November 4, 2005 - Issue #22
Local News | Opinion/Editorials | Letters to the Editor
WIC clinic to open in St. Anthony Parish offices
Social justice is a fundamental Catholic principle, and parishes worldwide work to provide for those less fortunate. Most churches don’t go so far as to invite government outreach agencies into their offices, but that’s just what one Anchorage parish is doing this fall.
In a new faith-service partnership, the federal WIC (Women, Infants and Children) family nutrition program plans to open a new clinic in the offices of St. Anthony Parish in East Anchorage beginning in mid-November.
"It is, in fact, a first in Alaska that a faith-based group is partnering" with WIC, said Ester Ocampo, WIC’s Bethel program director. "We’re very excited about it."
Ocampo visited Anchorage earlier this year to scout locations for a new WIC clinic, and when she hit on St. Anthony she knew she’d found her community.
Not only is the parish in a neighborhood thickly settled with families who qualify for WIC benefits, but it is populated with leaders and congregants who responded enthusiastically to WIC’s mission.
"They were so excited," Ocampo said. "They are interested in community outreach."
Father Fred Bugarin, pastor of St. Anthony, said he was very interested when Ocampo originally approached him with the idea of a partnership and added that the parish is a good fit for WIC.
"First of all, we have the facilities," Father Bugarin said. "Second, it seems to fit in with the direction we’re going. It is a welcomed thing."
WIC, which is operated through the state Office of Children’s Services, provides food vouchers, nutrition counseling and health screening to low-income families statewide, working with mothers from pregnancy until their children reach age 5.
Mothers and children who meet WIC’s income guidelines can receive vouchers for fruits, vegetables, beans, tuna, peanut butter and other nutritious foods, as well as take advantage of programs like free hemoglobin testing. The program is funded through a competitive grant for which WIC administrators must reapply every two years.
According to Ocampo, education is the backbone of WIC’s mission.
"These are the teachable moments in their lives," she said of the mothers she works with through WIC. "They’ll do anything, anything to take care of their babies."
Not every parent is aware of the benefits WIC has to offer, however. Ocampo said one of her biggest challenges is getting the word out about WIC and working to bring in as many eligible families as possible.
"This is open to anyone who is eligible," she said. "We will be initiating a creative approach."
Currently, 10,164 Anchorage residents, 18 percent of whom are Alaska Native, participate in the WIC program.
According to Ocampo, only 37 percent of eligible families statewide apply for the program. If that statistic were applied to Anchorage, there could be 17,000 or more city residents who qualify for WIC but aren’t receiving benefits.
There are already four WIC clinics in Anchorage, but Ocampo said they’re located in areas that aren’t always convenient for families to visit. Part of the attraction of St. Anthony is its location in a diverse area with a large number of low-income residents, particularly Native Alaskan families.
Ocampo also said she also hopes to incorporate WIC into other social and educational opportunities at St. Anthony, such as Native Alaskan ministry, to help nourish participants body and soul.
Father Bugarin said he sees the new program as a continuation of the parish’s commitment to social justice.
"It’s a way for us as mission partners to make that connection," he said. "The pastoral council, the parish leaders, are all on board with this. That, to me, is the key to success."
In addition to reaching out to Anchorage residents, Ocampo said she plans to bring WIC into the Alaska Native Medical Center to reach out to women who come to Anchorage to give birth.
"Nobody’s servicing them," Ocampo said. "They lose a month or two of the benefits" by the time they return to their villages and apply for WIC.
It can be challenging to help families learn about proper nutrition and how to manage their benefits, Ocampo said.
"You have to approach them in a way that’s realistic to them," she explained. "You know your families, you know what they’re doing, you know what they have. We have to empower them to develop some sort of discipline."
It’s a task Ocampo first undertook nearly two decades ago, and continues to embrace.
"It’s my passion to serve," Ocampo said. "It’s giving back to the community."
Seattle University to offer degree here
Alaskans will be able to get a master’s in pastoral studies
Catholics in Alaska, as well as members of other Christian denominations, should soon have a unique opportunity to earn a master of arts degree in pastoral studies without leaving the state.
