September 8, 2006 - Issue #18
Local News | Opinion/Editorials | Letters to the Editor
Local News
Long-distance connection: Visit to Alaska by Filipino archbishop and delegation provides opportunity to share cultures and strengthen ties
"Cotabato will not just be a name anymore."
That’s how Archbishop Orlando Quevedo of the Archdiocese of Cotabato in the Philippines described what it meant to have a delegation from his church visit the Archdiocese of Anchorage.
"Saying ‘pray for the world’ is too abstract," the archbishop said. "Our two churches have to pray for each other."
Archbishop Quevedo headed up a five-person delegation from Cotabato that visited its Alaskan sister archdiocese in August as part of Catholic Relief Services’ Global Solidarity Partnership program.
The visit was a follow-up to a 2004 pilgrimage by Anchorage Archbishop Roger Schwietz and Alaskan Catholics who visited Cotabato and other parts of the Philippines.
The visit was an eye-opener for guests and visitors alike, the travelers said.
Many area Catholics were surprised to learn that the Archdiocese of Cotabato, with 1.7 million residents, is 41 percent Muslim and 59 percent Catholic.
Parts of his archdiocese belong to an autonomous Muslim region, where Sharia, or Islamic law, applies to the Muslims but not the Christians, Archbishop Quevedo said. Fighting has gone on "for 30 years off and on" between the government and the Islamist Liberation Front, he said, and the Islamist army, 12,000 strong, has some of its major camps in his archdiocese.
Nevertheless, Archbishop Quevedo said, "people get along quite well" and peace talks are proceeding.
Cotabato is presently loaning two diocesan priests, Father Ben Torreto and Father Jaime Mencias, to the Archdiocese of Anchorage. Father Torreto will be a parochial vicar at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish; Father Mencias’ assignment will be announced soon.
That doesn’t mean that Cotabato has a priest surplus, however.
On the contrary, with 1 million Catholics in Cotabato, there are 45 diocesan priests, 35 Oblates of Mary Immaculate and two Marists fathers. That’s roughly one priest for every 12,500 Catholics.
How can they afford to send priests away?
"We do it in the spirit of the church as mission and in the spirit of the early Christian churches. God will always provide more," said Archbishop Quevedo, who like Archbishop Schwietz is an Oblate of Mary Immaculate.
Other Filipino visitors to Alaska included Auxiliary Bishop Jose Colin Bagaforo, Father Armand Dice, Sister Teresa Salazar and Angelita Sayon.
While in Alaska, the delegation visited several Anchorage parishes and toured the facilities of Catholic Social Services and Covenant House.
Sister Salazar, Sayon, and Father Dice visited St. Michael Parish in Palmer and Sacred Heart Parish in Wasilla. All five visitors traveled to the Kenai Peninsula, where Our Lady of Perpetual Help parishioner Jim Stogsdill treated them to a fishing charter. Host families in several parishes entertained them.
"They had a wonderful time," said Margaret Menting, a parishioner at Our Lady of the Angels Parish in Kenai who helped organize the trip.
"Their English is extremely good," she added. "Our parishioners took them to the beach and out looking for caribou."
Bishop Colin noted "cultural differences" between the churches in the two archdioceses.
"Our liturgies are livelier, more participatory in terms of singing. Usually, we don’t have a choir, we use guitars more."
And, in a very crowded country with few priests, "the Masses are overflowing."
"Our liturgies are less organized," added Archbishop Quevedo. "The rules are different — we use the rules as guidelines. That’s why there’s more spontaneity."
Parishes in Cotabato are huge — 25-30 villages may belong to one parish, and a priest travels from village to village throughout the month. Like many areas of rural Alaska, villagers have access to Mass only once a month or less.
To help with the work of the church, the Philippines have "kaakaabags," which Archbishop Quevedo described as "almost deacons." The diaconate does not exist in the Philippines, but the use of "kaakaabags" actually predates the reestablishment of the diaconate in the worldwide church.
