December 1, 2006 - Issue #24
Local News | Opinion/Editorials | Letters to the Editor
Local News
Nigerian chaplain aids ailing Alaskans
Father Aloysius Ezenwata is a big man with a bigger laugh.
A member of the Missionaries of St. Paul of Nigeria, the 41-year-old priest is also the newest Catholic chaplain at Providence Alaska Medical Center, where his joyful disposition helps him comfort, anoint and counsel the ill. He also hears confessions, baptizes, celebrates Mass and meets with bereaved families.
Bringing daily Communion to Catholic patients, however, is one important duty he delegates to a faithful core of lay volunteers.
These volunteers, or extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist, have special attributes that are "bedrock," Father Ezenwata said.
"For me, a eucharistic minister has to have strong faith and believe in what you are giving out. The real presence of Jesus Christ — from that everything flows," he said. "You have to have an understanding of how much Jesus loves the sick and the weak. Then you are willing to sacrifice to make that encounter with Jesus happen."
About 13 active ministers work at the hospital but Father Ezenwata said more are needed to avoid overworking the volunteers. It may take one to three hours, for instance, to make the rounds of Catholic patients on any given day. Two or three ministers could share the work, he said.
"One of the problems is, you may go to a room and a nurse is working with a patient, so you wait and come back later," he said. "Sometimes you may go back several times."
The encounters with patients can differ widely.
"Some people are very angry with God because of their illness, or some are feeling it’s a time to reconcile with God. It’s often very comforting to receive the Eucharist," Father Ezenwata said.
So what’s a typical day like?
"If you could ever call it that," Father Ezenwata said with a laugh. On the day he spoke to the Anchor, there were 64 Catholic patients at the hospital and about 24 wanted to receive holy Communion. There were still about 15 to contact.
Errol Kehm, a St. Elizabeth Ann Seton parishioner, has been a eucharistic minister at the hospital for 13 years. He coordinates scheduling.
"It’s a very gratifying mission," said Kehm, who also takes Communion to Mary Conrad Center, a skilled nursing and rehabilitation center.
But, he cautions, hospital eucharistic ministers must know their role, which is taking Communion to the sick, not engaging in counseling. If a minister becomes too involved with a patient, questions may arise that are more appropriately handled by a chaplain who is trained to work with the sick and dying.
"Someone may walk into a room where the patient has just died," Kehm said. "They need to be very discreet." An introduction is in order, and an offer of Communion to the bereaved, "but let somebody that is trained handle the situation."
To become a eucharistic minister at Providence, one must go through training required by all hospital volunteers. This includes learning privacy policies and procedures. Training is offered on Saturdays and one evening a month.
Kehm said it would be practical to have a new volunteer shadow him for a day to make sure they can handle the variety, both spiritual and physical, which they may encounter. But hospital procedures don’t allow for this before a volunteer is trained, so sometimes a minister "goes into three rooms and says, ‘No, I can’t handle this.’ "
Working with Father Ezenwata has been wonderful, Kehm added.
"He is so good. Basically, he’s a traditionalist. And he’s so intelligent and so well educated. It’s just a pleasure."
Father Ezenwata was born in the rain forest region of Nigeria. His order was founded in 1985 by the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria, and today has more than 200 priests, including about 30 who are working in the U.S.
Father Ezenwata, who speaks excellent English with a pleasant accent, came to Detroit in 200l to study clinical pastoral education. He spent more than two years working in a hospital in New Jersey and said he is adjusting well to the cold weather in Alaska.
"So far so good — I’m still moving around," he said.
Actually, he added "I have no problem with cold weather. You can always add more clothes. But when I worked in Chad, it could be 140 degrees in the noonday sun. Now, I say I’m just balancing out that heat in Alaska."
Father Ezenwata was educated in Nigeria and has a master’s degree in Catholic dogmatic theology from Seton Hall University in South Orange, N.J.
Also on staff as a Catholic chaplain at Providence is Sister of St. Joseph of Peace Marilee Murphy, who has been serving there for 21 years.
Covenant House gets a permanent home
A cold but joyous crowd joined in song, praise and silence last month, as partners from across Anchorage reminded homeless youths that they are an important part of the community.
This year’s Covenant House Alaska Candlelight Vigil for Homeless Kids took place at Town Square and highlighted the gifts both given and received.
