February 23, 2007 - Issue #4
Local News | Opinion/Editorials | Letters to the Editor
Local News
Entering the Catholic faith
Converts recall paths ‘home’
In a cynical age, what draws a person to the Catholic Church – the faith of Masses, mystics and miracles?
The Anchor asked several people who are joining the church, or have recently joined, to share their faith journey.
Mary Ellen Cunningham will be baptized at the Easter vigil at Our Lady of the Angels Parish in Kenai.
It’s the culmination of many years of experiencing a persistent call, she said.
"I started out as a Baptist, but my mother eventually joined the Mormon Church," Cunningham said. "I rebelled. It just wasn’t right for me."
Cunningham, who loves to travel, noted that her travel journals reflect a continual pull toward Catholic churches no matter where she visited.
"I remember being in Westminster Cathedral in London (the Catholic cathedral near the Anglican Abby) and it felt so peaceful." In France, it was the same.
"There’s something I’m supposed to find out about here," she remembers thinking, and when she returned to Kenai she finally phoned the parish.
Now, "it just feels that I’m right where I’m supposed to be."
Karen Timmers of St. Bernard in Talkeetna has an unusual explanation for what’s bringing her and her five children into the church at the Easter vigil.
"It was the daily prayer — probably multiple times daily — of my mother-in-law," laughs Timmers.
"If you would have told me a few years ago I’d be joining the Catholic Church, I would have said you were crazy."
Timmers’ husband was raised Roman Catholic. Both Timmers, however, attended another church in Talkeetna for some time.
But John Timmers’ mother was persistent. She sent a copy of "Rome Sweet Home," the conversion story of Scott and Kimberly Hahn.
Timmers read the book "and agreed with everything they said." She began to think about the long history of the Church and the continuity it provides.
Timmers said her husband is "very happy" that his family will be joining the church. She expects that he, too, will begin attending the Catholic Church with them.
For many people, the call to Catholicism comes in the form of a desire for family unity. The National Conference of Catholic Bishops reports 40-50 percent of Catholic marriages today are between a Catholic and a non-Catholic. Sometimes, that leads to a spouse joining the church.
That desire for religious harmony led Jennifer Tungul of Unalaska to seek baptism at St. Christopher-by-the-Sea. She met her future husband, a Catholic, in high school, and they’ve been together for thirteen years, married for five."I’ve been thinking about it for years," Tungul said. She goes to church with her family, but now her two small children are beginning to notice that mommy doesn’t go to Communion and they’re wondering why.
Now, she’s "really looking forward to joining the Church. It will produce a unity in our family."
A similar impulse drove Kip Layton, Jr., school principal at Clark’s Point, to study the faith with Father Scott Garrett, the pastor there and at Holy Rosary in Dillingham.
"I’ve been married to Irene for 13 years and going to church services with her. I’m tired of not being able to participate fully."
The former Baptist said he appreciates how the Catholic Church emphasizes the communal aspects of faith – that we are all brothers and sisters in the same family.
His wife, Layton said, "exposed me to it. But she never pushed me or asked me to join. She just set a good example."
That example was rewarded Feb. 16, when the Laytons’ marriage was blessed in the Catholic Church, and Kip Layton was confirmed and received Holy Communion for the first time alongside his wife.
True love brought Amber Leach of Eagle River to consider the Catholic Church – but at her own pace.
"When we got serious I told him I didn’t believe anything the Catholic Church taught," said Leach about her boyfriend.
But like Kip Layton’s wife, Leach’s friend, a member of the Knights of Columbus, was patient.
"We both agreed we didn’t believe in two-religion families," she said. "I’m a very confident, out-spoken person, especially when it comes to faith – the foundation of my life."
Slowly, she began going to Mass with her Knight, and Father Leo Walsh and the people of St. Andrew Parish, whom she terms "absolutely phenomenal," began to win her over.
Still, it took two years before she decided to attend classes.
"I didn’t agree with everything," she said. "And I still don’t agree with everything. But I feel I’ve found my church home and it’s scripturally sound."
Debi Fox joined the church at Sacred Heart in Wasilla last year. She’d been an evangelical Protestant for 25 years, and like Timmers, Fox claims the Catholic Church "wasn’t on my radar screen at all. If someone said five years ago I’d become a Catholic, I wouldn’t have believed them."
