June 12, 2009 - Issue #12
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Local News
Alaska’s young church unites
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church teemed with energy during the ninth annual Alaska Catholic Youth Conference, where a combination of lively music, sacraments and quiet spiritual reflection wove together.
More than 180 teens from across the state — and one from Wyoming — attended the June 1-4 conference in Anchorage, which included the presence of all four Alaska bishops: Bishop Donald Kettler of Fairbanks, Bishop Edward Burns of Juneau, Anchorage Archbishop Roger Schwietz and retired Anchorage Archbishop Francis Hurley.
Throughout the four-day gathering, a wide variety of presenters, many local and some from far away, gave workshops on topics ranging from “There is more to God than Religion” to “Recognizing the Face of Jesus in His Most Distressing Disguise.”
A number of religious communities shared the week with the teens. Anchorage’s Adrian Dominican Sisters Lorraine Reaume and Xiomara Mendez-Hernandez presented talks. Other outside speakers included sisters from the Nashville Dominican community and friars from the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal.
Mercy Sister Joyce Ross and Medical Mission Sister Joan Barina traveled up from Kenai to present a talk on “The Rewards of Village Missions.”
Father Ben Torreto, on loan to the Archdiocese of Anchorage from the Archdiocese of Cotobato, spoke to the teens about standing in solidarity with their brothers and sisters in the Philippines.
Many lay presenters added zest to the week as well. Bob Bartlett, a national speaker and youth minister, talked to teens about “God’s gift of sexuality.” Anchorage resident Kess Frey explained centering prayer, and a group from the local Project Rachel discussed “how to talk to a friend who has had an abortion.”
For the second year in a row, Lumen Christi graduate Katie Portell, now attending the University of Portland, welcomed the participants before the opening Mass and urged them to follow Christ.
Archbishop Schwietz gave the opening homily in which he alluded to the theme of this year’s conference — “Many Faces, One Alaskan Church.” Archbishop Schwietz told the youth, “We all share the challenge to love one another. We come with so many stories, from such different places, but we come as brothers and sisters. We each need the care of the other.”
After the opening homily, organizer Matthew Beck told the youth that the annual event reflects the reality that the Catholic Church is a unity that bridges the many miles that may separate people.
Beck shared how, growing up, his family took trips all over the county and everywhere they went he experienced the unity of the universal Catholic Church.
“I’ve been to Mass all over,” Beck explained. “As I traveled, I found a home in the Catholic Church — welcoming and friendly and I really felt this presence every time I stepped into a Catholic church amidst the people, amidst the community, celebrating the Eucharist. I always felt like I was home.”
In addition to workshops, liturgy and prayer, one afternoon of the conference was devoted to service projects, with work at sites like Holy Spirit Center, Providence Guest House, Clare House and the Downtown Soup Kitchen.
And the usual, afternoon of social activities was a high point as well. A perfect Alaskan summer day made the hike up Flattop a popular outing, with religious brothers and sisters joining teens all the way to the summit.
The less outdoor types headed for the Dimond Center for movies, skating, bowling or shopping. Others went for ultimate Frisbee, soccer or a visit to H2Oasis Indoor Water Park.
Throughout the conference, the teens were urged to keep themes of Catholic social teaching in mind – themes like the dignity of all people, the option for the poor, rights and responsibilities of people, the dignity of work and the need for solidarity and a belief in the common good.
Sister Kathy Radich, who ministers in the Yukon-Kuskokwim area, said she would like to see more village youth be able to attend. Unfortunately, the cost of travel from the Bush was too high for some rural teens.
“But it would be good in the future if an effort were made to bring in to the conference more of the many students who have moved into Anchorage from the Bush,” she said. “After all, Anchorage is the state’s largest village for Native peoples.”
Organizer Matt Beck, pastoral associate at St. Michael Parish in Palmer, said the attendance, at 186 teens, was probably the second highest in the nine years of ACYC.
Nearly every parish in the archdiocese was represented, Beck said, with two-thirds of the attendees from the Anchorage Archdiocese and most others from Fairbanks.
Discerning a call
Archdiocese poised to double number of seminarians
The Holy Spirit is blessing the Anchorage Archdiocese with young men willing to investigate a possible call to the priesthood, according to vocations director Father Leo Walsh.
Anchorage Archbishop Roger Schwietz, along with Father Walsh and several other priests, hosted three vocation dinners this spring with good turnouts from around South Central Alaska.
All total, 15 men turned out for the dinners, ranging from age 15 to 41. Most were juniors in high school. The others were young professionals from all walks of life — auto mechanics to engineers.
Of those who attended the dinners, two are in the application process for formal entry into the seminarian program, Father Walsh said.
All of this is evidence that the Holy Spirit is working hard in the archdiocese, he said.
“To have fifteen inquiries in one year is phenomenal,” Father Walsh said. “Many dioceses twice our size do not get that many!”
If the two current applicants go on to enter seminary, it would double the current number of seminarians for the archdiocese.
At St. Patrick Church in Anchorage, former Presbyterian minister Steve Olmstead continues his studies under the direction of Father Scott Medlock. He is also serving the parish as a pastoral associate.
And seminarian Patrick Brosamer just finished up his first year of theology at Mount Angel Seminary in Oregon.
Brosamer is spending the summer studying Spanish in Antigua, Guatemala for 10 weeks this summer.
“I’ve never been to Latin America before,” he said in an interview while packing for the trip. “I know very little Spanish, but it is important for me to learn the language, as a number of Catholics (including in Alaska) are Spanish-speaking.”
He’ll get a couple of weeks off back in the state, before heading back to Mount Angel in the fall.
If things stay on track, Brosamer will be ordained in 2013. Olmstead most likely will be ordained sooner. However, an exact date is hard to place since he will need special permission from the Vatican because he is married.
Father Tom Lilly, who oversees seminarians once they enter into formal study, said he is pleased that so many young people are willing to give the ordained priesthood serious consideration.
“Every young man should seriously consider a vocation to the priesthood,” he said. “Only after answering that question truthfully is he really free to then discern further as to single or married life.”
“You just can’t beat the will of God,” Father Leo agreed. “Discernment is not an either or process — it is a yes or no process.”
He echoed Father Lilly’s thoughts that young men should ask whether Christ is calling them to the priesthood.
“Once that answer is clear, then the path is clear,” Father Walsh said. “But it is good to get an answer (either way) so that one can get on with his life and not be paralyzed, thinking he might make the wrong decision.”
Both Father Walsh and Father Lilly express great passion about their own decisions to become priests.
“I love being a priest,” Father Walsh said. “There is no better feeling than to be a man fully alive, and that is what priesthood offers to those who are called.”
Father Tom Lilly said he cold not see himself being anything but a priest.
“Nothing could even come close to my sense of joy and fulfillment in living life as a Catholic priest,” he said. “I absolutely love this vocation and I am humbled by God’s grace.”
Both priests say it is important for the local church to support those men who are considering a vocation.
Father Lilly, who was ordained in 2003, said he enjoys his role in serving as a mentor to seminarians.
“Having just gone through this process in the last decade, the experience is still fresh in my mind and I hope that I can be a good mentor for someone considering the priesthood,” he said.
For Brosamer, the experience has been a positive so far and he remains committed to his desire to continue to pursue priesthood.
“I am sure that I am exactly where God wants me to be,” he said. “God is bringing out the very best in me, and it is up to me to cooperate with God’s plan and his grace.”
Local priest to engage Islam at national level
At the end of this month, Father Leo Walsh heads to Washington, D.C. to begin a new job that deals with some of the roots of age-old human conflicts.
Born, raised and ordained to the priesthood in Alaska, Father Walsh will leave his home state to work for at least three years with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, where his primary task will be to facilitate greater understanding between Catholics and Muslims across the country.
As associate director for the Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, Father Walsh will do much of the legwork in bringing religious leaders together to address issues, both theological and practical.
Those dialogues will generally include bishops, academic experts and prominent Muslim leaders. The aim of the gatherings is to foster mutual understanding and find areas where greater unity and cooperation are possible.
“It is important for us to be in dialogue,” Father Walsh explained in an interview with the Anchor. “We’ve seen what happens when those prejudices and antagonisms are allowed to run unchecked.”
For example, Father Walsh pointed to the mischaracterization of Islam that occurs when memories of the September 11, 2001 attacks are the primary perception that people have of the religion.
“Dialogue is especially important because of how skittish people are today,” Father Walsh said. “Most people, you talk to them about Islam and they are going to mention 9/11 somewhere within the first three minutes of the conversation because that is the image in their mind. And believe me, it is the image in the Muslim’s mind too. They live with that every day.”
While the new job excites him, Father Walsh acknowledged having mixed feelings about leaving St. Andrew Church where he has been pastor for ten years and the Archdiocese of Anchorage, which he has served for all 15 years of his priesthood.
“Alaska’s home and always will be,” he said in an interview with the Anchor. “My friends and family are here.”
But two years ago, Father Walsh said he felt God was asking him if he could leave it all behind. After a process of discernment, he thought he could – if asked.
Last month, the question finally came, when the USCCB called.
“As a priest, when you are ordained, you know in the back of your mind, the possibility exists for something like this,” Father Walsh explained. “A call to serve elsewhere.”
Initially, the job is for three years, but it could be extended.
Apart from a year in Rome to finish his doctorate, the D.C. post will be Father Walsh’s first assignment outside Alaska.