Catholic Social Services and now-retired Archbishop Francis Hurley first gave a gift of hope to Anchorage’s homeless youths 18 years ago, when CSS provided a building to Covenant House for a rental rate of $1 per year on a 30-year lease. For 18 years, Covenant House Alaska has run a crisis center out of its downtown location.
At this year’s vigil, CSS provided Covenant House with yet another gift — the deed to the building.
"It seemed like the right timing to give them [the deed] with their plans for the future, the candlelight vigil and our own 40th birthday," said Susan Bomalaski, executive director of CSS. "It all came together as the right time for it to happen."
Deirdre Cronin, executive director for Covenant House, graciously received the deed in front of the candlelit crowd that filled Town Square.
"I think it is tremendous that on Catholic Social Service’s 40th birthday they give us a gift," Cronin said. "I think it is so in line with the whole Catholic faith."
Bomalaski and Cronin both mentioned that the timing of the gift seemed right given the changes Covenant House would like to make in the future. When asked about the possible changes, Cronin said that Covenant House has "many strategic plans" under consideration, and they are excited to now make their decisions independently.
"The big difference that I think is significant is that we now have the opportunity to control our own destiny," Cronin said.
Maintenance and other associated costs with the building have always been covered out of Covenant House’s budget, so the deed change has less to do with finances and more to do with autonomy and independence.
While Covenant House works hand in hand with many of the shelters in Anchorage, including those run by CSS, it is not part of CSS or the archdiocese. The gift of the building deed signifies its growth into a stable, established and independent operation.
Those present at the vigil participated in Covenant House’s winter clothing drive; hats, gloves and winter coats were donated by members of the community so that more than 3,000 of Anchorage’s homeless youths can stay warm this winter. Cronin invited those at the vigil to come to the newly owned crisis center building to warm up, drink hot cocoa and learn how to continue helping homeless youths.
"Kids have a need, kids have a right to feel wanted and to feel they belong, to feel safe," Cronin said. "We want to raise awareness because we need your help. There is still work to be done."
Ursula, whose last name was withheld, is a 20-year-old participating in Covenant House’s Rights of Passage program that helps homeless youths transition to independent living. She spoke to the crowd at the vigil and explained how Covenant House’s gift of a safe place to live and grow has allowed her to give more of herself to others through her work, especially to her mother, who is also homeless.
"I am no longer supporting her addiction, but I am now being a supportive daughter," Ursula said to the crowd. "Covenant House has helped me with my long-term goals, and belief in myself. I did not decide to be homeless, but I did make a choice of my own — the good direction my life is going to take."
A mission of the heart
After hearing Paulist Father Alex Busuttil give a talk in Anchorage last year about his mission work, St. Benedict parishioner Arlene Patuc jumped at the chance to experience the mission for herself. Last March, Patuc traveled to Arequipa, Peru, to visit Father Busuttil’s mission, Blessed Teresa of Calcutta Parish, and work with residents of Alto Cayma, a collection of 35 impoverished settlements outside the city. She shared her story with Anchor writer Maia Nolan.
Arequipa is actually a town of a million people, which is just amazing. Father Alex’s mission is in the hills. His parish serves about 22,000 people, and it’s miles and miles. He’s in the foothills of the Andes. Most of the people in his parish are incredibly poor. A small plot of dirt — that’s what the people strive to own. The houses are usually just stone and brick — whatever they can get. There’s no running water. They usually go somewhere and get jobs for the day, and if they have a successful day then they can eat that night.
They’re incredible knitters. They make amazing sweaters — just amazing. Whenever someone goes down, they usually take sweaters with color swatches and stuff and try to help them out. They were so sweet to me … (one) knitted me a little lamb just as a thank-you for coming. And I had done nothing. They were just really grateful.
When Becky (Varner, who introduced me to Father Busuttil) first started going down there, they had no church in which to hold Mass, and he would say Mass in the streets. The square would be filled with people. He started very, very simply, with nothing.
He’s taken nothing and built two churches. They teach lessons so (the people) can learn woodworking skills. He started a day care. They get a hot meal. He asks for a donation to pay for his workers; it’s a minimal amount.
He serves meals to almost 650 people a day. It’s a huge amount of people. They take buckets of food … to distribution sites. People come with their containers and the food is ladled into their containers. They ask for a donation to help pay towards the meals.