These "almost deacons" are selected by the community and their commitment is renewed each year with the approval of the community. Always men, usually married, the "kaakaabag" conduct Communion services in the absence of a priest, baptize, bless the dead, conduct Bible classes and preach.
Bishop Colin pointed out that in his archdiocese, the relationship between priest and people is not as casual as it is here.
"They (Filipinos) still put priests on a pedestal," he said.
Archbishop Quevedo agreed, adding with a laugh that he was surprised to hear priests called by their first names in Alaska. He said he could see advantages to both approaches.
"Our priests are sort of pampered. They have a cook, a driver, a laundry woman. They even have a live-in sacristan," the archbishop said.
Catholic Relief Services is the arm of the U.S. bishops’ conference that provides overseas relief and development. Through the Global Solidarity Partnership, American churches are partnered with churches overseas in an effort to increase an awareness of the call to be one universal church.
Bonnie Cler, who along with Menting traveled to the Philippines in 2004 and helped organize the recent visit, said such exchanges are important because "we have so much to learn from each other."
When Sayon and Sister Salazar delivered their closing briefings at the end of their trip, Cler said they mentioned things we take for granted.
For example, they were "in awe" of the fact that the Alaska Native Medical Center had institutionalized traditional healing practices like herbal treatments and massage.
"And they were amazed at how we take care of the homeless," Cler said, adding that social safety nets supported by the government don’t generally exist in the Philippines.
"We have more resources than they, but they have things we may have lost. For example, we joke that they run on ‘Filipino time,’ but they know what’s important in life and it’s not necessarily being on time. They are very joyful people."
A major disappointment of the trip was that six other visitors from Cotabato who had planned to come were unexpectedly detained by the U.S. Embassy in Manila when they were ready to depart.
Archbishop Quevedo said he felt they had bad luck in running into an overly stringent interviewer at the embassy.
Planners envision bigger and better Discipleship Days
Four keynote speakers, 32 presenters, 70 workshops, a track offered in Spanish and one for youth — this year’s Discipleship Days in Anchorage promises something for just about everyone.
And when asked who should attend the Oct. 19-21 archdiocesan conference, organizer Dr. Peter Zografos said just that: "Everyone."
"I think it’s an opportunity to build community, to share stories. It’s faith formation, and it’s affirming leadership, both within and outside of the archdiocese. It’s building church," said Zografos, director of the archdiocese’s Office of Evangelization.
Theme of this year’s event, which will be at Lumen Christi High School, is "Making and Sustaining Disciples for Mission." Discipleship Days is being sponsored by a collaborative effort of the Office of Evangelization and the Office of Stewardship and Development.
Jim Caldarola, Stewardship and Development director, said the stewardship component will offer "some great presenters," including Scott Bader, director of parish stewardship for the Archdiocese of Seattle. Bader will offer several workshops aimed at parishes, including "Renewing Your Stewardship Effort" and "10 Silver Bullets to Increase Your Giving of Treasure, Talent, Time."
And, one of the keynote speakers, Father Carlos Quintana Puente, will present "Christian Stewards: The New Evangelizers."
Father Puente is the director of the Secretariat for the Church in Latin America for the U.S. bishops’ conference.
Other keynoters include Steve Angrisano, a popular Christian musician and storyteller who has attended the Alaska Catholic Youth Conference; John Reid, founder and co-director of The Reid Group, which has been assisting the archdiocese in the development of a five-year pastoral plan; and Dan Misleh, executive director of the Catholic Coalition on Climate Change.
Zografos said last year’s Discipleship Days drew more than 300 participants, and he thinks this year’s will attract at least as many.
"We’ve moved it later into the fall in deference to some of the subsistence folks from the rural areas in the Diocese of Fairbanks," he said. Last year more than 60 people attended from Alaska’s northern diocese.
It’s hard to find a topic of Catholic interest not included. Workshops fall into the categories of education, liturgy, ministry, outreach, prayer, Scripture, stewardship, theology and youth. Saturday will include six workshops presented in Spanish.