The 44-year-old priest sees his extended work in ecumenical relations as preparation for the national post. For years, Father Walsh has served as the ecumenical and interfaith officer for the Anchorage Archdiocese. Additionally, he served three years as the president of the Inter-Faith Council of Anchorage and just last year, he earned a doctorate in ecumenical theology.
“(The doctorate) translates very easily into inter-faith relations,” Father Walsh explained. “Even though my specialty is the Orthodox, the dynamics of dialogue translate very well.”
The Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs consists of a director and two associate directors. Each of them focuses on different areas. Executive director Father James Massa focuses on Jewish-Catholic dialogues, while fellow associate director Paulist Father Ron Roberson works with the Orthodox and other Christian churches. Father Walsh will deal primarily with Muslims, but his other duties will include facilitating consultations with Buddhists and several other world religions present in the United States. On the ecumenical side, he will help staff the national dialogue with the Methodists, as well as other Protestant churches such as the Presbyterians.
Interreligious work is very much dependent on building human relationships, Father Walsh explained.
“It is not just comparative religion,” he said. “Religion is never lived in a vacuum. We engage and live in the community in which we are a part.”
He noted that dialogue happens on at least three levels — the international, the national and the local. He said a prime example of local dialogue was the Engaging Muslims Project, in which the Archdiocese of Anchorage and other groups partnered with the Cardinal Newman Chair at Alaska Pacific University to establish a series of national caliber dialogues to bring about greater understanding of Islam.
On the international front, Father Walsh noted that Pope Benedict XVI has provided strong leadership in reaching out to the Islamic world and inviting them to dialogue.
Father Walsh pointed to the Common Word Project in which 138 Muslim scholars agreed to an interfaith dialogue with Christians on the topic of love of God and love of neighbor.
At the national level in which Father Walsh will be engaged, he sees the possibility to address issues that arise from increased contact with Muslims due to immigration to the United States from Mid-East countries.
Father Walsh also pointed to several ongoing national dialogues. One deals with the way Islam and Christianity are portrayed in academic textbooks.
“What does a Catholic school say about Islam in their curriculum and what do Muslims say about Catholics in theirs?” Father Walsh asked. “That is very important, because what you teach in school is the image that kids have and if I’m going to write a textbook about Islam, I need to make sure I don’t give a distorted picture.”
Another Muslim-Catholic dialogue occurring in the Midwest deals with how God reveals himself in human history.
“That dialogue allows us to understand how each religion understands how God is talking to them,” he said. “In that case we can see what commonalities we have and where it is going to be more difficult.”
Father Walsh noted that the whole realm of interfaith and interreligious dialogue is relatively new and evolving ever since the Second Vatican Council.
“It’s still in its early stages,” he said. “We are only in the first or second generation of interfaith dialogue.”
Additionally, dialogue with Muslims is also an unfolding process. Father Walsh pointed to the fact that Islam does not have a central leader such as the pope. Instead, religious leaders and schools of thought permeate the Islamic world and they are not always in agreement with their interpretations of religious scriptures.
Despite the challenges, Father Walsh said he sees both spiritual and social benefits from pursuing deeper dialogue with Muslims.
“One benefit is a greater understanding of our own beliefs,” he said. “If I’m going to be in dialogue with someone else, I need to first know my own Catholic identity very well.”
He also said a noticeable absence of prejudice would be another goal of dialogue.
“I would hope that we could have a more accurate knowledge of who each other is,” he said. “It makes for a much stronger society.”
When Father Walsh leaves Alaska, Father Ben Torreto will take over as pastor of St. Andrew Church on July 1. Father Walsh’s other duties, as vicar of clergy, ecumenical officer and vocations director will be reassigned before he leaves for D.C.
State agencies push for mandatory sex ed in schools
Several Alaska groups, including government agencies are working to implement mandatory sex education throughout the state.
In April, the Alaska Association of Student Governments received widespread coverage of its new resolution calling for “mandatory, comprehensive” sex education courses for all Alaska high school students.
The student group plans to take its proposal to the Alaska State Legislature, the state Department of Education, the state Board of Education and local school districts.
If the resolution becomes a state-mandated law, it also would impact students in state-funded charter schools and home schools affiliated through state correspondence programs.
Typically, the approach of so-called “comprehensive” sex education curricula is contraceptive-centered – as opposed to abstinence-centered.
In “comprehensive” programs, children receive instruction on various issues related to sexuality, including specific and varied sexual acts, contraception and abortion. While these programs usually claim to avoid the moral or spiritual aspects of sexuality, they often promote the use of condoms and other activities that the Catholic Church and other religious groups have long opposed.
As of June 8, the specifics of the AASG resolution had not been posted on the group’s public Web site, but according to press reports, the resolution points to rising rates of sexually transmitted disease and teen pregnancy as rationale for demanding “comprehensive” sex education.
In an interview with the Anchor, Archbishop Roger Schwietz who shepherds more than 30,000 Catholics across the Anchorage Archdiocese, expressed concern about the AASG’s proposed mandate.
Archbishop Schwietz pointed to a lack of clarity on how the proposal would affect the rights of parents who would not want their children exposed to “comprehensive” sex education materials.
The Catholic Church teaches that parents – not the state or school – have a right to educate their children in sexuality.
“We operate on the principles that the parents have the first right and responsibility toward the education of their children which includes education in the areas of sexuality,” Archbishop Schwietz said.
“Parents do have the right to withhold their children from this kind of material,” he added, “especially since it is presented as though the courses would be without moral content.”
“It’s impossible to imagine how sex education could be without moral content, in my mind,” Archbishop Schwietz said. “In our Catholic perspective, there is a moral content.”
“As the Catholic Church,” he added, “we would not support some kind of law or policy that would mandate that each child has to be present in courses of sex education as this resolution reportedly describes it.”
Currently, Alaska does not require sex education in schools. However, high school graduation require one credit in physical education or health class, which may cover sexuality.
According to the Alaska Department of Education, the state does not dictate the content of health classes but leaves that up to local school districts.
That may be changing.
Concurrent with the student government association’s resolution, the state is actively working to bring sex education into the public schools.
In the state’s Education Plan – a blueprint for education in Alaska finalized in March — one of the education department’s plans is to implement “sex education” for Alaska’s students.
Meanwhile, the Department of Health and Human Services also is calling for sex education. In a recent briefing paper, the state agency stated, “comprehensive sex education should be mandated” – and “starting from a young age.”
That’s because the state has no sex ed requirements, said Stephanie Birch, the Public Health Division’s chief on women’s, children’s and family health, in an interview with the Anchor. “That was the point we were trying to make.”
Already, at the request of the Department of Health, at least two task forces have been meeting since November to work on a proposed health education curriculum, which could include sexual health, Birch said.
“We have to see how comprehensive we’re going to get,” while balancing “parental concerns” and the “messaging” the state wants to send to students, she said.
Birch added that if “comprehensive” sex ed becomes mandatory, families should be allowed to opt out of “certain sections.”
It was unclear whether Governor Sarah Palin would support mandatory sex education in Alaska. Her press spokesman Bill McAllister said in an e-mail that he was unable to provide a response from the governor by the Anchor’s deadline.
According the policy of the Anchorage School District — Alaska’s largest school district — abstinence is supposed to be the focus in any instruction on sexuality. The school district’s guidelines state that “abstinence must be promoted as the goal rather than an option for students.”
Still, the ASD requires middle school students to take health classes that include topics such as contraceptives.
According to schools superintendent Carol Comeau, parents have the right to opt out of the sexuality section of the health class.
As to the AASG push to mandate “comprehensive” sex ed, “We don’t have an official position,” said Comeau.
She added, however, that the Anchorage School District soon will review its graduation requirements and consider mandating a high school health course that covers sexuality.
“What we’re going to be focusing on next year is taking a look at all of our graduation requirements because this resolution wants a mandatory (sex education) requirement,” she said.
“I know there are a lot of parents who do not want their children getting any discussion of human growth and development – sex education – from anyone but their parents or their church,” Comeau said. “And then there are many, many others (who say) we aren’t doing enough.” While not currently in the works, Comeau said that in addition to examining new health requirements for high school, the district also may look at overhauling the entire health curriculum, including middle school down to kindergarten.
Carol Kidwell is program director for Let’s Talk, an abstinence-centered education group that reaches youth in the Anchorage area, Ketchikan and Wrangell. Mainly, it delivers programs to 7th and 8th-graders.
The program starts with the premise that abstinence until marriage is a goal youth can achieve. The program spotlights possible consequences of premarital sex and its impact on a child’s future. It also teaches children how to avoid vulnerable situations.
According to Kidwell, “comprehensive sex education is represented as including both abstinence and contraceptive education, however, most comprehensive sex education curricula devote less than ten percent to abstinence.”
And she warned that when “contraceptive-centered” and “abstinence-centered” programs are mixed, “students receive a mixed message.”
The Let’s Talk program insists on leaders who “fully believe the youth can remain or return to sexual abstinence.”
As a result of that focus, she said, Let’s Talk is making progress – and children are increasingly abstinent – in the Anchorage School District.
According to the nationwide 2007 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, Anchorage students preserve their virginity for much longer than do children nationwide.
In the study, 2.1 percent of boys and 1.6 percent of girls had sexual intercourse prior to age 13 – significantly lower than the U.S. averages of 10.1 percent and 4 percent respectively.