But she found herself questioning "the lack of authoritative teaching" in Protestant churches.
"How and why do these pastors know they’re saying the right thing?"
At the same time, she was exposed to EWTN, a Catholic cable network "and began watching it almost obsessively. I thought ‘wait a minute, I believe what these people are saying.’"
"I started spending enormous amounts of money on books and finally had the guts to step into the Catholic Church."
Fox has an 18-year-old daughter studying for a certificate in youth ministry in a Pentecostal bible school in Australia, a 20-year-old son "leaning toward the Catholic Church" and a husband "who is very supportive even though he doesn’t understand."
A thread running through the stories of these new Catholics is the support they felt from those who taught them and the parish families who welcomed them.
Alaska abortions drop slightly
The 1,923 abortions reported in Alaska during 2006 represent a slight decrease from the number performed in 2005. The overall total, however, does not take into account women who travel out of state for abortions. In 2005 for example, 234 Alaskans obtained abortions in Washington State alone.
According to the Alaska Bureau of Vital Statistics, nearly 80 percent of Alaska abortions were for unmarried women in 2006. Nationally, unmarried women account for 82 percent of all abortions.
College-age women were also the most likely to obtain abortions in Alaska. Last year, women, ages 18 to 24, accounted for 47 percent of Alaska abortions. The trend matches previous years.
The annual Alaska report states that, suction curettage was the method used for 77 percent of abortions in 2006 — by far the most common procedure. According to the report, suction curettage entails inserting a small hollow tube through the cervix to suck the unborn life from the uterus.
Alaska law requiring annual abortion reporting began in 2003 as a way for the state to monitor abortion trends, types of abortions performed, and characteristics of women at risk for unintended pregnancies.
Released by the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services earlier this month, the data also serves to evaluate the effectiveness of family planning programs and efforts that aim to prevent unintended pregnancies – those that are unwanted. According to the report, 50 percent of unintended pregnancies end in abortion in the United States.
The publication offers a comprehensive picture of abortion statewide, while protecting the confidentiality of all patients and abortion providers.
Hospitals, clinics, and other institutions that perform abortions must submit their annual statistics. The data they provide, however, cannot be used to identify the locations where abortions occured.
According to the report, most Alaska abortions (59.6 percent) were performed on women who had never had an abortion before. Slightly less Alaskan women (56.1 percent), who received abortions in 2006, had already given birth to at least one child.
From the financial side, publicly funded payment through Medicaid was the most common way of paying for abortions in the state. Slightly more than 40 percent of the state’s abortions were paid for with public funds. This represents an increase over 2005, when only 34 percent of Alaska abortions were paid for through Medicaid.
For more information, the complete state report is available online at www.hss.state.ak.us/DPH/bvs/data/.
— Anchor Staff
Catholic homeschooling expands
Members of the Catholic homeschooling community have noticed that their ranks are growing, both in number and visibility.
The change is a welcome development for Anchorage Archbishop Roger Schwietz who celebrated the annual homeschool Mass earlier this month at Holy Family Cathedral.
An estimated 60 to 70 children turned out for the yearly Mass. As in years past, a level of reverence marked the event, which Archbishop Schwietz said he finds typical of the homeschool community.
They are really fine young people," the archbishop told the Anchor. "I find them to be well socialized and well behaved — good young people."
He noted that many home-schooled children also end up considering a calling to religious life or to the priesthood.
"It’s because they take their faith seriously as a group and they encourage their young people to think about the possibility," he added. "I think that is going to continue to give us some vocations in the future."
Archbishop Schwietz started the annual homeschool Mass four years ago as a way to further connect that community to the life of the church.
"They are beginning to impact the Catholic community in Alaska more and more," he said. "They have much to bring to the church. They are very serious about educating their children well in the faith and in such a way that they are very respectful of the sacraments and their clergy. These are really positive models for other youth also."
Longtime Alaska homeschool mom, Pam Raygor, said she has a list of about 100 Catholic homeschooling families in Anchorage and surrounding areas.
"And that’s just the tip of the iceberg," she said. "The majority of independent homeschoolers are not reflected in that number."