Local Catholic Kess Frey will provide a workshop on centering prayer, and Rosemary Insley, director of Holy Spirit Center, will explain "Spiritual Direction: What Is It? How Can It Be Helpful?"
In addition to Steve Angrisano offering "It Is Cool to Be Catholic" and "U Got 2 B U," young Catholics can hear local leaders such as Matthew Beck from the archdiocese’s Youth Evangelization Team and Daughter of Charity Sister Donna Kramer, a former school teacher. Beck and Sister Kramer will discuss ways to find God in Scripture.
Local ministries, including parish nursing and Project Rachel, a group that offers post-abortion healing, will explain who they are and how to become involved.
Father Tom Brundage, the archdiocese’s new judicial vicar, will give a talk on canon law and marriage.
Among other presenters are Michael Prendergast, Oregon Catholic Press’ liturgy specialist and editor of Today’s Liturgy; Joseph Hastings, regional program coordinator for Catholic Relief Services West; and Dr. Mary Jo Iozzio, professor of moral theology from Barry University in Florida, one of last year’s keynoters.
Archbishop Roger Schwietz said that as he made pastoral visits this year, he consistently heard many positive comments about last year’s Discipleship Days and what it meant to the local church.
This year "presents more variety and an even greater number of workshops over last year," the archbishop said.
Registration may be completed online at www.archdioceseofanchorage.org, or through a registration form available at parishes or the pastoral center. Cost is $85 for adults and $25 for youths before Sept. 20; $95 for adults and $30 for youths after. You can also register for one day only, or for the Thursday evening reception, pre-keynote and concert.
Slippery Gulch serves up tasty eats, Mass to fairgoers
PALMER — "Body of Christ, body of Christ, body of Christ," Father Tom Brundage repeated during Eucharist last month, perhaps in a slightly louder tone than usual.
After all, he was speaking over the squeals of nearby thrill-seekers at the Alaska State Fair.
No, the fairgrounds haven’t expanded to the doorstep of St. Michael Parish, where Father Brundage is pastor; rather, the priest was celebrating Mass at the fair.
For St. Michael parishioners, it is tradition to have Mass at Slippery Gulch, the parish’s food vending operation at the largest state fair in Alaska.
Just an hour before Mass on Aug. 26, hamburgers sizzled on the grill, hot chili and homemade soup steamed from pots and a seemingly endless stream of fairgoers swung through the old blue Slippery Gulch shed. They loaded up on everything from homemade pies to grilled peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches.
As the clock approached 10 p.m., the hungry crowd dispersed. Father Brundage then unpacked a mobile Mass kit and transformed a folding table into an altar for Holy Communion.
"This is a little bit like a grotto here," he told about three dozen people seated in the barn-like structure with sawdust flooring. "Wherever the church community gathers, the Lord is also there."
Slippery Gulch is one of the longest-standing food venders at the State Fair. Started 40 years ago, it is a critical fundraiser for St. Michael Parish, annually raising more than $20,000 to help fund parish staff positions, building maintenance projects, charities and other functions.
Each year, as the summer winds down, a parish volunteer army, from grade-schoolers to grandparents, bakes roughly 200 cookies, 300 specialty pies and truckloads of other fair favorites.
It is, however, more than a business.
Amidst the canned carnival music and amusement-minded throngs surrounding Slippery Gulch, the modern marketplace intertwines with the most sacred elements of Catholic faith.
Leon Kuhn remembers driving nails as a young man helping to construct Slippery Gulch. Four decades later, he describes the operation as a community builder — a place where parishioners forge lasting relationships as they dole out massive quantities of food.
It’s also one of the few places where old-timers get to mingle and pass on local church history to youngsters, the 66-year-old Kuhn said.
"It gives the kids a sense of knowing they can run this place," he said. "And they probably will be running it 20 years from now."
"I like coming here because I know everybody," said Ian Rousculp, one of many teenagers who helped man Slippery Gulch this year. "Not only can you work but you also have decent conversations with people while you’re here — that makes work a lot better."
Others said they appreciated getting to work alongside fellow parishioners they rarely see because they attend Mass at different times.