According to the report, slightly more than 26 percent of Anchorage ninth-graders engaged in sexual intercourse, below the U.S. average of nearly 33 percent.
By the 10th grade, however, it jumped to 46 percent, while the national average was 43.8 percent.
Kidwell explained that after receiving a clear abstinence message from Let’s Talk, 7th and 8th-graders delay sexual activity for 12 to 18 months – which she says points to the need for continuing the discussion with high schoolers.
“You can’t say pregnancies are up because abstinence is not working,” Kidwell explained, “it’s that they (the high school teens) are not receiving abstinence education.”
According to the late Pope John Paul II, human sexuality flourishes within its proper context and should not be presented or lived in a “reductive and impoverished way.” It is not “something common place,” he said, but a “great value given by the Creator.”
Therefore, he called parents to give their children a “clear and delicate sex education.”
In a 1981 letter on the role of the Christian family, Pope John Paul II said that education in sexuality must bring youth to a “knowledge of and respect for the moral norms” to ensure “responsible personal growth in human sexuality.”
And in the 1995 document, “The Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality: Guidelines for Education within the Family,” the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for the Family said, “parents must reclaim their own task” of educating their children in this area.
Accordingly, Archbishop Schwietz called on public schools to “encourage the interaction between parents and their children” and to assist parents in their work of moral education.
Plus, he encouraged parents “to get involved in parent-teacher associations in the schools, to get involved with their local school boards and to become aware of what the local school boards are discussing.”
Archbishop Schwietz also encouraged parents to contact the archdiocese or their parishes for guidance on appropriate educational materials available for use with their children.
Pilgrimages in Alaska: Spiritual destinations abound
Each year, millions of Catholics make a pilgrimage – to the Holy Land, to Rome and sometimes just down the street or up the local mountain.
According to the Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy, making a pilgrimage is an ancient practice that goes back to Old Testament times.
The church teaches that all who follow Christ on earth are making a pilgrimage to heaven.
But because of the spiritual values inherent in pilgrimage, the church has encouraged pilgrimages on earth as a legitimate form of piety.
According to the Catholic Catechism, “pilgrimages evoke our earthly journey toward heaven and are traditionally very special occasions for renewal in prayer.”
Web sites to learn more |
However far or near, a pilgrimage is a “journey of conversion” in which the pilgrim moves from sinfulness and attachment to the ephemeral to interior freedom. As such, a pilgrimage is a good occasion for confession, and a pilgrim returning from a genuine pilgrimage should focus on ordering his life more closely to God.
Across the ages, Christians have traveled to the tombs of martyrs to honor them, to Jerusalem to walk in the footsteps of the suffering Lord and to shrines that commemorate the appearance of the Blessed Mother, such as at Fatima, Portugal or Knock, Ireland.
A shrine is a church or other sacred place approved by the local ordinary – or bishop – for pilgrimages.
In addition, according to the Directory, there are many other places, often “humble” little churches that locally fulfill the same functions as shrines, even without canonical recognition. They also form part of the “topography” of faith.
To that end, the Anchor offers a list of nearby holy places to which the faithful may make little pilgrimages – remembering the journey they take in Alaska is a journey to heaven.
IN ANCHORAGE
The Way of the Cross
Holy Spirit Center
10980 Hillside Drive
346-2343
Holy Spirit Center is an archdiocesan retreat center next to the Chugach State Park , where faithful may walk the Way of the Cross, as pilgrims do along the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem. In intervals along Holy Spirit Center’s half-mile loop trail that winds through lush woods, there are fourteen Stations of the Cross – artistic representations of certain scenes of the Passion of Christ. In praying the Stations of the Cross, a person can make a spiritual pilgrimage to the principal scenes of the salvific Passion of the Lord. Usually, Stations of the Cross are found inside churches, spaced in intervals on the walls, but sometimes outdoors such as in the cloisters of monasteries.
Our Lady of Guadalupe
Our Lady of Guadalupe Church
3900 Wisconsin Street
248-2000
home.catholicweb.com/olgalaska/
In the Spanish adobe-styled Catholic church of Our Lady of Guadalupe, pilgrims may pray before a full-size replica of the famous cactus-cloth tilma on which the Mother of God miraculously left her image during her appearance to Blessed Juan Diego in Mexico in 1531. In the image, the Blessed Mother wears native dress and appears pregnant with her divine, unborn child, Jesus. Under the title of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mary is considered to have inspired the conversion to Christianity of about nine million indigenous people in a short time after her appearance – and put an end to the human sacrifices conducted in the native religion. Since then, numerous miracles and cures have been attributed to Our Lady of Guadalupe. And every year, about 20 million pilgrims visit the basilica in Mexico City where the original tilma is enshrined – undecayed after almost 500 years.
Praying for the dead
Memorial Park Cemetery
535 East 9th Avenue
343-6814
Christians can visit the serene Anchorage Memorial Park Cemetery – and pray for the dead. The Catholic Church teaches that the souls of people who die in the state of grace but who have not completed the temporal punishment for their venial sins make that reparation in Purgatory. Catholics can help the souls in Purgatory speed the purifying process by assisting at Mass, praying for them and giving alms. Praying for the dead is a spiritual work of mercy and visiting a cemetery for that purpose is a long-standing Christian tradition. The 22-acre Anchorage Memorial Park Cemetery includes public and private tracts, including a Catholic section. Visitors also may stop at the Knights of Columbus monument to the unborn that commemorates the smallest members of the human family who have died in abortion. The monument is near the Cordova and 9th Street corner of the cemetery.
First Catholic church in Anchorage
Holy Family Cathedral
818 West 5th at H Street
276-3455
Holy Family Cathedral in downtown Anchorage dates back to July 15, 1915, when the City of Anchorage was founded. Across the decades, there have been several expansions to the church. The building that now stands survived untouched by the otherwise devastating 1964 earthquake. In a 1981 visit to Alaska, Pope John Paul II prayed in the cathedral. Throughout the week, friars of the Dominican order – which has staffed the cathedral since 1974 – offer Mass and confession throughout the week. On Fridays, the cathedral hosts “Christ in the City,” an evening of eucharistic adoration. And every first Saturday of the month, the Dominican Rite Mass – an ancient form of the Mass said in Latin – is celebrated at noon.
IN COOPER LANDING
Our Lady of the Handicapped
St. John Neumann Mission
1 mile off the Sterling Highway at Mile 47.9 (Snug Harbor Road) 595-1300 / stjohnneumann@starband.net
The village of Cooper Landing on the emerald green Kenai Lake attracts fishing aficionados every summer, but its tiny mission church of St. John Neumann on Snug Harbor Road has plenty for the fishers of men, too. There, Christian pilgrims can visit a shrine to “Our Caring Mother of the Handicapped,” inspired by a young parishioner who was ill and dependent on a wheelchair. The shrine was dedicated in 2000 by now retired Archbishop Francis Hurley, who also designated the shrine an official pilgrimage site for Catholics in the Archdiocese of Anchorage. In addition, the church is home to a little cemetery and outdoor Stations of the Cross. The stations are situated along a path that leads to the peak of a foothill in the mountains. At the top, there is a six-foot-tall white cross and a breathtaking view of the Kenai River valley. Of special note: The mission of St. John Neumann is reportedly the first church in the world to be named for the 19th-century Redemptorist of Philadelphia and first American bishop to be canonized. He was declared a saint by Pope Paul VI in 1977.
IN SOUTHEAST
First Catholic parish in Alaska
St. Rose of Lima Church
120 Church Street
874-3771
Along waterways of Southeastern Alaska and next to the Tongass National Forest is the gleaming, little church on the hill – St. Rose of Lima – the oldest Catholic parish in Alaska. St. Rose of Lima was founded on May 3, 1879 and named for the first American ever canonized. St. Rose of Lima was a virgin born in Peru in 1586. Devoted to the Infant Jesus and the Blessed Mother.
IN WASILLA
Garden of Angels
Sacred Heart Cemetery
Old Matanuska Road
357-3571
Visitors to the Matanuska Valley can make a visit to Sacred Heart Catholic Cemetery – in the shade birch and spruce trees and the Chugach Mountains. There, the faithful may honor and pray for the dead. At the cemetery’s “Garden of Angels” – near a statue of the Old Testament figure Rachel, who mourned the loss of her children – there is a children’s columbarium where a number of miscarried babies are interred. According to Dave Belanger, who with his wife Priscilla, manages the cemetery, properly burying the littlest members of the human family stems from a strong belief in “the dignity of the child from conception on. Whether they have seen the light of day or not, whether in dust or in flesh, they are still God’s creation.”
IN FAIRBANKS
Cathedral of the North
Immaculate Conception Church
115 North Cushman Street
452-3533
In 1904, to care for gold miners and their families, Jesuit Father Francis Monroe built Immaculate Conception Church – the first Catholic parish in Fairbanks. Originally, the church was situated on the south bank of the Chena River. But a few years later, Father Monroe decided it should be closer to the newly opened St. Joseph hospital. So in the winter of 1911, he hired a team of horses and men to slide the church building across the ice to the river’s north bank, where it still stands. In 1962, the mission areas of the North were raised to the status of diocese. So Immaculate Conception Church became the Cathedral of the North and remained so until 1966 when Sacred Heart Cathedral was built. One of the most beautiful and now uncommon features of Immaculate Conception is its stained glass windows. But the church’s most unusual feature may be what is inside its relic case. There are relics of 102 saints, including St. Andrew the Apostle, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Cecilia and the first North American martyrs.