Historically, a large number of Catholic homeschoolers have used classics-based curriculum that draws from the traditional literature, philosophy and theology of Western education, Raygor explained. The rigorous academics often provides a solid foundation in the faith.
In terms of organization, the homeschool community is largely united through various parish groups, working both independently and together for larger events.
Raygor said she knows of several organized Catholic homeschool groups at St. Benedict, St. Patrick and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton churches in Anchorage. There is also a Mat-Su Valley group and one that meets at St. Andrew Church in Eagle River.
Todd Smith and his wife homeschool their children in Eagle River. With one child now in college and two still at home, Smith said it can be a lot of extra work to homeschool but the rewards are worth it.
"The biggest thing that homeschooling allows is the freedom to choose how you want to educate your kids," he said. "It can be frustrating at times but just like anything in life, the best things aren’t easy to come by. You only get one shot with your kids – only one time through."
Raygor noted, however, that while homeschooling is a great blessing for some, it is not for all families or children. For this reason, she said she is grateful to Archbishop Schwietz for his support of Catholic schools as well.
"Parents have to make this choice and we need to support them," she said.
Those who want more information about Catholic homeschool groups and activities in Alaska can contact Raygor at (907) 248-0376.
Alaska’s Catholics and Orthodox work toward fuller unity
This is part one of two in which the Anchor will address the leaders of both the Catholic and Russian Orthodox churches in Alaska about their work towards fuller unity. In this issue, Catholic Archbishop of Anchorage Roger Schwietz shares his views regarding the Orthodox Church in Alaska. For the next issue, the Anchor plans to speak with Bishop Nikolai Soraich, head of the Orthodox Church of Alaska.
Could you describe the relationship between the Orthodox and Catholic churches in Alaska?
"The Orthodox Church was the church that first brought Christianity to Alaska. So they were here for a long time before the Catholic Church became established. The Orthodox established their communities along the coast of Alaska and those communities continue. Very often the extent of the relationship between the Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church depended on the individual bishops and how much time they were interested in putting into the relationship. Since Bishop Nikolai was installed here, there has been a real leap in the relationship. He has been very open to developing that relationship. Part of it is because he has worked with Catholics. He grew up in the U.S. He’s taught in a Catholic school, so he’s used to working with Catholics in various venues. When he arrived we began a relationship that was cordial and respectful. He invited me to his formal instillation in Sitka and I have invited him to attend various services.
Why is it important to collaborate with the Orthodox Church in Alaska?
We are both very much aware of what is happening in the universal church. Both Pope John Paul II and now Pope Benedict XVI have made efforts to begin to bridge the gap between the Orthodox and the Roman Catholics. That has always been an important issue for me too and I was glad to welcome the opportunity to begin, on the local level, to try to foster that growing relationship. Bishop Nikolai is in the same line of thought because he is aware of the workings of the Orthodox Church in Russia. He has that same sense, that a growing relationship on the local level between the Orthodox and the Roman Catholics will assist in a, hopefully, eventual reunification of the church.
Does Alaska have a unique place in this effort to foster a more global unification?
The history of the Orthodox Church in Alaska gives us a unique opportunity to do some things together. There were some Orthodox saints that ministered here in Alaska and we are planning to do a common pilgrimage to Russia in order to visit some of the holy places in Russian Orthodoxy that are related to Alaska.
Are there any areas where the Catholic and Orthodox churches have worked together in Alaska on cultural or social issues.
We have not worked on those kinds of projects as of yet. We are just beginning to work on one that Bishop Nikolai is interested in. The idea is to have a general gathering of youth and adults to address what the churches can do to help at-risk youth. That is one area where he is interested in working with us. He is aware of many at-risk youth in the villages. I think that is going to be the first one that we will be able to cooperate with.
How does work at the local level move the global churches towards fuller unity?
One of the issues that Bishop Nikolai and I have talked about is that if this is to move forward, it’s got to be taking place on the local level as well as in the higher echelons, precisely because there is still a lot of misunderstanding between the ordinary clergy, both the Catholic and the Orthodox who are concerned about what is going on in the parishes. If we can foster a little more openness so we can grow in understanding of each other and help clear up misunderstandings, then I think we can create a much more positive atmosphere that would enable some of the people on the highest levels to move forward. I know from our discussions that the people on the higher levels of discussions are concerned about how they are perceived by the ordinary people, especially the clergy. How can they bring the clergy along in this process? It will never work if you don’t have the whole church working together.