Seattle University, a Jesuit institution, is offering the degree program in Anchorage beginning in summer 2006.
"There’s a great desire for theology and training in ministry in the archdiocese," said Peter Zografos, director of the Office of Evangelization and Worship for the archdiocese, who helped Archbishop Roger Schwietz bring the program to the archdiocese. "But obviously we have no Catholic universities in the state. This program provides an opportunity for practical theology applied in a pastoral setting."
The program, offered through the university’s School of Theology and Ministry, is planned as a summer-and-weekend program spread over three years. Instruction will be provided by Seattle University faculty.
Jesuit Father Patrick Howell, dean of the School of Theology and Ministry, said he is "delighted to be able to respond to the pastoral needs of the church in Alaska and to the warm invitation of Archbishop Schwietz."
"Because we are a Jesuit university, we are trying to respond to the history of Jesuit commitment to serving the people of Alaska in their faith needs," Father Howell said.
A unique feature of the program is that it is run in an ecumenical spirit; several other Christian groups have expressed interest in the program, including Episcopalians, Lutherans, United Methodists, Presbyterians, American Baptists, United Church of Christ, Disciples of Christ and Unitarian Universalists.
Archbishop Schwietz has also invited the Dioceses of Fairbanks and Juneau to participate.
Susan Hogan, director of external relations for the School of Theology and Ministry, said the Anchorage program will be the school’s first experience offering the pastoral studies degree out of the Seattle-Tacoma area.
Hogan described the program as a first-rate opportunity for Catholic lay leaders and said it provides almost half of the requirements for the master of divinity degree for those who wish to pursue ordination in a Protestant tradition.
In Seattle, 99 students are currently pursuing the pastoral studies degree, Hogan said.
The majority are in their 40s, and about half are currently working in some form of Christian ministry, such as religious education, social outreach or peace and justice, Hogan said. Many are doctors and nurses seeking to add a faith dimension to their caring profession, she added.
All pastoral studies students take core classes together offered by Seattle University faculty; denominations that desire specific training in certain areas outside the Catholic tradition would bring in their own faculties for elective credits.
The program’s initial offerings are summer classes in Christian anthropology and pastoral care skills. Hebrew Scriptures are offered in the fall, "Ministry in a Multicultural Context" in the winter, and "Fostering Communities of Faith" in the spring. That would cover the first 15 credits out of a total of 54.
Seattle University plans to hold an informational gathering in Anchorage in late January or early February. One criterion for the program to begin is a commitment from 24 qualified students.
Both Zografos and Hogan said they are confident that that number can be met based on the interest they’ve seen in the program so far.
Zografos noted that the program will benefit more than those seeking the degree because on the weekends that professors come up to teach, the Friday night session will be open to the public.
Plus, he said, the ecumenical nature of the program "gives us the opportunity to open up to our brothers and sisters of one baptism."
"We sometimes forget we share the same background," Zografos said. "We have a common lectionary. There’s more that unites us than divides us."
This isn’t the first time the archdiocese has allied itself with Jesuit institutions of higher education for the benefit of Alaskans starved for ministry training.
In the 1980s, a degree program was offered locally through Loyola University in New Orleans. And in the 1990s, Gonzaga University sent faculty to Anchorage for a program that trained pastoral leaders, including a class of deacons.
According to Holy Cross Father LeRoy Clementich of Anchorage, who coordinated the Gonzaga series, more than 150 Catholics in the archdiocese went through that program, which provided a certificate but not a degree.
Zografos noted that the archdiocese still benefits from the active ministry of many who participated in the Loyola and Gonzaga programs.
The Seattle University program carries a private school price tag of $463 per credit hour, but scholarships are available, Hogan said.
For more information, visit www.seattleu.edu/theomin.
Russian diocese has challenges similar to, greater than Anchorage’s
Catholics in Boston or Chicago might be awed at the challenges of the church in the Anchorage Archdiocese, where only 21 active priests minister to 32,000 Catholics spread over 140,000 square miles, and less than 10 percent of the population is Catholic, and some priests are forced to become pilots to reach people off the road system.
But a bishop from Russia who visited Anchorage last month put the archdiocese’s difficulties in perspective.