IN JUNEAU
A retreat with St. Therese
Shrine of St. Therese
Mile 23 Glacier Highway
780-6112
Twenty-three miles from downtown Juneau is the Shrine of St. Therese, the patron saint of missions and of Alaska. The center of the shrine is an old stone chapel that sits on lush and flowering Shrine Island, which is surrounded by the Favorite Channel – a habitat for sea lions and whales – and the Chilkat mountains beyond. The chapel was completed in 1938. Jesuit Bishop Joseph Raphael Crimont of Juneau, who supported the establishment of the shrine, was originally from France – the home of St. Therese of Lisieux, a cloistered Carmelite nun who died at the age of 24. St. Therese is considered one of the greatest saints of modern time and “Doctor of the Church” for her “little way of spiritual childhood” – by which holiness can be achieved through ordinary deeds done with great love. Five years before St. Therese was canonized, Bishop Crimont placed the entire Alaskan Territory under her spiritual protection.
Positive peer pressure
New teen outreach builds faith of Soldotna and Kenai youth
It’s a common concern in parishes across the country: The church needs to find more ways to engage the youth.
Remy Spring, a twenty-year-old parishioner at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Soldotna, couldn’t agree more.
“Lots of kids in my age group, even though they were confirmed, they just don’t go to church anymore,” he said in an interview with the Anchor. “They thought it was boring. I want to help make church into something personal for today’s teens.”
The pastoral council at the Soldotna parish also saw the need for a more encompassing welcome for today’s middle-and-high-school-age students and a year ago they asked Oblate Father Joe Dowling to lead a steering committee to focus on how the parish could better serve its youth.
The committee studied several models of youth ministry throughout the country before developing of a monthly evening, which included a teen-focused Mass, meal and fun activity. Coined “Teen Night,” a dozen adults and several committed teens launched what has grown into a successful youth ministry program that serves Catholics in Soldotna, Kenai and surrounding areas.
“The priests relate to our level more,” said 9th-grader Claire Gabler of Soldotna, who sings in the teen choir.
“Sometimes when it is the regular Mass, I get lost because they are just talking to the adults,” she added. “With Teen Night it feels like they are talking to me.”
Adam Bell, the lead adult coordinator for the ministry, was also inspired to help out due to a lack of teen involvement back when he was a youth at Our Lady of Perpetual Help.
“I didn’t know any other teen church members,” said Bell, more than a decade later. “The past couple of years I noticed that there were very few teens at church. I thought that getting teens together might also help them find a place in the church.”
Father Dowling agrees. Teen Night gives Catholic youth a chance to spend time together and see that there are other Catholics their age in the area.
“There is not a catechetical component to this ministry. Part of the charge wasn’t to follow any curriculum. While we hope something is learned, (Teen Night) is not religious education,” said Father Dowling, emphasizing the need for both religious education and outside-of-the-classroom youth ministries. “We wanted to find ways to reach out to our youth, to make them feel alive in the church.”
“The kids come together amongst themselves, to celebrate the Eucharist and God’s love,” said Soldotna parishioner Kevin Woodvine, one of the adult volunteers. “One might say Teen Night uses ‘peer pressure’ to love one another as God loves us.”
Tilly Hileman, an 11th-grader from Soldotna, says she gained a lot of friends through participating in the Teen Night choir. “Friends that help me grow closer to God,” she added.
“I also feel like I get more say in things than I used to get,” said Hileman. “Everything that happens at the parish can’t be brought up to everyone, but being in the choir and things like that made people realize that we (teens) help out, and now we have more of a say in the broader faith community.”
“Teen Night is needed to keep the kids engaged, to keep them feeling welcomed and respected, to help them realize they are an important part of our faith,” added adult volunteer leader Elaine Agosti. “I’m so proud of them, especially the teens who really stepped up: the choir, the readers, the servers. No one’s arm had to be twisted, they meet every week, they made this happen.”
Brenda Ahlberg heads up the Teen Night for Our Lady of the Angels Church in Kenai, where two of the Teen Night events occurred this past year. Ahlberg said she is excited to help further grow the teen ministry at her parish, and expects to have leadership roles filled by the end of summer.
While the monthly event, which averaged 45 teens a session, is on hold for the summer, the teens are getting together for special events such as a recent trip to the Alaska Catholic Youth Conference in Anchorage and a summer mission trip to Mountain Village.
Over the winter, the teens conducted two food drives and had separate middle school and high school retreats focused on teen homelessness on the Kenai Peninsula as a way to serve the parish-and-beyond community.
“I’m more involved now because of my involvement with Teen Night. I was involved in stuff before, but this is good because it is geared toward the youth,” said Danna Spring, who serves as the music teen leader. “Jesus rocks! I know it’s random, but it’s true. I think this is something we’ve needed for a long time. Being part of the music makes it that much more awesome.”
Father Dowling is pleased at how far the ministry has come in one year.
“There were so many people involved on a pretty deep level,” he said. “Some were parents of teens, but some were adults without teenagers. It shows a real valuing of our teens as part of this community.”
Habits of a high fashion nun
Some of the 20 girls who arrived for the June 2 talk by Adrian Dominican Sister Xiomara Mendez-Hernandez at the Alaska Catholic Youth Conference at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church might have wondered if they were in the right spot.
The young Sister Mendez-Hernandez, originally from the Dominican Republic, was dressed in a fitted, white, V-neck knit sweater cinched at the waist with a wide, brown woven leather belt – and matched with a long, tan tweed, A-line skirt whose bottom hem skimmed shiny, brown patent-leather flats. When the ebullient sister tossed her head, pearl earrings flickered from under her thick, short dark hair coiffed in a trendy bob.
Given her style, it was clear the presenter of the workshop, “From Fashion Designer to Nun!” was a fashion designer. Indeed, Sister Mendez-Hernandez had even designed the skirt she was wearing.
But the important part of a person is behind the clothes, suggested Sister Mendez-Hernandez. She recounted an experience at the age of nine seeing a man cleaning the street in her neighborhood. Despite his being covered in dirt and “because I was like a dreamer,” Sister Mendez-Hernandez imagined him in an elegant tuxedo. “So many people didn’t respect him,” she said. “They never saw he was helping us keep our neighborhood clean.”
That concern for the dignity of the person was a spiritual seed that didn’t sprout into a religious vocation until much later.
Sister Mendez-Hernandez explained that her goal had been to be the “most famous” fashion designer in the world. One role model – Oscar de la Renta – had come from her own country in the Caribbean.
After studying fashion design and working as an apprentice to an international fashion designer, Sister Mendez-Hernandez opened her own design salon with a friend. Since Sister joined the Adrian Dominicans in 2008, her parents help run Scissors Couture.
At the beginning of her career, she said, she attended a retreat at church, where she saw “women preaching and another one dancing” – a “liturgical dance.” They were religious sisters – Adrian Dominicans – which surprised her. Sister Mendez-Hernandez said she had assumed sisters “are saints, they pray all the time, they are serious, and sometimes, they are strict.” Sister said she had always loved God and loved being in church, “but I like to dance, I like to dance Meringue.” Of the sisters, she concluded, “They are awesome! I want to know them!”
But she was pulled by her desire to be famous, and “being a sister and being famous doesn’t match.” So she told the sisters she wasn’t ready to join them.
Sister Mendez-Hernandez continued on studying, designing and going to fashion shows. But she said in her fame, she became aloof and proud. “I was a humble, simple person. But the world forced me to change.”
Across time, she came to realize the “emptiness” of fame. Instead, “I wanted to give the best of me.” That transformation led her to visit the Adrian Dominicans in Michigan.
“I was afraid to lose myself,” she said. “I thought, ‘If you are a sister, you will never dance. You will never see a fashion show. It will be a sin to think of fashion.’ No way. I know the (Adrian Dominican) sisters are different.”
“I thought I would have to give up my career when I entered. No way,” she said. During her two month stay in Anchorage, Sister Mendez-Hernandez will teach a group of women to design and sew. In the past, she has helped teach dance, which she said “can transform the girls into ladies and the boys into gentlemen and unite them.”
Sister Mendez-Hernandez ended her talk with a “fashion show” of sorts. Over her ensemble, Sister – who as a fashion designer, had always loved white clothing – donned her white Dominican habit with scapular and rosary, which had been laying across a chair at the front of the room.
For the last several years, she said, the Adrian Dominicans have returned to wearing habits – a practice once integral to the sisters’ life. Now, she said, “wearing a habit is optional.” Sister Lorraine Reaume of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church who attended the talk added they are worn for preaching and special events.
Sister Mendez-Hernandez said she does not wear her habit everyday, citing a conversation at the bus stop. She said an engineer started to talk with her while she was out of habit. When he learned she was a sister, he said he would not have spoken with her in the same way.
“A habit is like a uniform,” Sister Mendez-Hernandez added. “Do you see the police officers? They don’t go to bed with a habit.”
Vested in her habit, Sister Mendez-Hernandez asked the girls, “What do you think of sisters?” She answered, “We’re just a normal person.”
