity-equity-and-inclusion Theology, the Climate Crisis, and a Call for Action — Nov. 17: 9 a.m.-1 p.m. at St. Frances Cabrini, 1500 Franklin Ave. SE, Minneapolis. Free, registration required. csbsju.edu/ sot/sem/alumni-and-friends/attend-events/theology-day

ONGOING GROUPS Restorative Support for Victims-Survivors — Monthly: 6:30-8 p.m. via Zoom. Open to all victims-survivors.

Victim-survivor support group for those abused by clergy as adults — first Mondays. Support group for relatives or friends of victims of clergy sexual abuse — second Mondays. Victim-survivor support group — third Mondays.

Survivor Peace Circle — third Tuesdays. Support group for men who have been sexually abused by clergy/religious — fourth Wednesdays. Support group for present and former employees of faith-based institutions who have experienced abuse in any of its many forms — second Thursday. Visit archspm.org/healing or contact Paula Kaempffer, outreach coordinator for restorative justice and abuse prevention, at kaempfferp@archspm.org or 651-291-4429.

GUEST COLUMNIST

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 15 support them. It is a vocation within a vocation. This is an additional duty. (Remember the old slogan of one weekend a month, two weeks a year?) Father Creagan needs help from his brothers, whether they hail from the dioceses of Crookston, Duluth, New Ulm, St. Cloud, St. Paul and Minneapolis, or Winona-Rochester.

Through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, may God grant us more priests who wear combat boots.

Anderson is a staff intelligence officer assigned to the Minnesota Army National Guard’s 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team of the 34th Infantry Division near Rosemount. In his civilian life, he is a commander with the St. Paul Police Department and a local elected official. He resides in Marine on St. Croix with his wife and four children. They are parishioners of St. Michael and St. Mary in Stillwater and their children attend Catholic schools.

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20 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

NOVEMBER 9, 2023

THELASTWORD

FAITH OUTDOORS Troops of St. George bring dads and sons together

By Dave Hrbacek The Catholic Spirit

W

ith a beautiful sunset as a backdrop, a group of more than 50 fathers and sons stood together at St. Patrick in Oak Grove for prayer and flag raising.

The radiant colors glowing over their shoulders seemed to affirm the beauty of this gathering, which serves as a way for men and boys to share faith, fun, fellowship and time in nature.

They call themselves the Troops of St. George. They are part of a nationwide apostolate designed to foster “a life of adventure coupled with virtue,” according to the national Troops of St. George website. Founded in 2013, this apostolate “aims to use the outdoors as our canvas and the sacraments as our path to light the way for the formation of Holy Catholic men and boys,” per its mission statement. By participating in regular gatherings, including hours and even days in the outdoors, “fathers and sons will take a prayerful pilgrimage together to fulfill Christ’s desire to grow in virtue and in their Holy Catholic faith as they journey toward heaven.”

A simpler explanation of the mission is to create a Catholic version of Boy Scouts, especially as that longstanding organization has veered from its earlier traditions and included ideological practices that run counter to Catholic teaching. Dads who might have placed their sons in Boy Scouts increasingly have been looking for a Catholic alternative.

Such was the case for several dads in the north metro, who formed a St. George troop in 2020. They found out about the organization and learned that St. Agnes in St. Paul had a troop, which the parish started in 2013.

That provided the motivation to start one at Epiphany in Coon Rapids, with the enthusiastic support of Father Thomas Dufner, the pastor and an avid outdoorsman himself who now serves as chaplain for the troop and calls it “a great group.”

Several parishioners formed the Epiphany troop and extended the invitation to neighboring parishes like St. Patrick in Oak Grove and St. Paul in Ham Lake.

There even are a few dads and sons from All Saints in Northeast Minneapolis. In just three years, it has grown from about 15 to 20 dads and 30 boys — called cadets — to more than 30 dads and about 60 boys who show up regularly at the Epiphany troop’s monthly gatherings. It is one of seven troops in Minnesota, with six located within the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Nationwide, there are 133 troops in 33 states, according to the national website.

“It’s a beautiful apostolate,” said Gale Merriman, 40, who formed the Epiphany troop with fellow Epiphany parishioners Paul Wagner and Tim Amireault and now serves as leader, or captain. “I get to be around 35 other Catholic men who are striving for holiness and trying to instill that in their sons. And so, it’s like this village of men growing in the faith and we get to walk side by side, and all of our strengths and all of our weaknesses are brought out.”

Merriman­— who has eight children with his wife, Bernadette — has five sons in the troop, which accepts boys from first grade (age 6) through high school.