Bishop Cyryl Klimowicz’s Diocese of St. Joseph, headquartered in the city of Irkutsk in central Siberia, is a slab of geography more than 44 times the size of the Anchorage Archdiocese (it’s about 6.25 million square miles!), where Catholics are outnumbered by not only Russian Orthodox Christians but also Buddhists, Muslims and shamanists, and where for seven decades last century all religious activity was banned by the atheistic Soviet regime.
Bishop Klimowicz has 45 registered parishes, two of which he has not yet been able to visit since his arrival in Irkutsk 30 months ago.
He has 48 priests; only one of them is Russian. Most of the foreigners resist enculturation, instead holding tightly to the Catholic traditions of their home country. Many speak very little Russian.
And, from Bishop Klimowicz’s point of view, "it is a dream" to think a priest would have an airplane at his disposal.
The word "dismal" or "bleak" might come to an Alaska Catholic’s mind — and "impossible" to a Bostonian’s — but Bishop Klimowicz sees his situation as hopeful.
After all, compared to the time of religious suppression, just the freedom to worship openly is "an absolutely great change," he said, speaking to the Anchor through an interpreter when he was in Anchorage.
"There’s a structure of the church now, and we now have priests who came and are able to lead the people, help them pray and experience the sacraments, and religious sisters," he said.
Having priests and religious from all over — from Japan, Korea, the United States, Poland, Germany, Indonesia, Spain, Slovakia, India — presents communications and cultural challenges, to be sure, he said. But together they form a "beautiful mosaic" that matches the ethnic makeup of the Catholic population in Siberia, he said.
The time and expense of getting out to his people are also hurdles, he admits, but he shrugs his shoulders, smiles and says he has no choice but to "speak to the Lord about" some of the difficulties of his assignment.
From about 1918 to about 1990 all religions were suppressed in Russia, and Catholics from other parts of the Soviet Union were routinely exiled to Siberia for practicing their religious beliefs.
But Catholicism flourished underground in Siberia, according to Bishop Klimowicz.
"Many Catholics were sent to Siberia by the communists and even the czars before them, but they kept the faith in their hearts and in their families," he said.
"When they came, they brought with them prayer books and hymns, and they kept the church going in their homes. The faith was passed from grandmothers and grandfathers and mothers and fathers, and it was very alive, very strong."
He told about meeting a family with German roots; one of the women used to work "as a priest" ministering to the needy around town.
"When someone was dying she would go pray with the family; she was doing the same things as a priest, except the sacraments of course," Bishop Klimowicz said.
On Sundays, Ukranian families especially would secretly gather to pray, sing and celebrate a "paraliturgy" without the Eucharist, he said.
"They knew all the prayers and all the songs. That’s why the church is alive today."
Bishop Klimowicz, 54, knows firsthand the experience of so many of his Siberian flock. His family, too, was uprooted by the Soviets.
They were booted from the land they owned in Belarus, one of the Soviet republics, and expelled to Kazakhstan, another republic.
The family maintained its Catholic traditions, but Bishop Klimowicz said he remembered being taunted at school. A teacher once shaved a cross into his hair when she found out he was Catholic, and another flushed his Marian medal down the toilet.
When he was still young his mother sneaked him and his brother back to Belarus, and a year later the three escaped to Poland, where he grew up and eventually was ordained a priest.
His father eventually made it to Poland too but remained estranged from the family.
Bishop Klimowicz spent two weeks in October in Anchorage and Palmer, visiting parishes, meeting clergy and taking a tour of several Catholic Social Services operations.
He was impressed by the professionalism and dignified concern displayed by the staff, and said he was "jealous" of the local church’s work with the poor.
Homelessness is a "terrible situation" in his diocese, he said, and he would love to someday have a shelter for them if he can find the funding.
In his diocese, women religious are the backbone of the church’s outreach efforts, he said. Many of the 67 sisters in the diocese focus on street children and single mothers; some communities operate pre-schools for the poor.
During his visit Bishop Klimowicz also had a "very happy meeting" with Alaska’s Russian Orthodox Bishop Nikolai, whose cathedral is in Anchorage.