What aspects of the Orthodox Church do you appreciate and what do you think Catholics in Alaska could learn from their Orthodox brothers and sisters?
I think they have retained a sense of the sacred and have kept that in relation to the sacraments better than we and I think we need to rediscover that somewhat. I think we are in the process of rediscovering it but they can bring some of that to our consciousness. The sense of devotion that they have is something we used to have, too, but so many people have lost that. One thing that strikes me is that they have such great reverence for icons. There is a growing interest in icons in the Roman Catholic Church as well. I think it could be through a growing reverence and appreciation of icons that we might be able to grow together in developing our growing piety."
Is there anything you want to ad?
One of the things I really appreciate in my relationship with Bishop Nikolai is that we can get together in a relaxed atmosphere over supper or lunch and talk about issues that we are dealing with in our local churches. Because we are so similar in terms of the sacraments and our history, it is easy to understand each other and be supportive of each other. I have found him to be a great support in my own ministry as a bishop. Likewise we have been able to support him in his ministry as well. One of the more practical ways is letting him use our airplane from time to time. Bishop Nikolai asked at one point if he could occasionally use our plane to get to some of these remote villages and we have been glad to let him use it. He has been out three or four times on one-day trips. He uses it when we are not using it and it helps him in his ministry and it helps to develop our ministry.
Legislators seek statewide vote on same-sex benefits
Several members of the Alaska House of Representatives introduced a resolution that, if passed by a two-thirds vote of the legislature, would allow Alaskans to vote on a constitutional amendment to define exactly who is eligible for state funded health benefits.
In a press release Feb. 14, Representative Mike Kelly, R-Fairbanks said the resolution will "put to a vote of the people in the 2008 general election, a constitutional amendment that if passed will once again make it clear that the rights, benefits and obligations of marriage extend only to those unions recognized in this state, a marriage between one man and one woman."
According to Kelly, the resolution (HJR 9) is necessary to further clarify the intent of Alaska voters when they overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment in 1998 to define marriage as between one man and one woman.
As of Jan. 1 of this year, under court orders, the state was mandated to offer medical benefits to same-sex partners of public employees. The ruling resulted from a case in 2005 in which the Alaska Supreme Court ruled that it was a violation of equal protection for the state and the city of Anchorage to offer benefits to married couples, while withholding them from same sex partners of public employees.
Critics of the court’s ruling argue that it amounts to defying the will of the people of Alaska, who already stated that same-sex couples cannot be legally recognized through marriage.
"This resolution restates for our Supreme Court, what should have been clear when Alaskans overwhelmingly passed Alaska’s defense of marriage amendment in 1998, which defined marriage as between one man and one woman," Kelly argued.
He added that it is unfortunate Alaskans must spend time and money to again send the message to five judges who would "like us to believe they have the power to make law, appropriate funds and enact regulation."
"In doing so they disrespect the people of Alaska and the Executive and Legislative branches of government," Kelly added. "Passing this Constitutional Amendment will correct the Court’s bizarre interpretation of the Constitution spelling it out even more clearly for them."
The proposed resolution comes with less than two months before a scheduled statewide April 3 advisory vote in which Alaskans will be asked whether they believe the state legislature should vote to bring a constitutional amendment to Alaska voters in 2008. If passed by voters in 2008, the propose amendment would prohibit the state from offering employee benefits to same-sex partners of state employees.
Supporters of a constitutional amendment claim the April 3 advisory vote will give state legislators a clear picture as to whether Alaskans want to move forward with a future vote.
— Anchor staff
News & Notes
Talk spotlights designer babies
Kimberly Zenarolla, executive vice president for National Pro-Life Action, is scheduled to speak March 1 at Anchorage Archdiocese’ Theology on Tap program. Zenarolla will explore topics of designer babies, eugenics and frozen embryos. The Anchorage event takes place at 7:30 p.m. in Snow Goose Restaurant on Third Ave.
Novena of Grace
Holy Spirit Center will host a nine-day St. Francis Xavier: Novena of Grace, March 4-12. Participants can pray for their needs or the needs of loved ones. For more information call, 346-2343. Prayers will take place daily at noon and again at 7 p.m.