He has built, in his parish, a volunteer house to encourage people to come and stay for as long as they want. They can help in so many ways. He’s very welcoming of anybody that wants to come. The people are so wonderful.
These ladies make cards and sell them. They’re just incredible. You could frame them. They are required … to put a percentage away in savings that only the girls can access. Many of the girls have been able to purchase land and start their homes because of the savings. They’re saving more than they ever dreamed.
Father Alex always worries that he is going to run out of money. It’s about $50 per person per year to maintain this. He says, "I have difficulty having reserve funds to help families in need when I want to feed our families too."
In Peru, to get medical care, you have to have the money to pay for it or they won’t treat you. Even if you need emergency surgery, you have to buy the supplies before they do the surgery. Being a nurse, that’s the thing that affected me a lot, was that if you needed surgery, if you needed emergency surgery, that once you bought all the supplies, then you could have it, if you survived to that. The women deliver in the home, and one of the things (Father Busuttil) had said is that $35 will allow them to deliver in a hospital. What I’ve done for a gift (for pregnant co-workers) … part of their baby gift was a donation in their name so that someone could have a birth in a hospital. I was able to teach a neonatal resuscitation course. That was really neat.
We went into a home to deliver food to an elderly woman, and she was all by herself. There were stone walls, and blankets on the walls to try to keep the cold out — and we were there in the summer. When I asked the priest about her he said, "she has no one … She doesn’t have family. Her family is dead, and she relies on my meals to feed her." She was probably in her 70s. So here she is, she can barely walk, in a house that’s more of a hovel, and these meals — she relies on them to survive.
There was another set of ladies that just really touched me … two sisters. The older of the two was in bed. They said she had fallen last fall and ever since then had not been able to walk. She had never had an X-ray. The thought is that she had probably fractured her hip. She’d never had an X-ray because they didn’t have the money. So she’s bedridden because she had fallen and she can’t walk.
It’s just — we have so much in the United States. I just think of how many $20 meals or $10 meals or $10 movies that you just go to and you don’t think anything of it. Whereas $50 — I mean, five movies — will feed a person for a year down there. There is so much need.
I wish I could have done more.
News & Notes
Natural Family Planning courses offered
Natural Family Planning offers two Billings Ovulation Method classes in Anchorage. The first class will be at 7 p.m. Dec. 5 at Providence Alaska Medical Center. The one-time cost is $20. For more information or to register, call Rachael at 770-0444 or leave a message at 297-7740. A follow-up class is set for 7 p.m. Dec. 19. Classes are held on the first and third Tuesdays of every month. Those unable to attend can call to schedule a different time. Personal instruction is also available online at www.woomb.org/bom/teaching/learningBOM.html. More information is available at www.archdioceseofanchorage.org/NFP.htm.
Find holiness, humor at retreat
The Holy Spirit Retreat Center is hosting a retreat called "Spirituality Through Humor," from Jan. 26 to 28. The retreat will be presented by Sister Anne Bryan Smollin, an author and international lecturer on wellness and spirituality. The retreat weekend will focus on elements of Smollin’s latest book, "Live, Laugh and Be Blessed; Finding Humor and Holiness in Everyday Moments." Throughout the book, she shares stories from all religious traditions. Sister Smollin’s retreat will emphasize that a certain joy comes from God and can be found in everyday life. Sister Smollin is executive director of Counseling for Laity in the Diocese of Albany, N.Y., which offers guidance for married couples, families, adults and adolescents. She also serves as a therapist, consultant to hospitals and adjunct professor at several colleges. She is the author of four books. The cost for the retreat is $225 (single), $155 (double) and $135 (commuter). A $75 deposit is due by Jan. 18.
Nonprofit offers Medicare help
Information about 2007 Medicare Part D prescription coverage is available to all parishioners on Medicare through Catholic Golden Age. Call 1-866-825-4210 for enrollment information. Catholic Golden Age is a national, nonprofit association dedicated to enriching the lives of Catholics seniors. By offering material and spiritual benefits, they aim to bring purpose, meaningful activity and spiritual growth into the lives of all elder Catholics. Since their inception in 1975, over 1.2 million people have enrolled as members of CGA.