Bishop Klimowicz declined to provide details from the meeting but did say Bishop Nikolai was very gracious and warm.
"It’s just a beginning but I feel positively about it," he said. "It felt like we were friends."
Bishop Klimowicz came to Russia at a time when relations between the Orthodox and Catholic churches were very tense. His predecessor, Bishop Jerzy Mazur, a Polish citizen, was expelled from Russia without explanation in 2002, one of several Catholic leaders expelled after Pope John Paul II created four new dioceses in Russia. The Russian Orthodox leadership condemned the new dioceses as a sign of "Catholic expansionism" in Orthodox territory.
News & Notes
Peace-facilitating Catholic in Alaska
Maria "Deng" Giguiento, Catholic Relief Services’ internationally known facilitator of peace and reconciliation from the Philippines, will be speaking Nov. 5-13 about inter-religious dialogue and peace-building in Anchorage, Soldotna and Kenai. Her visit coincides with the anniversary of the Anchorage Archdiocese’s global solidarity partnership with the Philippines’ Cotabato Archdiocese on the island of Mindanao. Giguento heads up Catholic Relief Services’ Peace and Reconciliation program there, which promotes peace-building among Christians, Muslims and indigenous people in the region. There have been four major armed conflicts on Mindanao since 1997.
Giguiento also led a peace-building team and refugee assistance effort in East Timor with Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, who won a Nobel Prize for their work together during the successful struggle for the country’s independence.
Her work has been adopted by the Philippine government’s own peace program, and she has served as an important liaison officer throughout several conflicts. She facilitates dialogue between Catholic and Protestant bishops and Muslim religious leaders as well as a "quick response team" made up of leaders of various opposing factions.
Catholic Relief Services’ peace program has trained hundreds of people to build a culture a peace on Mindanao and beyond through conflict resolution, trauma healing and inter-religious dialogue.
Giguiento will be on hand to discuss her work at all weekend Masses at St. Anthony Parish Nov. 5-6, including the anniversary Mass there at 6 p.m. Nov. 6. She’ll be speaking to young adults at 7 p.m. Nov. 10 at Theology on Tap at Snow Goose restaurant and presenting "Building a Culture of Peace in the Philippines and East Timor (Stories and Lessons Learned)" at 7 p.m. Nov. 11 at Alaska Pacific University. Giguiento visits parishes in Soldotna (Nov. 12) and Kenai (Nov. 13). Visit www.archdioceseofanchorage.org or call 297-7731 for her schedule.
Church workers meet with archbishop
About 85 priests, religious, parish staff members and other church workers from around the archdiocese gathered Oct. 26 with Archbishop Roger Schwietz for a "Pastoral Day of Conversation."
An Outside communications specialist facilitated the all-day meeting at Anchorage’s Our Lady of Guadalupe Church
Stated purposes of the gathering included learning "from the perspectives and hopes of all meeting participants," and engaging "in productive conversation while addressing a couple of key issues facing the leadership of the archdiocese."
After sharing hopeful developments in the local church such as youth ministry, September’s Discipleship Days event and the archdiocese’s efforts to work together to plan for the future, the group also went through a process to help surface prioritize concerns.
Using a numerical rating system devised by facilitator Tom Reid, the most important issues the archdiocese needs to address, according to the group, are as follows: 1. communication, 2. training opportunities for church staff members and volunteers, and 3. "pastoral presence." Several others vied for fourth place: the archdiocese’s urban/rural divide, collaboration, evangelization and financial issues/stewardship.
Editorials
Same-sex ruling warrants church input
The Alaska Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling last week on public employee benefits for same-sex partners revives an emotional debate in the state, one in which the Catholic Church should eagerly engage.
The court ruled that it is unconstitutional to deny spousal benefits to the domestic partners of homosexual city or state employees. Currently only married public employees are eligible for spousal benefits such as health insurance and pensions.
The ruling has sparked outrage on the right and cheers on the left. The Catholic Church has contributed in the past to healthy dialogue about homosexuality and it should in this case too.
In 1998, the Catholic bishops of Alaska wrote a pastoral letter in support of Proposition 2, the successful ballot initiative that defined marriage as between a man and a woman.