Column
Pilgrims have long sought God on the highest mountain tops
On the wall of my office at the pastoral center in Anchorage I have a number of photos of myself and some friends with whom I once climbed mountains during my young and crazy days: The Matterhorn, Mt. Blanc, mountains in Mexico with unpronouncable names, peaks in Wyoming and Colorado. People who come in and look at those photos say to me, "Hey, you were a pretty brave guy in those days." I say to them: "Listen, let me tell you, I was scared to death every time I went up."
In fact my best friend, Jim Schulz, a priest, lost his hold on a mountain in Colorado and fell to his death. Despite that accident, I still kept doing that stuff until age and better sense caught up with me.
I must say, however, that there is something mysteriously fascinating about climbing to high places. People have been doing it for religious motives since biblical times. The traditional route up Mt. Sinai has been worn smooth over the years by the sandal-feet of pilgrims.
I would be less than honest with you, of course, if I told you that I did all this because, like Jesus, I wanted "to go up to pray." Far from it: It was simply a macho thing to do. I wanted to be another Sir Edmund Hillary.
Nonetheless, with all honesty, I must also admit that even though I did not do much praying on peaks, there was always a deep and overwhelming sense of the mystery of God’s greatness and my smallness. I could only describe it as an experience of the holy.
Given all that, it occurred to me as I read the gospel for the Second Sunday of Lent that Jesus seemed to have had a similar experience of the sacred with some friends on a "high mountain." Christians have traditionally called it the Transfiguration because the biblical text tells us that while Jesus was praying his face "changed," indeed, perhaps his entire being. The author does not tell us how Jesus "looked." He just became different when he began to pray. His friends could tell simply by looking at him.
I have always been fascinated when reading the Gospels to note that whenever Jesus wanted to pray, he would "head out of town." He would go to hidden places, the desert or up on a mountainside. I hesitate to say that Jesus did this simply to get some privacy so that he could pray. He could have prayed anywhere.
What I think was happening so often in his life was that he could only contemplate his relation to God in silence. Hence, the high and desert places.
In that sense then, there would seem to be a difference between simply praying and experiencing God. Unfortunately for us, sometimes praying can become a mechanical process: We "say the beads" or we "say our prayers," or we "pray a novena." Hopefully, of course, those can be the context for a God-experience, but given the tendency for us always to want to "do" things and the danger that our minds tend to drift, one can never be sure whether true contemplation is happening.
Perhaps the answer to our need for contemplation, therefore, should be geographical, heading off to our private space, just to be there, nothing more and there letting God be God. I am reminded of an old axiom from the East which says: "Don’t just do something stand there." Unfortunately, we Westerners are not good at "standing there."
So, following Jesus’ practice of going to "out of the way places" to find God, we Christians might do well to find our own "virtual mountain." There will be no need to worry about falling off. Our complete attention can be on God and God on us.
Editorials
Preserving dignity is key amidst abortion protests
To what extent should we go to prevent abortion in this country? It is certainly horrific and inhuman to rip unborn human life from its womb only to discard it as garbage. Nevertheless, we still have to grapple with the fact that there are limits to how we should protest this murderous act.
In the next few weeks, well-meaning pro-life advocates will begin driving a "Truth Truck" through the streets of Anchorage. A brainchild of Operation Rescue, "Truth Truck" is the size of a large moving van. Images of aborted and mangled human bodies line to the outside of the truck. The sight of these tiny broken bodies is both stark and revolting.
According the Truth Truck Web site, their goal is to "not only document but display the American Holocaust as it’s happening in virtually every American city you can name."
Anchorage Archbishop Roger Schwietz has declined to give Truth Truck organizers permission to park their trucks on Catholic Church property or to seek permission from local priests to recruit truck drivers for their cause.
His reasoning is clear. The Archbishop is firmly pro-life but the injustice of abortion does not merit using the discarded bodies of the dead to shock and horrify the public to its gruesome reality. It is dishonoring to the dead, Archbishop Schwietz maintains.
Perhaps a parallel can be drawn to how we remember the horror of German Holocaust of the Jews in World War II.