More than ‘golden’ girls
Between an ice cream dessert and a disc jockeyed dance June 3 at the annual Alaska Catholic Youth Conference in Anchorage, a group of young Catholic girls heard sober advice on the mature subject of abusive relationships.
The session, “Young Women, You’re More Valuable Than Gold – A Workshop for Girls Only!” was led by St. Michael Church parishioners Joanne Rousculp and April Dunham, of Palmer. As a member of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, Rousculp had worked in a shelter for battered women and children in Bethel. And Dunham – who said she had suffered in an abusive relationship, herself – has in previous ACYC conferences, led talks on modesty. Judy Getty, director of the domestic violence shelter in Palmer, assisted the two. After beginning with a prayer, they outlined some red flags for abuse.
“Does your boyfriend look at you or act in ways that scare you?” Rousculp asked the girls. She also suggested a girl ask herself whether her boyfriend is jealous or possessive, whether he unnecessarily criticizes, tries to control where she goes, what she wears or what she does, sends an excessive number of text or instant messages, blames her for the hurtful things he says or does, threatens harm to himself or her if she tries to leave or whether he tries to pressure her into sexual intercourse.
“Does he hit, slap, push or kick you?” she asked. If a girl answers “yes” to even one of these things, Rousculp concluded, she may be in an abusive relationship.
And abusive relationships start subtly, with emotional abuse that often is excused, Rousculp said.
“Sometimes we base decisions on emotions,” explained Rousculp, who added that that can cloud the right path. Over time, Rousculp noted, abuse escalates.
But Dunham told the girls that since they are created by God in his image and likeness, “you’re divine, you’re precious, you’re beautiful.”
“Our dignity and value comes from God,” she added. “Who are we to see ourselves as anything less?”
“Therefore,” she continued, “we cannot allow another human being to treat us with disrespect.”
Dunham said it is vital for girls to recognize this is happening and deal with it in a healthy way.
Rousculp urged the girls to “break the cycle” of abuse. In a safe, public place, “just say ‘no’ and you call it abuse,” she said. Rousculp suggested using “I” statements when pointing out the abuse, such as, “When you say, ‘If you leave me, no one else will have me,’ I feel denigrated by that and I know that’s not true. I know that I am a child of God and you cannot take that away from me.”
Rousculp urged the girls not to become aggressive, but be “very clear” and assertive.
“You don’t want to continue a relationship where you’re being belittled or put down,” Rousculp explained.
The talk was one of dozens of workshops that youth attended during the annual youth conference at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church.
Guys called to rekindle ancient support networks
For centuries, men were the guardians of the tribal fire — charged to keep the fire burning.
That tribal fire should represent the spiritual lives of young men, which is why Alaska Catholic Youth Conference speaker and psychologist Bob Bartlett dubbed his June 3 workshop “Guarding the Fire.”
Men need a bit of the tribal mentality in the sense of looking out for one another and the greater community, Bartlett told the gathering of young men at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church.
Forty guys packed the room to hear about how to be authentic Christian men.
“The first question I want to ask you guys — how did you learn to be a man from the men in your lives?” Bartlett asked. “What did your father, grandfather, uncles and other men in your family teach you?”
“Never quit, always stay in the game,” one teen offered.
“As much as you want to win, make sure you respect the competition,” another said.
Bartlett acknowledged the validity of these statements as positive values to live by — values that go back to ancient times.
“It’s the pack mentality, no man is greater than the tribe,” he said. “Protect those around you.”
Men, when they work together, have a certain, distinct chemistry, Bartlett said.
“There is an energy that men have, when they are together,” he explained. “They have a warrior energy, a strength and a power to protect and help the community.”
In the last several decades, the idea and role of man has suffered, Bartlett argued.
“There are a lot of false teachers of men in our society,” he said. “What do you think some of those might be?”
The youth offered up the ideas of music — that in today’s culture, a man is someone that is virile, strong and in firm control of their emotions.
“These false teachers, from the media and other places are hurting the image of men,” Bartlett argued. “They tell men that they can’t show their emotions except for anger.”
Young men need to change this, he argued. He pointed to many aboriginal cultures in Australia that show no suicide rates, which is typical for tribal cultures.
“Because everyone has a place, and men look out for one another,” Bartlett said. “Guys today need to be there for one another, to be vulnerable and be able to support one another as men.”
He was quick to point out that it is not unmanly to support each other — and that men need to hold on to that special passion, power and drive to protect that are distinct masculine values.
“I leave you with the image of John the Baptist — he was a wild man,” he said. “I need you guys to be wild men like him, who are rooted in strong beliefs, and integrity.”
‘Freeeeedom’ should be battle cry in war against sin
Catholics are not pacifists.
Sister Kateri Rose and Sister Anna Wray of the Dominican Sisters of Nashville made that crystal clear in their talk about spiritual warfare during a June 2 workshop at the Alaska Catholic Youth Conference in Anchorage.
“From the moment you were baptized, you essentially declared war on Satan,” Sister Rose told the crowd of 40 youth gathered at the workshop. “There is a spiritual war that is going on,” she added. “Don’t lose sight of that.”
It is a battle that demands a choice, Sister Rose continued.
“If you don’t choose a side (for good or evil), you will be sucked up by the enemy,” she said. “There is no middle ground, you are either on one side or the other side”
She harkened to the image of Mel Gibson leading thousands into battle in the movie, “Braveheart” as a poignant illustration of the choice Catholics have to make.
“Freeeeeedom,” she yelled out in the classroom in imitation of the famous line from the movie. “It is a call for freedom from sin.”
And, the fight to be holy is just that, a fight that should have us yelling a battle cry and proudly waving the banner of Christ, she explained.
“To be successful, you have to recognize that this is a war and then you have to choose your side,” Sister Rose said. “Spiritual warfare is pretty intense when you get down to it.”
But Catholics have powerful weapons on their side, which is the good news, the sisters added.
Sister Anna Wray joined in the conversation to explain how Catholics can be successful in their battle against evil and sin. She likened it to a snowball fight.
“Before you start, you make preparations,” Sister Wray explained. “You have to make preparations, like making the snowballs and building a fort.”
The same is true in the spiritual life.
“You need to build strong walls,” she said. “God is your fort — he is the one that fights both in us and for us.”
In a practical bit of advice, Sister Wray said before getting up in the morning, you should call on God to be with you the entire day. That, along with frequent Eucharist helps build strong spiritual forts that offer protection in day-to-day life.
In keeping with the battle theme, Sister Wray called upon her favorite movie, “Gladiator” to illustrate another crucial aspect of the spiritual struggle.
“In the movie ‘Gladiator,’ Maximus gathers all the other slaves together to convince them to fight a united front,” she explained. “He said — if we go out alone, we will certainly die. But, if we go out together, we might have a chance!”
The same goes for our own spiritual warfare, she explained, by having a strong community to help one another out, especially in the time of difficulty.
The final step in spiritual warfare is perseverance, Sister Wray explained. It is crucial to always hold onto God, no matter what.
“God will never abandon you,” she said. “Persevere with Christ and all things are possible!”
Teens urged to fight stereotypes
Urban-rural divide addressed in workshops
Stereotypes and false images were brought to the forefront during two workshops at the annual Alaska Catholic Youth Conference in Anchorage earlier this month.
Through the presentations called, “Who are you? Who am I? Who are We?,” teens discovered that sometimes they judge people wrongly.
Franciscan Sister Kathy Radich and catechist Pat Tam began the interactive session at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church by having youth write the first word that came to mind when they saw the word “nun.”
Words like “holy,” “penguin” and “habit” appeared. Sister Radich, slender in a blue shirt and blue khakis, said the word “habit” didn’t describe her. Did the word “holy” describe every nun? And did the word “penguin” describe any nun?
Next, the youth did similar exercises with words like “rural teens” and “urban teens” and “Yup’ik Eskimo.” While urban teens earned a description as “punks” and “cokeheads,” the word “homeless” came to someone’s mind to describe a rural teen.
The group then discussed how first impressions are often stereotypes and don’t adequately describe the person behind the label.
Tam, who works in the northern village of Emmonak, and Sister Radich, from the village of St. Mary’s, said it’s important to look at people and realize they are all first children of God.
They would have loved to bring students from these villages to ACYC, said Tam, so that more Alaskan kids could get to know each other and more stereotypes could be eliminated. But the cost of flying from the Bush made travel prohibitive.
Instead, Tam spoke a bit about Yu’pik Eskimo culture.
“Yu’pik Eskimos have a strong sense of relationship,” he told the teens. Family is very important in their culture.
“And when Yup’iks sit down to a meal, they say the food has a memory, because often it’s been hunted or gathered by the people themselves, and they remember the day it happened and the experience.”
In relating to others, Tam told the students it’s important to find common ground, and to use the imagination to grow in our ability to see and feel the world.
Tam concluded by giving the teens an icon of St. Paul, and a prayer to the saint, because, he said, St. Paul opened the church to many rather than keeping it just a church for Jewish Christians. St. Paul said now there is neither Gentile or Jew, slave or free, woman or man, but all one in Christ.
School Round Up
Right, graduates from St. Elizabeth Ann Seton School display their certificates of graduation last month at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church in Anchorage. The Catholic school serves kindergarten through 6th-grade.