In the letter, the bishops describe marriage as a unique relationship, rooted in nature, whose traditional definition needs to be preserved and supported by civil law. They praise the special benefits that states offer married people, and reaffirm the church’s strong stance in favor of defending the dignity of homosexual people.
The bishops also acknowledge homosexual people’s desire for the "approval and benefits that government now gives to married couples," but "suggest that their requests be presented in a different arena than marriage."
The current situation may be such an arena. The Supreme Court ruling doesn’t grant same-sex partners the right to marry; it says government can’t deny benefits to employees who are not allowed to marry.
When Archbishop William Levada, prefect of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, was archbishop of San Francisco, the city passed an ordinance requiring organizations with city contracts — which included the archdiocese’s social services network — to provide insurance benefits to the domestic partners of homosexual employees.
Instead of ending those contracts, which would have had a major negative impact on the area’s most vulnerable people, the archbishop worked out a compromise in which the ordinance was amended to provide the required benefits to any designated member of an employee’s household, including a parent or sibling.
Archbishop Levada’s approach preserved the special status of marriage while demonstrating a concrete commitment to the church’s insistence that homosexual people not be discriminated against.
The new Alaska ruling on same-sex benefits may raise concerns for Catholics, but collaborative, principled approaches can achieve positive results.
CRS offers ethical Christmas shopping
With a dusting of snow finally on the ground the Santas and reindeer don’t look so out of place at shopping centers around here. But the ever-earlier arrival of these holiday characters and their underlying message (buy! buy! buy!) can still irritate people who consider Christmas more than an excuse for a shopping spree.
It’s tough in today’s highly commercialized world to live simply and not overspend; it’s an additional challenge to find gifts that honor human dignity and justice. Nobody wants to give a pair of shoes or a toy made in a sweatshop.
Catholic Relief Services has a program for the scrupulous shopper: CRS Fair Trade. The items for sale — art, crafts, coffee, chocolate, toys, musical instruments and more — have been vetted by Catholic Relief Services’ thorough investigation process. Buyers can rest assured that the farmers and artisans whose products are for sale through CRS Fair Trade receive a respectable wage for their work, are treated with dignity and have access to such perks as training and affordable credit.
Shopping with Catholic Relief Services is a way to participate in our thoroughly entrenched consumer culture while honoring Catholic culture that promotes the common good. Go to www.catholicrelief.org and scroll down the "Other CRS Sites" tab to CRS Fair Trade, or call (800) 685-7572 for a catalog.
Guest Column
Eucharist is a powerful action, not a commodity
Eucharist means to give thanks. Its Greek form is a verb.
Vatican II reminded us that the Great Thanksgiving is the source and summit of Christian life, which was reaffirmed at last month’s Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist. The bishops wrote of the "beneficial influence that the liturgical reform implemented since the Second Vatican Council has had for the life of the church."
It is imperative that we recapture a notion of Eucharist as action instead of a commodity to be consumed. Eucharist is thanksgiving for our share through Christ. Eucharist is about sharing. Eucharist is about the gift-giver becoming the gift.
Christ shares himself and is the gift-giver broken, shared and poured out. Eucharist is the act of giving thanks in community; thus the nature of Eucharist is relationship with God and one another. The gift-giver becomes the gift broken and poured out.
Because Christ does this in our midst, it is what we are "missioned," sent forth from each Eucharistic celebration to share with the world.
According to the Holy Father, "Whoever receives Christ in the reality of his body and blood cannot keep this gift to himself, but is impelled to share it in courageous witness of the Gospel, in service to brothers in difficulty, in forgiveness for offenses."
We share ourselves by listening to others’ journeys of life, especially their conflicts and doubts. We hold and cherish in that journey the presence of Emmanuel: God with us.
It is not so much that the church has a mission but that the mission of Christ has a church. Eucharist is about missioning.
Benedict XVI said he hopes that the church will be more missionary as a result of the Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist. The pope highlighted "the link that exists between the mission of the Church and the Eucharist," as every missionary must be "bread broken for the life of the world. The missionary and evangelizing action is the apostolic diffusion of love."