"You see people on a different level," longtime volunteer Carol Kuhn said. "You might see a sophisticated office person in their blue jeans, flippin’ hamburgers."
The Slippery Gulch Mass tradition started many years ago as a way for volunteers to partake of the Eucharist before heading back to work again Sunday morning. It’s become an attraction in its own right.
Shortly before Mass began Aug. 26, Anchorage resident Lyn Dalsfoist took a moment to reflect on the unusual scene.
"It’s really unique," Dalsfoist said. "This is definitely an out of the way setting for Mass."
Cultural exchange: Tanzanian priest visits Mat-Su
Sometimes, a mission experience opens the eyes of both the missionary and those being served.
For the second summer in a row, Catholics in Talkeetna, Willow and Trapper Creek were blessed last month with a missionary priest on loan from the Shinyanga Diocese in the United Republic of Tanzania, a country on the east coast of Africa.
According to the priest, Father Dustan Sitta, the blessings are mutual.
"I am amazed at the kindness and generosity of the people here," he said.
"Because of famine in Tanzania, early in the morning many days there are people at your door and they ask you, ‘Can you give us something to eat?’ You do not get that here in Alaska; here, when you visit they give you food to take home. In Tanzania there is not always something to give."
In Shinyanga, Father Sitta is an associate pastor and the youth director for the 25-parish diocese.
During the week he visits parishes and local schools, talking to youths about issues concerning typical Tanzanian teenagers. This includes HIV-AIDS, famine, persistent drought, gender discrimination, moral education, and globalization and modernization, he said.
In a diocese with an estimated 248,000 Catholics, Father Sitta’s duties also include regular visits to the sick and dying.
"It’s a really great job, a huge job," Father Sitta said. "I thank God for the support from places like here for me to do that."
After spending time in Alaska, Father Sitta said pastoral works surrounding gender equality became especially dear to his heart.
"Our tribe [Sukuma] has favored men for many years; even now our girls are not sent to school. In reality, women are the producers of our communities, but they have no right to work," Father Sitta said.
In the U.S., Father Sitta started cooking for himself.
"Here everybody has those duties," he said. "In Tanzania it is taboo for a man to even be seen in the kitchen."
Father Sitta said his time in the U.S. has given him the strength to teach gender equality and be the voice of the voiceless women in his diocese.
He said he wanted to go on a mission to the U.S. after learning about Pope Paul VI’s visit to Uganda in 1969.
During the visit, the late pope urged priests to go on missions around the world to learn and to teach.
"I really enjoy Alaska," Father Sitta said. "When the people invited me back I was ready for more spiritual growth, to love God and know him through my neighbors. I really learned a lot from here."
The parishioners in Southcentral Alaska said they too learned much from the cross-cultural experience.
"He is so refreshing; it’s so nice to have someone from a different culture whose idea of celebrating Mass is so joyous," said Mary Jo Arterburn of St. Christopher Mission Parish in Willow.
The parish now regularly donates money and supplies to the Shinyanga Diocese.
While in Alaska, Father Sitta incorporated aspects of Tanzanian worship into his Masses. Parishioners sang in Swahili and were encouraged to sing and clap during the liturgy.
Father Sitta said he tried to show Alaskans the rich reverence for God and the enthusiastic spirit of Tanzanian Catholics, especially Tanzanian youth.
"In Alaska, young people do not always come to church. In Tanzania, young people all come to church," he said said. "You must welcome young people in the church, give them what they need."
Father Sitta said worship should encompass one’s whole heart, mind, and body.
"In Tanzania, parishioners don’t mind about the time; Mass is sometimes two to three hours long, and there is much singing and the women are dancing."
Renamary Rauchenstein, parish director at St. Bernard Parish in Talkeetna, said she hopes the Tanzanian priest will be back again.
"Everyone has fallen in love with him; he is so loving, so joyful, so charismatic. He’s opened our eyes as to what is meant by the ‘joy of the Lord,’ " Rauchenstein said.