St. Mary graduates 14
St. Mary School in Kodiak graduated 14 8th-grade students this year. The students are: Olav CyrilBerestoff, Destin Zhavis Alexanderoff, Rona-Jean Alain Aquino, Carmen Yolanda Ceron, Patrick Hea Yang Ko Franquelin, Catherine Rose Le, Joshua Salinas Medina, Angelica Ortiz, Eileen Marie Peralta, Kayla Nicole Rasmussen, Allen Mallari Santa Maria, T.L. Macapagal Jones Suacillo, Alexander Sergay Thomsen, Fralynne Ulatan. The Catholic school serves grades kindergarten through 8th-grade. It also has a pre-kindergarten program, as well.
Left, Amanda Amacher finished 8th grade this year at Our Lady of the Valley Catholic School in Wasilla to become the very first graduate of the kindergarten through 8th-grade school.
Girdwood confirms three young men
At Mass May 10 at Our Lady of the Snows Chapel in Girdwood, Archbishop Roger Schwietz blessed a new altar for the chapel and confirmed three young men. Standing with Archbishop Schwietz and Father Tom Lilly, from left to right (in front), they are Michael Montague, Daniel Engelhardt and (in back) Brendan Montague.
News & Notes
Archbishop’s Calendar June 13, 5:30 p.m., St. Anthony feast day Mass, St. Anthony Church June 14, 1-5 p.m., Birthday and ordination anniversary party for Father Mike Shields, Train Depot, Palmer June 15-19, USCCB meetings, San Antonio June 24-27, National Association of Catholic Family Life Ministers, St. Cloud, Minn. June 30, Providence Hospital board meeting, Valdez July 6-9, Meeting of Bishops of Pacific Northwest, Big Fork, Mont. July 14, 8 a.m., Mass, Blessed Sacrament Monastery July 18, 2 p.m., Mass and dedication of St. Andrew Kim Church, St. Andrew Kim Church
Note: Events are in Anchorage unless noted. Community Calendar June 12, 7 p.m., Christ in the City eucharistic adoration, Holy Family Cathedral June 13, 7 a.m.-6 p.m., “Raise the Roof” carnival, Holy Family Cathedral June 13, 5:30 p.m., St. Anthony feast day Mass, St. Anthony Church June 14, 1:30 p.m., Corpus Christi procession, Holy Family Cathedral June 14, 2 p.m., Corpus Christi procession, St. Benedict Church June 14, 1-5 p.m., Birthday and ordination anniversary party for Father Mike Shields, Train Depot, Palmer June 19, 4-7 p.m., CSS World Refugee Day picnic, Mt. View Lion’s Park June 20, 12:30 p.m., Santacruzan procession, Holy Family Cathedral parking lot June 20, 5:30 p.m., Native Mass, St. Anthony Church
Note: Events are in Anchorage unless noted. |
Adrian Dominicans celebrate 125 years
In May, the Adrian Dominican sisters celebrated the religious congregation’s 125th year in existence. The congregation dates back to 1884 when six Dominican sisters from New York City arrived in Adrian, Mich. to open a hospital for injured railroad workers. Now the sisters’ mission takes them into education, administration, law, social work, pastoral ministry, music, art and office work.
There are 841 Adrian Dominican sisters around the world, including four who serve the Archdiocese of Anchorage: Sister Ann Fallon, Sister Jo Gaugier, Sister Lorraine Reaume and Sister Jackie Stoll.
At their home base in Michigan May 15-17, the Adrian Dominicans hosted a conference marking their anniversary. The opening prayer service included a procession with the Easter candle. Sister Reaume, who is stationed at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Anchorage, presented to the sisters a reflection on God’s “superabundant love” and the need to root their hearts in holiness.
Tridentine Mass begins
In July, the Anchorage Archdiocese will provide regular celebrations of the Tridentine Rite Mass – also known as the extraordinary form of the Mass. The centuries-old Tridentine Rite – which is said in Latin – was the standard Roman Catholic liturgy before the Second Vatican Council (1962-65). In his July 2007 apostolic letter, Pope Benedict XVI reasserted its use. The Tridentine Mass will be celebrated at St. Michael Church in Palmer (432 East Fireweed Ave.) on the following Saturdays at 10:30 am: July 18, August 22, September 19, October 24, November 21 and December 19. St. Michael pastor Father Thomas Brundage, JCL will be the celebrant. Father Brundage also serves as Moderator of the Curia and canon lawyer for the archdiocese.
Providence add laity to health care leadership
The Sisters of Providence will add lay people as directors of Providence Health and Services – the umbrella organization through which the Sisters of Providence run Catholic hospitals like Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage. The organization will be headed by three lay persons and two Sisters of Providence. Previously, the positions were filled by only the women religious. But the congregation asked the Vatican for permission to replace some with lay people, in part, because of the declining number of sisters available to serve. According to a May 7 press release from the Sisters of Providence, the group will be responsible for “mission and values oversight for all of the current works of Providence Health and Services.” The first lay group includes Charles Hawley and Barbara Savage, who have worked for Providence health care institutions, and Johnny Cox, described in the release as “a pioneer in ethics in theology and health care.”
Celebrations for Magadan missionary
On June 14, from 1–5 p.m., at the Palmer Train Depot, Father Mike Shields is celebrating his 60th birthday, 30th anniversary of ordination and 15th year working in Magadan, Russia. All are welcome and encouraged to bring a dish to share and photos of Father Shields. For more information, call Kathy Bishop at 892-6492.
World Refugee Day
Catholic Social Services invites all to a picnic celebration for World Refugee Day on June 19, 4-7 p.m., at Mountain View Lion’s Community Park (Mt. View Drive and Pine Street, Shaw Pavilion). There will be music, dancing, BBQ and children’s activities. For more information, to volunteer or to donate food for the event, contact Ellen Krsnak at 222-7327 or ekrsnak@cssalaska.org.
Corpus Christi processions June 14
All are invited to eucharistic processions on June 14 at Holy Family Cathedral and St. Benedict Church to celebrate the feast of Corpus Christi, which is Latin for “Body of Christ.” The feast day, which commemorates the institution of the Holy Eucharist, was established by the church after the urging of St. Juliana, an Augustinian nun born in Belgium in 1193.
The Holy Family Cathedral procession begins there at 1:30 p.m. During the procession, a monstrance containing the Eucharist will be carried aloft, while the faithful sing and walk to Delaney Park. At the park’s plaque commemorating the visit of Pope John Paul II to Anchorage, the group will stop for the rosary, a Scripture reading, homily and silent prayer. The procession returns to the cathedral for the recitation of the Divine Mercy Chaplet and benediction. And a reception will follow, ending at 4:30 p.m. The procession is hosted by the Anchorage chapter of Catholics United in the Faith and Holy Family Cathedral. For more information, e-mail cufanchorage@gmail.com.
St. Benedict’s procession – which starts at 2 p.m. at the church – is organized by parishioners of Samoan descent. In the procession, the faithful will process with the Blessed Sacrament from the church to three outdoor altars on church grounds for exposition and adoration. Members of the Samoan, Filipino and St. Benedict Church choirs will sing special hymns during the event. According to St. Benedict parishioner and organizer Tino Iloilo, “It’s a special day,” and he expects several hundred people to attend. For more information, call 244-4740.
Palmer VBS open to all
“K4J Summertime Blast!” – is coming to St. Michael’s Church in Palmer June 22-26. In the week-long program that runs daily from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. for children ages 3 to 8th-graders, catechesis and virtue will be taught through games, crafts, music and skits about the lives of the saints – with a focus on the Eucharist. Children will learn about the virtue of initiative and finding good ways to bring Jesus’ love to others. The week will end with Mass and a potluck with family and friends. For more information, contact Mary Ellen Grandel at 745-1622.
Columns
St. Paul and women
Editor’s note: This is the sixth of a seven-part series on the life and teachings of St. Paul.
St. Paul is an author that many women find difficult. However, it is from Paul’s letters that we learn that women had a remarkable role in the leadership of the earliest churches. Women who are named in his letters and associated with his ministry in Acts were leaders of house churches, given titles that were later only associated with men and worked with men to spread the Gospel.
From Acts we are told that Lydia was the leader of a house church in Thyatira (Acts 16:14) and from Corinthians we surmise that Chloe was the head of a house church in Corinth (I Cor 1:11). While church offices at the time of Paul were very different from how they would later evolve, in Paul’s letter to the Romans, we learn that Phoebe, who most likely carried this letter to Rome, was a deacon of the Church of Cenchreae—(the word in Greek is “deacon”—not “deaconess,” not “minister,” as the term is often translated).
We also learn that Junia was a prominent apostle. (Paul did not confine the term apostle to the 12 men appointed by Jesus.) From Philippians we learn that Euodia and Syntyche were fellow workers who struggled with Paul in the work of the Gospel. From Acts, Corinthians, Romans, and II Timothy we learn that Prisca (aka Priscilla) and her husband Aquila were companions of Paul in Corinth and Ephesus, and likely leaders of house churches in Ephesus, Rome and Corinth.
Catholics tend to remember that Paul taught that it was better not to marry; they generally do not realize that Paul was convinced the world would end in his lifetime. Paul wanted to spare the members of his communities from the difficulties and distractions of marriage during what he was convinced would be but brief period of time. However, Paul also recognized that celibacy was not a lifestyle everyone would sustain (I Thes 4:4-7. See also I Cor 7:9, 36). What is remarkable is that in his instructions to the married, one finds a recognition that conjugal rights equally applied to wives as to husbands. This was a remarkable and unusual understanding of human sexuality for his era (I Cor 7:3-5). In addition, his instructions pertaining to sex make no reference to children.