Those atrocities are not ignored. Instead people erect highly visible monuments, list names of the dead, and build public museums. It is difficult to know to what extent we should go to bring an end to abortion but in all the deliberations we must maintain the dignity of the living and the dead, of the women who choose abortion and the lives that are so violently ended.
In a final comment, it should also be noted that it is easy to criticize abortion opponents as "fanatics" or "crazies" but we should all be careful that we are not sitting in the seat of mockers and judgment while doing nothing to end America’s barbarous affair with abortion. It was, after all, a bit disheartening for many pro-life advocates to see how few people turned out for the recent Knights of Columbus prayer service where roughly 80 people prayed for an end to abortion.
Faithful yet intellectually free
In certain circles and periodicals, it is often argued that Catholics cannot be intellectually free while at the same time assenting to all the official teachings of the Catholic Church.
These statements are often supported by claims that blind allegiance to the Vatican is incompatible with robust intellectual and theological inquiry. How can one bring all their intellectual powers to bear on a moral or theological issue when they must constantly check their conclusions against official church teaching, papal encyclicals and historic creeds?
In the Jan. 26 issue of Commonweal magazine, Paul Lakeland attempts to defend the theological work of the famously unorthodox Jesuit theologian Roger Haight.
Lakeland perpetuates the notion that the Vatican faithful are small-minded and ultimately defensive Catholics.
Lakeland focuses his essay on Haight’s ecumenical efforts to find unity between various world religions. He points out that "Haight’s affirmation of religious pluralism is not easy to reconcile with traditional Catholic notions about salvation, or with recent magisterial teaching on the ‘gravely deficient situation’ of other faiths."
As Lakeland points out, the Vatican considered Haight’s writings questionable enough to remove him in 2005 from the faculty of the Weston Jesuit School of Theology.
Lakeland, who holds the Aloysius P. Kelley, SJ, Chair in the Catholic Studies at Fairfield University, defends Haight’s ecumenical writings by stating that "we live in a tolerant and ecumenical age, and that is something to be celebrated rather than condemned or dismissed as ‘relativism’ or ‘indifferentism.’"
Yes, we certainly do live in an ecumenical age. But what does that exactly mean? Does it mean that revealed Scripture and the Catholic Church’s teachings about the nature of Christ, his redemptive work and his Divine Revelation are now up for grabs and based on personal preference?
According to Lakeland, "When we engage other Christians and especially non-Christian believers, we do not abandon our faith claims, but neither do we insist on privileging the hermeneutical position of Catholicism."
By this definition, we can only present the faith as something that we personally prefer but not something that has any truth beyond our personal preference.
This is not the "one, holy, catholic and apostolic church" of the creeds. Indeed it is not the church that follows Christ alone as "the way, the truth, and the life."
There is room for serious intellectual and theological exploration within the church. The writings of Augustine, Aquinas, Chesterton, Newman and other scholars of the faith have shown this. In all our ruminations, however, we must remain faithful to the teaching authority and inherited tradition from those whom Christ commissioned to preserve and defend the Gospel message. Anything less, and the great message of the church begins to disintegrate into a litany of personal opinions, grounded in the authority of one’s own finite self.
Letter to the Editor
Reader takes issue with view of human sexuality
Dear Editor,
In the article relating Drew Nelson’s discussion at a recent Theology on Tap event, Nelson characterized contracepted sex as a coercive force against marriage and family life. If contracepted sex is so dangerous that it causes men and women to suddenly see their partner as solely "an object of personal satisfaction" most Christian marriages would have dissolved a long time ago.
The medieval worldview is past. The hierarchy’s insistence that sex is a pollutant and a threat to one’s soul isn’t plausible or credible. We realize now humanity’s place as one of God’s many exquisite and evolving creations with a complex biological, social and psychological makeup. But instead of validating the great beauty and mystery of human love and sexuality in this new era, our Church tries to foist an obsolete patriarchal and possessive worldview of sex on its declining membership.
In matters of sex, as in science, the Church must adapt to new realities. The hierarchy could cease promulgating a functionally extinct worldview, and instead engage in an informed theological reconsideration of sexuality and human nature. Perhaps a more benevolent (and wise) hierarchy would emerge to support, not condemn, its members who choose to use contraception.
Anchorage