Father Sitta left Alaska at the end of August to begin his journey back to Tanzania.
News & Notes
International order invites public to annual meeting
The Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem will hold its annual meeting Sept. 15–17 at the Hotel Captain Cook in Anchorage. The worldwide Catholic order supports the activities and institutions of the church in the Holy Land.
A panel discussion on Sept. 16 includes members of the Holy Land Education Committee as well as a talk by Brother David Carroll, undersecretary general of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association, on different perspectives surrounding conflict in the Holy Land. The public is invited to attend the free symposium, beginning at 9:30 a.m. at the hotel. Anchorage Archbishop Roger Schwietz and San Francisco Archbishop George Niederauer will celebrate liturgies during the course of the meeting (see Community Calendar, left); the Anchorage Concert Chorus is providing music. Membership in the order is open to Catholic laymen and laywomen as well as clergy; new members are nominated each year and invested during the annual meeting.
Anchor Notebook
Eight years ago my wife and I moved to Anchorage from Portland, Ore., to begin a grand new adventure. Archbishop Francis Hurley, who retired in 2001, had hired me to help him start a newspaper.
I never expected to take so long to get back to my roots, but the time has finally come. My wife and I, and now our children, too, are returning to Portland this month. This is the last issue of the Anchor I will be editing. I’m going to work for Providence Health and Services, the parent company of the Providence facilities that are so well known and admired here in Southcentral Alaska. The new job includes lots of writing and editing for an organization that makes me proud to be Catholic.
This all happened quickly, although my wife and I have casually pondered ways to return to our hometown for the past few years. We want our children to know their grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, all of whom live in the Portland area. The job with Providence posted in late July, and I was hired in late August. Since then it’s been a whirlwind.
Part of me can’t stand how quickly we’re having to pack up and scoot out of here, hopefully before all this rain turns white. It would be wonderful to retrace earlier journeys to churches around the archdiocese and hug people goodbye and thank them face to face for making me stronger, smarter, wiser, better.
But there are also advantages to getting out of here in a flash. First, giving a proper goodbye to everyone on my list would take another eight years. This collective missive will have to do.
Also, getting gone will facilitate a smoother transition for the paper and the readers. A new editor can come in and make the operation his/her own. (We are hoping to have my replacement hired by the time this issue hits mailboxes.) People’s time is better spent on hellos and welcomes than goodbyes.
It’ll be better for me, too, to jump into the new situation instead of worrying about how I’ll handle rain instead of snow, a mountain here and there instead of mountains everywhere, and Americans instead of Alaskans.
But boy am I going to miss this area and you people and this job. I’ve met the most interesting and inspirational folks in the most beautiful place on earth, and gotten paid to write about it all. I’ve had my mind expanded by people who see the world differently, my spirits lifted by people who joyfully and humbly shoulder the burden of Christ’s love, my body shaken with laughter and dampened with tears at the stories of the people of this archdiocese.
There have been disagreements and disappointments. But thanks to you, my understanding of religion, faith and community has many more layers now. My admiration for active Christian love has been anchored deep and solid, thanks to your example.
I know, too, that I’m a better writer and editor. I have the Anchor’s outstanding editorial team — especially stalwarts Effie Caldarola, Father LeRoy Clementich, Jeannie Bench and Kelly DuFort — and publishers (Archbishops Hurley and Roger Schwietz) to thank for that. Sandy Busch, our amazing advertising manager, has been helping to keep the Anchor affordable from day one. Working together to put out the best newspaper we could each week made us better people and better at our work.
When Providence called to offer me the job, I was standing on the edge of the lower Kenai, trying to get a limit of late-season sockeye. The sun had come out, revealing distant peaks and turning raindrops on the grass and leaves into diamonds.
I’ll never forget the beauty of Alaska’s landscape nor the quality of its people, but there was no hesitation in accepting the job in Portland. It’s a blessing to be able to leave with nothing but gratitude and great memories. Thank you.
— Anchor Editor John Roscoe
Letters to the Editor
There are no letters to the editor for this issue.