Since Paul expresses preference that “the unmarried and widows…remain unmarried as I am,” it is clear Paul was not married at the time of his ministry. It is more likely that Paul was a widower than a bachelor. Jews placed no value on celibacy as a lifestyle; an unmarried man was not considered a mature adult. Paul would never have risen to the prominence he attained among the Pharisees unless he had married.
Some Pauline letters contain detailed instructions on how women should comport themselves in the church, in their families, and in their personal lives. The instructions provided to men never reach a comparable detail.
Women are told to have their heads wrapped when they pray (I Cor 11:5,10) and to be silent in church (I Cor 14: 34); they are to be submissive to and under the control of their husbands (Col 3:18 Eph 5:22 I Tim 2:11, Titus 2:5); they are not permitted “to teach or have authority over a man” (I Tim 2:12); they are to dress modestly without ornaments and to “receive instructions silently and under complete control.” (I Tim 2:11)
One letter presumes young widows are idlers and gossips (I Tim 5:11, 13) and young wives are in need of training “to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, chaste, good homemakers.” (Titus 2:4-5)
Paul’s signature teaching is that it is faith that puts one in a right relationship to God. Thus, it is somewhat startling to read that a woman “may be saved by childbearing, provided she perseveres in faith, love and holiness with self-control”! (I Tim 2:12-15). Are only men are saved by faith?
During the time in which Colossians, I Timothy and Titus were written, the discipleship of equals that men and women exercised in the earliest communities came to be perceived as threatening to the larger fabric of Roman order. Thus to avoid persecution, Christians came to adopt the patriarchal household codes of the Greco-Roman society. These codes also presume that slavery is acceptable.
Today no one in our society would claim that slavery is an acceptable social construct and many sense that the instructions pertaining to women are equally time conditioned.
There is an inconsistency between Paul’s recognition that women pray and prophesy in the assembly in I Corinthians 11:5 and the instruction that women are to be silent in the church in I Corinthians 14:34. Many scholars believe this admonition to be silent is a gloss that was added later. Most Bibles translate I Corinthians 11:5 as an instruction for women to keep their head “veiled.” A more accurate translation of the Greek is “wrapped.” Is Paul speaking of hair or head coverings? It is possible that he wants to ensure that women do not become so enthusiastic in their worship that their hair falls all over the place as was common among the first-century mystery cults. Other things are going on in this teaching since Paul assumes “nature”(not social fashion) assigned short hair to men! ( I Cor 11:14)
Paul recognized women’s leadership. Women today rightly gain inspiration from the women who worked with Paul throughout his ministry. Just as slavery is no longer seen as an acceptable social construct, the relationship between genders in marriage is better seen today as a covenantal partnership between adults.
The writer holds the Cardinal Newman Chair of Catholic Theology at Alaska Pacific University.
The pelican and the cross
My boyhood home was situated in the lovely Souris River Valley of North Dakota. Ducks and geese could be seen everywhere during the summer migratory season.
Among the waterfowl a few pelicans could also be seen, searching for fish in the marshes and cattails or flying low and slow over the water. Even as a youngster I knew what pelicans looked like.
What puzzled me, however, was a large ceramic plaque of a pelican attached to the post of the communion rail of our church of St. Henry.
So, one day, before Mass, I said to my mother: “Ma, what’s that pelican doing up there?” “I’ve always wondered that myself,” she replied.
Later on, I asked the nun in religion class the same question and she said it had something to do with nourishment. That didn’t help much, of course.
At any rate, I have always thought about that ceramic pelican on the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, the very feast we celebrate today.
Since then, I have discovered that the image of the pelican plays an important part in Christian iconography and liturgy.
For those of you who have never heard the explanation, I will save you a trip to Google. The symbolism is rooted in a pre-Christian legend that during a time of famine or drought, a mother pelican would wound herself in order to nourish her brood and stave off starvation.
The Scriptures: Exodus 24:3-8 Hebrews 9:11-17 Mark 14:12-16 |
I rather doubt the historical veracity of that story, but when one thinks about it, blood does have many meanings and applications: First, blood is, in fact, the very source of life. Theologians would say, for instance, that blood is a salvation symbol. It saves life and gives life. We all know, of course, what a blood transfusion can do.
There are also many other secular analogies regarding blood: Soldiers shed their blood for their country. We also often hear the words blood, sweat and tears regarding someone who makes a great effort to accomplish something.
In our Scriptural catechesis, we hear the long-used phrase, “Jesus shed his blood for the world.” What could that possibly mean — Jews and Catholics and everybody else?
I have come to the understanding that this is more than an abstract theological statement. I believe that Jesus shed his blood on the cross as the last great act of his life. He hung on the cross with blood pouring from his wounds because of what he believed in, what he taught and what he died for, namely that all people love one another and do justice.
In short, it is no small thing for a person to shed his blood for others. If one sheds one’s blood, it has to be for some very significant reason, a reason that will have effect on the human world. This is the way I perceive the power of Jesus shedding his blood for the world.
The logical question that follows is this: Are we expected to follow Jesus and be ready to shed our blood for others? Well, perhaps not physically, but if we reflect on Jesus’ life, there are countless ways that we can imitate Christ’s life by sacrificing ourselves for others. Each of us will know what that means in the context of our particular human circumstances. These actions may not draw blood, but, surely, they will cost us something.
Now, if my dear mother were still among us, I would tell her that I finally got the ceramic pelican legend straight. I know that she might say: “Hey, what took you so long?”
The writer formerly served the Anchorage Archdiocese as director of pastoral education. He now lives in Notre Dame, In.
We have much to learn from the poor
Every couple of months The Catholic Worker arrives in my mailbox.
It’s a scruffy little newspaper, and its price is still what it was over 70 years ago: one cent. It looks incongruous with the mail — making the New Yorker, Newsweek and the credit card bill appear as the pretentious snobs they are. It even humbles National Catholic Reporter.
That’s because all these years after Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin founded The Catholic Worker movement, and made this rag sheet the organ of that movement, it’s still radically Christian in a way that amazes me.
Take, for example, an obituary printed several months ago. Most journals reserve their obit space for the rich, the famous or the intellectually prominent.
This issue of The Catholic Worker devoted four entire columns of newsprint — a full page — to a mentally ill man who lived at St. Joseph House, a Catholic Worker home in New York City.
The story was so powerful I’ve saved it and read it over and over. Roland D’Arcangelo came to St. Joseph House in a way decidedly not for the fainthearted.
“It was a bitter winter season, the two radiators near the front door hissing and spitting,” the elegant prose recounts.
He’d been to the soup line before, but this day he presented himself, teeth chattering and barefoot, only wearing a dirty pair of boxers and a white undershirt. Diarrhea covered his right leg.
“Clearly,” says the author, “‘the least of these our brethren’ had arrived.”
He was incredibly filthy, virtually mute and didn’t know how to shower himself, so the CW folks scraped and scrubbed.
“Afterward we would have to bleach the whole bathroom,” they add.
And then the story goes on, describing this man’s life and his metamorphosis — not into someone who could be independent and hold a job — but into the loved child of God he was meant to be, leaving his mark on those around him. “Deo gratias” ends his obituary.
Where does this kind of love come from, the kind that, like Christ and St. Francis, literally embraced the leper?
Someone told the story recently of Dorothy Day, at home in one of her Catholic Worker houses, receiving people despite the overcrowded conditions. There was no place left for one woman, a woman whose nose had been eaten off by syphilis, so Dorothy let her share her bed.
“Don’t you have faith in Jesus?” she asked a skeptic.
If the true mark of a Christian is how much time they spend serving Christ and seeing the true Christ in others, then I guess Dorothy Day is a true candidate for sainthood.
Me, I’m sadly apt to see the leper in my rear view mirror. I just don’t know if I could have ministered to Roland so generously the day he showed up in the cold, covered in excrement and clearly deranged. But just because I’m not Dorothy or St. Francis or Christ doesn’t mean I’m not challenged, each day, required, each day, to become a little more Christ-like in exercising an option for “the least of these our brethren.”
Somebody’s been circulating an article by McClatchy Newspapers that says the poor are more generous than those better-off economically.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says the poorest fifth of America’s households contributed an average of 4.3 percent of their income to charitable organizations in 2007. The richest fifth gave at less than half that rate – 2.1 percent.
The poorest fifth’s pretax household incomes averaged $10,531 in 2007, compared with $158,388 for the top fifth.
We have a lot to learn from the poor. Deo gratias.
The writer is a stewardship and hospitality coordinator at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church in Anchorage.
Guest Column
Notre Dame exemplified church-state relations
The 2009 graduation ceremony at the University of Notre Dame seemed headed for a stormy celebration, such were the verbal assaults on Notre Dame President, Father John Jenkins, C.S.C.
Father Jenkins had invited President Barack Obama to give the commencement address and to accept an honorary degree of laws. The president had accepted and it seemed to be a win-win situation for both, considering the prestige of each.
But thunder bursts of attacks exploded over Father Jenkins. How could he and Notre Dame, both committed to the rejection of abortion, extend such an invitation to a president who publicly supported legal abortion.