We are called through baptism to embrace God’s abundant diversity and to be united in love — a holy people. Eucharist is the action of being, doing, becoming a holy people. It points us to the now and not yet of the reign of God; Christ’s death and resurrection for salvation here and hereafter.
The human and the divine, inseparable in Christ, are totally intertwined in the action of Eucharist. Communities are held together because of what they do and impelled by what they proclaim.
Through baptism we witness a God who is both present and yet to come. Eucharist continues this anew weekly in the life of the community and in the lived faith experience of the individual. If baptism makes us members of the body of Christ (ecclesia) and Christ is the source of communion (koinonia) then the Eucharist makes the church.
We can see from our early history that Augustine in the West, John Chrysostom in Antioch and Cyprian in Alexandria held the unity of the church together even though they were leaders of very different individual churches.
Diversity was honored and respected, albeit many times argued over. However, diversity was not a threat to their unity. They recognized in their assembly gatherings the same mystery, which is in the universal church as it exists in the communion of the local churches.
If liturgy is the work of the people then our celebration of liturgy should include those who are present and those who are not present.
The presence of others at table brings their stories and their sufferings into the assembly. Furthermore, the presence of some calls attention to the absence of others. Most often it is the poor, marginalized, victims of history and social organization, who are absent.
The Lord’s Table is the intersection where faith does justice so that communities can become welcoming.
Eucharist is our ongoing journey in faith and ongoing conversion. When we are bathed in the experience of communion with each other, our ongoing commitment to conversion is expressed in the works of justice and mercy.
Eucharist is the action of becoming a holy and inclusive people.
The writer is director of the Anchorage Archdiocese’s Office of Evangelization and Worship.
Letters to the Editor
Much to learn from Aquinas
The astrophysicists have found the missing pieces to the puzzle and learned the source of life and that heaven is a galaxy in space. I have another problem for them. Refute Thomas Aquinas’ five proofs that a creator exists: 1. Anything in motion has to be set in motion. 2. Nothing is the cause of his self. (The scientists say that in the beginning was the hydrogen atom. It would have to create itself.) 3. Everything that now exists at one time did not exist and in the future will not exist so at one time nothing existed. (Nothing material that is. God, the source of it all, is spirit.) 4. There are grades of perfection. Since with perfection, you cannot get more from less, the source of perfection must be perfect. We call that source God. 5. The law of nature, i.e., creatures without knowledge live with purpose. Pope John Paul II refers to Thomas Aquinas as the greatest reasoning human being, though the Catholic Church will not teach the above. The Protestants dismiss him as a secular humanist, then, without his reasoning, ask the Supreme Court to teach creation.
Kasilof
No reason to ban gay priests
A few issues back you asked whether homosexuals should be banned from seminaries (Modern Morals, Oct. 7). I believe gays should be allowed in seminaries. Just because a man is gay shouldn’t exclude him from the priesthood. Inappropriate sexual behavior is the problem, not sexual orientation. I wonder how healthy it is for gay priests to be called sexual deviants, since social science research points to a wide spectrum of sexual orientations. If we err in judgment let us err on the side of love and compassion. I believe it’s time the Catholic Church begins an open dialogue on healthy, responsible sexual expression for adults. As far as I can tell, celibacy doesn’t make one more or less holy.
Anchorage
New party for people of faith
Apathy, indifference and unresponsiveness beget secularism, immorality, greediness and lust for power. These perversions are leading to our demise as an honored and respected nation. It takes an uncivilized and godless country to allow the beastly slaughter of more than 45 million innocent unborn human lives. Meanwhile, the Iraq war is unconstitutional; a cowardly Congress reneged on its lawful duties. This inevitably alienated the rest of the world, breeding contempt and revenge. There is hope in the Constitution Party, which embodies forthright social, economic, and political agendas, while honoring the sovereignty of God and the sanctity of human life. I ask that they nominate for 2008 a great American, Mr. Mel Gibson, for president and the unyielding man of justice, the Honorable Roy Moore for vice president. This will unravel the two entrenched political parties, as there are millions of Americans who can no longer tolerate the enslavement of our nation.
Oceanside, Calif.