Christmas toy collection starts
The Advent Christmas Toy Collection starts Dec. 3. Unwrapped gift item can be brought to church during Advent for a child in need. Unwrapped gifts should be placed in the Christmas collection container located in the parish. Items for infants and teenagers are especially needed. All items will be distributed by Catholic Social Services at the GIFT Holiday Outreach project, from 6 to 9 p.m. Dec. 18 to 22, at the ACS Warehouse, 600 Telephone Drive. For more information, contact Ellen Krsnak at 297-7753 or ellen.krsnak@cssalaska.org.
Fun for middle school students
The Middle School Winter Blast will be from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Dec. 16. Events begin at Holy Family Cathedral and end at the Dimond Center Cinemas. The cost is $18 and covers bowling, skating and a movie. The event is a program of the Archdiocese of Anchorage Youth Evangelization Team. For more information, call Matthew Beck at (907) 745-3229 or e-mail stmikes@pobox.mtaonline.net.
Teens invited to Triathablast
The Youth Evangelization Team of the Archdiocese of Anchorage is hosting an afternoon of fun and games for high school students. Sledding, dodge ball and swimming at H2Oasis are scheduled for Dec. 22. The cost is $20. For more information, call Matthew Beck at (907) 745-3229 or e-mail stmikes@pobox.mtaonline.net.
Editorials
Honor intent of the law
Last year, the Alaska Supreme Court overturned a lower court decision and mandated that the state and the Municipality of Anchorage provide the same employment benefits to same-sex partners of public employees as they do for married partners. With the deadline to implement the new benefits a month away (Jan. 1), the highly disputed ruling has stirred considerable debate.
In issuing their opinion, the Alaska Supreme Court ruled that withholding employment benefits from same-sex partners violated their right, under the Alaska Constitution, to equal protection under the law.
In order for same-sex partners to prove that their right to equal protection was violated, the court said they must first demonstrate that they were in similar situations to those who receive benefits.
The basic argument goes like this: Same-sex couples and unmarried opposite-sex couples are in similar life situations. However, opposite-sex couples can opt to extend employment benefits to their partners by getting married, whereas same-sex couples cannot marry and therefore cannot take advantage of employment benefits reserved for married couples.
The Alaska Supreme Court agreed with this reasoning. In unpacking the logic of the argument, however, it is clear that same-sex and unmarried opposite-sex partners are not in similar situations, at least not according to the state’s constitution.
In 1998, Alaska voters (with the support of Alaska bishops) overwhelmingly passed an amendment to the state constitution, defining marriage as "only between one man and one woman." With the passage of this amendment, same-sex partners are, by definition, not in the same situation as opposite-sex partners because the option for marriage is constitutionally illegal for them, just as it is for close family relatives.
With the Marriage Amendment firmly in place, the state and city told the Alaska Supreme Court that their practice of providing employment benefits to married couples is intended to attract qualified state employees and to promote marriage for the good of society. Again, that is marriage between a man and a woman.
Historically, by extending employment benefits to married couples, governments have recognized the invaluable role and function that marriage plays in the continuation of a state or nation.
When Alaskans amended the constitution to define marriage as between a man and a woman, it seemed clear that they did not simply intend for marriage to be a meaningless title without benefits. Why amend the constitution over semantics?
Other titles such as veteran, senior citizen and guardian all entail special benefits and rights.
It is only sensible to hold that Alaskans intended marriage to be a legal definition that could guide current and future legislation.
For centuries, men and women have united together to procreate and raise their children within the bonds of marriage. Husbands and wives instill values and morals in their children — the next generation of citizens. The state has a vested interest in promoting marriage between a man and a woman. Without them creating and rearing children, society would literally die off.
Numerous studies also point to many benefits for children who grow up in stable marriages, where both father and mother are present.
By forcing the state and city to extend employee benefits to the same-sex partners, the Alaska Supreme Court has thwarted the intent of the 1998 Marriage Amendment, as well as one of the state’s original intentions behind providing the benefits: to promote marriage between a man and a woman. In the interest of government by the people, for the people, the Alaska Supreme Court owes the citizens of Alaska an opportunity to clarify the intent of the Marriage Amendment.
To this end, the state Legislature passed a bill last month requiring a statewide advisory vote on April 3. The purpose is to ask Alaskans whether a second constitutional amendment should go before voters in 2008 to prohibit the government from providing employment benefits to same-sex partners.
A second bill, also passed by the Legislature last month, prohibiting the state’s commissioner of administration from implementing the court’s order to provide same-sex benefits without first getting specific statutory authority from the Legislature. This law requires 90 days before taking effect but the high court ought to honor the pending law and extend its deadline until the people have spoken.