Criticisms came from more than seventy Catholic bishops who considered the invitations a betrayal of the university’s Catholic identity. Protests and demonstrations were threatened.
The pro’s and con’s swirled around in the news media. But the ceremony went off with dignity and calm and even some humor. Yet there was something else that emerged from the event, not expected and quite positive.
The two presidents provided a magnificent example of what church-state relations in the United States are at their core: religious freedom operating in the American tradition of the separation of church and state. Church and state stood together on the platform. Each president showed respect for the dignity and position of the other.
Father Jenkins made his point clearly. He noted that President Obama had come to Notre Dame, “though he knows well that we are fully supportive of church teaching on the sanctity of life and we oppose his policies on abortion and embryonic stem cell research. Others might have avoided this venue for that reason. But President Obama is not one who stops talking to those who differ with him.”
“Mr. President,” Father Jenkins added, “This is a principle we share.”
President Obama continued the theme.
“Your class,” he said, “has come of age at a moment of great consequence for our nation and for our world…when the challenges before us require that we remake the world to renew its promise…the question is: Is it possible for us to join hands in common effort?”
President Obama continued: “We must open our hearts and our minds to those who may not think precisely like we do…that’s when we discover at least the possibility of common ground.”
Mutual respect and good will are critically necessary for good church-state relations. Both presidents, however, made the point that both must note the role of reason and faith. These provide the base for the commitment to mutual responsibilities in the complex relationships that exist among people today. Church and state is a matter of relationships. It is when both faith and reason are both respected that people will walk hand in hand. It is then that the separate institutions of church and of state will walk together as far as they can, even if not always all the way.
An event of American history comes to mind.
Thomas Jefferson was writing the first draft of the Declaration of Independence. He referred the draft to Benjamin Franklin. Jefferson had written: “We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable.” At Franklin’s intervention, the words now enshrined in history are: “We hold these truths to be self-evident,” Jefferson was making an assertion of religion. Franklin made it an assertion of reason.
At the signing of the original document, John Hancock said: “There must be no pulling different ways. We must all hang together.” To which Franklin is reported to have said: “Yes, we must, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.”
Hence the motto: “E pluribus unun.”
The writer is Archbishop Emeritus of the Anchorage Archdiocese
Editorial
Dying in broad daylight
Earlier this year, lying in the middle of a four-way Anchorage intersection was an unidentifiable form – like a large duffle bag, except for the human skin tone.
Cars rushed by the crumpled mass, which upon closer view was a physically handicapped Alaska Native man. He had fallen out of his battered wheelchair and lay on the blacktop with his bleeding back exposed to oncoming traffic.
Cars swerved around him. His pants had fallen around his knees, leaving his midsection naked to the passing world. On the road next to him lay fresh human excrement, left when he fell into the rush-hour traffic.
His paralyzed legs were tangled and incapable of assisting him.
“I’m fine — I’ll be fine,” he murmured as two drivers pulled over to help him back to his wheelchair. In his early 40s, he wore a faded baseball cap and winter coat.
His back was covered in bloody scrapes from the fall — gravel and spring breakup mixed into the wounds.
As he was wheeled one block down the street to the Brother Francis Shelter, other homeless men and women gathered around. Their bodies weather worn and broken.
At the very least, the homeless are an uncomfortable sight for the larger Anchorage community. The cardboard signs and haggard faces are impossible to completely ignore.
We do our best. We look away, turn up the music, remind ourselves that they chose this lifestyle and will only use our charity to perpetuate their hopeless situation.
Once in a while, however, the conscience of the city is pricked.
This occurred over the past few weeks, as six homeless men turned up dead in the city streets and greenbelts. News articles have tried to show who these people were, where they came from, what brought them to ruin.
Several recent articles in the Anchorage Daily News quoted “experts” who are at a loss as to why so many wind up homeless, addicted to drugs and alcohol and finally dead in the bushes and parks of a modern city.
A recent article hypothesized that maybe they suffered from a genetic disorders and depression. One expert blamed the economic downturn and rising fuel prices for the increasing homeless population in Anchorage.
Others point to the fact that homelessness is the result of a chosen lifestyle.
A veteran Anchorage cop simply referred to the dead as “chronic homeless inebriates” and added that he didn’t see much hope for other homeless in similar situations.
“They’re going to keep drinking,” he told a reporter. “There’s nothing that’s going to stop them until they die too.”
Recent events do little to dispel that stark conclusion.
But that shouldn’t be cause for ambivalence, as several religious brothers from the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal pointed out during a recent trip to Alaska.
Speaking at a Theology and Brew presentation in Wasilla, the brothers explained why their order spends so much time serving the homeless on the streets of some of America’s largest cities — New York, Houston, London.
“We see Christ in the homeless,” one friar explained. “They are created in the image of God.”
The friars are undaunted by the fact that many homeless ultimately die on the streets. They love anyway. They listen to sometimes incoherent stories, pass out sandwiches, pray with the men and women and share the Gospel of Christ when asked.
At the core, they serve and honor the poor because Christ lived with the poor, loved the poor and commanded us to do the same. Indeed, Christ went so far as to say that he would not really know us if we did not know him in the face of the poor and destitute.
Of course, not everyone can spend their days walking the back alleys.
“But we can all do something,” one friar told the Theology and Brew crowd.
He spoke of families that made meals and delivered them to the shelters. He spoke of fathers and sons who served food for one hour a week. Other play checkers or give money, clothes, or toothbrushes. Many pray.
Anchorage already has an outreach to the homeless through Catholic Social Services’ Brother Francis Shelter. It is an attempt to reach out to suffering human beings who are created in the very image of God.
Christ’s appeal for the poor hangs over the streets of Anchorage:
“I tell you whenever you refused to help one of these least important ones, you refused to help me.” — Mt. 25:45
We can all do something.
— Joel Davidson, editor
Letters to the Editor
Visiting theologian rejects pope’s teaching
Dr. Vincent Smiles, a theologian from St. John’s University-College of St. Benedict in Collegeville, Minnesota, is scheduled to speak at the Midsummer’s Light Bible Institute at APU on June 17-19. In anticipation of the event, I thought readers might like to be acquainted with some of Dr. Smiles’ published views.
Writing on the Commonweal blog on December 23, 2008, Dr. Smiles said: “I find the Pope’s stance on homosexuality...scandalous in the full theological sense of the term … We need to recover the resources of our tradition that enable an alternative view to that of Benedict XVI … The scandal of Benedict’s stance is that he speaks as though faith provided a certainty that is simply not available, and in doing so his pronouncements are cruelly misleading and unjust.”
In an address given on May 1, 2001, at the College of St. Benedict, Dr. Smiles said that the “individual laws and prescriptions for human behavior” found in the Bible “are bound by cultural presuppositions which no longer exist. Once the cultural context of a law disappears, then the law itself soon ceases to make sense. In theological debate, the Bible is best used for saying who and what humans are; it is less useful for saying precisely what they are to do.” Dr. Smiles then applied the above notions to neutralize nearly all of the classical biblical prohibitions on homosexual behavior.
The modus operandi is familiar: reject the pope’s teaching authority, dismiss the moral authority of the Scriptures as traditionally understood, then supplant both with modern scholars’ tortured exegeses in order to reduce to mockery the church’s teaching on homosexual acts. (Of course, there is no reason to suppose that such scholars have any agenda of their own, let alone the fallibility that they are so quick to assign to the pope.)
Given that Dr. Smiles, in the same 2001 address, also brushed aside the church’s reliance on natural law in connection with its teaching on homosexuality, he seems to be left with precisely none of the traditional foundations for certitude — just another sophistical plea for moral relativism and disorder.
Anchorage
CSS STATEMENT
Pray for the homeless and their families
Editor’s note: The following statement was issued by Catholic Social Services on June 4.
Catholic Social Services is deeply saddened by the recent deaths of Danny Wright, Wesley Small, Simeon Boots, Stanley Ivey and the two unidentified men (as of June 4, 2009). We offer our deepest condolences to their families and friends.
Catholic Social Services’ long history of operating Brother Francis Shelter make these deaths especially tragic because our mission calls us to treat the homeless with dignity, care and compassion. Dying in a homeless camp or on the street is not dying with dignity. CSS is troubled that we were unable to engage these individuals with the helpful services that are offered at Brother Francis Shelter.
Homelessness is a complex issue and affects families as well as individuals. There are about 2,962 homeless individuals and families in Anchorage, who may suffer from chronic poverty, traumatic head injuries, substance abuse and/or mental illness, along with numerous other barriers that hamper stability.
The doors of Brother Francis Shelter and Clare House will always be open to those seeking assistance. However, it is critical to recognize and to refrain from judging those who are unable or unwilling to utilize the services that are available. We ask for your prayers for those who have died and their families. We are thankful, during this difficult time, for your continued support of our homeless ministry.
Anchorage
Updated policy on Letters to the Editor
The Catholic Anchor welcomes letters to the editor. Letters should be limited to 300 words and include the writer’s full name and city of residence. For verification purposes only, we also need contact information for each letter writer, which will not be published. Letters should not disparage the character of any individual but rather stick to the issues at hand and refer to articles, letters and opinion pieces that have been published in the Catholic Anchor. Letters may not endorse a specific political candidate or political party. Letters may be edited for length, taste and clarity. The Anchor does not publish letters that directly challenge clear and established church teaching.