Another of his sons is 2 and Merriman has already decided he will join in four years. He said he and the boys are thankful to spend quality time together, which he said is important, especially in a culture that often does not promote the kind of values found in the Troops of St. George.

“Fatherhood is being attacked, and masculinity is being attacked,” Merriman said. “Authentic Catholic

Fathers and their sons gather around a campfire during a Troops of St. George event at St. Patrick in Oak Grove Oct. 17.

PHOTOS BY DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

manliness is something that we want to reclaim, we want to give to our sons.”

They also want to help build fraternity among the dads, many of whom work in secular environments that often are not friendly to any mention or practice of faith. This troop is a place where men can find support from other dads and, hopefully, friendship.

Tom Schulzetenberg, 40, of St. Patrick in Oak Grove has two sons in the troop, ages 6 and 11, with plans to add his two younger sons in future years. He has been in the troop since the beginning, when he was looking for a Boy Scout troop for his oldest son, Mathias. He thought about joining the St. Agnes troop, but he was happy to discover that a troop was forming much closer to home. Once he heard that, he eagerly jumped on board.

“We all knew this is what we wanted, we all knew that we wanted something of substance that taught our boys good life, practical skills,” said Schulzetenberg, who noted there were challenges in the beginning because of COVID-19 restrictions on in-person gatherings. “And so, we were just going to do whatever it took to make it work.”

The monthly format includes prayer, outdoor activities and usually a campfire at the end. Dads are not required to come, but they are highly encouraged not only to attend, but to help with various activities. So far, they have done so eagerly, Merriman said.

There also are camping trips during the summer, plus a campout in July for troops in the Midwest. Dads and sons from the Epiphany troop have attended every year since the troop was formed. Schulzetenberg said both of his sons are eager participants, especially Mathias.

“He just loves this,” Schulzetenberg said. “He’s always enjoyed the outdoors, so this is just a really enjoyable experience for him. He never fails to remind me when Troops is coming up.”

With other activities, Mathias can be reluctant to head out the door. “But, with Troops, he’s always on the ball, always early, always ready to go. And, that spilled over into our young son, Felix, who’s in first grade. It’s his first year in Troops this year, and he’s been anxiously awaiting it. For the last year, he’s been asking, ‘When can I join, when can I join?’”

When it’s time to depart, the Schultzetenberg boys are ready with the three things every cadet is asked to bring to gatherings: a pen, a knife and a rosary. That helps fulfill the motto: Semper Parati, a Latin phrase that means “always prepared.”

At the November meeting, boys in the youngest cadet group, called St. Matthew’s Angels (each group has a name), will make what is known as the St. Joseph Knife Pledge. They will learn the proper use and care of a knife, then sign a pledge to follow these guidelines.

After that, they are allowed to carry a knife, which all cadets do after completing the training and signing the pledge.

Paul Wagner, center, starts a game of ping pong tag between Francesco Merriman, left, and Landon McConnach.

This is one example of the progression all boys make so they can grow in virtue and responsibility. It is at the heart of Troops of St. George, and Schulzetenberg said it’s important for boys to go through the process of learning, praying and advancing in practical skills.

“I think the idea is that we want to help these boys grow into men,” he said. “We certainly do not coddle them. We’re very forthright and up front with them about what the expectations are.”

Along with the training and growth is the foundational principle in Troops that it is best for fathers to be the ones who lead and help their sons in this type of formation and growth.

“I don’t think we should delegate raising our children,” Merriman said. “To some extent we have (in the modern culture) because it’s convenient. This (Troops) takes a little bit more of a sacrifice, and I hope that the boys realize that. I can say from my own experience, I’ve had my sons thank me for the time that I’ve given to them” in Troops.

Merriman said he hopes the Epiphany troop will continue to grow. To help that along, there has been fundraising and building awareness at the parish with brief talks at Masses. It’s working.

“Lots of families approached me after Mass and said, ‘I’d love for my son to get involved in this,’” he said.

“Normally, it’s the mom who asks that, and I say, ‘Well, tell your husband to contact me.’ What I’ve learned about dads is they need a personal invitation or they just don’t … take their son to do these things.”

At the same time, having a smaller number of dads and boys isn’t bad, either, he noted, because of the intimate feeling it creates.

“So, we aren’t trying to grow just for the sake of growth,” Merriman said. “I think it’s like anything: If the Lord wants it, Our Lady is going to wrap her mantle around it and it’s going to grow and it’s going to continue to be blessed.”