As we travel down life’s path, we may need to do road work
Perhaps it is my imagination, but it seems that during the past summer there has been more road building and street repair in Anchorage than in any other time I remember. Parts of Arctic Boulevard, which I often like to take to work because it winds through Valley of the Moon Park, have been closed for months. Of course, without all this work we would be complaining about potholes and broken axles.
I often stand in awe of those men and women in their dust- and tar-covered Carhartts, wheeling Caterpillar D-8s around as though they were Tinkertoys. I trust that they are well paid for their efforts.
In my days as a teenager, I often fantasized about running one of those machines, but alas, I was ultimately relegated to "wheeling" my father’s John Deere tractor up and down the fields as we prepared for the annual harvest. So, after all these years, I find that I need to be satisfied with finding scriptural and theological implications for this road work activity of shaving off hills and filling in valleys. All of it is ultimately about human progress in whatever form.
Human progress, of course, has to do with getting from one place to another: Roads, trails, paths and highways have had much to do with the progress of civilization.
Even Christianity and its development over the years is indebted to the great Roman road system which assisted in bringing missionaries like Peter and Paul and all those others from the East to the West. I’m sure they must often have given thought to those uncounted numbers of slaves who, with bent backs, put millions and millions of pieces of rock in place for horse and chariot to pass. (The ancient Appian Way outside Rome is used for transportation to this very day.)
It is interesting to note in this context that the Hebrew Scriptures speak often of "the way of life" or "the path of life" or "life’s ways." It’s all about making one’s way to God’s kingdom.
Many of the stories that Jesus told often described situations that happened on the way, along the dangerous road from Jerusalem to Jericho, for instance. Jesus’ own way took him from Nazareth, through the Galilean hills and ultimately to a hill named Calvary.
We are hearing these metaphors about wayfaring in the Scriptures for the Second Sunday of Advent partly because we are in the early stages of a new liturgical year, which will ultimately steer us through succeeding Sundays until we once again reach the end of the road on the Feast of Christ the King next November.
With that in mind, we listen to those two ancient "earth-mover" prophets, Baruch and John the Baptist as they warn the people of their time that our life’s human pathways consistently need to be filled in and smoothed out. It’s a metaphor not about dirt and rock but about whatever prevents us from living in such a way that our eternal goal in life can be achieved with peace of mind and gentleness of conscience.
In any age of human life we need such disturbers of the peace to harangue us a little because, if we are honest, we will need to admit that, like most roads and highways we drive, our life’s ways are often filled with potholes, blind curves and steep hills. In other words, the metaphorical business of shaving off, filling in and straightening out is a constant need that we have as we make our way through life.
Because we are Christian, of course, our faith reminds us that life is never a dead-end road. There is never a flag-waving person standing along the road telling us that we can go no further. Jesus, after all, has been down that road before us, waving us on. "The kingdom is just down the road a piece," he says.
The writer is archdiocesan director of Pastoral Education. He also serves as canonical pastor and coordinator of parishes without resident pastors.
Letters to the Editor
CO2 has many sources
Among the items listed as contributing to global warming in the Oct. 20 issue of the Catholic Anchor ("Global warming heats up St. Pat’s"), I failed to notice any allusion to another source of carbon dioxide: living beings.There must be about 5 to 6 billion persons in the world who regularly contribute their quota of CO2 to the atmosphere, an amount which equals or almost equals the quantities put out by industry.
This does not include carbon dioxide from respiration from animal species on land or in the sea, nor transpiration by plants.
Anchorage
Priest shouldn’t complain
Father Ron Rolheiser’s Oct. 20 column ("Some seem to forget that priests also struggle with life’s issues") codifies the problems with the church today. While the faithful deal with the improper sexual transgressions of some priests, he wants the faithful to risk a "new direction." No new direction is required.Father Rolheiser knew when he joined the priesthood that the gift of celibacy was one of the spiritual challenges he would need to endure. He has been struggling with his life issues (sex/boredom) for over 10 years. He is unhappy with his position in life. He has two choices: He can leave the priesthood and join the rest of us, or he can stay in the priesthood and unselfishly live up to his vows. Unless and until priests can marry (which is OK with me), I want priests to follow the basic precepts of the Catholic church, abide by their vows and stop whining about their own self-control predicaments.
Anchorage